Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Time Keeping devices issue.

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Envoyofduels

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Hi, without farther to do I would like to share an issue that I had while attending Ft. Wayne, IN Regionals and yes I did send a ticket to Pokemon about it.

While playing at the event my group and I noticed a bunch of people who were wearing, looking, and using time keeping devices. I myself played against 3 people who had these devices, 2 used a stop watch and on looked at it from time to time. In fact an announcement about round 8 was made that they were noticing alarms going off and even a person who looked at their phone. A decent player who I will not name who I have played against many many times also made day 2 and I noticed him still using his watch.

Now it is my understanding that wearing watches are fine, as long as you do not use or look at them. However the amount of people who are abusing this and are not getting noticed are alarming. Now I may be off on my information, but I do feel like something should be done to address rather soon one way or another. But that is just my opinion. Has any one else notice this or have an opinion on it?
 
I was also in Fort Wayne, and there was definitely a good amount of problems with the use of electronic devices as a time keeping method, especially with the phone alarms.

However, I think it's worth noting that looking at a watch is not illegal. The use of timers on said watch? Not legal. Merely looking at the time? Looked-down upon perhaps, but not strictly illegal.

Electronic devices and phone alarms are definitely a problem. There's definitely been an issue with people setting alarms—and not necessarily for 50 minutes. 2 minute warnings, etc. are also a problem.


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While I dont use them, because my turns tend to be pretty long but I dont see a real issue to someone using them. Maybe if they were turned to vibrate then it should be okay but something that both players can clearly see. This is not related but I'll bring it up anyway. Whenever I play any good player in the pokemon VG, my opponents tend to use damage calculators against me. They can tell me how much damage a attack does and its damage range and make plays accordingly, since they know if an attack will do 101% or 126%. They can even tell me my pokemon's attack and defensive IVs, which is way more information they should have access to about my team.

While this is not tournament legal and used in competitive play, I would rather my opponent not use one. However, I have the same option to use one against them. I rather not because I want to game to just play out. I dont want to know if my attack will deal 100% or more but I know my opponent is using it. Back to the TCG, from my tournament experience, TOs and judges don't announce time warnings. Something like 5 minutes left would be nice. We just get that is time. So wearing a watch or something would be good for players. There is never anything wrong with knowing time or keeping track of it. Just dont let it get in the way of the match.
 
From a judge perspective, I would love to see watches disallowed. Previous acts by players have led to stricter rules regarding Sleeves, Dice, Coins and Foreign Language cards. Stricter rules regarding watches are needed.
 
Personally, I'd love time remaining in the match to be public information; right now the amount of time remaining in the match is only hidden information to players who don't wear a watch and that strongly incentivizes competitive players to wear a watch even if they wouldn't normally. There are definitely risks and judging concerns to making that public information, but I think that would be better than the current status, and I don't relish the idea of walking around checking players for timepieces. That might be better than the current status too, though? In general, if you're concerned about something going on with your match, including time and/or electronic devices, calling a judge is a good idea. :)

It looked like this past Worlds had public match clocks; if that worked well, hopefully we'll see it implemented at more events in the future?
 
My thing is in my opinion is to go one way or the other instead of this grey area we are currently in. Even playing field for all, is my position.
 
I'd be ok with a 5 min warning or something for the round (though I'd likely forget to give it out half the time when I'm busy judging).

still lets break down what knowing how much time is left gives you.
first of all you'd see if you have a higher chance of a win/lose vs a tie, some advantage here but mostly minor
in a match round you might be able to time it so you get turn 0 or turn 1 in the 3 extra turn phase, depends on the game state but only matters if turn 0 is essentially over when time is called
in a best of 3 round you can see how much time is left for game 2/3, this is very important as skilled players will often concede game 1/2 in a game they are losing to have more time in the remaining game(s).

any other advantages you guys can think of?
 
It was displayed at both Nationals and Worlds this year. It was beneficial to the overall playing environment, that's for sure.


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I concur with the gray area comment. It should be definitively decided, but with, you know, technology moving forward and not backwards. time in a round should be public knowledge.

Otherwise, it's too easy to set up hidden timers via phones and such even if watches were banned.
 
hinkbert said:
I concur with the gray area comment. It should be definitively decided, but with, you know, technology moving forward and not backwards. time in a round should be public knowledge.

Otherwise, it's too easy to set up hidden timers via phones and such even if watches were banned.
Click to expand...

This. One can easily set up a series of alarms via a phone app that vibrate. What are you going to do, check players pockets every round? Its getting ridiculous; lets just let the time be known.
 
FunnyBear said:
hinkbert said:
I concur with the gray area comment. It should be definitively decided, but with, you know, technology moving forward and not backwards. time in a round should be public knowledge.

Otherwise, it's too easy to set up hidden timers via phones and such even if watches were banned.
Click to expand...
This. One can easily set up a series of alarms via a phone app that vibrate. What are you going to do, check players pockets every round? Its getting ridiculous; lets just let the time be known.
Click to expand...
There are just too many watches, they are just too common. They are part of some people's day-to-day routine (like wearing socks and underwear), so people will wear watches to tournaments as a matter of habit.

Yeah, I don't think watches should be banned. However, when a player looks at his watch repeatedly during a match, it will draw my attention as a judge. And if they are using the watch in order to consume the maximum allowable time for each game action per the penalty guidelines, then that will certainly get the judge to interfere in the match.
 
Another solution is for the round to be about 30+3 rather than exactly 30 +3. At the timekeeper's discretion, add or subtract up to 30 s from the round, so it cannot be timed. Vary randomly over the day. If you need to know the time to better than a minute, you are doing something you shouldn't be.
 
Personally, I don't see the issue with time being a public knowledge. In all honesty, if time has to be a hidden knowledge (and thereby in turn requiring players to remove their watches before sitting at their table), then we might as well make other common public knowledge hidden as well (such as cards left in deck, and keep players from even touching the deck unless they are either drawing or searching or shuffling). Time is a public knowledge factor. I can't tell how many times I was left into a forced Draw because I allowed the conception of an unknown remaining time count to make me overthink my plays. On the other hand, I do understand the concept of people trying to manipulate the time to allow themselves to get the advantage during the +3. However, I agree with FunnyBear on making rounds ~30+3, with the Head Judge adding time in one manner or another (if he used a stopwatch himself, he may forget to start it exactly at time meaning some extra seconds at the end or such).
 
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