Level One - Lesson 14

Master Event Document

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Hello there and welcome back to the Judge Program for Star Wars™: Unlimited - Level One certification track lessons.

As always, I’m your host Jonah, and today we’ll be taking our first look at the Master Event Document. Like with how we handled the Tournament Regulations, you don’t need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of these documents at level one - you’ll be primarily involved with and running Casual-tier events, which means that penalties aren’t as strict.

We’ll revisit this document for level two when we begin to explore competitive-tier events a bit more - but today we’re mostly focused on remedies and education.

The Master Event Document is broken into two sections - the event guidelines, which provides further explanation of how events are run in concert with the Tournament Regulations, and the Floor Rules, which lay out the behavioral expectations and penalty guidelines for events.

Event Guidelines

The Fantasy Flight Games Organized Play team uses a lot of specific terms to talk about their events. When discussing or evaluating events, it’s important to use consistent language so that players, organizers and other judges have the correct expectations for the event.

Event Types

There are three broad types of events - Official, Unofficial and Unsanctioned. Official Events are supported by Fantasy Flight Games Organized Play, and come with an event kit and instructions on how to run the event. Unofficial Events are those without an event outline but are run by an organizer who has support and approval from FFG.

Finally, unsanctioned events are those run by organizers who do not have authorization to run official events, or otherwise do not meet the requirements for sanctioning by Fantasy Flight Games Organized Play.

In addition to the various types of events, which relate to how the event is tied into the Organized Play system, events also have a tier - either Casual or Competitive. Competitive events play for more significant prizes including cash, product or tournament points that can reward invitations to exclusive tournaments. Casual tier events are focused more on the play experience and the environment, as opposed to the prizes.

There are also different event structures. Weekly Play is generally a time and a place, where players can find opponents that match their intensity, format, and playstyle. Tournaments have much more rigid structures, with rounds, timers, and specified opponents.

Event Roles

At an event, there are a lot of different roles that individuals can fill. Anyone can participate in an official event, with a few exceptions:

Note that these restrictions apply to all event roles unless otherwise specified. This means that an individual on the suspended player list can not be in a leader role at an event, nor play in it, as an example.

Leader Roles

There are several different key roles with authority at an event:

The Event or Tournament Organizer oversees the entirety of the event - they provide the venue, prizes, and necessary product, hire the staff for leadership roles, manage other leadership staff, and assist with the logistics of running the event, generally speaking. The event organizer fills all other leadership roles by default, unless they have staff for that role - that means that in the absence of a dedicated judge or scorekeeper, the organizer has those responsibilities.

A Head Judge is the final authority for all questions regarding rules and policies. In addition to the responsibilities of a floor judge, they are also responsible for making final rulings in the case of an appeal, handling investigations, making tournament announcements, and determining how to handle unsporting conduct.

Floor Judges’ primary responsibility is watching matches and assisting players and spectators - they should answer questions players have, taking care to only provide rules information, not strategic advice. However, if you believe the question the player asks is not the question they want answered, you can ask for clarification.

Let’s take a quick detour for an example. Alex who controls an Avenger, calls for a judge and says “Judge! Can I play Vanquish even though my opponent doesn’t control any units?”

How would you answer this question? Talking about how we handle calls is something that is going to get its own lesson, but this is important enough that I wanted to take a moment to talk about it now, and we’ll go over it again in the future. So... how do you answer this question?

An answer like “You can, but you’d have to choose to defeat your own Avenger, and that’s probably bad” is providing strategic advice - it’s not just a clear-cut rules answer.

An answer like “Yes.” is technically correct, but it’s not a great answer here. They very well might say “Play Vanquish, defeat nothing, your turn.” and then you have to step in and issue a penalty because your ruling wasn’t clear enough.

In this situation, I would presume that the player wants to know if they can play Vanquish and not defeat anything, but that’s not the question they asked. Because the question they asked and the question I think they asked are different things, I need clarification before I can answer - I don’t want to make an assumption, answer the question I think they’re asking, and then have them go do something wrong.

A good question to ask when you’re looking for clarification is something like “What are you trying to do here?” and then the player can respond “I want to play Vanquish and not defeat anything.” With that answer in mind, you can now answer more accurately and say “If there is a unit in play controlled by either player when you play Vanquish, you must defeat it.”

We’re not testing player’s ability to ask judge questions - so if you’re not certain if the question they’re asking is the question they intend to ask, seeking clarification is good.

Beyond answering calls, judges also help with various logistical tasks, and bring significant issues (such as investigations and appeals) to the Head Judge or Event Organizer, as appropriate.

Scorekeepers are experts in tournament software and are able to manage the event smoothly and handle any potential disruptions or errors. For most events at the local store level, this job is handled by a judge or a member of store staff.

Player Roles

Of course, there are also the players! Players are expected to be present at the event, with all the materials they need to play and to play in at least one round of the event. Players who don’t play in any rounds are not considered to have been a player in the event and receive no prizes, including participation prizes. You actually have to participate to receive those!

Players are also expected to abide by the floor rules, play at a reasonable pace, be respectful of their opponents and tournament staff, communicate clearly, call for a judge if they need assistance, and be aware of the policies included in the Floor Rules.

There will also be spectators at events! Sometimes they’ll be other folks at the venue, but players in other matches in the same event also count as spectators. On-Site Spectators, Digital Spectators, and Media must all abide by the same rules:

Furthermore, members of the media must get consent from both the event organizer and any individuals that they record or interview, whether they be staff, players, or spectators.

Now, in part one, section three, there are some more rules that cover tournament structure, but they mostly echo what is said in the Tournament Regulations, and so you can refer to the previous lesson for the foundational knowledge.

Floor Rules

Philosophy and Guidelines

I’m simply going to start this section by quoting from the introduction to the floor rules. “In order for the competition inherent in a game to have meaning, the competitors must implicitly agree to play the game correctly and to challenge one another and themselves within the confines and structures of that game... All of the points described in this document are intended to promote a fair and enjoyable gameplay experience for all players at any given FFG event. ”

This really is just a fancy way of saying that it’s important for the game and for organized play for everyone to play fairly, while also maintaining a fun and welcoming experience for everyone. While Star Wars: Unlimited doesn’t currently have separate documentation for Casual-tier events, both Flesh and Blood and Magic: the Gathering do. While no casual-tier events require judges, having an expert on hand is incredibly valuable to the store and players, making sure that everyone has a better time.

I want to point out the philosophy that runs through both of those documents and is echoed in the Master Event Document. At casual tier events, while unsporting conduct is enforced and addressed as directly as it is at competitive events, gameplayer errors, and disruptions should be handled with a gentler touch.

“The ability to assess the details of a specific situation and make the ruling that best upholds both the letter and spirit of the rules is one of the most important reasons to have official Judges at events.”

We’re not going to be covering the penalties as deeply and comprehensively as we will in the future, because a key component of fostering engaging play is education, not punishment. It’s about making sure that the games are good games. You should practically never issue a game loss or match loss at casual-tier events, except for Tardiness.

In nearly a decade of judging professionally, while I’ve disqualified multiple players at casual-tier events for cheating and fraud, I’ve never issued a game loss at a casual-tier event. A game loss is a penalty that will haunt a player, especially one that is only loosely engaged with organized play, and such a harsh penalty for accidental errors can turn a player away from having fun with the game and participating in the community.

What we’re going to talk about today is how we get things back on track, so we’re going to cover various errors and what the fix is, but unless otherwise noted, at casual-tier events, don’t worry about issuing penalties.

Our next lesson will take this information and add a little bit of detail to it, as we talk about how to take a judge call.

Gameplay Disruptions

Gameplay Disruptions are broadly defined as a required part of the game either being overlooked or resolved incorrectly. If a player is doing this intentionally and for their own benefit, it is not a gameplay disruption, but rather Unsporting Conduct: Cheating, and should be treated as such.

Regarding Gameplay Disruptions, it is the responsibility of both players to maintain a clear and accurate game state. When a mistake is discovered, it should be brought to the attention of a judge who can then evaluate the situation and determine the best remedy for the situation.

The Master Event Document lists two active remedies that can be applied for most Gameplay Disruptions.

The first is resolve now, where the overlooked rule or ability can be applied retroactively, without giving either player a significant advantage that would not have had, were the ability resolved correctly.

For example, if the Active Player forgot to put an experience counter on a unit due to the resolution of Gideon Hask’s triggered ability, and it’s discovered during the regroup phase, you can safely resolve that now, as neither player would receive a significant advantage. However, if the same issue was discovered as Gideon Hask was being attacked by a 5-power unit, resolving the ability now would turn a lethal attack into a one-sided combat. In that case, rewinding to the point of error should be considered.

That other fix, rewinding, allows us to undo all actions up to the point of error, and then move forward in time, resolving the effect correctly. To be a bit metaphorical, this creates a new timeline. While players may have gained information (like cards being played from hand, or what actions a player was going to take) due to the rewind, they are allowed to use that information when the game continues after the fix. They’re not locked into the same decisions, and this can result in a very different game than what occurred.

If resolving now doesn’t actually fix the problem, and rewinding is too disruptive, consider the third path: leave as is. Sometimes, you can’t make the game better, and while it’s unfortunate, it’s true. One player will have an advantage, but that’s okay if the advantage gained is less impactful than the unnatural advantage gained if the game were to be rewound or the ability resolved now.

If the difference between advantage gained due to two different remedies is similar, but one favors the player who actively made the mistake and the other favors their opponent, generally you want to fix the game so that any potential advantage gained by the player who made the error is mitigated.

While Drawing Extra Cards is listed as an Event Disruption, it’s philosophically more in line with the Gameplay Disruptions. When a player adds cards to a hidden zone (hand, resource or deck), and they were not supposed to, we have a multi-step fix.

First, we determine if the opponent can unambiguously identify the location of the cards that were erroneously added to the zone. If a player drops a card from their hand and it lands on top of their resources, their opponent can likely identify it. Similarly, if they put their hand on the table while searching their deck, and then place the deck on top of a set of fanned-out cards, it’s relatively easy to identify those cards.

If we are able to identify those cards, we return them to the proper zone.

However, much more frequently the opponent will not be able to identify the cards - perhaps the player grabbed one too many cards while searching for Darth Vader’s when-played ability, or perhaps they put a resource down, then picked up a card from their resources and began to replace it with a card in their hand.

In these scenarios, after confirming the sequence of events and the knowledge each player has, the player who committed the error reveals the set of cards that includes the unknown cards and their opponent selects which cards are the “extra” cards and returns them to the appropriate zone. With the Darth Vader example, the player would reveal the eleven cards, and their opponent would select one, which would then be shuffled into the random portion of its owner’s deck, and then the ability would finish resolving.

For the resourcing scenario, a card that shouldn’t have entered the player’s hand (from the resource zone), but no card has incorrectly entered the resource zone. The fix here would be that the opponent looks at the player's hand and selects one card to be returned to the resource zone.

We use this fix, rather than selecting a random card because this remedy mitigates any potential advantage because even if the extra card added was the best possible card in the deck, the opponent can remove it from the set. While this can be punitive at times, it also encourages players to play carefully when handling hidden information.

Event Disruptions

Event disruptions are bit broader in scope than Gameplay Disruptions.

Tardiness is one of the major ways players can disrupt the pace of an event - by not being in the right seat at the start of the round a player may require additional time in the round. Its not fair to their opponent to reduce the amount of time that player has to complete their match, so they should get an appropriate time extension.

However, because this can be highly disruptive, a player who is more than five minutes late to their match receives a game loss, and a player who does not arrive by ten minutes into the round receives a match loss and is dropped from the event. Notably, this player is not disqualified, and can rejoin the event at a later point, at their request.

Decklists are not required for Casual Tier events (and if you feel like the event does require decklists, it’s probably a good indicator that it shouldn’t be run as a Casual Tier event). At a casual event, if a player discovers their deck is illegal - likely because they forgot to desideboard after a previous match, or because they’re missing cards, work with them to remedy the situation. Remove all cards that shouldn’t be in the deck, add any cards that should, and then have the player draw cards to replace any cards that were removed from their hand.

If they simply have too few cards, this is likely an extremely new player - you may consider issuing a game loss, as they must be able to present a legal deck. If they are able to add cards from their sideboard, or have other cards on hand, they may be able to do so with minimal disruption to the event.

Again, these fixes and remedies are only for casual tier play - at competitive, players have a decklist that can be referred to.

Marked cards are a possibility at casual tier events as well - possibly even more likely, as players at casual events are less likely to be hyper-vigilant about changing sleeves regularly or may not even use sleeves at all. Most of the time, at casual tier play, the marked cards should be resleeved or a proxy should be issued so that the game can continue.

Slow play is an important consideration, but at casual-tier events, keep in mind that players won’t always be as familiar with their own cards, much less their opponent’s cards, so more time should be allowed for players to read cards and make strategic decisions. At a casual tier event, as a judge, you should generally not need to do more than remind players to keep an eye on their pace of play.

In a similar vein, making sure that players maintain a standard of hygiene is important to a welcoming environment. Generally, players and other event participants should be considerate of their impact on others. Expectations can vary by culture or location, so consult with the organizer for specifics for your event.

Unsporting Conduct

The Unsporting Conduct class of infractions is not minimized in any way, shape, or form for casual events. Players are expected to behave appropriately and maturely and to not make any other players or attendees uncomfortable, even unintentionally.

Harassment, aggressive behavior, bribery, collusion, vandalism, theft, stalling, and cheating are all offenses that result in immediate disqualification. Furthermore, the event organizer should consider removing the offending player from the venue, at their own discretion. This should particularly be the case for harassment, aggressive behavior, vandalism and theft.

Inappropriate behavior should result in a stern conversation, focusing on education. If the player demonstrates remorse, the penalty can be downgraded, but the infraction should be tracked. If the behavior is repeated, the player should be disqualified from the event.

Harassment has an extensive definition in the MED, and can include but is not limited to any language or behavior that is hostile, threatening, demeaning, solicitous, or objectifying.

Aggressive behavior is any act or threat of violence in any way, even those not directed at an individual.

Bribery is offering some reward or incentive in exchange for a match result. If a player accepts a bribe, they have also committed this offense and should likewise be removed from the event.

Collusion is when two players discuss an outcome of their match and artificially or randomly determine the results, not based on the game itself. Evaluating the game state is allowed, and a player is allowed to make a decision to concede on their own. However, asking an opponent for a concession at any time is not allowed. Any actions that resembles asking for a concession, even if the exact words are not used also falls under this behavior.

Vandalism and Theft, like aggressive behavior, cover a broad range of threats of damage to actual damage of personal goods or the act of stealing any other person’s belongings.

Stalling and cheating are both game-play-related infractions. Stalling is playing exceptionally slowly to take advantage of the time remaining in the round. Unintentionally playing slowly is not stalling, and falls under slow play. Not playing quickly at the end of the round is not stalling - a player isn’t expected to have a faster pace of play as the round ends, only that their pace of play does not get slower.

For a player to be cheating, they must knowingly gain an advantage and be aware that what they are doing is against the rules. A player who makes a mistake and calls attention to it when they are first aware of it, even if they gain an advantage, is not cheating. A player who thinks that they’re allowed to let their opponent make a mistake and not call attention to it is not cheating, because they don’t know that what they’re doing isn’t allowed. In these scenarios, educate the player and remedy the situation as you would otherwise.

Throughout all of these scenarios, let your guiding light be player education and reform, not issuing penalties. The goal of casual tier play is to be welcoming to all players, and make sure that even the newest players have a fun and fair experience.

That’s... a lot, and we really only covered things very briefly. This is so far from a comprehensive review of the Master Event Document, but we’ll be back in the Level Two lessons to more comprehensively cover this document, with detailed examples, and more in-depth conversation about philosophy.

With this knowledge in our toolbelt, our next lesson is going to be putting this information to use - Taking a Judge Call. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or insights, be sure to join the Judge Community Discord and make your voice heard. Until next time, good luck and have fun!

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