The Cascade Games Team

The team here at Cascade Games is a small, scrappy group, with a huge amount of experience in tabletop and trading card games, organized play, and judging, as well as expertise in education and design.

We’re lean and focused, but hope to grow in tandem with the growth of the Star Wars™: Unlimited Judge Program.

Tim Shields - CEO

At the helm of our ship is Tim Shields - With a Master of Psychology focusing on community and systems, he has a rich academic background in the field, combined with over thirty years of practical experience in gaming, during which he has worked with nearly all of the major publishers and tournament organizers in the tabletop games space.

He began as a retailer of tabletop games before working with Wizards of the Coast and helping develop the initial organized play program for Magic. From there, he started Cascade Games, which became a premier tournament organizer regularly hosting events with thousands of players in the US and EU.

In 2019 Judge Academy launched - a formal judge program for Magic: The Gathering. Over the course of four years of operation, thousands of judges were trained and certified globally.

Tim’s love for Star Wars began as a 4th grader sitting awestruck in a theater watching Darth Vader destroy rebel scum. He hasn’t stopped talking about Star Wars since.

Jonah Kellman - Program Director

As Program Director, Jonah is the subject matter expert in all things judging. With a degree in game design and narrative, understanding and communicating rules and intentions of rules has been a high priority of his for quite some time.

He certified as a judge for Magic the Gathering in 2014 and for Flesh and Blood in 2021. He’s been on staff for Pro Tours for both events and the World Championship for Magic, among many others, with hundreds of events under his belt. He also has helped with the development of multiple judge programs, creating educational content, defining levels, and managing the processes for advancement for candidates.

Jonah’s love for Star Wars began in 2001, when he got bored of watching Men in Black, switched to A New Hope during a commercial break, and hasn’t looked back. He expresses this obsession through an unseemly collection of books, Lego sets, and miniatures, which he is more than happy to talk your ear off about...