You can take notes on Time Walk

[bulbasnore]

The Tournament Rules on taking notes changed for this season. They are quoted below from section 7 of the Play! Pokemon Tournament Rules.

Players are allowed to take notes during a game in respect to actions that have happened during the game. Players may take notes during a match and refer to those notes. Players may choose not to share these notes with other players, but a judge may ask to see a player’s notes and request an explanation if needed. A player’s note sheet must be blank at the start of each match. Players must be timely with their note taking and may not use devices that may send or receive messages as a note-taking device. A player may not refer to notes taken during previous rounds while the tournament is still in progress. Notes taken during a match may not be given to other players during the course of the tournament.
Because a judge may ask to see a player’s notes while a match is in progress, the use of codes, ciphers, abbreviations, or any other method of obscuring the meaning of the information is not permitted. Additionally, notes taken by a player may not contain misinformation, intended to deceive tournament staff.

We’ve removed the old rulings on note taking from the Compendium until we can replace them. One big difference is that the qualification for note taking no longer exclude taking notes on your prizes, such as may be revealed by Time Walk.

Happy time travel.

‘snore

For Team Compendium



Visit original post on Compendium site...

[bittyboy52]

This may not be the right place to ask this bit there was a question that came up at a local tournament. I was just wondering if you were allowed to take notes on whats in your opponents hand. For example if you use Looker's Investigation.

[Darkwalker]

You can take notes for things like that or Smeargle's Portrait, but you should make sure that doing so does not cause the pace of the game to slow down because of it. While taking notes is allowed, stalling the game out while doing so is not.

[bittyboy52]

I get why you can't use abbreviation but I think there is at least one good reason why you should be able to. If you were allowed to use abbreviation it would make the game go a lot quicker and you wouldn't have to worry about slowing down the game.

[AyameHikaru]

Originally Posted by bittyboy52

I get why you can't use abbreviation but I think there is at least one good reason why you should be able to. If you were allowed to use abbreviation it would make the game go a lot quicker and you wouldn't have to worry about slowing down the game.

It depends on what you mean by abbreviation. As a Judge, if I see someone's notes I'm not going to penalize them for writing "Bebe's" and not "Bebe's Search". However, if I see notes that are something along the lines of "Br57 g991 r453" I'm not going like it even if it's the abbreviation of their entire deck contents.

[camadad]

Would you be allowed to make note on time walk like this?

gyr reg

karp bts

seek ssu


with each being a short form of a card.

[PkmnManiac]

So, it's fine for the other person (opponent) to take notes of what Trainers and Supporters I get from Cyrus's Conspiracy?

[PokePop]

All notes are now legal.
However they must be readable by a judge if they wish to review them and taking them cannot impact the timeliness of your or your opponent's turn.

[Cyrus]

Quick question for 'Snore and Pop:

"Because a judge may ask to see a player’s notes while a match is in progress, the use of codes, ciphers, abbreviations, or any other method of obscuring the meaning of the information is not permitted. Additionally, notes taken by a player may not contain misinformation, intended to deceive tournament staff."

If your reason to abbreviate has no intent of obscuring the information, then is it still illegal?

I ask this because abbreviating actually helps speed up the process, showing more respect to the timeliness of (usually) your turn. There doesn't seem to be any reason to ban abbreviations if there's no intent to obscure.

[PokePop]

Originally Posted by Cyrus

Quick question for 'Snore and Pop:


If your reason to abbreviate has no intent of obscuring the information, then is it still illegal?

I ask this because abbreviating actually helps speed up the process, showing more respect to the timeliness of (usually) your turn. There doesn't seem to be any reason to ban abbreviations if there's no intent to obscure.

I'd check with your HJ about that. That gets down to interpretation.

[BrightRush]

Just to double check, we Don't have to show what we wrote down for time walk to our opponent. Today my judge said if we did time walk our opponent could look at my notes at anytime. So if i had like all my main pokemon prized he would know.

[PokePop]

Originally Posted by BrightRush

Just to double check, we Don't have to show what we wrote down for time walk to our opponent. Today my judge said if we did time walk our opponent could look at my notes at anytime. So if i had like all my main pokemon prized he would know.

That was two years ago's rule.
That judge needs to review this year's tournament rules.

[Jaeger]

This really needs to be reversed, this isn't good for the game.

[AyameHikaru]

Why isn't it good for the game?

[Vegeta ss4]

Not only does it easily slow the game down, It shows direspect. At any point you do the note-taking, you are wasting atleast 30 seconds on either turn. If you do it on your opponents turn, its like slapping him in the face, have the respect for that player...be vigilante on what he is doing. This is a travisty, imho. Also takes away a bit of the skill in the game I.e. 'Time Walk.'

[PkmnManiac]

1. Azelf won't last long.
2. Not everybody has the best Short-term memory.
3. It is bad though if the note-taker takes a long time, so I'll give you that.

[toxictaipan]

Originally Posted by Vegeta ss4

Not only does it easily slow the game down, It shows direspect. At any point you do the note-taking, you are wasting atleast 30 seconds on either turn. If you do it on your opponents turn, its like slapping him in the face, have the respect for that player...be vigilante on what he is doing. This is a travisty, imho. Also takes away a bit of the skill in the game I.e. 'Time Walk.'

Not being able to remember the positions of 6 face-down cards displays a lack of skill? Yeah, okay.

[Jakeman]

from the psychological aspect of the game, taking notes is counterproductive. the information you're writing down is always worth less than the information you give to your opponent by simply "choosing" to write them down. At least that comes from my experience in other games where the psychological part of the game is much, MUCH more important.

[xcfrisco]

This is seriously a stall tactic. I've seen 3 players do this as the new rules have changed and guess what, they are NOTORIOUS slow-players! I've seen someone even write down what their last two prizes were! Who can't remember two-prizes!!? And how did everyone get by using Time Walk before when they weren't allowed to take notes? (I think it took something along the lines of skill! Short-term memory is a fundamental skill outside of pokemon too you know.)


Imo taking notes should only be allowed on the opponents turn to lessen the chance that it slows the pace of the game down, which it invariably does.

[BrightRush]

I thought you had to take the notes on your opponents turn. (according to a judge at my CC)

[bullados]

xcfrisco: But it speeds the game up later on, when you're trying to remember what prize to take, you just look at the note, and take the prize, rather than trying to (a) remember what's in there and (b) where it is and (c) what to take. Two steps, gone. In high level matches, that saves time.

[xcfrisco]

Originally Posted by bullados

xcfrisco: But it speeds the game up later on, when you're trying to remember what prize to take, you just look at the note, and take the prize, rather than trying to (a) remember what's in there and (b) where it is and (c) what to take. Two steps, gone. In high level matches, that saves time.

I would highly disagree, taking notes (from what I've seen) takes anywhere from 10-30 secs where as taking a prize is like 3 secs max, even when you have no clue lol. If anyone takes longer than 5 seconds to pick up a prize then I'm calling a judge over cause that person is stalling. I would agree that it's almost a non-issue in top-cut matches where a.)there are judges around and slow play is a lot more difficult to get away with b.) there's a lot more time so taking up 30 secs to write what your prizes are isn't as big a deal.


Seriously 30 secs costs the other player a whole turn or even 2! When I only have 30 mins to play my match this is huge! Its cool when the opponent plays at a fast pace anyway...

...But I'm talking about NOTORIOUS slow-players here, which coincidentally are the only people I ever see write down prizes. Its a rule that is easily exploitable for people who play decks that focus on taking quick easy prizes (luxchomp, turbogar, etc). Everyone else pretty much time walks and remembers what their prizes are (just like it used to be!). I've asked countless players if they take notes during their matches (and illustrate the time walk example) and almost all of them say its too much of a hassle and it eats up too much time.


The only way I can see this being far without being detrimental to the opponent is if the player only takes note during his opponents turn. Would it be cool for me to time walk and have it take 30 seconds on my turn? No, but apparently its cool if i get a piece of paper and start writing away


*per the rule I can't even write acronyms cause my judge should be able to understand it! Take out a piece of paper and see how long it takes you to write to following:

Pokemon Collector
Cyrus Conspiracy
Aaron's Collection
Call Energy
Pokemon Communication
Palmer's Contribution

[Vegeta ss4]

Omg tacos are delicious...

[PokePop]

Originally Posted by BrightRush

I thought you had to take the notes on your opponents turn. (according to a judge at my CC)

There is no such guidance in the Floor Rules.

There is no extra time for note taking.
If you are allowed 30 seconds to make an action, and you want to take notes on that action, those notes have to be within that same time frame.

Now, given that, judges will often allow a longer time frame for early game actions such as the first deck search where a player is looking through their deck and determining what cards are in their prizes.
I could see allowing a similar time for an early Time Walk.
However, if a player is eating the clock late game taking notes, I'll be infracting that.

[Vegeta ss4]

Originally Posted by toxictaipan

Not being able to remember the positions of 6 face-down cards displays a lack of skill? Yeah, okay.

Actually, yes it does. Memory is a big part of the game, otherwise, why would a card such as Azelf tell you to remember? Thinking long term steps ahead is crucial to be a good player. No good player would ever write thatinfor down, because they will easily be able to remember what's where.

This is a stall tactic at best, I disapprove this easily. I know if I was a judge, saw someone writing stuff down, no matter what id tell them not to write down info. I wouldn't care if it is allowed. If both players approve of it, then i'd consider it, only if it was for tourney reports, not notes. That is what league is for, playtesting.