I think it’s fine for players to protest a decision if the ruling was based on an error of fact.
It’s up to the TD to take the time to ensure they make the right call. If there were 3 TDs, the others should have been consulted.
If you’re not on the slack channel, get on it. I would say your average wait time for an answer is under 5 mins easy.
Everyone on it is VERY active and knows their shit.
Here is what I do when a ruling is needed. First and foremost I review the 2 page slick that Kevin Stone created to see if my ruling is listed there, if not, I move over the printed copy of the IFPA rules I have and see if I can find it there, and if I can’t find it there I hit up Slack.
Now, I have had a super experienced player (ranked inside the top 150) ask for ruling requests several times as he was “testing” me. In theory he didn’t even need to call me over, but he did. The most recent time was on No Fear, ball drained down the left outlane, kickback was lit, but it didn’t fire the ball back into play. He wanted to see if I would make the right decision or not, in which I did.
1 Like
If a player walks up and accidentally plunges another players ball we say “you played out of turn, here are the consequences”. Ive never heard anyone cite the actual rule that player is breaking. Players can be aware of a rule without the ability to find it in a rule book. Because the player didn’t include the specific ifpa rule at the time of protest does not change the issue.
1 Like
Can you post the invite link?
2 Likes
Protest Better! If I want to protest a ruling, I would ask the TD the review the section of the rules prior to making their decision. If they refuse, I would likely pull it up myself.
As a TD, I like to have a printed copy of the rules I can review and show players. If I am not sure I would look it up.
I disagree with the premise that the result should be revisited. Once the ruling is made it is made. TD ruling overrides whatever is written. In the inlane / outlane case, that did not decide the game, play determined the outcome and the ruling had a small bias to the result.
5 Likes
It did determine the game. Player two was ahead of player one by a little over five mil on fish tales. Had the correct ruling been made, the ball would have been drained and player one would have remained behind player two.
I will definitely protest better in the future!!!haha
Time I do a review on the quick ref guide to make sure it’s still up-to-date with any recent changes.
4 Likes
My point is player 2 lost because they were ahead by 5M points. Had they played better, regardless of the ruling they would have won. Hit another Monster fish. Hit a super jackpot and be ahead by 150M. The ruling did not cause the loss, play over the entire game is why they lost.
1 Like
Edit. Someone posted the link
I remember watching this one live and it will be stuck with me forever.
Ump blew the call at 1st base that would have ended a Perfect Game for Armando Galarraga.
Video of the ump’s postgame interview is an intense apology about how awful he feels about it, but the official result can never be changed.
6 Likes
I’m sorry but I can’t support this premise. You are saying player 2 needed to play better when player 1 in essence got 4 balls to player 2’s 3 balls. That’s not a fair or factual statement at all. Player 2 did play better as they had the higher score when player 1 should have drained.
7 Likes
Run for the hills everyone. LOL!!! I think you and I both (yes, I’m looking in the mirror here) need to figure out how to protest more efficiently and separate the emotion from the said protest. We both tend to get a bit emotional with the decisions being made which I actually think is hurting us.
1 Like
Someone lost because they were only winning by a small margin???
Now that’s a new one.
is it opposite day? This has to be a troll.
Whenever I’ve had a bad ruling, I’ve asked to be shown the supporting part of the written rules for that event. 90% of the time this clears things up.
On major or rare rulings, make it a part of the TD process to show players the section of rules relating to the circumstance.
Also, like in all sports, shit happens and you move on.
9 Likes
The ruling was incorrect on Fish Tales. However…
Had the correct ruling been made, the player would have refused the option to have the TD drain the ball, and had the opportunity to free it. If you know what you’re doing, this is a very recoverable ball.
If that doesn’t help you get over it, just imagine that the insert was flush with the playfield and the ball had gone into the inlane, which is extremely likely.
Saying that player got a 4th ball is a bit ridiculous.
2 Likes
Worth noting is that even if the correct ruling had been made, the player would have been given the opportunity to shake the ball loose themselves so they still may have been able to get the ball back in play and emerge victorious. At any rate, I’d say as far as bad rulings go, you could do a lot worse than this (it may not agree with the IFPA rules, but I don’t think ruling a ball on an outlane post as “stuck” is a fundamentally incorrect or unfair ruling). At least now all the TDs involved should be familiar with this specific case and should be able to make consistent rulings going forward.
Be careful with “Protest Better”; it can be a slippery slope. In this case the ruling was pretty cut-and-dry according to the rules so asking for a rules check would have been justified and likely resulted in the correct ruling being made. However, in cases where the answer isn’t as clearly defined in the rules, “Protest Better” often turns into the ruling being made in favor the loudest and/or most well-known player. Don’t be afraid to stick to your original ruling as a TD if a subsequent rules check doesn’t obviously contradict it.
6 Likes
I got a ball stuck like that on Mata Hari once. I was player 4 ball 3. I think I had teh 50k outlane lit. So I did the math on that and my bonus and determined that would win the game for me. So I kindly asked the TD to drain my ball. I feel like 99 times out of 100 if that happened I’d try and nudge it out.
What would the ruling be on a game like GB if the ball was stuck on a plastic that was halfway up the PF but still over the outlane?
1 Like