Hello,

Some of you already know about it, but it's time to let all of you know: I have been working on creating a blog about documents and tournaments

Its name is Whats Up Docs and it aims at gathering Philosophy articles to expand on the documents, as well as giving tips on how to handle some specific situations that can happen at tournaments (for instance, counting cards when a player claims there has been DEC will be available soon)

I've tried to design it like a wiki, with many words/concepts directly linking to another page where the reader can get info on these words/concepts.
Credit for setting that up goes to Daniel Kitachewsky.

Barring the previous Philosophy articles, the first two articles that the blog will feature are about the new decklist counting procedure: One is about the philosophy of the changes, the other is about how to make it work in practice.

Here's the blog's link: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/

Enjoy reading!

Kevin.

Hey,

At first I felt like publishing one article a month, so as to not lack content too early, but Dublin made me feel like posting some quick thoughts about Communication:
Here's the link: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2013/10/15/dialogues-of-the-non-deaf/

Enjoy!

Kevin.

Hey,

I've published another article recently: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2014/01/15/one-cant-do-it-alone-considerations-on-team-leading/

Enjoy :)

Kevin.

Hello,

A small post to let you know I've published quite a few articles in the last 2 months:
- GP Los Angeles HJ Report
- GP New Jersey HJ Report
- GP Milan HJ Report
- From counting cards to reconstructing game states
- Investigating: The Role of the Floor Judge

http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/

Kevin.

Just posted my GP San Jose Report, with real organic chunks of:
1- Management position tips
2- Life totals discrepancy/card counting

http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/02/27/612/

Enjoy!

Kevin.

Edited Kevin Desprez (Feb. 27, 2015 04:27:35 AM)

Hello,

I've posted two articles recently:
First, my PT DC Report, for which I was the Head Judge
Then, an article named Preventing Serious Problems™

The first one looks more appealing but don't miss out the second one. It's about encouraging a behaviour that we, High Level Judges, believe is necessary to make players feel better at tournaments :)

Kevin.

Just posted a Report from the PRs I played in.
It's been quite busy judge-wise ;)

Kevin.

Nice. I like the advice on Prize Structure!

From: Kevin Desprez
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 9:25 AM
To: Heckt, Andy
Subject: Re: Whats Up Docs? — A blog about the reasoning behind policies and tournament procedures (Un-official Announcements)


Just posted a Report from the PRs I played in<http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/03/26/pr-dtk-a-judge-report-from-a-player/>.
It's been quite busy judge-wise ;)

Kevin.

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Yeah - I've been trying to teach people exactly that re: prize structure
for years. It's sticking well at my local events, but some TO's don't
understand it well when explained. Thanks for giving me much better tools
for the explanation.

oli

On 26 March 2015 at 16:33, Andrew Heckt <
forum-6255-be45@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:

> Nice. I like the advice on Prize Structure!
>
> From: Kevin Desprez
> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 9:25 AM
> To: Heckt, Andy
> Subject: Re: Whats Up Docs? — A blog about the reasoning behind policies
> and tournament procedures (Un-official Announcements)
>
>
> Just posted a Report from the PRs I played in<
> http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/03/26/pr-dtk-a-judge-report-from-a-player/
> >.
>
> It's been quite busy judge-wise ;)
>
> Kevin.
>
> ——————————————————————————–
> If you want to respond to this thread, simply reply to this email. Or view
> and respond to this message on the web at
> http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/post/110637/
>
> Disable all notifications for this topic:
> http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/noemail/6255/
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>
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–
If once a man indulges himself in murder,
very soon he comes to think little of robbing;
and from robbing he comes next to drinking
and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility
and procrastination.
- Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
(Thomas de Quincey - 1859)

I'm no sure where I got this from or who originally came up with it. This is the best method for prize at most medium to small events.

It requires a bit of basic algebra. And it only works for 4 round events.


For a 4 round swiss tournament (regardless of # of players), here is the prize breakdown:
4-0 (12 points) = 2X
3-0-1 (10 points) = 1.5X
3-1 (9 points) = X
2-0-2 (8 points) = .75X
2-1-1 (7 points) = .5X

For each player who finishes at one of those records, you add their values to the total “point total”. So if there is one 4-0, two 3-0-1 and four 3-1, then the point total is (2X+1.5X*2+X*4) or 9X. Then you take the total prize pool (let's pretend it was $72) and compare it to the total points, and solve for X. So 72=9X, therefore X=8. So the four players going 3-1 get $8 in credit, the two 3-0-1 get $12 and the 4-0 gets $16 (which totals $72). These values can change easily; for example, if there were five 3-1s, then X would equal 7.2, not 8, and if there was another player in the event (with the first standings) then X would equal 8.67. If people have questions about how much store credit goes to what record, and the tournament is NOT finished, you can tell them that since you have a fixed prize pool ($6 per person, for example), and it is divided among a variable number of people with variable records (which you do not know until the tournament ends) then you cannot tell them what they will get until the tournament is over. The person who distributes the prize is, of course, free to use a different system if they REALLY

One note I'd like to add from Kevin's Pre release report is that sometimes the Seeded packs contain cards from other sets in the block. The FRF seeded packs were primarily KTK cards and while there was only one KTK pack, I had three or four white KTK uncommons in my prerelease box. Going back and checking is good, bringing up any evidence is also good. But sometimes the packs don't contain what you expect, especially the seeded packs.

With 18 articles posted in 2015, Whats Up Docs never stopped, unlike announcements of its updates here, so that's a great time to revive them!
Today, I'm posting a report of my Saturday as an Appeals Judge at GP Madrid.
Two main topics covered:

• How to make a decision as to whether a player passed priority or not
  
• Handling cases where a player asks you something that is not what he means to ask.
  

Enjoy the read: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/12/03/gp-madrid-appeals-judge-report/

Kevin.

And this week, this is GP Kobe's Report, with two main topics (again):

• What does a pause mean when it comes to determining whether a Trigger is missed?
  
• An investigation about Fetchlands
  

Enjoy the read: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/12/07/gp-kobe-2015-hj-report/

Kevin.

If you're wondering what we're discussing on the L4-list (or you didn't know it exist but want to know what's in there :p), here's a quick glance at some of the topics recently tackled!

http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2016/01/14/whispers-of-the-muse/

Enjoy!

Kevin.

You would like to know what makes me suspicious and triggers an investigation?
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2016/02/15/investigating-step-0-knowing-when-to-investigate/

Enjoy!

Kevin.