I am curious, how do you all deal with a player who calls for a judge, and when you arrive, they have no questions or issues. Other words, they called you over for no reason.

Edited Mark Brown (March 12, 2013 02:34:05 AM)

I think the best way to handle this is to make it clear that they should
have a reason for calling a judge over since it wastes not just their time
and their opponent's time but also your time if there is no valid reason
for you to be called over. If it becomes a problem I would start giving
slow play warnings as they can very easily be holding up their match if
this is done repeatedly (if this is the case it should also go without
saying that there should be some investigation into whether it could be
stalling…I would pull the player aside and ask them what they are trying
to accomplish by calling you over with no reason or issue for doing so).
It wouldn't be hard for this type of behavior to prevent the completion of
a match within the time limit depending on matchups and format.

TL:DR - the first time it happens it's an education opportunity on why we
are there…when it becomes a habit then it can get ugly.

So, this has happened to me before, and if it's an isolated incident I
don't see especially much harm in it. I've certainly judged at a shop when
someone calls me over only to jokingly complain about something. One
incident sticks in my mind. A player at a standard event calls me over and
goes “Judge, my opponent is playing affinity.” I look over and see a
Champion of the Parish, three Burning Tree Emissaries, and a Lightning
Mauler. Everyone involved laughed and we moved on.

This question seems to very much depend on the intent. While it is
certainly possible that they're stalling, and we should check to make sure
that isn't the case, I think that an isolated instance of this is pretty
harmless. If it's disruptive at all, I'm likely to ask him to stop
specifically with a verbal caution, making future ‘crying wolf’ a game loss
for USC-Major.

In my experience, most incidences of calling a judge for no reason means that there was a problem, but when you get there the players have sorted it out and continued playing. In these cases, I tend to just say ‘Ok’, keep an eye on the match a little bit in case the mystery problem unsorts itself, and then go about my buisness.

If one player was clearly doing this many times just to annoy judges or be funny, then I would probably talk to them about it - but I have never seen this happen, and a few incidents over a day are something that I have never even given a second thought.

I'm going to echo Kim, I've had it happen quite a few times, the judge call is made because there was a reason at the time of the call, but by the time a judge (me) arrived, the 2 players had sorted it out. I may well query what the problem was, just in case someone made a mistake, but mostly I'll just hang around to see if there is anything going on or to see if they actually do change their minds and decide they want to ask.

The one thing I have learned is that there was always a reason when the first call was made, so don't get too upset that you've wasted your time. Look on the bright side, it might have broken a few minutes of boredom, it got you to a different location on the tournament floor that may trigger someone else to call you over. Ultimately, it's not actually wasted more than a few seconds of your time so don't stress too much.

The only time it's ever been 100% no reason has been similar to Andrew's experience - trying to be funny - “Judge my opponent is playing a better deck then me, wah!!” and that's usually as you walk past, so rarely any time wasted.

“Judge, my opponent is beating me up and won't stop!”

“What?”

"No, really, Madcap Skills is totally unfair!"

There has been instances at the shop I play at, and a L0 sometimes for, that I mess around with the on site judge who happens to be a L2.

Upon messing around with him before the event calling him “Old Guy” and “Geezer” and he cracks jokes about the never ending bald spot that starts at my forehead. I sometimes call him those names when I need to get his attention. He said that it's easier for me to get his attention to call judge instead.

Round 4 of 5 rolls around and in between games, I preceded to start my post then pregame procedure. Then yell “Judge”. He preceded to come over in a rush, thinking that there was a issue. I told him “Your right, it's easier to get your attention to yell judge, than old guy!”

Me and the judge have known each other for about 5-6 years and we tend to goof around more times than not when we are in the shop.

Edited William Blanton (March 14, 2013 03:36:44 PM)