All I had to do was pass the test, but after finding out that there are no judges in my area able to sponsor me I kinda lost motivation. Now that everything is moved to the judge foundry, would it be easier to find sponsorship or equally as hard? I’ve tried online but most folks I talk to say to build rapport with somebody in person.

Can someone explain me what is the appreciation package that comes for staff at the magic cons?

As AI technology progresses, bots are becoming more and more human-like. To combat this increasing threat, RulesGuru has implemented a state-of-the-art CAPTCHA system, using questions no computer could answer to ensure that all our users are authentic human Magic players.

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Used to be a level 1 judge. Had recommends to test for level 2. Let my judge stuff lapse when JA came out due to a variety of reasons. Moved from the city to an area where there aren't many judges or judges willing to travel.

What do I need to do to recert or even fully certify again?

My hometown playing group is a small.community with no LGS. I have been in Charge of tournament organization and level -1 judge, which has worked so far.

This past weekend, I ran a draft, Swiss Rounds with prizes after the 3 Rounds were played.

So, two incidents happened which I want to share with you to get some insight about what is done in a real / big tournament setting (we like to play as much IRL as possible, in case any of gets a chance to play at a WPN event.)

1. During first round, one table didnt end up on time nor 5 extra turns, so they decided the winner with a dice roll. As organizer I decided to nullify this, since once I read that when a match is played, the only way to decide the winner is by playing MTG and no other means. They got angry for the draw placed for them.

2. On the third round, the top 2 players were paired and decided to call it a draw before the round started, on the promise to split the prizes in half. They said this is valid on big WPN events. This also brought a misconfort from the guys of the first round.

What is the proper action plan on these two incidents? Has there been a tournament where there is no chance of doing what the guys from R3 did?

Thanks

Hi,

If I am playing in an eternal format where graveyard order matters cards exist, and I know that neither player has cards where graveyard orders matters. Can I rearrange my graveyard to allow for ease of seeing the cards with effects in graveyards like escape and flashback?

What happens when a player receives a 4th GRv? Are they disqualified or is it another game loss?

Is a player disqualified for a 4th grv?

A couple years back I put together a custom search engine to search any judge-related content on the internet, without all the false positives that you'd get from Google. I've just updated it to include all the new Judge Foundry and International Judge Program content, along with some other independent resources I found in the mean time. Hope this is useful! Let me know if anything else is still missing and I'll add it in too.

https://outsidetheasylum.blog/judge-search-engine/

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I was disqualified for cheating at the Cycle 5 Ottawa RC on Saturday, February 10, 2024. I will try to provide as much information as possible.

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To preface this post, I want to note that I am on the spectrum and possess a learning disability that affects my working memory and processing speed. I am quite open about my disabilities and let judges know if I am having trouble communicating or getting overwhelmed/overstimulated. I found the bright lights and the busy nature of the tournament hall very draining. This was my first RC.

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The judge call occurred in game 2 of round 5 on day 1 of the regional championship. We were both 3-1, 5-3 makes day 2. My opponent was playing temur rhinos and I was playing grixis control. Game 1 took 30 minutes, but I won due to a misplay my opponent made involving hardcasting a Lorien Revealed into two orcish Bowmaster.

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Game 2 started with around 20 minutes on the clock my opponent only suspended footfalls on their first few turns. I cast a turn-one Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer on the draw. My opponent did not remove it on their turn two. The game proceeded and my opponent cast a shardless agent and I countered the footfalls. My opponent who previously allowed me to look through their cascade piles no longer let me view this pile. I was ok with this as we were both playing fast so that the match could reach its natural conclusion. I had no incentive to increase my pace of play due to winning round 1.

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My hand was quite bad after this scenario. If I recall correctly after my turn draw step, I had lands expressive iteration and unholy heat in my hand. I went to attack with my Ragavan. I tapped my Ragavan sideways and said ‘Monkey’, my opponent quickly blocked the monkey with their shardless agent. I could not get a word in. I said I had not passed priority as I had wanted to heat the agent during the declare attackers’ phase. A judge call ensues. He proceeds to take both of us separately from the table and ask us questions about what happened.

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To be perfectly honest, I was unsure of the whole situation, the judge asked me why I wanted to cast unholy heat on my declare attackers phase rather than my main phase. I could not answer this question well at this time. I often am an intuitive player and cannot always justify my plays, especially in round 5 of a long day/tournament. After the floor judge took both players aside no ruling was delivered. One of the head judges is called to the table and speaks to us briefly. I am confused as to what is going on. After we were both back at the table the judge issued his ruling. I am disqualified for cheating as they believed I used an ambiguous priority window to roll back the game state to correct a mistake I had made.

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I was shocked and a little flustered. I asked the head judge if I could appeal the ruling. They said their ruling was final. They then mentioned if I could plead my case on the spot, they may change the ruling. I mentioned I am on the spectrum and currently having issues with my verbal communication. This was not acknowledged and I was not given time to collect my thoughts. The floor judge was called to our table only a few minutes after the start of game 2. The clock was just under 10 minutes when I was disqualified. This felt like a quick investigation.

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It took me some time to be able to verbalize why I wanted to heat on my declare attackers phase rather than my main phase. My initial thought was that my opponent did not have a removal spell for the monkey otherwise they would have killed it on turn 2. Suspending the two rhinos and casting shardless on three probably implied they had some sort of countermagic they wanted to use on their turn to protect the suspended rhinos. Attacking with the monkey and then casting heat would incentivize my opponent to burn a potential Force of Negation. This would allow me to fix my bad hand by allowing expressive iteration to resolve. The monkey would be quite bad on the next few turns if the rhinos resolved. I needed to draw a counterspell or engineered explosives to deal with the future footfalls.

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I appreciate the Judges for trying to maintain tournament integrity. It is a tough and often thankless job. I found this ruling to be harsh. I just feel my inability to communicate/express myself verbally on the spot hampered my ability to participate in the unexpected judge call and plead my case. I felt discriminated against for my neurodivergence. This was the first judge call of this nature that I had ever experienced, and I was confused as to what was going on, it all happened so fast.

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If I had been given accommodations/time to collect my thoughts and have someone explain what was going on the outcome might have been different. I had zero warnings at this event and have never received a warning at previous Face-to-Face Games events.

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I know what happened cannot be changed now but I hope that something can be done so other people with exceptionalities are not leaving events feeling the same way I currently feel. To those who do not know autistic people tend to have very limited interests sometimes known as ‘special interests’. Magic is my special interest, and it has been my dream to one day make the Pro Tour. I put in tons of effort, time, and money to practice, learn, and improve at this game.

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To anyone who got this far thank you for reading. Unsure where to go from here my disqualification still needs to be investigated. I am planning to submit a complaint to WOTC organized play, Judge Forge and Judge Academy. If anyone organizing the Ottawa RC could reach out to me that would be great. I honestly am so confused and just want to understand what happened and why it happened. I know I do not want any other tournament player with exceptionalities like mine to be at a competitive disadvantage during a judge call. I understand I am only able to provide my account of the events, but I have a few questions:

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Was this the right judge call?

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How can I prevent situations like this from happening again?

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Are judges required to provide accommodations to players with disabilities?

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What is the best way for me to ask for accommodations in a high-pressure situations like this?

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Are judge calls like this normally ‘black box’ situations? What is going to happen next with my case? No one explained anything to me.

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TLDR: Got disqualified for wanting to cast an unholy heat on my declare attackers’ step. I could not properly communicate with the judges during the judge call due to having a learning disability and being Autistic. No accommodations were provided after I tried to advocate for myself having a disability that affects my communication skills.

How badly can a judge screw a player in order to break an infinite loop?

This came up in a discussion on r/PioneerMTG about Boros Prowess vs Abzan Amalia.

The Amalia player has [[Amalia Benavides Aguirre]] and [[Wildgrowth Walker]] in play, and either gains life or explores. This sets off a chain of events that results in Amalia reaching 20/20 and her secondary ability triggering to wipe the board aside from Amalia. This is the deck’s primary way to win games as they then swing with Amalia for lethal. This board wipe also stops the combo because it removes the Wildgrowth Walker.

But if the Boros player waits for Amalia to reach 19/19 and targets her with an [[Arrester’s Zeal]] or some other combat trick that boosts her power over 20 in response to the explore trigger, her power never reaches exactly 20, so the Walker isn’t destroyed. Instead it causes an infinite loop in which the Amalia player would need another card to break the loop. Even milling out the library won’t break the loop, because when you explore with an empty library you still explored, so you still gain life, so you still have to explore again. If the loop can’t be broken the game is a draw.

(Some variants run [[Aetherflux Reservoir]], which lets the Amalia player interrupt the combo by winning the game with the Aetherflux trigger.)

My question is what are the limits to a judge’s authority to force players to make plays that advance the game state?

If the Amalia player has a [[Bone Splinters]] in hand and the mana to cast it, can the judge force the Amalia player to cast Bone Splinters targeting Wildgrowth Walker and sacrificing Amalia or vice versa if those are the only two creatures on the field?

If the Boros player has exactly 6 life and two copies of [[Play With Fire]] in hand, can the judge force the Boros player to cast both of them targeting Amalia and suicide on her Ward? And if that is ordered, can the Boros player then just cast them both on the opponent and remove that capability?

If the Boros player has hexproof, can the judge force the Amalia player to kill their own Amalia with the Aetherflux Reservoir? If the Amalia player has a [[Disenchant]] in hand, can they respond to the judge order by blowing up said Reservoir?

Could someone provide me with the full comprehensive rules link from wizards? The link is not working. https://magic.wizards.com/en/gameinfo/gameplay/formats/comprehensiverules

Sorry if this is not allowed please delete

I apologize if this isn't the right place to put this. I also want to say I'm in no way mad at the judge as human error happens and I'll admit to being salty about the situation; however I don't think I was rude to the judge.

Was at a standard RCQ qualifier event this weekend. Round 4 I got up paired against someone with a better record (I was 2-1 he was 2-0-1). I was playing an aggro deck, and within the first 8 minutes had gone 2-0. As I was about to submit the record judge announced he had made an error for the previous rounds match records and everyone was going to be repaired. The judge said the error was that in the previous round he had submitted a 2-0 win for someone as an 0-2 loss. I raised my hand and let him know that our match series had already completed with myself having a 2-0 victory. The judge paused for a moment and said that the match wouldn't count and we would be repaired with new opponents. Obviously my opponent was ecstatic. I did ended up winning the repaired match 2-0, and taking a draw to guarantee it into the Top 8. The judge did ask everyone to check their standings between each round before new pairings were made so I guess the player did not notice their loss at that time.

The person I had previously beat won the match he would have lost to me, took a second draw to also move forward. His 3-0-2 and my 3-1-1 him to seed against me. Where game 1 he mullaganed for removal as he knew what he was playing against having lost to it already the first game ahead of side boarding for the second. Ultimately he did beat me and came third overall which was a huge bummer as this was the first qualifier I'd tried for (I participated at a pioneer one late last year but was there for the promos and didn't expect to win).

Obviously my thoughts are: if my win against him stood he might not have made top 8 as he wouldn't have been able to take a second draw at the end, I wouldn't have been matched up with him in the top 8. Or at least not specifically against someone who'd played against my deck previously and knew exactly what to do and what he was against. In the top 8 there was 2-3 people who previously qualified and were offering 'prize redistribution' to their opponents. Both me and my opponent were both fighting for the invite, while if paired against one of the other's I'd have agreed to a redistribution for the invite.

The judge did offer me a handshake and an apology at the end of the day (which I honestly do appreciate). I do plan on going out to the stores next qualifier at the end of next month and trying again.

With that context in mind my question was really around judge error that impacting the day ultimately. It had a huge benefit to my opponent and a larger drawback to me. Are they not allowed to redraw opponents while keeping people who already completed their BO3 paired as the results were already completed? I know top 8 is supposed to be Swiss pairing, but is doing a slight alteration of the pairings not an option in these situations?

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Edit: Typo's and fixed of some of my wording for clarity purposes.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who read this and took the time to post on it. You guys are ultimately the unsung hero's who allow things like tournaments to run and have invested so much of your time understanding the incredible complexities of interactions/stacks/layering/etc. You guys really are under appreciated and valued by Wizards (much like the moderators on Reddit). Sounds like Wizards doesn't want to invest in software corrections to allow for unique situations at tournaments that arise due to error (whether its to prevent abuse or not wanting to deal with financial/technical burden to update it).

I have submitted feedback to Wizards as suggested. I will say my opinion (however biased due to this situation) is that Wizards/Regional Organizers should have something in place for people negatively impacted at an event due to human/technical error.

just wandering if there is any minimum age requirements to become a judge in the uk as i am under 16 and therefore under working age but if you are 13 or up you are allowed to take on part time work and i do not no what this qualifies as.

I went to a CEDH tournament Friday evening. 5 points for winning your pod, 1 for draw, 0 fir a loss.

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A few rounds go by and I end in a situation where due to peoples points, my pod could draw, and everyone would make the top cut. As we are shuffling up, the three other players are talking about teaming up to eliminate me, and then draw themselves in order to make it so they all made top, and I would not.

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I understand CEDH has some politicking involved. Don’t attack me or and I wont kill your creature, use your kill spell on his creature instead, it’s a bigger threat.

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I do not think players are allowed to agree before the opening hands are even drawn, to team up and bully one player out, when they are planning on drawing anyway. I go with a small group of friends and when we end up in the same pod, it’s still every man for themselves. The players in question are very clique-y and you can tell when you are in a pod where it’s the same group that carpooled there together, they always go out of their way to target the odd one our and make sure its one of their group that win. Is this something covered in the rules? I get you can’t really enforce this kinda thing if they keep quiet, but it was obvious from listening to them, that they were teaming up to make sure the finals were all their friends so they could all just split the prize pool among their friends

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Disqualified DOS Legacy

Dear judges and /or players. I have a question about a disqualification I promt to receive today ad Dutch open series Legacy.

I’ll try to make it clear as possible. I played mono red prison vs murktide. Game one was lost by my opponent due Chalice on 1. During sideboard I changed out 4 Blood Moons for Leyline of the Void. In hope to shut down DRC and Murktide. Game 2 I had leyline in my opening hand and my opponent started to exile his cards properly after one or two reminders. I lost due failing finding mana. And my opponent had me locked due wastelanding my mana sources. And ofc his delvers flipped.

Second game I had leyline again! (Lucky me) I clearly announced the pregame action. And tried to resolve a trinisphere T1 my opponent forced the card. And exiled a brainstorm for it. I didn’t mention him to exile the force (huge mistake, turns out later). Few turns later his I assumed exiled pile stacked up quite a bit due ponders waste lands etc.

After a while we where both in top deck Mode and my opponent tried to cast an murktide with two lands left ingame and using its delving ability. I told him directly that it shouldn’t be possible because his entire delve action was based on his exile pile.

He pointed out a card behind his deck that was laying vertically beneath the horizontal exiled pile, it was the brainstorm pitched for the force on my T1 and told me he would make a judge call. I totally agreed.

The judges came and my opponent told directly that I didn’t mention that the cards should go in exile. True I assumed he would understand due the game before after clearly pointing out my pregame action . So the judges asked us what happened etc. I told my side of the story like I did here. And my opponent mainly based his story on his propperly vertical “exiled” card hidden beneath an horizontal graveyard (which completely escaped me), and having another game plan if he would have know his cards would go in exile.

Several judges came to talk to us and debated this situation in private. After a long time (adleast 15 minutes) they came to me and told me I was disqualified for cheating!!

I was flabbergasted. I could truly not believe this. My friends over there and my opponent also could not understand this punishment for not remaining proper game state for my opponent.

I tried to clear this matter and ask the judge why. Their argument was that if my opponent properly would have know that leyline was active by me announcing the exile “triggers” he would have adjusted his game plan, by pondering his Murktide away.

Well I told the judge I was in unbelief. And that any argument would not have any benefits for me having cards for him in his graveyard. And that my punishment wasn’t reversible I would no longer wanted to debate this matter. My friend however told the judge dat my opponent also should have been punished for not maintaining proper game state. The judge eventually agreed apparently and left to conversation and did just that.

My friends dropt the tournament and left the DOS. I just cannot believe such an hard punishment for something my opponent did wrong. Also there was absolutely not one benefit for me letting my opponent have any graveyard ad al.

I know this is only my part of the story, but what do you think?

Ps: the main thing bothering me beside the huge punishment after not receiving any other warnings etc, is that this is all based on a card hidden beneath a pile laying horizontal instead of vertical vs an card in plane sight being properly announced during put into play assumingly clear for both players.

With Judge Academy's modules going away, RulesGuru is creating a series of online courses for those looking to learn the rules. The first two are now available online, and the rest will be coming out over the next few weeks. If you'd be interested in helping write some, send me a message!

https://rulesguru.net/courses/

I sent a request a couple weeks ago but it still lists me as Uncertified. I saw a post on the Judge Apps forum from a week ago with the same issue and no resolution.

I've compiled a report of (almost) all the multi-day events I've worked, as well as how much flights, and accommodations cost. I didn't include Ubers and food, but my food budget doesn't change dramatically from when I'm at home, and I tend to take public transit a lot, or split Ubers with others, so I usually end up sub $50 on transit over each weekend.

I usually book 4-5 people to a room and share 2 to a bed. Occasionally I'm able to find someone who will take a couch or sleep on the floor. It's about an even split between Airbnbs and Hotels, but on average Airbnbs tend to be cheaper and more spacious.

I fly out of a very small two-gate regional airport on the West Coast of Canada, so for international events I will have to connect through a larger airport.

The blue squares (other than the average line) are events I drove to, I couldn't be bothered to dig up exact receipts, so those numbers are estimated. Two events I couldn't find the flight receipt so I estimated.

I didn't include the one-day shows and RCQs that I do because I typically drive to those and they're fundamentally different financially.

All costs are in USD, converted using today's rate (1.33)

Some fun facts:

I was not at home for 40% of weekends
I was in lead roles for 80% of the events I worked
I have worked for 9 different large TOs

The most organized TO was StarCityGames
The highest paying TO was Kingdoms Gaming (MTGSummit)
The most challenging event to work was Dreamhack
My lowest gross earnings over a weekend were $70 from RC Toronto (maybe if Brandon hadn't flaked out of my room plans it would've been higher)

The average accommodations for Thursday to Monday were $120
The average event paid about $961
On average, I earned $536 for a weekend

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chart

I've been thinking about it for a while and want to become a judge.
The last few years the number of judges went down in my country and I've always liked to help people. So I want to become a judge. To help people, stores and learn more about rules and play.

But now Judge Academy shut down.
Now I wonder: What is the way to become a judge in the EU?
I know Judge Foundry exists, but that is a USA/Canada centric program.
I've heard something about a EU discord. But I've also heard it's also kinda dead?

So does anyone know how to become a judge in the EU?

Sorry if this question is not meant for this subreddit