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ASK THE JUDGE 04/22/2005: Feature Friday
Governing Principles: It's Not Us vs. Them
Judges are as neccessary to sanctioned tournament Magic as players are. Both groups need each other in order for the event to function. While many players might be able to get along with each other and understand the interactions of the cards and game, there are those people and situations that make Judges a neccessity. Every competetive game needs referees. Of course, without players, the Judges don't really have a tournament to work.*
Judges cannot put themselves in an adversarial relationship with players. Unfortunately, I see this attitude far too often. They treat players like the enemy. Instead of taking the perspective that they're there to keep the event running smoothly and fairly, they think they're there to catch players in the inevitable malfeasance. In fact, there are some Judges who are extremely vocal about what they expect from players--and it's always the worst. They go as far as to demean or slander players as a group when it's truly just a few bad apples that taint the barrel. Any Judge who takes the attitude that "all players are savage cheaters" is a bad Judge--and he won't be a Judge long if I have anything to say about it.** Quite honestly, I don't even like Judges joking about players as a group being anything underhanded; it undermines the authority and respect of their position.
Judges can be friendly and still maintain the neccessary distance with players to dispatch their duties. Judges who truly get to know their local players (or high-level Judges who get to know the Pros) instill a sense of trust and respect. The players know that the Judge is honest. Naturally, a Judge is required to issue penalties for infractions, but when the Judges and players have a good relationship, the players know that the Judges aren't "out to get them." A good Judge will issue penalties without any negative emotion; after all, an infraction isn't a moral offense, it's formal recognition that a player has done something that they shouldn't have.
Judging is not a case of "Us vs. Them." It's a case of two distinct groups with distinctly different motivations for being at tournament, but both groups (as groups--I recognize that players as individuals have the higher goal of winning) have the same end goal: a smooth, fair, and well-run event. That there is the occasional individual who operates with different intent does not justify taking a negative attitude toward players as a whole.
I'm not suggesting mollycoddling players. When they err, it's our responsibility to correct them. Nor am I suggesting that all players have pure motives. There are indeed some bad seeds out there--they're just not representative of the whole group. What I'm suggesting is that when we treat players with the respect they deserve, avoid taking an adversarial stance, and dispatch our responsibilities without prejudice, we're the Judges we should be.
See you next week.
* Other tournament staff is required as well, such as scorekeepers and administrators; we can generally put them in the same group as Judges for the purposes of our argument.
** And I just might have something to say about it
