As a round of an fnm is ending you see that you are missing 1 result slip. You look to find their table and you don't see them. You ask around and find out that the players in question are playing their match across the street. Minutes later they return before time in the round has ended. What do you do?

Ask them why they did it, then ask them politely not to do it again, as a first reaction.

Is there any policy against it? Players claimed the shop was too hot.

Originally posted by Frank Rodriguez:

Is there any policy against it? Players claimed the shop was too hot.

As the TO, decisions like that would fall under your discretion. However, I can think of a lot of reasons to discourage this behavior - especially if the players aren't even checking in with you about it in advance.

But AFAIK, you won't find any official policy on this. If the adjacent business is fine with their space being used, and you're fine trusting the players to conduct their match without any support or supervision, there's nothing technically stopping you.

My biggest concern would be that players are physically leaving the store due to discomfort. If that's a regular concern, it might be worth discussing with the store owner.

MTR 1.10 states that players are responsible for “Being physically present for the tournament.”

I do not believe there is any policy specifically addressing this situation, but it is objectively problematic and should be stopped. I would ask the players not to do this again and explain to them how this behavior can threaten tournament integrity.

http://wiki.magicjudges.org/en/w/MTR:1.10

Originally posted by Glenn Fisher:

My biggest concern would be that players are physically leaving the store due to discomfort. If that's a regular concern, it might be worth discussing with the store owner.

This, one thousand percent. As store judges, we have to notice problems like this, come up with creative temporary solutions, and once we're out of the immediate situation, fix it. Take some time to explain to the store owner why it's a good idea for his customers to want to remain in the store— hopefully, that's fairly obvious to them.

As for handling that situation, it's up to you. If you disallow players to play outside the store, briefly explain your reasoning during your opening announcements. If you allow it, be prepared to check in on them from time to time.

I have a similar issue at my LGS. People will finish a match, not report, and leave the premises to go get food or smoke or something. And it's annoying because the round ends and we're waiting on a match, and with both players gone, we can't really do much but wait for them to get back, which isn't fair to everyone else.

I'm wondering if it's too harsh that if players can't be found to just drop them and pair the next round.

Originally posted by Hank Wiest:

I'm wondering if it's too harsh that if players can't be found to just drop them and pair the next round.

Another possibility could be to enter their result as a draw and pair the next round. This has the downside that you are still waiting for them, and might be too unfair to their new opponents, but the up side that it is likely to annoy them slightly less when they get back as they are still in the tournament (while still teaching a lesson about reporting results).

One thing to be careful of: if you have announced an end time for the round in some way, and the round finishes early (with the exception of the missing players), you probably shouldn't take extreme measures to push the tournament forwards again until the pre-announced round end time.

Originally posted by Kim Warren:

Hank Wiest
I'm wondering if it's too harsh that if players can't be found to just drop them and pair the next round.

Another possibility could be to enter their result as a draw and pair the next round. This has the downside that you are still waiting for them, and might be too unfair to their new opponents, but the up side that it is likely to annoy them slightly less when they get back as they are still in the tournament (while still teaching a lesson about reporting results).

One thing to be careful of: if you have announced an end time for the round in some way, and the round finishes early (with the exception of the missing players), you probably shouldn't take extreme measures to push the tournament forwards again until the pre-announced round end time.

Now when you say “announced an end time” do you mean physically saying “this round will end at X time”, or does using the timer in WER fall under that as well?

Using the timer would imply an end time, and it's reasonable for a player to assume they have X minutes to get back before they're late (where X is what's left on the clock).

d:^D

Originally posted by Scott Marshall:

Using the timer would imply an end time, and it's reasonable for a player to assume they have X minutes to get back before they're late (where X is what's left on the clock).

d:^D

That's what I thought, and in the event the round does end early and there are people missing, we don't get annoyed until the timer hits zero. It's after it does and we still can't find the players that gets irritating.

Well if it's an issue with multiple people then perhaps announcing end of rounds times might be a good idea, at least for a while to reinforce its importance. Or perhaps print out that time and stick it next to the exit so everybody who walks out sees when he has to be back?

Edited Toby Hazes (March 5, 2015 09:01:20 PM)

“Attention players! Welcome to Round 3. This round will end at 7:35. You may begin.” Then take a sheet of paper and write that time in big numbers on the wall.

Players will (almost) never look at their watch and see when the round ends if you say 50 minutes. If you say the round end time, maybe 10% will remember it and that you posted it. This makes for 10% fewer people asking you how much longer in the round. When they do, you can point at the sheet, and hopefully they remember to look at that next round.