Dear Upper Deck,

It has become readily apparent from this thread (along with many other horror stories):

http://vsrealms.com/forum/showthread...threadid=39381

that VS really needs a new Level 1 Judge test. As of right now, the only thing you need to be certified (but still sometimes unqualified) is a passable knowledge of VS. Not to mention the complete lack of any questions from any sets after DC Origins (from what I can remember). There are no questions on Concealed, Willpower, Reservist, etc, etc, etc that are needed to make a qualified ruling during a game. From what I've seen/read, people have experienced incorrect rulings involving defenders causing breakthrough to attackers, hidden characters being able to attack hidden characters, among other things, which should really be required knowledge for a judge. So the real question is whether UDE wants to have a bunch of certified and yet unqualified judges running around giving bad rulings, or having less judges overall due to a harder/more comprehensive judge test. I've got to say that I would rather have the latter.

Anyways, this is just to request to UDE to make a harder test. If that's not entirely possible, would it be too much to ask to have a test that actually covers rules past the first two sets of the game (since there have been 7 since then). Maybe I wouldn't even be a level 1 judge if the test was changed but I'd be willing to take that risk in order to get more knowledgable judges on the whole.

Hopefully someone from UDE reads this and hopefully something gets done but who knows.

Thanks for reading,

Travis Cummins
Level 1 Judge

UDE doesn't have a judge test.

I assume the test your refering to is the Rules Knowledge Level 1 test. I'm not sure why you are wondering why the Rules Knowledge test only certifies that you have a passable knowledge of the "basic" rules of the game, when that is exactly the point of the test.

As far as determining the qualification of judges...that is more up to the TO organizing the event. If you are having a problem with the judges in your area, there isn't much that UDE can do about it since they aren't determing who those judges are. I guess if you problem was with the judges from the PC then you could complain to UDE, but otherwise....

So to sum up UDE doesn't make judges, TO's do. Also if you think that a new test would make a difference I think you are mistaken. The test is "open book", so adding more topics or somehow increasing the difficulty is pointless, since the test can be passed by anyone with half a brain. It should point out to you that the point of the test is not to certify the rules knowledge of someone, but really to point out people that might be interested in judging and have their UDE info all up to date so that TO's don't have problems putting thie info into mantis.

The other issue though is that so many people are just taking the test because they can and then claiming they are a judge.

When I originally took the test, I raced through in about 12-15 minutes and that was on my way out the door. That's not a big deal, since I am now a Rules Level 2.

However, most players (even beginners) I speak to, aren't even opening the comprehensive rules file when taking the test. That, to me, states that it is too easy.

Anyone can say they are a judge, and passing some test online doesn't make you a judge any more then just saying that you are. Nor do i think that anyone is giving people credibility based on their ability to pass that test.

Maybe they should have a Player Exam. It will ask you questions, and judge where you should be in terms of the Top Players (If you had unlimited resources).

I agree, there is a big disparency between the L1 and L2 test. I think the L1 test should be a little more challenging.