Upper Deck Entertainment Forums

I have a pet peeve about people who ruin the fun for everyone, and thus I would like to share some audience with someone who can assist me with my issue.

On the recent TAEV pre release at my local store, I was participating in a sealed booster tourney made it up to round 2 only then was my fun time mismatched by, a spectator who carelessly decided to interfere by asking me to see the ultra rare in my hand.

Now for my opponent this signaled, "Oh so he has a good card in his hand."

The head judge did not witness this, nor did I report it but what should I do the next time (hopefully it doesn't happaen again) this happens? I assume people "not" dueling are to remain distration free for the people that "are" dueling.

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"Fair Play"
"Fair Duel"

Your post suggest you already know the best answer we can give; report this behavior to a judge as soon as you encounter the situation. 

It is not your fault a spectator interfered, they should know better and they were in the wrong.  However, perhaps in the future you could manage and hold your cards in such a way that it would be difficult for anyone but you to be aware of what you hold in your hand.  This isn't always possible and it is not a solution, just a suggestion. 

Sorry you had to deal with this troubling scenario.  As a judge, I would make the offending spectator leave the area, possibly leave the venue.  Penalties would be assessed if they were in the same tournament, of a variety of severities depending on the exacts of the infraction.  As for your game state, there isn't much that can be done to help, it wasn't your or your opponent's fault.  This is an issue that often has to be handled even at the highest levels of competition.  It is difficult to fix.

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Owner of Plus One Cards

We also have to realize that at Sneak Preview events there are a lot of new players. Often times judges at a Sneak Preview due to their long time judging in the area know who the new players are and are not. Sometimes a new player unfamiliar with proper gaming manners will blurt something out such as this not realizing what effect it may have on a game. While it's unfortunate for the player at the table, I'd suggest for new players, pulling them aside and explaining the ill effect such interference can have on the game at hand and then telling them that in the future they're expected speak of anything to do with the game they watching nor make any hand gestures. Assign an unsporting conduct minor penalty to that player after this education. We don't want to scare off new players by removing them from the venue because of ignorance.

For more experienced players I'm in total agreement with Bryan's statement.

Now there is a second part to the situation. That question is what to do about the game. The spectator is the easy part, but how things should precede, which honestly, I've never encountered this, so I don't know.

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Go Player ~ 22 Kyu

If neither player was involved in the interference then the game continues, although it is sadly damaged.

Example:  Players A & B are on turn 7 of a key duel at a Shonen Jump.  Spectator F yells "Man, what a lucky draw, that Enemy Controller is really going to help Player B out!"

Obviously, Spectator F has to be taken aside and spoken to.  I would reccomend strong penalties maybe as far as a disqualification and removal from the event.  I have never encountered this severe of an infraction.  The game would have to continue; however, and I would say with no penalties or changes to the game state.

Another possible scenario:  Player A & B are in a key duel in the late rounds of the latest National Championship tournament.  Player B has many friends and team mates watching from the end of the table.  The team mates are told by a nearby judge to stay several feat back and remain quiet.  While side decking for game 3, Player B turns to his team mates and says "Man, I was really worried his face-down was going to be Morphing Jar or something random like Des Koala."  Spectator F, Player B's team mate who is x-1 in the same tournament, say "Yeah, you played it right though, I played him two rounds ago, he doesn't even run Morphing Jar and since he has like 6 spells that target you should side in those Spell Shield Type-8 I told you about." 

Ideally the nearby judge will hear the players and spectators begin to speak and be able to prevent this.  Last year at Nationals the judge staff did a great job of keeping this problem to a minimum.  Sometimes, however, this might take place in some form.  It is a hairy situation that really harms the integrity of the current game, and is sure to upset the opponent, Player A a great deal.

I think that Spectator F would need to be disqualified from the current tournament.  While Player B would need to be given a Game Loss, in my current opinion.  I'm not positive, what is the general thought process on what, if any, penalty Player B and Spectator F should receive?

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Owner of Plus One Cards

That's surely not an easy call to make. Unfortunately neither player involved has any responsibility in the matter, so any form of penalization is frankly unfair to me.
Regarding the nosy spectator, I would surely award a penalty if he's in the tournament, and if he's not enrolled, I'd take some action anyway. The nature of what I'd do would depend on the event and on how things happened.

It should also be investigated to see if the spectator knows the opposing player. Were they trying to aid the opponent? While it's easy to take the situation as a case of a by stander who doesn't know any better we can't assume that's the case. Cheating may be involved and the scenario may have more than one person to address and deal with appropriately.

so what would you recomend be said to the player who's card was revealed. While I'm sure they will be glad to know that the spectator was taken care of, they may not feel it's fair to continue the game. I can understand why you would, from the cheating end of things, as a teammate could walk by and reveal a card if they were losing, to try and get the game thrown out.

I guess what I'm asking is how to explain it to them so they don't feel completly shafted.

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Go Player ~ 22 Kyu

I know I've had this happen to me, on two specific occasions I'd like to mention.

The first one, a player came up to me in the final game of our local tournament and began throwing out things like "Why didn't you play your Lightning Vortex?", etc. for about a minute, basically revealing my entire hand. My opponent was very displeased with him too, since we were actually having a really good game up to that point. I ended up losing, at least partly because my opponent was able to play around everything with the knowledge he got. The player who disrupted the game was told to leave, and hasn't been allowed back since (There had been many problems in the past as well).

With my other example, it wasn't malicious intent, but ignorance. A player who was relatively new to the game loudly blurted out "Why didn't you set your Mirror Force?" in the middle of my semifinal game. I and some others quickly explained the importance of not talking to the players while in the middle of their games, and he's been perfectly fine since.


I guess what I'm getting at is to look at the intent of the players. People who are purposely disrupting a game can take penalties, disqualifications, or worse. New players need to just be taught proper tournament etiquette. Unfortunately, for the players involved in the game, all you can really do is to continue from that point as best you can.

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YGO Rules LV1
Player Management LV1
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"I think Sangans are fuzzy because they deserve hugs. Have you hugged your Sangan today?" - Jason Grabher-Meyer

1733232:

so what would you recomend be said to the player who's card was revealed. While I'm sure they will be glad to know that the spectator was taken care of, they may not feel it's fair to continue the game. I can understand why you would, from the cheating end of things, as a teammate could walk by and reveal a card if they were losing, to try and get the game thrown out.

I guess what I'm asking is how to explain it to them so they don't feel completly shafted.

As I stated earlier, an investigation is in order to find out if the person who said something to reveal a card(s) is in some way trying to aid the opponent. Did they ride together? From the same area? Friends? Relatives? Check with other judges and the penalty record to see if this is the first time this person has had a problem of this kind? These are some of the questions that a judge should get answers to.

If no foul play is revealed, I'm afraid about all that can be done is to educate the offending bystander, remove them from the immediate area, (perhaps the venue depending on the person's involvment in the tournament, weather they know better or not, and their age....don't want to send little Jimmy outside when he's not scheduled to be picked up for 3 hours) offer the players at the disrupted table an appology....and ask them to play on.

While it's not "fair" to the player who had their card revealed, it's also not fair to the opposing player to restart the game nor is it fair to the rest of the people in the tournamen to possibly delay the whole tournament for the unfortunate incident. We try to keep as much order as possible as judges, alas, I'm afraid we don't have enough judges to keep tabs on everyone at all times. The tournament must move on regardless.

 My scenario invloved an overcrowded play area with limited space for fair observation of the play area. Despite the notciable fovoriteism and obnoxiousness being displayed by the "judge's assistant", I felt cheated and now releived to know what option I have the next time I smell cheating. I thank you all for your timely and clear responses.

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"Fair Play"
"Fair Duel"