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No, I don’t hate Germans
– Interview mit Sheldon Menery
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SheldonM: First Answer: No, I don't hate Germans.
TobiH: Well, actually that was NOT supossed to be my first question, but it sure makes for a good headline!
So you've maybe heard about Bracht's Worlds „report“, which obviously drew quite some attention. Afterwards it was excessively discussed, why the DCI did not publish any of the findings of their investigation. Some even speculated that the results might have not been sufficiently convincing to warrant such a hard punishment......?
SheldonM: It has always been Wizards' policy to not publish any results of an investigation. The privacy of the people involved is deemed higher than making the process of the investigation public. Be assured that any case is intensively reviewed by an independent penalty committee which gathers all necessary information.
TobiH: In his report Bracht makes some serious allegations about you personally, saying you were partial and prejudiced...
SheldonM: I've been a high-level judge for 10 years now, and you really cannot be effective and still be partial with regards to nationalities or any such thing.
I feel a deep responsibility for every DCI-player, and I am definitely not looking for ways to disqualify. I hate every single disqualification, and in my perfect world, no one would be disqualified. Ever.
TobiH: I have never before seen a player being disqualified for stalling without getting at least one warning for slow play before. Has there been a change in DCI-policy lately?
SheldonM: No, there is a precise difference between slow play and stalling. Slow play is unintentionally taking to long, while stalling implies intent, intentionally taking advantage of the time limit, for example by changing the pace of your game.
A stalling penalty is NEVER given easy. Never without judges (with coniderable experience) being absolutely sure of the infraction.
One common mistake is to think that there is a gradual progression from slow play to stalling – Instead there is a concise difference and that is intent.
And that is as easy for a judge to figure out as it might be for a player (at least in the rather extreme cases). You could probably tell someone who is obviously stalling not to lose a game from someone who is just playing slowly.
TobiH: In the second game of the final round on day 1 Bracht was forced to perform his combodeck's loop 13 times – every time the same…
SheldonM: Loop or no? Wehad high-level discussions about this, and in the end decided, that it's not a cear loop, because it is not 100% repeatable. It IS approaching 100% but “near 100” is not the same as “100”. He needs to bring the remaining cards in his deck in a certain order and with extreme bad luck he might not be able to get it.
The current ruling is: Unless it's truly infinite or a player can demonstrate that it's 100% repeatable, it is not considered a loop.
TobiH: The rules talk about “timely manner” and “reasonable amount of time”. What does that mean? And why isn't it more clearly specified?
SheldonM: Good judges will always give players a little leeway to make their decisions. It is not easy to define, what is “reasonable”.
But “unreasonable” is easy. If a player radically changes pace between game 2 and 3 from break-neck speed in his winning game 2 to “glacial” when about to lose game 3 – that's certainly not okay!
TobiH: It was argued that the current rulings leave combodecks at an immense disadvantage…
SheldonM: Well, we simply have to work with the limitations of timed rounds. We certainly have a preference for games to come to an “organic” end, but we have to impose time constraints, because untimed rounds are impossible to incorporate in the swiss rounds of a tournament.
The rules are the same for everyone and thus NOT unfair for combodecks!
And the rules are published in advance. If you bring a deck that takes 75 minutes to win a match, you cannot be surprised when you encounter problems – you certainly cannot say: “Oh, no one told me!”
Of course, a good judge will assess the situation and will give a little leeway to players that really have the options to think through. But just sitting there for 10 minutes without doing any action is not acceptable.
TobiH: Ok, thanks for your time.
SheldonM: You're welcome.
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