I was at OK States today and this situation occurred. During one of my games I opened with Old Amber. Apparently, at this point, one judge that saw my game didn't think that I had an active Pokemon (honestly, I think this was because I had a fossil in play and the judge didn't recognize it as a Pokemon), and pointed it out to another judge who confronted me by asking "What's your active pokemon?" I point to the Old Amber and my opponent acknowledges that it's my active. The judge then claims that it isn't put in the "true active position" because I keep my active pokemon closer to my deck than to the middle of the play area. He at first said it was confusing to my opponent (which it obviously wasn't) and then changed to say that it was because we had a new judging staff that didn't understand my "play style."
Now, I have been playing this game for ten years now and this is where I have always put my active pokemon. I do not know why; I guess my 11 year old OCD self thought it looked neater. In any case, during those years I have never once had an opponent express confusion over which Pokemon was my active and I try to keep my field as neat as possible with the active clearly in front of the others so that judges walking by are not confused either. When I confronted the judge about it, he claimed that this rule has always been in place and he didn't know why the judges never corrected me "down here." However, I have made top cut at Regionals and Nationals and have had judges from all over the place presiding over my matches and not one has said a thing. In fact, in 2006 this very same judge watched one of my top cut matches at Regionals and, of course, didn't say anything then. Because of this, I have never bothered to change what I was doing or even think that it was incorrect in any way.
So I guess my question is: Is there really a rule where the active must be in front of the middle benched pokemon (the judge made it seem as if it were an actual rule that could incur a penalty)? If so, then why haven't I been corrected in all my years and why is it a rule if I have played competitively for years without it ever being a problem? Is this something that you would point out as a judge?
I ask this because both my opponent and I felt that the judge was purposely trying to antagonize me and he suggested to me to report this judge to P!P, but I do not want to take action without knowing everything.
Now, I have been playing this game for ten years now and this is where I have always put my active pokemon. I do not know why; I guess my 11 year old OCD self thought it looked neater. In any case, during those years I have never once had an opponent express confusion over which Pokemon was my active and I try to keep my field as neat as possible with the active clearly in front of the others so that judges walking by are not confused either. When I confronted the judge about it, he claimed that this rule has always been in place and he didn't know why the judges never corrected me "down here." However, I have made top cut at Regionals and Nationals and have had judges from all over the place presiding over my matches and not one has said a thing. In fact, in 2006 this very same judge watched one of my top cut matches at Regionals and, of course, didn't say anything then. Because of this, I have never bothered to change what I was doing or even think that it was incorrect in any way.
So I guess my question is: Is there really a rule where the active must be in front of the middle benched pokemon (the judge made it seem as if it were an actual rule that could incur a penalty)? If so, then why haven't I been corrected in all my years and why is it a rule if I have played competitively for years without it ever being a problem? Is this something that you would point out as a judge?
I ask this because both my opponent and I felt that the judge was purposely trying to antagonize me and he suggested to me to report this judge to P!P, but I do not want to take action without knowing everything.