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Tournament Operations » Post: Question about Decklists in foreign language.

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

Nov. 17, 2016 04:19:40 AM

Sejeong Cho
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

Greater China

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

How you deal with the decklists which is written in foreign language?
for example, I am in the korean, and people can write the decklists as korean, and english. these two language is okay.
but, There are some players who submit decklists by Japanese, Italian, and so on.
Sometimes there are no reason, and Sometimes because they use that copy of that language

Is there are some ruling about this? or determined by judge's free?

Nov. 17, 2016 04:28:55 AM

Norman Ralph
Judge (Level 2 (UK Magic Officials)), Scorekeeper, Tournament Organizer

United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

There is no global rule about what language players can submit their decklists (how could there be?) However, individual tournaments can make a request for decklists to be submitted in certain languages so as to help the judge teams. For example, most GPs expect decklists to be written in English as this is the language we expect all judges at GPs to be able to speak/read sufficiently for the event.

Most of the time, decklists in foreign languages are not too difficult to decipher (most Gatherer style smart phone apps handle multiple language card searches). If it is an issue then you just need to set the expectations at the beginning of the event as to what you want players to do.

Nov. 17, 2016 04:41:23 AM

Sejeong Cho
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

Greater China

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

Originally posted by Norman Ralph:

There is no global rule about what language players can submit their decklists (how could there be?) However, individual tournaments can make a request for decklists to be submitted in certain languages so as to help the judge teams. For example, most GPs expect decklists to be written in English as this is the language we expect all judges at GPs to be able to speak/read sufficiently for the event.

Most of the time, decklists in foreign languages are not too difficult to decipher (most Gatherer style smart phone apps handle multiple language card searches). If it is an issue then you just need to set the expectations at the beginning of the event as to what you want players to do.

I didn't know about those smartphone apps. Thank you for replying.

Nov. 17, 2016 05:11:58 AM

Gareth Pye
Judge (Level 2 (Oceanic Judge Association))

Ringwood, Australia

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

It's a little hard for most people to write names of cards into the
app when they aren't familiar with the alphabet used.

Is any sort of infraction appropriate if a player submits a decklist
completely in a language that it would be unreasonable to expect the
judge staff to be able to handle?

Nov. 17, 2016 09:09:48 AM

Dominik Chłobowski
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

Canada - Eastern Provinces

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

I would not accept a decklist that is both awkward for the judge team to
handle and not justified by the player's deck contents and background.
(i.e. done for shits and giggles) Otherwise, barring having given specific
instructions ahead of time, I would accept any language and do my best to
deal with it. If it were awkward for the judge team to handle, but
justified by the context, I would also ask the player if they are able to
write out the decklist in English and give them time to do so.

2016-11-17 6:12 GMT-05:00 Gareth Pye <forum-31542-9260@apps.magicjudges.org>
:

Nov. 17, 2016 10:24:16 AM

Markus Dietrich
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

German-speaking countries

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

Originally posted by Gareth Pye:

Is any sort of infraction appropriate if a player submits a decklist
completely in a language that it would be unreasonable to expect the
judge staff to be able to handle?
If I would fear this to happen I would always announce beforehand in which language(s) I expect the decklists to be. With this announcment or if it was done for “shits and giggles” USC-Minor seems appropriate.

Nov. 17, 2016 06:09:14 PM

Joaquín Pérez
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program)), Tournament Organizer

Iberia

Question about Decklists in foreign language.

Originally posted by Gareth Pye:

Is any sort of infraction appropriate if a player submits a decklist
completely in a language that it would be unreasonable to expect the
judge staff to be able to handle?

I don't think so. However, I would not accept a complete decklist in German, for instance (have very little understanding of German).

If the player really doesn't know the cards in English or local language, I can help him (or better, have someone to help him, while I can do other stuff). If the player just wants to troll, he's wasting my time, which in turn could be used to help other players engage in a better-run tournament. I won't allow that. No infraction at first (serious stare and a talk will be enough), but I'll need an appropriate decklist.

In most real-world cases, some players forget about the name of a few cards because they have all the copies in a foreign language and are afraid of making mistakes that lead to a Game Loss (well, that's not always the case). That's a completely different story and most of the time I can tell them directly the English card name and move on.

Edited Joaquín Pérez (Nov. 17, 2016 06:11:47 PM)