Work with Judges as an Organizer

What is Judges of Rathe?
Judges of Rathe is the official Judge Program of Flesh and Blood. It is designed to support our global organized play with certification and educational materials for Flesh and Blood Judges.

It is organized directly by Legend Story Studios to offer optimal support for local game stores, Judges, and players alike.

If you want to take a look at a general overview of the Judges of Rathe program you can head to this page here.

What can Judges do for you as a local game store and event organizer?
Flesh and Blood Judges are community ambassadors that care deeply about the game and its community and want to go the extra step. Judges can assist local games stores in many different situations. From casual open game nights, weekly Armories, or Skirmishes--they can help new and existing players with rules questions, running events, and much more!

Judges offer a way for you as a game store of any size to enhance your player experience in a direct, engaging, and customer interactive approach. At casual events, Judges may also play in the event and engage in judging tasks when needed, which connects them even more with the community.

We always support having Judges at events, but want to underline that Judges are only mandatory for competitive events: Pro Quests, Road to Nationals and above. Please read the FAQ section, on this page, for more details on this.

Know somebody that is interested in becoming a Judge? Send them to this page!

Pro Quest and Road to Nationals are often the first introduction for local games stores as well as their players to competitive Flesh and Blood tournaments. They combine the excitement of first-time players with seasoned veterans coming back for challenge and glory.

LSS is committed to making this the best experience possible and support local game stores and their communities. To this end, we require Pro Quests and Road to Nationals events to have a certified Level 1 Judge as Head Judge for the full duration of the event. You may also have more Judges at your event for supporting bigger event sizes, mentoring new judges or other various benefits.

Here is an FAQ to help you have a smooth experience!

What events require a certified Judge?
Pro Quest and Road to Nationals events require a Level 1 or Level 2 Judge as Head Judge. Other assisting Judges, if any, do not have any level restrictions for those events.

Higher levels of organized play also require certain Judge levels, but will not be specifically covered here.

What makes those events different from my Armory, Skirmish or Pre-Release events?
Pro Quests and Road to Nationals events provide direct invites to high-end organized play events as well as elevated prize support directly from LSS. With that comes a higher rules enforcement level to be able to provide the best support possible. We want players to enjoy a fair and relaxed event environment. These events also require decklists to ensure a consistent and fair environment.

What does the Judge do at the event?
Judges support your event from start to end--they turn over rounds, make announcements to players, assist with rules questions, perform deckchecks, and much more. They are around to be a fair arbiter for all players. They are not allowed to play in the event as they need to focus their attention fully on the tournament as well as to prevent bias. We encourage you to have a chat with your Head Judge about any additional expectations.

Can store staff act as the Judge for the event?
It is possible to appoint a staff member as the Head Judge of the event, provided they are Level 1+ certified. But they need to be able to fully focus on the tournament and not be involved in other store activities during the event. Additionally, there needs to be a dedicated tournament organizer around the store to take care of any other store activities or provide help that attendees or other guests need. We want to ensure that Judges at the event can act independently of the store.

How can I find a Judge local to me?
If you are not already in touch with a Judge in your community, here are some options to find a Level 1+ certified Judge for your event. Several of those link to JudgeHub, our Judge and staff-related website supporting certification testing, staffing tools, and more.

1. Have a local Level 1 Judge you can directly reach out to. Know somebody that wants to make Level 1? Point them to this page.
2. You can search for a Judge near you via the search function or via the map function, and a direct message function is available to message them.
3. Contact your Judge Community Representative: The Judge community is organized into regions. Each region has a Judge Community Representative who is a contact point for the Judges in each region and can also be contacted by organizers to find local Judges for their events.
4. Create a JudgeHub event: You can create an event page to advertise on JudgeHub for a Judge, a guide to this and more functions can be found here.

You can also reach out to a potential Judge before scheduling the date to avoid potential scheduling conflicts. Ultimately. event organizers hold the responsibility to have a Level 1+ Judge present for their event.

How does LSS know if I have a Judge?
During the event, or even before, the Head Judge needs to be entered in your Pro Quest/Road to Nationals event under “Manage Roles” as Head Judge. For more information on how this works, as well as decklists, please check below in the dedicated section on this topic.

If a Judge cancels close to the event and you struggle to find a Judge, please reach out to op@fabtcg.com or judge@fabtcg.com

Do I need to pay the Judge?
As the organizer you are responsible for the fair compensation of your Judge(s). Local laws, standards and practices vary greatly, therefore please discuss details with your potential event Judge. Judges put dedication and time into learning the skills required for obtaining the relevant certifications and keeping up to date.

Does LSS support Judges at these events?
We provide promotional Judge gifts with the event package. These items need to be given, in full, to the judge team. They are not allowed to be considered or treated as compensation.

Typically they consist of a Judge Booster of the current season as well as a playmat. If you have two Judges work your event, the booster is intended to go to the Head Judge and the playmat to the additional Judge.

If I have more Judge related questions?
Feel free to reach out to judge@fabtcg.com for any Judge-related questions. We are there to support you in running the highest-quality events for your communities! For any general organized play questions please reach out to your direct contact or op@fabtcg.com.

Our tournament interface offers a way to submit and track constructed decklists directly with a streamlined process for players, organizers, and Judges. The following guide will cover how you can set up constructed format decklist submission as well as how to register events and Judge staff that need access to GEM.

This article and video show the player-facing side of the submission. We recommend checking it out as well to get a feel for it and to assist with any questions your players may have.

Any limited-format events do not use this tool for decklists. Instead, they will use paper registration sheets that can be found here.

Decklist submission
You may have already activated decklist submission when creating your event or at any point after having the event already set up. During setup just check the box to require a decklist. Please verify that the submission time aligns with the start of the event.

If you wish to change your settings before the event, just click the “Edit” button when in the specific event, and you will be able to see the same view.

Notes on submission deadlines
Players can submit and fully edit decklists up to the selected time you have chosen. As a general rule, we recommend the start time of the event. Additionally, this cutoff also happens as soon as round one is paired if it is before the set up cut off time. If a player has not submitted a decklist by this time, they will still be able to do so. The system will then flag that list as late, but still accepts it.

How can players submit their decklists?
The standard option is that players submit their decklist as soon as they are added to the event. This will make it appear in their account and they may submit it as shown in the video here. As a second option you may send the players, or post on your event page, the invite code for the event. When they have added themselves they will also be able to submit a list. Note that only the players you actively check off under “pending players” will be active in your event.

How can I verify how many decklists are missing?
As soon as you have players in your event--before, during or after the event--you can always open your event and click the “Manage Players" button under “Registered Players”. You will then get the following view.

Here you have some useful tools and general information, including if they have submitted a list at all. You can also see the wins of players, the table they sit at (if the event is still running) and more. The button “Bulk Actions” also allows you to auto-assign all heroes from decklists.

Clicking on the green marked eye symbol opens up the detailed view of a player. This shows information like their submission time, the hero they have submitted, or information like late submission notifications.

To see or edit a decklist you can click the hero's name, marked in red on the example, to open their decklist view. Additionally, you can click the yellow button to set up a fixed seating for any player that would require the same seat thru the event.

Who can access this information?
Judges or other staff added to the event via the “Manage Roles” function have a different level of access to events they get added to based on their roles. You will find the button for this next to the “Edit” button under each event.

When clicking “Manage Roles” you will be able to add GEM registered users in different event roles via clicking the “Add a User” button. Access to this function is only given for that specific event. If you would like to add certain people for a longer period of time to have access to all your events, then use the “Update Store Details” field below.

Head Judges and scorekeepers have access to most event functions like adding players, creating a new round, pairing players and pushing it to GEM, editing decklists, and more.

Please be aware that you are required to enter the Level 1+ Judge head judging your event as Head Judge under the “Manage Roles” function.

Have any more questions on this?
Feel free to reach out to judge@fabtcg.com for any related questions. We are there to support you running the best form of events for your communities! For any general organized play questions, please reach out to your direct contact or op@fabtcg.com.