Goatboy’s 40k: Math is Hard – How to Fix Tournaments
Goatboy here to answer the big tournament question: What Should be required of Competitive Players AND Event Organizers.
Goatboy here again – I have been trying to write this article for the last few days. The issues from Adepticon as well as other events has gotten a tad bit out of hand. Of course I know most of the people involved so it makes it harder and harder to try and not be judgmental – whether I feel like it is simple mistake or a jerk trying to pull one over on us. So instead of jumping on the soap box and writing about something I was not a part of instead lets look at ways to fix this.
Player Responsibilities
Make Your List Easy to Read
First and foremost for any player going to an event – have a list that is easy to read. I saw a lot of complaining from past events where their opponents had “lists” that were just terrible to try and read. You had units listed, no point costs, all scribbled on a piece of notebook paper. I have seen lists written on napkins with scribbled in point costs. I have seen Army Builder lists trying to use a none updated formation inside CADs and Ally detachments. It gets frustrating as you feel like you the to fully trust your opponent and in today’s age of too many rules/units it gets hard to fully except the unit that is kicking the crap out of you. No one likes to feel cheated and starting the game with a hard to decipher list is just heading down a road of annoyance.
Have ALL Your Army’s Rules – PRINTED
This leads me to my next bit – make sure you have all your rules. I am so tired of having someone pull up their phone and show me a “pdf”. Look if you are playing something weird – go ahead and print it out, attach it to your army list, and be as forth coming with your opponent about it. I would love it if everyone had the book but I know some things were never released in print so it can be a pain in the butt to have it. Thankfully it seems GW is rereleasing a bunch of data slates into cheaper books so I suspect will see less and less of this. Having all your rules in an easy to view set up is key to creating a fun game for yourself and your opponent.
Double Check Your List
Also double check your list before even playing. Make sure you know all the events army build rules and ensure your list is legit. I don’t feel like 1-3 points over the point limit is that big of a deal – but a lot of other people do. It automatically creates drama that you could have easily solved if you triple checked the math on your list. Its one thing when Army Builder or Battlesribe goofs it up but if you wrote your list out in Excel or Google Docs and it is wrong – you are the only one to blame. While you are looking at your list make sure you are up to date on all the FAQ’s for the event and your army. Arguing a rule that has already has an event answer will lead to a ugly game.
Start Off With a Simple Army
I also advise if this is your fist event – make sure to take a simple army. I’ve played a lot of new players that had no idea how their armies worked and it was such a pain in the butt. I don’t want anyone having a bad game versus myself and if I can help them learn I think that is a win in my book – but make it easy on yourself. There are a ton of good armies that don’t have a plethora of crazy rules to get mixed up. I don’t want to see a new player throwing down with War Convocation and constantly having to look, argue, and figure out their rule set.
Everyone is pushing for any advantage in this game right now so when they find you had an “unfair” advantage – no matter how small people jump on that and get upset. It creates a situation that tarnishes yourself as well as the event. I know you can survive it as you can just go back to your local scene, kick a$$ there, and not worry about it but for those people running events this sort of thing that can be easily solved before you even compete can kill that event.
Tournament Organizer Responsibilities
Check Lists In Some Way
Personally – I know how much of a pain it can be to check lists. It takes a special type of player that can see the errors quickly. I remember playing with my buddy Nick in an event and how quickly he can spot “list issues”. It was amazing as we had 2 to 3 events in a row where he had players bring incorrect lists. Of course it is a heck of lot harder now with so many formations/options/etc but its something that probably should happen. I think if you are cutting to any top 8/16 amount of players all those lists should be double checked before the final rounds begin. This way you can either easily fix any points issues or remove the player from your event.
Looking at lists seems to be the biggest request but finding the time/person power to finish it is hard. I think events will have to go towards the limiting factor of detachments in order to ensure “cleaner” lists. It makes it easier for people to build and army and easier for events to verify. It also makes it easier on the table top as you can split up your army and make sure you are not mixing up “units” as much. I think a locking in time frame for lists might be needed at an event. You have to turn them in a week or so ahead of time, have them posted online, and hopefully vetted by the community. I know personally the event should really only care a but the top bracket of players most of the time as their lists issues causes the most problems for an event. But this leads into problems of – what to do after someone plays 4 games with an illegal list and “won” them all? What happens to their opponents score?
To DQ, or Not to DQ?
That’s where the biggest question comes in – should you just disqualify the player and save face from the internet mob? I don’t know for sure – I lean towards just dq and move on with as much public discussion as you can. The situation caused by it is not good for you or the the player no matter what you do. I think as a TO you should try and protect your event a heck of lot more then you should any players feelings but that is because I am personally friends with a lot of TO’s and know how much time/money/space they have invested in creating an event. I have seen events die from stuff like this so it is hard to feel sympathy for the player that caused the mess.
I don’t envy any TO right now. The amount of money and time to invest in an event is pretty large – and without GW helping like they did a long time ago, it ends up being up to you to try and break even. I haven’t heard of many events making a ton of cash when you truly calculate the time spent on getting all those dang terrain pieces built, stored, and moved around. I don’t expect the bigger events to truly die after this issue. They are still fun and while you might not feel like the true competitive nature is there – the fact you get to play with your friends and push plastic toys around is the biggest factor in getting me to come out.
So what do you think Events should do when dealing with issues such as incorrect lists, illegal formations, and other game issues? Should we just DQ the player or fix the list issue? Do we need to be public about it and make sure everything is on the up and up?
