BRIBERY &IMPROPERLY DETERMINING

A WINNER

Kevin Desprez, L4, 2013

Grounds for agreeing on a result

• A player “really needs” to win/draw– Concession against reward.

• Result is favorable to both– Intentional Draws, Split and Concession, etc.

• Result is unfavorable to both– Double-eliminating Draw (on the Bubble for Cut or Prizes).

Drawing a Match

• Tournaments have inherent logistical restraints.– Noone wants to go back home at 3am

• Question 1: Best-of-1 or Best-of-3?– Best-of-1 means no SB, more variance => Best-of-3 was chosen

• Question 2: Time-limit or not?– A 90+ minute match is no fun for the others => Time-limit

• Question 3: In-game Tiebreaker or draw?– Clock doesn’t fit real life, Life is very unfair and orientates strategy.

• Drawing had to be implemented.– Not a choice, but a necessity

Intentional Draw (ID)

• Existence of draws and a mutually beneficial may encourage players to draw.– Play/Draw Top8 rule was created to mitigate this.

• Making ID illegal puts pressure on judges.– Not a good option.

• Still, IDs are often badly perceived by newer players (sometimes called Cheating)– 3-point win tried to fight against IDs but wasn’t nearly enough.

– Play/Draw rule made IDs less interesting and encourages play

Conceding

• If conceding was illegal, players could simply not kill opps until end of round to win 1-0.

• Forcing players to kill opps is unenforceable.

• Therefore Conceding a game had to be legal.

• Conceding a match followed, for the sake of consistency.

Legally Drawing/Conceding

• No coercition– Physical, Giving cards back, Giving a ride back, etc.

• No incentive– Money, Packs, Split, Upcoming concession, etc.

• Decision based on Magic strategy only– Dice, Coin, Arm-wrestling, Rock-Paper-Scissors, etc.

• Lots of things make a result agreement illegal! Much fewer ways to make it happen legally!

Why are B&IDaW illegal?

• They impact more than one match.– A concession favors one player over another.

• Conceding is ok for in-match strategic reasons

• Strategy is the only thing that should affect the results of a tournament.

• “All players could just do the same” is not a valid argument, as it’s not about in-match strategy but about gaming the system.

One penalty: Disqualification

• DQ is very logical after assessing risks/rewards

• Two main realistic reasons for B&IDaW:

– Draw means no TopX

– Draw means no prizes

• If “Drawing” means “Tournament Ending”, then the penalty must mean more than that!