You've got a TO in a location that has a set period of operation. It's community is military and based off of trainees. They are holding a Game Day tournament with 12 people. They want to do 35 minutes for each round. I show them what the rules say about minimum time limits. They say they've gotten special permission from SCG to run 35 minute rounds. When they do their “HJ” announcements they announce that they are only doing 3 rounds in order to facilitate 40 minute rounds.

How do I get proper tournament operations through to them?

I'd check that they mean SCG and they don't actually mean the Wpn, from a non American view it seems weird they'd have permission from SCG for a WotC/Wpn event. If it's the wpn and they've talked with their rep and they have proof of the exemption then I would say there is nothing to be done

I agree with Gareth about checking that they got approval from their WPN contact, as SCG has nothing to do with Game Day. Also, this certainly seems like exceptional circumstances to me, so I could envision WPN giving permission for that slight alteration in time limits.

While I'm tracking that SCG has nothing to do with it - they are adamant on who have them permission. How do I go about checking WPN? Being military myself, and 90% of my normal store being military - I understand some exceptions. However, these TOs seem a little too fly by the pants for me to take at face value.

I'd suggest just speaking with the TO. Ask them who they contacted. If it's SCG, they should have a name, and I'd bet they could confirm that they didn't. If they are mistaken, and it was a wpn rep, then no harm no foul. If it was none of those, or they won't tell you, contact your Regional Coordinator.

Edited Nicholas Zitomer (Oct. 25, 2015 10:34:53 PM)

I think the easiest way to progress this at this post would be to ask if they have an email or something stating the exemption. That way if it was for game day you'll be able to see, you'll also be able to check the senders email address.

okay that takes care of the time limit. How would you handle the taking a way of the number of rounds in the tournament itself.

Same advice.

That's fair, thanks!

But bear in mind that running Game Day with three rounds is legal no matter
the attendance.

The only tournaments where recommended number of rounds is mandatory, are
GPT, PPTQs, PTQs and WMCQs.

Requirement for all other local sanctioned tournaments can be summarized as
following:
At least 8 players.
At least 3 rounds.
At least 40 minutes per round.

2015-10-25 23:46 GMT+01:00 Nicholas Zitomer <

Interesting.

http://wpn.wizards.com/en/game-day states “Game Day is a Swiss-style
tournament followed by a single elimination playoff for the top 8
finishers. Let Wizards Event Reporter automatically calculate the number of
rounds needed before cutting to Top 8.”

However, it's listed under “Best Practices”, and all other documentation
suggests David Záleský's likely right. I'd still double-check with WPN
though.

2015-10-25 19:03 GMT-04:00 David Záleský <

Originally posted by Gareth Tanner:

I think the easiest way to progress this at this post would be to ask if they have an email or something stating the exemption. That way if it was for game day you'll be able to see, you'll also be able to check the senders email address.

Nicholas Zitomer
I'd suggest just speaking with the TO. Ask them who they contacted. If it's SCG, they should have a name, and I'd bet they could confirm that they didn't. If they are mistaken, and it was a wpn rep, then no harm no foul. If it was none of those, or they won't tell you, contact your Regional Coordinator.

There's been a bunch of talk like this about verifying that the store does have permission to run events irregularly, but this seems to be outside your relationship with the store as a judge. You've advised them about what the MTR says, they've said, “Yeah, but we have permission to do it differently,” so at this point, you can either agree to work their event with the rules they want to use or decline.

You can contact Wizards if something feels fishy (“We got permission to let people roll to determine a winner” or “We got permission to give a bye to players who paid for VIP”), but it's not our responsibility to police store compliance with tournament policy. If a deviation feels wrong to you, whether or not they have permission, just take a pass on working the event.

I still suggest contacting the RC for that area, even should you choose to not work these events. It may get you results faster than contacting wotc directly, and the RC should likely know regardless.

Edited Nicholas Zitomer (Oct. 26, 2015 12:48:59 AM)