Minor vs Major Infractions

Categorizing and weighing infractions and penalties against eachother is sometimes a difficult task. For both judges and players, there is often much confusion about set standards for when a warning should be escalated to a game loss, how quickly it should be escalated after repeated instances, and why some groupings of infractions have a higher base penalty than others. This classification system divides the infractions within a category into Major versus Minor infractions. The outlying section of Unsporting Conduct only truly makes the distinction between Minor and Major Conduct Violations, as all other entries are severe and Major violations by their definitions. For those severe infractions, a sub-classification of Major is given by default.

A minor infraction is typically one that is not deemed to be significantly impactful per infraction instance; it may neither significantly detract from the tournament integrity or can be easily remedied when caught.

A major infraction, on the other hand, may pose a significant risk to tournament integrity at any time and has a higher chance of complicating game states in error. Major infractions can also be considered to have significant impacts on tournament flow and timeliness, often requiring a far more invested approach in their corrective procedures or other staff actions.

Escalation: Minor infraction penalties should, in most cases, be escalated on the 3rd or higher instance. Major infractions should be escalated for the 2nd or higher instance.