Subject: Reply to Judge Treatment at Pro Tours Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 03:42:40 -0500 From: "Scott Gerhardt" To: This is a response to Paul Barclay's letter of resignation. I would first like to say that I partially congratulate, and partially condemn Paul's actions on this matter. There are several reasons as to why. First of all, I want to congratulate Paul on taking a hard line stand against WotC and their treatment of Pro Tour judges. I have been a judge at 5 different Pro Tour stops, and a Pro Tour judge at four of them (LA '97, NY '97, Chicago, and LA '98...I received my certification at PT-Dallas). Since then I have noticed a very disturbing trend in the treatment of Pro Tour judges. At Dallas you received $2.50/hr in WotC dollars in addition to other set support judges got (I got a tumber and a Portuguese Ice Age starter as my set support). This was not bad. There was a volunteer room with some food, though, so that helped. I did not have any accomidations or anything paid for, but then again, I kinda showed up and said, "certify me", so I far from deserved anything extra. LA '97 was very similar, except all you got was the $2.50/hr without the set support. There was still food to be found in the volunteer room, though, so food wasn't a big problem. Again, not bad. This time, though, I spent a great deal of outside money to get to the pro tour to be able to judge in it. I live in Abilene, Texas, so to get to LA was quite the monetary task, not to mention the expenses aboard the Queen Mary while there. All in all I lost a bundle to help out WotC. I still didn't mind too much, though. It was a neat atmosphere and I was still kinda in the euphoria stage about being at the Pro Tour and all the hoopla about it. New York I couldn't say anything about, really. This is the one PT I went as both a player and a judge. I wanted to play the Master's PT and, if knocked out, judge the Juniors PT, which is exactly what I did. Again, $2.50/hr WotC dollars for my efforts and provided a volunteer room with food. Now we get to me starting to complain a bit. Chicago '98. By now I was a seasoned PT - Judge with this being my 3rd to judge. The product support plan had been altered. Now, instead of picking our prizes, we did a random lottery system where you got one random prize draw for every 4 hours of work. The prizes were okay, but it really stunk not getting to be able to spend your dollars as you wish. The volunteer room was still around, but no food. That was bad, since we now had food expenses to deal with. Once again, no other expenses paid. Finally, we get to LA. Here is about when I went a bit ballistic. Now, for every 4 hours of work, you got 2 Tempest and 2 Stronghold packs. Are you kidding me? That was sick. Now it is set prizes that are not very good. Couldn't they have at least sprung for some foreign product or something? Geez. Volunteer room is completely gone. We were left to fend for ourselves completely with the exception of a $1.00 off coupon we got per day. Talk about your slap on the face. That was unacceptable. I spent probably $400-$500 in expenses getting to and from LA for WotC to get jerked around. I left very upset with the system. Now, after hearing the treatment from NY (I was too upset with my treatment in LA to go to NY), I too will be boycotting any judgeing of the Pro Tour and all events within until something changes. Like Paul said, at least give us some expenses paid or something. WotC could not do this without the support of the judges that have paid out of pocket to get there. At least fork over a little money to give us a way to get out there, give us a place to sleep, and a little food in our stomach. That's not too much to ask for the mostly selfless work the judges do. WotC needs to make the judges want to come to Pro Tours to judge, not hope they come with a chance to get to judge. On the other hand, here, I need to condemn Paul's outright resignation of his Level III judgeship. The judge certification program is really a good one (where are our Oracles, Tara?). It gives people the ability to gain rules and organizational skills needed to run large scaled tournament which draw in money for TOs as well as WotC. In the 1 1/2 years I have been a certified judge, I have had little complaints with the program. There are a few kinks in the system, but nothing that could not be worked out easily. Do not condemn the entire program by resigning your judgeship because of 4-5 tournaments held a year. I want to also now make a call out to all ceritified judges. I feel fairly certain that a vast majority of you feel the way Paul and I do on this. I would like to ask each and every one of you to write to WotC and petition them to improve the level of the conditions at Pro Tours. In addition, I would hope you all to join with Paul and myself in boycotting judging on the Pro Tour level until WotC makes some changes. I want to make one point now and clear - As long as WotC has people who are close enough to qualified enough to judge a Pro Tour, conditions will not change. This situation will not change unless everyone gets behind this. I can not stress this enough. If we have rogues who will still judge, WotC will not change because they will not have to. I would like to thank you all in advance for your efforts to return the professionalism to all aspects of the Pro Tour, including and especially the judging aspect of it. Sincerely, Scott Gerhardt Level II Judge