Clarification on ShadoWeaver Ruling

[Nero Zhir]

Hi there everyone! So recently we had a challenge that went a little differently than any other and we feel it is important to explain how we got there and what were the thoughts behind it as well as what it means moving forward.

This past ShadoWeaver challenge was the result of the Opal Holder becoming inactive just prior to the challenge date. Sometimes these situations are easy to navigate and have great footholds in the rules and as any DoS fan knows- sometimes that's just not the case. The rules explain that should a title become forfeit it will either go to a tournament or its fate will be determined by the DoF Staff. The rules currently do not specify what should happen if a title becomes forfeit while it is under challenge which made this a very unique case.

We wanted to approach this first and foremost as fairly as possible to everyone involved. This meant a few things. First, we wanted to give the opal holder as much time as possible. We did that and unfortunately the result was a title forfeiture. Next, we wanted to assess what our next choice would be and the options struck us as either continue with the challenge with a caveat or push it along to a tournament. To be fair to the challenger we went to them with both options and allowed them to choose which was preferable to them. With that answer we then thought of who might serve to be a neutral party to act as the standing opal and our two inclinations were the present Diamond and the senior opal. Both were very open and flexible and ultimately it went to the Diamond which allowed us to proceed on with the original scheduled challenge with the caller and all parties happy.

While we were reviewing our options this specific scenario had come up in the past once. At that time it did not proceed to a challenge but instead wound up as a tournament prize and that all around feels like a lackluster option. Moving forward we believe this will be a system and player friendly solution that benefits everyone involved.

This may seem like a lot of text for what was a pretty smooth affair. Just to reiterate one of our early promises, it is very important to us that we remain transparent and up front about these decisions. We also bounced around these ideas and approached our proxy duelists within hours of the scheduled challenge and we're fortunate to have such a caring, flexible community to resolve issues like this one as quickly and efficiently as we were able to. Hopefully this served as a thorough explanation for what led up to the challenge and will help pave the way forward in any potential future repeats.

Thank you,
Your DoF Staff