Subject: Todd Parker's Alabama Tourney Report Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 13:35:35 -0000 From: "Frank Hernandez" To: Dear "Mr. Pestilence" Parker, First I would like to extend my congratulations to you regarding qualifying for Rome recently in Birmingham. I found your tourney report very interesting. It is certain aspects of this tourney report that I am writing to you about however. The two statements you made that I contest are: 1. "Before I get to the actual tourney report, let me first thank Dr. Bob's Games in Huntsville for running another smooth tournament - you guys are great!" 2. "In fact, I felt that, with one notable exception, all the participants were on their best behavior for the entire day. To the person who was asked to leave: just because your team-mate might have gotten the bad end of a judge's ruling,you don't have the right to whine for half an hour. Grow up!" In response to the first, there are only two choices as to your mindset. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are completely uninformed as to the running of the tournament, as opposed to completely oblivious of general rules as the judges were. I only know the outcomes of the five Tallahassee players. The following are three examples of horrible rulings by the judges (all of them were made or approved by head judge Jeff Hale) regarding the Tallahassee players. I will make these as brief as possible. ---Dane Woodall was playing tradewind awakening. He had an unintentionally marked card (they were in clear sleeves and one had white stuff in it). The judge was shown the deck. He told Dane he did not think he was cheating but was forced to eject him. He didn't want to but "it's the rules." This is clearly not the rules. He is in fact NOT allowed to eject him even if he thinks he's cheating. In most cases he would have ten minutes to resleeve without penalty, at most one game loss. This is a standing judge rule, to be known and enforced at the risk of losing judgeship. ---Geoff Hooper (me) was playing a deck based on the combo of Nature's Revolt and Humility. In case you don't know, once the two cards are out lands can not be tapped for mana. In my second match I got the combo out along with two propagandas vs. counter phoenix. As I had mox diamonds to power my grindstones the game was effectively over. My opponent contested and head judge Jeff Hale came over and ruled the lands could be tapped for mana. The best reason I could get was "they are still lands." Hmm.... I don't see how that is relevant. Do lands necessarily tap for mana? Let me see you tap your Maze of Ith for mana. Well, the ruling neutered my deck (coincidentally my roommate placed third in PTQ Atlanta a week before w/ said deck) and I immediately conceded. This combo was ruled on in 1997(!!!) regarding the effects of humility. There's a smooth running tournament for you. ---Alex ??? was playing Living Death vs. another living death. He had out a portcullis. His opponent played living death. As 75% of the players there knew, the controller of portcullis chooses what creatures come into play. Basically game over. Well, judges ruled the active player (???) gets to choose. No reasonable explanation was given. This is a VERY well known ruling regarding a VERY often played deck. I stress they were made on Tallahassee players not because I think there was some conspiracy against us. I say this because these are the only results I know of. Who knows how many other mistakes were made that I don't know about? Rumors of players corpse dancing other player's spike feeders abound. I will now respond to your second statement. I am the one you made your statement about. Whether you were there or not I don't know. I do know you are severely uninformed. Please do not slander me again when you don't know what you're talking about. First, you stated I was arguing about a bad ruling regarding a team member. While I am a member of a team (Team Fungus), none of them were there. Second, I did not initiate the argument with the judge. I was talking to other players regarding the judging away from the tournament. Granted I was being loud and vehement but I feel deservedly so. A judge came up and proceeded to tell me I was "full of crap. Living death isn't one of the most common decks played. Portcullis isn't a common sideboard for it." Hmmm... At this point the argument became very heated and I was ejected. The reason given is I was "instigating things, cussed, and had a bad attitude." I cussed? Yes I cussed. So what? It's allowed. Besides that a judge is NOT allowed to tell a player he is "full of crap". I was instigating things? No. I didn't instigate anything. I was talking about how the judges were terrible. I had a bad attitude? Sure. When we drive five hours either way, playtest for hours, and each of us lose due to horrible judging, I do have a bad attitude. Someone SHOULD have been in the judges face. They deserved to be screamed at. I do not regret "whining" for half an hour (gross exaggeration). In summary I would like to again congratulate you. I do find it ironic that you won with sligh, that SOO complicated deck. I seriously doubt even these judges could miscall on the playing of that deck. Not that I'm saying sligh is not a good deck, or that only scrubs still play it. Good luck in Rome. Geoff Hooper