Good morning,

I will be the head judge of a non-premier tournament this coming weekend. The event will be Competitive REL with an expected attendance of at least 20 players. I have a friend who is interested in becoming a judge and is volunteering to help me at the event; he has no DCI judge certification and has never worked at a Competitive REL event before. I read in MTR 1.8 that floor judges don't need to be DCI certified but I would like to understand exactly what kinds of duties he is allowed and not allowed to perform on the floor as a non-certified floor judge? Can he make rulings during matches? Can he issue penalties and remedies for infractions? Can he be my proxy as head judge incase I need to step away for a couple of minutes?

Thank you for your time,

Do you trust him to come to you if he's unsure about a ruling? Do you
trust your players to appeal rulings to you where appropriate?

Paul Smith

paul@pollyandpaul.co.uk


On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 1:40 PM, Eric Paré
<forum-3310@apps.magicjudges.org>wrote:

Hello!

Really it comes down to how much you trust him and his knowledge.
Personally, I wouldn't trust him very far. With only 20 players, it is not
like you're going to be overwhelmed and need the help. You should be able
to handle a 20 player event by yourself without problems. The way I would
approach it is to have him shadow you for the day to learn. Quiz him,
question him, teach him, mentor him, help him grow as a judge. You could
let him help you when you do a deck check and then you make the decisions
if there is a problem. Realistically, I wouldn't expect an L0 to be able to
operate on their own at a Competitive REL event. Use it as a learning event
for him, but don't risk the integrity of your tournament by giving him too
much trust without supervision.

-George FitzGerald
L2, Sarasota, FL

Originally posted by George FitzGerald:

Hello!

The way I would approach it is to have him shadow you for the day to learn. Quiz him,
question him, teach him, mentor him, help him grow as a judge. You could
let him help you when you do a deck check and then you make the decisions
if there is a problem. Realistically, I wouldn't expect an L0 to be able to
operate on their own at a Competitive REL event. Use it as a learning event
for him,

That was my intention. I wanted to have him watch what I do all day so he gets the idea of what it's like.

Even though I do trust him with rulings, I didn't give it much thought on how much I do trust him overall. Thanks for the tip :) Is it a good idea to meet with him before the event to review rules and policy and see how much he does know?

If you have time to do that, then sure, go for it. Otherwise, you can do it
day of the event. Even with going over rules and policy first, I wouldn't
trust him right away and would shadow him for making rulings to make sure
everything was going fine.

-George FitzGerald
L2, Sarasota, FL

Originally posted by George FitzGerald:

If you have time to do that, then sure, go for it. Otherwise, you can do it
day of the event. Even with going over rules and policy first, I wouldn't
trust him right away and would shadow him for making rulings to make sure
everything was going fine.

Awesome. Thanks for the help.

I think this depends how good you know him. I was allowed to Judge a PTQ as a L0 because the Headjudge knew me very well. If he is an experienced Player he will propably do a lot of things right just because he knows them from his own experience.
If you want to help him you can print the Judge Booklet for him, so he has something to refer to if he is unsure. You will find this here:
http://www.judgebooklet.com/

The first event I ever officially judged was a PTQ when I was still L0, and I'd never met any of the certified judges on staff before that day. I did some shadowing, helped with deck checking, and made rulings–at first under supervision, and later on my own. About the only things I didn't do were make announcements and act as HJ.

Just last weekend I HJ'd a PTQ of my own with a non-certified judge on staff, and he also did all of the above.

It's not really a matter of what a non-certified judge is “allowed” to do–they're “allowed” to do pretty much anything any other judge could do, apart from actually being the HJ. It's a matter of whether or not you trust them to be able to do those things properly, and that'll be up to your own judgment.

Having your friend follow you around initially and watch you at work is a good idea, but I'd recommend letting them help out directly as well–ask their opinion when players ask you questions, for example, or ask them how they'd fix a given situation. At the very least you can almost certainly entrust them with busywork like cutting and handing out match slips, cleaning up garbage, and the like.

Edited Callum Milne (March 12, 2013 12:32:48 AM)