ATLANTA...MY FIRST GRAND PRIX!!!

Hey guys!
It has been such a busy trip, trying to keep up on this blog is becoming difficult, so bear with me.

I write today about my trip to Atlanta, GA for my first GP on Judge Staff!

We arrive at the event site around 8:30 am, I am slotted for staff, but not until 2pm. The hotel where the GP is being held is the HYATT REGENCY, an amazing hotel, one of the nicest I have had the pleasure to visit. I take the time before I am scheduled to judge to look around the hotel. Everything here is so beautiful, the restaurants on-site and the ease of access to the food courts of the mall via the sky walkways make it super convenient, and everyone was more than friendly!


Now it is time to judge!

My team lead for the side events on Friday was Ben McDole, who as it turns out was my team lead on Saturday as well. Mr. McDole is a L3 Florida Judge, and knowing this, I fully expected the daggers to be flying. (Daggers are difficult judge questions) He would not disappoint. I really like this about him, and the entire Florida Judge community, throwing daggers is a way to educate judges, and moreover, encourage communication between judges on staff.









There really wasn't much going on in side events on Friday, which is good, but I got to pick the brains of many senior judges that were staffed for GP Atlanta, which is always a great thing for me, as I try to become as stellar a judge as everyone at this event. Side events end, and we depart to our rooms to rest for the upcoming Grand Prix Day One!

Call time for the judges was 7:30 am, and we meet up with all of the Saturday judge staff, our T.O., Jeff Williams, and our Head Judge, Scott Marshall. I have met Mr. Marshall from a player perspective, and a dealer perspective, but never have I had the opportunity to be on his staff. Mr. Marshall gives his pre-tournament announcements, and we divide up into our teams and get ready for Grand Prix!

I get a couple random judge calls in the first two rounds, nothing special, but then, Round 3, I get a call about bridge from below and the zombies that it makes. AP sacs a creature to a spell, cabal therapy I think, with 2 bridge from below in his graveyard. NAP in response sacs his creature to a different ability, now AP wants to know if he gets his zombies.  I rule that he does, due to Bridge from Below's ability going off of last known information, and puts the zombies into play. NAP chooses to appeal, so I fetch Scott Marshall.  I realize on the way to Get Mr. Marshall that I have made a colossal bad ruling, Dan Stephens educated me about "Intervening If Clause" the previous week, and I had just spaced on that information at a Grand Prix...my first Grand Prix. Upon arrival, I say to Mr. Marshall, " I have an appeal, and my ruling will be overturned." There goes my judge career.

I explain what happened, he says OK, and goes to the table, corrects the bad ruling, and the players continue play. Then he surprised me. He turns to me and says, "I wish that I could say that I have never been appealed, or that I have never made an incorrect call, but I can't. It happens." I was sure that that moment was to be the end of me as a judge. I mean, a L5 just saw me make a HUGE mistake at a Grand Prix! But with the reassuring statement by Mr. Marshall, I gained insight that mistakes will be made, and to keep chuggin along, otherwise, how did Mr. Marshall get to where he is in the program?

Later that day I get moved to Side Events, (the entire team I was on was to do this, as the side events become busier later in day 1) and get my opportunity to Head Judge an event! SOFA KING EXCITED!!!! I get slotted to HG the 2-HEADED GIANT event, and everything went pretty smooth. I got to work with 2 great judges, Ryan Dowdy, and Katie Temple, and the event ran perfect with the work of these 2 judges. Thanks guys!

I then leave for the judge dinner, it is to be held at Ted's Montana Grill. The food was amazing, the conversations even better, I had the pleasure of dining with Kim Warren, Daniel Kitachewsky, Ryan Stapleton, David Hibbs, George Fitzgerald, Bernd Buldt and Michael Puccio, all senior judges, and all very friendly judges, within and outside of judging. I really enjoy the thought of a judge dinner, being able to see judges as themselves, not only as their role in an event. I hope that events in the future have judge dinners, because I feel that the more comfortable people are with each other, the better they can work together. Dinners like these open up the opportunity to socialize with people on a level playing field, and in a casual, non-work environment, people speak freely and socialize better. Just my opinion.

Day Two call time was 8am, and I am slotted for side events all day. My new team lead is Kevin Binswanger...wait...That's my Regional Coordinator!!! I had yet to work with him, and finally, after months of being a judge, get the opportunity! That is, if some sort of tournament would fire....It is a little slow in what I refer to as MikeyLand (side events)

I get slotted to work a standard T2 1K event in the afternoon, and pretty much durdle most of the morning, chatting with other judges, and taking daggers all morning. My HG for the event, George Fitzgerald, tells me that I am going to be DeckChecks Team Lead! Yay!!!! I get to have the pleasure to work with L2 Michael Mills (Milsy) on deck checks for this event! We end up with just a couple bad lists, and corrected them early. I then get pulled away for something they call a "2-on-1" where 2 senior judges talk to you about your advancement in the judge program, and try to help you in any way to achieve whatever you wish to gain from the judge program. There were 3 judges on the 2-on-1 team, David Hibbs (L3), Daniel Kitachewsky (L3), and Kim Warren (L3, RC).  Ms. Warren is the judge that sits down with me, and I ask why there is only one? She says that the other 2 on the team are working with another judge.

Ms. Warren really helped me with concerns I had, and was more than willing to talk to me about anything that I had questions about. I hope others get to learn from her judge wisdom, and use the information given by such a stellar judge to further themselves in the judge program.

The day ends on the last day of my first Grand Prix, and many of the judges head to the Hard Rock for dinner. Hibbs, Fitz, and I arrive, and get seated. Eddie Cheung hands me a menu, I open it, and there is a foil card in that says "BOOM TUBE"...and everyone yells BOOM!!!! This is a little game that I guess Florida judges play, you get the Boom Tube, and must make someone else accept it from you. I ship it to Aaron Stickney, and I think it made its way back to Eddie Cheung. We will come back to that.
I order the rack of ribs, get them, and they are REALLY REALLY SMALL!!! I ask the waitress to come over, state my case, and she says she will fix it. Meanwhile, the other judges are trying to get me to "seal the deal" with the waitress, but I just can't get over the lack of neck on our waitress...I mean she looked like someone had hammered her head into her torso....total no-go for me. She comes back with a proper rack for me (see what I did there) and I enjoy my dinner with all these judges. Everyone is laughing and having a good time. I then see that someone has ordered a drink called a "blowjob" (kahlua, buttershots, and cream, topped with whipped cream) and are deciding who will get the honor of drinking it. If you do not know, the novelty of drinking this drink is that you drink it with no hands....pretty hawt, until the selection of Ben McDole is made. Sorry McDole, but I cant seem to find you attractive.
He takes the drink, drinks it according to the instructions, and low and behold, what is sitting under the shotglass on the plate coated in whipped cream? THE BOOM TUBE!!!!!!

We head back to the hotel, hung out with people, played some EDH, and then some "WEREWOLVES" a game that I really love now, and hope to get a game going of it at my next event.

All in all this was an amazing event for me, and hope to have the opportunity to work many more GP's in the future. I now head off for M13 pre-release, then off to St. Louis..one of my favorite destinations.

Until next time!
Mikey