Wonderland Games | Modern 4K | Time: 11am-7pm
HJ: Tobias Vyseri
FJ: Leah Hanson, Levi Ward & Vince Joyall
Players: 54 | Winner: Tyler Harrison

My Job is What, Exactly?
This event was kind of a weird one, I was invited out to run a 4K for a remote TO. The event was an 8 hour drive away from me located in Nothern BC, and because it wasn't a PPTQ or anything, they didn't really need an L2. I felt. When speaking to the TO however, he mentioned that because his store was located in such a remote place, his L1's never really got any Comp REL experience, or had much interaction at all with any other judges. He expressed that his players really wanted to play in a tournament that would prepare them for a Grand Prix level of rules enforcement, and he expressed that his IL1s were looking to L2 but needed some mentorship.
I'm not afraid of traveling for events, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Also I felt like it would give me some more mentoring experience, which is something I don't really have a whole lot of right now.

Pancakes & Policy
This started first thing in the morning when we met for breakfast, I took the opportunity to go over some simple and common Comp REL fixes with my three judgelings, and one of the things that I noticed immediately is that they were very prepared! It's become a more common practice for me to in essence “test” new L1s I work with to see where they're at before we start the event, that way it makes it easier for me to gauge how much assistance they will need. Obviously with a more advanced L1 I can basically set them free in the field while I take care of all the boring clerical work in the back, whereas a more inexperienced L1 I might need to shadow them on a few calls first.
The morning 'test' also allows me the opportunity to go over some common scenarios and simple infractions and fixes like mulligan procedure error, looking at extra cards and missed trigger. Which means that inevitably when these calls come up, my judgelings will probably be able to nail them whether they prepared or not because human short term memory is incredible.
I was shocked when one of my stronger L1s said that she thought she'd be scorekeeping all day. For one, scorekeeping a 50 man event is not a 1 person job, it's a half person job, and two, scorekeeping doesn't really teach you anything except scorekeeping, and if you've done one fnm-style event, you've done them all.
After a little encouragement though, she agreed to spend a significant amount of her time on the floor, and by the end of the day she let me know that the event was a way better learning experience because of it.

Working Hard, or Hardly Working
For the most part, my judgelings took calls and if they were unsure brought me over or consulted with me before delivering the ruling. This worked pretty well because that way I wasn't hanging over their shoulders the entire time, but they felt like they had backup if needed.
I also got to go through deck checks with them, which was a new experience, and by the end of the day I put the two judgelings on a deck check instead of one of them and me, and it went great!
The playgroup itself also seemed eager to learn, and actually seemed genuinely interested when receiving infractions.

Honey, I Shrunk My Deck
At the beginning of the event we had a guy who came up to the front and told us that he had dropped some cards on the floor at home and that his wife was driving them over right now. I let him know he had a few options, he could replace the missing cards with basics and just play with that for the round, and add in the cards in R2 if they arrived or if they arrived in the next 10 minutes he could put them in for R1 with a time extension, however if it took longer than 10 minutes he'd be getting a game loss. It ended up taking 14 minutes, so he ate a game loss, but got to play the decklist he wanted.

Dashing Through the Snow-Land
Another interesting thing was that one guy was playing a single snow-covered forest in his deck but had registered 9 or 10 regular forests, without distinguishing the snow land. There was no cards in deck or SB that relied on snow lands, and it seemed pretty evident that he was playing it because he had it and was proud of his foil. I felt like this was a non issue, but I but let him know that in a more strict environment this might not be okay.

Searing Helix
Finally near the end of the event, I was watching a game where two players were playing, the burn player was at 4, he cast Searing Blaze and the opp said okay, take three, my guy dies you gain three. The burn player seemed confused, but didn't mark the discrepancy on his life total. I carefully examined the battlefield to see if there was anything I was missing, but it didn't appear to be the case, so I asked the players to tell me the life totals ( to confirm the discrepancy) and to go through the questionable exchange, eventually figuring out that the burn player's opponent had mistaken Searing Blaze for some kind of super Lightening Helix. They both fixed the mistake and kept playing, but in retrospect I think the burn player noticed his opponents mistake and intentionally didn't point it out, I think an investigation here would've been relevant. For some reason in the moment, I didn't even think to investigate, my focus was instead solely on repairing the issue at hand. I feel this may happen quite often with me, where I fail to really assess the gravity of situations in the moment, and only later realize how serious it was. It will be something to ruminate on.

...In Conclusion
Overall though, the event went incredibly smoothly, and by the end my judgelings seemed very satisfied with the training they received, which in a way felt a little exaggerated from my perspective, since I didn't feel like I did much. But perhaps just letting them take care of things was exactly what they wanted.