Anatomy of a Judge Call

Written by Matt Muckle for the Riftbound judge community, and reproduced here in full, word for word, with the author's permission.

Matt: "Thanks to Jim G, Ben, and Ryan for helping edit and think up content! We all help each other improve."

JUDGE!

I will be totally honest. It really probably took me the better part of a year or two of judging once or twice a month before I felt very confident at most judge calls. They are incredibly intimidating and often complex. Throughout that process I had great mentors that helped me learn a pattern to keep in mind so that I was always in control and knew what was coming. Quickly I learned the difficulty and anxiety was from just not being prepared for what I was walking into.

My favorite saying now is "have a plan but expect to deviate from all of it." What I mean here is having a plan or pattern on how to approach something big or intimidating often makes the act of doing it much easier even if everything you end up doing was never in the plan at all. Instead of walking off a cliff into a full unknown, we are now walking step by step dodging as we go.

This is how we should approach judge calls. We should have a plan and pattern and know what we typically expect. This makes everything go smoother for us and the players both. It also makes us ready to deal with all the exceptions and off the wall issues since our brain is freed up on thinking from the start.

This is my goal here. As riftbound judges I want to break down how I approach the average judge call so you can help develop your own plan.

I start by breaking down the judge call into the following steps. By breaking everything down we can walk step by step towards the end instead of trying to leap off the cliff to give the players their answer.

1. The "Pre-Call"

2. Introduction

3. Investigation/Review

4. Delivering the ruling

5. Cleanup

The Pre-Call:

You're there minding your own business watching some Riftbound on the floor when you hear a player behind you should "JUDGE!" Your head rockets around on a swivel and there they are sitting with their hands raised waiting for someone to come to their aid.

Ok now's our time to prepare our thoughts and get moving. Go ahead and start making your way towards them. I personally like to raise my hand as well so that they can see they are seen and to alert other judges that are around I am free and am heading over. Even if another judge is closer and on the way then keep going! Two is the correct number of judges to have on a call as that's an extra pair of ears to hear all of the problem, someone to bounce ideas off of, or opens up the possibility to observe and learn or offer feedback. If you're going to be the third or later judge there, go ahead and hang back. We don't want to crowd players and make them nervous. If they need you they will call you over.

While you're on the way over go ahead and note the time on the clock or watch. Write it down. We want to know when this call started because when we are done, we want to give players a proportional extension to make sure they have their full time to play the round. Our goal is this entire process takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. If you feel yourself approaching the five minute mark without a conclusion this will probably be the appropriate time to reach out for a little aid!

Introduction:

"Hello Friends! How can I help?"

We only get once chance to make a first impression, so we want our first impression with any player on a judge call to be positive and welcoming. This player could be having a bad day, they could be nervous about the judge call, already contentious, or even just frustrated. This is our first chance to course correct, get things under control, and move towards the positive. This is why I always start out by saying loudly, directly and with a smile "Hello Friends! How can I help?" I usually lean down, or sit next to the players so I am closer to their level and not looming over them.

Why this phrase specifically? First and foremost, I'm opening up positively. I'm making it known that I'm happy to be there and my goal is to help not be a disciplinarian. This can help relax nervous or anxious players or even disarm players with potential malintent. Second, I am using neutral terms "friends" or "you" or "yall" (#southernguy). We don't want to accidentally offend or misgender someone right from the start. Our goal is always to be inclusive and welcoming.

This also opens up the floor to the players so we can start hearing what we can help with but also take the temperature of the situation. Calls that are contentious or where players are fired up are going to rear their head right now and now is the easiest point to get things under control. We will talk about handling contentious calls more later, but remember if you are uncomfortable, calling for backup is ok and encouraged.

The Investigation:

We like to say every call, whether it's just for Watcher text or looking for cheating, starts with an investigation. We need to know what the problem is and that lets us know how to help fix it. While the term investigation may give you imagery of an episode of Law and Order with a dark room and a gruff detective grilling a suspect, our investigations are more of a friendly conversation. Our goal is to find out what's wrong, make sure we know the full truth, and help fix issues to keep the game fair and in alignment with our rules documents, so that these players can get back to playing their game they paid to play as fast as is reasonable.

Remember players can always ask to ask their question in private away from the table. There are often personal or medical reasons they don't want to say it in front of a bunch of people. They also may have some private information about the game they don't want to reveal. And finally they also might be about to accuse their opponent of something where doing that at the table could be confrontational.

You're going to end up with one of a few categories of calls here and they might mix a bit between each other:

1. The bathroom break - These are simple calls where someone just needs a quick errand like a bathroom break, a pen, a spill etc

2. Watcher text - Usually for a foreign card or they need to know exactly what a card says that an opponent may play

3. Rules questions - Players want to understand how an interaction may work

4. A problem has actually happened/could be happening - Someone has broken a rule, a communication issue, or players disagree about the state of the game.

Your very first goal is to listen to players to see where their problem is going to land. While doing so take a quick glance at the board. You might see something totally off that we also need to address. Also factors like player A's board is really messy and hard to interpret might be information we need to weigh later. We also want to take note of some key information: Who is the current turn player? What step/phase of the turn are we in? Who currently has priority/focus? This will help in our investigation but also we are going to want to remind the players of this before we end up leaving the table.

A few things to remember throughout this process. First, we are the authority at the table and need to maintain control of the situation at all times. Judge calls can sometimes get contentious and players may already be frustrated or riled up. If you need help call for help no one will think less of you. Assert yourself when you need to, once the call starts to spiral it's often harder to get it back under control than to maintain it from the start. Second, we're not authoritarians and we're not rules robots. We want to be friendly and kind with the players as much as possible. They may be scared, upset or frustrated. We want them to walk away from judge interactions knowing we helped and empathized as much as possible.

The Bathroom Break.

No investigation is really needed here. If they gotta go they get to go; we don't need players injuring their bodies or creating biohazards over a card game. When letting them go if we're at High OPL generally try to ask them to leave their phone at the table. Let them know they have 10 min and if it takes longer tardiness may apply. While they are gone try to hang out near their stuff as customer service and if the logistics of the event allow. Once they are back skip right ahead to the cleanup step.

Things like medical issues or other legitimate needs can land here too. Self care is important both for players and judges alike.

The Watcher text

Another really simple call. They have the right to the full accurate rules text of any card even if it's not present on the board. Even if they can't name the card exactly, if they can describe it well enough we should still pull up the full text for them. Use a source on your phone with up to date errata text and let them read fully. Be sure to ask if they have any questions. Once through, skip to cleanup.

Rules Questions.

These can range from really simple to very complex. Remember there are some questions here we outright can't answer as presented. The first thing we want to do is have the player explain the rules question they are asking.

Once they are asked, repeat back to the players the exact question they are asking and have them confirm this is what they are asking. DO NOT just reinterpret their question or add in additional information. Have them confirm the question with only the information they presented with at most a slight rephrasing. We do not want to accidentally give them any outside strategic advice or remind them of play patterns they may have missed inadvertently.

Once you have confirmed you understand what they are asking, go ahead and read the cards. You may think you know what this card does but missing one or two words in your memory may completely change a ruling. Taking an extra 15 seconds to read protects the integrity of the event by ensuring you are giving more accurate rulings. Trust me, I have seen Reddit posts I know were about me from events where players said "OMG the Judges were so bad they had to read Dazzling Aurora to know what it did" Ignore them; our job is to give players the right ruling and you're doing that job by reading the card. Even after you read the card remember this is Riftbound and it's a 50/50 chance this card has errata. Be ready to pull up the errata'd text to be sure.

So I mentioned there were some questions we couldn't answer. How do we deal with those?

204.5.a.1. At high OPL, judges may not answer direct questions about the results of game actions a player has not yet taken. In these situations, players must ask hypothetical questions about the rules. Examples:

204.5.a.1.a. Inappropriate question: "If I attack and conquer this battlefield with my Tryndamere, Barbarian, will I score the winning point?"

204.5.a.1.b. Appropriate question: "Can point scoring abilities like Tryndamere's score you the winning point?"

204.5.a.1.c. Judges may ask players to rephrase their questions to be appropriate where possible.

The key thing we're trying to avoid here is giving a player outside assistance. We want to aid them in clarifying if their play is legal without telling them if their play is good. You can generally identify these by "If I do X will Y happen?" There is some contention here on how much we advise the player towards the correct question so I am going to avoid a lot of suggestions without getting prior approval ( I may update this document after approval). However, generally we want to advise a player with something along the lines of "I'm sorry I can't answer your question as asked, I can however answer questions directly about the rules, like how winning the scoring point can happen." If you are unsure what you can say it is very important to confer with another judge, ideally a lead, to clarify what is fine to say here.

Note: Players may be frustrated here and express that outwardly. It's very important to empathise with them but to still align yourself with the rules to make sure everyone is receiving the same equal fair experience.

A problem has actually happened/could be happening

Here is where some things can start to get very interesting and more difficult to deal with. The most common thing here is "Judge we made a mistake, how do we fix it?" We can also get a lot more complex scenarios such as players disagreeing on point totals, a player may be slow playing or cheating.

When these happen we want to be careful and collect all the information and be sure we collect it from both players where applicable. (Non applicable may be a player speaking to you away from the table believing their opponent is slow playing). Go ahead and have one player tell you to start to finish exactly what they believe happened. The first time through just listen and glance around the board to make sure everything is making rough sense. Players will very often start moving cards around between zones to do demonstrations. If they start doing so, politely ask them to leave the cards where they are as this is a really easy way to accidentally (or intentionally) obscure problems or end up in a board state where there is even more confusion and errors. A second pitfall that can happen here is the second player (or bystander) starts chiming in with their view, especially if it's a conflicting view. Again, politely but firmly request that they let them fully finish while letting them know you will give them an equal chance to present their account.

Once the first player has finished everything we're going to check with the second player and get their telling of events. The vast majority of the time this player is just going to tell us "yeah that's right" and we move on (or offer some very minor corrections). Hearing out both players like this makes sure each of them feels heard and taken care of while also increasing the likelihood that we get all the information for us to determine if there was an infraction and so what it was.

The very next thing we want to do is repeat everything we've learned right back to the players and if the situation is even mildly complicated it's great practice to jot notes as you do so. This is their chance to fill in any details you may be missing or misunderstand. Correct any issues as you go and if there is anything other than a minor correction it's even better practice to go back and repeat everything to them again. You would be amazed how many times I have found new, very relevant details on the 4th iteration of updating events. Remember these players may be flustered as they could have just punted a really important interaction or worried about the penalties. It's important to be calm and help them relax. In 99% of cases were there to help and get things back on track to keep playing fairly; not to function as the punisher. (In fact try to never use the word "punish" when talking about an infraction or penalty. Their purpose is to track, dissuade, and restore the game to a fair as possible state.)

Review

Ok now we have all this information, what's next? First we have to determine if something actually went wrong. It's not uncommon that players think they messed up but were actually in a totally legal, just potentially confusing, game state. If that's the case we want to go ahead and let them know everything is legal about what happened and help clarify the game state we are in so they can keep playing. Once you do that you can go ahead and skip ahead to the cleanup.

On the other hand, what if something actually did go wrong? The very first thing we want to do here is decide if this is an accidental error or do you suspect this player may be cheating. How to make this distinction is honestly far too complicated to cover here but is well covered in other places. If you suspect cheating and are at a large event go ahead and alert your head judge and follow their lead from there (Pro tip: grab the table number from the table so you don't forget where you are, find the head judge immediately, interrupt them and tell them you have an investigation for cheating). If you are solo running a local skirmish there are some articles helping you learn the process of cheating investigations elsewhere.

The vast majority of times were just handling an accidental mistake. Here is where we get to consult our Tournament Rules, specifically section 700. This is divided up into 3 groups of infractions: Game Play Errors (we broke a game rule), Tournament Errors (we broke a tournament rule i.e. decks or communication), and Unsporting Conduct (we did something rude, vulgar or cheating). This breakdown helps narrow the scope in which we're searching. Within each of those categories we have a list of infractions that have attached penalties and fixes. We're not going to go into details of each infraction/fix here; just how to go about a ruling.

This is a process you will hear experienced judges call Infraction-> Penalty -> Fix. This is the order, and the only order we want to approach interpreting this document. The first thing to do is to determine the infraction. This is often the first thing to go wrong. (i.e. a player resolved a trigger than never actually triggered and drew an extra card). This is a General Error not Drawing Extra Cards because the first thing that went wrong was putting a trigger on the chain that didn't exist. Once we have the infraction, each section for that infraction specifies a default penalty (most often a Warning or No Penalty). Some infractions have stipulations that "upgrade" their default penalty (No Penalty to Warning, or Warning to Game loss etc). We want to decide which penalty is the most appropriate. Finally, each section (usually but not always) defines a fix. This fix's purpose is not to punish any player; its goal is to remove as much advantage as is possible from the error and make this game as fair as possible. Infractions may have multiple fixes depending on what happened. Make sure your chosen fix fits what actually happened.

A very common trap to land here is to do this process in reverse and think about what fixes are reasonable to find the infraction. Doing this can end up causing us to put this game in a state that is either far more punitive or doesn't actually fix the root problem. Always start from the infraction and work your way down. Say it with me…. Infraction….then Penalty…then fix. Always in that order.

As a final, very important note, so far I have assumed we are figuring out the answer solo. Judging is rarely a solo endeavor. If at any point you aren't sure, it's taking too long, or you just plain need help…go reach out for help. Ideally you have a judge shadowing the call with that you can talk to, but if not go find another nearby judge explain as much as you can to them and get their opinion to reach a conclusion. If you're solo, the live help channel in the judge discord is an excellent resource to reach out to where you are almost guaranteed a fairly timely response.

Delivering the Ruling

Rules specific

We have all the details, we've confirmed everything is correct and we've reached an answer. In the most simple case we have a rules question where we now get to tell them how the specified rule or interaction actually works. Do your best to use the proper game terminology to prevent any confusion (i.e. don't say things like Zonya's will trigger, use the correct riftbound terms Chain, showdown, cleanup etc). Start by repeating the question and then giving the exact outcome. Then we want to give them the precise rules to answer their question and end by asking them if they have further questions. Details matter here! There is not much worse than giving a player imprecise or incomplete rules information and having them misinterpret it into a mistake or infraction. For example lets say players were asking how burnout works:

"Ok so as I understand it we're asking what is the process of burnout. <players nod> Burnout will happen when a player goes to move a card from an empty main deck to any other zone such as drawing a card. When they go to do that action they will shuffle their trash and recycle it into their main deck. They will then choose an opponent to gain a point and then complete the action that caused them to burn out. Are there any questions?"

At this point you have delivered your ruling and you're going to get a few reactions from players. Generally they are going to nod and thank you, they may look confused and obviously disagree with you but don't vocalize it, or immediately ask for an appeal. If it seems they are obviously disagreeing with you, it's a great idea to spend another 30 sec or minute discussing what they don't get and trying to explain it a little clearer. If they still disagree, I suggest offering to chat with them after the round. Sometimes here in this discussion you may realize you have missed a detail or were actually wrong. It's 100% ok to reverse yourself and change your ruling. Generally avoid offering an appeal if the player doesn't ask. If they do appeal it's not a knock to you…but go ahead and see the Handling Appeals section.

Delivering a Fix to an Error

These kinds of calls started by being more complicated and they are going to end with some complications as well. However they are still very formulaic so once you develop a pattern it's very easy to make it second nature.

We have collected all our information, found the infraction, found the penalty, and thought through the prescribed fix. Just in that exact same order we're now going to walk the players through it. At any point in this process players may interrupt you to bring up new information or ask questions. That's totally fine as we're trying to fix the problem and make sure they understand what's happening.

Begin by repeating what we've done wrong, then we are going to tell them the infraction and penalty and ask them if they have received any other infractions today (Don't worry you are going to confirm this in the software!). If upgrades do apply make sure to factor them into your delivery. I find it very helpful from a customer service perspective to remind the players about potential penalty upgrades here. I have had a few experiences where players did not know when upgrades would happen and became quite upset.

Now we have to detail what we are doing to fix the problem. Note, at large events some fixes may necessitate you have prior approval to execute the fix (backups and fixes that reveal private information). Make sure you have that approval before delivering!!! Remind the players to not do anything with their cards until I finish saying what we're going to do to fix it first just in case we have missed something as most fixes are effectively impossible to undo once we execute it. This is their last chance to add corrections and appeal. If at any point you are going through this and details start to significantly change it's a great idea to pause and go back to investigating.

If you get all the way through the fix, do one last check that this sounds good to everyone and go back and now walk them through step by step until the fix is complete. Don't batch actions. Now we're all fixed up! Make sure each player understands where we are in the game (whose turn, what's on the chain etc) and slide on over to our cleanup step.

Example:

"Ok friends so we have accidentally knocked over and seen the top card of our library this is going to be a Warning for Looking at Secret Information. Have you received any other warnings today? No? Great! So if you happen to get this infraction two more times during the event that last one will upgrade to a Game loss. We understand accidents happen, just pay attention and be careful in the future. Now I am going to explain the fix to you so we can remove any accidental advantage. DO NOT do anything with your cards until I have explained everything and then we will walk back through it step by step. <LSI specific details discovered> Ok so we only know the bottom 2 cards of our deck. We are going to set them aside face down and then shuffle the remainder of the deck to return that card into a random position. We will then return the 2 cards we set aside to the bottom and continue play. Does this sound good to everyone? Yes? Great, now let's walk through that step by step and do it… "

Cleanup

The errors are all fixed and the players understand the rules. That means we can go tell our judge buddy how wild this call was right? Well not quite. We have to do a little bit of proverbial paperwork first.

Remember earlier, like 200 pages of reading ago when I mentioned we should write down the time we went to take that call? Now is the point you are going to thank yourself for writing it down. Presumably we haven't developed the powers of Dr. Strange and this call actually took some amount of time to complete. We want to return that time to the players in the form of an extension so that they have their full time to actually play their match. Specifically we are only to give them up to their full maximum round time (typically 60 minutes) and not longer. For example if a call started with 3 minutes left on the clock but the call took 5 minutes we are going to only give a 3 minute time extension because they only lost 3 minutes of their 60 minutes. The same logic applies to a call that starts with 49 minutes remaining and takes 20 minutes; they will receive a 20 minute extension because they lost 20 minutes of playing time. (please don't take this long). Currently we still issue these time extensions even if there is a game loss applied. Calls that take under a minute typically don't receive a time extension, but if a player asks just give them a minute extension. You will spend more time arguing with them and have to give it to them anyway if you say no.

We want to make sure to verbalize to the players that they are receiving an extension with the exact amount they are receiving. We also want to make sure to leave a note at the table (we call this a time extension slip) to remind them and judges that they have an extension. These notes are typically written with a few key pieces of information: The round #, the event, judges initials and the extension amount written as +VALUE. Depending on your event and TO you may also have to enter this information into software such as purplefox, or carde.io.

Next, if we issue infractions and penalties we want to enter those into our tracking software so they can be of use for the rest of the staff and event. You may also want to take a few moments here to jot down some notes on the call so you can discuss them with other judges on ways to improve or to educate on niche interactions.

Special Cases

Handling Appeals

Appeals are going to happen and are a normal part of the game. First, be aware a player should not be appealing your ruling before you give your ruling; there is simply nothing to appeal at this point. This is considered unsportsmanlike and should be handled as such.

If you are appealed, take a few moments to jot down information about the call so you can repeat it back to your head judge. Pick up the table number for that table and go find your head judge for your event. Interrupt them and let them know you have an appeal. They will likely drop what they are doing and ask for all the details of the call. You want to give them the details the players gave you and what you ruled. Once that discussion is complete I personally like to introduce the head judge to the players and then step back and let them take over. Remain at the table while the head judge goes through delivering their ruling. You are going to handle the time extensions and cleanups.

Once they are done, they will likely take a moment off to the side to give you feedback on your ruling regardless of being upheld or overturned. Even if you are overturned this does not mean you are a bad judge! Look at this as a learning opportunity. Remember why you got it wrong and get feedback on how to get right in the future.

Sidenote: Checking rulings you are not 100% sure of with other judges before delivering greatly reduces the number of times you are appealed and makes the whole tournament run faster!

Contentious Calls

No one loves it when players get upset but sadly it happens. Sometimes they are already riled up when you get to the table; other times they may get upset and riled up after hearing your ruling. In both cases our job is to bring players back down to earth, try and keep them calm, and get them back to playing the game.

It is not a fault in your character to need help here. Even as a judge it's ok to raise your hand and yell JUDGE to get someone to come over and assist. We want you and all of the players to feel safe and comfortable while in the venue and playing the game. Its very important to recognize when a situation is out of hand and beyond our control.

Be polite, but firm. Do not let them interrupt and push back. If a player is interrupting, being rude and not listening, trying to talk over them and be soft and kind is often like talking at a brick wall. Being very direct with the statement "You need to stop and listen. I am the Judge and this is my ruling. Do we understand" can often be the shock we need to take a step back.

Don't sit, stand instead. Sitting is our position and empathy and listening. When we need to maintain control it's often best to remain standing.

Act early. If you begin by lettering players talk over you or each other and argue, then they are likely to keep it up through the entire call. The very first time they do it, stop them right away. Don't let them finish the thought. Remind them they will get a chance to speak and continue as you were.

Language Issues

Riftbound is a game for everyone. Sometimes you are going to run into players who are non native speakers of your language. Keep this in mind when you try to communicate that fairly commonplace jargon in your language might be very difficult to understand. Do your best to use official terminology to facilitate effective communication.

Even with that, there still may be a communication barrier. If you see this causing an issue it's a good idea to see if there are native speakers of their language on staff to help aid the call.

Medical Emergencies

I just want to put emphasis here. Someone's health is more important than playing a card game. If you get a call with a medical issue that the player is not able to handle themselves, immediately go to the stage and alert the tournament organizer for help. This is the fastest process to getting trained medical professionals on site to take care of the attendee.

Disagreeing on Reality

These are going to be some of the most difficult calls you are going to make. Here you have 2 players that disagree on the state of the game. This could be point totals, whether a spell has resolved, or a trigger has been missed. It is very important here to understand very often both players are right and wrong at the same time. There are lots of moving parts to this game and it's very easy for small communication errors to lead to disagreements.

We want to hear both players out in turn start to finish. We want to collect as much information as possible that helps us reconstruct reality. We also have the facts of the cards in front of us. We can check whether plays make sense or if there are missing gaps in time. We have the information from the cards in the trash that help recreate the history as well. Once we have reviewed the players' statements and all the historical facts of the game we are going to have to come to a conclusion, by our judgement, what is the most likely reality. It's VERY likely one of the players is going to firmly disagree with you. However, the game has to have a true state to continue and we need to be the neutral arbiter here.

Point differences:
Some useful tactics are to have players walk backwards through their score sheets explaining how points were scored. While doing so if a unit died in combat try locate it in the trash to further help jog memories. Look at the other units and spells in the trash and ask how they got there. Maybe seeing one of the cards there will jog them about a combat or showdown they forgot about. Most often the points that are forgotten are hold points or uncontested showdowns. Look for impossible patterns if they are recording if they scored by conquer or hold.