Regular REL - Game Day Finals for Champion playmat

I was recently running a local event where the two winners of the Quarterfinals began their Finals match before I told them they could start, and before I could tell them who would have the choice of being on the Play/Draw.

The player who was 2nd seed said that the player who was 4th seed had a lower rank prior to the round and that since he was higher ranked in the previous round that he'd get to go first. Since the 4th seed actually beat the 1st seed in the Quarterfinals, he ended up having a higher ranking and should have had the choice to be on the play/draw.

Essentially what happened is the player who should have gotten to choose to be on the play or the draw was forced to be on the draw due to the other player's decision.

I made the decision that since they were still in the first turn that they restart the match with the appropriate player getting the option to be on the play/draw and to go through pregame procedures (resolving mulligans etc.)

What is the normal procedure in this case outside of reminding players not to begin the round until I have told them they can begin? I realize this was at Regular REL and in retrospect I probably should have told them to keep playing, but my gut told me otherwise. Both players were happy to restart, there were no objections, and the player who thought he should be on the play (upon investigation) I think he was genuinely sorry that he misinformed his opponent.

Assuming that these matches were single-elimination play-off matches, the player who was 2nd seed was actually correct about who should play first. This play/draw rule considers the seeding at the end of the Swiss rounds, and does not continue to update it through the single elimination rounds.

'In these playoff matches, the player that was ranked higher in the Swiss rounds chooses either to play first
or to play second in the first game of each match. For the second and subsequent games, the loser of the previous
game decides whether to play first in the next game. This alternate play/draw rule may be used in other
tournament playoff matches. If used, this must be announced prior to the start of the tournament'

I'm not sure whether I understood completely, but if you are saying that in
finals were players who finished 2nd and 4th after the swiss rounds, then
the 2nd player after swiss rounds chooses who starts (provided that you
announced it at the begining of the tournament).

Who beat whom in quarterfinals is irrelevant.

MTR 2.2: … the player that was ranked higher in the Swiss rounds
chooses either to play first
or to play second in the first game of each match …


2014-05-26 13:11 GMT+02:00 David Hoernlen <

Those modified Draw/Play rules are for Premier events, not Regular REL. If you announced that the tournament playoffs would be using those playoff rules, then that is fine, but if not then you should just use standard random method for determining Draw/Play.

Edited Alan Dreher (May 28, 2014 12:44:54 AM)

You can use the modified Play/Draw rule in playoff matches if it is announced. The MTR lists the events that default to this Play/Draw rule and these are PRemier tournaments.

This alternate play/draw rule may be used in other tournament playoff matches. If used, this must be announced prior to the start of the tournament

Both players were happy about the ruling, that means your ruling was good.

The normal procedure suggests “determine randomly who plays/draws” unless you announced use of the modified rules.

Thanks guys! Also,I absolutely make sure to announce that's how we do the playoffs in our store for certain events.