Reproduced with permission from the Tournament Report Forums.

Date : 24 August 2014
Location: Sydney Olympic Park

We had 141 players which meant playing 9 rounds cut to top 4. We started around 11.15 am and round 9 ended around 8.40 pm. I had 5 judges to start off with at which point I named 1 judge, Jonathan “Chips” East as the paper task master and John “Smiles” Tong as the deckcheck task master. The other judges were floor and helping the taskmasters.

Using task masters instead of teams allows greater flexibility and also allows the judges to organize themselves in making sure the tasks are completed without me having to micro manage. Also when judges are swapped around the side event tournaments, the task masters can just brief the judge replacing him/her on their roles which makes the transition easier. The task master doesn’t necessarily has to be doing those task themselves. They just have to make sure that the task is completed.

During the player meeting at round 1, I made a crucial mistake of forgetting to get the players to write down the table numbers on the decklist which made sorting them a time consuming task for the deck check taskmaster. John was okay with it though because it meant that he got to sit down and rest his legs while sorting. We also had two late entry players whom the TO waived the tardiness rule for and allowed them to submit their decklists after their round 1 match. I had 1 judge keep an eye on that match and also get their decklists as soon as possible.

Throughout the tournament, my judge staff kept rotating to accommodate breaks and also other tournaments firing off, which needed judges coordinated with the sides lead  Aaron Hamer and other tournament head judges.

APPEALS

I had three appeals throughout the day, all of which the floor judges ruling was upheld.

1. Player A attacked with three creatures and had two battalion triggers, Legion Loyalist and Boros Elite. He specifically mentions trigger for Legion Loyalist but doesn’t say anything else. Player N blocks only the loyalist and says take the rest. At this point Player A says take 3 from Boros Elite. N calls a judge and claims A has missed the trigger. Judge rules correctly that non visual triggers are assumed to be remembered until it is shown that it has been missed when it would affect the game.  I upheld the ruling. Player N obviously did not know this and was upset and I had to explain that it is missed trigger and not forgotten trigger.

2. Also another missed trigger appeal involving Foundry Street Denizen. Judge ruled the same way and I upheld it and explained how missed trigger worked.

3. Player A was on 2 life. Opponent had a Eidolon of the Great Revel in play. He overloads Mizzium Mortars thinking it won’t trigger the Eidolon. Bad news for him, it does. Judge rules it correctly and I upheld the ruling.

UNSPORTING CONDUCT MINOR

1. Spectator watching a match stops it because he notices an illegal situation and gets a judge. The player who was responsible for the illegal play immediately becomes agitated and raises his voice at the spectator telling him to back off and not interfere with his match.

The judge fixes the illegal play and issues the warning and then came to me and said that he wants to issue USC Minor after the match to the player because he felt that the player was being rude and aggressive. I agreed and asked him to do this in front of me so that I could cut off any potential issues. Turns out the player realized that he was out of line and apologized straight away. Explains that he was stressed out and promised to be a nicer player. John Tong who delivered the ruling did so effectively.

2. This was a long issue. Back story.

Player A, a male player was playing player B, a female player on one of the top tables.

Judge call 1 : A calls a judge and I was the closest. B had forgotten to name a color for Hall of Triumph. GRV issued, color named and play continued. B also admits that she had been issued a GRV before. I reminded her that if she gets a third one the warning would be upgraded to a game loss.

Judge call 2 : I noticed another judge take the call but I wasn’t aware what the situation was or how the ruling went.

Judge call 3 : Maykel “I only have one name” L2 from Indonesia took the call and then came to me for advice. Apparently B seemed to have almost drawn for the turn but said that she was scrying for Thassa instead. A called a judge. I advised Maykel to ask more questions and then make a ruling based on his investigation. Maykel asked more questions and then ruled that B had drawn for the turn and missed her trigger. At this point B becomes slightly upset, concedes the match and ticked drop on the result slip. Maykel proceeds to have a chat with her and she says that the match was too stressful for her and that she doesn’t want to continue. She also felt that the player calling the judge on her was too much for her to handle. He explained that it is competitive level magic and penalties are issued for infractions. She understood but explained that she needs time out so that she can cool down.

I only found out later that she dropped and walked away upset and according to some players in tears. If I had known earlier I would have wanted to talk to her too.

Now to the USC Minor.

Player A approaches me after the next round and is upset. According to him, he overheard another player (player C) who was playing at the table besides his match with B commenting to a friend that he “played near a (vulgar words) player who was not nice to a girl”. A explained that he is a competitive player and was playing by the rules and all his judge calls were legitimate ones and not intentionally done to get her upset. The vulgar words used genuinely made him upset. I assured him that I would have a chat with player C.

As soon as I started chatting with player C later, he admitted straight away that he did use those vulgar words to describe A and realized that he shouldn’t have. He explained that he was upset that B walked away crying (first time I heard about this). He apologized and accepted the USC minor penalty and agreed to be mindful of his words and actions in the future. He understood and agreed that player A was actually just being competitive and not being aggressive. I also found out later that C also apologized personally to A and A accepted.

TABLE SWITCHEROO

Interesting headache during round 5 or 6 (forgot to note it down due to the headache of solving the situation). Player A comes to me after pairings posted and says his name is not on the pairings. I start the round and head to the scorekeeper.

Looking at the results slip, it was signed as a no show. After doing some investigations, walking back and forth between the scorekeeper and the tables we realized that this had happened.

Player A had played in table B and;

Player B had played in table C and;

Player C was the actual no show.

Interestingly both player A and B had signed the result slips without confirming that it had their names on it. Since both player A and B had lost their match and player B was now paired with C, we dropped C and re enrolled A paired against B.

Time taken to solve, 15 minutes. Thankfully the extra time was not utilized fully in the match and the round ended reasonably on time.

Interestingly, player A was paired against the same player he wrongfully played against, later in the tournament. I explained that that match has technically not happened in the system and they played again.

DRAWING EXTRA CARDS

At the beginning of the tournament, I reminded the judges that if they were issuing game losses besides tardiness and D/D Problems, or if the GL would end the match, to inform me first before issuing it. One of my judges had issued a Drawing Extra Cards GL and had only came to tell me about it after he issued it. The GL also ended the match. I asked if the card drawn had joined the hand and it could not be differentiated. The judge was unsure. I also asked if the player had confirmed the draw. The judge was also unsure. Unfortunately the players had scooped and walked away. I decided to trust his first instinct that it was DEC and not do anything further.

This was my most eventful tournament I have had as a HJ. I would like to thank all the judges who worked this tournament for performing admirably and effectively to smoothly run the tournament. I handed off the top 4 players to the late shift judge for the top 8 draft combining with the top 4 of Super Sunday Sealed. Mental note, take more physical notes.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Please share them here!

Sashi “C Loco” Kumar Balakrishnan
L2, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia