News Bulletin – July 2023
July 6, 2023
Happy July, everyone! It’s an exciting time as we head into the release of Dusk Till Dawn, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have news and updates for you! This month, we’ll be focusing on more conference information, a few developments from our Judge Program’s Technology, Rules, and Policy teams, and a reminder about where to send feedback.
For judges (and players who are also judges), applications are available for a wide variety of judge conferences, from Vienna to Las Vegas, held in the upcoming months all throughout Nationals season. We encourage all judges to attend conferences as a way to develop judge-related skills and network with the wider judge community. There are additional conferences available for application in many areas, as well as some online conferences as well, so apply to the one most conducive to your schedule and we hope to see you there (online or in person)!
We’d also like to take this moment to announce that judge support for conferences have been finalized. All attendees and presenters for in person conferences will receive one (1) Judge Pack Season 1, as long as they are registered beforehand and are L1 or above at the time of the conference. Presenters and organizers for online conferences will receive an additional one (1) pack of Judge Pack Season 1, while presenter and organizers at in-person conferences will receive an additional two (2) packs of Judge Pack Season 1.
If you are interested in running a conference for your area or online, you may apply to do so using this form here. Requests will be processed within the first two weeks of every month for all applications received in the previous month. For example, if you applied for a conference in June, expect an answer by mid-July. Please be sure to apply for your conference so that at least two months exist between the anticipated review window and the conference date.
For more information on Judge Conferences and the types of conferences, you may visit our page here or via the top menu navigation.
The Tech Team has primarily worked on bugfixes that increase resiliency of the site and backend workers against various types of errors, however, we have also done some work on new features.
- Exam Types can now have a maximum number of attempts, after which a given candidate will need new exams of that type to be created by an authorized admin – and possibly taken in person. This has not yet been configured for any exam type, but likely will be applied to the L1/L2 certification exams to improve the state of re-tests in those pools, specifically for individuals who are close to exhausting the question pool.
- A backend feature has been added allowing JCRs (Judge Community Representatives) to privately provide feedback about judges to the Judge Program Manager, to allow the JPM to provide better input on judges’ applications to events.
- The Community Representative and CR Leads are now tagged with their role on Judge Hub, which can be seen on their profile, forum posts, and in other places.
- The Judge Program Manager has requested feedback on communication and announcement channels on the JudgeHub forum at this link.
- Some preliminary work was done to support forthcoming Advanced Roles and their application processes.
Additionally, in other technology sphere news:
- Aurelie Violette, of the PurpleFox project, has made updates to improve the PurpleFox workflow and user interface for team events, and to fix display and performance bugs which can arise when multiple events are using PurpleFox simultaneously.
- Tyler Luce, of the FaB Cube project, has improved the database schema of his JSON repository of Flesh and Blood cards, and incorporated cards from the forthcoming Dusk Till Dawn set.
The Rules Team and the Policy Team would like issue an update from their team, as well as a request for feedback! While the judge program does have teams of judges specifically dedicated to refining their respective documents, that doesn’t mean that judges at large can’t contribute.
The Rules Team is deep in document reviews for the new upcoming set Dusk till Dawn. The team has had a very productive and successful month thus far: reviews of the Back Alley Oracle article on the new defend changes, a Rules Reprise article revisiting Monarch Limited, and a completed first-pass review of the new Comprehensive Rules 2.5.0 document before spoiler season began.
As you read this, the Rules Team is actively reviewing the new set’s Release Notes this week. After that, the team will do another pass of the Comprehensive Rules (CR) to review and provide feedback on the mechanics from the new set! (That’s right, we don’t get a special sneak peek at the new cards or mechanics; we experienced the full excitement of the set preview season just like everyone else!). After the release notes are published, the team will work to publish a minor update to them to accommodate for any important interactions that may arise as players and judges get their hands on product and games under their belts.
Meanwhile, the policy team is still working with Joshua Scott (Rules Manager) to update and improve Tournament Rules and Policy (TRP) and Procedure and Penalty Guide (PPG). Prereleases are a great opportunity for us as many players and judges of various level of experience will encounter a wide range of situations and will use these documents to enable great games to go on. If judges feel that they encountered such a situation in which the guidance of the TRP and the PPG was unclear or not optimal, they can let us know by sending an email to this address to help us continue to improve and grow these documents.
Have a suggestion for the CR, TRP, or PPG, like an opportunity for improvement or something out of place with what is currently written? Feel free to discuss it in the JudgeHub Discord server or even mention it specifically in the server’s Comprehensive Rules channel. Team members are always reading, looking for new ideas and opportunities to review for future document updates to make it the best document it can be.
Have feedback for the judge program, or need to submit a report to the Judge Conduct Committee? Use the forms below! We are always on the lookout to see how we can improve the judge program.
As a final reminder, the Judge Program Manager would like to call attention to the disqualification forms available for all judges to use when the need arises. While we hope that use of this form will be rare, it is important that all judges are aware of these forms as a way to submit disqualification reports to the Judge Program for evaluation and review.