Players A and N are both playing grindy control decks. Each player wins one game, but after the second game, there are less than 10 minutes left in the round. Rather than start a third game which will almost certainly go to time and be a draw anyway, the players want to go outside and take a smoke break. What is the proper way to report this match? From MTR 2.4:

“Either player may concede to or draw with the other, though if the conceding player won a game in the match, the match must be reported as 2-1.”

By this logic, it seems like the match should be reported as 1-1-0 or 1-1-1, but the next sentence says:

“Intentional draws are always reported as 0-0-3.”

which contradicts this. Which is the proper way?

A player who agrees to a draw is not a “conceding player” so that part of the paragraph doesn't apply. 0-0-3 is the prescribed result for intentional match draws. If the players agree to simply draw the third game, then the result can be 1-1-1.

The truth is that 0-0-3 is a largely arbitrary decision made simply because people kept asking for an official answer about how to report intentional draws. 1-1-1, 1-1-0, 0-0-3, and 0-0-99 all produce functionally identical outcomes, considering that the Game Win Percentage is the third tiebreaker (after Match points and Opponent Match Win %), and ties that are broken using that breaker are exceedingly rare, especially in events that are longer than 3 rounds.

'O'fficial stamp of approval for everything Josh just said. :)

There was a situation earlier on Competitive REL or on the DCIJUDGE-L on whether we can force players to play the third game. (“There are five minutes left and I don't want to international draw, but I don't want to start a third game because it won't end anyway. My opponent agrees.”). I can't find the discussion now, unfortunately, but I believe the outcome was that we shouldn't force the players to play and that they can report 1-1-0, if it seems obvious that the third game won't end in time.

My corner case alarm is going off, but yes, common sense says we cannot force the players to play.

It seems to me that what they are trying to do IS intentionally drawing.
Rather than starting the third game of the match, they are agreeing to end
the match in a draw. In what way is that not an ID?

I would probably ask why they don't want to ID. Is there some educational
opportunity here to explain what an ID is and why it isn't bad?

I don't see why they have a 3rd game reported as a draw. There's no 3rd game played, why report it?

All right, as a follow-up question, consider this related scenario:

A short while after the start of the last round of swiss, a player hands you a match slip filled out 1-1-0. You ask the players about it and they tell you that they both wanted to draw their match, but they wanted it reported that way instead of 0-0-3 to help their tiebreakers. To that end, they agreed that the first player would immediately concede game 1 and the other player would immediately concede the second game.

Would you be OK with this? If not, what's different between it and the originally presented scenario that changes your mind? If so, shouldn't ID's be reported 1-1-0 by default to prevent players from needing this sort of shady-seeming hoop jumping to maximize their tournament equity?

Originally posted by David Elden:

A short while after the start of the last round of swiss, a player hands you a match slip filled out 1-1-0. You ask the players about it and they tell you that they both wanted to draw their match, but they wanted it reported that way instead of 0-0-3 to help their tiebreakers. To that end, they agreed that the first player would immediately concede game 1 and the other player would immediately concede the second game.

Would you be OK with this? If not, what's different between it and the originally presented scenario that changes your mind? If so, shouldn't ID's be reported 1-1-0 by default to prevent players from needing this sort of shady-seeming hoop jumping to maximize their tournament equity?

As MTR 2.4, Intentional Draws are always reported as 0-0-3. period. All IDs are 0-0-3, so it is totally equal.
They cannot stop their match with 1-1-0 record if they have still time. Their choice are whether ID or continue playing. IDing game won't help here, because either player need to win 2 games to finish their match (or time is called).

I know some players just write 1-1-1 on slip without playing Game 3 when they have only a few minutes after Game 2. I usually allow this, if remaining time is really short (less than 3or5 minutes). However, if I got 1-1-1 (or 1-1-0) slip with 10 minutes left, I'll call players and ask them why.

The MTR specifies 0-0-3 because a lot of judges were asking for an ‘O’fficial answer to the question “how to record IDs?” - and not because that's the only option allowed.

Players that played 2 games should “get credit” for those - even if they then decide to draw, rather than play part of a 3rd game. If they report 1-1-0 or 1-1-1, it's fine.

Whenever I was entering results, if a slip came in early marked “ID”, “1-1”, “1-1-1”, or even “0-0-99”, I'd just click the shortcut for ID and let the software record it however it was currently programmed to do so. That seemed best for consistency; players want to ID, they don't know what MTR 2.4 says. Note that, when DCIR was still acceptable, the ID shortcut recorded it as 0-0-1 (I think - it's been a few years), even though the MTR had already been updated to 0-0-3. (And yet, the universe did not collapse! hee hee)

d:^D

I have gotten in the habit of explaining to players that an ID is recorded as 0-0-3. I explain to them that since there are two types of draws possible (intentional and unintentional), we need to have some distinction in the software for players that scenario.

I treat this type of thing as an opportunity to educate players with a friendly demeanor; since like Scott says they don't know what MTR 2.4 says. I have yet to have a bad experience with this method.

Yep, when players ask me “How do I report an Intentional Draw?” I answer with, “You can always just write ID, and the scorekeeper will know what to do with it. But, if you like to be more technical, it's reported as 0-0-3” I find most players at that point actually write in 0-0-3, though it takes more pen strokes, which I think is actually pretty cool. Competitive players seem to like to do things the more precise way when given the option.