Subject: Re. Paul Barclays resignationas LVL 3 Judge Date: Mon, 04 May 1998 14:42:15 -0400 From: Worcester Centre for Crafts To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello Frank and other Dojo readers, I am writing to give my support to Paul for his bold move in stepping down as a level 3 judge. My fear is that it will change very little unless fairly unanamous support by the other judges is given. I have been playing Magic for about 4 years now, and playing in tournaments for the last year and a half or so. I have played mainly in Scotland and now reside in Worcester, Massachusetts. When one of the local judges at the shop we play at gave up I was asked to fill his place, duely took the test and passed and ran several tournaments to achieve my judge certification. I am now pondering wether to actually go ahead with it. For a start I am an artist by profession and money is not something I have in much abundance, and secondly I am left wondering why should I pay to give my saturdays for free to help others play and learn to play in tourneys while I do paperwork. Nearly every judge I know prefers to play, but at the end of the day someone has to run the tourney and it is unfair to burden the same person each week with this task. The problems at the Pro Tour are one thing, but the problem has a generally far deeper root I feel, and that is at the base tourney level. Many judges usually with well payed weekly jobs, give there time freely to stores to help promote tournaments, encourage new players and help many people have a very enjoyable time. In the case of the Dragons Lair East in Worcester which holds 3 sanctioned tournaments per week this comes to some 17-18 hours of judging per week. (over 2 days regular work!) We all enjoy to play and I feel that the game has a tremendous future so I will once a month happily give my time to help run the tournaments. But why should I have to pay to do this? I`m sure most players wouldn`t even consider missing the tournament to run it, I however am willing to do this periodically but must pay for the privilege? Now we move on to the Pro Tours. I had heard a lot of talk about the lack of support for judges at the Pro Tour prior to moving over from the UK so I find it no surprise to hear similar things now I`m here. The Pro Tours are hugely expensive to attend, I recently went to PT NY just to play, limited my entry to side tournaments, and even then only 4, stayed for around about a day and probably went through $150+ dollars, let alone staying for the whole weekend. (this doesn`t include accomodtion as we found a friend to stay with) Now if the LVL 3 Judges are expected to pay to get there, eat there and give there time I think it`s pretty fair to offer to pay for at least food and accomodation, and probably an hourly rate as well. The Pro Tours are a huge marketing exercise for WoTC as are the smaller tournaments held at shops. They may cost WoTC a fair amount of money but they are getting some huge marketing at some prime places in the world in exchange, and now there getting television coverage as well. All this adds up to be an excellent opportunity to bring in large numbers of new players who will probably buy product on a regular basis. My point at the end of all this is wether LVL 1, 2 or 3 the judges give an enormous amount of time to WoTC for free during regular weekly tournaments, and at the Pro Tours. It would be nice to see Wizards actually rewarding the "staff" of there regular weekly tournaments with invitations to Judge at the Pro tour with full expenses paid. I hope many other players as well as Judges write to express this point to WoTC so that the games future and the future of the Pro Tours (which are truly great to attend) can continue being run in the professional manner which they are currently. In the meantime I will continue to consider wether judging is really worth it. Thanks for reading Yours Joules Haigh Team Highlander