And by hot, I mean 106F during the day, and 100F at night. That’s right sports fans, SCG Las Vegas has come and gone, with only one case of heat exhaustion on the judge staff. The convention hall was in the 80s all day Saturday, which meant we were very thankful for the lighter SCG staff shirts by the end of round 10. Oh yeah, it was a 10 round tournament.
Now, some of you might be thinking, “80F? Didn’t they have air conditioning?” Well, yes, we did, which is why it wasn’t 100F. Apparently the convention center’s AC wasn’t strong enough to remove the heat from a room full of Magic players (Standard event attendance was around 450) while it was 106F outside. Heat pumps are only so efficient, and I’m sure they did their best. Still, it was frustrating that there was nothing to do except sweat it out. Perhaps some doors could have been opened in the hall? Snowball fight? I’m not a Logistics guy. Someone ask Alderfer.
As per usual my room at the Alexis Park had a mechanical malfunction (showerhead diverter problem), and as usual they fixed it as soon as I asked. It’s like they’re using their customers to tell them when to perform repairs, as opposed to doing more routine maintenance. Actually the more I think about that, the more likely it seems. It saves them time and money on having people inspect things, and as long as they’re quick on turnaround (or move people out of their rooms if necessary), customers can’t whine too much. I can’t complain, the room was cheap and the sheets were clean. I didn’t break out the blacklight for a closer inspection, but would you really want to know the results of that any way?
The last SCG event in Vegas, last November, was what I consider my Quinceañera. I was the Head Judge for their Sunday Legacy event and had what I consider to be one of my best leadership performances. I made sure people had the information they needed before they needed it, defused some angry players, and cracked the whip when it needed to be cracked. To be brief, I had high hopes for this event.
Things didn’t go quite so great this time. There were some problems with coverage and turn around that were eventually taken care of, but it required some heat from the TO and head judge to make it happen. Additionally, the inexperience of some of the staff members was not well calibrated for before the event, and so we had to solve some problems on the floor that were caused by judges. The event certainly taught me not to overestimate the hands-on knowledge of newer judges, even if they’ve worked Comp REL events before. This is particularly relevant in the case of judges who have only worked GPTs or maybe one or two PTQs. They probably won’t know things like:
- How to fill out match slips
- Not to give out Game Losses without first going to their Team Leads and Head Judges
- How to answer questions without giving away strategic advice
- What to do at the end of a round
- How to know when they don’t know something and should ask for help
These and other skills that some of us take for granted are not things that appear from the sky. We learned them through experience, repetition, and conversation with other judges. It’s unfair of us as judge leaders to expect people to learn what we did without going through what we have.
With this lesson in mind, I will be pairing L1s off with experienced judges much more readily in the future (especially those who have only worked PTQs or GPTs). I will be doing this even at PTQs, if the tournament allows for it. L1s who want to work competitive events have a lot of work to do to catch up, and if we’re going to have them on staff, we should work to make them the best they can possibly be.
With that, let’s talk about some fun interactions that were had at the event!
- If I +2 my Gideon Jura and then blink it with Venser, the Sojourner, who can my opponent attack during his next turn?
- Can you Stifle a Lion’s Eye Diamond?
- All I have out on the battlefield is a Phantasmal Image copying a Runeclaw Bear. I cast Restoration Angel after my opponent declares attackers. Who do I get to declare as a blocker?
- If I target your Batterskull with the trigger from my Zealous Conscripts, does the Germ token it was attached to go to the graveyard?
There are some more, but I’ll save those for a rainy day.
The answer to last post’s question, which was:
I control a Mogg Flunkies and a Canyon Minotaur. During my upkeep my opponent targets my Flunkies with the first ability of his Courtly Provocateur. What are my legal attacks?
The only legal attack is to attack with both Mogg Flunkies and a Canyon Minotaur. When we’re declaring attackers, we have to fulfill as many requirements as possible while violating no restrictions (with the caveat that we are never forced to pay costs [the Ghostly Prison rule]). The set of attackers that fulfills the most requirements while violating no restrictions is both of our dudes. In they go!