Subject: Let'em play !
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 18:19:19 +0100
From: Eric Hanuise <ehanuise@hebel.net>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

hello.
I would like to seed discussion on WotC's policies on people not allowed to
play in sanctionned tournaments.
I'm not talking about the players in bad standing with the DCI (for
cheating or wathever other reason), but rather WotC staff, high level
judges (3+), distributors staff, and such.

People working at WotC may not participate in a DCI sanctionned event.
When asking the rationale for this, I was told 'there would be too much of
a perceived advantage for the public'.
Of course, I understand that WotC staff may not participate in events such
as the pro-tour, qualifiers, worlds, and nationals. Those are high level
events, with accordingly high prizes, and if a WotC employee should win big
prizes at one of these events, it'd make some people think it was fixed.
(Just like lottery employees may not play in it, same goes for most
casinos, and such... that's plain and sane deontology to me.)

However, this policy extends to _any_ sanctionned event. Not even the
weekly boosterdraft at your local store, the one with two boosters first
prize, and one second prize... This is bad.

Why is this bad ? If they're not playing in sanctionned tournaments, and
competitive events, their sense of what happens on the player's side in a
tournament slowly fades away. They have to think before answering obvious
questions that most players would answer right away, they do not spot
'devious' cheating such as collusion as easily as before, and they have it
harder to keep up with the new decks and techs that hit the playfield.

This is especially a problem for those WotC employees that double as DCI
judges, and to a lesser extent, event organisers.

I really think they should be allowed to take part in class C and D events,
even with a 'cannot claim prizes' policy (if they win something, it goes to
the next best finisher)  of some sort.

And for the DCI ratings thing, I don't think it'd be that much of a problem
to let them have a dci rating that evolves accordingly to theyr results.
One might prefer a fixed dci rating for all WotC staff (like 1700), or
these matches automatically reported as a draw, but I think an ordinary DCI
rating would do just fine. (and stop that 'freezed legendary rating'
nonsense ;)

The same goes for distributor staff (which from what I heard may not
participate in class C, B, and A events) and level 3+ judges.
As I said above, this is imho a big problem for the judges, since they need
the experience of high level competitive play to stay up to date on what's
happening on the tournament floor.

Your (constructive) opinions are most welcome, as I would like to know if
I'm just a voice in the crowd or if other people think the same.
If we turn out to be many to share these views, I'd be glad to send some
mail to Jason Carl on that topic.

------------------------------------------------------------
  Eric Hanuise - Living proof you don't need a DCI rating
    of 1800+ to become famous on the Magic scene ;-)))
 Magic in Belgium : http://www.hebel.net/~ehanuise/mtgbel
     Touchy! : http://www.hebel.net/~ehanuise/touchy
------------------------------------------------------------