Level 3 - Lesson 1
What is Level Three?
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Hello there!
Welcome back to the Judge Program for Star Wars™: Unlimited!
As always, I’m your host Jonah, and today I’ll be talking about what level three means, the expectations that come with the level, why you might be interested in advancing, or why you might not be interested in advancing.
This is the first in a series of lessons to help you earn that level three certification, which will be predominantly focused on competitive policy, logistics, and leadership, but won’t forgo rules entirely.
There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s dive in.
What is Level Three?
Alright, so what is Level Three? Who is it for? What does it mean? What are the expectations of the role?
Like we did last time, let’s put it into context. Level One is for judges who want to assist with relaxed-tier events at their local game store. Level Two is the next step up from that, with competitive tier events at the LGS or beginning to work as a Floor Judge at Destination events, like Sector Qualifiers or the Regional Championships.
Level Three judges take a step into more authority - they’re expected to be the Head Judge of local game store tournaments with over 64 players, as well as acting as the team lead as Destination events.
It’s an expectation inherent in Level Three that these judges are more connected to the community. This doesn’t mean that they’re a part of everyday chatter on the Discord, or travel to attend events regularly - but it does mean that they operate at more than one store, and have a more pronounced presence in their local community.
While you can be both a level three judge and a competitive player, this is when the judging aspect begins to demand more time investment, and it becomes harder to mix the two - when there are relatively few destination events, attending one as a judge instead of a player or the inverse, it can significantly impact your opportunities for growth as either a judge or player. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try, and figuring out your place in the community is an individual journey.
Lessons and Syllabus
As mentioned in the lesson overview, Level Three is going to focus more on logistics and policy, as opposed to rules. While there will be some rules scenarios, those are going to come later in the syllabus, and we’ll instead start with lessons on leadership and logistics, as the biggest difference between Level Two and Level Three is the scale of the logistics and managing other judges, not the types of calls you’re going to get.
Advancement Requirements
There are several parts for Level Three advancement. Like with other certifications, there is an experience requirement as well as an endorsement - showing that you’ve worked some events and have an understanding of larger competitive tier events.
Furthermore, Level Three has two new requirements - holding the L2 Mentorship certification and having an approved tournament report, but we’ll get to those details in a moment.
Alongside the rollout of the Level Three process, we’ve updated our Advancement Requirements for all levels. There’s now a three-tiered list of Minimum Requirements, the Standard Recommendations, as well as Exceptional Qualifications. This doesn’t change what you need to achieve in order to advance, but provides some additional context and guidance for when to consider advancing.
Experience
Like with the other certifications requiring experience, L3 will also require judges to have some experience in the field, particularly with regard to leadership roles. There’s also a minimum time to give candidates the opportunity to get used to more competitive events; however, the minimum requirement is relatively low.
To advance to Level Three, an L2 judge must be an L2 for at least six months and have at least two leadership roles as an L2.
Leadership roles here are defined as acting as Head Judge of a competitive-tier event with at least one floor judge, Assistant Head Judge of a competitive-tier event with at least two hundred players, or Team Leading at a destination event (Sectors, Regionals, Galactics, or other conventions) with at least one floor judge.
Head Judge roles without supervision over floor judges do not count toward this requirement, and multiple leadership roles in the course of a destination event weekend only count as a single experience.
Team leading side events or managing relaxed-tier events can count toward this requirement, as long as the other specifications regarding scale are met.
Endorsement
Like with previous levels, L3 also requires an Endorsement. This time, it must come from a Tournament Organizer that has hosted a Planetary Qualifier, not just any competitive-tier events, or an L4+ judge.
The other requirement is that the endorsing party must not have previously endorsed you. This will definitely be a barrier for some candidates, but the goal here is to ensure that Level Three judges have multiple points of contact within the community - a second store, another judge. While the L3 may return to only working at one store after advancement, they’ll at least have a connection to external perspectives.
L2 Mentorship Certification
An L3 applicant must have the L2 Mentorship Certification, which can be applied for via the applications on your profile, with reviews following the guidelines laid out in the Reviews Rubric.
This ensures that L3 candidates can write comprehensive reviews that can support and encourage candidates in their advancement process.
L3 judges will be able to endorse L2 candidates immediately upon advancement.
Tournament Report
There’s another written portion of L3, which is a Tournament Report. Tournament reports will have a dedicated lesson and rubric for evaluation.
In general, Tournament Reports can be written by a judge in any role at an event, whether they’re the head judge, a floor judge, or even as a player. They provide a huge amount of value in sharing practical experiences with the community.
However, that education isn’t why they’re a requirement for L3. Part of the expectation of Tournament Reports for the L3 certification will be a demonstration of ability in explaining the events of a game or match, what ruling was made, and why that ruling was made. These skills are directly analogous to the skills necessary for writing a Disqualification statement. While judges of all levels will unfortunately have to disqualify players and write statements, it becomes more common with leadership roles and at larger events.
Demonstrating that you can clearly explain what happened and your perception of events means that there is a degree of confidence that the publisher will be able to accurately understand what happened in contentious disqualification scenarios.
Exam
After completing the above requirements, a candidate must take the exam before certification. Like the previous exams, it will contain a mix of rules, policy, and logistics questions.
Accessibility and Requirement Flexibility
This certification is the first to require written submissions by the candidate themselves. We recognize that this can be a roadblock to candidates, as writing longer documents can present challenges to various individuals.
There are no exceptions to the requirements for individuals. However, with feedback, the requirements may change, as long as the alternative is scalable and does not reduce the quality of candidates. If you are struggling with the written portions of the advancement process, please reach out to us, either via email or on Discord.
Writing Endorsements
In addition to the certification, creating opportunities in staffing applications, Level Three judges will be able to write endorsements for both L1 and L2 candidates, immediately upon advancement. While you should still observe candidates in action before writing the endorsement, this should allow the L2 population in particular to grow dramatically.
Additional Certifications
Right now, there are no additional certifications for level three judges, like there was the L2 Mentor Certification for L2 judges. However, in the process of developing L4, some skill badges (name pending) may be developed.
The goal of the skill badges is predominantly for judges, not for tournament organizers. Most TOs won’t care exactly what skills you bring to the table, as long as you have the suite of abilities that your certification level indicates you have. However, it makes communication and planning for judges easier, and it gives you stepping stones on the way to advancement if you’re interested in advancement, or gives you areas of specialization if you just want to focus on developing your skills in a particular vertical, as opposed to the broader approach that certification levels take.
These could include advanced mentorship, leadership, rules and policy knowledge, investigations, logistics, side events, coverage expertise etc... There are a lot of areas that L3 judges will begin to explore more deeply than other certifications expect, and so there’s more space for specialization. However, because they’re not super useful or required at the publisher or TO level, they’re a lower priority. On the other hand, making sure that there are clear steps to advancement is important for candidates who wish to continue to advance.
That’s all we have for this lesson! Next up are our first lessons covering the written prerequisites for L3 - reviews for the L2 Mentorship Certification and Tournament Reports.
If you’re watching this on YouTube, and you want more level three lessons in your feed, go ahead and subscribe. Join us on twitch.tv/swu_judges for live broadcasts covering the content of these lessons as they are released, and join the Star Wars: Unlimited Judge Program Discord to join the community in discussion of this and much, much more.
As always, good luck, and have fun!