“4.1. Unsporting Conduct — Minor
Definition
A player takes action that is disruptive to the tournament or its participants. It may affect the comfort level of those around the individual, but determining whether this is the case is not required.
Examples
A. A player uses excessively vulgar and profane language.
Additional Remedy
The player must correct the problem immediately. Subsequent Unsporting Conduct — Minor infractions, even for different offenses, will result in a Game Loss.”

Hopfully you all have seen this paragraph befor. Because this is one of the situation that we always want to avoid from the tournament for not make players dislike Magic.

So, if there is a player(A) who swear at his opponent(B) without player knowing, and if he just keep it down so he will not receive any penalty. At this point, the story should be finished,

But! I, the judge, who heared it and know what was player A saying, and the player will immiditely been ruled as Unsporting Conduct — Major because with the word which player A have said was relly bad, and If his opponent have knew what was he saying.

A. Give player A a game loss immiditely because that player have break Magic Tournament Rule, and me, as the judge should follow it.

B. Talk to the player, then give that player a Unsporting Conduct — Minor, and give him a warning even his word was really bad just because his opponent did not understand it.

C.Ignore what just happened. The player was not meaned to be mean to his opponent. He was just wanted to express himself.

In this kind of situation, what would I, or if I would say, what would you choose?



–John

I believe there is one possible routes here, the first one is to give player A a MATCH loss(as per USC- Major).
This is a really big problem, and we need to deal with it from the root, it is not acceptable on any level.
I would talk with player A, explain to him that if I heard him, his opponent heard him as well, and it doesn't matter if he understood it or not. Then I would bring him back to the table, and give him a match loss.

I think that you should always follow the IPG and MTR in official tournaments , and unless it's a very unique situation, you should follow the procedure .

We are judges, and we judge, and each situation is different and unique, but they usually fall under the same template . Some cases are very borderline and those cases we can use our judging to down/up grade the penalty and the remedy.

A language barrier shouldn't be an out to committing USC. As a judge, we can't assume that the opponent didn't understand what was said.

I run into this problem from time to time at work as a college athletics administrator. One of my duties in the past was to listen to the pregame warmup music that teams wanted played before their games. Because we allow the public into games during their warmup time, this music has to be family-friendly (no explicit lyrics, no suggestive themes, etc.). Language was immaterial, because we couldn't assume that, say, a Spanish-language song would be safe by virtue of not being understood. As I (sadly) don't have a strong grasp of any language other than English, it made that job difficult from time to time.

Edited Michael Anderson (Dec. 14, 2015 12:35:25 PM)

Moving to Competitive REL Forum

Originally posted by john bai:

So, if there is a player(A) who swear at his opponent(B) without player knowing, and if he just keep it down so he will not receive any penalty. At this point, the story should be finished,

But! I, the judge, who heared it and know what was player A saying, and the player will immiditely been ruled as Unsporting Conduct — Major because with the word which player A have said was relly bad, and If his opponent have knew what was he saying.

If you can overhear the player, and understand what he said, chances are other people in the venue can do the same, and may feel uncomfortable about that.
It is exactly what IPG tell us: “It may affect the comfort level of those around the individual, but determining whether this is the case is not required.”
So, in my opinion, it's USC Minor anyway.

Originally posted by Michael Anderson:

A language barrier should be an out to committing USC.

I'm assuming you mean “shouldn't be an out”.

I think that there's two examples of what can happen here and they are vastly different.

Option A: A player says something incredibly inappropriate in their native language.
Option B: A player says something that happens to be horribly inappropriate in language they are not familiar with.


I think that there is some room for flexibility when an individual unknowingly makes comments across language barriers that could be construed as offensive. I don't believe there is any flexibility for a player to make disparaging comments in their native language and assuming their opponent can not understand them. USC doesn't require the opponent to take offense, and offense alone isn't enough to cause USC.

Originally posted by Marc DeArmond:

I'm assuming you mean “shouldn't be an out”.

You're correct. I've edited appropriately.

Option A is what exactly am I talking about.

The way I said about that player B did not understand it was bucause that player do not speak that language, and by say “that player just keep it down”, I mean that player A did not answer player B about what did he just said.

If this is the case, player B definitely won't understand what was player A said at all!
and that is why I name this form “gaining advantage from language”

–john

Edited john bai (Dec. 15, 2015 08:54:18 PM)

Additionanly, if someone said bad words in a way, then there is no way to find out that what did that person just said unless you actcully speak that language, and if you do not come into their game, that speach will not effect game at all. By judge a situation that don't actcully effect any thing unless someone point that out, should the player really receive any penalty if that player did not effect the game state, but
effect “me”, the judge?

I'm assuming this situation might happenes a lot in a word event such as GP, PT, world cup, etc.

–john

Originally posted by john bai:

Additionanly, if someone said bad words in a way, then there is no way to find out that what did that person just said unless you actcully speak that language, and if you do not come into their game, that speach will not effect game at all. By judge a situation that don't actcully effect any thing unless someone point that out, should the player really receive any penalty if that player did not effect the game state, but
effect “me”, the judge?

I'm assuming this situation might happenes a lot in a word event such as GP, PT, world cup, etc.

–john

The answer here is a definite yes. Just because the opponent doesn't understand what is being said doesn't mean that it is acceptable behavior at the tournament. USC takes into account far more than just the opponent. It takes into account spectators, judges, TOs, Staff, as well as other players in the tournament. Now someone uttering a single untargeted swear word isn't a big issue. But if someone is basically giving a racist diatribe in a language their opponent can't understand, there needs to be a swift and immediate response.

I would focus on the exact vulgarity word in context. If it is an insult based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation then I will consider this case as USC - Major. I will then bring Player A aside and to identify if the insult is of malicious intent because if it is, then it could be grounds for an upgrade from a Match Loss to a DQ.

I have come across a lot of these cases during Competitive REL tournaments I have judged in. I usually seek to immediately advise the offending player that vulgarities may affect the comfort level of other players around him. I will then inform the HJ and fellow Judges of this behaviour from the offending player and monitor the player closely. Another round of vulgarities will cause him a USC - Minor.

In this particular case, Player B does not seem to be affected negatively by the vulgarity so I will immediately let Player A that his vulgarity in another language is not acceptable as it may affect the comfort level of those around him who understands the vulgarity. I will also talk to him after the match and explain why and how his off vulgar remarks may negatively affect others and advise him to refrain from it.