Subject: Re: "Cheating Rulings- Out of Hand"
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 16:48:40 -0700
From: "Ryan Miller" <socross@idir.net>
To: <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

I would like to respond to Mr. Levi's post to your fine web page.

    First, I would like to say that I am a judge working at the game center
in Seattle.  I think Mr. Levi's article is the result of what I would call
a common misunderstanding between judges and players.
    While I do not know what situation caused him to write it, I will
assume that some sort of match loss or duel loss was involved.  The thing I
think most players need to know is that we, as judges, cannot go back in
time, and if the mistake ended up giving the player an advantage over his
or her opponent, then some form of penalty is needed.
    Example: Player A is playing a green stompy deck that uses the Wall of
Blossoms/Stampeding Wildebeasts combo.  He has both of these cards in play
during his upkeep, but forgets to pay the wildebeast's upkeep cost.  He
announces he is done and now it is player B's turn.  Player B untaps, draws
a card, and is about to attack, when he realizes player A did not return a
green creature to his hand.  He says "hey, you forgot to pay the
wildebeast's upkeep" to which player A responds " Oops, ok , I'll return
the Wall of Blossoms to my hand and since I would have re-cast it, I'll put
it back into play and draw a card."  Player B then calls a judge.  Can you
see the dilemma caused by this simple mistake?  While I don't think a match
loss is deserved in this case (I would give the player a warning and make
him return a creature to his hand without the opportunity to re-cast it)
you must admit that something must be done.
    Example #2:  During a Pro-Tour Qualifier, using a limited format, a
player is using face-down cards to keep track of his life total.  During a
game, as I was observing, he was asked by his opponent how much life he
had.  he said "I think 11, let me check."  he counted his life-cards and
came to 13.  He then counted his total life cards and came to 22.
Basically, he started this and who knows how many other games with 22 life.
 While I do not think this player was cheating, this mistake gave him a
distinct advantage and was certainly disruptive.  We have no way of knowing
how many of his opponent's decisions were altered because of his
mis-represented life total.  He was given a duel loss and a pen and paper
to keep track of his life total.
    The penalty also varies with the "Power Level" of the tournament.
Something that might net a warning at a local sanctioned tourney, where new
players abound and mistakes will probably be made, might get a duel loss or
worse at a Pro-Tour Event, where players are expected to have a high level
of knowledge of both game rules and DCI floor rules.  Most of the time,
when a player makes a mistake at one of our nightly sanctioned tournaments,
we focus on educating the player as to why the mistake was made rather than
penalizing him or her.
    I hope that this, if only in some small way, clears up some
misconceptions about judges and the DCI.  We're all human (mostly), so
sometimes mistakes will be made.  Please email me with any comments.
Thanks!

Ryan Miller
ryanbmiller@hotmail.com