Hello judges!

It's a great honor and pleasure to announce the 2013 Magic Online Judge Open (MOJO)!

After three years in a row providing some great judge-only fun to recognize all of the hard work that judges put into this game its community, the fine folks from WotC have agreed to running it again this year! Yup, they're aware of all those things you do for the game: helping out at your store's events, being the backbone of Premier Play in your zone, growing the local judge community, helping out at Grands Prix and Pro Tours, etc.

When will it take place?
There will be two events on two different weekends, and since this year we're switching to phantom tournaments, all judges are invited to both tournaments, to enjoy double the fun. If you play in the first one, you can now play in the second one as well!

Event 1 - August 17th 9 AM*

Seattle August 17th, 9:00:00 PDT UTC-7 hours
New York August 17th, 12:00:00 EDT UTC-4 hours
Paris (France) August 17th, 18:00:00 CEST UTC+2 hours
Beijing (China) August 18th, 0:00:00 CST UTC+8 hours
Tokyo (Japan) August 18th, 1:00:00 JST UTC+9 hours
Sydney (Australia) August 18th, 2:00:00 AEST UTC +10 hours

Event 2 - September 8th - 2 AM *

Seattle September 8th, 2:00:00 PDT UTC-7 hours
New York September 8th, 5:00:00 EDT UTC-4 hours
Paris (France) September 8th, 11:00:00 CEST UTC+2 hours
Beijing (China) September 8th, 17:00:00 CST UTC+8 hours
Tokyo (Japan) September 8th, 18:00:00 JST UTC+9 hours
Sydney (Australia) September 8th, 19:00:00 AEST UTC+10 hours

*Note: We've made efforts to ensure the accuracy of these dates and times, but we could have made a mistake. Take the US PDT time as a reference to double-check what will be your local time for each event.

What's the format?
M2014 Phantom Sealed, 5 Rounds.

Who's invited?
Every certified judge with a Magic Online account. That means you and any other candidates can manage to get certified before we pull usernames for MOJO!

What do I need?
A Magic Online account, and register through this webpage: http://tinyurl.com/MOJO2013-registration

Please double check at the moment to submit your registration your Magic Online Username and your DCI number.

I can't stress enough how important this is. Your account name must be listed **before Monday, August 12**. Otherwise, you risk not being able to participate in the first event.

And obviously, you'll need a place to play. In the worst-case scenario, this will be your home computer. But we'd like to encourage all judges to gather together for this event, as we think it's more fun if you spend this day not only with your online friends from afar, but also with local judge friends. Picture this: you play a round, meet another judge from a faraway land while playing, and once you're done, you chat with your local friends about how you're doing in the tournament, the people you're meeting online, etc. Similar to playing a local tournament, but as a celebration of how awesome it is to be a judge.

The coolest gathering I've heard of took place at Legion Events, in Madison, WI, during the 2010 edition of MOJO. Thanks, Steve Port, for lending a place for judges to meet and play!

Take a look at this pic to get an idea of what I mean:

Judges gathered during MOJO 2010 at Legion Events, WI

Are there any prizes?
Absolutely! This time, you don't have to end up with a great record to earn any prizes. Each match win will net you one M14 booster, and every judge with a 4-1 record or better will get a Ratchet Bomb promo. Also, every judge who signs up for this year's MOJO will get an Aeon Chronicler avatar, awarded after the events are over. You don't need to play in the event to get it, just fill out the form and you'll receive it.

Anything else I need to know?
If you don't have a Magic Online account, what are you waiting for to get one? You can sign up here:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnline.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/download

If you haven't played Magic Online before, it's a good idea to get used to the interface and how it works, especially the clock. Please, be carefully to press F2, F4 or F6, sometimes a missclick can evaporate your victory chances.

Once the ball gets rolling, updating your MTGO profile to list your name and country/region might be a good idea. ;-)

If you aren't lucky enough to find a place to play with local judge friends, you can join the #mtgjudge channel on EFnet. There should be plenty of judges hanging out there between rounds.

Any IRC client will work out for this, but to make things easier for you, We've got a very straightforward webclient for you: http://chat.magicjudges.org. After joining, type “/join #mtgmojo” to reach the special MOJO chat room!

We've got a few official MOJO communication channels out in the 'net:

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/471942189568359/

You are invited to share your experience with all of the world!!! Use your Twitch channel, it's easy and fun. Check out more instructions about how to be the best Magic Judge broadcaster here: http://www.twitch.tv/broadcast.

And remember, the hashtag for this event will be #judgemojo.

One last thing, please share these news with all the other judges that you know. It's been the case in previous years that several judges learned about MOJO too late. Let's avoid that