Floor Judging

Floor judging is the most common form of judging at an event. Floor judging is typically termed this way because judges walk the floor of a tournament venue and circulate among players and tables to observe for fair play and attend calls that occur. As previously mentioned, floor judging is typically zoned during events where a judge will be responsible for attending a certain number of tables and players.

For floor judging, judges should be monitoring player actions and looking for either incorrect play patterns, poor sequencing, miscommunication, suspicious habits, and, between games, insufficient shuffling or improper sideboarding. For example, if players are taking game actions at the start of a turn before waking up legal units, a floor judge should point this fact out and correct this behavior to help maintain gamestate. In this example, it may or may not be necessary to apply a penalty for an appropriate infraction. Unless there is a judge call, no intervention should be necessary unless there is an explicit violation for which an infraction can be called. Intervention should only be seen as creating a judge call in the absence of one, rather than as gentle and brief reminders given to players. A good floor judge may pick up on signs that a player has a high chance of performing a gameplay error or some other violation before it happens, so that it can be quickly remedied when it does.

For judge calls, it is rare that a judge will have been present for the entire interaction that led up to the judge call. As such, much information and context will be missing that is needed to arrive at the correct issued ruling. Judges attending calls where they were not immediately present might need to conduct interviews with each player, either with or without the presence of the other (in the case of situations where advantageous information might be shared). A judge should use their best discretion to ask about the pertinent and agreed-upon information within the game to gather the much objective truth as possible from a judge call. Sometimes, player stories about events and tracked information may conflict. Other times, a player may ask a question they may not ask (such as questions that constitute outside assistance if answered), and judges can't answer questions of this nature. It is up to the judge to use their best judgment to seek as many facts as possible and avoid answering questions related to the gameplay that they cannot answer without damaging tournament integrity.

Especially in the case of questions broaching the subject of outside assistance, these are examples of suggested ways to circumvent awkward or undue situations:

• Ask the player to clarify their question or rephrase it

• A judge can tell that player that they can't answer that question

• Suggest a differently worded question to the player under the guise of "Are you asking (this interaction/clarification)..." and answer that question instead to see if the player is satisfied with the answer.

Sometimes, there are problematic players in the course of a tournament, either due to borderline behavior that may be unsporting conduct or due to unhealthy play patterns that may be malicious. Floor judges ought to monitor these players with greater frequency in the service of investigating potential issues with these players and maintaining tournament integrity.

When a judge's calls are appealed by a player, the judge should typically seek out the Head Judge so that they may investigate the situation. If unavailable, they may alternatively gather a congress of judges from adjacent zones to assist in a ruling if possible, though this is not advised for the sake of time spent in delegation in a congress compared to having a Head Judge issue a final ruling with more immediacy.

In brief, floor judges monitor and maintain the overall health of tournament integrity passively while attending judge calls as they arise. They report to the Head Judge or, if at a side event, to the Assistant Head Judge for those events.