For those of you that don’t know, there are different ‘rules enforcement levels’ (RELs) for Magic tournaments. The one we’ll talk about today is Regular REL. This is the level you can expect at most events; Prereleases, Release Parties, Game Days, FNMs, etc. At this REL, the Infraction Procedure Guide (the document that Judges use to determine penalties and fixes and all that jazz) is not used. The focus of Regular REL is fun, community and education. At this REL, there’s no mistake that gets you a Game Loss or a Match Loss (or even an official Warning).

There are basically two kinds of errors, which are spelled out by the “Judging at Regular REL” document. The vast majority of errors are simple to fix, so the judge will fix the problem, if possible, and remind each player to be more careful in the future. This is a Caution, not a Warning; it is unrecorded. While highly unusual, it is possible to earn yourself a Game Loss if you continuously make the same kind of error after the judge has asked you more than once to be careful about it. Most of the time the judge’s reminder is enough to clean up sloppy play, however.

The other category of errors are what we call VBT: Very Bad Things. For things like cheating, violence/aggressive behavior, theft, and other Very Bad Things, the player will be disqualified. The most common VBT that occurs is for new players (or players who are used to other games that encourage this behavior) who offer to roll a die or use some other random method to determine the winner of a match. This is strictly prohibited, and follows a zero-tolerance policy. Please never do this, and call a judge if you see someone else doing this!

Today’s Tournament Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez, Level 1 judge from Roswell, NM