Judging roles in any game count for maintenance for your Judge Foundry level! Ok, sorry to just blurt that out, but it’s something we’ve been hearing members asking about and we wanted to address it right up top. More about this later. Now, back to your regularly scheduled article:
Judge Foundry members have until March 31st to complete their maintenance requirements. This will be the first wave of maintenance for JF. That’s a big deal! Here’s what you need to know about it:
Why do Maintenance?
This leads us to a deeper question — why have levels at all? Judge Foundry’s first quality is Quality, and levels help us get there. Judge levels are useful for showing someone has been certified to have a minimum level of knowledge. If I know someone is a Level One Judge, I know they can run a prerelease; if they’re a Level Two Judge I know I can recommend them to a store to run an upcoming RCQ; and if they’re a Level Four Judge, they can HJ a 200 player event. At the LGS, judge levels help players get the right rulings, and at a large event, judge levels ensure your coworkers know what they’re doing.
But just because someone once knew how to do something doesn’t mean they always will. Maintenance ensures that judge’s levels are still accurate measures of their skills. Every year sees myriad updates in both rules and policy, and tournament organizers need to know the judges they’re hiring haven’t been left behind. If an L2 hasn’t judged in five years, they’re probably a little behind on policy, and won’t be giving correct rulings anymore. An L5 who hasn’t judged in a few years is probably out of date on the best practices for running end of round, divvying up team assignments on a 500+ player event, and so on.
Many other professional certifications, like law, medicine, and education, have continuing education requirements to stay certified, because their fields are constantly changing. Judging is quite similar. Maintenance is essential for ensuring our levels are still up to date and accurate, and that no members get to coast on laurels earned long ago.
You Said Any Game?
That’s right! As mentioned above, judging most tabletop TCGs counts for maintenance and to meet advancement requirements. This isn’t a new policy or a big change in philosophy on Judge Foundry’s side but rather a clarification, a re-publicizing. This has been the plan from inception, but we got enough questions about it recently that we realized it hadn’t quite seeped into public knowledge, so we’re highlighting it here.
Judge Foundry’s legal status as a 501c6 makes our charter to support tabletop tournament officials – not just those who judge for one particular publisher. This is especially relevant at a time when many judges, including those in Judge Foundry’s leadership, have branched out into more games as a way of broadening their skill set.
One thing we learned in recent years, when more TCGs began hosting large tournaments and hiring expert judges who may not have been as familiar with those games, is that there’s a lot of fungibility in judging. While a judge will obviously need to learn new rules, skills like policy philosophy, logistics, investigations, leadership, and player experience are all portable. Indeed, many judges have reported that working new games has made them better at their “home game” because it’s forced them to better understand the philosophical underpinnings of choices that were made – this is part of what led us to add “Logistics Philosophy” to the set of qualities on which judges are evaluated.
We also wanted to avoid creating painful choices for judges as maintenance loomed. When tournament organizers post their applications and ask what certifications judges hold, we want our members to be as broadly hirable as possible, not to have to say “I really need you to put me on Magic because I need one more large Magic event this year,” when both the judge and the TO might be better served by that judge working Star Wars. We’ll also note that we’re not the only ones adopting this rule – the requirements for some advanced roles in Flesh and Blood’s judge program allow for experience with analogous games, while still requiring Flesh and Blood rules and policy knowledge.
We reached this conclusion, in part, because we’ve seen personally how beneficial it is to cross-train. Brook recently worked as a Deputy Head Judge for two Disney Lorcana Challenges, John Brian is a Tier 3/Tier 4 Head Judge in Flesh and Blood and recently served as Support Judge for Calling Sydney, Joe is a Flesh and Blood judge and tournament organizer, and Director Emerita Amanda will be the Head Judge of Flesh and Blood Worlds later this month. Many other senior judges have also jumped into other games and are finding it helpful. (Note that none of the judges mentioned here will need their experience with other games in order to pass their maintenance requirements for this year.)
What Happens if you don’t Maintain?
Judges who do not meet the maintenance requirements will have their level lowered. We know that losing something that was earned can be a tough pill to swallow, but if we want judges to get opportunities thanks to their levels, the levels have to mean something. That means judges can’t be allowed to coast after earning a level, and that means maintenance has to have some teeth.
Note that judges who advanced between October 1st and March 31st are exempted from maintenance requirements for that member year. If you just achieved a new level, you’re probably still a good fit for it, and we didn’t want to discourage judges from advancing in the Spring for fear that they’d get bumped right back down again.
We expect that maintenance will spur some judges to reevaluate their relationship with judging from time to time, and that’s good and healthy. Life changes. Sometimes we get new jobs, move across the country, have a kid, or otherwise have a big change, and it can be important to reevaluate the things we took for granted. Changing your relationship with judging doesn’t negate any of the good work you’ve done in the past, it doesn’t mean you can’t help mentor other judges, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t a part of the community.
If life changes again and you’re ready to put judging back on the front burner, we’ll be here for you.
What Else is There to Know?
- The requirements for maintenance for each level are listed on that level’s info page
- We know that sometimes, life happens. If you don’t think you’ll be able to hit the maintenance requirements for your level due to extenuating circumstances, reach out to the board
- If the maintenance requirements for a level above you seem like they’d be easy, that can be a good indicator you’re ready to advance
Conclusion
At the moment, judges can expect all tabletop TCGs to count toward requirements without needing to check first. If it’s run at an SCG CON or Laughing Dragon Experience, you can count it. Beyond that, we’re open to considering some other types of things as well. Opening the doors to more than one game is going to result in a little bit of fuzziness at the edges. So – if you’ve been judging something that you feel should count that isn’t a TCG, reach out to the board and we’ll see what makes sense for your individual situation.