Magic

For anybody who was planning on seeing me this weekend at the Hartford prerelease, the location has been changed to the University of Hartford, Gengrass Cafeteria. See the TJ’s web site for more details.

Interesting events in January, past and present:

• January 1: While at the annual New Year’s party and my aunt and uncle’s large house in Middlefield, MA, my wife tumbles down a flight of stairs while carrying our luggage. “Luckily”, she landed mainly on her head and shoulders. She and Baby seem to be doing just fine despite the experience, although Jessi did suffer a pulled rotator cuff in her right shoulder which is slowly healing.
• January 8: I stopped by the town hall on my way home from work to get information on an upcoming public hearing on the town’s contact with Charter Communications. I would like to send in my comments ahead of time, as well as attend the hearing. I may even try to get on one of the Cable Committees in town at some point.
• January 19-20: The Morningtide Prerelease. I’m scheduled to be the Head Judge on Day 2, which will be the largest number of players I’ve ever head judged for at once.
• January 29: The aforementioned public hearing on Charter.

Yesterday, I headed down to New York City for the Magic World Championship, where I helped judge the Worlds Team competition day, and tested to gain Trainer status (and passed), meaning that I can now certify level 1 judges.

• This Saturday, October 27: Head Judge of 2007 Standard Connecticut State Championship
• November 3: Judge at a PTQ in Milford, MA
• November through February: Running Rising Phoenix Games City Champs Qualifiers (Where you can qualify for Worlds if you’re really good: Top 8 in the City Champs Qualifier series get an invite to the store City Champs Finals, top 2 from that get an invite to the Boston City Champs Finals, top 1 from that gets an invite to Nationals and 2nd through 8th get byes at Regionals, top 4 from Regionals get invites to Nationals, and top 4 from Nationals get invites to Worlds.)
• November 18: Running a Northeast Challenge Qualifier at Rising Phoenix Games (Where you can win a car: Top 2 from this event qualify to play in the Northeast Challenge at Worlds, top 8 from that qualify to play in the Win a Car Tournament at Worlds.)
• December 1: Head Judge of PTQ in Stratford, CT
• December 6–9: Worlds. I’m not planning on judging at Worlds (partly since it’s the busy season at work, and partly since I don’t want to pay for staying in New York City). But, I would like to test for being a Level 2 Area Trainer Judge (That is, gain the ability to test judges for Level 1), so I may show up at some point and connect with judges and try to test for that.

For those of you interested in learning more about the rules of Magic, I wrote today’s Ask the Judge: Feature Friday column at Star City Games.

Successfully made it to Baltimore. Will be judging Nationals this weekend. There will be coverage at http://www.magicthegathering.com if you want to see all the goings on here.

(posted via PDA)

My current plans for judging in July:

• 1st: NAC Qualifier Sealed at RPG
• 6th: FNM 2HG Sealed at RPG
• 7th: PTQ in Brighton
• 12th: NAC Qualifier Standard at RPG
• 13th: FNM 10th Edition Release Draft at RPG
• 14th: Magic Game Day 10th Edition Release (several events) at RPG
• 20th: FNM Sealed Deck at RPG
• 21st: NAC Qualifier Booster Draft at RPG
• 24th: NAC Qualifier Standard at RPG
• 26th–29th: Magic Weekend in Baltimore, including the U.S. National Championship, Magic Scholarship Series Championship, and many many side events. I’ll likely be spending at least a day on each of those.
• 31st: Tuesday Night Summer of Magic Booster Draft begins at RPG

August brings another PTQ, weekly Tuesday Summer of Magic draft, weekly Friday Night Magic, a couple more NAC Qualifiers, and Gen Con where I’m judging the Dreamblade Championship.

On Saturday I was the head judge of Magic Regionals in Hartford. We had 189 players, and despite some mishaps that made things take longer than I’d like that probably weren’t avoidable, it worked out alright, and was a good experience for me.

On Sunday I went bowling with my family, and it was a lot of fun. After playing bowling on the Wii more and more and doing pretty good at it, I wanted to go out and play some “real” (that is, candlepin non-virtual) bowling. It was enough fun that it may be something my wife and I do more often.

Some background for those unfamiliar but might find this interesting anyway: The basic timing system in Magic is that when a player has “priority”, they can choose to (a) take an action, or (b) pass. If both players pass in a row, then (a) if there’s something on the stack (waiting to resolve), the top item on the stack resolves and active player get priority again, or (b) if there’s nothing on the stack, the current phase or step ends and the game moves on to the next phase. Usually, this formal description of timing is shortcutted quickly by the players, and most actual players wouldn’t be able to describe the details of how this timing system works.

I’ve now reserved hotel rooms for our trip to Magic Nationals in July and Gen Con Indy in August. While we’re out West, we’re going to stop at the new Creation Museum for a day on the way back.

Anybody want to join us for any of these trips?