The first Nordic judge conference of 2016 will be held in Oslo, Norway. 

The conference will include presentations and workshops on various judging-related topics. The conference is targeted at judges from the Europe - North region, although judges from all regions are welcome to apply. The working language of this conference will be English. 

Registration deadline

Participants must register by February 6th. All L1+ participants who register by this date will receive packet of judge foils. 

We recommend that you make your travel arrangements as soon as your registration is approved. 

Judge testing

Judge candidates are welcome to attend the conference. It will be possible to test for L1 or L2 at the conference. 

Presenters 

We are looking for presenters for this conference. If you would like to present a seminar at this conference, please fill out this form: http://goo.gl/forms/Jd3TT9HYnx . You will be asked to submit a summary of your presentation. The summary should give us a clear idea of what you plan to talk about. Example: 

Sample Presentation Summary - "Competitive Sealed tournaments"

"In this seminar, the idea is to look at the important parts to remember when handling a competitive sealed deck tournament. We'll look at how to plan your event, what can go wrong during registration and deck building, the common problems you encounter and some of the rules that come up most often in the current format. I’ll use about half of the time to explain what I do to plan an event and let the audience plan a few different sizes of events to discuss the differences between them. 

After that, I’ll have everyone discuss some common problems, both with rules- and policy. For example, I’ll bring up how to handle deck problems, the combat rules and where they normally go awry, looking at extra cards vs drawing extra cards and how players are allowed to store their sideboards and extra cards. I’m planning to have a slide each for the problems, explain them and then get discussions going in smaller groups before letting each group explain their conclusions.

I’m going to need either a projector or a printer. If we have a room where people can move around a bit to talk in smaller groups that would be ideal." 

If you are interested in presenting but are not sure about the topic, please contact the organizers. Presenters will receive an extra foil as a thank you for their efforts. 

Expectations for presenters

All presenters will be added to a JudgeApps project group. Presenters will be expected to post their works-in-progress to the group, and encouraged to provide feedback to others. Presenters are expected to post the first draft of their presentations approximately a month before the conference, and the almost-final version a week before the conference. The exact deadlines are to be confirmed. 

Schedule

List of presenters and topics: 

Johanna Virtanen - State of the region and state of the RC

Your RC gives an update on what's going on in the region and talks about her other program roles: the JCC, the PIC, the TC JM.

Asger Skovbjerg - Teaching rules to players

In this presentation Asger will cover how to teach rules to players using game scenarios, for the sake of creating interest in judging or evaluating potential candidates. We will go through how to build a scenario, the process of solving a rules scenario with a player, and the conclusions we can derive from their answers. Along the way we will cover common pitfalls, from over eagerness to deadpan silence. The presentation is focused on experienced lvl 1 judges or lvl 1 judges with lvl 2 aspirations and lvl 2 judges, but also judges in very judge-light areas.

William Tiddi - Answering players' calls

JUUUDGE! - Your time has come: doesn't matter why, someone needs you! You are eager to help, but do you have what it takes to ace this call? 

Answering a question at the table is an art: board states raising obscure interactions, clock pressuring you, all while having to interact effectively with confused (and confusing) human beings… Fear no more: thanks to this seminar in less than an hour you too can start mastering the long forgotten art of the perfect delivery. Become a better judge, a call at a time!

Eskil Myrenberg - Judge Jeopardy

Back by popular demand, the classic judge trivia game show with your host, Eskil Myyyyyyyrenberrrrrrrrrg! 

Charlotte Sable - Replacement effects 

Everything you ever wanted to know about replacement effects, and probably a lot of things you didn't. This seminar will teach you how to identify and handle replacement effects of all types with confidence.

Jack Doyle - IPG Simulations

Come one, come all, to the magnificent Simulations Workshop! Together in small groups, we'll tackle real-life situations, test the boundaries of rules and policy, and receive some feedback on how we tackle situations and how we could improve our approach to live judge calls. Act out your Magic pro-player fantasies; or pretend that you're Riccardo Tessitori; it's all here waiting for you!

Kevin Moore - L2 mentoring

Are you an L1 judge trying to figure out how to level up on your own? Or maybe an L2 judge looking to get more experience as a mentor? Come learn about the newest project in our region designed to help level 1 judges get dedicated mentoring on their journey to leveling up.

Gaute Oliver Thu Tesli - Announcements

Information needs to be conveyed properly at several points of a tournament.

Announcements are an integral part of tournaments, but very often overlooked while preparing for an event. 

Good announcements go unnoticed, but bad ones can be detrimental to the running of your tournament. This presentation looks to help you improve your announcements through practice, preparation, body language and word economy.

Patrick Ericscson - Teamwork

Are you still doing it all by yourself? Have you wondered how it would be to do it with others? Do you fear that your inexperience might get in the way? Do not fret! During this seminar, we will discuss handy tips and tricks to make it fun, effective and educational to engage in the art of judging with other people. No matter if you are planning to lead a team, work with another judge at your local GPT or want to be a valued member of a larger team, this seminar should give you some useful tools to do a great job.

Lars Harald Nordli - Judging at Regular

Most events are run at Regular Rules Enforcement Lever (REL), but Competitive REL is getting the most attention. In this seminar we'll go through some scenarios that will most likely happen in an event run at Regular REL in which you'll be the judge. Feel more confident at your next FNM with “Judging at Regular REL”!

Gunnar Olai Sivertsen - Your First Competitive Event

Judging events at competitive REL is quite different from judging at regular. This seminar is intended to give some handy practical pointers and explain some of the philosophical differences between the two enforcement levels.

How to get there and accommodation 

Two hostels have been recommended as a place to sleep. "Hotel" Perminalen (Hostel standard) and Haraldshaugen Hostel. Perminalen is located a few blocks from the main shopping street in down town Oslo about 7 minutes from the central station, and Haraldsheim is located 15 minutes subway + 15 minutes walking, or 14 minutes tram and 8 minutes walking from down town Oslo. Haraldsheim has a better reputation of the two, and more rooms. Both hostels have breakfast included.

NB: Perminalen has a very limited number of rooms, so please book early if you'd prefer to stay there.

Hotel Perminalen 

Address: Øvre Slottsgate 2
Price per person per night: from 40 eur (3+ rooms), 45 eur (double rooms) or 65 eur (single rooms)
Book: http://www.perminalen.no/default.aspx?cmd=1&view=1&L=GB

All rooms are with private bathrooms, and bed sheets included.

Hostel Haraldsheim 

Address: Haraldsheimveien 4
Price per person per night: from 35 eur (3+ rooms), 40 eur (double rooms) or 55 eur (single rooms)
Book: https://affiliates.hihostels.com/hostels/oslo-haraldsheim

Private bathrooms are 3-5 eur extra per room per night, and bed sheets are included in my price examples, so you can save ~5 eur by bringing you own bed sheets if you really want to.

Getting to the Venue

The venue is Escape student bar at Oslo University's campus Blindern. The adress Gaustadalléen 23 b.

The easiest way to get there is by "T-banen" Oslo's subway. You take line 3,4 or 6 from Oslo S (Oslo Central station, you'll arrive here if you the the train from the air port) to Forskningsparken. Tickets can be bought in the mobile app "RuterBillett" (iOS, android and windows) if you have a norwegian, danish or swedish debit or credit card. And they can be bought at kiosks and various booths around Oslo S. A single ticket costs 30 NOK and a 24-hour ticket costs 90 NOK. The same ticket will work on busses and the subway.

If you arrive by car, parking is free on saturdays on campus.

Look at this map for directions by subway from Oslo S to the venue: http://i.imgur.com/oUjmgAl.png