If you put people in a bad situation...
I just got back from Origins (OK, OK, so I just woke up from getting back from Origins) and have had time to think about what took place there. Some good thigns happened, and some bad things were observed. When I used to write tournament reports a key feature was the Props and Slops section, I will try to summarize here:
PROPS:
- To Vera Corbett for being a good (if not great) Trek player and showing up many of the guys that played in the main events. Keep on playing Vera!!!
- To the judging staff (Keller, Matt, Girard, Blythe, and Colson) for keeping the tournament on schedule and not messing up one gameplay ruling all weekend long.
- Ricky Martin for assisting in making William Hung a star. (He was playing across the way in the Pokemon Nationals)
- Jared Hoffman and Len Niedorf for OWNING the rest of us all weekend long. I was 1-2 against them on the weekend, and considered that a success.
- The Trek player community. Without a doubt the best group of players I have had the honor of playing with, even with a few sour apples, they are still a fun bunch.
- Brad, Evan, and Girard for making a game that can sport 6 or 7 different HQ missions out of the top 16 players. LOTR, cannot say that; VS cannot say that. Heck I bet Magic would have trouble compeating with that level of diversity.
- Decipher for the prize support they gave out for the tournaments.
SLOPS:
- Pokemon players in general, for taking over our tables.
- John for just up an leaving before the game was over. If you wanna conceed, then do so, tell the judge and then walk off to cool down. Otherwise your are holding the TD hostage while they wait for you.
- James T. Kirk, for being TOO damned broken!
- DGMA for not having something in writting for when an elimination game ends in a true tie. There HAS to be a better option than forcing the players to play again. I do not know exactly what that answer might be, but there HAS to be a better solution.
That last slop is the reason for this title. Keller was put in a crappy possition for the first round match between defending world champion Anderw Ehret and myself. And as the saying goes, if you put a person in a bad situation, be prepared for a bad ruling. In this case Mike decided that the game needed to be played again. Because the game needed to be played again, Andrew made an honest mistake (that anyone in his shoes might have made) and didn't properly reassemble his deck and because he was playing with an incomplete deck he was given a game loss and I advanced to the next round. That I don't have a problem with, because it is clearly in the rules, but it was the decision before that, that really screams WRONG in my mind.
But who knows, in the same possition, I might have made the exact same decision. But that doesn't mean that now that we have the time to look at this the right way, that we cannot make a better ruling, so that the entire load is not based on one volunteer's decision. I do not envy Keller's choise, and I must admit that there are worse decision he could have made, but now that the True Tie scenario in an elimination game is no longer theoretical, it needs to be addressed in the tournament guidelines.
Game On!
PROPS:
- To Vera Corbett for being a good (if not great) Trek player and showing up many of the guys that played in the main events. Keep on playing Vera!!!
- To the judging staff (Keller, Matt, Girard, Blythe, and Colson) for keeping the tournament on schedule and not messing up one gameplay ruling all weekend long.
- Ricky Martin for assisting in making William Hung a star. (He was playing across the way in the Pokemon Nationals)
- Jared Hoffman and Len Niedorf for OWNING the rest of us all weekend long. I was 1-2 against them on the weekend, and considered that a success.
- The Trek player community. Without a doubt the best group of players I have had the honor of playing with, even with a few sour apples, they are still a fun bunch.
- Brad, Evan, and Girard for making a game that can sport 6 or 7 different HQ missions out of the top 16 players. LOTR, cannot say that; VS cannot say that. Heck I bet Magic would have trouble compeating with that level of diversity.
- Decipher for the prize support they gave out for the tournaments.
SLOPS:
- Pokemon players in general, for taking over our tables.
- John for just up an leaving before the game was over. If you wanna conceed, then do so, tell the judge and then walk off to cool down. Otherwise your are holding the TD hostage while they wait for you.
- James T. Kirk, for being TOO damned broken!
- DGMA for not having something in writting for when an elimination game ends in a true tie. There HAS to be a better option than forcing the players to play again. I do not know exactly what that answer might be, but there HAS to be a better solution.
That last slop is the reason for this title. Keller was put in a crappy possition for the first round match between defending world champion Anderw Ehret and myself. And as the saying goes, if you put a person in a bad situation, be prepared for a bad ruling. In this case Mike decided that the game needed to be played again. Because the game needed to be played again, Andrew made an honest mistake (that anyone in his shoes might have made) and didn't properly reassemble his deck and because he was playing with an incomplete deck he was given a game loss and I advanced to the next round. That I don't have a problem with, because it is clearly in the rules, but it was the decision before that, that really screams WRONG in my mind.
But who knows, in the same possition, I might have made the exact same decision. But that doesn't mean that now that we have the time to look at this the right way, that we cannot make a better ruling, so that the entire load is not based on one volunteer's decision. I do not envy Keller's choise, and I must admit that there are worse decision he could have made, but now that the True Tie scenario in an elimination game is no longer theoretical, it needs to be addressed in the tournament guidelines.
Game On!
posted by BubbaJoe at 9:42 PM
3 Comments:
Well, the situation was clunky to begin with, but Ehret should have known better in terms of forgetting cards. I mean it's a freaking level 3 event. If you are going to play in high level events like that, you need to be prepared.
I would suggest continuing the "timed game" in equal rounds (both players getting the same number of turns) until someone has a full win or higher score.
This is similar to how my match was run last year when time was called. I lost because of it and it's not perfect either, but it sure beats hanging out for another hour plus...
Either way, we both had a game warning in the first 'single elimination' game. So even a procedural error would have brought about a game loss for either of us.
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