Ever since Eric Froehlich’s controversial comments on concessions in competitive Magic, many other players have thrown their hats into the ring to discuss what they would do, what should be done, and just competitive Magic tournament structure in general. Below we’ve compiled a couple of the articles so you can be caught up to speed with this recent discussions.
11th in Houston with Jeskai Black, by Eric Froehlich (March 4, 2016)
The beginning of the debate, though the title is a bit innocuous. The first part of the article is a pretty standard tournament report, but the last half is where the discussion kicks off:
In round 14, I was paired against Mark Jacobson, the lone 13-0 in the tournament and a certain lock to make Top 8 even if he lost the last 2 rounds. It’s pretty common practice in this spot to consider scooping. You are giving up some amount of equity in doing so. You can slip to the 2nd or 3rd seed, although dropping below me in the standings doesn’t change much since I would never choose to play against someone who just did me a big favor if I were now the higher seed when playing them. Seeding does matter, but the potential equity lost is very small. You will still make Top 8, which is where most of your equity is located, and if the whole theory of “knocking someone good out of Top 8” was to actually matter and you beat them in the Swiss, why would you have not beat them in the Top 8 itself?
Eric Froehlich later clarifies and expands on his thoughts in two other posts:
Final Thoughts on Concessions, on Facebook (March 6, 2016)
Concession Conversation in Magic, on Reddit (March 18, 2016)
Other prominent Magic: the Gathering players joined in on the discussion, prompting a couple of articles:
A Draw Should Be Worth 0 Points, by Brian Braun-Duin (March 23, 2016)
Draws and Concessions: A Better Alternative, by Brian Braun-Duin (March 28, 2016)
Draws and Concessions: A Better Alternative (on Facebook), by Brian Braun-Duin (March 28, 2016)
You Play To Win The Game, by Ross Merriam (March 17, 2016)
A judge even joined in too:
Draws and Concessions in MTG – An overlooked point, by Mani Cavalieri (March 29, 2016)
What are your thoughts?