Judges, I need your help. This is not a rules question about Magic, nor a rules question about the IPG or MTR. My problem is obtaining the mentality needed to judge Competitive-level Magic tournaments.

My experience in the Magic community has been overall positive. I mostly judge Prereleases, helping players to play correctly, without coaching strategy. As I read Knowledge Pool scenarios, and as I review my own few Competitive judging experiences, I am noticing that I would rather help the player as a Customer Service representative, then slap them with a Warning or a Game Loss due to not playing correctly. I see a lot of players play in a friendly, or at least professional, manner. When a player calls a judge over, there must be some amount of angst on behalf of that player that he or she might receive a Warning for Failure to Maintain Game State. And there must be some amount of resentment on the part of the player receiving a Warning for Game Play Error due to not paying as close attention to the game as they should have. I would rather walk the aisles of a Competitive Tournament as a resource, referee, arbiter, and friend; not as a letter-of-the-law cop looking for ways to slap a Warning on a player. I'm sure honest players get more nervous when we watch their games, not less, knowing that if they made a mistake when they weren't watching, their opponent would just them have what they missed.

So I ask in sincerity; how do I get my mind to shift from Regular REL, customer-service oriented judge, to Competitive REL, by-the-IPG-book rules lawyer, with the authority to issue permanent Warnings on a player's record for small mistakes he or she might make? I want the players in both kinds of tournaments to have a great time, and not to worry about calling me for help. So how do I do that in my head? How do I change my thinking?

I don't think that it is a mind-shifting issue, but understanding what do
you expect from players at a certain REL is key. You can find it defined on
MIPG1.1:

“ Rules Enforcement Level is a means to communicate to the players and
judges what expectations they can have of the event in terms of rigidity of
rules enforcement, technically correct play, and procedures used.

The REL of an event will increase based on the prizes awarded and the
distance a player may be expected to travel. People who travel further are
often more competitive and are likely to desire more precise adherence to
rules and procedures. The REL of the event reflects this.

Regular
=======
Regular events are focused on fun and social aspects, not enforcement. Most
tournaments are run at this level unless they offer sizeable prizes or
invitations. Players are expected to know most of the game rules, may have
heard of policy and what is “really bad”, but generally play in a fashion
similar to the way he or she does at home. Players are still responsible
for following the rules, but the focus is on education and sportsmanship
over technically precise play. Handling infractions in these tournaments is
covered by the Judging at Regular REL document.

Competitive
===========
Competitive events are usually those with significant cash prizes or
invitations awarded to Professional events. Players are expected to know
the game’s rules—but not to a technically detailed level—and be familiar
with the policies and procedures, but unintentional errors are not punished
severely. These are events that protect the interests of all players by
providing event integrity while also recognizing that not all players are
intimately familiar with Professional-level event structure, proper
procedures, and rules.

Professional
============
Professional level events offer large cash awards, prestige, and other
benefits that draw players from great distances. These events hold players
to a higher standard of behavior and technically correct play than
Competitive events.”

We know players are not flawless, but the higher the REL, the more
expectations we have about their technical play.
El feb 15, 2015 12:03 AM, “Roger Dunn” <

Also what will help is hearing HOW to deliver a ruling from others with competitive event experience.



________________________________
From: Julio Sosa <forum-16246-7ac1@apps.magicjudges.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2015 7:18 PM
To: Heckt, Andy
Subject: Re: Obtaining the Competitive Judge Mentality (Competitive REL)

I don't think that it is a mind-shifting issue, but understanding what do
you expect from players at a certain REL is key. You can find it defined on
MIPG1.1:

“ Rules Enforcement Level is a means to communicate to the players and
judges what expectations they can have of the event in terms of rigidity of
rules enforcement, technically correct play, and procedures used.

The REL of an event will increase based on the prizes awarded and the
distance a player may be expected to travel. People who travel further are
often more competitive and are likely to desire more precise adherence to
rules and procedures. The REL of the event reflects this.

Regular
=======
Regular events are focused on fun and social aspects, not enforcement. Most
tournaments are run at this level unless they offer sizeable prizes or
invitations. Players are expected to know most of the game rules, may have
heard of policy and what is “really bad”, but generally play in a fashion
similar to the way he or she does at home. Players are still responsible
for following the rules, but the focus is on education and sportsmanship
over technically precise play. Handling infractions in these tournaments is
covered by the Judging at Regular REL document.

Competitive
===========
Competitive events are usually those with significant cash prizes or
invitations awarded to Professional events. Players are expected to know
the game’s rules—but not to a technically detailed level—and be familiar
with the policies and procedures, but unintentional errors are not punished
severely. These are events that protect the interests of all players by
providing event integrity while also recognizing that not all players are
intimately familiar with Professional-level event structure, proper
procedures, and rules.

Professional
============
Professional level events offer large cash awards, prestige, and other
benefits that draw players from great distances. These events hold players
to a higher standard of behavior and technically correct play than
Competitive events.”

We know players are not flawless, but the higher the REL, the more
expectations we have about their technical play.
El feb 15, 2015 12:03 AM, “Roger Dunn” <

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I suspect this thread will generate tons of comments.
So I will just add this one:
You dont “slap players with a warning”. You dont *give* penalties.
Players *earn* them. Penalties are re-active, an effect of a cause. We
dont assign them arbitrarily, the are assigned based on a document that
everyone has access to, and implicitly agrees to when entering the event.

Penalties don't exist to give sadistic judges the ability to inflict pain
on defenseless players. Penalties exist to reduce the chance the error will
happen again. A player who receives a penalty for an action is less likely
to make the same error in the future. Generally they are meant to be
something tangible to reinforce the lesson that they should be more careful
in the future.

Your impression of Competitive judges is a bit off. No matter what REL or
event you are judging, being a Magic judge is always a customer service
oriented position. The majority of calls are NOT awarding penalties, but
rather all of the same things you do at Regular REL: rules questions,
oracle text, questions about prize or about the venue itself. Your primary
focus is still exactly the same. Yes, you will occasionally also award
penalties, but don't think of that as an undue burden on the receiving
player. Rather penalties help ensure fairness to their opponent, who may
have otherwise been put at a disadvantage by a mistake they had no hand in.

There is also definitely an art to how you deliver a ruling. You are still
providing customer service even as you deliver a penalty. There are ways to
communicate the importance and seriousness of the penalty yet still be
helpful, friendly, and fair.

We aren't rules-lawyers. We aren't traffic cops. We are there as a
resource, and to ensure the integrity of the event.

Nick Short
Chicago, IL, USA

One of the things that helped me was realizing that I wan't handling out penalties, the players were earning them. And when delivering rulings, I'm careful to say it that way. I'm finding that X happened, which means that rules/policy says that Y needs to happen.

And as bad as is might feel to them at the time, 99% of the time it just doesn't matter. Experienced players know this. And newer players are often comforted with being told this… as long as you don't do this 2 more times today, you've got nothing to worry about. (this one can be “interesting” when dealing with young players new to competitive magic.)

And if they get upset about it, I try to focus on the consistency. Some variation on “Look, I know you're not cheating, but cheaters are out there. And in order to be able to handle them properly, we have a set of policies that we have to consistently follow” usually helps twiddle their mindset from “you're penalizing me” to “you're trying to protect me from bad folks, and I'm putting myself in a funny spot”.

It's the same thing your'e doing at Regular, just with the increased stakes, your customer service role takes on a slightly different scope. But if you can make that transition to seeing the slightly larger picture, your customer service instincts can server you and your players very well.

Customer service is a multi-way street. You are there to serve the interests of all the players. What you view as “bad customer service” when you give one player a penalty is “good customer service” for the X-1 other players as well as the TO because you are maintaining the integrity of the event.

It most times doesn't matter for a player to recieve a Warning and if you deliver your ruling accordingly I would like to say that there are none who become upset, but maybe there are some.
When I ruled my first Game Loss I was also very nervous because I didn't know how the player would react and I had enough time before it to think about it (it was a D/DL-Problem because he only registered 59 cards). However, I was very suprised by the way the player took it. He made a joke about himself not beeing able to count and was happy to add the missing card to his decklist to have no further problems in the tournament with it. This trend continued and while only few are joking about it, the most take it very good. I even heard from a player that he is happy about judges watching his game because he knows himself to be sloppy sometimes and he wants to play fair magic. In fact I only had one upset person, but I offered to speak with him between the rounds and after we spoke he understood the reason for the ruling.

I hope this little report from a fellow L1's first experiences helps you :) To summarize: In very most cases there is a good way to connect customer service and your ruling. Besides the most players are happy we're watching over them and take rulings very well.

Pretty much what everyone else has said, its not that we are looking to give out penalties. They are there to protect the game / tournament. I used to be the same way, honestly - hell, all of us probably were at one point. From level 5's to newly minted Judges, I am sure we all asked ourselves this question.

And as for Andy's suggestion - I always explain that a Warning is … well, just that: a Warning. I tell them not to dwell on it at all, because all players make mistakes and the key is to learn from them and not make too many more. This usually puts them at ease.

Granted, I dont have the depth of experience as some others who have responded but I am sure that they will agree.

On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 2:05 PM, Roger Dunn
<forum-16246-14bc@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:
> When a player calls a judge over, there must be some amount of angst on
> behalf of that player that he or she might receive a Warning for Failure to
> Maintain Game State.

You might want to understand more around why a player calls for a
judge. They call because things have gone off the rails and they want
the fair and impartial judge to give the fair and impartial remedy to
get the game back on the rails. Part of that solution may be warnings
or worse. But regardless the fact the judge is giving them is better
as they are fair and impartial. The other option is arguing with their
opponent over the right way to fix it, even if they get there way they
may then later be accused of cheating.

Fair and impartial judge give players the method they need to get the
game back on the rails with a minimum of fuss and angst.

There's a few points I want to make here. The first isn't meant to be a discouragement towards judging at competitive REL, though it may sound like one.

1) Not every judge needs to be a Competitive REL judge just as not every player needs to be a competitive level player.

Just as there are players who enjoy casual magic, players who prefer FNM to big tournaments, and players who thrive in a highly competitive environment; there are judges who do the same. I think of the comparison of a friendly pickup game of baseball compared vs community baseball leagues, to pro games that requires four+ umpires. If you're only looking to have some fun with friends you don't need an umpire. If you're playing in some sort of community league you need someone to call balls and strikes but that's about it. But when you're playing in the World Series you need a handful of people who are trained and interested in working at that level. Just because you prefer working at the community ball level doesn't mean you aren't a good umpire but playing “with the pros” is a different scene and it is not something that everyone (players and judges alike) are interested in. For every game of Competitive magic played, there are probably ten played at Regular REL. For every game played at regular, there are probably 100+ non sanctioned games.

2) Competitive events are only fun because the rules are enforced fairly.

I understand the desire to be helping people instead of handing out penalties. But in truth, by handing out penalties you are making sure the participants in the events are following the rules. The least fun events I've been in of any kind where those where people weren't held accountable to the rules. The role of Regular REL is fun, the role of Competitive REL is fair. When you pay $50 to play in an event that you could win thousands of dollars of stuff in, fairness is a prerequisite for fun.

3) Competitive events are professional.

When judging at Competitive REL I consider myself being a “professional” judge. I have been hired and paid to ensure that this tournament takes place within the regulations of the game. This doesn't mean you can't be friendly with players, but you should behave like you are “on the clock”. You are a hired resource, referee, and arbiter for players, some of whom have invested thousands of dollars to play this tournament. They deserve an event run within the rules and you are there to give it to them.

4) The rules are set up in a way that not calling a judge is a big deal.

The IPG is very clearly set up such that not calling a judge when one is needed is a “very bad thing”. In order to preserve the tournament integrity for all players this is necessary because Magic events are based on an honest reporting model rather than a direct oversight model. We do not have multiple judges watching each individual game of Magic and we can not catch everything could go wrong at an event. We rely on player honesty in ways that are unimaginable in many competitive sports. Therefore, players who decide not to call a judge when they notice an issue are likely to end up on the wrong side of a very unenjoyable conversation. Fear that you may not be called for assistance should be mitigated by the fact that not calling a judge is always a worse option.

Overall, you might want to think about why you want to judge competitive events. My local store has only a small handful of Competitive REL players, most players don't play in competitive events. You shouldn't be looking to judge at Competitive events just because that's what higher level judges do. You should be looking to judge them because you enjoy the experience of making sure everything is fair for a large number of players who are seriously competing for a significant prize. That's why the penalties exist in the first place.

Judges: You are amazing. You have been able to explain my role at Competitive events in such a way that much of my fear has been assuaged. You have been able to help me understand the customer service side from the point of view of both players and judges, and for that, I am thankful. I have been able to mentally merge these two superficially-disparate roles.

@Marc DeArmond: I really appreciate your comments as well. The thought of advancing to Level 2 has scared me and I have often not felt up to the task. Your question to me is one I have asked myself several times: why would I want to be a competitive-level judge? The answer is simple and at the heart of my question: area customer service. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

I live in Utah. There are only two L2's in the entire state, and only two L3's. There are no L2's in my entire county. I wouldn't have considered becoming an L2 before the advent of a new event type: PPTQ's. Stores in this valley want to run them, but they require an L2 as Head Judge. Our only L2's are quite busy and have to travel pretty far to judge events down here. I want to become an L2 just so I can help out; so I can share someone's load; so I can be a resource to stores in my area. The existence of PPTQ's is why I want to judge Competitive level events and that's it. Were it not for those, I would be content to remain an L1.