Ok so the situation I in the recent PPTQ that I was HJ'ing was this:
So in the Final Round of the PPTQ, my 2 top seeded players paired vs each other in table 1. However they failed to sign the result slip on their table nor informed me (HJ) nor TO nor SK their intention to ID.
Originally posted by IPG 3.1 Tournament Error — Tardiness:
Upgrade: A player not in their seat 10 minutes into the round will receive a Match Loss and will be dropped from the tournament unless they report to the Head Judge or Scorekeeper before the end of the round.
After 35 mins into the round FJ took their slips and wrote no show, handed to SK who dropped them from tournament as per the upgrade in IPG tardiness.
What were the players doing?
Basically player A was trading cards with 2 other players who had submitted their result slip (players from table 2). While player B was playing casual games with another player who had also submitted his result slip to us. The tournament space is quite small, enough space for 42 players maximum.
After discussion with TO, reviewing the IPG and consultation with some L3, I decided to let both players affected know about this tardiness penalty they received, assigned them double match loss and gave them option to re-enroll into the tournament before the cut into Top 8. In their appeal to me, they said that we (all judges on staff) know them and should had automatically taken that they both want to ID.
Originally posted by IPG Annotated portion:
We want players to be on time. Players should not be sitting around waiting for their opponents to show up. It’s unfair to the people who follow the rules.
However in the upgrade portion
At the 10 minutes into the round, the player gets another Tardiness penalty, with a penalty of a Match Loss. It’s assumed that the player isn’t coming back, so please mark that the player is dropping on the match slip. It is best practice to let the player who got the win fill out the slip, with the judge marking “No Show” for the player who didn’t show up in the drop column, and putting the judge’s name on the line for the player’s signature who didn’t show up.
I basically have 3 options during the appeal:
1 - Uphold my FJ decision. Strictly following the IPG by penalising both players by dropping them from tournament.
2 - Assign double match loss and offer option to re-enroll. (My choice)
3 - Overturn my FJ decision. Customer Service all the way, allow both players to ID.
My question is what is the fficial way to handle this situation? After consultation with many judges, I got proponents for all 3 options.
On one hand I want it to be fair to all players. There were new players in the tournament and the appeal where player A said, “You guys know us and definitely know we would ID” really struck a chord with me that the newer players might take that knowing Judges is an advantage had I resolved the case with Option 3.
To me assigning double loss is to both serve as an educational tool (educate both players of the need to complete tasks assigned to them such as finishing the result slip and hand to us or inform HJ/TO/SK of intention of ID instead of ignoring this task and doing their own things instead) and to be fair to all participants within the tournament. I feared I could make a precedence of further tardiness from players to not complete their assigned task because they know the judges. Customer service portion is to allow re-enrollment.
As for option 1, I do not believe not allowing both players to re-enrollment is bad. Players are here to play.