Judge Center Announcement

If you’ve attempted to log into the Judge Center you’re well aware that some renovations are in progress.  The brand new Judge Center is under construction and should be live soon.  Check out all the details and what to expect when it comes up, here.

RC Selection Spring 2017 Results

The Regional Coordinators have been selected for several regions.  If you belong to one of those (or even if you don’t), make sure you send your warm wishes to those taking over this difficult task.  

Exemplar Wave  8

Wave 8 of exemplar has been published.  If you want to see if you received any and what they say about you, check here. Wave 9 is in full swing and it closes it’s doors in about three weeks from the date this is posted.  Don’t forget to recognize the awesome Judges with which you work!

From the PC Desk

As you may already know, Channel Fireball Events (CFBE) will be organizing all the GPs in 2018 and later. This has raised quite a lot of commotion in the Judge world, so head on to the blog to find out more details.

New DQ Process and Suspended Players

The way you submit Disqualifications has changed. Check out this article and it will bring you up to speed. A change is necessary due to the fact that things are moving off of Judge Center and onto Judge Apps.  Also the suspended players has been updated.

Judge Article and Blog Posts March 2017

1. Articles: My view on… Program Coordinators, From the PC Desk, March 2017, Introducing the new Judge Center, Submitting Investigations on JudgeApps, Launching JudgeApps Reviews!,
2. Judge Conferences: Updates to Conference Support – March 2017
3. Battlefield Forge: Audience Impact – Examining a Potential Case of Outside Assistance @ Neutral Grounds’ Gold Rush November 2016, “You are Not Prepared.”
4. What’s Up, Docs: GP San Jose AJ Report, Running a Day 2 Deck Check Team: Tips and Tricks
5. The Feedback Loop: Protection from Feedback, Coaching a Friend, Part 1, Coaching a Friend, Part 2, Coaching a Friend, Part 3, Feedbag #12: On a Wing and a Player, Forward the Feedback
6. Knowledge Pool: A Terribly Tricky Traversal, Kalitas and Company, Blood Moon over Ravnica, It’s Plain to See, Rade ’em and Weep
7. Judgecast: #168 – This One’s a Classic! (Or at least it’s about one),  #169 – Overviewing Reviews
8. Journey of discovery: Success on the L2 Test!, Three Tips to Negotiating with Tournament Organizers, Copying Objects – The Vesuvan Doppleganger Story, Casting Spells and Activating Abilities Part 1 of 3 and Casting Spells and Activating Abilities Part 2 of 3
9. Other blogs and streams: The Elvish Farmer, The Panda Project   Judge Booth, Just a Little WordPress Judge Blog,The Good Judge, Chatter of Judges, EDBlog,  A World of Magic. More judge blogs you can find at Blog Portal

In case you would like to discuss an article, visit our Judge forum. Don’t forget to regularly check our Judge blog.

Happy Anniversary! March 2017

The anniversary roll for March is in! Check out the month’s post and see if you’ve got a guy or two to congratulate for another milestone as judge. Featured this month are Martha Lufkin, Farid Taoubi, Matthew Johnson, Wearn Chong, and Kim Warren. A marching cheer to all celebrants and may they all continue to keep the program strong.

Judge of the Week March 2017

• 198 Eliana Rabinowitz L2 from Pasadena, CA
• 199 Alejandro Raggio L3 from Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 200 Nemesio Alejandro Bolaños L3 from Arica, Chile
• 201 JudgeCast of the Week
• 202 Jacob Milicic L2 from Madison, WI

Player MTR Awareness

Apparently, a good portion of the Magic playership remains unaware of the existence of the MTR. Learn ways to expand the understand of the MTR in your locale from this thread.

Sexism During Events

While it remains rare, sexist disruptive behavior during tournaments isn’t something that everyone is hearing for the first time. With the steady expansion of Magic’s playership, with more and more women engaging the game, it would be nifty to have this thread’s insight on how to handle a player’s concern regarding sexist behavior.

Questions asked in the month of March and an [O]fficial answer, just for you!

[expand title=”1. If Aetherborn Marauder steals counters from multiple creatures, does Winding Constrictor see a single ability putting counters on the Marauder? Or does 121.5 mean that each move happens separately, causing Winding Constrictor’s replacement effect to add additional counters equal to the number of creatures stolen from?”]
A: Aetherborn Marauder‘s ability removes counters from multiple separate objects simultaneously, and places them all on the Marauder simultaneously. As such, Winding Constrictor will see only a single instance of counter-placing being performed, and will only add one to the total.

Approved by Callum Milne.
[/expand]

[expand title=”2. At regular REL, If a player passes turn without acknowledging his Lathnu Hellion trigger, is he assumed to have chosen to not pay and therefore sac it? CR 117.12a Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, (Do something) unless (a player does something else). This means the same thing as (A player may do something else). If (that player doesn’t), (do something).

From the JAR:
If the ability includes the word ‘may’, assume the player chose not to perform it.
A literal reading of the JAR says put the trigger on the stack and let him choose now, but the translation of the trigger by way of 117.12a seems to say he chose not to perform it.

Which interpretation is intended?”]
A: A: The JAR was first conceived and created for newer L1s, and for L0s, that run casual events in their local store. While that includes TOs (store owners/employees), they weren’t really the focus of that document – just the beneficiaries of another judge document.

In the original example, with Lathnu Hellion, the first thing I’d do is look at the board, to see if I should be suspicious about this trigger being missed. Perhaps that’s a relic of my Comp/Pro REL background, but players do sketchy things at any REL, even at the kitchen table. I might even ask some questions to investigate a bit.

However, if it seems that it was just an honest mistake, I’ll point out “you didn’t pay for your Hellion”; I suspect that the majority of players would then sigh, and bin their Hellion, acknowledging the consequences of their mistake. I know that some opponents would then say “no, wait – Judge, can’t he just pay it now?”, because they want the game to continue fairly organically. And, I know that some players would look at me and say “now what?”, or even “can I just pay now?”. And in those cases, I’d put on my judge hat, and – per the JAR – put that trigger on the stack.

Same for a missed Pact – I recall an ‘O’fficial answer, some years back, about that very question.
Approved by Scott Marshall.

[/expand]

[expand title=”3. A player accidentally picks up 4 cards when resolving a Ponder. What is the appropriate infraction and fix?

Relevant IPG quotes:
“Once those cards have joined another set, the infraction is handled as a Hidden Card Error or Game Rule Violation” -LEC section
“This infraction does not apply to simple dexterity errors, such as when a card being pulled off the library sticks to another card and is seen” -HCE section

Does this mean that this is a GRV? If so, what is the fix?”]
A: The cards you look at for Ponder are, in fact, a set (per its intended use in the HCE definition), and adding an excess card(s) to that set falls under HCE. Reveal the set, choose one to be returned to the correct zone (shuffled into library, in this case), then finish resolving Ponder correctly with the other three.
Approved by Scott Marshall.
[/expand]

[expand title=”4. I’ve recently noticed IPG does not instruct to DQ a player that was offered something in exchange for the match result, but refuses and does not call a judge:

A player offers an incentive to entice an opponent into conceding, drawing, or changing the results of a match, or accepts such an offer. Refer to section 5.2 of the Magic Tournament Rules for a more detailed description of what constitutes bribery.

The MTR states that player should be penalized the same way:

The decision to drop, concede, or agree to an intentional draw cannot be made in exchange for or influenced by the offer of any reward or incentive, nor may any in-game decision be influenced in this manner. Making such an offer is prohibited. Unless the player receiving such an offer calls for a judge immediately, both players will be penalized in the same manner. Players may not make any offers to tournament officials in an attempt to influence the outcome of a ruling.

Is it a real inconsistency and IPG should be fixed or am I missing something?”]
A: The MTR is more complete, and the IPG notes this in the text quoted by Alexey. Bribery and Wagering includes offering or accepting, but MTR 5.2 provides a more complete definition. While it might seem that repetition of the full definition in both places would be better, the drawback is having to maintain two separate blocks of text – and two (mostly unique) teams are responsible for the two documents. (IPG is the Judge Program’s Policy Team; MTR is Wizards’ Organized Play.)
Approved by Scott Marshall.

[/expand]

WER Video Tutorials

We would like to share with you these great video tutorials on training new TO’s and judges in the ways of the WER. You could also drop by the relevant forum thread and offer some more useful advice for new WER users.

JudeApps Review; Unknown User Issue

If you are facing an issue with reviews done in the past not porting over correctly to the new JudgeApps review, head over here to find out about the fix that has been implemented so far!

WER DEC vs HCE Error

In the current WER version you might be facing a problem where you don’t have the HCE infraction listed under penalties. As pointed out, the option to enter a DEC is still available, and therefore HCEs could be reported as DECs alongside a clear description clarifying that the infraction is a HCE. This seems to be a viable solution until a future update of WER becomes available, where the issue will definitely be fixed.

Find out which Judge Conferences, Grand Prix and SCG Opens have available worldwide staffing positions! You still have time to apply for Grand Prix Toronto 2017, Grand Prix São Paulo 2017 and the Southwest Regional Judge Conference at Grand Prix Las Vegas.

Check out the Grand Prix Solicitations and Selected Staffs for more details on individual tournaments.

Public projects such as The Panda Project, Presenters Training Team, Player Surveys, Mystical Tutor, MJM Translation, Judge Achievements, Flash Cards, Conference Guidelines and Policies and others are looking for help.