{"id":629,"date":"2015-03-20T14:38:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/?p=629"},"modified":"2016-11-08T15:19:45","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T13:19:45","slug":"preventing-serious-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/2015\/03\/20\/preventing-serious-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing Serious Problems\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First, if you\u2019re wondering why the penalty for Improperly Determining a winner (IDaW) and Bribery is a Disqualification, you should read <a title=\"Bribery and Improperly Determining a Winner\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/2013\/11\/01\/unsporting-conduct-improperly-determining-a-winner-and-bribery\/\" target=\"_blank\">this article<\/a> first. Done? Good, you can proceed reading!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Cheating, knowledge of the rule is not required to identify IDaW and Bribery. This means that sometimes, a player who did not know that what he was doing was wrong is disqualified and may not understand why.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cheating and Cheaters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s forget about the technical difference between Unsporting Conduct and Cheating for a moment, as it\u2019s not relevant from a player\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, most players believe that, if they are disqualified, it means the judge emits a moral judgement about them and treats them of Cheaters. That is understandable but not reality.<br \/>\nWhen talking about IDaW and Bribery, players committed a (very severe) infraction whose associated penalty is a disqualification.<\/p>\n<p>However, if this is very clear to the judge issuing the penalty, it is just as likely very unclear to the player.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s therefore extremely important to make a distinction between players who commit such an offense and Cheaters, i.e. players who aimed at committing cheating.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preventing IDaW and Bribery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We are regularly reminding players, especially at GPs that IDaW and Bribery are DQ-worthy offenses. This has been successful since the number of DQs for these infractions at GPs has gone down.<\/p>\n<p>However, due to practical restraints such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bad acoustics in the hall<\/li>\n<li>Non-English-native players not listening because they can\u2019t understand anyway<\/li>\n<li>Careless players<\/li>\n<li>Announcement happening after the first mistake of the day happened<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is not enough since sometimes, a few ignorant players still make the (severe) mistake.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Proactively act at the table<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As of recently, every time I was watching one of the last tables and players were about to draw and initiated the first words of a concession discussion, I stopped them and said something like:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou seem to be discussing about conceding to each other so before anything happens, I\u2019d like to remind you the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, you cannot roll a die or flip a coin.<\/li>\n<li>Then, you cannot offer anything, including a Prize Split in exchange for a concession.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, you cannot reveal the top cards of your library to see \u201cwho would have won\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, feel free to discuss between yourselves and if you have questions, please ask them to me aside of the table.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve actually heard twice \u201coh we can\u2019t do that?\u201d since I\u2019m actively doing it, which is a good indicator that this is something each of us, judges, need to do.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Catching cheaters, not punishing the innocent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve already been argued that the IPG clearly states that \u201cA judge shouldn\u2019t intervene in a game unless he or she believes a rules violation has occurred [\u2026]\u201d and what I just described actually contradicts this.<br \/>\nThat\u2019s a fair point but it\u2019s invalid here: This sentence is meant to preventing judges from stepping in before, say, \u201cecho wasn\u2019t paid\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The final part of the same sentence reads \u201c[\u2026]or the judge wishes to prevent a situation from escalating.\u201d This is the important part: Two players discussing about conceding to each other are on a slippery slope and the situation can escalate in a mere few words (\u201cHigher roll?\u201d ; \u201cHeads or Tails?\u201d) to the point no compromise is possible.<\/p>\n<p>Also, if for some reason one of the players jumps into the offer, <strong>step in before the other player had a chance to reply<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, these players who do it right in front of judges are not the ones who are dangerous for the integrity of a tournament.<strong> They\u2019re the ones who need to learn how the rules work, and we can make this happen in a smooth way that optimizes everybody\u2019s experience:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Judges helped players<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Players learn from judges<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Judges AND players do not need to live a feel-bad moment<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, do everybody a favor and be proactive about this. And spread the word!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, if you\u2019re still wondering why the answer to these issues is not \u201cso don\u2019t make this a disqualification\u201d, you really need to read <a title=\"Bribery and Improperly Determining a Winner\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/2013\/11\/01\/unsporting-conduct-improperly-determining-a-winner-and-bribery\/\" target=\"_blank\">this article<\/a> again!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Desprez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First, if you\u2019re wondering why the penalty for Improperly Determining a winner (IDaW) and Bribery is a Disqualification, you should read this article first. Done? Good, you can proceed reading! &nbsp; Unlike Cheating, knowledge of the rule is not required to identify IDaW and Bribery. This means that sometimes, a player who did not know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"language":[14],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tournament-procedures","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/whatsupdocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}