Reflections on my Judge Sabbatical
It has been a little over ten months since my judge sabbatical started, and with the last big event that I would have judged at (EMEA 2026) now over, it's time for me to reflect on how it went and my thoughts on judging in future.
This break was definitely needed. I've been approaching tournaments a lot more calmly than before - I think due to judging so much in the past my mindset ended up being "I only have this tournament to go to, so I'd like to do well" and that pressure ended up making me play worse rather than locking in. My best results last year were the tournaments where the perceived stakes were low, the ones where I was popping over to Italy to kiss a girl see friends and play a fun game and so on, so I didn't have that mindset. While my results this year weren't as good as last year, I still felt like I was playing well due to that lack of stress.
It's also given me time to reflect on judging and what I enjoy about it. The main thing I enjoy is helping players, usually by trying to resolve issues away from a game loss in order to help players have fun while maintaining fairness in the game. My strengths are much more with that social side than rules - I do a good enough job explaining the technical details of Netrunner rules because of my teaching background, but I'm not particularly interested in rules minutiae beyond it being a tool for explaining things to players 1 2.
But that want to help takes its toll - I've done enough long deck checks where the situation was extremely borderline between a warning and game loss, handed out enough hard game losses where a player has made a mistake that I could see myself making on a bad day that has costed them the game. I'm sure this isn't a unique experience for me, but it still sucks!
What I've treasured from events I've judged is the pride of running an event with my friends and people enjoying it. I still remember my first table judging at EMEA 2024, the cool walkie-talkies from EMEA 2025, but also how an incredible staff team dealt with logistical nightmares at both events. I remember fun interactions with players all across the tournaments, from helping emotional players deal with the stress of competitive Netrunner, to resolving IDs like a waitress at a busy restaurant, to telling an entire top cut "alright fuckers, you know how this works".
I wish I had an easy way to show off my judging work - the only thing I have that officially (as in from NSG) shows that I've done any kind of high-level judging is my Worlds 2025 playmat. But Worlds is only one event, and frankly not even the one that I'm most proud of being involved in. EMEA 2026 (which I was not judging at) had a great example of rewards unique to staff, who got specially foiled versions of the participation prizes for that event.
A nice ending to my judge sabbatical was the staff tournament hosted at EMEA 2026, which was open to all TOs and judges of Netrunner in general (not just staff from EMEA 2026). It was a great chance to meet other judges and TOs and celebrate why we do this, and frankly healing after taking time off due to burnout. It was also one of the very rare times I've been thanked for my judging effort by someone other than a player or staff at an event I was involved in3.
I'm not sure how much judging I'll be doing in future, compared to just being staff. The break has definitely helped, and I already have some judging lined up - I was asked very nicely about judging Worlds Showdown so I'll be doing a bit of judging for that - but I don't know whether I want to judge specifically or whether I just want to help. I am definitely still motivated to help though, whether through being staff directly or helping newer TOs make their events happen.
I guess we'll see what happens!
Fun fact: there is a channel in the Midlands Netrunner discord server for rules minutae and difficult rules questions. I have it permamuted.↩
Frankly I'm of the opinion that if you can read NetrunnerDB rulings and have a strong grasp of the rules in general (not the Comprehensive Rules, just things like timing structures) you know enough for 95% of rules-based judge queries. If the thing that has stopped you from judging is worrying that you don't know every bit of the rules, use this as your sign that you don't need to worry.↩
The other time I remember this happening was from the ever-delightful kror, who thanked me for head judging EMEA 2024 when I was asking him about generating a top cut bracket graphic.↩