GPT Orlando - Tarentum; Head Judge Report

Grand Prix Trial Orlando – New Dimension Comics Mills (Tarentum, PA)
Head Judge Report

    Or how to run (or not) a Grand Prix Trial.

    This particular event represents my sixth or so Grand Prix Trial that I have had the fortune to judge in my years in the program. As such, I would like to not only cover some things that occurred in this event in a typical head judge report, but also write in broader strokes about what my fellow judges and Tournament Organizers can do to make these events run smoother.

    Preparation.
    These events take a certain amount of forethought and planning. To run a successful event the TO needs to make sure they have the space, and time to run the event. Provide for some lead time to advertise the event, secure the services of a certified judge such as myself, make sure they have a computer and printer that can be dedicated to the event. Assign someone (sometimes a judge, sometimes not) to keep score. Table numbers, paper cutter, water for parched players and staff – and probably a good number of items that I have failed to mention.

    The point is that as a TO, you need to think of the comfort of your players and staff. Absolutely anything you can do to make the day go smoother is probably a good thing. Jon (My TO on this event) gets a passing score in this department. His store recently underwent an expansion, and we had room for nearly 3 times the number of players we actually hosted (24). Drinks and snacks were on tap, we had a dedicated computer and printer in our room. At the end of the day I'd have to say we put on a successful event for everyone involved.

    I see part of my job as head judge to help the TO prepare. With new TO or ones I have not previously worked with, I try to make sure that they have considered all the things that go into these events. Because if something is forgotten or communication doesn't flow, it often creates a combination of delays or unneeded stress.

    Dealing with new Players.
    Grand Prix Trials are an interesting niche. They are relatively small events that occur on the store level, but they are Competitive Rules Enforcement Level. So you are often faced with players who are playing in their first competitive event. It becomes helpful then to make these events friendly to those players, while maintaining that competitive level. This is most easily done I've found through my Head Judge announcements. I discussed briefly:
    Today is Competitive REL – that simply means that we will hold you to more technically precise play.
    Outside assistance – If someone is involved in a tournament match, make sure that you do not say something that could be construed as play advice. By the same token, if you believe you see a rules issue, you can ask the players to pause the game, and get me involved right away!
    Sealed Deck Swap – You will receive 6 packs of M15. You will be opening these packs, and simply registering the contents of them with the checklists we just passed out. You will not be playing with the cards that you open.

    This is also true at least in part for the top-8 single elimination rounds. Many of your players may have never been in this situation before. It's good to have some instructions prepared for these players.
    Zone Draft – When passing packs, do not stack packs between players!
    Keep your eyes to yourself.
    Please do not discuss the draft in any way.
    You will have a chance to review your picks between packs.
    The rounds you are about to play are still best of 3 matches, the matches are untimed, but we still expect you to play at a reasonable pace.
    The rounds you are about to play are single -elimination rounds.

    Without mentioning names of course, I'm going to mention that we had one particular new player who I now know that this was probably his first ever magic event. As much as I rejoice to see anyone join this awesome hobby – this player is not the target audience for this event. I sincerely hope this player returns to this (or another store) to enjoy magic in the future, but I think allowing him to play at Competitive REL as his first event was probably a disservice.

    Penalties.
    Of course one of the things that is different at Competitive REL, is that we have a very well structured and defined system of penalties, defined by the IPG. And we had a few of those.

    That new player I mentioned before, the pool that he registered was done in a fashion that was rather incomplete and unclear. This was discovered by the player who received the pool at the start of the deck building process. This was also the moment when I became totally aware that this was in fact a brand new player. This falls under the Limited Procedure Violation penalty (warning).
    To resolve this issue, I worked with the player who received this pool. I assisted him in creating a more proper record of the pool.

    The real story was that during round 1, we found 1 deck list with an issue. And – you guessed it, it was this list. The player whom we had saddled with partial responsibility for recording this pool, had forgotten to record the basic land that he was playing. This falls under the deck/decklist problem penalty (Game Loss). However, I opted to downgrade this penalty to a warning for two potent reasons. First, that we had saddled this player with additional responsibility; second – I was collecting deck lists and double-checking them to see that the player had recorded their name and land – and somehow missed this one.

    The only other penalty on the day was another Limited Procedure Violation. This one occurred during our top 8 draft when a player who was between picks of pack 1, reviewed his picks thus far. It was quickly caught, and I re-clarified that review happens between packs only.

    Deck Checks
    All competitive level events also include some kind of deck list, and we judges are required to check at least some of them during the course of the event. The recommendation I often hear is that we want to try to check about 10% of the decks in the event. For this event of 24 people, I felt we could fill this basic requirement by checking a single match. I knew I wanted this check to occur sometime later in the event, preferably round 3 or 4 (of 5). I also knew that because we were a small crowd, and players were not required to play at their assigned tables (this was done so that we weren't boxed into one corner of an otherwise large room) – I was going to swoop into a game mid-round.

    Everything went according to plan here, except the check in question occurred in round 5 instead of round 3 or 4. While not ideal due to the fact that for several matches draws were declared, it accomplished our basic goals. I enlisted Jon's aid to check both decks in a timely fashion, and the decks were returned to the players without incident.

    Rulings
    Answering questions about rules and card interactions is one of many ways Judges serve the players. As this was a limited M15 event, there weren't many questions that stood out as particularly interesting. But I did take notes on 2 that I felt might be educational to some players.

    Generator Servant “T, Sacrifice Generator Servant: Add (2) to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on a creature spell, it gains haste until end of turn.
    Phyrexian Revoker “As Phyrexian Revoker enters the battlefield, name a nonland card.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated.”

    If Phyrexian Revoker names Generator servant, than you may not sacrifice it for (2) mana. While this is a mana ability, Phyrexian Revoker doesn't care about this quality, and only cares that it is in fact an activated ability.

    Urborg, Tomb of Yogmoth “Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types.”
    Staff of the Death Magus “Whenever you cast a black spell or a Swamp enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 life.”

    Urborg's ability is static and continuously effects the game state. As such any land that you play or put into play will enter as a swamp, and trigger the staff of the Death Magus.
    As a side note, Urborg effects all land, and not just your own, so your opponent's land is also swamps if they happen to have a Staff of the Death Magus in play.

    Until next time, play some awesome magic.
- Dan Regewitz Lv1 Magic Judge