Meet the 'Level 3s'

[John Danker]

<laffin> Oh....MANY a time I've started an in depth anyalsis of a ruling or situation....only to stop myself a moment later and laugh at myself for having overlooked something completely obvious that made the scenario a snap to rule with no need for depth of thought.

Those of you who judge, and especially those of you who get involved in research and speculation about rules here on the boards may find yourself doing the very same thing. When you're used to being faced with very complex situations it's easy to not see the Forest through the trees. Make sure you step back and don't overlook the obvious.

 

[Digital Jedi]

I got the impression that, being that this was a major event, that the judges were probably tiered from the day. Although they didn't say what time of day it was, I can imagine after so many hours of judging that things could start to get loopy. x.x

 

[helpoemer316]

I got the impression that, being that this was a major event, that the judges were probably tiered from the day. Although they didn't say what time of day it was, I can imagine after so many hours of judging that things could start to get loopy. x.x

True, things can get loopy. But if they do at at a sneak preview (which this is said to have been) then you probably haven't been judging long. You tend to become more stressful at a regional or Shonen Jump where more is on the line then a simple sneak preview. Especially considering a sneak preview for a game where there is pretty much no sealed play what so ever and the fact that the pointage from them is the equivalent of your local store tournament, it pretty much means less stress on the judge staff to be so up tight and on par (even though they should be no matter what).

But I take it you'll see my point. I just see it as a time where they were so caught up in the resolution that they just didn't pay attention to how it started. The first thing I always ask (and this is to make sure that I'm hearing the question right) is "Ok, your opponent activated this and you wanted to chain this and you're wondering if that's legal?" It's always good for a judge to answer a question with another, because there are more times than none that a judge might misunderstand a question at first, asking something like this could very well skip that confusion later. In the process of asking a question like that though, you're also making sure that all the cards in play were legal to be activated and that the chain can in fact resolve in the first place.