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Judge Booth
A Judge Booth is a table set up at an event, usually a Grand Prix or Nationals, staffed with friendly and knowledgable judges who invite players to come and speak to them. They are generally armed with some rules and policy questions to quiz players with, expertise about Organized Play and the Magic Judge program, and hopefully some trinkets to give away.
Goals of the Judge Booth
- Public Relations: The Judge Booth is a great place to interact positively with players outside of tense rulings and penalties and improve the overall relationships between judges and players.
- Education: Judges try to ask players questions that will help them understand commonly misunderstood rules or policies. They also answer any questions about Organized Play or the Magic Judge Program that the players might have.
- Acquisition: While improving public relations and educating about certain policies, such that you can still play while judging Regular REL events, have long-term benefits to judge acquisition, we're also looking for short-term gains from the Judge Booth. If players seem interested in the program, say they don't have a judge, or complain about their local judge, judges at the booth ask them if they've thought about becoming a judge or if they have any questions.
Tips for Judges Organizing a Judge Booth
- Location, location location! Try to find an area that players will have to cross anyway, such as near an entrance, public events, or near the dealers.
- It's not usually necessary to run the booth during the peak times of the tournament as the staff is needed elsewhere. For a Grand Prix, suggested booth hours are a few hours on Friday evening and a few hours again on Sunday afternoon.
- While working in the booth is extremely fun, it can also be very exhausting and hard on the voice. Try to rotate judges through in shifts no longer than 3 hours each if possible, and make sure plenty of water is available.
- It's a good idea to have some paper you can use to write down useful information for the player on. If possible, print out some of these generic Business Cards and write relevant information on the back. Be sure to know the local Regional Coordinators preferred email address.
- Questions: You're welcome to create your own sets of questions for a Judge Booth, but a group of judges maintains a pool that you are welcome to use. They are visual representations of game situations using Magic card images along with the question text. There's also an Answer Sheet for judges. To obtain a copy of questions, please contact Michael Wiese If you want to view the questions, they are available in a read-only spreadsheet here.
- Prizes: When possible, try to get some prizes to give away to players who get questions right or visit the booth. It doesn't have to be anything major, even some foil commons or uncommons will do the trick. See if the Tournament Organizer is willing to help provide support in this fashion. (There are usually dealers on site who will give a good deal on bulk foils for such a purpose.) If your event is in a location where a Judge Booth is deemed highly valuable, you may be able to get support from your Regional Coordinator. Contact them for details.
Tips for Judges Working in a Judge Booth
- Always welcome the player, introduce yourself, and ask them their name and where they are from. Remember, this is about positive interactions above all else.
- Make sure you know the answers to any rules and policy questions you're asking players. We need to present ourselves as the experts we are.
- Read any questions aloud to the player - don't just sit there silently while they read to themselves. It's much more fun!
- If there are friends of the player, spectators, or a line, try to include them. Ask what THEY think the answer is, too. The more, the merrier.
- Don't limit the conversation to any questions YOU have; be sure to ask them if THEY have any questions. Whether it be about rules, policies, organized play, the judge program, running events themselves, or anything at all - be sure they know that you'll try to help them. If you can't help, find someone who can, whether it be another judge, a WotC employee, or WPN rep.
- If prizes/gifts are available, try to send everyone away with something, even if they got every question wrong.
- If a player seems very good at the rules, interested in the program, or expresses concerns about their local judge (or lack of a local judge), ask them if they've ever thought about judging and go from there.
Judge Booth Project Volunteers
- Special thanks for Chris Richter for his assistance in early booth work and Neil Pendon for his initial Question Sheet idea.
