Hello helpful judges!

I am head judging a MCQ this weekend (May 18th) and the forecast (while a ways off) looks iffy here in Oklahoma City. The TO has a lot of experience judging severity of oncoming storms, and I trust their judgement on when to call off/pause the tournament to get folks out to safety if things go very bad. What I need help with is, what do I do if weather causes a break/shut down of the tournament (especially mid-round)? I have been unable to find any official policy on pausing tournaments for emergencies, so if that exists I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction. If there is no policy in place, let me ask these questions one by one, and I would appreciate any thoughts or experiences you great folks have.

1) If we deem it necessary to halt the tournament, and the storm front looks to persist for several hours of unsafe activity, do we talk to WotC and reschedule? (We'll figure out the refund/reentry side of that if needed).

2) If we call for a halt mid-round and evacuate, but it appears things will be safe an hour or 2 later, do we simply restart that round? If so, do we restart with or without previously entered results?

3) How long is too long for a halt to become a complete cancellation?

These are the burning questions I am considering for this potential situation. I would appreciate any additional questions I should ask and any answers to these questions you all may have. I have my own thoughts on how to handle things, but definitely want other opinions, especially from any with experience in these random events.

Cheers,

Dan

Edited Daniel Dusang (May 14, 2019 06:35:57 AM)

I was HJ during event where the fire alarm was set off mid-round. Though the pause didn’t last very long (15 minutes), I had to do some quick thinking when it first happened.

I told the players to write down whose turn it was, what phase they were in, lands played for the turn and any effects played. The players was also told to mark the table they was seated at. Then we all went calmly out of the venue. I was the last person out to ensure nobody was tempted to take anything with them.

I don’t have any experience on longer pauses, but with the steps above we could return really anytime. Hope it helps somewhat.

Something that may help maintain some fluidity even through risks of pauses in the tournament is saving the tournament in WER. Often. Even more so if there can be power outages.

If pauses are likely to happen, I guess also prepare whatever is necessary to you for a longer day of judging?

If there is a huge mishap about a tournament, I have found that an easy resolution usually comes from the TO's nearest WPN representative. They tend to have quite a bit of manoeuvrability regarding tournaments that need to be moved around.

Just wanted to comment here that we totally understand that unforeseen circumstances come up in these events. The safety of everyone involved is obviously most important, and should the TO make the call that an event is too dangerous to continue or put on for whatever reason, we are happy to work with that TO on a case by case basis to figure out the remedy to the situation. We don't have a particular policy regarding this simply because it would be impossible to come up with every possible scenario in which an event might be terminated or canceled.

Thanks!

Sara

I would advise against any step that makes an evacuation slower. Once
Peoples' lives are at stake the tournament is irrelevant.

A fire alarm, even one that “looks like” a drill should be responded to
instantly. I would never postpone a reaction by asking the players to do
anything except leaving.

On Tue, May 14, 2019, 00:02 Sara Mox <forum-50176-cc70@apps.magicjudges.org>
wrote:

I've had ( as TO) a power outage for about an hour and a bit during a sealed (old style) PTQ. The incident happened during deck construction. I discussed with the Headjudge that everyone should just finish buiding their decks using their mobiles as flashlights. The ‘30 minute deck construction time’ was not strictly enforced, which was not an issue for any of the players. The usage of mobile devices was joked about, but obviously using a phone as flashlight is different than using it as a communication device.

Players were anxious about the event being cancelled, because not all players would be able to come back the next weekend, it is at such time not clear WotC would allow rescheduling, the event was ( IIRC) on one of the last weekends of the season, etc. Luckely the power came back early enough, but I had already discussed a cut-off time with the HJ, if the power would not be back at 14.00 (or whatever time we decided on) the event would not continue that day.

A power outage is truly unexpected, but does not harm the personal safety of the players. A stormfront approaching is not entirely unexpected, but potential very harmful for you and the players. I suggest you prepare accordingly, and determine decision points: Pausing the tournament at the end of a round is much less hassle than 10 minutes into the round. When you have to evacuate, it helps a lot for the players easy of minds that you have communicated this circumstance and that there is a plan to continue / reschedule the event so the players are not wasting their chance for a slot. Having discussed options before the event with the TO and staff will also help in making the communication the same from everyone, which helps a lot to prevent panic, and while players will be frustrated to have their tournament interrupted, they will be really appreciative if you have prepared for the worst.

I would agree with Niels, that delaying the evacuation can be really dangerous. Leaving in an orderly fashion is advisable; performing other tasks is not.

When communicating with the players, maybe focus on informing the players that if the event needs to be cancelled because of x or y reason, WotC will be involved in a solution, they won't lose their chance, etc - and then inform them of exactly how you will need them to evacuate, should the need arise. Where the nearest shelter is. I might give them information at registration, then quiz them quickly at the player meeting. If it seems like it might get significantly worse over the next round, don't start that round, but maybe wait a few minutes until you're sure?

I don't know much about storms specifically, because these kinds of violent storms are rare to nonexistent in my area, but as a player I trust an organiser infinitely more if they don't seem to prioritise the game over my safety. Especially if they've prepared a backup for the tournament integrity beforehand.

Edited John Barkestedt (May 14, 2019 09:31:07 PM)

I do not have experience with this, luckily. I do have an opinion that I will throw in to the mix.

2) If we call for a halt mid-round and evacuate, but it appears things will be safe an hour or 2 later, do we simply restart that round? If so, do we restart with or without previously entered results?

The moment you have to evacuate, the integrity of any active games can no longer be guaranteed, so I think it would be best to restart any active games, but keeping the results of completed games/matches. Restarting active games would require a serious (15-20 minutes?) overall time extension to the round, however. My reasoning behind this is that scrapping played games would lead to unnecessary feelbads, while restarting active games really has to be done to preserve tournament integrity. There would be too much opportunity to cheat and to get outside assistance during the interruption.

3) How long is too long for a halt to become a complete cancellation?

That just depends on your end-time. If your players generally need the event to end before 10 pm, and you are not going to be able to make that anymore, a complete cancellation is the best decision for the players. If you have enough wiggle room, just carry on.

Regarding evacuation

As Niels said, there is only one priority during evacuation and that is making sure everyone gets out safely. No other tasks can be allowed to be undertaken. It is not a good idea to let players write down the game state. Heck, during evacuation you cannot allow them to spend time packing up their deck so they can bring it with them. They should evacuate immediately.

This does raise a few concerns. Players will be worried about their (potentially very expensive) belongings. You and the TO have a role to oversee the evacuation, so you can definitely keep an eye out while everyone evacuates and you or the TO (probably the TO, since he is responsible for the venue) should be the last to leave the room and seal it off.

Also, manage player expectations. Make sure they know up-front that evacuations might be a thing. Let them know preferably today so that they can make a decision whether they want to even play in the tournament or not, knowing that there is a not negligible risk of having the tournament disrupted. Then, on the day itself, before the tournament starts, make sure everyone knows the evacuation procedure. Make sure they know not to pack up any stuff before they evacuate and make sure they know where to go and whose instructions to look out for.

Good luck on your tournament, I hope someone nerfs storm before it starts.

Though its not on the level of which you're talking about,
I recently had an FNM where we lost power. All of the players looked up, and looked around, and then pulled out there phones for light sources and we right back to playing like nothing ever happened. The TO started to panic a bit and went to determine the loss of power (transformer blew out the whole block lost power including traffic signals) but the event continued normally. Our Wer was open on a laptop and I set up mobile hotspot to keep it running. Our second event for the night was canceled due to the fact the store could not actually do business, but other than that the night ran great.

At MCM Series Prague, water dropped from the venue ceiling. It had rained heavily for a few days, so I had some doubts if the ceiling is safe, or if it's “full of water and too heavy to hold”, so inquiried with the maintenance-man from the venue (who'd climb up and check).

My only thought there was how to bring everyone out once the venue-maintenance-man would deliver me dangerous information, not worry about the games or what round it's in. If the venue crashes, noone of the matches matter. What matters is that everyone gets out safely. I'd worry about refunds, rescheduling, whatever later.

In the end, the maintenance-man let me know the ceiling isn't full of water, but simply the air conditioning was too loaded with humidity from the previous days (2 days heavy rain into 1 day 35 °C), that's why you may not have heard about that issue until now.

–
At some GP Prague, there was a fire in the venue. Can any judge who was there during the event share their experience ?

About 2 years ago I had a fire in the venue my PPTQ was at (somebody srt fire to a mattress in the Hotel o0). When we heard the alarm I told everyone to stop, only memorize whose turn and phase it is and put their hands face down. Then leave in a coordinated manner. The TO and I were the last to leave and locked the room. Later when we got permission to re-enter the building, the TO and I were the first ones to enter the room again, had everybody take their seat and continue their match. If there would have been any disagreement on whose turn it is I could have dealt with that on a case by case basis by counting cards/lands/find out last game actions etc. Luckily that was not necessary.
I liked the way we handled it because it was fast and safe and still allowed to finish the tournament at a later stage in case it would have been a false alarm. With your question being regarding a storm it is more difficult since it probably lasts much longer and makes finishing the tournament the same day more unlikely. On the other hand it should also not be that time sensitive that you need to leave everything immediately so I would probably in coordination with the TO stop and cancel the tournament. Let everybody pack up and leave and organize the refund/rerun of the tournament etc later.