Welcome back to the Knowledge Pool. This week, we'll be running one our Bronze scenarios. These are geared primarily toward Level 1 judges who are working to understand the Infraction Procedure Guide(IPG). If you have read the IPG more than a few times or you have seen this situation at an event you have worked, please refrain from answering to give those that have not a chance to answer and discuss the scenario. Thank you and good luck!

Here's the blog post.

At a PPTQ, you are called over to a table in round 5 where Anson has cast Fated Retribution with 5WW (instead of 4WWW). Nothing has happened in the game since it was cast, and you back the game up. You ask Anson if he has had any GRVs earlier in the tournament. You discover that he had received a Game Loss in round 2 for not revealing an Aura to Heliod's Pilgrim's ability as well as a Warning in round 3 for not losing a life for cracking a fetch. What do you do?

This is his 3rd GRV he has obtained in this tournament, so I would consult the head judge to upgrade this warning to a game loss. While he has received a game loss previously, it is still the third GRV warning he has received. His Game Loss for the 1st GRV was an upgraded warning, so this follows to be the 3rd warning for GRV.

Casting Fated Retribution for 5WW instead of 4WWW is a GPE-GRV.

The IPG tells us:

A third or subsequent penalty for a Game Play Error offense in the same category should be upgraded to a Game Loss.

The annotated IPG further elaborates:

Finally, note that this is the third or subsequent penalty, not Warning. If a player has received 2 GRVs that have been upgraded to Game Losses, and they commit a third GRV, that is still upgraded to a Game Loss as well.

Since this is Anson's third penalty for a GPE-GRV, then the penalty (a warning, in this case) would be upgraded to a game loss (regardless of the fact that his earlier warning was already also upgraded to a GL).

Thanks for participating in this week's Bronze scenario. Everyone was able to quickly find the correct response which is wonderful. The IPG was recently updated which makes the following more clear:

Originally posted by IPG 2:

A third or subsequent penalty for a Game Play Error offense in the same category is upgraded to a Game Loss.

This means that even if one or both of the previous Game Rule Violations had been upgraded to a Game Loss, the third infraction for Game Rule Violation will also be upgraded.