Today’s topic feels like one of those “duh” topics, but sometimes it needs to be repeated for people just as a reminder. Today, we’re going to discuss treating everyone with respect.

Oftentimes, an event like Friday Night Magic or Magic prerelease is a player’s first chance to step away from playing at their kitchen table with their friends and stepping into an environment with people they don’t know. We want that player to have fun at that tournament and feel welcome; we don’t want them to be belittled or offended by what others are saying or doing. If a player walks into a hostile environment where people are constantly being put down and slurs are being thrown around, they may not feel very comfortable and it may actually scare them away from going to the local store and tournaments in the future.

If you’re just playing with your friends at home, you know what’s acceptable among them and where to draw the line. But once you’re in a public space, with unfamiliar people and/or just random strangers, cut back on some of that talk. You don’t know this person. No one likes to feel uncomfortable, so try to focus your efforts on welcoming people into your community, rather than trying to potentially offend these people. Show people some respect when they’re at the tournament, and they’ll be more likely to have a good time and come back in the future.

Finally, I’d like to call attention to a blog maintained by Level 3 Judge Tasha Jamison, called Allied Strategies. I only talked about this briefly, but Tasha goes into a lot more detail about how we can accept people into our communities and treat people better in general.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by Nathan Long