Hello All,

I am in the process of preparing a presentation that I am calling (Playing While Judging, A Regular REL experience)

I am looking for input from the Judge community as to what questions/ problems that might be encountered about Playing and Judging at the same time.

This will then help me to prepare the presentation around answering this common or not so common issues.

Thanks,
Rob

Some common questions/topics that spring to mind:

- “What do you do if there is a judge call while you are playing your own game?”
- “What do you do if your opponent needs a judge?”
- What to say to the assembled players at the beginning of the event
- What to say to your opponent each round
- How your approach/attitude towards games, matches, and the event may differ (or not) when you're playing AND judging, versus playing only, or judging only.

Hey Rob,

Thanks for reaching out! Regular REL is one of my favourite topics, so of the top of my head some personal experiences that I think are very recognisable.

*Your experience as a player will probably be worse when also judging; likely just by a little margin, but still, you have some extra duties to perform, players will disturb you in the middle of a complex decision or difficult combat phase. If this bothers you because you want to 4-0 every FNM, maybe judging and playing is not the best solution for you.
*You will probably give a worse service/performance as a judge when also playing: you won't be there to watch Magic and prevent errors as much as you could, you will probably be slower with scorekeeping, you won't have the opportunity to act on slowplay. This is no big deal per se, but be aware of it.
*Both previous points scale with the size of your event: the more players you have, the more you will be needed as a judge and the less you will be able to play without interruptions. I personally draw the line around 30 players: above that, I won't play and just judge, but YMMV. Also consider that this may vary from event to event: the prerelease of a big set will be very busy with judge calls, Standard constructed FNM 2 weeks before the release of a new set will be easy.
*Sometimes, stuff gets serious and you have to DQ a player. If this happens, I strongly but unofficially recommend to drop from the event. First of all, this will cost a lot of time and mental energy. Secondly, I don't want anyone to be able to say that I profited from the DQ because I won prizes, but again, YMMV. If you can DQ someone in less than 2 minutes, get all the paperwork done and provide proficient aftercare, then finish yoru match within time, well, kudos to you.
*Ah, going to time in your match. Sometimes you have 5 calls in 1 round, you know you spent at least 10 minutes away from the table, and your match is currently 1-1. Do you give yourself the 10 minute time extension, do you write down the draw, or do you concede to your opponent? There probably is no correct answer here, but you may want to think in advance about what you would do in such a situation.
*I like to appoint a second judge for the tournament, even if that person is not officially a judge. I want a neutral arbiter to be available in case something happens in my match.
*Discuss in advance with the TO what the mutual expectations are, especially concerning compensation. Depending on how much you have to do and how much calls there are on average, compensation may vary from nothing to free entry + drinks + cash/booster compensation. Be reasonable, but also let the TO be reasonable.
*A question I ask myself every morning: what shall I wear today? I usually just go for my daily clothes, but I do wear my judge badge. If your TO has special clothing, you may want to wear that. I can see the benefit of wearing full black when judging at a new store, when you expect a lot of new people, or when you are surrounded by non-Magic-people such as in a library.
*You have to be holier than the Pope (I really hope this translates into English). Don't do anything remotely sketchy, don't be a shark, don't ruleslawyer, insist on your opponent shuffling your deck and shuffle theirs.
*The most important thing: remember to have fun, both as a player and as a judge. If you feel that your fun is suffering because of wearing two hats at the same time, you may need to make a decision or adjust your expectations. Magic at Regular REL should be fun, your mood will affect the joy of others, so please, be happy! :)

Oh, and if you need help with crafting your presentation: feel free to PM me. Good luck, and I hope you get a lot of useful feedback from judges all around the world!

Greetz, Dustin.

I agree with almost all of Dustin's advice. I play and judge at Regular regularly, and I especially agree that you have to be okay with the occasional distraction at an inconvenient time. I'll share my opinion on this line:

Originally posted by Dustin De Leeuw:

*Ah, going to time in your match. Sometimes you have 5 calls in 1 round, you know you spent at least 10 minutes away from the table, and your match is currently 1-1. Do you give yourself the 10 minute time extension, do you write down the draw, or do you concede to your opponent? There probably is no correct answer here, but you may want to think in advance about what you would do in such a situation.

When I sit down and am unpacking, I'll mention to my opponent that I might get interrupted by a judge call, and that if I do and it takes more than a minute, I'll give us a time extensions. Setting up that expectation in the beginning makes them understand that I'm not selectively giving extensions based on whether I'm ahead or behind - I'm making sure they get the full match time, just like everyone else.

One other suggestion I'll add: try to sit on the aisle and try to sit facing the majority of the room. You don't want to be climbing over another match every time you get a call, and you don't want people coming up behind you and tapping your shoulder because you didn't see their hand raised or hear them call for a judge.

There's a lot of YMMV here, but golden rules include:

• The event is your first concern. This means that playing Magic is a thing you do in between judge duties, not instead of.
  Make sure all the players in your event know that you will be playing and judging, but they come first
  Even if you can somehow finish the match on time, I strongly suggest conceding the match to your opponent if the alternative is making them wait 10+ minutes
  

However! Playing while judging is a really great way to bridge the gap that sometimes comes between judges and players, and being at the table can let you provide an even better service to your players.

Great suggestions from others. If you feel it could be interesting for your audience, you could also mention as a side note that it is not allowed to judge and play in GPTs even if they are run under Regular REL. And make the participants discuss the reasons for this. That could help them understand the philosophy.

Originally posted by Yonatan Kamensky:

This means that playing Magic is a thing you do in between judge duties, not instead of.

This is way too strict for my taste. I know many judges who just show up to play at their FNM, the TO/storeowner is officially the HJ/SK/everything but knows nothing about Magic, and the judge (who came there to play and does not receive any substantial compensation) feels pressured into taking judge calls because that's what we do: we like helping players. I think it's unfair if unofficially judging judges should disadvantage themselves here. No, this is not a theoretical cornercase, this happens frequently in my region.

There is a lot of YMMV here, and while I interpret your statement as you thinking this is a negative thing, I think it's unavoidable because, well, circumstances vary wildly and strict rules don't always apply.

To echo what some of the other judges have been putting forward on this subject. I have found the best thing in these scenarios is transparency.

Clear lines of communication, especially with your opponent. More so making sure that the environment still feels casual regardless of the fact that there is a judge present.

Some of my thoughts, though Dustin et al have covered a lot of what I would usually say here:

- Judging and playing are different skill sets and it isn't always easy to switch between them, especially when deep in a game. Make sure you take a moment before answering calls to re-engage judge mode, and again before sitting back down to your match. The extra 20 seconds will make your judge interactions better and help you enjoy your own time.
- Take time to just play. I try to take a few events off as a judge in my local store (usually a prerelease each set) where I just play. I try and point players towards another judge or knowledgeable player where possible. I find this helps keep me sane (ish).
- Remember that your main priority is YOU. The event is important, but it doesn't matter how important the event is if you aren't at your best. Don't take on too much. Know when you need a break, be aware enough to step out for fresh air or even take the week off.
- Communicate. Tell the players before the event starts what to expect - I normally try an ask people to wait until my match is finished to give me scores, but to interrupt me if they have a question. Tell your opponent what you intend to do if your match is interrupted.
- This might not be relevant for your presentation or your store, but I have had to remind players that interrupting my Standard match to ask me how Humility and Opalescence interact is not behaviour we want to promote.

I actually love judging and playing at the same time, at regular it's always more interesting than just one of them. But my LGS is capped at 40 players.

- If I do both scorekeeping and playing, I take a fixed seating at a strategic point and have a printout of Pairings By Table next to me. Whenever someone is finished they can come over and I can note the score without much disruption, and as an added bonus I have a good sense how many tables are still playing even if I'm stuck in my own match.
- I use a stopwatch on my phone for every call I take. Maybe I get 6 calls that each take 30 seconds, so I don't give any extra time to anyone else, but that does add up to 3 minutes for my own match.
- If it's 2HG (yay) I usually rely on my teammate to make most decisions and just keep playing so there is no downtime at all.
- Another thing about 2HG, we use a Designated Spare Player for prereleases, which is me. That means anyone can sign up alone for 2HG and is always guaranteed to play. Because if there's an even number of players, everybody plays, and if there's an odd number of players, I will just judge.
- Like Dustin mentioned, if I'm playing in the event anyway I'm fine with taking calls without compensation, but I wouldn't do scorekeeping without compensation.

As for the original question what problems/questions might arise:
- Do you penalize yourself more strictly than others? (There was a thread about this a while ago, answer was don't do that)
- You're playing an ODE at a GP outside of your shift, you hear a judge call from a few tables over and there is no judge in sight. What do you do? (Is it wrong for me to take them if I explain I'm an off-shift judge?)

Edited Toby Hazes (Nov. 22, 2016 01:09:43 PM)

Originally posted by Toby Hazes:

- You're playing an ODE at a GP, you hear a judge call from a few tables over and there is no judge in sight. What do you do? (Is it wrong for me to take them if I explain I'm an off-shift judge?)

Please don't do this.

Even if you're a certified Magic Judge, you're not acting as a judge at this event. You may cause confusion for the players when you answer their call (since you're not wearing a judge uniform). Also, consider the consternation you could cause if you detect cheating during your investigation or if you get the call wrong.

Enjoy your On-Demand Event and let someone on staff handle the call when they notice it.

We have a few L1s active for FNMs in our local store. We rotate judge duties and we tend to only participate if there is an uneven amount of players, so we never have any byes. As there's not that many people (it varies between eight and sixteen) it's very manageable and in some cases a rare call can be taken by another playing judge. The environment is very casual (as an FNM should be) and there's never any objections to who takes the call.

Originally posted by Dustin De Leeuw:

Yonatan Kamensky
This means that playing Magic is a thing you do in between judge duties, not instead of.

This is way too strict for my taste.

I'm talking about when one is acting as a judge in an official capacity. The kind of unofficial judging you describe is a bit different, so I wasn't trying to address it at all. Sorry for the confusion!

A few additional potential topics:

What happens if things get heated in the match you're playing? All players are going to get salty from time to time, whether it's because of mana flood/screw, actions by opponents, external factors, etc. How do you deal with those issues, while trying to maintain a diplomatic facade and running a tournament?

What do you do when players react differently because you are a judge and player? For instance, some players might think that you can't/shouldn't play in an event that you are judging. Or they might believe that you will favor person X over them because you are an agent of the store. Or, in the context of Conspiracy or similar formats, players may gang up on you because you are a judge and therefore are expected to be a bigger threat. (Totally happened to me, anyway, in many of my Conspiracy drafts).

What about times when you are not the official judge, but you're playing in event? What do you do when the TO doesn't staff a judge but has a spoken or unspoken expectation that because you are a judge, you'll be answering questions? Or when the actual judge on staff is blowing a ruling? Or when players turn to you for rulings because they know you/you're more experienced/etc. and try to bypass the actual judge? (I agree with John Brian that you shouldn't take calls, but there's a risk of being perceived as haughty).

I tend to play very aggressive decks that are finished with matches in about 15 minutes or so. If someone calls for a judge, I ask my opponent if it's all right if I take the call, go over and handle it, then come back. The majority of my calls are largely asking about how interactions work as opposed to fixing something that's gone wrong.

I haven't needed a judge call in my own games, but in the event that I do, I would call the store owner over. He's also an L1, though since he usually has customers to attend to, he largely passes the judging off to me (I'm also more knowledgeable about rules and policy than he is).

The downside of being the Tuesday and Friday judge at my store is that my LGS doesn't seem to always get that when I'm playing at Comp REL, I can't issue rulings. I guess it's just habit to raise their hand and yell “HANK!” at this point.