Warhammer 40K: Should Playtesters Compete In Tournaments?
Should playtesters be allowed to compete in tournaments? It’s a thorny 40K topic that has been coming up recently.
Adam here. This past weekend there seems to be a little drop off in the winning percentage of the armies that have been dominating the meta. It’s hard to say if it is due to the balance datasheet that was recently released from Games Workshop. The issue is that it was released in such a way that it fell past the rules deadline for many tournaments. Some tournament organizers decided not to use the changes at all, some did decide to use the balance dataslate for their tournament and there were one or two tournaments that took a hybrid approach and cherry picked what parts of the balance dataslate to use.
I don’t think we will see the true scope of the effect of the dataslate for another couple of weeks but one theory for the reason for the dip in win percentage is that top players, who are also playtesters, have already started to move on to other armies they had been playing or plan on playing in the future. So the question is, “Should playtesters play in tournaments?”
The Issue at Hand
If the issue isn’t obvious, then here is a brief summary. Many players feel that being a playtester for Games Workshop is too much of an advantage, especially for a top player. Having access to a codex before it is publicly released, and having some, if any, influence on how units and armies play would help to determine what units or armies they should probably play in the future. Those that don’t have such access are at a slight disadvantage as they don’t know what is coming in a reasonable amount of time to get that army ready to go. This advantage allows these top players more time to practice and get experience with the army they are playing. Some think that this advantage is too much while others think it is fine.
PRO: Playtesters Should Be Allowed
The advantage that playtesters have is not that much of an advantage. The prizes are not on the same scale as other competitive scenes so the advantages of being a playtester is not as severe as the playtesters cannot be everywhere at every tournament. Also, not every playtester is a top player. They include players from other areas of the hobby and are not focused only on the tournament scene. A small percentage of the group, just because they do well, should not forbid other playtesters from being able to play. Even with this knowledge, there is no guarantee that they will do well in tournaments. There are still things that even playtesters don’t see that other players will discover. Games Workshop itself doesn’t ban playtesters from their own events so it should be fine for them to be able to play in other tournaments.
CON: Playtesters Shouldn’t Be Allowed
The advantage that playtesters have is a bit too much. Other games that have a competitive element to them forbid playtesters to compete in tournaments or at the very least restrict playtesters in what they can play. The ability to know what is coming or what has the potential to be good allows the player to accumulate models for when the codex releases. This is important especially with the recent issues with people having a hard time getting products, so getting a model early on is useful when these same models are not available because everyone wants them.
Even if Games Workshop won’t take an official stance about playtesters that doesn’t mean a tournament organizer can’t. Disallowing playtesters allows other players to rise to the top and get their name known where otherwise they may not get that attention except in the local area. I mean even Games Workshop had a category in their painting competitions for their employees to enter so why not the same for playtesters?
What To Do?
Personally, I don’t really care if a playtester plays in a 40k tournament or not. It is still a dice game and that variable, although able to mitigate it, is still one that could adversely affect the results of a game. I think that if Games Workshop really didn’t want a playtester to participate in tournaments then they would not allow them in their own tournaments. The fact that they are allowed shows that, to them, it is not as big of an issue as some people may make it. So, until that time that they do ban playtesters from playing in tournaments I think that it is fine.
~That’s all for this week. i hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and what your opinion is about playtesters playing in tournaments, in the comments section below.
