Last updated 25july 1997
I've been regularly attending tournaments since I play magic (I began with fallen empires), and every now and then I have the occasion to see some good and bad things happen. There are some common odd behaviours in tournaments, and common mistakes as well.
I hope this little 'checklist' will help new players avoid getting in trouble during their first events, be it as player or organizer. I also hope this will allow some old timers realize some of their mistakes.
As usual, suggestions on this document are welcome. Just send me some mail : ehanuise@hebel.net.
Know the rules. Most tournaments follow the Duelist's Convocation tournament rules. Tournament first-timers especially should know that a tournament deck is 60 cards minimum + a sideboard of exactly 15 cards. There are some cards that are restricted to one per deck, and other that are banned altogether.
Tournament types. There are several different types of tournaments : Type I (almost all cards allowed) , Type 1.5 (like Type I but with many powercards forbidden), Type II (only the most recent card sets), sealed deck/draft (cards are supplied on the tournament's premises), Extended (only editions from the dark on are allowed) .... Be sure you have a deck that is legal for the kind of tournament you're going to. Be especially careful to check the restricted/banned list for that tournament type.
Begin by small events. Most beginners do not realize that tournament play is very different from casual play. While fair play still applies, don't expect your opponent to let you take back a spell or such things in a tournament. In the largest events (you can guess the level of an event by looking at the prizes offered. If it's 10 boosters of an inprint edition for the first, chances are it's a small event. If it's a black lotus, on the other end ... :-) there are more high level tournament players, who are accustomed to being very strict and not forgive much in play. Choose smaller events for your firsts tournaments, so you can gradually get accustomed to this.
Don't be disappointed if you lose. Many players do not score a single point during their first tournament, and are disappointed by the differences between tournament play and casual play. The best way to get better at Magic is to analyse the games you lost and take lessons from them.
Do not go to a major event such as a grand prix or a pro tour qualifier for your first tournament. Not only your chances to score well are dim, but you won't enjoy the experience. Most pro tour and grand prix players are seasoned veterans who play fast and enforce the rules strictly. They'll expect you to know all the cards they'll play, and will be bothered if you play slowly or do not know the rules that well. I'm not saying that these events are to be reserved to an 'elite', but just that you should have an experience of at least 5 to 10 tournaments before attempting one.
Know the format. There are several tournament formats :
Have a life counter. Your opponent need to keep track of your
lifes. The best way is that you use a dice, counter, scrye counter, or glass
beads. You might also need tokens during the game. If you use token cards,
have some tokens with you. (Note that cumulative upkeep must be tracked
by using counters during tournament play.)
old-timers and general remarks
The referee is human and may err, but his word is final. When you have a conflict on a rules point with another player during the tournament, call the referee. If you do not agree with his decision, do not argue for hours. Just explain your point of view, stay cool, and remember the referee's decision is final. In big events with several referees, the judges decisions are subject to approval by the head judge, whose decision is final. (If you feel that the referee's decision was abusive, and the event was a DC sanctioned one, you may complain to the european DC director after the event.)
Know your DC number. nothing's more irritating for the event organizers
and for the guys who have to encode the events results than to have to deal
with temporary numbers. You know your phone number, your car's plate, your
bank card code, just learn your DC number ;-)
If you haven't a DC number yet, don't worry, you'll be assigned one for
free the next time you compete in a DC sanctioned event.
Make a decklist prior to the event. Most tournament organizers require you give a list of your deck and sideboard. Make this list prior to the event, it'll save you time and trouble.
Watch your deck. It should not happen... but sometimes, a player complains that his deck or folder has been stolen. It's always the same story : 'I turned my back for 2 minutes, and oops it was gone.' This is very sad, but we have to reckon that there are dishonest people around. So let it not happen again, just be sure to keep an eye on your deck at any time.
Remember it's just a game. I said above that top level players tend to be more strict and less forgiving in play, but I've sometimes seen some players behave as real bastards. Remember it's just a game ! If the idea of gaining a big prize changes your way of playing, I seriously suggest you consider another hobby.
If you're a pro-tour player, don't be a bitch. While it's normal
to enforce the rules strictly in such events, I just can't help but think
'poor sod' when I see a guy that lost a game and tried everything he thinks
of to get the opponent disqualified by such means as asking a verification
of the sideboard, deck, decklist, sleeves quality, ....
I heard that it happened to a guy that had lost a game to call the judge
and complain that his opponent had played a snow-covered island. the opponent's
deck has only one snow-covered island, the other were normal ones, and he
had absolutely no cards making use of snow-covered lands in the deck, since
ice age wasn't legal in that tournament. He has just put the snow-co island
in the deck by mistaken it for a normal island. The judge then had to disualify
the player for having an illegal deck :-( my opinion : had I had
to judge it, the complaining player would also have had a warning for unsporstmanlike
conduct. enough said, these people have no lives.
If you're a bitch anyway, don't pretend you're a good sport. I've had worse : a guy in a local tournament, which played unfriendly and very striclty.The first prize of the event was a small amount of cash (about $200) and everyone else was playing casually in the event. He tried everything he could, such as asking the referee to require I count my sideboard cards, checking it has the same sleeves than the deck, asking him to check if I wasn't stalling (which would have been quite stupid since at that moment he had won the first duel, and we were playing the second - which meant that if the time limit had been reached he'd have won the match.) When I told him that he should be a tad bit more cool, he told me 'I'm not here for the fun, I'm here for $200 and my DCI rating'. We proceeded playing, and at the end of the game (which I won 2-1 :-))) I told him he wasn't fair play. And then he told me 'I dunno what you mean, I play very friendly'. Seeessshhh......
A good deed's never lost ... If you play cool, and allow your opponent some minor errors, chances are he'll do so too. So, once again, play fair.
Don't bring your meal. For those of you who didn't notice, most tournaments are held in a pub's backroom. And when it is not the case, the organizer's have sandwiches or something akin ready. I've often seen players take their sandwiches and eat them in the room and this is rude, especially in pubs and restaurants.
Learn how to fill a scoresheet. Another thing that seems simple but that few people do correctly. I'll give you a hint : there are titles above the columns. just read them :-)
Read the info. Most organisers put some info for the event on the walls of the room, or on the back of the scoresheets. Reading it will avoid you nasty surprises such as 'whaddayamean it's a special event and direct damage on players is not allowed ?? But I haven't a single creature in my deck !' :-)) (and this is an actual story!)
No Coaching ! this seems evident, but is easy to forget : when
you're done playing, and wander to see a friend end his game, just shut
it up :-) There's nothing more annoying than having someone coming in the
middle of a game, and who begins giving advise to one of the players. Also,
this could get you _both_ in trouble with the judges (such as disqualification
for the 'coach', and a notice or warning for the player he was talking to.
Be an humanist. And make the assumption that there is a good side to anyone ;-)
Tournament organizers Do's and Don't
Know the rules. Most tournaments follow the duelist's convocation tournament rules. Do so. Even better, ask for your event to be DC sanctioned.
Send the results to WotC.If your event is DC sanctionned, you have to send a tournament report after the event. WotC uses these reports to update the players ratings. Players ratings should be up to date at all time, but this is however not the case. When asking WotC people why this is, the answer is :'The main bottleneck is the tournament organisers who send in their reports one or several months after the event.' So if you do a DC sanctionned event, please send the results THE DAY AFTER THE TOURNAMENT. You can use mail, fax, email, wathever, so there's no reason to delay it. This is part of your duties towards the players.
Follow the format you choose. Every once in a while, a tournament gets organised which announces a given format and then doesn't follow it. This is irritating at best, to say the least. The most common thing is to have a swiss tournament that then goes to final rounds. If you intend to do this, do not announce your event as 'swiss', but rather as 'swiss 6 rounds then 1/2 finals' so players know what to expect.
Know your format. pools and single elimination are widely understood.
Swiss draw, however doesn't seem to be well known, so here are some
explanations : In a swiss draw event, players will play a fixed number of
rounds. It is better to use an odd number of rounds since the aim of a swiss
draw is to avoid ex-aequos. During each round, players play a fixed number
of games (usually 3) and are awarded points according to the games they
win. For the first round, players are sorted by DC rating, players with
no rating are put at the end of the list. Then the list is split in two
and the two lists are matched. So for a 10 players list, the first round
pairings will be 1-6,2-7,3-8,4-9,5-10. If there is an odd number of payers,
a bye is assigned to the last player. (in subsequent rounds, the player
with the least points thet did not get a bye yet will get it.)
For the following rounds, the main rule is that players are not supposed
to meet twice. Players are assigned players they have not played yet with
equivalent points. If a player has played all players with the same number
of points, he is assigned an opponent with more points than he has. In events
with few participants, this can lead to a poorly ranked player playing a
higly ranked one.
Some organizers prefer to have top players replay each other instead of
having them play less ranked ones, but this is not adviseable.
Once all rounds are played, players are sorted according to their points.
In case of ex-aequos, you can use resistance points
to separate them (see below). If there are still ex-aequos, either have
them play a single duel, give them equivalent prizes (easy if your prizes
are boosters, but not always possible if they are single cards), or toss
a coin (expect some trouble with that method if the players aren't fair-play
minded ;-)
Know your program. There are some computer program that handle swiss draw tournaments, but even when using a program, you have to look at each round's pairing and force a re-pairing if something goes wrong. Very often, I see organizers use a program and just 'push the OK button'. This often results in nasty surprises such as the first and last player of the event being paired together. Using a program is very nice and definitely speeds up pairing and scores reporting, but it doesn't replace brains :-)
Use the right points. Points can be assessed in different ways during the event, but some points systems are more adapted to some formats :
Have a referee. You will need someone to answer rules questions during the event. If it's a big event, you'll need several referees. One referee for fifty players is enough. if you have several referees, you will have to name a head judge, whose decision will be final if the referees disagree between them. If the event is DC sanctioned, you'll need DC approved referees.
Make a pre-tournament briefing. Just before the event begins, make a little briefing and explain the following to all players :
Go to a few other events. So you'll see what is good and what is not, and you'll have the occasion to advertise your forthcoming event.
Publicize the event. Making it DC sanctioned means that it'll appear in the duelist's companion and that DC members will know there is an event. Furthermore, if it is in Belgium, Send me some mail (or Fax : 067.340.351). You may also want to put some signs and distribute flyers at local shops.
Include as much details as you can. The basic rule is you can't
tell too much about it. Especially do not forget the following : event's
date, the city it'll be in, the adress, the type of event (TI, TII, sealed
deck, draft, ...), the format (pools, swiss, single elim., ...), the entry
fee, a description of the prices, the special rules you'll use if any, your
phone/fax/email for preregistration, the max. number of players allowed,
the hour it'll begin, and anything else you can think of. TIP : if
you offer big prizes, add a line such as 'prizes guaranteed for xx players
minimum' if you intend to give less prizes if you have very few players.
Players won't mind reducing the prizes if you announced it beforehand, but
otherwise they'll get angry.
(I saw once an event announced with a mox for the first three players, and
an entry fee of $10. There were only 20 players, so the organiser had to
give less prizes. Since he didn't announced it beforehand, it ended up in
a loooong argument with the players.)
If the event is in a big city, a map of how to get there might also be welcome on the back of the flyers.
Announce a time limit and enforce it. this will allow you to have
an exact idea of the time the event will last. Allow 45 minutes for 2 games,
1 hour for best of three. When the time limit is reached, have the judges
collect the scoresheets of the players that are still playing, and mark
their current game as unfinished. Do not forget to give a warning 5 minutes
prior to the time limit ! Also, avoid the often seen 'no more draw phase'
to adjudicate unfinished matches. There are two reasons to this : it gives
a tremendous advantage to necropotence/jaymdaye tome/... players, and tournament
decks should be fast enough not to reach the time limit. Life points are
no indication of who's leading either. here's the proper way for a best
of 3 event :
- one player won a game, then the second is unfinished : the player who
won the first duel wins the match.
- score is 1-1 and the third game is unfinished : the match is a draw.
Put it on the walls !. Make a sheet with all the info on the event (players play three games, or best of 3, or 2 , announce the time limit, remind players of the banned and restricted list and any special rules, ...) and put it on the walls. This way, players will easily know all they need to for the day.
Think of the meal time. Make a 15-20 minutes break around noon so players can pause and eat. It's a good occasion to sell sandwiches and drinks. (It's also a good idea to keep the meal price reasonable, or even to include a meal ticket in the entry fee. 100 Bef for a small sandwich definitely is not reasonable...)
Put numbers on the tables. If you use a computer program to pair the players (which is a good thing to do for 50+ players events) you'll need to put numbers on the tables.
Prepare the tables. It happens from time to time to have a tournament in a café or similar place, with dirty tables, and that definitely should not happen. Clean the tables before the event, or even better, put a paper cloth on each table. Paper cloth are cheap, useful, and you can even note your lifes on it :-) The most common source of problem is water coming from the glasses, which is easy to avoid with table cloths or bar cards.
Have a few extra tables available. This way people can trade and sell cards without occupying tournament tables. Ask politely that when players are done with their matches, they go to the other part of the room. It's quite stressing to finish a duel with people trading or gathering around your table :-). Some people might come on the event and not play, just open their folders and sell/trade their cards. You have several options for these : you may let them do, require that they pay an entry fee, or disallow them completely. (In the latter case, indicate 'card sellers not welcome' when you advertise the event, most players'll understand.)
Ask for a decklist. Ask each player a list of his deck and sideboard, with his name and DC number. These lists fill a purpose : even if you don't check any deck during the event, it discourages players to change their deck during the event (which is cheating!). Players must restore their original deck and sideboard for each new opponent they play. Make a few random checks during the day. And to be worthwile, checks have to be made during actual play (interrupt the players, and remember to give them extra time if they reach the time limit) instead than when they bring scores back. (See The tournament rules for more on this)
Watch your instant prizes! I find it silly to award instant prizes to players that are already winning :-) So, give instant prizes to players that are losing or that have weak cards in play.
some examples : "who has more than 40 lives ?" --> your
opponent gains a prize
"who has a thorn thallid in play ?"(during a Type1 event :-) -->
You gain a prize
"who has two demonic tutors in his deck ?" --> You're eliminated
;-)
Award a prize to the last player. Even just one booster. Not only is it cool, but it'll encourage him/her to persevere. And a small prize for the first girl is nice too, especially since we don't see much/enough of them in tournaments. You don't need big prizes, it's the intent that matter.
Get a copy of the latest rulings summaries. With the new dci santionned judge program, judges should regularly receive updates of the 'oracle', but any judge worth his salt should have a copy of the general rulings summary and the cards rulings summary ready. These are updated monthly (around the 15) and can be found at : http://www.crystalkeep.com/magic/rules/index.html
Once you have them, read them :-) (not that obvious, mind you ...)
Remember you're an 'official'. If you do not judge often, it's
easy to forget the implications of being a judge. here's an example of a
major don't : a friend of mine was judging his first event. He has played
in many tournament within our group, so he was used to chat with us about
the games he played between each round. So, he came to talk to us about
the games he has seen while refereeing. Well, this doesn't look like it,
but it's scouting ... and by a judge ! I explained that to him, and he suddenly
realised, and we chatted about something else.
So when you're judging, remember to adapt your behaviour to your position,
you're supposed to be an example as well as a referee.
Don't be too easily influenced. you'll have to sort out situations where two players won't agree. While it's good (and necessary) to listen to both player's version before checking the rules and issue a ruling, take time to weight the in and out's of the situation.
Be true to yourself. If you issue a ruling on the fly, then find out you were wrong, use the first broken ruling for the whole event. This is much less a problem than issuing different rulings over the same problem over the course of the event. BE CONSISTENT.
Watch for late games. When the players end their matches, don't
let them gather around the tables of other players who are still playing.
The best option is to have a separate room available and ask people to leave
the playing room when done with their match. There are many reasons to that
:
- The players that are done might actually be scouting the other player's
decks
- It's quite stressing to play with people gathering around you, especially
if they are very close. Not to mention the noise they make.
- People will chat about what they see, and might give up info ('hey, have
you seen ? He's just had a disenchant ! what a luck ! ...') this also leads
to coaching.
- I even know a guy who was playing a late game in a tournament, many people
gathered around his table to see the end of the game. When he gathered his
cards at the end of the game, he found out that someone had stolen him cards
in his graveyard while he was playing :(
Well, it's all for now. this document will surely evolve, and your suggestions are welcome :-)
Thanks to the people who contributed to this page : Linus
Vernyns, Carl Devos, Vincent Gieling, Jean Marc Szalies, Bruno Van Speyebroek.