Fair or Unfair Ruling?

[Box of Fail]

Once he entered the attack phase, it is indeed "could have" not could. Personally, I would have a hard time believing player B was oblivious. I've played hit and run Spiritomb based decks and you don't forget about Spiritomb. Its central to your entire strategy and you are on top of the trainer lock.

I would have an equally hard time believing player A was oblivious, when player A had likely been under Tomb lock for the majority of the game. At that stage of the game both players should have been acutely aware of the lock.

 

[vanderbilt_grad]

People make mistakes.

 

[jeffrey123]

Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days...

 

[kwisdumb]

I dunno, really. We don't have enough information to really make a ruling here, especially considering that the OP is tilted toward Player A.

That being said, I would be inclined to give a double game loss in this situation, although I freely admit that I'm not completely certain on what the rules dictate in this situation. Player B is responsible for keeping the game state clean, as he/she is the one that's playing the Spiritomb. However, Player A should've been less sloppy in his play (or at least, that's how it was represented here), and should've saw that his opponent agreed with the win, signed the match slip, etc. before rushing off.

 

[ryanvergel]

Player B is complete and total scum, and should have been DQ'd for cheating under the rules of pokemon organized play. That move was DELIBERATE, and there should be no questions asked. You don't "just" notice a spiritomb in play, and beyond that, you don't just sit there after a game trying to find a game play error that get's you a win. What a creep. If I had seen that, I would have definitely given him a warning, if not straight up DQ. I am sick to death of people abusing Spiritomb and "forgetting" about it. I think the best move would have been warning, and keep a close eye on him from then on out.

Please ignore this post if this was in Juniors. ( I assume it's masters, but you never know)

Sounds like an assumption.

Something like this happened at FL states in 2009 in t4. Player A used deafen with dialga G X, and Player B knocks out a stadium the next turn (snow point temple) in order to do enough damage. Player A leaves the cards in play, astonished at how he lost when he in his mind could not lose (it was correct)- and immediately after player B picks up his cards, Player A realizes the mistake and the situation is then presented.

Nearly identical situation- luckily the difficult ruling didn't need to be given as Player B was very gracious and knew he was going to lose if he had not accidentally been allowed to knock out the stadium so he merely conceded the match.

Don't be so quick or hasty to judge that kind of thing. Mistakes happen. To call him scum and cheating is wrong unless you were there. It may or may not have been intentional. If you think the guy in the OP is a scumbag, you surely think Player A in my story is a scumbag too, right?

You'd be making pretty bold statements about someone real close to me if that were the case.

 

[Magnechu]

Ah think about it the other way though too:

Imagine if Player A has no chance to win because Spiritomb is active, plays the Trainers and declares the game over, hastily picks up his cards so his opponent doesn't have more time to notice, and then Player B realizes what happened.

The situation could just as likely more resemble that scenario!

 

[FordPrefect]

The question is did player b put the Gengar in the discard pile or make some other obvious sign he agreed it should be knocked out? If not then player a should have seen this hesitation and not started picking up, at a Regionals you realy gota take your time about this sort of thing. My rule of thumb is, that if I've won I let the opponent start picking up first.

It also sounds like player a did the old move of throwing down all 3 'turns and anouncing 30 damage from flash bite (that alone is a HUGE play error at the regioanls level) and could have phased player b enough to allow the attack.

If my view of the game is right then the ruling is not only accurate, but fair. If not and player b sat there nefariously allowing poke turn after poke turn waiting for player a to pick up then unfortunatly the ruling is accurate and not fair and player b should be watched closely at future tournaments. It is still however the active players burden to be aware of the game state wich player a clearly was not.

 

[Glumanda]

There is an easy way to prevent hazzles like that. Beginning with City Championships I announce that you first fill in your result slip and then scoop. If the players here this over and over again, they finally start doing so, saving themselves from precadiments of that kind.

The decision depends highly on the investigation of that situation. The call as above might be right, but still, you would also have to think in the "other" direction as well.

 

[Skitty]

It's player A's turn. He plays 3 poketurn to flash bite the Gengar 3 times, then finishes it with Hydro Shoot. Player B acts angry and waits, not picking up.

Maybe instead of being angry he might have been confused and thinking "Wait, how exactly is he doing this?". Either way, I'm in no doubt that player A would get a GL for scooping, but I would need to be there and see exactly what happened if I were to decide what penatly player B would recieve.

I always wait for my opponent to pick up his cards because I fear about this. I hate people like this.

I do the same thing. I never pick up my cards in a tounament unless my opponent has first.

 

[Shaka285]

It shouldve been up to both players to catch that call neither did so player a goes on ahead.