Featured artwork: Siege-Gang Commander by Christopher Moeller (one of Jared’s favorites).

The purpose of the Premodern Magic Community Award is to acknowledge someone who has done something extra for the Premodern format and its community. The 2018 award went to Matteo Caravatti from Italy, and the 2019 award to Francisco José Cumplido Rica from Spain, the 2020 award to Andrew Walker from the US and the 2022 award to Anton Glans from Sweden (there was no award in 2021).

But hey, we’re at the end of 2025, aren’t we missing a couple of years? Let’s just say I have a backlog, but better late than never!

The 2023 Premodern community award goes to Jared Doucette from Boston, Massachusetts in the US, for his contributions as a tournament organizer, podcaster and father figure for the North American Premodern community. On behalf of the Premodern community, thank you for your work Jared!

Jared himself

Motivation

Jared was among the early adopters of Premodern in North America. He started contributing to the community by taking part in organizing the Premodern Online Monthlies, using the tournament scheduling template that he had already used for running similar events for the 93/94 Old School format. On the same theme, of cross-pollinating the 93/94 and Premodern communities, Jared was the one bringing Premodern to Lobstercon, working together with its founder Dave Firth Bard. What started as a side event has since then grown into the North American Premodern Championship, a focal point for the North American scene with players now in the hundreds, and as a main event at a separate occasion from the 93/94 tournament.

He crossed paths with another community awardee Andrew Walker (who eventually took over running the monthlies), and together with Mike Harris they started the first-ever Premodern exclusive podcast Premodcast in early 2020, and it’s still going strong as of today!

Jared is also a strong Premodern player, with a consistent presence both on the webcam scene and in real-life tournaments, and he participated e.g. in the first Premodern Showdown Series.

Interview

I interviewed Jared for this occasion, and the full interview is featured as part of the latest Premodcast episode. Give it a listen, and make sure to give Jared an extra cheers on when you see him, whether online or in person. 🙂

Until next time!

– Martin