Richmond, Virginia | Legacy & Standard
Time: Thursday August 30th – Sunday September 2nd
Legacy | Players: 842 Winner: Andrew Cuneo
Standard | Players: 776 Winner: Alex Hon

Thursday – Last Chance Trials


Size Does Matter
The first thing I noticed when entering the GP Richmond venue was how small it was, while we boasted an impressive stock of artists and vendors, the actual hall was pretty tiny, to be honest it didn't feel much bigger than a normal sized GP hall, and this was supposed to be a double! I thought that perhaps the hall would be expanded on Saturday, but this was not the case. The turnout for GP Richmond was simply going to be much smaller than expected. This meant there were a lot of excess staff members, this is a challenge in it's own way, because in a busy event you are generally very focused and things get done quickly, and as a by-product of that everything seems to run better than a slow event (to a point, of course). Luckily on LCTs we had a pretty dedicated group of grinders that just seemed to want to cycle into events all day, so it didn't feel too dead.

Together Until the Very End
Something we did for these LCTs was they let the HJ of the event retain control of it until the finals had concluded. In the past they've had a “finals area” where one judge would keep an eye on the finals of several events at once, the idea being that finals are usually only one or two matches (since these cap at 4 rounds) and this was both more space and judge efficient.
The problem with this, in my opinion is that events have a nice flow to them, the first few rounds are very busy, followed by a few bursts of activity at the start of every round but gradually getting slower until they land softly in the finals. When you hand the event off to someone else you lose that sense of flow and completion. Also even though there are very few matches and calls, one judge still has to juggle two or three different event timers, which can be challenging in it's own right.
I also really like being able to take a psuedo-break during the finals, sitting and intimately watching one match of magic is a great way to interact with the players and learn the format if you don't get to interact with it in other ways. Understandably the “hand-off” model is much more practical if the venue is full and you are tight on staff, but if the resources are abundant, I find letting judges finish events infinitely more preferable.

Friday – Scheduled Sides


History is Written By the Planeswalkers
I was a little sad I didn't get to be on the legacy main event, but instead I got to do something arguably more interesting, I got to run history of draft. This is something I've never actually run before, so it was pretty exciting learning about the event! The players are split into pods and then seated and paired randomly within their pod. Then they'd play three rounds of magic. Each round consisted of one game under a 30 minute timer. This was pretty jarring to me. I asked about why the events were being run this way, and I got a few different answers, mostly it seemed like people doing history of draft were more interested in drafting as opposed to playing, and it also helped CFB launch a lot more of this type of event throughout the weekend. Another weird nuance is that at previous GPs for this event they've rules that the first mulligan is free. The players seemed to think this was the case, so I consulted with another judge and ruled that it would be run this way. Later I was confirming the event with a CFB staff member and realized that this weekend they were trying out first mulligan not free. There were only a few more history of draft events, and I mentioned that when I had announced that the mulligan was free it seemed positively received, CFB agreed to let me run the remaining history of draft events with the first mulligan free rule to avoid further confusion.

Speed isn't always a good thing
My history of draft event was Zendikar, a nice blisteringly fast format. I am a very... let's say proactive judge. I like to flip my rounds the second they are ready and get players playing as fast as I can.
Something I noticed was that this actually seemed to make players in this event a little uneasy. I can only guess that perhaps players are simply conditioned to 50 minute rounds and 30 minutes doesn't feel long enough to them. Often times I would see players playing casual games or chatting for extended periods of time after their matches were up. I was in a weird position, because I don't ever want to take players away from a situation they are enjoying, but at the same time, it feels negligent to not flip the round if all the matches are done, even if there is still time left.
I got feedback on a player regarding this, I'm not sure if it was positive or negative, he didn't seem sure himself, but mentioned that while he did like how things were running quickly, he would also appreciate a little time in between rounds to relax. I let him know that he could by all means go out for a smoke every round or take a small walk since rounds were turning quickly. But I'm not sure if this translated well over to him.

Proud Mentor
Scheduled sides were pretty overstaffed , so I ended up being on LCTs again for a while, I did a few deck checks with a first time GP judge and got to field a few calls in that area.

I also took the time to hang out with another L1 and try to do some mentoring since we had the extra people. I went over a few format relevant questions since we had the time, to hopefully help her on her next day of judging.

“Don't Make Me Go Comp REL on Your Library!”
Also because of the size of the event I got to interact with players more frequently, one player in particular I saw at a few of the legacy LCTs the day earlier accidentally ponderstormed in a side event on friday, I thought for a moment and told the players about the comp fix, which was opp searches the library and creates a brainstorm set for the ponderstorm player to brainstorm from (probably 3 lands) both players seemed a little uncomfortable with this fix, so instead I told the players to be more careful and that if I saw this particular player make this mistake at regular again, he would be getting the comp fix and that it would suck. They seemed think this was amusing and happily continued playing.

Saturday – Main Event – Floor Team


But How Does the Draw Step Make You Feel?
I'm not thrilled about floor team, it's kinda boring, especially on an overstaffed GP. I'm always unsure of what a good balance is when it comes to working an overstaffed event. I had quite a few friends on this event and a few policy mongers who would drag me into long conversations about policy or philosophy, which I really enjoy, however, I feel like personally this greatly diminishes my ability to perceive judge calls, if I'm in an intense conversation about some ruling or another my blinders go up and I will not see anything happen in my area, and consequently not get any work done. While I think communing with other judges is important and discussing work-related stuff is a good opportunity for growth I'm always worried about also being able to keep an eye on the event and meet the needs of my players at the same time.

How Long is Too Long?
I felt like most of my rulings on this event were fairly stock and regular rulings that required little to no additional investigation, however, one thing that has been mentioned to me many times is spending a little more time on rulings, unfortunately this is difficult for me, I feel like one the one hand, spending a little extra time on a ruling is very good because it ups the judges accuracy greatly, and some players really appreciate the additional time spent, on the other hand, spending a long time on a ruling can make it more likely that your ruling generates an appeal, because your protracted investigation period projects a lack of confidence to the players. Sometimes players even get irritated if what they percieve as a simple ruling takes too long. Oftentimes especially with lighter backups, both players seem to understand what needs to be done and simply want the game to advance, I often get the impression that they don't want a ton of further interference, once the fix has been determined, and I have trouble balancing speed vs. investigations. Investigations are also rather stressful for players, and if I spend 2-4 minutes grilling a players opponent on some ruling, it may generate distrust in the other player and create an unfun environment.
There were a good number of rulings, due to the density of shadowing that occurred at this GP where other judges seemed to think I should be spending a little extra time on.

An Appealing Set of Sleeves
I was speaking with another judge when he mentioned that a player was playing with DFCs in red sleeves, which are pretty well known for being semi-transparent. I let the other judge know I'd investigate, it turned out that they were in fact semi-transparent, though it wasn't especially easy to see the Search for Azcanta through them, upon investigation it was distinguishable from other cards. I spoke with another L3 about the game loss, he agreed it was a GL, but offered the player the appeal. The appeals judge actually overturned me, mentioning that it felt like this was a bit of a “gotcha”, I agreed, and so he ruled that no GL and that the player should change the sleeves before the next game.

Sunday – Scheduled Sides


Investigations 101: Learning From the Masters
Sunday I was back on scheduled sides. I got to spend most of my morning helping out the standard PTQ though, which was a lot of fun. Again many of my rulings were pretty simple, and while I wanted to do some mentoring, everyone around me was a super veteran, so I ended up receiving some mentoring instead, Riki pulled me and another judge aside and discussed some investigation techniques. It was a pretty informative lesson, though I didn't ask many questions I really appreciated listening and gathering some new information.

I also got to run a Champions of Kamigawa and an Onslaught History of Draft, which was pretty fun, there were a lot of questions about the splice mechanic, as well as morph creatures, which I happily answered.

...In Conclusion
GP Richmond was one of those events I kind of felt guilty to be at, if I'm at work but there is no work to be done I feel kinda bad for the employer because I feel like I'm getting paid for doing nothing. To me it felt more like a personal and social development GP than anything, I got a lot of pointers and tips from other judges, and got to listen and have a lot of good discussions, I also had a lot of time to ruminate on how I judge and how I can make it better.