Magic-League.com Floor Rules Document
Contents
- Introduction
- Tournament Fundamentals
- Tournament Mechanics
- Online Mechanics
Magic-League.com is a site run by players, for players. It provides a place for socializing, honing skills and tournament play whilst overcoming boundaries such as price, distance and language for Magic worldwide.
The purpose of this document is to provide a clear framework for both judges and players of the structure, procedures and policies that this site uses. This includes defining privileges, responsibilities and regulations in order to provide a positive environment that promotes interaction as well as professionalism in both play and conduct.
Magic-League is a non-profit entity that is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Wizards of the Coast and the DCI. This, combined with electronic platforms required for play and communication results in a different experience for players. It is through this that Magic-League has its developed its own tournament documents separate from that of the DCI.
2. Tournament Fundamentals
2.1 Tournament Types
Magic-League has three major types of sanctioned tournaments: Regular Tournaments (informally referred to as 'minis') are tournaments that are not scheduled in advance and can be run by any judge at any time. Regular tournaments have a K value of 16. Regular tournaments are always single elimination. The format of a Regular Tournament is at judges' discretion.
Trial Tournaments are (usually) daily pre-scheduled tournaments that offer byes or qualification to higher-level tournaments. These can be run by any level judge and players are held to a higher standard of performance than regular tournaments. Trial tournaments carry a K value of 24. Trial tournaments are always single elimination.
Master Tournaments are bi-weekly tournaments that offer prizes to highly placed participants. Players are held to a higher standard of performance than regular or trial tournaments. Master tournaments have a K value of 32 and are modified Swiss with a cut to top 8. The Top 8 is single elimination.
Invitationals are annual tournaments that players must qualify for either through qualifier tournaments, being a member of a highly-ranked team or be highly ranked in a rating category. Invitationals offer prizes to highly placed participants. Invitational tournaments have a K value of 40 and are modified Swiss with a cut to top 8. The Top 8 is single elimination.
With the exception of Invitationals, all players are eligible to compete in all tournaments.
2.2 Publishing Player Information
During site registration and tournament registration, Magic-League collects information for internal use. Private information such as email and IP adddress is subject to our Privacy Policy. Decklists are not published until the end of the tournament. Swiss tournaments (which have a player cutoff) may require players to participate in a coverage interview after a player cutoff before players can commence the single elimination matches.
2.3 Tournament Officials
All Magic-League tournament officials are judges and/or Magic-League staff. There are three classes of judges:
Level 1 Judges are voiced (+) next to their name in league channels. Additionally, Level 1 Judges have are half-opped (%) in #Judges4you. Judges in training are voiced (+) in #judges4you.
Level 2 Judges are opped (@) in both league channels and #Judges4you.
Level 3+ Judges and League Staff are identified as administrators/super-opped (&) in both league channels and #judges4you.
2.4 Tournament Coordinator/Head Judge
On Magic-League, the Head Judge and the Tournament Coordinator are considered to be the same person; the Judge presiding over a tournament. The Head Judge's ruling may be appealed to a higher-level judge if such a judge is present. Philosophy: Magic-League tournaments are not always presided over by the highest-level judge present. Because of this, Magic-League believes that the best way to accomodate for lower level judges in lead roles is to still allow appeals to higher level judges even if the head judge is of a lower level.
The Head Judge's responsibilities include:
- Pair rounds and run the tournament in a timely fashion
- Be available to handle rulings in #judges4you if needed
- Inform the players if there are any delays or issues with the tournament
2.5 #Judges4you
#Judges4you is the channel for judges on Magic-League. If a player has a question they wish to ask, they should join #judges4you and ask their question. Players should not contact a judge via private message unless specifically instructed to do so. After having all of their questions answered, players must leave the channel.
3. Tournament Mechanics
3.1 Responsibilities of Players
Players have a number of responsibilities during a tournament. These include:
- Contacting their opponent at the beginning of a round
- Conducting themselves in a polite manner towards their opponent
- Joining #judges4you if requested by their opponent or a judge
- Reporting matches after completing them
3.2 Entering a Tournament
When a judge opens entries for a tournament, a panel with a link to join the tournament will appear on the home page (the site may need to be refreshed for it to appear).
Players signing up for tournaments are required to provide their IRC nicknames (if they are different from their Magic-League account usernames). Players signing up for constructed tournaments are also required to upload a deck file appropriate for the tournament format.
When the tournament begins, if it is a sealed tournament, there will be a link on the home page labeled "Build your sealed deck here". Players should click this link and build their deck on the site. After they have submitted their sealed deck, players should import it to the appropriate play application. If players have any issues with importing their sealed deck, they should inform a judge in #judges4you.
3.3 Start of Match Procedure
At the beginning of a round, the Tournament Coordinator will post the pairings for that round in the appropriate channel (#magic-league, #draft4you or #master). Players are then expected to contact their opponents via private message (/msg or /query) to determine the play application and the play location.
- If a player is not present in the appropriate play channel, then that player is considered not to have shown up. One reason behind this is so that banned players are unable to circumvent their ban and play in tournaments despite not being able to join the channel.
- Players are expected to acknowledge attempts to contact their opponents in addition to attempting to contact their opponent.
- If players have not managed to successfully join a created game by their opponent, then that player is considered not to have shown up.
3.4 In-Game Procedure
Players are expected to communicate clearly with their opponents during the match. If players have any issues during the match, both players should join #judges4you. If players lose connection in their match, players should first attempt to reconnect. If the reconnection is unsuccessful, players should join #judges4you.
Players should comply with any reasonable request from their opponent, except for the following:
- The request would violate rules and/or procedure outlined in this and/or any other tournament document.
- The request would cause risk for the play application to crash or cause errors.
3.5 End of Match Procedure
If the time for a given round has been completed before a winner is determined in a match, the active player completes his or her current turn. Then, for single elimination tournaments, the outcome of the match is determined as follows:
- If both players have won an equal number of games (or if neither player has won a game), then the player with the highest life total wins the match. If both players have won an equal number of games and have an equal life total, then the match continues until one player's life total changes.
- If one player has won more games than the other player, then the match should be reported according to the number of games each player has won.
- If both players have won an equal number of games and time is called shortly before or after the completion of a game, the player who won game 1 wins the match.
- Players do not always notice the end of round announcement until some time later. Because of this, allowing five extra turns can in some instances unreasonably slow down the tournament. This can clash with the Head Judge's responsibilities as outlined in section 2.4 of this document.
- There is currently no way for a judge to watch over a match in additional turns. This creates logistical issues where pace of play is concerned.
- For matches with time extensions, this exacerbates the issue outlined in the first point. For swiss matches, if the match is incomplete at the end of round, then the match is a draw. If a judge awarded a time extension to a match, then the end of match procedure does not begin until the time extension is completed. Both players are required to report the result of their match. Failure to do so is considered unsporting conduct.
3.6 Play Application
The nature of online Magic the Gathering lends itself to a variety of applications existing for online Magic the Gathering play. Magic-League does not endorse the use of any application - players are free to use whatever application they wish. Part of Magic-League start of match procedure involves players agreeing on a play application to use. If neither player can agree on a play application to use, then they are both given Match Losses for the round.
Players are expected to be proficient in the play application of their choice when playing in tournaments.
3.7 Time Extensions
Time extensions are awarded to players only in the following circumstances:
- Players have waited in #judges4you for three or more minutes for a judge to show up to rule.
- A ruling takes a period of three minutes or more.
- A player has been found to be guilty of Slow Play (see Infraction Procedure Guide: Tournament Error - Slow Play)
Any time extensions awarded to a match should be extended as appropriate. In the case of Slow Play, the judge should award a time extension of 3 minutes in addition to any other extensions. Judges should never award extensions of longer than 15 minutes.
3.8 Appeals
If a player disagrees with a ruling, that player may appeal the ruling to a higher level judge. If a higher level judge is present, that judge can handle the appeal. A tournament should not be significantly disrupted while waiting on a judge to handle an appeal: if a higher level judge does not show up in a reasonable timeframe to handle an appeal, then the original judge's ruling stands.
4. Online Mechanics
4.1 Connections and Disconnections
If a connection for a match is lost, players should first attempt to reconnect if possible (this varies from application to application). Players may need to synchronize their connection (this varies from application to application) in order to restore game state. If a reconnect is unsuccessful (i.e. players cannot continue to play their match), players should join #judges4you in order to resolve this issue.
Players are responsible for their own internet connections being stable.
4.2 Interaction With Game Materials
Play applications may provide some or all of the following features:
- Targeting arrows to be drawn between a card and its target
- Damage counters to be placed on a card or player
- Take control of an opponent's card
Targeting arrows may be used to indicate targeting and blocking. If a player wishes to use a targeting arrow, then each other player should wait until the targeting arrow is successfully drawn before manipulating cards in any way. Inappropriately interacting with game materials is considered a severe Tournament Error and will be dealt with as such. This includes excessive and/or inappropriate use of targeting arrows and taking control of your opponent's permanents instead of waiting for that player to pass control. Players are encouraged to refrain from using targeting arrows for anything other than declaring targets for spells and abilities. If a player needs to show blocking creatures or similar, they are encouraged to either physically move the cards to show blocks or type them out in the application's chat window.
4.3 Log Files
Some play applications have the feature to log matches. If an application provides an option to have matches automatically logged, it is compulsory for all players to enable this feature. If requested during a ruling, players should save their logs manually (if they aren't auto-saved) and upload them to the log viewer. If a judge requires a screenshot, players should take it and upload the file to an appropriate image-hosting site.
Appendix A - Document History
26th September 2009 Initial draft of document.
Appendix B - New Set Releases
Because of the online platform with which this league is based on, it is possible to use information drawn from other websites to play with cards yet to be officially released by Wizards of the Coast. Magic-League allows judges to run tournaments using partial spoilers of these sets in order to allow for comprehensive testing prior to a set's official release, provided that the judges register these tournaments in the Other rating category. A new set is legal for tournament play as soon as a working patch generated from gatherer is available from any major source and approved by the league.
