Forfeiting Is Part of the Game

I had a very uncomfortable situation on Sunday.

As many of you already know, I created and help run the Omega Billiards Tour in the DFW-area (Dallas-Fort Worth).

We had our 4th stop of the 2013 season last weekend at Rusty's Billiards in Fort Worth, TX.

On Sunday morning, as the Tournament Director (TD), I made announcements and called the first round matches of the day at 11am.

The other TD (my boyfriend), Brian Anderson, was in a match at 11am so he was warming up and then played his match, so I was doing most of the TD duties at this time.

At 11am, two players are missing in action (absent).  I check my phone; no texts.  One of the other players who arrived close to 11am happened to mention the traffic was bad on I30, so I wondered if these other two players were stuck in traffic.

I kept checking the time, and after about 5 minutes (11:05am), one of the late players comes running through the door and I tell him quickly as he passes me, "Table 9" as he rushes to the table and grabs his cues from his case to begin the match.

The other MIA player still hasn't shown up, and myself nor the pool room has received a call from him.  While I am not suppose to do anyone a favor, if it turns out traffic is the reason, then I would give them some wiggle room.

As the digital clock on the wall says 11:14, I make an announcement and announce "MIA" is now on the clock and has only 5 more minutes.  That means he has until 11:19am.

At this point, he should have already been forfeited at 11:15am, but I decided I should announce he has 5 more minutes.  I honestly thought if he was this late, he wouldn't be coming at all anyway.

At 11:20am, I mark "MIA" down as F (for forfeit) and move his opponent over on the bracket for his next match.

At 11:22am, MIA walks in the door!  He walks in real slow, looks kinda tired, moseys on in.

I turn to his opponent and say incorrectly, "It's up to you if you still want to play or not."

He turns away from me and walks away from the TD table.  As soon as he did that, I knew I was in the wrong.  I was the TD and had to make the decision. 

My heart has to go out the window and I have to follow the rules.

I was honest and told "MIA" I even gave him 5 extra minutes, but I had to forfeit him.  I asked why he didn't call, and he said he didn't know our numbers.  I suggested he could have looked up the pool room's # and/or called one of his friends who has my #.

He never said there was traffic, he never argued, he never showed that he was upset.  He just kinda "took" the info.

He went to the other side of the room and I got his envelope for 17th place monies (a whole thirty dollars) and walked over to hand it to him.  I apologized again and felt super bad the guy drove prolly an hour to get here and then he gets forfeited.

But, I had to do what was right.

His opponent would tell me later that everyone else got there on time and busted their butt to get there and it wouldn't be fair to let him play.  He also added IF I had let him play, that would be a worse repercussion for the Tour's image (looks like playing favorites).

I DID apologize to his opponent for saying "it's up to you." I never should have said that.

I was going by past experience when I distinctly remember playing two matches in my life that should have been a forfeit.  I was given the choice to play or not.  Both instances were very clear in my mind.  Ironically, I lost BOTH of those matches.  But I admit I didn't have enough strength to TAKE the forfeit. 

I never should have said that to that player.

About an hour later, it suddenly hits me that the clock was "bar" time!  I wondered how much off it was from the "real" time.  I grabbed my phone quickly, but luckily the time on the wall was spot on.  Whew.  I would have felt REAL bad had the "bar time" been ahead 5-10 minutes like most are.

I felt bad for making the right decision, but that's sometimes what TDs go through to run an equitable tournament.