{"id":82,"date":"2012-11-29T08:01:54","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T08:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/?p=82"},"modified":"2013-04-26T20:35:06","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T20:35:06","slug":"basics-of-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/2012\/11\/29\/basics-of-investigations\/","title":{"rendered":"Basics of Investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following document contains information originally provided by Sam Strauss<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

How can you tell if that player should be receiving a Game Rule Violation or Unsporting Conduct – Cheating? Two players disagree on the current game state, what do you do? Sam will go over the basic tools one can use to perform an investigation, and end with some helpful scenarios for everyone to discuss.
\nAttendees Notes:<\/p>\n

Who performs an investigation?<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Head Judge<\/li>\n
  • Floor Judge (starts and then hands off to head judge)<\/li>\n
  • Players<\/li>\n
  • Score Keepers<\/li>\n
  • Spectators<\/li>\n
  • So pretty much EVERYONE!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    What is an investigation?<\/p>\n

      \n
    • An attempt to gather information about a situation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Where do investigations happen?<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Can happen any where<\/li>\n
      • Normally during a tournament<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        When do we want to investigate?<\/p>\n

          \n
        • As soon as a problem arises<\/li>\n
        • When there is a disagreement among players<\/li>\n
        • Whenever we need more information \u2013 Sam Straus (small things are still considered investigations)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Why do we Investigate?<\/p>\n

            \n
          • To make sure we made\/make the right rulings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Tools we can use to investigate<\/p>\n

              \n
            • Players<\/li>\n
            • Board State<\/li>\n
            • Spectators<\/li>\n
            • Other Judges<\/li>\n
            • Score Keeper<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Remember – do you have a bias about your source of information? It\u2019s important in stressful situations to make sure you\u2019re still handling it in a professional manner.<\/p>\n

              Asking Questions \u2013 What kind of questions do you want to ask?<\/strong>\u00a0(in reference to looking at extra cards)<\/p>\n

                \n
              • What caused the issue?<\/li>\n
              • Is any part of the library ordered?<\/li>\n
              • Has either player had previous infractions?<\/li>\n
              • Has the card touched their hand?<\/li>\n
              • Anything that gains us more information about a situation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                Don\u2019t be antagonistic; do not put the players on defense. Don\u2019t be hostile or too direct. Players will pick up on that and may not be willing to give all the information you could get. (Both good and bad.)<\/p>\n

                (Jared Sylva) You can become more confrontational if you feel it\u2019s advantageous, but avoid that if possible. It helps maintain control of a situation, but can close off players from talking to you and potentially burn information bridges.<\/em><\/p>\n

                Read players actions and body language. (hard to do, but useful if you can – lots of books and information on this.)<\/p>\n

                At what point do you want to involve the head judge?<\/p>\n

                  \n
                • Possible rewind<\/li>\n
                • Appeal<\/li>\n
                • If you believe they\u2019re going to be DQ\u2019d, information isn\u2019t adding up<\/li>\n
                • When you\u2019re going into very in-depth situations, ask questions that you already know the answer to. Verification is the key in this process. Figuring out how they respond to \u201ctrue\u201d questions. It will be easier to gauge their behavior in later questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  Time management is extremely important.<\/p>\n

                    \n
                  • Strike a balance between integrity of the event and time being used. (finding that balance is very difficult and takes experience.)<\/li>\n
                  • Don\u2019t run yourself in circles unless you feel there is really something going on. When you\u2019re comfortable with your answer, go with it.<\/li>\n
                  • Avoid questions with \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d answers. Try to ask open ended questions.<\/li>\n
                  • When out of questions you know the answer to, and you\u2019re trying to find more information \u2013 ask the same questions in different ways to confirm the same answers. Players can get flustered, so be careful when doing this.<\/li>\n
                  • When checking for inconsistences, use your logic. Could this have actually happened?<\/li>\n
                  • Don\u2019t be pretentious or bias. This is very important. We\u2019re all human and you don\u2019t want to tunnel vision onto one small detail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                    Dealing with \u201che said, she said\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

                      \n
                    • Look for the player with the most detailed notes, more facts.<\/li>\n
                    • Establish Control, let them know you\u2019re in charge. Tell them you want to hear player A\u2019s side first and then you\u2019ll listen to player B\u2019s side. They\u2019ll be less likely to interrupt each other when they know both players will have a chance to tell their side.<\/li>\n
                    • Just because someone is more \u201cbelievable\u201d it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019re more accurate.<\/li>\n
                    • \u201cAdvantageous recall\u201d When recalling a story, sometimes players might \u201ctrick\u201d themselves into believing a situation different than it was.<\/li>\n
                    • After talking to both players, bring them together and talk about where their stories don\u2019t match.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                      Sam judges because he keeps track of life with dice<\/em><\/p>\n

                      Lying is a creative process, when a player looks like he\u2019s \u201clooking\u201d for information try to pull them away from their creative mode. Ask questions like \u201cwhat have you done since the start of your turn?\u201d This will put them in a \u201crecall\u201d mode and they\u2019re more likely to fumble their \u201ccreative story.\u201d<\/p>\n

                      In a \u201che said, she said\u201d event, IT DOES NOT MEAN ONE OF THEM IS LYING. Back to \u201cadvantageous recall\u201d, players can actually believe what they\u2019re telling you happened. Talk to players one at a time, don\u2019t let them interrupt each other or you. It helps get a more accurate story.<\/p>\n

                      During review, make sure what has happened actually is an infraction. EX \u2013 Butterfingers is not an infraction. Don\u2019t turn dropping your deck while shuffling into a violation. \u201cWe don\u2019t reverse engineer penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

                      How confident are you on your call? How confident do you have to be to make a call?<\/p>\n

                      Use resources you have available to make sure<\/p>\n

                        \n
                      • 51% is the \u201cminimum\u201d to make a call.<\/li>\n
                      • Always act like you\u2019re 100% sure of the call you\u2019re making.<\/li>\n
                      • Let them know they have the right to appeal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                        Q&A<\/strong><\/p>\n

                        JUDGE?! I just drew four cards off Brainstorm \u2013 What do you do?<\/p>\n

                          \n
                        • Make sure they actually drew four cards. (not set them aside)<\/li>\n
                        • Who caught it? (Player who drew the cards caught it in this situation)<\/li>\n
                        • How did it happen?<\/li>\n
                        • Did you have any penalties like this before in this event?<\/li>\n
                        • See if the cards are identifiable by the players, if so, the HJ has the option to downgrade?<\/li>\n
                        • The potential for advantage already exist.<\/li>\n
                        • When there are multiple infractions, we apply only the more severe one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                          JUDGE?! My opponent drew a card off of my library. \u2013 What do you do?<\/p>\n

                            \n
                          • Can you identify the card that was drawn?<\/li>\n
                          • Take preventative action; Explain how the player can avoid this in the future.<\/li>\n
                          • Looking at extra cards<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                            JUDGE?! My opponent has an extra card in his hand<\/p>\n

                              \n
                            • Figure out what turn you\u2019re on<\/li>\n
                            • Figure out game state\/game history<\/li>\n
                            • Figure out when it was realized they had extra cards<\/li>\n
                            • Can\u2019t figure out where the extra card game from \u2013 Game loss, drawing extra cards.<\/li>\n
                            • Intent to take the action vs intent to cheat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                              The following document shows us some ways to deal with investigations and how to maximize the efficiency of the process. Footnotes and feedback are included in order to have a better seminar next time it is presented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[115,15,30],"language":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diplomacy-and-investigations","tag-document","tag-investigations","tag-sam-strauss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferencecontent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}