White Line Fever!
This last weekend was the first three game system Victorian Inter Club Championship. All the big clubs came out to play (and a few smaller groups) sending their best and brightest to drink, move wardollies and make merry. That was the intent anyway. I would like to start by saying that Rojo and the other organisers did an outstanding job setting everything up and making the event run like clockwork. From a player’s perspective the VICC”s ran smoothly and (for Victorian tourneys) almost on time.
The VICC’s were intended to bring the clubs together in a fun atmosphere. Generally this was the case but with the Best Club 40K trophy and Overall Club Trophy up for grabs the competition started to get to people. Don’t get me wrong I wear my heart on my sleeve and I get wrapped up in the hype of an event. It is part of the fun of it for me I suppose. I guess it would be better if I slept better before and during these things.
Anyway, it was really disappointing to see members from a number of established and well known clubs engaging in fairly shifty to downright underhanded tactics on the weekend. I thankfully skipped most of the internet foreplay to this event but I heard about it plenty on the weekend. This led several clubs to outright badmouth one club in particular over the course of the weekend. I am becoming more like my Grand mother everyday I think. If there is something you need to say about someone say it straight and be nice. It just got old. Rivalries I get I suppose.
Cheating on the other hand? OK, Cheating is a strong word, but as we had two experienced fantasy players rolling up with two games of 40K experience as half our 40K team who fell victim to rules manipulation on multiple occasions. Club interpretations of the rules are one thing what I am talking about is blatantly trying to take advantage of less experienced players. And after speaking with other clubs during and after the event we were not the only ones to hit this wall. I can also say that I witnessed one blatant act of cheating. Rubbish like this has no place in our 40K community let alone at an event promoting the advancement of the hobby through the supportive club growth. This combined with repeated warnings from the TO that REALLY low sports scores were regularly happening… Really is this the place for stone faces and chipmonking.
It is my belief that people just got a case of the “White Line Fever” and just had to win. The last time I experienced it in a tourney in such a pronounced manner was the Masters. Can’t we as one of the TO’s put it “Chill the ^&*^ out and remember we are playing a GAME!!!”
Tourney report to follow. This being said… The VICC’s were AWESOME and I am really looking forward to next year!
B
That does sound pretty lame. Sorry to hear that you had to deal with it. Annoying at any time, but the more awesome the event could/should be, the more disappointing BS like that is.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to the reports!
Who would have thought? Controversy and politics in wargaming :-)
ReplyDeletewell, this was my first 40k tourney, being a fantasy player all my gaming career, i was taken a-back a little by the competitiveness across the board ( usually in fantasy this is reserved to a select few who everyone avoids till the final round top tables)
ReplyDeletethere were a couple single player games in the first day i felt a bit hard done by, but being new and not knowing the rules i wasnt game to argue stuff at the time, but having checked now im all.. WTF..that son of a bitch.. things like certain close combat units rolling say 10% more dice in attacks than they should be, and hitting easier than perhaps they should have...if we were using the actual stats
that said i dont think it made a difference in the final result so im not worked up about it (this also begs the question why bother "fudging" these things in the first place)
ah well in the end i think the better club won, so it all worked out the way it should have
- Noakes
I agree... Short Tournie write up a few minutes away! :)
ReplyDelete