Is there any protection for players against bad judge calls in high profile type tournaments? The following happened at my LGS which got me to think about this:
The LGS had set prize pools for anyone 3-1 and 4-0. All 4-0's got a box, 3-1's got 3/4 of a box. This was 2HG event. It was 1 game per match. There was a team there, who used the same color(blue) sleeves (something I'm sure they'll never do again). Going into Round 4(both teams were undefeated), the players shuffled, cut, and drew. One member of the Blue Team realized he had a card in his hand that belonged in his partners deck. He presented the problem to the opposing team, who then, rightly, got a judge involved. However, instead of listening to anything, all he heard was that the player had a wrong card in his deck. He immediately gave them a game loss. He didn't do a deck check to make sure that both players still had legal decks(they did, cause us players counted after). And the opposing team, even though they were given the win, and the Blue Team decided to play it out. The Blue Team corrected teh issue, and took a mulligan. They won the match. After, the Blue Team found and pointed out that the judge could have done exactly what they did, which was count the deck, fix the issue, and force teh Blue to take a mulligan. However, he claimed he "already entered teh results and couldn't change it." He admitted he made a bad call, but refused to correct the issue.
Now, a 2HG at a LGS is hardly a high profile tournament. In such an environment, the teams would have gone to a head judge to correct the issue. But when the prizes at say, a PTQ is so vastly different, is there anything as a player that can be done to protect themselves about this? Yes, the Blue Team made a mistake, but this should not have cost them the top prize.
His call being right or wrong depends in part on the format. If it was limited (sealed or draft), he made a bad call, as long as both decks still had a minimum of 40 cards. With shared card pools, no illegal card changes have been made, and no mainboard/sideboard rules have been broken. They would pretty much have to just deal with it, and fix their error after the match.
If the event were constructed, though, they would have technically presented illegal decks. And match loss would be justified (silly as it may be for such a little mistake, but it's the rules). The sideboard rules change that takes effect in just a few days was made to reduce match losses for very similar insignificant mistakes.
As for contesting bad judge calls in general, there's usually not much you can do. Fortunately, most judges are pretty good about making the right call. But if one makes a really bad call, you can try talking to the head judge...but don't expect a judge ruling to be overturned.
The sideboard rule went into effect Saturday, so as long as both decks had 60 cards I believe they would have been legal.
Quote from: Gorzo on July 15, 2013, 05:26:57 AM
His call being right or wrong depends in part on the format. If it was limited (sealed or draft), he made a bad call, as long as both decks still had a minimum of 40 cards. With shared card pools, no illegal card changes have been made, and no mainboard/sideboard rules have been broken. They would pretty much have to just deal with it, and fix their error after the match.
If the event were constructed, though, they would have technically presented illegal decks. And match loss would be justified (silly as it may be for such a little mistake, but it's the rules). The sideboard rules change that takes effect in just a few days was made to reduce match losses for very similar insignificant mistakes.
As for contesting bad judge calls in general, there's usually not much you can do. Fortunately, most judges are pretty good about making the right call. But if one makes a really bad call, you can try talking to the head judge...but don't expect a judge ruling to be overturned.
This was at M14 prerelease. Also, new rules went into effect on Saturday.