Special News Bulletin: PT Baltimore Judge Program Update
May 5, 2023
It has been a long and exciting weekend, detailed with great coverage for everybody to check out at fabtcg.com. But this article will take a better look at the new things presented at the Judge Conference in Baltimore!
To start, we want to start with some news with Community roles regarding some Judge regions in the Asia Pacific region. Some of you may have seen that Australia split into Lower-Eastern Australia and Wider Australia during the application process for Judge Community Representative, this happened due to the fast size of the region and the feedback we have received. Similarly, due to the growth of the community and geographic spread, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan will all become their own regions in the coming months!
For the Community roles, we now have term durations. Setting them the first time will result into different durations of terms but after the first rotation the aim is the following:
- Judge Community Representatives will have a one-year term. Three times per year there will be rotations with open applications for the rotating positions. The first rotation will start in October 2023.
- Judge Community Leads, and Project Leads will have 18-month terms and will be split into two rotations per year. First rotation will start at the end of 2023.
Starting next week, you can apply to run supported judge conferences here (link will be updated). We are already amazed by the amount of awesome presentations that judges and staff members have given at conferences with events or online and want to support that going forward! If you have presented at a conference in the last month you will also receive a thank-you gift for those efforts, you will be contacted by the conference organizers of the events you presented at with further information on that.
Additionally, if you are interested into helping run conferences around the globe you will be able to apply here next week for conference lead. (link will be updated)
Conferences aim to be part of the foundation for learning and growth for both the Judge community and others helping running all the amazing events. Another topic is about feedback, the first step to help here is this feedback form we made to offer you an easy way to message us your feedback on anything Judge and staff related (insert link here).
But we want to give you more than just conferences and ways for feedback, we want to give you something that for some will be a goal to grow towards. The Advanced Certifications!
The first three certifications we are working on are the Team Lead Certification (TLC), Battle Hardened Head Judge Certification and the Calling Head Judge Certification. These are meant as a building block set to be made one by one to achieve the next one. We are working on an article by our Advanced Certification Lead to show you a deeper dive into it this month. But here is a small glance:
Mandatory Prerequisites
- Must be Level 2 in good standing
- Submit a written statement of 200 words or less demonstrating leadership or management skills in a team setting (does not need to be related to Flesh and Blood)
- Demonstrate that you have provided written feedback and/or a review of other judges in the Flesh and Blood Judge Program.
In addition to the requirements noted in the Mandatory Requirements section above, candidates must meet at least two (2) of the following three (3) criteria:
- Worked the main event of at least two Tier 3 and/or Tier 4 event weekends for Flesh and Blood in a 24-month time frame
- Obtained a written recommendation from the Head Judge of a Tier 3 or Tier 4 Flesh and Blood event
- Provided a history of performing tasks for each of the following teams at a 200+ player event for a trading card game (does not need to be at a Flesh and Blood event; tasks of teams at certain events can overlap and do not necessarily need to fully align with the list below)
- Deck Checks
- Pairings
- End of Round
- Floor / Features
The certifications are meant as a way to learn and grow and show organizers the skills you have learned. They will not guarantee you staffing in these positions, but will help you show your skill level.
As mentioned last year at Worlds, we wanted to make a more streamlined system to support the great efforts judges bring to this game and their assistance in growing the community. Judge Reward Packs are the result of this. Here are some important details:
- Packs are labelled with different seasons. The image shown is for Season 1.
- There will be three (3) seasons of Judge Reward Packs per year.
- Factory sealed wrapped boosters, no more black envelopes.
- Each booster contains a single (1) card.
- Cards are randomized from a pool of six (6) cards, which changes every season.
- Each card pool contains a mix of Adjudicator cards and other cards (including tournament-legal cards).
- Some of these cards are reprints, which have not been printed in cold foil before.
- Distribution will start at the Calling Singapore and subsequent Battle Hardeneds and higher.
- Future Pro Quest and Roads to Nationals seasons will also contain Judge Reward Packs (not RtN 2023).
For assuring a minimum distribution of each pack rotation, some seasons will use a mix of current and previous seasons. Additionally, for some roles, like Head and Support Judges of Calling events and higher, Project Leads and Judge Community Leads will have access to some of the reward packs earlier as a thank-you for their service.
But that’s not all! We’ve already revealed some of the contents of pack 1, pictured below:
Why does that Pummel have a different border than usual, you ask? Good question! Here’s something to distract you from our non-answer – another preview! This time, it’s a card that you might find in Season 2 of the Judge Reward Packs:
The Head and Appeal Judges for Pro Tour Baltimore, as well as Community Leads, have already received a Proclamation of Abundance as an appreciation for their efforts, so watch out for some of these shiny cards making an early appearance at your UPF tables! Other judges will have the chance to get their own CF Proclamation of Abundance at future events when Season 2 is released.
We will be revealing the rest of the contents of Season 1 Judge Reward Packs in the not-so-far future. But we’ve still got a while to go before these packs begin being distributed, so we need to have some surprises left! Stay tuned!