Judge Foundry is sponsoring a Review Writing contest! Write reviews for your fellow judges, submit them on JudgeApps, and at the end of the year you could win some cash for your region, gift cards in the merch store for yourself, or an individualized hoodie.
There are three parts to this year’s contest, but they all have the same central idea: write more reviews. Prizes will be awarded to the region that writes the most reviews, the individual judges who write the most reviews, and the individual judges who write the best reviews.
All reviews in 2025 will count: whether they were submitted in January or December, whether they’re certifying a brand new L1 or giving an experienced HJ some feedback, whether it’s feedback on an online conference presentation or from working together on the floor of an event…it all counts.
Background
One of Judge Foundry’s core values is feedback. There are a lot of ways to give and receive feedback after an event, but one of the most impactful and long-lasting ways is through a review.
Put simply, a review is written notes submitted through JudgeApps. When you write a review on another judge, it’s a private summation of how you thought they did, so they can be even better at their next event. But a review is more than that.
A review is a gift, from one judge to another. It’s a ladder up toward their full potential. It says “I believe you are worth investing time into, and I want to help you succeed.”
To encourage judges to write more reviews this year, the Community Project Grants Approval Committee has approved some money for a year-long review writing contest!
Let’s get into the details.
Regional Contest
Part of the idea of reviews is to bring judges together. When a judge cares enough about another one to shadow them on a call and later provide notes on what worked especially well, it’s helping stitch our community together.
To underline that, the first part of the review contest will be regional: the region that writes the most reviews per capita will win $500.
The Regional Advisor of the winning region will have access to the funds, with very few strings attached. The board reserves the right to veto if the RA suggests they get a plane ticket to Hawaii and no other judges in the region get anything, but any serious suggestion will get a thumbs up. So long as the RA’s idea is actually for the judges of their region, they will have wide latitude to make their own idea come to life.
But XYZ judge is a Certified Review Machine and lives in Other Region, so they’ll carry their whole region :/
We have a plan for that. A single judge shouldn’t sway the regional contest too much – that’s not in the spirit of bringing a region together. To that end: the five judges at the top of the individual quantity contest (more on that in a moment) will count as the sixth highest score, in their regional count. That way judges are still incentivized to write more reviews, even if they think they’re near the top, but no single judge can run away with the count and carry a whole region.
But Not Many Judges Live In My Region
Each region’s score will be computed per capita. That means that at the end of the year, we’ll take the total number of reviews each region wrote and divide by the number of judges in the region to see how many reviews the average judge wrote. The important thing is the average number of reviews per judge, not the raw total submitted, so all regions will be on even footing.
What if there’s a tie?
In the event two regions have the same final tally of reviews per judge, the tiebreaker will be which region certified the most new L1s.
What if there’s a tie?
If two regions are tied on both reviews per judge and the number of new L1s, the second tiebreaker will be the number of successful advancement reviews.
What if I move regions, midyear?
You’ll take your reviews with you to boost your new region. We’ll care about where you live on December 31, not where you lived when you submitted the review.
Individual Contest
There are two parts to the individual contest: Quantity and Quality.
Quantity
Write the most reviews, get free swag from the merch store!
Here’s the breakdown:
1st place – $100 store gift card, plus an individualized, 1 of 1, champion’s hoodie.
2nd place – $50 store gift card
3rd – 5th place – $25 store gift card
You said these would count differently to the regional total?
As said above, while we want to reward the review superstars for their efforts, we don’t want them singlehandedly carrying whole regions. So – these prizes will be calculated first. No math needed – write the most reviews, you get first place, simple. Then we’ll get into calculating the regional totals. For that, the five judges who win prizes here will count as the sixth place score.
What’s to stop someone submitting 1,000 reviews of 1 word each?
Our good friends at JudgeApps are able to see word counts, and reviews will need to be long enough to be counted. Reviews under the secret word count will not be counted.
The purpose of a review is to help another judge be better at their next event. Whether it’s highlighting something they did especially well or pointing out an area for improvement (or both!), this kind of help requires at least a little bit of elaboration. Giving an example can help the recipient understand your point; suggesting an alternate path will help them see a better way forward. Both of these will take at least a sentence or two.
Why is the word count a secret?
For the same reason we don’t have a public, set limit for how many seconds per decision will count as slow play. If we said the word count limit was 50, we’re inviting dozens of 51 word reviews. If we said it was 200, there would be no 199 word reviews submitted. So – focus on helping your fellow judges learn and grow, and the word count will be what it is.
Quality
While the large events with many judges can sometimes get more than their share of the spotlight, the vast majority of judging occurs on a much smaller scale, at local game stores. Judges helping out at their weekly events are doing great work but may not have as much chance to interact with other judges. To make sure those judges are still included, the contest will also have five winners judged on quality.
The goal here is to let all judges be eligible for prizes, even if they only have one or two multi-judge events in a year.
Here’s the breakdown:
1st place – $100 store gift card
2nd place – $50 store gift card
3rd – 5th place – $25 store gift card
How will these winners be selected?
Judges will be able to nominate reviews they received for these prizes. If you write a particularly meaningful, memorable review for someone, they’ll be able to repay that effort and investment by nominating it for a Quality prize.
At the end of the year, when the reviews have been nominated, the review review squad will check with all parties involved, then look them over and pick the winners.
Who will be on this review review squad?
Current board member Brook Gardner-Durbin will put together a small team of volunteers closer to the end of the year. If you’re interested in helping out, keep your eyes on this space (in six or eight months).
Does this mean Judge Foundry will be reading my reviews?
No, absolutely not. No one is going to be reading your private reviews without your permission. If you tell Judge Nancy that they did something better than Judge Arthur, you don’t need to worry that Judge Arthur will read about it. JudgeApps is able to check the word count, what region the writer lives in, and all of that good stuff without a person reading the actual words.
The only exception here will be if a review is nominated by the recipient for a quality award. In that case we’ll contact both judges (the writer and recipient) for permission before looking it over. Judges will be able to redact names or other identifying information if they’d like to before they’re evaluated.
Go forth and conquer write!
So get started right away! Write peer reviews, advancement reviews, and self reviews! Every review you write in 2025 will count towards winning prizes for you and your region – and you’ll be helping out your fellow judges in the process.
If you’re not sure where to start with writing reviews, here are some links to help you get started:
Busting Three Common Myths About Reviews
You Never Forget Your First Review
