Organized Play Jargon 101
If you’ve ever looked at a schedule for various trading card games, you may have found yourself wondering, “What the heck does this all mean?” This article is going to break down the various jargon so you know exactly what you’re walking into, which events are more “beginner-friendly,” and what supplies you should bring, if any.
Casual vs. Competitive
Casual - This is usually a beginner-friendly environment that allows casual rules enforcement (aka, sometimes you’re allowed to “take things back,” or your opponents will be more lenient about mistakes you’ve made). Typically these events have fewer penalties issued as long as whatever rules have been broken unintentionally (casual is NOT permission to cheat). A lot of times, these events will provide “flat” prizing, which is just a fancy way of saying everyone who participates gets the same stuff at the end.
Competitive - These events will not allow take-backs, and the people who are there to play generally will expect you to know what you’re doing OR that you are willing to accept the consequences of your actions if you do make a mistake. New players are welcome at competitive events, but if you get upset when you make an error and your opponent won’t let you fix it, you might want to wait for a casual event to come along. Judges will also issue penalties for unintentional cheating, and those penalties are sometimes stiff, including issuance of game or round losses.
Tournament vs. Free Play
In a tournament, players compete by playing against each other in a series of rounds to determine a winner. Tournaments can be both “casual” and “competitive.” If something is called a tournament without any additional jargon attached, the only conclusion you can reach is that you will be playing probably three rounds, and there should be some sort of prizing at the end.
Free Play doesn’t always mean an event is unpaid, but it does mean that it’s “casual” and players are free to play against each other as many times as they want, in whatever manner they want.
Tournament Types
Swiss Rounds - This is just a fancy term that describes a tournament in which all players play all rounds. The first round will be paired completely randomly
Top Cut - This means that at some point during the tournament, players who are ranked below a certain number will all be eliminated from the tournament at the same time. Typically this is only something that happens in larger tournaments.
Single Elimination - This is when players are “knocked out” of the tournament as soon as they lose a round. This usually only happens after a top cut.
Best of Three - If rounds are best two out of three, players will play each round until one of the players has two game wins.
Best of One - If it’s a best of one format, they will play one game per round.
Formats
Limited - This means you’re building your deck as part of the event. Bring sleeves and a playmat. These events are actually more beginner-friendly because you don’t need to already know the rules of deckbuilding and you also don’t need to own any cards yet.
Sealed - You’ll be handed packs and expected to build your deck from ONLY the cards you open from those packs. The number of packs varies depending upon which game you’re playing.
Draft - You’ll be handed packs. You’ll be assigned a seat in a “pod” with other players. Each player will open their first pack, take 1 card out of it, then pass the rest of the opened pack to their left. When you’re handed a pack from the player on your right, you take a card from that pack, then pass that pack to your left. Rinse and repeat until that pack is gone. Once everyone is finished with pack one, you open pack two and do the same thing except you pass it the other way. Once pack two is finished, you go back to passing to your left with pack three. Once all three packs are disbursed, you build your deck with the cards you picked from all three packs.
Constructed - This is when you build your deck ahead of time, following the rules of the game. Bring your deck, playmat, and have your cards sleeved ahead of time.