Improperly Determining a Winner is a when a player offers to use or both players actually use some random factor or method to determine the winner of a match. In the Infraction Procedure Guide, it is an unsporting conduct infraction, as suggesting or actually doing this is considered to be harmful to those players that do play their matches and report the actual winner.

The most common way this situation arises is if a player offers to roll a die or flip a coin to determine the winner of a match. This most often happens after the time limit and five extra turns are completed. Using or offering to use some other semi-random method like rock / paper / scissors to determine a winner also falls under this infraction.

It is somewhat understandable as to why players feel the need to have one player win. In many cases, a draw does not benefit either player. So players in a match will try to benefit at least one of them. This is an unsporting penalty as it is not fair for a player to win a match via a random method like a coin flip and have the same match result as someone who actually won the match.

The penalty that is applied to players that either offer to or do determine a winner via one of these methods is a disqualification. As with all other situations, if you have a question or concern, please call a judge over to confirm what is or is not legal. If an opponent offers to randomly determine a winner, call a judge.