Who are the judges? What is a SQL Ranger?

If you've read the Official Contest Rules™, you've seen that the Official Contest Judges™ will be members of the SQL Ranger Community™. If you know what a SQL Ranger is, you can probably stop reading now. If you know what the Microsoft Certified Architect:Database certification, it's easy to explain that the SQL Ranger program is the training regimen devoted to separating the MCDBAs, MCITP:Database Administrators and MCITP:Database Developers from the MCA:Databases.

Half a dozen SQL Rangers have already volunteered to review the contest applications and recognize the finalists and the winners. I'm hoping to sign up [read: draft] a few more. Heh.

This doesn't take away from the fact that YOU will be part of the judging process, too. The community will have a couple weeks after the contest closes to tell us which of the contest applications they think are the best. Standby for more details as we get closer to Tech*Ed.

For those of you who are current engaged in SQL Ranger camp (Rotation 4), I wish you the best of luck. Study hard. The tests and the labs aren't easy. In five short weeks, we'll know who's got what it takes to be a SQL Ranger. Hooyah!