Hello and welcome to the Casual Chat!

While thinking of topics to discuss, a recent event came back to me. Early last month there was a Lorcana tournament in Melbourne where a bit of controversy came about.

The basic, short story version of the events that doesn’t name names was that Player 1 made a play, Player 2 disputed that play and called a Judge who sided with Player 2 despite Player 1 playing correctly.

This was controversial because it was a Top 8 match where the grand prize was worth a lot of money, with the play potentially being the key factor in the outcome of the game.

The end result was Player 2 being suspended from their team, and for Ravensburger, the company that makes Lorcana, to issue a suspension for Player 2 until August.

This also sparked more conversations about an official judging program, since there is not an official way to do so for Lorcana. This is also coming after the heels of Wizards of the Coast cutting ties with Judge Academy, meaning that there is no officially endorsed way to become a Magic judge.

There are places that teach people how to be judges for Magic, but they are not officially affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

This, finally, brings me to the topic of conversation in the need for judges for competitive card games, the benefits of having a judge program, as well as the downsides to being a judge.

Call a Judge

The reason for having judges for a competitive card game should be clear to understand. A judge is an arbiter of the rules of the game, and if there is a play or interaction that is incorrect, a judge can make the decision on the outcome.

This can be anything from a simple rules clarification to a complex matter on if a player cheated or not. A judge should be a neutral party who’s purpose is to make sure that everyone is playing correctly and give everyone a fair shot.

When playing casually, it is possible that an experienced player will take advantage of a newer player’s lack of understanding of the rules and make it seem like they played something incorrectly or play something incorrectly and say that they are because of a made up reason that favors the more experienced player.

This term has been coined “sharking” and it can affect every level of play, I briefly described it happening at the highest level of play. If it happens there then it definitely happens at the lower levels of play.

A judge, ideally, should be able to alleviate situations like this, but as we saw it was the judge who had been convinced by the player to favor them. This is where it may be helpful to have an official judge program.

Judge Programs

Becoming a judge is different for every game, some being done by the company themselves and other using an outside organization that is usually affiliated with the company.

There are similarities in how a lot of these judge programs work. Most of the judge programs operate on a tier system, with new judges being at the lowest tier and more experienced judges being at the top.

In order to become a top tier judge, newer judges either have to participate in smaller tournaments, sometimes they need to be mentored by a judge of a higher rank while at these events, and by participating at these events you may either need to take a test or be evaluated by a judge of a higher level to become the next tier of judge.

As you progress up the tiers of being a judge, the sorts of tournaments you may be available for will go up in scale, with the highest level of judges often being used for major tournaments.

When you sign up to become a judge, you need to understand the rules to the highest regard since you need to be aware of how an interaction works in order to make sure you make a correct ruling.

Judge Woes

While there are companies that have fleshed out judge programs and some that don’t, being a judge can be difficult.

One of the main issues of being a judge is the compensation. At the end of the day, judges are volunteers who give up some of their time to make sure the game is played well, and oftentimes it is up to the tournament organizers to figure out compensation for the judges.

Sometimes judges are given some money and free product, sometimes they are given unique promo cards that they can flip for some cash, sometimes they are given points that they can use to get products from from the company.

However, most time judges will be at smaller events held at local game stores where their compensation is some store credit, maybe a judge promo, or in some slim cases some free product in lieu of money.

It is not financially lucrative to be a judge of a card game unless you do it full time and are going to as many tournaments as possible, and even then there is a chance that you still lose money being a judge.

There were even lawsuits against Wizards of the Coast in regards to how judges should be considered in terms of a company’s hierarchy, but since those lawsuits were settled before they went to trial, there is still no definitive answer. It is because of those lawsuits that Wizards is no longer supporting judge programs in any official capacity.

Another downside to being a judge is that since they are held to a higher standard when it concerns the rules of the game, if they make a mistake then they are judged incredibly harshly for it.

Judges are human, so mistakes are bound to happen, but for some players an incorrect ruling can mean the difference in winning or losing a tournament. Especially at higher levels of play where a game may be streamed online, a judge that makes a bad call will be scrutinized heavily by the public, and that has historically been a less than ideal state to be in.

In Conclusion

Overall judges are a necessity for a game, and while there are times where a judges presence may lead to some frustration to how the outcome of a game goes, they are their to make sure the game runs smoothly.

Being a judge can be a thankless job sometimes, where you don’t get a lot of compensation for it and you have to deal with people trying to cleverly cheat their way to a victory, but it is still an important job.

If you are a judge or are planning to become a judge, thank you.

As for everyone else, thank you for reading, see you all next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual