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Report 2008 - Worlds Memphis - Riccardo Tessitori
Articolo del 14-12-2008 a cura di Tessitori Riccardo
Tessitori Riccardo

Hi all,
2008 tournament season has come to the end.
United States claimed the Team world champion title, and Antti Malin from Finland is the current World Champion.
You can read the official coverage here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/worlds08/welcome


 
The formats
Worlds has always been the longest and more complex tournament; this year, we had the following formats: Standard, Extended, Legacy, and Draft.
You are correct, there was no Two-Headed Giant; the Team portion was Constructed; each member of the National Team had to choose a Constructed format (Standard, Extended or Legacy) and the matches were individual.
Luckily (at least for me ^__^) there were no difficult situations like “We have 31 life points, our opponents have 21 life points, they play Arbiter of Knollridge, but Everlasting Torment is in play; then, after Disenchanting the Everlasting Torment, they play a spell that deals damage to a single player equal to half of his life, rounded down; then, they play another Arbiter of Knowledge, but one of them was damaged by a Stigma Lasher…… at the end of turn, is it better to calculate life points or to concede and go to lunch?”.
 
A few rules and infractions
Even without 2HG, we had interesting situations (especially in Legacy, where we could see cards and rules interactions we rarely see during the year).
Here you have a few situations:
1) Thanks to my Vedalken Shackles, I control your Dark Confidant; at the beginning of my turn, I untap my Vedalken Shackles but I forget to return the Dark Confidant to your side of the table; I reveal the first card of my deck, lose life, and draw the second; at this moment, we realize the mistake. Is this Drawing Extra Cards or what?
The precise mistake is “not returning the Dark Confidant”, and the cards is “drawn” when its ability legally resolves; the card is not “drawn” as a direct consequence of the mistake; it means that this is not a Drawing Extra Card infraction.
The infraction belongs to the sub-category called “Illegal Game State”, because there is a **continuous** illegal state (the Dark Confidant is illegally under my control); the situation is fixed by returning the Dark Confidant to my opponent, just like 99% of the illegal game states are fixed by applying state based effects.
2) I have Chalice of the Void in play, with one counter; my opponent plays Glimpse and puts it in his graveyard (none of us says anything). Then, ready to fill the table with dozens of elves, he plays the first and is about to draw a card thanks to the Glimpse effect; after he draws it, I call the judge, who should take a decision.
I’m aware that the Glimpse, that costs G, was countered by my Chalice of the Void, but I didn’t cheat because I have no responsibility to make sure that my opponent realizes that his spell was countered.
My opponent legally played the Glimpse, legally played the first 2-mana-cost Elf, and illegally put the Glimpse delayed triggered ability on the stack (and then drew the card); this is a Drawing Extra Card infraction.
Only if my opponent asked me “Can I draw?” I should have told him “No, the Glimpse was countered”.
3) Regular REL, I play a hideaway land, look at the first four cards of my library, choose one, put the rest on the bottom of my library… and then realize that I put the card I chose in my hand instead of below the hideaway land.
The infraction is Drawing Extra Cards, because I now have in my hand a card that was not supposed to go to my hand.
The appropriate penalty for Regular REL is a Warning and the recommended procedure is… “putting a random card from my hand to the top of my library”?? Well, even if it’s the best procedure in 99% of the cases, many people agreed that this is a quite strange procedure to fix this very particular situation; this is a great example when judgment needs to be used, and it’s acceptable that many different judges have many different ideas; I heard several (“put a random card from the hand below the hideaway land”, “the game continues without fix”, “choose a random card from the hand, put it on top of the library and resolve the hideaway ability again”, etc) and I can’t say that one was clearly the best…. In this situations, just choose the one you prefer ^__^ and make sure to correctly explain to both players that there is no clear procedure and that you chose the best you could.
 
Game Rules Violation or Drawing Extra Card?
The second situation above involved a player who drew a card for an ability that didn’t exist.
During the weekend in Memphis, there was confusion about the difference between Drawing Extra Card and Game Rules Violation, and I will use a very simple example to clarify it.
Concentrate is a spell that costs 4 and makes me draw 3 cards.
I play Concentrate, but I have only three mana available; it means that I played it illegally.
If my opponent doesn’t realize the mistake, I (legally) resolve a spell that was illegally played.
This is Drawing Extra Card, because the card is drawn as a **direct** consequence of the illegally played spell; the fact that we agreed that Concentrate was on the stack doesn’t imply that its resolution is legal and causes no Drawing Extra Card infraction.
When is it Game Rules Violation? I will use an example.
Silvergill Adept is played without revealing a Merfolk; it resolves; I draw a card.
The infraction is that I illegally played the Adept; I draw the card as a consequence of the triggered ability, not the spell. The card isn’t drawn as a **direct** consequence of the spell.
If I had to describe it with simpler (but not accurate) words, I would say that an infraction is Drawing Extra Card when the card is drawn before the stack is empty; as soon as the stack is empty, original infraction and drawing are no more linked.
 
A few ideas about future articles
There were more than 70 judges in total (efficiently led by the HJ Toby Elliott), and we had plenty of opportunities for discussions.
A few interesting subjects made us think “it would be a great subject for an article”:
 - What’s the end of round procedure?
 - Artwork: a guide to determine if the modified card is allowed or not
 - Backup: a guide to determine if we should backup, after discovering a game rules infraction
 - 8 men tournaments: how to manage hundreds of them
 
Judge awards
A new tradition is born; one of our goals for the future is to give special awards at the end of each season to the judges who distinguished themselves the most; each award is represented by a card.
2008 awards are:
Ingrid Lind-Jahn (Show and Tell) for her efforts in video production, articles and seminars
Carlos Ho (Cultural Exchange) for travelling throughout the world on behalf of the program
Cristiana Dionisio (Statecraft) for her efforts building the Italian judge community
Chris Richter (Evangelize) for his work on “Ask the Judge”
Bernd Buldt (Epic Struggle) for eventually making it to Worlds despite having to turn around twice with car trouble (different cars!)
 
Judge Level E
“E” means “Emeritus”; “Emeritus” means that the DCI couldn’t be like it is without them.
I couldn’t explain it better than they did it here ^__^:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/worlds08/emeritus


 
Two new L4 …
2008 saw the birth of three new L4; after Seamus Campbell was celebrated in PT Hollywood, Worlds was the place where we celebrated the advancement of two Europeans:
Kevin Desprez, 27 years old from Lille (France).
Kevin started judging in 2001; in addition to having played 6 Pro Tours from 2003 to 2007, he started his career as international judge in 2003 (GP Amsterdam - team).
In the last three years, Kevin went to several GPs and PTs, both in his continent and US and Japan, and become a highly respected judge worldwide; thanks to his event management skills, I guess he was very often assigned the role of “Logistic team leader” (the “general on the floor” ^__^).
He has become now a reference for France and the main link between the French community and the worldwide community, and his continuous contacts with judges from other countries show how much he’s contributing to the global community, both during and especially after the events.
Thanks to his broad experience, his people skills and his never-ending enthusiasm, he has become one of the judges to-go-to, when looking for help or a well thought opinion; when a L3 becomes the reference and example to follow for the other L3, it’s time to upgrade ^__^
Frank Wareman, 29 years old from the Netherlands.
The moment when Frank started judging international events is lost in the past; I just remember that Frank was one of the judges who has been around since when I started; I also remember one of my first international events, when Frank kept me at a table for more than 20 minutes for a full review about my rules/diplomacy/management/approach/demeanor/teamleading (I felt X-rayed ^__^).
His ability in analyzing people and events grow, and today Frank is considered to be one of the best observer of the DCI; his insightful reviews and feedback about people and event management are the result of an awesome skill that helps all DCI members to learn and improve; I feel no shame at all in saying that I have a lot to learn from him in this area.
In 2007, we saw Frank wearing the red & black polo, as HJ of the huge GP Strasbourg and GP Stuttgart; in addition to it, we can read his web articles (on the DCI website we can find "Making a good L1 judge", useful instrument for all the L2 judges, who are now able to certify new L1), enjoy his seminars at Pro Tours and Grand Prix, feel his contribution to policy changes in the last years, and read his opinions on mailing lists and IRC.
 
… and a new L5!
Yes, it’s me ^__^
The birth of a new L5 is not a success for an individual; it’s a success for the entire group called DCI, made by hundreds of individuals; it’s the group that brings a person up, it’s only the group that can **create** a L5; a L5 can’t exist by himself and his role will always be focused on the group, on the other judges, on the game as a whole; it’s my opinion that judges should be at the service of the game, of the players, of everybody involved; the same way, L5 judges should be at the service of all the other judges, independently on level and country, and I’m ready to accept all the new responsibilities.
I’m extremely proud of myself, but I’m more proud of the huge group of people I worked with in these years and who supported me, the other judges, the DCI, the game.
The people I should thank would be countless, but there is one single person I thank the most; she gave me a fundamental help both on the personal and the professional planes, exalting my best skills and softening my worst weaknesses, supporting me since when I was L2 and then becoming my “boss” in my country, showing me many new areas to work on.
When I advanced to L4 at Worlds 2004, Andy told her “your husband is L4 now” and she immediately replied “don’t worry, I’m a L5 wife!”.
This L5 is dedicated to my L100-wife: Cristiana Dionisio…
 
… and this is my final ruling!
 
Riccardo Tessitori