CSWC Judge Association. Medio March of this year, the organization behind the Cigar Smoking World Championship made an announcement. People that want to be a part of the organization could register to become part of the new CSWC Judge Association. Founder Marko Bilic and his team would select able bodies who would all get training and an exam. If the potential juror would pass the exam, he or she would become part of the official CSWC Judge Association. 

Growing popularity

The motivation for Bilic and his team to start a Judge Association has two reasons. First is the growth of the Cigar Smoking World Championship. The competition is growing in popularity. And that requires more qualifying tournaments. It is simply impossible for Bilic to be present and be the jury at all the events. There are simply too many qualifier events.

The second reason is the pandemic. It makes travel hard, especially international travel. It will take time before that is restored and until then, the only way to be able to host qualifying tournaments is with local judges. Many countries have a mandatory quarantine period at the moment. Often it is two or even three weeks, which makes it impossible for Bilic to judge tournaments in multiple countries.

The judges

Two months after the request for judges from the CSWC organization, the judges have been selected and appointed. We are happy to announce that Ministry of Cigars founder Ferdinand Piet is one of the three judges for the South East Asian region. The other judges in this region are Cigar Journal’s Samuel Spurr, aka Unico Desde 1979 and Timen R. T. Swijtink.

The full list of judges and their country:

CSWC JUDGES ASSOCIATION: MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

1. Marija Marovic, CROATIA – HEAD JUDGE 
2. Natasa Kresevic, CROATIA – DEPUTY HEAD JUDGE
3. Marko Bilic, CROATIA – INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

JUDGES by Country

Australia:

1. Phill Busson – NATIONAL JUDGE

Austria:

1. Mirko Ivanic – INTERNATIONAL JUDGE 
2. Peter Gaudenzi – INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
3. Reinhold Widmayer– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Azerbeijan

1. Yvgeniy ZHIDKOV– NATIONAL JUDGE

Belgium

1. Thomas Gonnisenn– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Brazil 

1. Cesar Damesa– NATIONAL JUDGE

China

1. Xiaowei Chen– NATIONAL JUDGE

Croatia

1. Damir Skelin– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
2. Danijel Cecavac– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
3. Duje Vulas– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
4. Filip Boban– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
5. Josip Culic– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Denmark

1. Jan Vistisen– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

England

1. Sarah Sunders– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Finland

1. Petteri Patijas– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

France

1. Pierre Jourdan– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Germany

1. Christopher J. Hofmann– NATIONAL JUDGE
2. Klaus Klainlagel– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
3. Kolja Kukuk– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
4. Philipp Kugler– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
5. Thomas Geisler– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Italy

1. Alberto Mancinelli– NATIONAL JUDGE
2. Aurelio TUFANO– NATIONAL JUDGE
3. Francesco Ventura– NATIONAL JUDGE
4. Stjepan Markulin– NATIONAL JUDGE

Lithuania

1. Elena Aleksejeva– NATIONAL JUDGE

Lebanon

1. Wissam AL MALAK– NATIONAL JUDGE

Malaysia

1. Samuel Spurr– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Mauritius

1. Arnaud Mayer– NATIONAL JUDGE

Mexico

1. Miguel Macias– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Nicaragua

1. Fernando Navarro– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

North Macedonia

1. Gabriel Stibel– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
2. Marko Trendafilov– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Norway

1. Oystein Kleven– NATIONAL JUDGE
2. Andre Veiby– NATIONAL JUDGE

Poland

1. Filip Rudzinski– NATIONAL JUDGE
2. Marcin Lewandowski– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Qatar

1. Felipe  R. BRUNA– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Romania

1. Liviu Adam– NATIONAL JUDGE
2. Danays Leon – National Judge

Russia

1. Artem Erenburg– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
2. Dmitry Drutza– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Serbia

1. Branko Lazarevic– NATIONAL JUDGE

Singapore 

1. Ferdinand Moc– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Slovakia

1. Roberto Resmer– NATIONAL JUDGE

Spain

1. Itka Vistisen– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Sweden

1. Pierre Gustavsson– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE

Switzerland

1. Gian Carlo Casparis– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
2. Stefano Nett– NATIONAL JUDGE

Ukraina

1. Dmytriy Hurinchik– NATIONAL JUDGE

USA

1. Doug HALCOMB– NATIONAL JUDGE
2. John Paletta– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE
3. Joshua Habursky– NATIONAL JUDGE
4. Pete  GRAZIANO– NATIONAL JUDGE
5. Vlada Stojanov– INTERNATIONAL JUDGE