Using the Penalty Guidelines, this is my take on it...
4. Unreported Infractions
It is each player’s responsibility to ensure that he or she and his or her opponent are playing by both the game and tournament rules.
6.5. Game Loss
The Game Loss penalty is generally used when a mistake has been made that has a severe impact on the game state, to the point where the game is irreparably broken and unable to continue.
7.1. Game-Play Error
This infraction covers general mistakes made during the course of a game. These mistakes can have very little impact on a game, or they can bring a game to an abrupt halt. This category defines the three levels of errors and outlines the appropriate penalties for each.
7.1.3. Severe
In some cases, a game-play error occurs which irreparably breaks the game state. In these cases, there is no way that either player or a judge can reset the game to the point where it can be continued.
Recommended Starting Penalty:
Tier 1: Game Loss
Tier 2: Game Loss
As judges we can't be expected to guess at which point in the game time was called, 1 second of game play could mean the difference between Player A is Turn 0 or Player B is Turn 0. According to the penalty guidelines players are responsible for playing by both the game and tournament rules. Tournament rules does include keeping track of turns in +3. By not keeping track of the +3 turns, the game state is broken, judges can not figure out who was Turn 0. This is just like a hand being shuffled into the deck w/o use of card effect... what is a judge expected to do in this situation... a broken game state is a broken game state. Since both players are at fault, Double Game Loss is the right way to go by the books.
Another course of action is to tell the players, "Look, you are X amount of minutes over time, you likely have played +3 turns and then some at this point, lets call this game a tie." This does walk the fine line of what would be called a "creative fix", which I shy away from, but I have seen my fair of "creative fixes" from Head Judges at large Tier 2 events before, which would make me think that this is ok, especially for the younger players. Now there may be matches that are close to being complete, which the idea of calling the match a tie would cause resistance from the player in the lead (or both players if it is a close game), in this case Double Game Loss is easily back on the table because the Penalty Guidelines gives us the justification to issue the penalty given the circumstances presented.
Of course if I believe that these two players decided (
intentionally) to play it out instead of conforming to the tournament rules, DQs for Unsporting Conduct- Cheating is hands down the right call, it is a text book decision in this case.
7.6.4. Cheating
Players who intentionally commit infractions are looking to gain an unfair advantage over other players at the event. The Head Judge should carefully consider whether an infraction was intentional or not before applying this penalty. If the Head Judge feels that an infraction was unintentional, this penalty should not be applied.
Recommended Starting Penalty:
Tier 1: Disqualification
Tier 2: Disqualification
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You have the right to decide a game in any non-random way, but apart from the actual issue,
No, players do not.
RPS = Non-Random = Not allowed
Arm Wrestling = Non-Random = Not allowed
Chess = Non-Random = Not allowed
Pokemon VG being used to decided a Pokemon TCG Match = Non-Random = Not allowed
There are alot of random and non-random means to decide matches. Most (if not all) are not allowed.
you do not have the right to delay the tournament.
Correct
Further, if I determine that both players are lying to me, its a double game loss.
Actually Lying to event staff warrants a DQ per Penalty Guidlines.
The first "I don't remember" is a warning.
Calling it a Warning still doesn't fix the game state, unless your next sentence is suggesting that you call "time, you are now in turn 0" when the error is discovered.
If the game is then not over in 3 turns, DGL.
If you are suggesting Warning and then they play it out... why the DGL? Why not call it a tie? Can you quote the Penalty Guidelines and other ruling documents to justify your ruling/fix?