I've literally never been so excited over the idea of ziploc bags before.

Anyway, keep it basic. Message received. In paying attention to the decorations on the icing, I may be ignoring the cake that needs to be underneath it all. Fortunately, I have two floor judges for the event who have both been excellent mentors at various points in my judging, so at worst, I've set myself up a safety net.

Still, nothing replaces being prepared. I've been studying, and will continue to do so (and try to participate more actively in the projects you mentioned; I always enjoy reading Knowledge Pool, though I rarely post).

As for calling the draft, that's something I absolutely want to do, and have the Judge Core App to assist me. Also, my shop runs draft at both FNM and on Tuesday nights, so I have plenty of opportunity to ask my players if I can practice calling the draft in a situation where if I mess it up, it's not as big a deal. The Tuesday crowd is smaller, more mature and competitive; I believe they'd have no problem with that.

Greg, I thank you for making this thread; I was about to make a post asking for similar information as I am a recently certified L1 judge; and am Head Judging a sealed GPT myself on the 9th of November for similar reasons to you, in order to give experience to local players in Sealed at Comp REL.

The GPT that I'm head judging at will be the 2nd event at Comp REL that I will have judged at that point(I have judged a multitude of events at Regular, but none as of so far at competitive); with the first event at Comp REL being this weekend with you and the other judges at the event in Welland.

Opening, registering and marking the Top 8 pools

I'll just repeat something that Andy and I have both posted … but not for a long, long time:
Absolutely, do NOT do that for your events. Always let the players crack the packs.

I do like your idea of having a couple pre-registered pools for late arrivals. I woild recommend only using these for players who arrive during registration; that way they still have to swap, and you aren't seen as handing them a really good pool (or bad!), so no perception of favoritism.

If you have players arrive after the swap, let them crack fresh packs, monitor their registration and deck building, and give them the round one loss for Tardiness.