2. 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).
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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.
6. 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!
7. 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.
8. 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!
