Spectator asking player to concede
I had a strange situation come up in the last round of a Comp REL event. A player had taken an intentional draw, and afterwards realized that there would be nine people at X-1-1, and his tiebreakers were not good. Wishing that there was some way to improve his breakers, he looked around the room, and noticed that one of his friends, who was out of contention for prizes, was playing against one of his previous opponents. The player then approached a judge (me) to ask if it would be legal for him to ask his friend to concede the match.
While I found the request to be a bit distasteful, that isn't a valid reason for an action to be legal or illegal. I looked through the policy documents to find relevant sections. I started with Outside Assistance (IPG 3.2), but “Could you concede?” is not play advice, nor is it going to assist the friend. The philosophy section of 3.2, though, did seem to support the idea that the friend and his opponent should be left alone to play their match - “Tournaments test the skill of a player, not his or her ability to follow external advice or directions.” None of the Unsporting Conduct sections applied - the player was not asking his friend to improperly determine a winner, and was not offering anything in exchange for his requested outcome. The portion of the tournament rules dealing with spectators (MTR 1.11) states that “Spectators are responsible for remaining silent and passive during matches”, but this blanket restriction is often broken, as long as spectators avoid providing play advice or excess distractions.
With no real direction other than the philosophy behind IPG 3.2, I advised the player that I would not be allowing him to make his request. However, I let him know that this case did not seem that clear-cut to me, and said that we should take the matter up with the head judge. I was acting as a support judge for this event, and was empowered to handle appeals in the HJ's absence, but wanted to involve him if possible. Unfortunately, the head judge was performing an investigation, which continued as the round lengthened. The player was staying clear of the match that his friend was in, to avoid the appearance of impropriety, but looked like he wanted a resolution one way or the other. With the investigation continuing, I sought the advice of another L2 at the event. He thought to consult the Annotated IPG, in order to see detail about Outside Assistance. The sections there seemed to support the idea that Outside Assistance only applies to play advice, not other requests, and specifically allowed a request of “Quit, so we can go get food”. It also had the following section:
“Keep in mind though (and this is controversial in some circles) that asking or telling a player the results of another match is not Outside Assistance, even if that information is used to end the game.”
After having read this, I believed that the player's request to have his friend concede was not prevented by IPG 3.2, and I had not found any other reason to deny it. With the HJ still wrapped up with his investigation, I allowed the player to make the request, which he did very simply - “<Name>, would you concede?” - and the friend, after a moment, scooped up his cards.
I am looking for feedback that anyone may have on this matter. In particular:
- Does anyone know of a section of the MTR or IPG that would explicitly allow or disallow the player's request?
- Given the corner-case nature of the request, do you believe I should have interrupted the HJ's investigation to involve him in the ruling?
- Philosophically, do you believe that a request of this type _should_ be legal?
Thanks!