(This is for WGP 2013. If you are looking for this year's WGP, please check the main page)

This document is for those running or helping advise WS WGP USA Regionals. Note that an advisor, with contact with the head judge, may both play in and help organize at the same time. In doing so, they are taking onto themselves an important responsibility for fairness. Fraud will be dealt with severely.

Please read the entire document. If there are any questions, please contact the Head Judge immediately via email. You will receive Skype / Phone information when the tournaments draw near.

Tournament info:

You may not charge any sort of entry fee to the tournament. Optional fees for prize structure, refreshments, and so on are allowed, but players must be able to play in the full tournament with an equal chance at the invitation for free if they so choose. Note that convention entry fees are not subject to this rule (but extra fees charged for your tournament are).

Tournament Organizers and Advisors may choose to have HotC handle pairings and seeding for their tournament. You will be asked which you prefer prior to the start of your tournament.

All players who do not yet have an entry must be allowed to enter - only if they break the rules of the establishment the regional is hosted in (foul odor, theft, etc) can you disallow them entry to the tournament.

Announce to all players at the start of the tournament the following:

1. any rulings that other players or advisors give them may be appealed to the Head Judge. This judge will be reachable via the advisor during the tournament. Should the judge be unreachable, use your best judgement in solving the situation, and have all players involved write a report to HotC so the Head Judge can see if anything needs to be done.

2. winners must report their Full Name, Email, and Phone Number to the Advisor. If they do not do this, or fail to receive contact from HotC within one week regarding Nationals, they should contact HotC on their own. Failure to do so may forfeit your invitation.

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Your tournament is Best-of-1 Swiss. All players must fill out Decklists, fold them and submit them to the Advisor, who may not look at them during the tournament. Players are responsible for making sure they are correct on their own. Upon decklist submission, players then sign in on the sheet provided, and state that they do not yet have an invitation to Nationals. Players who already have an Invitation cannot play. Note the example as to how people should sign up. After sign in, they receive one promo card. Should you run out of promos, please have each signed-up player that did not receive one make a list of their name and address, and that should be sent to HotC at the end of the tournament. What we're planning on doing post-tournament season is a SASE program for players that went to one or more events and did not get a promo, while supplies last.

If you do not have enough seating area for the event, perform the following actions - in these situations, a "Round 0" is defined as "a 1 round best-of-one single elimination tournament. Eliminated players may not compete in this regional". Unregistered player means "a Player that did not sign up for your tournament at least 1 day before your tournament":
If the number of players there that have pregistered online is less than your seating capacity, perform a Round 0 with all non-preregistered players. at the end of each round, if the number of pre-registered players + the number of non-eliminated unregistered players is equal to or less than the seating capacity, stop the "Round 0"s and begin the tournament proper. Repeat the Round 0 with the unregistered, uneliminated players as necessary.
If the number of players there that have pregistered online is equal to your seating capacity, only those players may play.
If the number of players there that have pregistered online is greater than, but less than double, your seating capacity, X equals the number of players over capacity you have. The X*2 last registered players perform a Round 0. Unregistered players may not play.
If the number of players there that have pregistered online is double your seating capacity or more, Perform a Round 0 with all players until remaining players are within capacity.

Each round is 40 minutes. Give time updates to all players at 10, 20, 30, and 35 minutes in.

Players / Rounds / Top Cut
1-8 / 3 / 2
9-16 / 4 / 4
17-32 / 5 / 8
33-64 / 6 / 16
65-128 / 7 / 32
Note that if you receive more invitations than the Top Cut for your location rates, the Top Cut is increased to the smallest number that includes that number of players. (6 invites = Top 8 minimum, etc) Also note that if you have 8 or less players participate in the Tournament, you receive only 2 Invitations, regardless of the number you were originally given.

Setup:

The start of a match - before the 40 minutes starts - goes as follows:
1. Players shuffle and cut.
2. Rock paper scissors (RPS). Please pre-confirm with your players how to play RPS, as there are many regional differences. HotC recommends says "rock, paper, scissors, shoot", pumping a fist after the first three words, and revealing the chosen symbol simultaneously on the fourth. In the case of a tie, repeat the process.
3. The winner of RPS is the first turn player. They do not decide if they go first or second.
4. The turn player draws five cards, and the opposing player draws five cards.
5. The turn player chooses how many cards to mulligan, discards them, and then draws back up to five. Then the opposing player does the same.
6. At this point, all players are at their "final five" (Bushiroad's term for 'ready to compete'). Once all players are at "final five", the advisor begins the count and announces that time has begun, and players begin playing.
Pairing:
- Short version -
Swiss pair, avoiding double pair-ups / pair-downs.

- Long version -
1. Do not pair players who have dropped out.

2. If there are an odd number of players, one random player with the least number of wins+byes gets a bye.

3. Group all remaining players by number of wins. Starting with the most number of wins, pair each group. Randomly shuffle (random.org) the group and pair them off, one at a time. Should a pair occur with people that have played each other, re-pair those two with the next two from the unpaired section. Should there be less than two players remaining in that group, re-pair the entire group.

3A. If there is one player left in that group, and they have not yet been "paired down', "Pair them down" by pairing them first in the next highest group. The one they pair with is considered to be "paired up". If they are paired with a player who has already been "paired up", or if they have already been "paired down" before, re-pair - unless there is no possible way to pair without A: pairing people who have already played and B: avoiding pair downs (such as a solo 0-X player who has already been paired up once in an even tourney, or a single X-0 that already has a pair-down), you may double pair-up or -down.

repeat 3 and 3A until all players are paired.

Drops:
If a player drops, for tiebreaker purposes they are considered to have still finished out the tourney, playing and losing to placeholder players that themselves have 0 Wins.

Ranking:
After the required number of rounds, determine each player's Personal Strength.

Personal Strength (PS):
Number of wins (not byes), divided by number of rounds they played: This does count rounds that occur after they drop (if they dropped), but does not count rounds in which they received byes. If their PS is less than 1/3, their PS is 1/3.

Rank the players by the following metrics. If they are tied at one level, move to the next, and so on.
1. Largest Number of (Wins + Byes)
2. Smallest Number of Rounds played with a Timeout that had no Slow Play calls
3. Strength of Schedule: Strength of Schedule is the average of the Personal Strength of all non-bye opponents a player have faced.*
4. Strength of Strength of Schedule: Strength of Strength of Schedule is the average of the Strength of Schedule of all non-bye opponents you have faced.
5. Previous Head to Head Winner: If two players are tied at this point, and have played each other previously, the previous winner is ranked higher.
6. 1-Game Single Elimination Match (this game does not affect any other schedule)
7. Coin Flip (Player registered first in the lineup is Heads, selected player is ranked higher)

Top Cut:
The Top X players (determined by entrant count) continue on to a Single Elimination Best of 1 Finals. Seed them based on Swiss standings into a bracket and play out the matches. If you are unable to create a proper seeded bracket on your own, use google to find a proper seeding schedule
(www.printyourbrackets.com/16seeded.html and www.printyourbrackets.com/8seeded.html are good examples)

Deck Check:
Head Judges may call deck checks to determine if a player has marked cards and if they have a legal deck. Note that while a player may be caught with an illegal deck (banned cards, too many climaxes, etc.), deck checks are designed to catch more transient forms of cheating - tapped sleeves, and so on. Note that some regionals may only have advisors - in these cases, deck checks will be performed by the advisors of the winners' deck, and players are requested to check their opponent's deck for tapped sleeves and marked sleeves.
If you reveal another player's decklist without permission online or to others, that player will have an open-and-shut case to get you banned from Organized Play. We take this very, very seriously.
This is a link to the current Ban list.

Performing a Deck Check:
In this explanation, the words "Strip Check" means "remove cards that have imperfections, or sleeves that are a different size, or any other thing that makes them different than the other sleeves, and put them in a facedown pile without looking at which card it is. After this, flip the cards over all at once, and see if they are related (all climaxes, etc)". If they are related, this is defined as "failing Deck Check". If they are not, this is defined as "requiring a resleeve".
- Look at the deck from the side, at the edge of the sleeves, for a Strip Check.
- Look at depth of the cards in the sleeves from the top, for a Strip Check.
- Look at the backs of the cards, sleeve opening in one direction (left, for example) for a Strip Check.
- Turn the deck around (still looking at the back of the sleeves, but now upside down - in this same example, now the opening would be to the right) for a Strip Check

If a player requires a resleeve, show them why, and have them resleeve. If they cannot resleeve, they have to play without sleeves, or purchase / borrow sleeves on the spot. If they are playing without sleeves, and the the cards are marked, contact the Head Judge.

If a player fails Deck Check, contact the head judge.

Translation Issues:
If there is an issue with a translation, contact the Head Judge. we strive for accuracy, but there is always a chance somethign is wrong.

If a card is not yet translated, again, contact the Head Judge. This should not be a problem, but we cannot officially post translations of cards until they are on the Bushiroad site. Players with cards that are not yet translated are urged to find cards with identical text and use that, showing that they are identical. Again, contact the Head Judge, and we will fix the problem ASAP.

Note that electronic translations are not allowed. Players must have in-sleeve translations, sheets, or cards with official translations to hand to their opponent.

Penalties:
Any penalties must be cleared with the head judge. Accusations of cheating are taken very seriously. Should a player note that a deck is marked or illegal, they can call "Judge" for a Judge. Both players *immediately* stop playing - no tapping their cards on the table, no putting things back - they freeze. The judge / advisor will come over, listen to both sides starting with the person who called judge, and make a ruling, explaining why they made that ruling. If either player has a problem with it, they can contact the Head Judge via the method given to the advisor. We ask that players be familiar with the rules so events are kept to a minimum - the Head Judge will often be helping out at multiple tourneys simultaneously. Should an advisor have to stop their own game, they will receive extra time equal to the stoppage amount + 1 minute.

Invitations:
When a number of players equal to the number of spots your tournament has been awarded remain, those players win, and receive an invitation to Nationals. If players desire, they may play out the remainder of the tournament.

Players with Invites must report their Full Name, Email Address, and Phone Number to the Advisor, who is responsible for reporting them to HotC. You are under no obligation to play the same deck at Regionals as you did at Nationals - the invite is to you as a player. Feel free to build somethign completely different, even in a different Title.

Reporting:
Advisors must send the following back to HotC within 48 hours:
1. The Decklists of the tournament (not rewritten - the original physical lists or scans thereof)
2. The Names and Contact Information of each Invitation Winner.
3. A labeled photo of each invitation winner.
4. The tournament record. This shows who each player played each round, and who won.
5. A photo / photos of the start of Round 1, showing all players.
Each part may be physically mailed, or emailed. Note that this information is not the property of the advisor - while they may promote the event, they may make no public release of decklists without the express permission of the creator, who is under no obligation to give them. While the advisor may be required to do a deck check, or another player to check the advisor, this knowledge is private, and someone dispersing it without express permission will face severe penalties.

Also, advisors *must* send the unused promos and original signup sheet back to HotC, to the same address as Points Redemption, attn: (Name of city and State) Regional. They cannot scan or otherwise virtually send this, it must be the original. Note that by accepting to run the tournament, they are agreeing to return all unused promos, and that they are not their property, but instead Bushiroad's.

Invitations do not "move down" if players do not attend Nationals. All players who feel they can play at the National level are encouraged to register for and attend the Last-Chance Regional the day before Nationals.

Failure to follow the rules above may result in your regional being declared invalid.

Invitation Winner Instructions:
Players that receive invitations will be contacted within 1 week (or 24 hours in the case of Last-Chance Tourney) to ask them to confirm that they will or will not be showing to Nationals. Note that if you do not get an email or phone call by then (it gets caught in your spam filter or such), it is your responsibility to contact HotC and confirm your attendance, (use the subject "WGP Nationals Invitation") or you may not be allowed to play.

Missing Promos
If you do not receive your promos in time for the event, we will allow those players to send us an envelope to send them back their promo. Make sure every player remembers their Player Number (the order they signed up - 1, 2, 3, and so on), and reads about the Promo Promotion in the Player Manual (here is a link). Note that if your event is overpopulated, there is still a chance that we can send them a promo, but not for sure, as this is only while supplies last.

Cards without Official Translations