Life, oh life, oh life, oh life

In the early days of "Magic: The Gathering", tournament organisers were a law unto themselves. In '94 or '95*, we drove from Newie to a suburban Sydney tourney held in a church hall. It appeared fairly normal until time was called on the first round...and the announcer informed us that unfinished games in progress went to the player with the highest life total. WTF? This was long before the introduction of the "five extra turns" rule, so you could have total board control and be guaranteed victory on your next go, but if your opponent had one more life point when the clock struck X, they were declared the winner rather than that game not counting towards the best-of-three result. We thought it was bonkers. Naturally, the locals, being well aware of this dodgy determining factor, were all packing a touch of life-gain in their decks. Bastards.

*Positive it was post-Fallen Empires, less sure if it was pre- or post-Ice Age.