Hello judges!
I would like to introduce you to a series of articles explaining the levels of the International Judge Program, and the philosophy and reasoning for each of them.
You can find the permanent documentation about certification and maintenance for every level under “Certifications” in the header menu of our website. Currently, levels 1-4 are visible there with level 5 expected to follow soon. Here you can find direct links to the details for each level:
During the process of designing those levels, we also made a glossary of terms to have clear definitions of the terms and concepts used in each level description. You can find it on our glossary page!
Some core values guided the design of all levels that we had to carefully combine and modulate to achieve balance and efficiency in the system.
Inclusivity and Diversity
This is one of the core fundamentals of the International Judge Program. Certification must be available for anyone who wants and can perform judge duties. Instead of creating a complex (and probably incomplete) list of adaptations of the testing process to different situations, we have decided to assign one Testing Manager for each level and create a group of experts in diversity, equity, and inclusion to adapt to each candidate’s needs.
Quality
This has been part of the identity of any judge since the foundation of the Judge Program in the 90s. For different reasons in the last years, this principle has not been as predominant as we believe it should be. Every judge should be proud of their level and their peers. Being a Level X judge should be synonymous with quality and trust in players. Therefore each level will have some maintenance to ensure judges keep up to date with rules and policies. We’re also raising the requirements to become a judge compared to the last set of certifications, and we are not offering pure online judge certification. Lastly, we’re adding some requirements that ensure judges certified for a certain level know how to perform the duties expected from them.
Localization
The IJP is providing certification services to many, and very diverse regions. This is our biggest strength and pride. However, this means we need to adapt and accommodate to different existing realities. Levels 1 and 2 are defined to judge in stores and at local events. Therefore we allow higher flexibility to the Regional Representatives to globally change some requirements for their regions. We worked together with the Temporary Regional Advisors to bring insight into different regional realities.
Level 3 is designed to provide a quality service at large competitive and multi-day events. Quality and consistency take priority here because those judges will frequently travel long distances and judge for organizers who don’t know them; we need these TOs to be able to assess the skills of those Level 3 judges without regional context.
Levels 4 and 5 are tournament experts and community leaders, they will frequently travel long distances and are qualified to perform leadership tasks. Consistency and quality become the pinnacle of those judge levels and therefore, the requirements for these levels are not adapted regionally.
Coherency
Both internally, inside the levels structure, and externally, with other existing certification systems. The internal coherent structure was ensured by having all members of the IJP levels team working together on the system. We went back and forth several times with some fine-tuning to make sure there was a smooth and logical transition between each level.
Regarding the external coordination, at the time of this work, only the Judge Foundry level structure exists. We also took into consideration the legacy systems from Judge Academy and the Old Judge Program. We tried to bring over the best elements of the legacy systems and invited Joe Klopchic who provided priceless advice and insight on the reasoning JF followed for each decision. We deviated from the path JF chose in some cases, not because we think it was wrong, but because we’re serving different areas, and as mentioned above we need to adapt to provide the best possible certification in those regions.
Community Building
As our vision states, the International Judge Program is a non-profit association for judges by judges. This means that it is expected from all judges to participate in the community according to their abilities, skills, and preferences. There are no bad ways to give to the community: some may like to write tournament reports, others may like to mentor (in infinitely different ways), others may like to help with translations, rulings, technical stuff, or helping certify judges, etc. All are welcome and appreciated.
Considering those principles, and taking the work made by Judge Foundry with their 5 levels system as a base for compatibility, we have created the IJP levels structure. In the next few days, we will be sharing one article explaining the decision-making process for each level and its philosophy. If you are not interested at this point in such a deep analysis, you can find the comprehensive list of requirements for each level in the Header menu, under “Certifications”.
| CR | MTR | JAR | IPG | Qualified for | Community involvement | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Standard | Basic | Medium | No | Head Judge of FNM | Not required |
| Level 2 | Pioneer | Basic | Advanced | Basic | Head Judge of in-store competetive events; Floor Judge at small competiteve events | Stay in touch with local community |
| Level 3 | Modern | Medium | Advanced | Medium | Head Judge of small competitive events; Floor Judge at large competitive events | Sporadic participation in mentoring and/or community projects |
| Level 4 | Legacy | Advanced | Advanced | Advanced | Head Judge of medium competitive events; Floor Judge at large events | Consistent participation in mentoring and community projects |
| Level 5 | Legacy | Advanced | Advanced | Deviations | Head Judge at large tournaments (20+ judges) | Consistent participation in mentoring and community projects |
