King Piplup
Active Member
There's a situation I witnessed that's been bothering me for awhile, which led me to seek an opinion here. During the early rounds of a Tier 2 event in the 2013-2014 season, I witnessed the following at the table next to me (Let's say that's table 2, and I'm at table 3):
One player at the match had been sitting/shuffling for awhile, while the second player arrived fairly close to the beginning of the round. Upon sitting down, the second player got his deck/dice out, and before shuffling at all, asks the opponent "Heads or tails?", without having a flipping die chosen. Behind (obscured from the opponent's view) the second player's deckbox sat two dice. Upon the opponent choosing Heads, the player picked up one of the dice, and rolled it. Almost immediately upon the die landing on a 3, the opponent snatched up the die, sharply noticing that the die had no 4, but instead had a second 3.
The opponent was contemplating what action to take, while the offending player was making statements such as "I'll throw the dice away," "I'll scoop the match to you," and "I'll never do it again" in an effort to convince the opponent to not call a judge. Incidentally, during the pre-round sweep of the tables, a judge walked by, and was alerted to the situation by a player at the the table next to them (table 1 according to what I listed earlier).
Upon the offending player's opponent detailing what happened to the judge (albeit, the opponent was not nearly as detailed as they should've been, and failed to mention the timing of asking "Heads or tails," or his pleas against calling the judge, and simply said that the die had 4 odd numbers on it), the judge ordered a reflip and said he'd be back to issue a penalty. A few minutes later, he issues a Caution.
At that point, I was certainly very sure that a Caution was not appropriate, but as I was a spectator, I resolved to play my match to its conclusion and decide on a course of action afterwards. There is absolutely no reason a player should have that dice with them at a tournament, unless they intend to cheat.
So, my question is twofold:
1. Are the judge's actions consistent with what should occur at a States/Regionals/Nationals tournament? Should the judge have examined the situation more, or was the depth of his questioning of the players prior to issuing a penalty sufficient?
2. As a player watching things occur, who believes cheating occurred, what action should I take? Of the following, which is the most appropriate?
a. Do nothing, as a spectator that's not my place. Section 6.2 of the General Event Rules makes me think this is incorrect. [QUOTE="General Event Rules Section 6.2] The only way a spectator is to interact with a tournament is through contacting a judge to inquire into the legality of a specific play. Comments and questions regarding games in progress should be made an appropriate distance from the match to prevent players in the active game from gaining an advantage due to outside information or distraction.
[/QUOTE]
b. Find the judge who made the call after my match and detail what I'd seen. At the time, I felt this was most appropriate.
c. Find any judge after the match and detail what I'd seen. I felt this, while potentially being best for getting a different opinion on the issue, was unfair to the judge who made the call, because he didn't have nearly enough information to arrive at an informed conclusion on the possibility of cheating.
d. Find the division head judge after the match, and report what I saw.
e. A combination of "b" and "d".
f. Another option I'm not seeing.
Thanks.
One player at the match had been sitting/shuffling for awhile, while the second player arrived fairly close to the beginning of the round. Upon sitting down, the second player got his deck/dice out, and before shuffling at all, asks the opponent "Heads or tails?", without having a flipping die chosen. Behind (obscured from the opponent's view) the second player's deckbox sat two dice. Upon the opponent choosing Heads, the player picked up one of the dice, and rolled it. Almost immediately upon the die landing on a 3, the opponent snatched up the die, sharply noticing that the die had no 4, but instead had a second 3.
The opponent was contemplating what action to take, while the offending player was making statements such as "I'll throw the dice away," "I'll scoop the match to you," and "I'll never do it again" in an effort to convince the opponent to not call a judge. Incidentally, during the pre-round sweep of the tables, a judge walked by, and was alerted to the situation by a player at the the table next to them (table 1 according to what I listed earlier).
Upon the offending player's opponent detailing what happened to the judge (albeit, the opponent was not nearly as detailed as they should've been, and failed to mention the timing of asking "Heads or tails," or his pleas against calling the judge, and simply said that the die had 4 odd numbers on it), the judge ordered a reflip and said he'd be back to issue a penalty. A few minutes later, he issues a Caution.
At that point, I was certainly very sure that a Caution was not appropriate, but as I was a spectator, I resolved to play my match to its conclusion and decide on a course of action afterwards. There is absolutely no reason a player should have that dice with them at a tournament, unless they intend to cheat.
So, my question is twofold:
1. Are the judge's actions consistent with what should occur at a States/Regionals/Nationals tournament? Should the judge have examined the situation more, or was the depth of his questioning of the players prior to issuing a penalty sufficient?
2. As a player watching things occur, who believes cheating occurred, what action should I take? Of the following, which is the most appropriate?
a. Do nothing, as a spectator that's not my place. Section 6.2 of the General Event Rules makes me think this is incorrect. [QUOTE="General Event Rules Section 6.2] The only way a spectator is to interact with a tournament is through contacting a judge to inquire into the legality of a specific play. Comments and questions regarding games in progress should be made an appropriate distance from the match to prevent players in the active game from gaining an advantage due to outside information or distraction.
[/QUOTE]
b. Find the judge who made the call after my match and detail what I'd seen. At the time, I felt this was most appropriate.
c. Find any judge after the match and detail what I'd seen. I felt this, while potentially being best for getting a different opinion on the issue, was unfair to the judge who made the call, because he didn't have nearly enough information to arrive at an informed conclusion on the possibility of cheating.
d. Find the division head judge after the match, and report what I saw.
e. A combination of "b" and "d".
f. Another option I'm not seeing.
Thanks.