Subject:
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 07:11:20 PDT
From: "Lord_Of Jabootyville" <lofj@hotmail.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

To address the whole juging thread that has been started by Cathy
Nicoloff there are several judges (myself included) who often work for
no compensation or compensation only in product (and definitely not
enough to be worth are time) who mainly judge because they enjoy being a
part of a major event, socializing with players/judges or simply because
they love the game of Magic.  However, if one were to attempt to make a
living at this (and this will not become a viable career for awhile)
there are a couple of situations where a judge can make plenty.  Take me
at Worlds '98 I chose to run Ancillary events and was paid $1 per person
per tournament I ran only single-elimination Rath Cycle drafts and
single-elimination type 2 events (actually there really wasn't many
other non-major ancillary events that weren't either of thes formats)
because of the large amount of people who participated, I at one point
was simultaneously running 11 tournaments (the record is 14 I believe
set by Paul Geradi who recently moved over here, great guy) and I was
easily making $100+ for 8 hours of work (that's a lot of money when you
are 16 like me) and aside from a couple of inconsiderate players I had a
great time while I was doing it too, I met a bunch of cool players
(Jamie Parke, Brian Selden who walked to the Wizards barbecue with me as
I guess everyone else had left already, Thomas Girard who played type 2
with me, Tommi Hovi, Tommi Walamies, watched CMU draft,
and Gary Wise take off his pants in response to Hurloon Wrangler in an
Unglued draft, and others too.) I got to play against them and though I
wasn't really in their whole circle or whatever they were generally cool
guys.  My point is (to get away from this name-dropping crap) that a
judge does have proper opportunities to get well compensated for his
time he just has to pick which ones he wants to judge.  I judge not only
because I get paid occasionaly but because I enjoy helping people out,
watching people play improves my play, and I always have fun.  Also I
agree with Nat Fairbanks breakdown of how much it costs to become a
judge, I became a judge at the 1997 World Championships and went from
not being a judge to being level 2 as I had a good enough test score and
knew my stuff.  I paid $10 for the test and the $25 yearly judge
membership fee and that is all I have spent thus far though I am
currently pursuing my level 3 (I've had one interview which I didn't
pass, its HARD to become level 3, as it should, as it should) and I
still have yet to spend more money.  One final point it wouldn't make
sense as a business for Wizards to compensate people who would work for
free anyhow, not saying the judges don't deserve it (I wouldn't object
to Wizards paying me) anyhow enough for now thanks for reading

Jesse Wilke
Level II Judge
Seattle, WA

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