Blog

Gwon

Stardate 0806.1, the natives are restless and Capt. WB says that I need to get this done. Things are hectic around here. A large event is looming on the horizon and is quickly approaching. I’m about 80% prepared; how about you?  Is your “All-In Treant” deck polished? I hope you are running the right number of Nature’s Vengeance and Nature’s Reach? I’m going out on a limb here, heh, and say that if you have less than 4 of each of those, you are doing it wrong. Unfortunately, I have been told by R&D that I can’t really let out any secret strategy details for deck builds. If only they knew my skill level.

Bring Order to Chaos!

I’ve hinted at this in other locations, but it’s time to officially announce it here.  This year, the North American Continental Championship will play host to the 2011 Judge Seminar.**

When: Thursday, June 16^th @ 5pm
Where: In Concorde B at the Paris Hotel and Casino
Who: Any level  1 CZE judge is welcome
What: A series of smaller sessions covering various judge and event-related topics.

Judge Program Overview – What the judge program is all about, why you joined, expectations of CZE judges, and how you can be a benefit to both your community and yourself by being a judge.

Large Event Judging Basics – This will cover the breakdown of different roles that judges assume at large events, how to properly provide a ruling, common scenarios, and writing a quality judge peer-review.

Player Management – How to deal with players’ attitudes and behavior in a professional manner.

Q/A – Ask questions about the seminar or program.

In addition, a second set of sessions will be held on Sunday afternoon, around 3pm (dependent on main event finish times). There will be two of sessions during this time period.

Head Judging and Higher Level Concepts – Introduction to Head Judging and other high level concepts like mentoring, Artisan level details and expectations.

Champion School – What you can do to be a better Champion of the Black Flame and how you/your community can directly benefit. This session will be open only to Champions of the Black Flame.

For those in attendance, I will be handing out a couple keepsakes that will help you in your career as a judge. Watch for a picture or two on Twitter.

Champion of the Month

“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.”– Billie Jean King

All of the Champions of the Black Flame are awesome. Often times, store owners and employees tell me that they wouldn’t have a World of Warcraft Trading Card Game community without their dedicated Champion. This warms my heart and shows that this is the best volunteer program in the industry.  I wish I could give all of the Champions a great big hug. I hope that those that are going to the North American Continental Championships will find me and chat about what is going on in their area. If I find out that a Champion is there and didn’t get those units in the South Ridge by midday, there’ll be hell to pay!

Now it’s time to focus on our Champion of the Month. This person works at one of the most successful hobby stores in the Northeast and has done so since 2006. He continues to perform his duties month after month. I can count on him for honest feedback, being knowledgeable about the hobby industry, and eager to help the program in any way possible. He runs two Battleground nights a week and has one of the most consistent playgroups in the world. This Champion was integral in setting up the NYS WoW Cup, organizing 6 stores to participate and engaging the local community to attend those events. Additional tasks that he has done are facilitating the creation of the logos and help manage the WoW TCG Cup website.  

You have probably guessed who it is at this point, but for those of you that don’t know him, I’d like to recognize Robert Clark IV.  Rob works at Play the Game, Read the Story in Syracuse, NY. For his efforts, Rob will receive an uncut sheet, a Cryptozoic Playmat, and some additional goodies (like Cryptozoic Sleeves and one of the new— my favorite— Cryptozoic bottle openers).                                                                                 

To all those that are going to NACC next week, make sure to stop by and say hi!  I’m on the PM Public Events Team (which is clearly better than the AM Public Events Team, but shhh, don’t tell Ry). 

** - Europe will have a judge seminar as well at the EUCC. We'll provide more information on that as we choose a date and time.