JUDGMENT COMMITTEE

  1. Breach of any regulations shall be reported to the WOF Council in writing by the Federation responsible for the tournament. In the interest of everyone on the WOF Council being likely to understand the report, the report shall be written or translated into English.
  2. Upon receipt of such report, the WOF Council shall verify that the reported breach is actually a breach of the WOF regulations.
  3. After verifying the report of breach, the WOF Council shall notify each party charged with violating the regulations.
  4. After notification to all parties, a committee of 3 impartial committee members from 3 separate member nations shall be appointed by the WOF council and announced to all relevant parties.
    • In general the committee members should not be from the federation(s) that have filed the complaint, the federation of the accused, or members of the WOF Council.
    • In general, an attempt should be made to avoid re-using the same committee members over and over so that all nations have a chance to participate in the process.
    • In some circumstances (a major infraction at WOC for example) it may be difficult to find someone who is impartial, but a good faith attempt shall be made to find committee members that are as impartial as possible.
    • During the process of an appeal, none of the committee members from the original complaint or any previous appeals shall be appointed to the committee.
  5. After announcement of the committee members there will be a short period of information gathering where interested parties may submit further documentation and statements for consideration including (but not limited to):
    • Evidence
    • Rebuttals
    • Objections to the selected committee members.
  6. The information gathering period shall be long enough to gather relevant information, but short enough to provide a timely response to the issue.
    • In case an infraction occurs during the WOC or there is some other pressing time concern, it is reasonable this period can be short enough to provide a decision within a reasonable time frame for that event (ie before the next round). In this case it is recommended that ONLY pressing issues are dealt with at that time and an effort made to move as many issues as possible into a second and longer process.
    • If there is no need for a swift decision, this period will be a minimum of 7 calendar days and a maximum of 30 calendar days.
  7. Upon receipt of an objection to the impartiality of a committee member, the WOF council will consider such objection and at their discretion reject the complaint or select a new committee as necessary.
  8. The committee shall, at the end of the information gathering period, consider all evidence and make a judgement of the validity of the complaint.
  9. If the complaint is considered invalid, no further action is necessary, but the committee shall create a written response to the original complaint stating why they consider the complaint invalid.
  10. If the complaint is considered valid the committee will provide a set of proposed actions/punishments and deliver them (along with their reasoning) to the WOF Council for distribution.
  11. Upon receipt of the committee's decision, the WOF President shall provide the decision in a reasonable format to all member nations and all relevant parties.
  12. It is expected that a tournament director will follow that nation's rules regarding how to handle an infraction that happens during that member nation's tournaments. It is not expected to be practical for a member nation to file a complaint during a tournament and have an answer from the WOF "before the next round". However, it is expected that a member nation will file a complaint to the WOF that an infraction has occurred and a committee will be formed to assess whether further action is necessary.
  13. All decisions are subject to appeal All appeals shall follow the same procedure as detailed for a rules infraction in that a committee will be formed and the appeal will be reviewed, recommendations made, and votes taken.
    • The minimum time between appeals will be a period of 6 months.

I. PENALTIES
  1. In the interest of not listing a specific penalty for each possible infraction, no attempt to do so will be done here. It is expected that an appropriate penalty will vary from case to case as similar situations will warrant different penalties.
  2. The committee will classify each infraction as either "major" or "minor".
    • Major infractions should include (but are not limited to) infractions which a reasonable person would consider as extraordinarily detrimental to the spirit or integrity of the game. (Examples might include: Cheating or physically attacking another player). Major infractions should generally result in the most severe of penalties including:
      • Long Term Suspensions / Bans from WOC
      • Long Term Suspensions / Bans from member nation's tournaments
      • Delisting of a set or all games from the official WOF ratings calculation
      • In the case of an infraction by a Federation or Member Nation: Ejection of the nation from the WOF.
    • Minor infractions should include (but are not limited to) other behaviors that are maliciously disruptive, extraordinarily rude, or otherwise at the discretion of committee. (Examples might include: Yelling at, deliberately insulting, or threatening another player). Minor infractions should generally result in more moderate penalties including:
      • Short Term Suspensions / Bans from WOC
      • Short Term Suspensions / Bans from member nation's tournaments
      • Delisting of one or all games in the relevant tournament from the rating list.
      • Official Warning
    • Because the WOC is sanctioned by the WOF and most member nations will be present, in the case that an infraction takes place at the WOC an additional possible penalty will be ejection from the WOC tournament or forfeiture of a game (or games).
    • In the case of multiple minor infractions a more severe penalty may be assessed.
    • It is the intention that if minor infractions continue to occur after a warning then a more severe penalty will be assessed.
  3. It is expected that all member nations enforce at least the WOF ruling. If a member nation wants to impose harsher sanctions they may at their discretion do so. For example if WOF decides on a 1 year ban, a member nation shall impose at least a one year ban, but may impose a 3 year, 5 year, or lifetime ban of its tournaments if it feels that this is appropriate. Similarly if the WOF only imposes an official warning, any federation may decide to impose a more severe penalty.