SGP: WTC: my experience of being a judge at the event

Welcome back to our coverage of WTC 2024. Today it’s gonna be less about stats but more about the overall feel of the event and my personal experience being there as a judge.

First of I have to thank Dr_Norbert who gave me the idea and of course Gil Surepi who gave me the chance to be part of the best MCP event in the world.

I’ll divide this in the pros and cons of my experiences and then at the end you’ll find some impressions of the event.

Pros:

Meeting everyone. From meeting my Austrian friends, and Podcast Co-hosts in person for the first time, to chatting with awesome and well known people in the community like Gil, Dr Norbert, Mike Deluca, Simon ‘Vodkablitz’ Jarry, Lukas Schieck, Redcathal and many more to meeting awesome new people from around the world, like my fellow Judge Mads, every single person I talked to at the event was great. The overall atmosphere is just fantastic. It was the main reason I wanted to go and it absolutely did not disappoint.

The hotel. You probably couldn’t find a more convenient space in the world. You really are there in less than a two minute walk from the airport. The rooms are nice (except for the showers which are impossible to use without setting the entire bathroom under water) and the event hall is massive and very well ventilated. We were around 230 people and the air was always fresh. The bathrooms down in the event space were also top notch.

The food. From a well rounded breakfast to great lunch and fantastic dinners you really couldn’t ask for more in terms of the food on offer. The lanes got long sometimes but there was always enough for everyone and the time set for each meal was also generous so it was never a problem if you’d have to wait a couple of minutes.

The price and “payment”. Being a judge comes with one major advantage: you only pay your flight to the event and the beer you drink. Everything else will be covered by the organisers. So you really can’t beat the price you have to pay here. I also got gifted a lot of the German cards people had left over which I personally don’t use but can hand them out to people in my community who do so that was super nice too.

Cons:

Measurement questions. Odin’s beard how I hated those. I have the most shaky hands when it comes to these which probably everyone who asked me to do them can confirm.

Being totally beat Friday evening. There’s really not much you can do about it. I had to get up at 4 in the morning to catch my flight and was far from fully recovered after having COVID the week before so after playing 3 afternoon/ early evening games on Friday, when more would’ve been possible I had to just go to bed because my body was simply drained of any energy.

Not having any time to explore the city. This is once again something you have in your own hands and something most of the Nord Americans did I think where they’ve spend more time in the area than just the tournament weekend.

Danish beer prices. I was still recovering so I couldn’t really drink anyway but Hel, I couldn’t have afforded to if I did. I’m German. Paying 1€ per 0,1l beer I find expensive, but bearable. Around 12€ for 0,4l beer breaks my brain.

Breaking my Loki’s Trident. I’m very grateful to my dad who picked me up at 4:30 a.m. to get me to the airport in time but him immediately dropping my model case was as terrible as you might be able to imagine… Magnets prevented the worst of it but Loki’s trident top was lost for ever…

Packing up: cleaning out 105 tables with Gil and Harry from London was no joke. We managed it in around 3 hours but a little more help there wouldn’t have hurt. It really shows just how much time and effort Gil has to put into the event to make it as fantastic for everyone as it was.

The biggest and most obvious one: Not playing in the event. While it was great fun to hang out with the Austrians and everyone else, not having your own team and not getting to participate in the meaningful games is an obvious downside. And one so big that this is my conclusion:

Would I be a judge at WTC again?

Probably not, because I would want to play myself. But I’m extremely happy I did it this year and thank everyone who made it possible wholeheartedly. I would also really recommend thinking about volunteering for the job if you can’t get a team together. The organisers will try to cover the costs again but the entire event is run on an extremely tight budget.

I’d definitely would love to be back to WTC in the future but I want to earn my 0:6 record with a team then.

Here’s some impressions from the weekend.

Sweden Good under Steve vs. Pork Roll Protocol

Austria UNGLAUBLICH vs. the amazing Spainder-Men

Fintastic Five vs. England 51% affiliated

The INVADERS vs. Banshee Bones

The Iceguardians vs. Jutland Juggernauts

England Excalibur vs. Denmark Ragnarok

Streamed by Professionalcasual Network Finals game between Italy Maestro and Belgium Patch Up Boys

Cheers from Germany 🍻