So, I'm one of three judges in Erie, and one of two who is usually at my LGS. During competitive level events that I play in, I try to make it clear to the other players that while I am a judge, I'm not there in an official capacity (I am there to play, after all). As such, I don't answer questions about rules interactions or resolving problems, preferring to get the attention of the other judge and let him resolve the issue. The problem I come across is that the other judge is also the store owner, and he sometimes has his hands full with customers, leading to delays in rulings.

My ultimate question is this: If someone were to ask me, or any other player, for that matter, for Oracle text, or the legality of a scenario, or how an interaction works, am I allowed to provide that answer? My gut tells me no, and that's the line I've been taking thus far.

When in the event as a player, you are exactly that.your judge status doesn't mean anything when you are not an official of the event. Certainly at Regular REL, go ahead and educate. At Competitive REL, wait for the judge. You may discuss a ruling as a player of course in your own match, but overstepping outside your match could easily become OA.

Originally posted by Nicholas Zitomer:

When in the event as a player, you are exactly that.your judge status doesn't mean anything when you are not an official of the event. Certainly at Regular REL, go ahead and educate. At Competitive REL, wait for the judge. You may discuss a ruling as a player of course in your own match, but overstepping outside your match could easily become OA.

And avoiding OA is certainly a top priority of mine. I do feel kind of bad when people ask me questions and I have to tell them that I'm literally not allowed to answer, but that comes with the territory, I guess.

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 1:17 PM, Nicholas Zitomer
<forum-25857-4c7f@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:
> Certainly at Regular REL, go ahead and educate.


With the blessing of the TO. Never act as a judge without the blessing
of the TO & Head Judge.

–
Gareth Pye - blog.cerberos.id.au
Level 2 MTG Judge, Melbourne, Australia

Originally posted by Gareth Pye:

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 1:17 PM, Nicholas Zitomer
<forum-25857-4c7f@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:
> Certainly at Regular REL, go ahead and educate.


With the blessing of the TO. Never act as a judge without the blessing
of the TO & Head Judge.

–
Gareth Pye - blog.cerberos.id.au
Level 2 MTG Judge, Melbourne, Australia

At my LGS, I actually am the head judge for FNMs, Game Days, and Prereleases. I think part of the problem is that people get used to calling for me (they just call my name instead of “Judge!”, though I have tried to encourage the latter), and forget that they can't at Comp REL.

Think of it this way:

When you are acting correctly as a player, you are STILL educating other players about the correct way to be players. They need to know what is appropriate player behavior, too. Just because I may know the rules doesn't mean I can just take it upon myself to be a judge. Set a good example as a player and they will respect you even more as a judge.

It also sounds to me like your LGS might need more judges. Are you mentoring someone?

I am now starting to add “please” to the end of my judge calls when I am a
player, in the hopes it will catch on. It's harder to be angry after saying
please.

Dominick Riesland, aka Rabbitball
Creator of the Cosmversal Grimoire
“As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then
their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to
destroy.”
– Christopher Dawson

I have the same thing happen at my LGS, as I usually run FNM and prereleases and other small events, and players usually default to me for rulings or questions even if I'm playing. I find it's helpful when making the announcements at Comp REL events who the judges are and have the players know who to call for a ruling.

As for the TO being the judge and sometimes having their hands full, that would be something to discuss with the TO about having an L1 or even an L0 help with rulings if they are busy.

Edited Sal Cortez (March 29, 2016 01:38:42 PM)

The most that I'll do at a Comp REL event is allow the HJ to ask me if they're not sure of something, purely as a time saving process, rather than them having to call someone else or use online searching or Ask a Judge chat.

Before a competitive event, ask the TO if he's going to have issues (quantity of players in comparisson of judges quantity) about be solving issues and try to fix this somehow or explain him that he has to tell this kind of expected issues to the players and be warned about time delays when the calls are made so they don't feel forgotten in the play area.

During my last tournaments I'm trying a player/tournament experience, what this means, if there's few players (less than 60 for instance, I haven't try this with more yet and i'm not sure if i will) make them feel part of the tournament aspects, time for instance, situations that you can explain (and are allowed to), new decisions that were made in late time, general reminders.
At the end of tournaments, some players always told me that they felt a really good tournament and thats something that they don't usually tell me.

Keep looking how to get the best tournament experience for players, staff and not less important, yourself.