Ok, so I was playing a guy in my venue's Infinity Gauntlet month one event. I've played this guy several times before and he tends to take a lot of time to think through what he is going to do. I don't wanna say he is stalling intentionally because he does it all the time, no matter how many figures he has or who is winning.

At my venue, my judge sets an alarm on his cell phone to go off to remind him to call 5 minutes and then another to remind him to call last action. Everyone knows about what time last action will be. Now even if we can hear the alarm going off (assuming his phone isn't just ringing), its not last action until he actually calls last action. It stands to reason that even if I hear the phone going off, I keep playing like normal until I hear the judge say last action. At that point the active player resolves their current action. If no action is ongoing, the current player can do one other action (free actions count) or can end their turn and give their opponent 1 single action.


So me and this guy (that plays slowly) are down to 2 figures left. I have IH Daredevil (uncommon) on his second to last click (has outwit). He has IH Red Hulk on his second to last click (though I did not know for sure at the time).

My opponent attacks and misses. As we are resolving that action (sometime around my super senses roll), my judge's phone starts going off. Now my judge was playing in the tournament because we had an odd number of players. He is preoccupied with his game and doesn't call last action, but we can hear the phone going off. So my opponent has nothing left to do (one fig, did an action, has no free action powers) and I politely ask him if it is my turn. Instead of saying yes, he turns to the judge (still in the middle of something in his game) and asks if that was last action.

Now my judge didn't even hear my opponent, turns to the other 2 tables (we only had 6 total players including judge) and yells out last action. So now, instead of getting a chance to outwit Red Hulks invulnerability for a chance at my 2 damage to do anything, I get to attack and pray for a crit to try and win the game (assuming 1 click even KO's him).

I didn't crit and come to find out had I been able to outwit, my attack that hit would have KO'd Red Hulk. Instead, Daredevil's 2 damage was reduced by Red Hulk's invulnerability.

My judge didn't understand what happened, my opponent got the win, and went on to win the tournament with a 3-0 record. I ended up 1-2.


Now I really don't think my opponent was trying to stall, but we have always played that you keep going until the judge calls out last action. I was finding it hard to believe my opponent wasn't sure he had called it, considering the judge was playing in a game not 5 feet from us.

How would you guys rule something like that? My judge basically said he didn't know what happend, despite me explaining it right then, so nothing he could do. He got it after the tournament when I explained it again and he said my opponent seemed to be stalling.


Oh, and even though there were only 6 Heroclix players, there is a 6-7 man D&D encounters game going on in the same room as us every week so it can get loud enough to not hear what people in other games are saying if you are not paying attention to them.

Sorry for the rant. I'm not that upset about it, as I'm trading for an Adam Warlock, just wondering if there was something my judge could have done.

He could have been more attentive.

Its impossible to say, just hearing the situation but when the alarm goes off the Judge needs to call last action, or time, or whatever he normally does.

I don't call "last action". Instead, I say "Time. If you are in the middle of the action, finish it."

I'll sometimes be asked "Do I get my last action?" to which I ask, did you declare it before I said, "Time"? If the answer is yes, you can. If the answer is no, you can't.

In the end, if a tournament is considered "high stakes" the judge shouldn't be playing for this reason.

I NEVER play in Marquees (due to so many questions), when we have lots of new players (questions), more than 8 players or when a tournament has "something on the line".

My IG event had 13 players for the first 25 minutes and I had no intention of playing. We have the bye. Luckily a player was convinced to join in and eliminate the bye.

At our venue we require the judge (sometimes me) to regularly inform players as to how much time is left, until there is 10 minutes left. After that, the judge simply says there are less than 10 minutes left in the game. The timer is set for the full 50 minutes the game lasts for not 45 and then another 5. Of course, if the judge is playing somebody (because of an odd number of players) we also require that he tells the other player exactly how much time is left because he of course knows exactly. Otherwise, when the buzzer rings it's "last declared action" and then end game. The rare problem occurs when the person playing the judge tries to stall ftw. I usually win or lose pretty quickly when I'm judging ('cause my team usually blows) so I'm always watching the clock the last few minutes at least. We do have some people who take longer turns, (especially a certain somebody) and I get annoyed with him sometimes -especially when it's down to the line- but, some people just take long doing their turns and rushing them is no different than making your normal speed player do all their turns in under a minute or something.

"I don't call "last action". Instead, I say "Time. If you are in the middle of the action, finish it."

I'll sometimes be asked "Do I get my last action?" to which I ask, did you declare it before I said, "Time"? If the answer is yes, you can. If the answer is no, you can't."
- quoted form tyroclix

This is what we do and I believe that it is the official way to do it...

I hate the last action thing.

I would rather have it so when the alarm goes off, the game stops period. Even if you were about to roll the dice, the game should be dead, period.

That would end a lot of confusion and angst about the silly last action "rule."

Almost word for word what tyroclix said. Impossible to say how I'd have ruled it because the judge shouldn't have been playing. The way 'last action' is played seems very subjective and informal, too much so for my comfort.

I don't tell my players how much time is left as to not encourage running away or stalling which really isn't a problem, but just in case. Once the timer goes off, then that's it. If you were in the middle of declaring an attack when the timer went off, you can finish the action, but after that the match is over.

I have seen some different takes on the end of a match. One venue lets the player that send second get a full turn if the timer went off on the first players turn which I completely disagree with. I have seen venues where the match end immediately when the timer goes off regardless of whether the player declared an action or not.

In the case of the OP's venue it is really hard to say. Does the judge always call last action immediately after the timer goes off? There seems to be no official ruling on this at the venue. The jusge could call last action five minutes after the timer goes off which really isn't fair for anyone. There should be a solid rule in place for the official end of the match.

I was trying to say, and maybe didn't make it clear, the timer is for the judge. It is NOT for the players. Our judge is the official keeper of the time and it is when he calls last action that the game ends. His cell phone alarm sounds just like a ringtone, so for all you know he is getting a phone call. The player's hearing his phone doesn't mean anything other than anticipating last action, but that doesn't happen until it is actually called.

Usually he calls it right away, however he was in the middle of something in his game in this instance (for the record, he didn't count for prizes, his opponent got a bye it was just to actually give the bye player something to do) so there was a slight delay (it wasn't minutes or anything, it was less than 30 seconds).

I don't see it as really informal. You either finish the action you are in the middle of, or there is 1 action in the game. The active player get's it or can end his turn and allow his opponent 1 action. There have been times I have said, "I'm going to outwit your" without pausing and then hear last action called. My outwit is the last action and the game ends.

This is like what I do at my venue. Sometimes if I can I'll make a 5 minute warning call, but all the guys at the venue know the moment my alarm goes off, unless you have begun a declared action, the match is over. If you have declared an action, then you are allowed to finish that action and its results but that's it. Luckily most of our guys don't try to stall, and are pretty quick overall, so we usually finish most matches before the timer ends.

the way it was discribed it would have been simple.

facts:
-he knew the time was close to the end
-his actions was over
-he delayed the game knowing the above two, to use to his advantage

stalling for a win

1) history of it, DQ
2) not history, award amount of time stalled to other person to finish actions

(bigger problem was the judge playing in a big prize game)