Utilitarian wrote:Ultimately I have to wonder how something like this would have been handled at a similarly high profile paper magic tournament. Building needs to be evacuated or something to that affect. How would wotc handle things in that situation? If it would be handled similarily how it is handled in MTGO (tournament scrubbed, rescheduled, some minor compensation offered) then can we really be upset at how it's handled on MTGO? On the other hand, if it would be handled differently, then there is a legitimate complaint.
That's just it-- at a major event, they keep the records of the tournament thus far and can resume it from the most recent state, as long as the building wasn't evacuated for long enough that people actually left. Worst case scenario is that people who didn't finish their last match would need to replay it.
Sure, if there was something particularly major and the event had to be stopped altogether, that would be a trickier scenario but here's the thing: A paper event getting cancelled mid-event is incredibly rare; I've never actually heard of it happening. Likely because it would take something such that the tournament being cancelled would probably become the least of your concerns.
A Magic Online crash? That's not uncommon... far from it, and the fact that MTGO doesn't have a way to recover from this in a painless matter is pretty awful. This isn't some big build evacuation or natural disaster, this is shoddy programming and poor response, with no proper contingency plan.