GP Atlanta has come and gone, leaving behind a trail of sweat stains, peaches, and PCVs. I was expecting Atlanta to be hot. I wasn’t expecting it to be hotter than it has ever gotten in my part of California. A big shout out to Jeff Williams and Phoenix Games for selecting a venue that was not only spacious and air conditioned, but attached to the staff hotel and mall food court. Quite the classy joint. Almost too classy for the hooligans on the judge staff, but we made it work.
I was Team Lead of the Results team on Day One. What did the Results team do? Deliver the results (slips), look good, and cover the thin areas of the floor at the back of the hall. In short, be awesome. For those of you who aren’t in the know, we had something like eight teams Day One. We were highly specialized units of butt kicking, charged by the head judge Scott Marshall with knocking the event out of the park.
To be brief, I think we knocked it out of the park. Rounds turned over quickly (for the most part), coverage of the floor was good (for the most part), and the players were judged by a very experienced crew. On to the interesting bits!
- Remarkably, there were two appeals on Slow Play penalties, and both were overturned. They both involved exceeding three minutes between games, and it’s my understanding that the rulings were both delivered without any verbal admonition to present. This led to appeals and, as the players weren’t first cautioned, the head judge overturned the original ruling. This makes sense to me; we should be poking players about Slow Play before we give them penalties in all but the most egregious situations. If I watch a match, go away for a call that takes two minutes, return, and nothing has happened, I’m fine with telling them to progress and then issuing the infraction once they’ve moved on with the game state. In the case of watching a match, and as soon as they’ve hit some time limit, giving a warning without a verbal prod, I can definitely see overturning that.
- We actually had a PCV! A genuine, for real PCV! It involved a Tarmogoyf and a mistaken power/toughness. Thanks for giving us a real PCV, Shoebox!
- There was an interesting case of almost Outside Assistance on Day One. Player A is playing Goblins, and has approximately a million in play. Player A attacks. Before blocks, Player A’s friend, Observer C, says, “That Piledriver’s huge!” Player B says, “Oh, I’ll block the Piledriver.” A judge is watching and steps in at this point. The floor judge and I consulted, and neither of us thought this was quite enough for OA. We conferred with the head judge, who ultimately agreed with us. We had a stern talk with the spectator regarding keeping their mouths shut and moved on.
- American bison. Best food or perfect food?
I’m glad I decided to come to GP Atlanta, despite the long flights. A good time was had by all. Now to cart those boxes back across the country…
I nearly forgot one of the more entertaining judge calls of the day!
Player A casts Ponder. He looks at the top two cards of his library, and before he takes the third from the top of his library to look at it, he says, “Wait a minute, I forgot my draw for the turn!” What do you do?