I would like opinions on how you would handle this situation. As par, I checked the ipg before this draft began and found it very lacking in detail about errors, but especially lacking in rectification procedure. Here is the situation:

Event is at Regular REL. TO runs a smaller store and this is there first large tournament. They want this store to remain as a casual place to hang out and play games (in addition to magic, like warhammer or board games).

TO Has put some significant additional prizing up for the winners (IE: Tarmogoyf, foil emrakul, etc), so they have asked for a judge for this event. The judges job is mostly to ensure proper lines of play, correcting any mistakes, preventing ruling arguments, and to potentially handle any and all cheating/unsportsmanlike conduct.

Fast forward –> Swiss has finished and we are moving to top8 (draft). TO would like to run the draft on a timer to keep things at a steady pace and to offer no advantage to any one person.
End of pack 1 there have been 0 issues.
Pick 6(9) of pack 2 we come across an error. The judge has been preoccupied watching the timer and browsing in between to ensure there is no misconduct, as such they didn't notice this:

Pick 6 Player A accidentally drafts from the same pack twice and passes it on.
Pick 7 Player B doesn't notice and drafts from that pack
Pick 8 Player C doesn't notice and drafts from that pack
Pick 9 Player D Notices and calls judge immediately

Draft is stopped as we determine who drafted an additional card. We determine it is Player A, who has determined himself what the card is that was drafted accidentally. (investigation determines there was no intention of foul play)
Now comes the attempt to fix the error.
Reminder: This is at Regular rules enforcement level
Judge talks to TO to get a second opinion. TO wants judge to ask table what they want to do. Judge decides against said action, and takes the aforementioned card Player A identified, puts it in (pack short one card), and continues the draft. Judge is not happy with his own decision, but acted quickly as any other rectification would offer an unfair advantage/disadvantage to the immediate state of the draft.

other options considered by judge:
were to take a card at random from that draft pack and put it into (PSOC), then continue draft
[decided against for unfair advantage to the player currently drafting from (PSOC) and other players afterwards, while giving disadvantage to Players 7 and 8)
Back the draft up those picks for players 6,7,8, then remove the sequential cards from players 6 pod, randomly allocate one to player 6, then add the other card to (PSOC) and continue the draft after players 7 and 8 drafted from it.

As player 6's card were in what was believed to be a sequential order, remove the cards drafted after the incident, identify those two cards, shuffle them and randomly allocate one to Player 6. Remove the other card from the draft…
OR
back the draft up for players 7 and 8 to have repick option from (PSOC) with randomly allocated card added to pack.


What would you do? Again, I must stress this is not Competitive, but Regular REL.

Edited Cyril Ford (June 7, 2014 10:47:35 PM)

So, lots going on here. The big thing I notice is that you're running what seem to be Competitive REL events with Competitive REL prizes wanting Competitive REL solutions at Regular REL. Regular REL has an important purpose… it's about fun and learned, it's the only REL most of us play at, and it's what 95%+ of sanctioned Magic games held.

It's also probably not appropriate for events that give out Tarmogoyfs and foil Emrakuls.

This is especially the case when you want to time your draft - timing drafts isn't really appropriate for Regular. That doesn't mean people can take 10m to evaluate the pros and cons of each pick, but it does mean a more informal atmosphere where no one is timing each pick to the limits in the MTR. You can still keep things moving at Regular REL - at my LGS where I judge limited FNM, there's rarely a week that goes by that I don't tell a player who's stuck “I need you to make a pick now.”

I can empathize with your TO's desire to keep things casual. If that's the case, he or she shouldn't be putting big prizes on the line. There's a reason we have a Comp REL - next time, encourage your TO to use it where appropriate, or to spread prize support budget to a bunch of events so each event has a more casual feel.

Thank you John. I had mentioned that previously for the sealed swiss portion, and again for the draft portion (where the bigger prizing was on the line). They were adamant to remain casual, so I let them have their way. While I agree entirely with your statement, I just wanted opinions on what someone else that was in that particular situation would of done.

Cryil, I personally think you did the right thing (taking the card that was supposed to be in the pack and then returning it into the pack where it should be at the time), but I don't think there is going to be a “good” answer for this issue. Every way I look at it there seems to be something that isn't fair to someone, between it rewinding and people having information on what cards are in packs coming to them, or a card skipping people.

While I'm a bit curious why you'd be looking at the IPG for a Regular REL event, the rest of your actions seem fine. You were presented with an odd situation, and you found a fast but fair solution, so the players could get back to having fun. Well done!

And, what John McCarthy said. Please share our confusion with the store owner; either you want Casual events, or you give out prizes that encourage Competitive play. The REL does not determine how players treat the event, the prize support does. That's why Wizards stipulates Comp REL for premier events, with “serious” prizes (GP byes, PT invites).

d:^D