Hi,

Locally, we have a situation where there are some Competitive tournaments (e.g. European Modern Series Qualifiers) run in a way where no certified judge is present. This looks a bit risky to me (especially in a consistency and integrity regard), so I at least quickly assembled some tips on what to have in mind when running such event and sent it via e-mail to the TOs.

Now, I am wondering whether there were some points I may have missed. And whether it was actually a good idea overall :-D Maybe such communication should have come from more official sources (PCs or RCs?).

I would appreciate if you could brainstorm about the topic: what are the most crucial points that should be transmitted to TOs with little or no Competitive knowledge when trying to run such event on their own without a help from a certified judge?

Deckchecks, MTR specifies that about 10% of decks at Comp. REL events needs to be checked. You can point them to this guide - https://blogs.magicjudges.org/howto/2018/10/19/how-to-perform-deck-checks/

When starting the event, what should you inform the players about? You can point them to this guide - https://blogs.magicjudges.org/howto/2018/10/10/how-to-make-head-judge-announcements/

If a player does something illegal, what should you do? Point them to this guide - https://blogs.magicjudges.org/howto/2018/10/10/how-to-dq-a-player/

Maybe one of their staff should be certified as a judge to be better prepared for future events? We have an excellent write up here: https://blogs.magicjudges.org/o/judge-levels/

Shouldn't we focus on helping them acquire and encourage the certification of Judges amongst their local players?
Or on helping them contact certified Judges within a reasonable distance? I have had really positive experiences with this when I was Area Captain working with stores that had 0-1 Judges.

Originally posted by Michiel Van den Bussche:

Shouldn't we focus on helping them acquire and encourage the certification of Judges amongst their local players?
Or on helping them contact certified Judges within a reasonable distance? I have had really positive experiences with this when I was Area Captain working with stores that had 0-1 Judges.

Sure, but that is a different topic for a different discussion.

I ran my European Modern Series Qualifier on REG level because I thought you need to be level2 to run Competitive tournaments. So Level 1 judges (or even TOs wirh no judge level) can run Competitive tournaments?

Edited Bernard Linster (July 1, 2019 08:40:42 AM)

Originally posted by Bernard Linster:

I ran my European Modern Series Qualifier on REG level because I thought you need to be level2 to run Competitive tournaments. So Level 1 judges (or even TOs wirh no judge level) can run Competitive tournaments?

L2 is essentially just a certification that means you have studied all the relevant documents necessary to run a Comp. REL event efficient and without major issus, but all judge levels can run Comp. REL events. I did that a lot when Grand Prix Trials still was a thing at local shops and at Comp. REL (some years ago now).

L1 is a certification that you have studied all the relevant documents to run a Regular REL event, but nothing is stopping L1's (or L0's) from running events at Comp. REL. If you're an experienced L1 and have judged multiple Comp. REL events in the past, it would probably be fine, but if you're a new L1 you could run into some areas where you're uncertain what to do.

Having the European Modern Series Qualifier at Reguler REL was actually against the rules set by the Wizards Play Network when the organizer sanctioned it. In worst case the event can be invalidated.

Originally posted by Bernard Linster:

I ran my European Modern Series Qualifier on REG level because I thought you need to be level2 to run Competitive tournaments. So Level 1 judges (or even TOs wirh no judge level) can run Competitive tournaments?

Yes - which is a change from previously. For PPTQs, it was a requirement that they be run at Competitive REL, and a requirement that there be at least a Level 2 Judge. For EMSQs, there is a requirement that they be run at Competitive REL, but there is no requirement as far as Judge level. There must be a Judge in order to sanction the event, but that person does not need to be certified. So in theory it could be the TO, or the person running the shop that day.

As far as I appreciate Milan's iniciative on this topic, I honestly believe that this is SOLELY the (non-judge) TO's responsibility whether or not to hire a certified judge for their EMSQ.
The TO knows at the moment of sanctioning that the event has to be run at Competitive REL (and thus it is recommended to have a certified judge there). But I don't feel the need to step in and either proactively offer my judging services to the respective TOs (if they would be interested they would contact me on their own) or connect them with the relevant documents (which, in the hands of a non-professional, can be easily misinterpreted).

I can also truly understand the TO's, who don't want to have any judge on their event. With approx.10-15 players being the usual attendance at our local EMSQs, the fact of hiring a certified judge would result in a big rise of entry fee for their events (and therefore again less players who would show up).

What I think might be an issue is when anything REALLY BAD happens there and we (as judges) hear about these rumors later. In such a case I would always kindly ask the complaining player to send his/her concerns to WotC representative and explain that there is nothing to investigate from us (the regulation that says EMSQs don't require certified judges is WotCs regulation and only they are responsible for all the fame and blame).

Originally posted by Michiel Van den Bussche:

Shouldn't we focus on helping them acquire and encourage the certification of Judges amongst their local players?
Or on helping them contact certified Judges within a reasonable distance?

I agree here. If a TO asks me for advice on how to run a better event without judges, my advice is going to be to hire a judge. I do not want to help facilitate competitive events being run without judges, and I encourage other judges not to do so either.