Greetings all,
Apologies if this is in the wrong forum because I don't have a question about the actual rules of the game, but I was curious about who the Rules Deputies are and how they became Rules Deputies. Also, what is the process for coming up with a ruling? In most cases, I see that most of the rulings come from (*gasp*) the rule book but in cases where the wording is ambiguous (i.e. Forge and Super Senses, Summon Ancestral Spirit, etc.) I was curious about the process of coming up with a ruling. Do you guys try to rule in the spirit of the rule (i.e. how it was probably intended to work) or is it purely on interpreting the wording? Also, do you guys actually involve reps from Wizkids?

This is purely out of curiosity and I think you guys do a fantastic job.

The current Rules Arbitrator is Necromagus.
The current Rules Deputies are RPGambit, Chrisdosmil, MisterID, and Laenan.
The exact process of becoming a deputy or arbitrator is unknown.
The process for making rulings is by:
1. Checking the Player's Guide
2. Checking the Rulebook
3. Checking the Comprehensive Tournament Guide
4. Determining if it is a question that can be answered (possibly due to the figure not yet releasing or it being something that should only be handled by the judge on hand)
5. Using knowledge of the Heroclix rules and lexicon, the English language, basic logic, and common sense
6. If an answer cannot still be reached, it will be discussed in the cave by the deputies and/or brought to game design to learn what the intent was, then rulings are issued based on what was discussed

There are also some retired rules deputies deeply knowledgeable about the rules as well.

The Orangies (Deputies) have access to Game Design (GD) so that is a great way to get an actual answer to how something is supposed to work in situations that may end up being ambiguous.

Those who were previous Rules Arbitrators: Hair10, Nbperp, TechG0D.
Those who were previous Rules Deputies: Vlad3theimpaler, Harpua, Quebbster, and Normalview.