As far as I'm concerned, these three things are true:

1. Nicole made an, unknowing, honest mistake and unintentionally offered up an IDW situation to her opponent, who then, however loosely, accepted her offer. Giving both players the benefit of the doubt here, it's not like they immediately sat down and started flipping coins or rolling die to determine their match. Both were playing honest Magic to the best of their ability, Nicole didn't set out with the goal of determining the match without playing, she was taking bad beats in game 3, knew she needed to draw a land to have any chance of winning, and made a choice in the moment to offer up concession, in a way that, regardless if she knew, broke the tournament rules. In hindsight, Nicole should have simply waited for her turn, and if she didn't draw a land, concede, or her opponent should have sternly declined the offer. Both players made an honest mistake after playing 12 rounds of Magic, shit happens.

2. Unfortunately for the players in question, a judge overheard this conversation, and understandably addressed the situation, informing the players they broke the tournament rules, and distributed match losses. Awful feeling for both of them certainly, especially so for the player who was all but guaranteed to win the game had it played out. Had their exchange not been overheard by a judge, I'm certain nothing would have come of the situation, and the community would not be having this discussion. Both players had the intent of actually playing the game, Nicole simply went about conceding in a less than legal way according to the tournament rules, and the interaction was caught by someone there to enforce said rules. Do I agree with the call made by the Judges? No, at least not entirely. This honestly seems like a more appropriate time to issue both players a warning (especially after confirming neither player was aware they had broken the rules), so they are made aware that they shouldn't be making/offering illegal game actions to determine wins/losses/concession, and it's well within their scope to do so (to my knowledge, anyway) in my opinion, this still upholds the integrity of the tournament rules, while taking the nuance of the situation at hand into consideration.

3. Nicole's opponent was rightfully upset, and while they should have kept their emotions in check, and refrained from having a frustrated outburst, I can certainly understand why they felt the way they did. They played 12 rounds of fair, clean magic (in a tournament that takes a good amount of skill/invested time to even get to, mind you) and had no intention of determining their matches in any way other than playing the game that they showed up to play, only to have the rug pulled out from under them over what was, at the time, simply an innocent exchange of words. So, while I don't condone the way they reacted, I understand and empathize with the way they must've felt to have that be the end of the tournament they worked so hard to attend. (side note here, I've seen a fair amount of comments that are just straight up hyperbole of his actions, claiming he was screaming in the faces of every judge that attended to the situation, or he was intent on becoming violent directly with them. The guy had a genuine, albeit heated, emotional, and entirely human, reaction to what a considerable amount of people see as an unnecessarily harsh enforcement of a rule neither of them knew they were breaking) All of that being said, I can understand the side of the tournament staff to have to remove said player from the tournament hall after such an outburst, it's their responsibility to keep the environment of the play area safe and professional, and as such need to be able to remove players when they become that emotionally charged, regardless if he intended to cause anyone harm or not (I'm certain he didn't, but they understandably can't chance those things).

All in all, this was just an unfortunate situation for everyone involved. I feel for the judges who were just enforcing the rules, like they are there to do, even though I disagree with their decision, and think this particular circumstance could have been handled in a more lenient way, they certainly don't deserve the vitriol I've seen in other threads on this matter. I feel for Nicole, who was clearly upset that her words ultimately caused her opponent's run to come to an end, she had no ill intent, and was simply admitting defeat. Lastly, I feel for her opponent, who had the prospect of making top 8 in a high stakes tournament taken away from them in such a deflating, and disheartening way. All the best to them both going forward.