Introduction
Hey there! I’m Luca Chiassoni and as the current L3 Testing manager, I’m going to talk about our new L3 in the IJP!
The IJP Level Three (L3) will constitute something new, something that has been spoken about in the past, and that finally has become reality.
If you’re old like I am, you probably have heard about the so called “Level 2.5”. This new Level Three brings to the IJP the proper certification for a Judge that has gained the experience to become a reliable help on the floor of large events.
However, Level Three is not just about tournaments. A Level Three Judge can pass the experience they gained to other judges in their local community: writing reviews, mentoring and helping them on the floor, or even presenting a seminar on the web or in a conference!
Level Three represents a turning point in your Judge career both from an event perspective and in community involvement. It is where you will expand your horizons to international events and you’ll solidify as a mentor in your local community.
Going straight to the point: what is a Level Three Judge capable of?
- Hey! Can you please launch the Mystery Booster Sealed starting at table 601?
- At the main event they need someone to help the end of round procedures, can you join them?
- I’m planning to do a new video for my YouTube Channel, would you like to explain all the weird interactions of Dress Down in Modern?
- Can you please explain to me those Deck Problem Upgrades?
A Level Three Judge is the right person to ask when you have any of the needs above, and you’ll be sure that you won’t be disappointed!
Skill Evaluation
As we’ve outlined before, Level Three Judges will be the backbone of the floor staff atinternational events: they should be completely autonomous in those environments, being comfortable with every task the events require, jumping from a Deck Check Team to Head Judging a side event.
Let’s have a look at the checklist:
- Work Events as a L2 (no time constraints)
- Work at least four multi-day events or medium sized events. At least one of the events worked must be multi-day and at least one must be medium sized, which can be fulfilled by the same medium sized multi-day event.
- Be a member on a team that is assigned each of these tasks (can be done at any competitive event with teams):
- Pairings
- End of Round
- Deck Checks
- Side Events
- Lead a small team with at least one other judge reporting to them (can be done at any competitive event with teams).
- Serve as head judge for a side event at a multi-day event.
To reflect the philosophy stated above, we’re asking our candidate to participate in those events (bullet 1.1) and see how things work outside of a local game store, being at a multi-day event like MagicCons or some other tournaments with a significant number of players and a full staff of Judges like Regional Championships.
We’re asking as well that our candidate perform each of the regular tasks for tournaments at least once (bullet 2, 3 and 4): we want them to actually be there to experience the task themselves rather than just studying “the books”.
Don’t worry, we’re not asking candidates to master everything at this stage, we are aware that there will be room for improvement (in the end, there always will be). Our goal is that you try how things are done at these events in order to make you feel comfortable enough to perform your duty where needed!
- Pass the L3 Policy Exam with a score of 85 or better. The exam is timed, proctored and open book (only CR; MTR; IPG and JAR).
- Pass the L3 Rules Exam with a score of 84 or better. The exam is timed, proctored and open book (only CR; MTR; IPG and JAR).
In the end there will be exams of course: we do believe that Judges should know rules and documents to answer questions on the floor, but we do not ignore the new technologies we have available.
For these reasons we believe that simulating what actually can happen in a Judge call should be done at the exam: the exam will be timed, and you can access the Official Documents (IPG, MTR, CR, JAR) with your app, like you can do at a real judge call.
Talking about bare numbers for success in those tests, both the Policy and the Rules test will have 20 questions each: the 85% means you can make a maximum of 3 mistakes in a single Test to succeed, and the given time is 80 minutes for each of the Tests.
- Receive a recommendation review (provided template can be used as reference) from an L3+, evaluating at minimum the following items and affirming that the candidate is ready for L3:
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- Technical performance.
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- Proficiency at giving a ruling.
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- Details of one Policy-related discussion.
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- Understanding of the importance of player engagement.
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- Understanding of the team’s assigned tasks.
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- Teamwork and Mentorship skills.
- Receive additional endorsements from other L3+ team leads or head judges (minimum is 1, not from the recommender).
- Pass an interview with an L4+ Judge including at a minimum the following evaluated items (provided template can be used as reference):
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- Understanding of all judge tasks at large events.
- Understanding of common upgrade paths for infractions.
- Understanding of how to handle appeals as floor judge at large events.
- Understanding of backing up games.
- Proficiency with technology tools common to multi-day events.
- Basic conflict management for players and other judges.
- Results of reflections on recommendation review.
- Understanding of how to certify a judge for L1 and L2.
We believe that human interaction is very important, that all the connections that you create in the community both as a mentor and as a mentee are chances to let all the persons involved grow and it’s a critical factor to increase the quality of our Judges.
That’s why we are asking for a recommendation review and endorsement, the exams will be proctored and there will be a final interview at the end of the advancement process.
Community Involvement
Level Three Judges also cover an important role in the community: they are the bridge between the local community and the international Magic environment.
- Write two reviews:
- Must be from events that the candidate and the other judge both worked.
- At least one review must be of a L2+ judge.
- At least one review must be from a multi-day event.
- At least one review must be from the past 12 months.
- Both reviews must have been written since the candidate advanced to L2.
- Both reviews must contain specific and actionable feedback.
Reviews are back! For those old enough they’re not something new, back in the days we were pretty used to asking for reviews during events involving teams of judges.
Level 3 is where you become a mentor for your local community, you’ll be able to certify new judges through competitive tournaments: explain the procedures and how to interact with players, spectators and TOs.
Reviews are pretty useful from both points of view: as a reviewer you will learn to observe in the first place, and then to properly deliver feedback; in the future the reviewed judge will have something to look back at, unlike with verbal feedback. I can still read some of the reviews I received, and use them to continue my personal growth.
The review has to be specific: contain an example of the behavior observed, and contain actional feedback, so some practical advice on how to improve about that particular behavior. Remember, it is not mandatory that a review contain something to improve: a review with an example of a great behavior, with an explanation why that behavior impacted you or the tournament in a positive way, is still a good review! The reviewed judge will learn what they’ve actually done well, and should continue to do that.
In the end, we would like to foster a community where feedback exchange will be the basis for our growth together.
Maintenance
I would like to add some further explanation about maintenance as well.
Let’s explore it.
- Choose one —
- Pass the annual L2/L3 rules refresh exam.
- Pass three out of four set update quizzes throughout the year.
- Pass the annual L2/L3 policy refresh exam
- Choose two different —
- Work at least six competitive events.
- Work at least three multi-day events.
- Team lead at a medium sized event.
- Head judge a local competitive event with at least 2 Floor judges.
- Create educational content (ex: article, conference presentation, video, etc.), subject to approval by an L4+ or RR.
- Write an Annual Report about their events.
- Maintain membership by being up-to-date on their membership dues. (Annual membership fee is still to be decided based on the number of members and the association’s costs. Our goal is to have it as low as possible.)
I’m not going to go deeply through bullets 1 and 2, they’re just exams you need to pass to demonstrate you’re up to date with rules and policy, as well as bullet 3: L3s must remain active in some way, even community wise if you’re not super focused on tournaments.
The thing I’d like to talk more about is the Annual Report, which is something completely new: but what do we meanby putting this in the maintenance checklist?
First I’d like to give you a reminder about what the Annual Report actually is, taking the definition directly from our glossary:
Brief text with the list of events done, role held
and most significant things learned if any.
The idea behind this requirement is to lay down some basis for a self analysis, though we decided that asking for a self-review was way too much at this level, but something basic in this direction was necessary.
Most judges when writing their cover letters to apply to major events often include a brief list of their tournament experience, so we just decided to implement this writing on an annual basis, to give the opportunity for our L3s to keep track of their events in a more conscious way.
Basically it will just be something like: “In January I’ve been Side Lead at the Regional Championship in Ghent: it has been quite a challenge because we had a lot of players and I needed to put extra efforts on logistics to optimize the space to have every tournament start.” For every event you’ve done, details about the specific experience may vary, or even having a “nothing worth mentioning happened” can be fine .
This requirement will also become handy when you need to keep track of your events!
Level 4
A L3 Judge can consider looking towards L4 when they want to lead bigger teams, head judge events with many floor judges and even multiple teams, want to extensively mentor L2 and other L3 Judges, and want to be highly involved in the regional and international community.
First of all I would like to be pretty clear that running through Judge Levels is not a “race”, they have numbers in their definition, but that does not mean that every Judge will need to push further!
As a Level 3 you are certified to be comfortable with every task in a tournament, and are also already a mentor for your local community of judges.
You could look for Level 4 when you are used to attending multi-day events on a regular basis and you would like to start applying for leading positions at those shows, as well as being more involved in the IJP community, joining projects or creating educational content for local and/or international communities!
A Certification of Quality
We expect a lot of actual Level 2 Judges that will be interested in Level Three, and at the same time there’s a lot we are asking for this brand new level of certification.
We are well aware of that, which reflects our willingness to focus on quality in tournaments to gain the trust of the TOs and players as well as foster a community where self improvement and cooperation will be important values.
