This document discusses bribery and improperly determining winners in Magic: The Gathering tournaments. It covers intentional draws, concessions, and why they are allowed or disallowed based on strategic reasons within a match versus external incentives. The key points are that intentional draws and concessions are permitted if based solely on in-game strategy considerations, but are illegal if an external reward is provided that impacts the tournament system rather than just that match. Disqualification is viewed as the appropriate penalty to disincentivize such agreements given the risks they pose to the integrity of the competition.

1. BRIBERY &
IMPROPERLY DETERMINING
A WINNER
Kevin Desprez, L4, 2013

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!