Judges of Rathe Summer Update
Hello, Judges and interested readers! This is the follow-up article to Pro Tour Las Vegas 2026.
This article includes:
- Updates to community teams and conferences
- General program updates
- IAR Judge pack content!
We have many Judges who are part of several community teams that help make this community even greater than it already is. Let’s check out what is new!
Judge Community Representative Leads
North America got two new JCR Leads! Welcome and congratulate Matthew DiGregorio and Frederic St-Laurent on their new community role. Especially if you are a Judge in North America, you will have a good chance to see them around.
We also want to thank Brandon Welch and Juan Ortiz for their time as JCR leads in recent years.
Here is a full overview of our current JCR Lead rosters!
Want to know more about the role and what Judge Community representatives are? Check out this article.
Policy Team
The team is working constantly behind the scenes to give recommendations and ideas regarding policy. This also includes many Calling Head and Support Judges giving their ideas. They have also finished up the draft of the annotated penalty guidelines! We are very excited to show you this document later this year!
Event Pictures
This team is bringing you staff pictures at every Calling+ event as well as new headshots for Judges and staff members’ Judgehub profile pictures. You will also see this going forward! But right now we would like to introduce you to the team’s new lead, Wella Ladera! Naturally, we also want to say thank you to the team’s first lead – John Brian McCarthy!
Advanced Certifications
We have just entered the evaluation phase for the current run of the Calling Head and Support Judge certification and expect to move to the next stage at the end of August. We expect the next window to open for this near the end of the year. Wanna check out how this process works? Check out this article here!
The team lead certification process is receiving some updates that will mostly start to be in effect at the start of next year. We will update you here around the WC in Paris!
Additionally, there will be a mandatory seminar starting this Northern Hemisphere autumn for anybody who has an approved checklist before they attempt the evaluation.
Mentoring
The updates here focus mostly on several improvements to the mentor process for Callings, as well as some background logistics.
But we are also happy to share the self-nomination form for the post-TLC mentoring project (MAJOR) now. You will be able to find the form in the level 2 discord and Judgehub forum shortly.
Information and Content
You all have seen the great rules quizzes and articles, right? This team is continuing to provide the community with even more opportunities to learn. You can look forward to a new Road to Level 2 article series as well as a revamped blog page.
Exams
The 5th attempt for Level 2 exams is now in testing. We need to do some calibration on it because it’s very different to previous exams – it’s a practical test. Candidates will be expected to resolve up to six rules and policy scenarios that are presented in front of them (with two other judges playing the role of Tyler and Nic). We’ll update candidates once we’re ready to start with actual testing (soon!).
Level 2 Policy exam version 2.0 is well into development. This exam will be harder than the current Level 2 Policy exam and is designed to be roughly on par with the Level 2 Rule exam in terms of difficulty. This increase is due to feedback from both Judges and TOs that new L2s didn’t feel ready to face the policy decisions a Head Judge will have to make.
Conferences
A lot of planning happened behind the scenes, and we are happy to introduce you to some updates on how we plan to handle online conferences going forward. But first, we need to introduce you to some Judges!
Welcome Christian Gienger to the new role as Online Conference Lead! Additionally, we also want to welcome Jimmy Bui as the new Conference Lead for the Americas. Thank you to the previous lead, Ben Petrilla!
For conferences at Calling+ events, the system will stay similar, with a mix of events with half-day conferences (all World Premier weekends and selected other Callings) and full day conferences (all Pro Tours and World Championships).
For online conferences, we are introducing a new system that will allow you as a community to better anticipate content and timing, as well as offer us, as a program, more chances for targeted education opportunities.
Every world premiere will serve as the start of a new conference season; throughout the season we will have a returning roster of conferences and unique presentations to help judges grow on the different stages of their judge careers.
Additionally, we are pleased to announce the next set of georegion conferences! We are looking forward to seeing many of you at:
- Europe, Berlin, 5 – 6 September
- East Asia, Fukuoka, 21 – 22 November
- South East Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 5 – 6 December
- South America, Sao Paulo, 19 – 20 December
- Oceania, Queensland, details TBD, December/January
- North America, details and date TBD.
These weekends are designed to be 2 days full of seminars, webshop, games, and getting to know each other in a nice city! Wanna hang out some more days? Be our guests to explore the locations with other judges!
Every Level 1+ attendee will receive one Season 1 Judge pack , and 2 Judge packs of the current season. All attending Level 2 judges will also receive an additional Judge pack from a random pool!
Want to be part of a Community Team?
Then you are in the right place! Check out the following applications that are currently open:
- Our Content Team is looking for enthusiastic writers, especially one to support the mentoring team.
- The Translations Team is looking for Mandarin translators, and is always open to applications for other languages as well.
- The Exams Team is looking for help from Level 2 judges who are interested in helping to develop more exams!
- Finally, our Event Pictures Team is looking for judges excited to document the Judges of Rathe experience!
- Soon we will also have a link for you to apply for positions in the Rules team.
Do not see the theme you are interested in? Please message the respective lead to note your interest!
Updated JudgeHub Landing Page
Together with the aforementioned updates to the Blog, changes have been made to the front page of JudgeHub!. The front page now features direct links to relevant blog articles as well as overview pages adjusted to the needs of different levels and roles. We hope this will simplify the information flow and help Judges find what they need. Some minor adjustments to the overlay will also happen at the same time.
Role and Team Documentation
Going forward, you will be able to find more documentation on specific roles and event teams across our events. This is meant to make the flow of knowledge for new judges easier and to not make it dependent on who you know for what information you can get. This will include guides to roles like Game Attendant or Experience Coordinator as well as more detailed articles and even seminars about event teams like End of Round or Deck Checks.
Webshop
The newest version of the webshop is now live and open until the end of August! Check it out here. Any Level 1+ Judge can order their goodies to be delivered at shows from Calling Mexico City up to Calling Portland.
This also includes two new items for purchase:
Judge Cup 2026
We are also delighted to announce the Judge Cup is returning! When many of us head to Paris for this year’s World Championship, you are able to compete for the Judge Cup champion title.
Head to the event page to check out details for this event, which is hosted on the Monday following the event weekend.
Judges of Rathe Code of Conduct
You can now check out the newly uploaded and updated version of the Judge Code of Conduct here or under Rules and Policy on the Flesh and Blood TCG website.
Level 2 Nametags and Yellow Popped Collar Promo
Shortly all Judges that certified for level 2 before the end of June will receive the data collection form for nametag and shipping information. Processing of it will happen later this year. The next wave will be done in 2027. Do not forget that if you make level 2 before the end of the year you still get an extra random Judge pack!
Availability of Older Judge Packs
You may have seen some older Judge packs being used for several Calling events or even a ProQuest season. This will continue in a similar form also into the next year and going forward in general. It may not be every Calling season or local store season, but you will see it from time to time again.
Other ways to get older packs include participating in a georegion conference (season 1) or presenting at a Pro Tour or World Championship conference (season 2). But do not worry – there will be more ways to get them in the future, as we know getting those older seasons is something many Judges want.
And last but not least, here are some previews for the upcoming Judge pack season for Usurp the Shadow Throne!
Thank you very much for checking out our update article, and see you for the next one after the World Championship weekend in Paris!