Judge rules incorrectly + Player miscounts CDA
Asked by Delphen7 3 years ago
I was playing at my LGS and ran into the following situations:
1) A judge was called over to the table next to mine. He was told what happened and made a ruling. However, I happened to know it was an incorrect ruling.
What should I do? (I went up to him afterwards and let him know why it was wrong)
2) The table on my other side (I was bored) was Jund vs Murktide. I noticed that Jund has miscounted his Tarmogoyf’s stats, and both players were operating with incorrect info. I let this one be, but is there something I should’ve done?
Rhadamanthus says... #2
I assume based on the time/day this was posted that the LGS event was FNM or something similar, which would be conducted at "Regular" Rules Enforcement Level (REL). The main goal of Regular REL events is that people have a good time while preserving the integrity of the event. Violations aren't assessed or recorded in the same way as Competitive REL or Professional REL, penalties are only used in cases of serious problems, and communication among players and judges is expected to be more "familiar" versus the "professional" vibe at higher RELs. At all RELs, event integrity is everyone's responsibility and players and judges are expected to work together to keep things running smoothly.
That being said, it would have been fine for you to ask another question in situation #1 to make sure everyone (including you) understood what was going on. "I thought this worked [such and such way] because of [reason]. What's different about this situation?" or something. Exactly what you say will likely depend on how well you know the judge and other people involved.
For situation #2, keep in mind that there might be something you don't know about that the other players do. It should be fine to lead with something like "are you sure about that?" if you think you notice something off. At Competitive REL you'd be allowed (and encouraged) to ask them to pause while you call a judge to assess the situation and sort things out if needed. At Professional REL you can't interrupt them but you do go find a judge.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #1
Since you were not directly involved with either scenario there is no responsibility for you to take any actions. You can encourage the player who would benefit from the correct ruling to appeal to the head judge or give them the information you think you have on the correct way something should have played out if the judge that made the call was the head judge, but it is up to them to advocate for themselves. If the Tarmogoyf's stats were being represented in a physical manner you, as a spectator, could inform a judge of a tournament rules violation you observed of failure to maintain boardstate. However; that seems petty and if you feel an overwhelming desire to step in it would probably be better to just inform the controller.
August 27, 2022 11:59 p.m.