Judge Policy

• Protect players and match integrity.
• Establish facts and apply the correct rule or policy.
• Repair the game state fairly when possible.
• Communicate clearly and professionally.
• Record meaningful decisions and penalties accurately.

• Judge: answers calls, rules, assigns in-match penalties, records incidents, and escalates account action.
• Head Judge: reviews appeals, supervises judges, and may warn, freeze, or ban.
• Administrator: holds judge authority plus broader moderation and management access.
• Owner: has final administrative authority over staff and policy.

• Do not judge your own match or a matter where friendship, rivalry, financial interest, or prior involvement could affect impartiality.
• Transfer a conflicted call and record the reason.
• Access player records, messages, hidden information, and internal notes only for a legitimate staff purpose.
• Never use privileged information for gameplay, gossip, retaliation, or personal gain.

• Take the oldest call unless urgency or coordination requires otherwise.
• Identify the dispute, preserve the state, and review the log, chat, format, and both explanations.
• Use relevant player history only to assess pattern, penalty level, eligibility, or risk; history alone does not prove a new allegation.
• State the ruling, repair, and penalty clearly before play resumes.

Preserve the call reason, match and player identifiers, relevant log entries, statements, ruling, penalty, and explanation. Serious account action requires enough evidence for another authorized staff member to audit it.

Do not record insults, speculation, irrelevant personal information, or unverified accusations. Corrections must preserve an audit trail.

Prefer a neutral repair when the state can be reconstructed without unfair advantage. Use a game loss when a major error cannot be repaired fairly. Consult authoritative rules when uncertain rather than inventing a ruling.

Use the least severe response that reasonably corrects conduct and protects the match, considering intent, harm, repetition, and relevant history. Judges may issue in-match penalties. Head Judges, Administrators, and the Owner may ban accounts within assigned authority.

A player may request one review after the assigned judge finishes. An uninvolved Head Judge or Administrator reviews the state and reasoning independently. Their decision controls the match and any change is recorded.

Account appeals occur outside the live duel. A freeze or ban may be overturned only after evidence review and a documented reason.

• Stay calm and respectful. Authority does not excuse hostility or humiliation.
• Never seek favors, rewards, access, or relationships in exchange for staff action.
• Never fabricate evidence, hide mistakes, retaliate, or use staff tools outside assigned duties.
• Escalate suspected staff abuse to an uninvolved superior and preserve the audit record.