MTR 5.2 Bribery - Rules Resources

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 or enticing someone into making an offer is prohibited and is considered bribery.

Players can drop from an event, concede a match to their opponents, or agree to intentionally draw with their opponents. But they cannot ask for any kind of incentive or make any offer to the opponent in order to get a desired result. Similarly, a player cannot try to influence a player to take any other in-game action. Phrases like “If you concede to me, I’ll give you all my prizes” or “I will concede to you in exchange of half your prizes” are unacceptable, and Bribery results in a Match Loss at Competitive REL. At Regular REL, this kind of behaviour will spark a stern talk between you and the players, but do not disqualify them if they didn’t know that that was not legal. On the other hand, if the players knew that Bribery is not allowed, they are Disqualified for Cheating at all Rules Enforcement Levels.

Basically if the exchange can be summarized by an “if X, then Y” discussion, we are in bribery territory. The “if/then” exchange does not have to be explicit. Implied exchanges are still offers.

Players may not make any offers to tournament officials in an attempt to influence the outcome of a ruling.

Players are also prohibited from attempting to bribe tournament officials, including judges.

It is not bribery when players share prizes they have not yet received in the current tournament and they may agree to such before or during their match, as long as any such sharing does not occur in exchange for any game or match result or the dropping of a player from the tournament.

This statement is for things like: players travelling in a car together agree that any prize money goes towards the hotel room. Or players in a pre-release decide to split the prizes in the last round.

It is not bribery when players in the announced last round of the single-elimination portion of a tournament agree to a winner and how to divide the subsequent tournament prizes. In that case, one of the players at each table must agree to drop from the tournament. Players receive the prizes according to their final ranking.

So this particular rule is a bit funny. Its carving out an exception to the Bribery rules. This is bribery, It’s just not Bribery. In this case though, it is the last round of the single elimination portion of the tournament. No other players can possibly be impacted by the decision. This exception was carved out for old school PTQs where the winner would get an invite to the event and there were pack prizes for 1st and 2nd place. This allowed the players to work out an agreement where the player who wanted the invite gets the invite, and the player that wanted the packs get the packs.
It skirts around the issue of altering the results of the match by having one player dropping from the event, so technically the results weren’t affected by the split because there was not match played.

The result of a match or game may not be randomly or arbitrarily determined through any means other than the normal progress of the game in play. Examples include (but are not limited to) rolling a die, flipping a coin, arm wrestling, or playing any other game.

The result of a Magic game or match should be determined only by playing Magic. No other method is allowed. This often happens near the end of a round when drawing would knock both players out of playoff contention but a concession by one would allow the other to advance. Many inexperienced players do not even realize that randomly determining a winner is illegal; being proactive with Head Judge announcements and late-round vigilance can help judges avoid giving Match Losses to players who otherwise might not know about this rule. See IPG 4.3.

For example, if a judge sees two players who are about to draw without any obvious win conditions on the board, they might simply remind the players that they cannot flip a coin or make any offers to their opponents to induce a concession. The judge might also remind them that they must report the game as a draw unless one of them wins or concedes. This proactive approach provides a better player experience than waiting for a player to say something unfortunate and avoids an unpleasant outcome for everyone.

Players may not reach an agreement in conjunction with other matches. Players can make use of information regarding match or game scores of other tables. However, players are not allowed to leave their seats during their match or go to great lengths to obtain this information.

While opponents may agree to intentionally concede or draw their matches, a group of players may not deliberate whether they should all draw in order to make Top 8, for example. Players may use information about the other matches to make up their minds, but they may not leave their seats during their match or go to other great lengths to obtain additional information.

For instance, players may play their match until the match next to them finishes and agree to draw because that result favors their chances at making Top 8. But they cannot make any extraordinary effort to get the information they want, like pausing the match to recheck the standings or pairings or to find out the results of the match three tables over. Players may not play slowly to wait on relevant matches to finish.

Some Head Judges and Tournament Organizers like to seat the final round’s matches randomly so that the top matches are not clumped together at the first few tables. Random seating makes it harder for players to observe the results of matches near them in standing.

Players in the single-elimination rounds of a tournament offering only cash, store credit, prize tickets, and/or unopened product as prizes may, with the permission of the Tournament Organizer, agree to split the prizes evenly. The players may end the tournament at that point or continue to play. All players still in the tournament must agree to the arrangement.

Example: Before the semifinals of a tournament (in which first place gets 12 packs, second place gets 8 packs and 3rd and 4th get 4 packs each) begins, the players may get permission from the Tournament Organizer to end the tournament, with each player receiving 7 packs.

Example: In the finals of a 1-slot Players Tour Qualifier that offers a travel award and an invitation to the winner, the two finalists may agree to split the tournament prizes, but this agreement cannot alter the results of the match. One player must drop from the tournament, leaving the travel award and the invitation to the player who did not drop from the tournament. That player is then free to split the remainder of the prizes as agreed upon. The travel award and invitation are a single item and may not be split.

Note that, for the event to end at this point, players need to agree which of them is dropping, and the results must be reported as a “Win By Drop,” since no match took place. A prize split before the finals is only allowed when are no prizes other than cash and/or unopened product. If an invite or some other non-cash, non-product prize is on the line, then the prize cannot be split before the finals.