Effective Judging

Much has been written about almost every aspect of Magic.  Articles
have discussed deck construction and tuning, sideboard assembly
and strategies, metagame approaches to the tournament and even
the most effective psychological tactics.  One area that has been
ignored can be the key to an event's success, and that is organizing
and judging the tournament.  The performance of a small handful of
people will determine how many will enjoy the event.

In my experience, there is no substitute for planning and preparation. 
Something will always go wrong, and what makes a great judge is the
ability to anticipate problems and plan ahead.  Nearly as important is
a customer focus and realizing that you are supplying a service to the
gamers.  There are twelve points that I have developed during my
years as a judge in wargames, in roleplaying events, and in Magic
tournaments.  Following these will not guarantee a great event, but
they will allow you to avoid some of my worst experiences.

BE KNOWLEDGEABLE   Develop and maintain an encyclopedic
knowledge of the rules.  

The judge needs to know all the rules in the book.  Beyond that, he
needs to understand the structure behind the rules and the way the
rules hang together.  Without a clear understanding of the rules, you
will make errors when called upon to judge.  There are many
resources available for a judge.  The best of these are the D'Agostino
collected rulings, and the DCI Oracle.  Both are available on the net
and can be found through WotC's web site.  Print out and bind a copy
of the rules (not the card rulings - the rules) and read the whole thing. 
Three times.  Yes, that's how many times it takes most people to get
a good grasp of rules.  The first reading will get you the rough
structure of the rules, and you will be shocked at how many you didn't
understand.  The second reading will let you remember many of them
and the last reading will sharpen your understanding and help you
remember the rest. You should also consider apprenticing yourself to
an experienced judge if there is one available.  They can often help
explain the finer points of the rules and you can learn a lot by
observing them.

Next, you need to know the cards themselves.  Sit down with a spoiler
list and review all the cards.  There are a lot of cards out there and
you don't want to be blindsided in the middle of an event by an
unfamiliar one.  Also review the card specific rulings, and be familiar
with them.  Finally, you'll need to know the tournament rules.  You
need to understand each of the tournament forms, the floor rules, and
the guidelines.  You can't judge rule violations if you're not familiar
with them.  Many of the players will be very familiar with the floor
rules, and will stretch them to the limit looking for an advantage.  ("I'm
not breaking the rules, I'm just testing their elasticity.")  You need to
know the rules for self defense.

BE COMMERCIAL  Advertise your event as widely as possible

An event cannot be successful if no-one comes.  Word of mouth is
not enough.  You need to print fliers, then post them, have them at
prior events, pass them out, and encourage dealers to talk up the
event.  Advertise, push, pester, bother, print, talk, talk, talk.  I've made
the mistake of figuring that someone else was advertising my event. 
The result?  A world championship qualifier tournament for all of Tx,
Ok, & La that was attended by less than 100 people.  It was so poorly
advertised that I'll bet most of you never knew we ever had one in
Houston.

BE PREPARED  Complete your preparations well in advance of the
event

A well-run event requires preparation.  You need to consider the
number of players you expect, and have the facilities prepared to
handle up to twice that many (expect the unexpected).  Know where
the exits, phones, bathrooms, and local food places are.  Come
prepared with a full set of rules, including the specific rules for the
events being played and current lists of legal and illegal cards.  Bring
paper and pencils for the gamers to keep score, trash bags for the
inevitable gamer detritus, and spare land cards and commons for the
unprepared.  Oh, and always apply for sanctioning at least three
months early, or you may suddenly be running an unsanctioned event.


BE ORGANIZED  Develop a clear plan for the event

Figure out in advance how you will organize the rounds, when you will
break for meals, how you will handle the players who finish rounds
early (and those that run late).  Figure out how you will arrange the
gamers on the tables, how they will report results, and how you will
record those results and keep track of them.  This may sound like
preparation, and it is similar, but preparation involves getting the site
prepared and organization is figuring out how to handle the actual
event.

BE CLEAR  Open the event with a review of your plans and the
pertinent rules

All the organization in the world won't help if the gamers don't know
what you're doing.  Open the event with a series of announcements,
reviewing the rules you be using, the general rules on sportsmanship,
and what  behavior you expect.  Let the gamers know how you have
scheduled the rounds, where the facilities are, what is an infraction of
the rules and what will happen if they break them.  If you let them
know everything in advance, they can't claim they didn't know.  They
will anyway, but this gives them fewer excuses.

BE PROMPT  Stay on top of  your schedule

The easiest thing to do in a gaming event is to lose track of time.  If
you lose only 5 minutes every round, you'll be half an hour late by the
end of 5-6 rounds.  If you lose ten minutes each round, things get
really ugly.  Sooner or later you'll need to clear out of your location,
and you don't want to be pushing up  against that deadline if possible. 
The best solution?  Figure out how long each round will last, add the
time you will need for record keeping, then add an extra five minutes
(ten if you're easily distracted).  This is how long each round will really
take.  Multiply by the of rounds in your event to get a schedule you
can keep.  Another way to stay on top if it is to encourage the gamers
to give you results as their individual matches end.  This lets you
avoid having to record everything at once.  To summarize: have a
plan, explain your plan, and stick with the plan.  Improvisation is for
amateurs.

BE A LEADER  Find and train a good support staff

A single judge can handle 32 players, maybe 64 if he's good.  Once
you have more than that, you will really need help with your judging. 
Your assistant judges should know the rules well, be stable, reliable
people you can trust to make calls on their own but come to you if
they're not sure.  Depending on how good you are at clerical tasks,
you may also need someone to handle the results and documentation
for you.  Developing and keeping a good staff is the key to running
large events.  Without one, you can only run small tournaments.

BE HUMBLE  Don't be afraid to ask opinions, it's not a sign of
weakness.

There's only one man who knows all the rules in Magic, and he lives
in Seattle, so if you're reading this you probably know only most of the
rules.  Never be afraid to ask someone at the tournament their
opinion about a ruling.  Make sure you pick someone impartial about
the ruling and knowledgeable about the rules.  I make it a practice to
check a ruling with two other experienced players if I'm not sure.  You
should know at the beginning of an event who can help you with rules
questions.  The one to avoid is the one who claims to have seen a
ruling last night on the web.  Sometimes they're right, but usually they
are stretching the rules in their favor.  Check the official sites yourself
the night before, and if you didn't see it, it didn't exist.

BE DECISIVE  Make the hard calls

You have to make the final decision.  Get all the information you can,
let both sides of the issue make their cases, get opinions from others,
ask your assistant judges, and check the rule book.  Then make the
call and stick with it.  Even if you're wrong.  Don't try to take it back
and don't be inconsistent in applying the rules.  That will make
everyone lose confidence in you.  If you're not sure about it, try to get
more opinions.  But eventually you'll need to make a decision.  That's
why you're there.

BE CRUEL  Never be nice to anyone

"Be cruel" may sound like very strange advice on how to run a
tournament well, but everybody wants to be a Nice Guy, because
Nice Guys are popular and loved by all.  There will always be a great
temptation to let someone slide, to give someone a few extra
minutes, to forgive a minor mistake in play.  Recognize that if you're
being nice to one player, you're being unfair to his opponent, who
should by rights benefit from his opponent's mistake.  Your goal in
running an even is to be lawful neutral.  There is no Good, there is no
Evil, there are only the rules.  You must be as impartial and
unemotional as possible.  There are only the rules and they must be
absolute.  Breaking them must carry the same penalty every time. 
There is no Nice.

BE CUSTOMER FOCUSED  Remember that you're there for them

At the same time, you must remember that you're running the event
for the players.  They are paying good money for the privilege of
playing in your event, and they deserve full value for their dollar.  Do
your best to keep them happy, without ever breaking your position of
neutrality and impartiality. If you follow the guidelines above, the
gamers should already be happy, but the final element is your
attitude.  When you make a ruling against someone, explain why its
necessary and never judge in malice (even if they really deserve it). 
Be friendly, be helpful, and be willing to help, and you will complete
their experience and get a reputation as a good judge.

BE DEPENDABLE  Follow through on your commitments

If the event is sanctioned, make sure you send in the results as soon
as possible, if it is not, be sure you follow through on any other
commitments.  Make sure everyone gets their prizes.  Make sure that
you return any lost cards or other possessions to their owners.  Live
up to any promises you make during the event.

Seems simple, huh?  Most of these rules are only common sense, but
are often only learned the hard way.  Remember, any fool can learn
from his own mistakes.  The wise man learns from other's mistakes. 
Hopefully you can learn from mine.

Copyright 1998 Eric Nussberger