The World May I Championships

The World May I Championships (WMIC) is an annual May I? tournament held in Sydney Australia on January 2nd. Its origins date to 2010 where it was created to settle a long-standing rivalry amongst players as to whom was the world's best May I? card player. The winner of the event, or "Champ", receives an official World May I Championships certificate and has their name etched on the official World May I Championships trophy. The first ever sanctioned World May I Championships was held in Sydney Australia on January 2nd, 2011 and drew players from Australia, Italy, England and the USA. The WMIC Tournament has evolved the traditional game of May I? into a faster, more competitive game with the refinement of play, penalty and scoring.
May I?
May I? is a variation of the popular card game Continental using two packs of cards as one deck and sees players vie to assemble designated collections of cards known as Sets and Runs. A 'Set' consists of a minimum of three of a kind (3 Aces, 3 Twos, 3 Kings, etc.) and a 'Run' is a minimum of four consecutive cards of the same suit (2, 3, 4, 5 of hearts, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of spades, etc.) The object of May I? is to be the player with the fewest amount of penalty points after playing all seven rounds.
Rounds
1. Two Sets (3+3)
2. One Set and One Run (3+4)
3. Two Runs (4+4)
4. Three Sets (3+3+3)
5. Two Set and One Runs (3+3+4)
6. One Sets and Two Runs (3+4+4)
7. Three Runs (4+4+4)
Gameplay
Each player is dealt 10 cards, with the remaining stockpile of cards set on the table to be drawn from.
The dealer commences play by turning the top card over revealing it to all players and places it next to the pile creating a discard pile. The player to the left of the dealer now has the option to take that card, or draw the next top card of the stockpile into his hand. After a card is drawn, one must be discarded from the player's hand at which point the next player to the left has the option of drawing the top discard or top stock card.
Once a card has been discarded, other players may call a "May I?" as a request to take the card out of turn. If the next player in the rotation allows this, the player who has called the "May I?" must collect that card as well as take the top card from the stockpile as a penalty. Play then resumes in order of rotation.
Each player is allowed a maximum number of 3 "May I?" calls per round and cards in hand cannot exceed 16 (the initial 10 plus any May I and penalty cards).
Once a player has collected the required combination of Runs and Sets they may "go down" ("open") by laying down the sets and runs appropriate for that hand. Having "gone down", the player is then free to play (in that same turn and in subsequent turns) additional cards onto existing sets or runs that have already been played on the table. A player may not put any cards into play until he has "gone down".
Play ends when one player is "Out" by placing any excess cards on existing sets or runs played and has no cards left in their hand. Remaining players must tally the cards left in their hand with cards 2-9 taken on face value and cards 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace accounting for 10 points each.
Whilst it is customary to play May I with 4 players and 2 decks, Jokers may be included in the decks when 5 or more players convene. Jokers are considered wild and can be placed as a missing card in sets or runs however if not played a Joker count for 20 points in the tally.
The World May I? Championships
The World May I Championships is based on a tournament style of play consisting of tables of 4 players. The total number of players will determine the number of elimination rounds. The winning player at each table advances to the next round as do players with the next lowest scores across all tables. Through a series of knockout rounds the Final 4 take their place to battle it out to crown the new World May I? Champion.
World May I Championships Anthem
Prior to the commencement of play, The World May I Anthem is sung to herald in a new year's tournament. The anthem is a rousing call to cards aimed to inspire players to bring their best play to the tables and its lyrics reference the challenges ahead and the mix of skill and luck required to claim the title of Champion.
The World May I Championships Anthem

MAY I ! MAY I ! MAY I ! MAY I !
MAY I ! MAY I ! MAY I ! MAY I !

Needing two sets / One set and one run / For three sets you pray and hope that Eric comes!
Three three four / Three four four / With no place to Run, Run, RUN!

MAY I ... MAY I ... MAY I... It’s May I... not May Us!
MAY I ... MAY I ... MAY I... It’s May I… not May Us!
Tournament Rules
Due to a degree of discrepancies in play during regional games leading up to the WMIC, a set of Tournament Rules were established to bring about a level playing field, speed up play and place pressure on the issuing of “May I?” requests.
The Official World May I Championships Rules & By-Laws as decreed by the Commissioners of the WMIC Governing Body:

* 1 Dealing: One card at a time. Player ahead cuts. Machine shuffling preferred.
* 2 May I?: (i) All “May I” calls must be taken. The is no changing your mind. You make the call, you take the card. (ii) Only English usage of ‘May I’ will be used. No abbreviations or foreign language variations will be recognised. (iii) Thou shalt wait 2 seconds before picking up to allow for ‘May I” requests.
* 3 Mistakes: (i) All mistakes are final. Any card down, stays down. Pick it up, you keep it. (ii) No pay attention. Your problem. No back tracking. (iii) Disputes are resolved at each table by majority rule vote. Deadlocks broken by Tournament Marshall - currently held by Mary Coustas.
* 4 Fast play: (i) 15 sec. rule applies. Maximum 15 seconds to make a decision. You will get two x 3sec warnings per game. Slow play penalty of 10 points after your 3rd warning. (ii) Fast, clean, crisp putdown of discards. No obscuring your card.
* 5 No help: Thou shalt not give hints or assist other players. Penalty 10 points.
* 6 Accuracy: Every player must count their own points. Dumb mistakes are penalised 3x the error difference. E.g. 5 point error = + 15 onto your score. Any player may check your point count. If there is no error, there is a 10 point penalty for unnecessary recounts. Please count silently. Or quietly hum. No singing your score.
* 7 Other penalties: • 20 points - failure to discard correctly, uneven card count. • 10 points - mis-deals, flip cards, throw on floor, forget to include
* 8 Misc: (i) Mobile phones - all mobile phones on silent. No calls or SMS during gameplay. (ii) Toilet breaks - 1 x bathroom break during gameplay, only during shuffling (90 secs max) (iii) Thou shalt not show your cards at any point during the game. (iv) Disruptive noise levels - please respect the other tables. Penalty 20 points for repeat offenders. You know who you are. (v) No food at the tables. (vi) No player taunting. General banter allowed. No punching or eye gouging. (vii) Please announce when you have one card left. e.g. “One card!” in a clear voice.
* 9 The Final: (i) 1 x time out for each player allowed.
* GENERAL : Table seating allocation: Seeding rules apply. Previous years finalists are to be seated at separate tables. Remaining players draw name and table from a hat.
Attendees
The WMIC draws players from all over the world with several nations represented including Greece, Australia, England, Italy, and the USA. As the popularity of the tournament grows member nations in attendance is also expected to grow.
The World May I Champ
Since its inception the WMIC has aimed to bestow upon the greatest player the title of “Champ”. The winner of the tournament receives a certificate declaring their status as current champion and has their name etched onto the WMIC trophy to stand for all time. The “Champ” also has the responsibility to spread goodwill towards the game and keep the hunger alive amongst competitors to claim the title the following year. Whilst the WMIC is yet to see a carry-over Champ, the runner up position has been held in both years of its inception by Mary Coustas who has her eyes firmly set on the title in 2013.
*2011 Champ - George Betsis
*2012 Champ - Andy Healy
*2013 Champ - to be decided in Sydney Australia January 2, 2013
May I? Gameplay Code
Over the years several May I? colloquialisms have made their way into competition and are recognised by the WMIC as allowable during play. These codes may be called during play as a strategic move to alert or bluff your opponents to the strength of your hand.
Eric
To Eric is to pick up a penalty card following a call of May I? that aids your hand. < /br> The Los Angeles Chapter has evolved this call into sighting famous Erics such as “Stoltz”, “Banner”, “Idle”, “Clapton” and “Estrada”.
Bo Derick
To call a Bo Derick is to pick up a 10 as your penalty card following a call of May I? helping you complete a run or set.
Jeric
A Jeric is called when a player draws a Joker card as a penalty allowing them to use it as a wild in a set or run. It should be noted that Jokers are only allowed in Regional games and not in the WMIC.
Viagra
A Viagra is achieved when the penalty card resulting from a May I? call allows the player to “flop” all their cards in one play and “go out”.
Regionals
In order to participate in The World May I Championships players must first compete and qualify in a registered regional game in a WMIC sanctioned competition.
Currently Regionals are played in:
* Los Angeles, New York (USA)
* Athens (Greece)
* Melbourne, Sydney (Australia).

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