Bribery, Waging, and Collusion

Penalty: Disqualification

Definitions and Philosophy: Bribery is when a player offers any form of consideration, whether it is a physical or non-physical incentive or reward, to an opponent either in exchange for or the enticement of anything that might change the result of a match apart from the process by which it is normally determined (i.e. modifying the outcome via concession, draw, or another result via bribe). Bribery considers when extrinsic factors influence the match result and that the decisions are dependent upon one another. Considerations of bribery do not apply if discussions about prizing and discussions to determine the winner of a match are independent of each other, that is, the potential outcome of a match is not influencing the potential prizes or vice versa.

Wagers are any bets placed on the outcome of a match or tournament result by any player, spectator, or any other tournament attendee. The Wager violation includes all forms of bets including non-monetary bets and does not regard which match is being bet upon.

Both bribery and placing bets/wagers compromise tournament integrity and are not allowed under any circumstances.

Collusion considers whenever players agree upon the result of the match and/or take actions outside of fair tournament play to achieve that result. This can also be known as match fixing or rigging. Collusion can include components of bribing and wagers, as well.

All of the above are not permissible and will be met with a detailed investigation on behalf of tournament and judge staff and, if found in error, players will be disqualified from the tournament.

Players are allowed to discuss splitting of future prizing if they wish to do so. However, this cannot involve any promise of match results or record, or cannot be made on the premise of offering or requesting to concede. It is natural to expect players to seek situations in which they maximize their average prizing from a tournament. It is not acceptable for any decisions to directly impact tournament results and outcomes.

Examples:

• A player offers another player a portion of a potential prize in exchange for conceding a match. This is bribery.

• A player offers another player a card or any other material object in exchange for conceding a game. This is bribery.

• A player asks their opponent to concede in exchange for a prize split. This is bribery.

• Player A asks if Player B would be willing to evenly split any prizing from the tournament and Player B agrees. Player A concedes to Player B. This is not bribery as player A has conceded voluntarily and has not asked for anything in exchange.

• Player B believes they have a better chance at higher prizing than Player A. Player A asks if player B would like to split prizing. Player B states "I have a better chance of getting more prizes for us to split, so you should concede to me." This is bribery.

• Player A believes player B has higher chances of making Top 8 at an event. They ask player B if they would be interested in splitting future prizing. Player B agrees. Player A concedes to player B. This is not bribery.

• Player A calls a judge and asks at the match table if it would be allowed for them to offer a Top 8 promo to their opponent if their opponent concedes. As an informal offer is made with their opponent in their presence, this constitutes bribery and the player should be disqualified. If the player instead asks this question away from the table with their opponent not able to hear them, they should be warned that this would be considered bribery, but not penalty should yet be applied.

• Two spectators bet $10 on the outcome of a match. This is betting.

• Players A and B in a match agree ahead of time that player B will concede to player A. Or arrange that player A concedes to player B. This is match fixing/rigging.

• Two players make a decision on who should concede the game based on the results of other player's matches. This is collusion.