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I tried to look up rules on Conceding in the REG and couldn't find anything.

Is a player allowed to concede a game?  If they are, how is the score calculated?

Once we get past whether it is allowed or not, how do you other players feel about this practice?  Have you ever conceded a game?  What would be a "good" reason to do so?

I have conceded one game that I can remember, when I played Heroless and Given over to Egypt discarded Saul/Paul from the top of my deck.  He was the only hero in my deck and I had no way to get him back.

But I can remember a few games where I didn't concede but was wanting to.  It was obvious that I had no chance of winning, and sometimes no chance of stalling either (meaning letting the game time out without the opponent having 5 or 7 lost souls, respectively).  One game was last year when I had a sitelock deck and my opponent laid down Fishing Boat in the first turn.  There was nothing I could do to it, and I wanted to just give up right there.  In similar fashion, if you're sitelocked yourself and know that you have no more site access in your deck.  Or if the score is already 3-0 against you and the person is just waiting for more lost souls so they can play SOG/NJ, and you have no way to stop it.  Or if their defense is so strong that you know you have nothing left to get past it (Believe it or not I have seen one speed deck that hit this wall).  Or if the draws have been so bad and every lost soul of your opponent is on the bottom of their deck, and you have nothing left to stop the opponent.  The list goes on and on.  Does the person conceding the game even have to say WHY they are conceding?  Is it any better if I just don't block their rescue attempts (but even this requires me to have lost souls that I can give up)?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

I don't think there have ever been any officially established rules for conceding, however I know that it happens occasionally, and I doubt that any host would really have a problem with it.

Personally, I don't remember ever actually conceding, but I have a particularly persistent and optimistic attitude that rarely gives up at anything.  However, I have often played against an opponent, and completely shut down their offense, and then they deck out, and see that my offense is unstoppable (Watchful Servant, Job, Zebulun, etc.) with the cards they had available.  At that point, they sometimes concede rather than go through the motions to play it out.  By that point, we have already had a long and intense game with many battles of them trying to break through my defense, and they often feel like the match has been a good one, so why bother making it longer to finish out its inevitable conclusion.

My big caution here is that you should be TOTALLY sure that there is NOTHING that you can do to stop someone before conceding.  Often times situations that look hopeless can turn around and really sneaky plans can come to light in desperate times

I agree with the other Prof. I find no ethical reasons for not conceding when the game is hopeless. I have sometimes conceded immediately following my draw on the turn before I know my opponent will win, sometimes to avoid an unnecessary timeout win for them if they should have earned the full win, sometimes just so they don't spend the next several minutes planning out their next move when attacking with any hero will win them the game.

What I don't think is considerate (even if it's not necessarily unethical) is quitting a game just because your opponent made a really good play that has a high probability of giving him the win (i.e. discarding SoG with Confusion, etc.). I have lost plenty of games where I discarded my opponent's SoG, and I have won plenty of games where my SoG was discarded. If a person quits as a result of one play that they don't think they'll have a chance to come back from, then I find that it is disrespectful to their opponent looking forward to a good game, as well as the person himself.

Thanks for the comments.  I still haven't heard how a conceded game is legally scored though?  Because if memory serves, how many souls you get and how many your opponent gets DOES affect the standings.

For example, what if I don't have GOYS, I just rescued the two liner, and my opponent hasn't played Falling Away yet.  I conced at that point.  Am I given credit for those 2 lost souls?  If we had played one more turn my opponent might have played FA and taken me back to zero.  In a large tournament I can see this having an impact on standings, because of LS differential.  Perhaps someone who concedes is given, or should be given, zero lost souls rescued instead?

Same thing for the person that I concede to.  Are they given credit for the full 5 lost souls (T-1) or 7 lost souls (T-2)?  If instead I had dragged the game out and timed them out, they would have received less points, right?  I can conceive of another player at another table in contention for the lead being really upset with me for conceding instead of dragging it out.

Why are there not clear tournament rules on this?  Or are they written somewhere and I just can't find them?  As an occasional tournament judge myself I feel that I need to know how to handle these situations.

Thanks again.

In a tournament setting, if you attempt to concede, then it should only be allowed if your opponent allows it. If they know they have a Falling Away that they might get to play, then they may want to wait, or they may not. I have always assumed that a concession results in the maximum score (5 or 7) for the winner, and however many souls the conceder has. If someone wants to concede, then timeouts are typically not an issue, since the person could theoretically end their turns as soon as they draw and allow the opponent to walk in for however many rescues he needs. I actually find it honorable and considerate to concede if there is only a limited amount of time left in the game but you know your opponent could win given an extra minute; IIRC Gabe did that at Nats '10 vs. Tyler Stevens' defensive heavy deck. Not that its necessary, as you have every right to take the time you are allotted, but personally I think it's considerate to do so.

A big part of it is motivation. Are you conceding because you have calculated that based on what you have left and what is already on the table, or are you ragequitting? In a tournament, I would accept any concession (provided I did not still have an unplayed FA), because then I get the win at max score with no chance of something going wrong.

In general, it is not a good idea to concede except in extreme situations. I recall recently playing a game where I was soul-locked with two N.T. LS's in my opponent's LoB and no N.T. Heroes or LS negation. Instead of conceding, I blocked Jacob with one of my emperors in hopes that he would use Forgiveness, which he did, giving me a 10/1 N.T. Hero who walked in for the win.

I recall recently playing a game where I was soul-locked with two N.T. LS's in my opponent's LoB and no N.T. Heroes or LS negation. Instead of conceding, I blocked Jacob with one of my emperors in hopes that he would use Forgiveness, which he did, giving me a 10/1 N.T. Hero who walked in for the win.

I attacked with Eve, not Jacob if I remember correctly (unless this happened to you in two games, which would be crazy) and yeah I was really dumb to play forgiveness there, especially when I could have just used the Abraham's descendent in my hand to bring back Joseph before Pharaoh.

Anyway, about conceding, I'm fine with my opponent doing so if we both know I'm going to win.  What I didn't like however was one game that I played in a tournament, where my opponent (who was my friend) forfeited instead of having me get a time-out win when both our offenses were taken down.  He first tried to let me win by stopping blocking (I was out of enhancements and he had bands), and then when I told him I didn't want to win that way he forfeited.  I don't believe it ended up affecting the ending placement, but I'd have rather have timed-out than gotten an undeserved win.

That's very admirable on your part Drrek, especially since he could have stopped you and chose not to.  Unfortunately you also can't force someone to block your attempt (I suppose Ehud and others can, but I digress).  The only thing about those forfeits is I would hope they would do the same no matter who they were playing, and not just decide to give their friend and advantage that they wouldn't give to someone else.  But in the end I don't know how you can stop this from happening. 

It's really just a bad idea all around. I've played many games where my opponent could have won if he'd attacked, but he didn't know whether I had certain cards in my hand that made him reluctant to risk it. For example, in one of my tournament games at a Regionals, my opponent had 2 LS's with SoG/NJ unplayed and a few cards left in his deck. I was out of EC's, but he was afraid of the Confusion he assumed was in my PG defense as he had not yet drawn SoG. His hesitation cost him the game and allowed me to place in the tournament.