Pro Tour Yokohama Update
8 marzo 2025
Konnichiwa!
Greetings from Pro Tour Yokohama! A few weeks ago, we presented our seasonal update and wanted to share those updates for folks who couldn’t join us.
This update includes:
- Recent events in the Judge Program
- A look at the results of the 2026 maintenance check
- Level 2 updates and incentives
- Updates from our community teams
- Rules and Policy updates
- Previews!
2026 has been the busiest year in the Judge Program so far and included the last of our 2025 Georegional conferences in Cancun!
The judge program is what you make of it – we strongly encourage you to use the time you have as a judge to not just help make great games happen but also great memories and friendships. Long after the event ends you’ll remember the challenges you faced and the stories you created.
Early last month we completed the final sweep of maintenance for the end of the 2025 season and with that we can share our program growth from when we completed last year’s sweep to this year:
- Level 1+ Judges grew by 11%
- Level 2 Judges grew by 40%
We’re excited about the continued growth of the number of active judges within the program and the fact that the regularness of maintenance exams has resulted in most judges being better informed about the current rules and policy.
For 2026, we’ve simplified the maintenance for Level 2 Judges to be an annual check as it has been for Level 1 Judges. The requirements for 2026 are as follows:
- Level 1 Judges certified before January 1st 2026 must complete 2 of the 3 maintenance exams by December 31st, 2026 to remain current.
- Level 2 Judges must complete all maintenance exams whose sets are released after their certification date by December 31st, 2026 to remain current
The Compendium of Rathe maintenance exam has been delayed by a technical issue and should go live shortly after this weekend.
In Philadelphia we announced some changes to make level 2’s requirements better match what candidates had done to when they’re ready to certify. Based on the feedback we’ve received since then we’ve implemented the announced changes and are making one additional change:
- Time as an L1 is now 30 days (was 120)
- 2 Events in the last 2 years (was one year)
- NEW! One of the two events may be a Skirmish (the other must be a competitive REL event from one of our tier 2 or higher organized play programs)
- All other requirements are staying the same
We are ready to start talking about the 5th attempt procedure for the Level 2 exam. This will start as a pilot late in the Omens of the Third Age season and potentially be more available after that. We are still finalizing the requirements to take this alternative test but wanted to let folks know what that test will look like.
The fifth attempt is designed as a live scenario test. This means that judges will play the roles of the characters and physical boardstates will be presented to allow a candidate who has been struggling with the multiple choice test an environment to show their skills that more closely matches the actual environment a judge experiences in their judging career. Each of the rules and policy tests will have up to 6 scenarios with 5 correct answers being required to pass. The test will have an overall time limit of 60 minutes to complete the scenarios. If a candidate has successfully passed one side or the other of the test (rules or policy) on the fourth attempt then they will not need to take that side on the fifth attempt under most circumstances.
This is a resource intensive process, which is why we aren’t expanding it beyond the fifth attempt candidates. In addition, at least during this pilot phase, the test requires a member of the LSS Rules, Policy, and Judging staff to be present to administer the exam.
We will announce more details on exact requirements and timelines at a later date.
If you’ve been putting off your L2 this is the year to get it!
If you are an L2 as of June 30, 2026 you will receive a Judges of Rathe nametag in this year’s shipment. Going forward we plan to do this yearly for judges who have become L2 in the previous 12 months. In addition, if you are an L2 as of November 5, 2026 you will receive the following:
- A copy of the James White-inspired Pop Collar Polo (Yellow) promo*
- A Judge Pack from a recent season
Exact distribution methods and timelines will be announced later. Judges who received a Popped Collar Polo (Yellow) at World Championship 2025 will non receive a second copy.
Here’s our original model for the promo:
Judge Community Representatives
JCR Rotation is going as scheduled. The next wave opens soon and will be for the following regions:
- Europe : Benelux, Nordics and Baltics, Poland
- APAC : Australia, South East Asia, Japan, New Zealand, China
We welcome China as a new region this cycle, two other regions in the area (Hong Kong, China and Chinese Taipei) are not rotating at this time.
We also want to welcome a new Judge Community Representative Lead for Europe! Niklas Bengtsson! Niklas is joining Bartłomiej Wieszok and Ash Sztulzaft as a third JCRL for Europe.
The Americas region is in the process of a JCRL rotation and will have more news about that around US Nationals.
Mentoring
Our three mentoring teams introduced at Worlds have begun work towards making mentoring more accessable and to help judges understand the journey from first learning the game all the way to becoming a Calling Head Judge.
Today, we’re clarifying three different types of “mentors” who may appear in your journey as a judge with specific terms for them so everyone can understand what role someone is filling.
Mentor
Your general mentor is someone who is helping you personally on your judging growth journey. For most judges this is another judge in their local community. The Mentoring Team is building resources to support this type of mentor to guide their mentee towards level 2.
Tournament Mentor
This is a role within a World Tour Stop for a person whose main role either for a day or during the entire weekend is to step back from taking judge calls and focus on mentoring judges within the event. This role can be mentoring judges at various stages of their journey and/or be targeted to specific individuals within the staff to achieve certain goals.
MAJOR Coach
The Mentoring Advanced Judges of Rathe project is an advanced leadership program for judges who have completed their TLC and are aiming for their next challenge. Many of those who are being mentored through this program will partner up with one or more MAJOR Coaches to continue their development both at and between events to future leadership within the judge program.
We’re also giving our first update on the MAJOR Mentoring program.
The MAJOR Mentoring program is designed to help judges who have completed their Team Lead Certification get ready for various senior leadership roles within events (Side Events Lead, Calling HJ, etc) through dedicated, hands on mentoring.
The initial wave was filled through a direct selection which involved recommendations from existing leaders within the program.
To start our second wave later this year we are keeping a direct selection path but adding a self nomination path.
To qualify for the self nomination a candidate must meet the following criteria:
- Hold the Certified Team Leader role
- Have team lead at least 3 time since getting certified
- Write a self review covering a series of categories that will be published when the nomination process opens.
If the Self Review is approved and the other requirements are met the candidate will go through a verbal interview designed to understand their goals and readiness to go for those goals before being considered for the program.
We do not expect to be able to take every candidate who is ready on any given wave.
Advanced Certifications
The Advanced Certifications teams has released an updated article about the Calling HJ/SJ process that includes a sample question from the written test and more information about the process. Check it out here!
If you read that article and think you’re ready for the challenge the next round of evaluations will happen during Omens season (North American summer).
If you’re not quite that far down the road but have your L2 complete and are interested in becoming a leader now is a great time to complete your Team Lead Certification checklist. Slots for evaluation tend to fill pretty quickly so the earlier you complete your checklist the better.
Tech
We’ve updated the JudgeHub logo! The new logo is designed to be easier to read and see on mobile devices. It is not replacing the regular Judges of Rathe logo.
JudgeHub also launched its translations for Japanese and Simplified Mandarin!
Conferences
Last season we updated the frequency we do in person conferences and now it’s time for us to revisit how online conferences are setup and make sure that it aligns with both the needs and wants of the folks who put them on and attend them.
We’re making a few changes to make these more accessible than ever:
- We’re moving to a fixed schedule of once every two months for online conferences (regardless of in store seasons)
- We’re planning to present 2 sessions each conference and presenting them each twice (for different time zones)
Georegional Conferences are back for 2026!
- Six are planned across the globe this year.
- No attendance fee, travel and lodging at your own expense
Attendee sponsorship is staying the same! 2 packs of the current season and 1 pack of Season 1!
The Return of PDF Rules Documents
We are happy to announce the first step in the return of PDF versions of the documents – these are in sync with the web version so will be current as of the date you download them.
Our first one out is the CR! Click here to download it! The TRP, PPG, and Japanese language documents will be added at a later date.
Localization of the TRP and PPG
The August 2025 version of the TRP and PPG are now available from rules.fabtcg.com and future updates will be published on the same date as the English version!
We intend to translate the Casual Procedure Guide at some point in the future as well but we don’t have a release date yet.
For the Omens of the Third Age Season judges at World Tour stops will receive one of three different playmats!
Judge Booster Season 10
With the Omens of the Third Age season, we are reaching the landmark 10th Judge Booster! To celebrate this milestone we’ve got two cards in each pack – one that is a tournament legal cold foil or marvel and another that is a non-foil Adjudicator reprint! These reprints include all of the previously released Adjudicator cards (some of which haven’t been re-printed in nearly four years!).
The Future of Judge Boosters
After this landmark pack we’re making some big changes to packs beyond that (to be clear, these start with Set 20 in the fall).
The first change is naming – we’re no longer numbering the seasons and just naming them after the set they are aligned with.
When we first launched Judge Packs, we were unsure of how long each pack would be issued (an early conversation had it as a semi-annual pack) but ultimately it best aligned with set releases as many other elements of Organized Play are. Starting with the 11th pack the new naming convention will be “Judge Pack [Set Name]”. This means pack 11 will be “Judge Pack Set 20” (and Set 20 will be replaced with the set’s actual name once it’s released).
The second, bigger, change is to the structure of the contents of each booster. This is our current vision for them that may be revisited again as future products are released.
Starting with Judge Pack Set 20 the two slots will be divided as follows:
You may notice that all the cards in the pack are tournament legal cards. This is not a typo. There will be more Adjudicator cards in the future but they are not in Judge Packs (more details to come!).
Let’s be more specific and look at the specific breakdown of Judge Pack Set 20:
Every card in Judge Booster Set 20 will be from products released during the season or related to the theme of the season. We intend for this to make Judge Boosters more desirable within the season they’re released. We, as always, look forward to your feedback on these changes once you see them in action later this year!
And that’s all the news we have for you for now! Join us on the Discord and sign up for the frequent updates tag to get news as it happens!
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