It's actually not a judgment call.
There isn't a rule allowing take-backs.
Technically speaking, a player allowing a take-back is breaking the rules as much as the going doing it.

Agreed. If there was active judging, then allowing a takeback was a rule being broken and the judge needed to point out that wouldn't be allowed. Seems like it was passive judging going on instead of active judging.

Is there a rule that states "After doing 'this' you can't undo it"? That is what I mean by judgement. My instinct was to step in and stop him from taking it back but there isn't a rule, that I am aware of, that is hard and fast in this regard.

Please, by all means, quote it for me. Learning from (if this is indeed the case) a mistake is about the only good thing that comes from it.

Don't you have a write up to be spending your time on, instead of this active judging discussion? The grandparents are waiting.......

I am at work, this little stuff I can fit in. The report was started yesterday and I am going to working on it some more tonight.

And here I thought that rules porn stopped being a thing when Barnstable stopped posting.

The rule is that you declare your action and complete it. What you seem to be looking for is a rule that says takebacks are allowed. There is no such rule, because you're not allowed to take back your moves and actions. I'm now convinced that allowing takebacks is actually the wrong way to go. Players will learn and play better if their opponents don't let them do it.

Regardless, it just wasn't a very good job of active judging. At least you can learn from your mistake and do better going forward.

That pretty much sums it up.

OK, where in the rule book does it state when a action is really declared, and which point it is set in stone? When a token is placed? When it is said out loud? Does it have to heard and verified by the opponent? There is too much ambiguity to set a hard and fast "rule" here.

I am not looking for a take back point, I am looking for a declaration point.

In fact the only use of the word "declare" in the rule book is about "declaring your turn over".

Agreed.

If it's written, it is written. If it isn't, it is up to a judgment call. IMO, of course.

I don't think that the call was all that egregious in either direction.

As Harpua said, players should be declaring their actions properly. Just because judges give players a pass when they aren't declaring properly, doesn't mean it's right.

Are you seriously saying that because the rulebook doesn't specifically mention that you have to declare your actions, a player doesn't have to? So if I'm playing in one of your tournaments, I can just move my guys around the map and just throw dice around without telling my opponent exactly what I'm doing, because the rulebook doesn't say I have to?

You can't really tell anything that goes on in any match I've seen broadcast with that overhead camera. Even the commentators spend like a minute on each roll trying to figure out what the roll was, then the next 4 minutes discussing what happened in the previous turn.

Without a multi-cam set up with the ability to pan and zoom in on figures on the map, the commentary thing is mostly pointless. You can't even hear anything the players said during the match so a mic on the players might help too.

Quote of the year.

Robots gonna robot.

The glossary pretty much nails it, imo.

Amen! In the scheme of things, this is just a game... most of our local games aren't for high stakes and the matches tend to be quite friendly to the point where until the dice are rolled, anything that turn can be undone. Heck, half the time both players need a "rewind" in a turn when they see that their setup won't work after setting up a shot/angle with 2-3 figures so it's a "give and take" thing to keep it fun for everyone.

I agree on both sides as well... all players should clearly state what they are doing and (barring the higher level games where there are huge dollar prizes on the line) all players should be friendly and try to have fun (do to others as you would have them do to you and all). In the higher level games, you should practice enough and learn how to "plan without moving" (using tokens or whatnot to verify a move will work) because it tends to be much more cut-throat for the nature of the game at that point.

Chess rules are one thing, but I've seen players take that to the extreme, too. There are no defined rules on moving pieces in Heroclix (as far as when you can adjust the movement and whatnot), but it would be nice if they made some similar to the "Heroclix etiquette" section that was in the early rulebooks. :-s

Exactly! Once dice are rolled, everything is set... but if you move a figure to get a more visual line to see if you even can make a shot, you should be able to take it back if you can't make the shot. Some people's brains don't work well in the "visual imaging" where they can see a shot without putting the figure there and looking at the shot to be taken.

And this is the opposite extreme that really shouldn't HAVE to happen in the higher levels of playing... it's just not necessary for someone to not understand the basic rules and try to compete at the top levels, no matter how well someone else built their team.

All of the above quoted for truth.