I really thought I was done with the London GT. Apologies to those who have no interest in this, normal blogging will resume tomorrow with my review of the Elites section of the new Deathwatch codex.
Several hours ago, the London GT facebook page posted, publicly calling out one of the players on the stream for cheating and have banned him from all of their future events (we should all be so lucky).
This is absolutely disgraceful!
First off, let me say that cheating or poor sportsmanship should be called out at these events. HOWEVER, to focus on this when they have not, to this point, issued a single statement or apology on the shambolic and disgraceful event that they have just run is an outrage.
I haven't watched the video, so don't know who is in the right or the wrong in the examples they have given. BUT, this game was played after game 3 on the Saturday, some of which didn't finish till 9.30 pm. At this point, both players had been gaming for over 12 hours each, on top of Friday's gaming, so I would have expected them to both be exhausted. I've played four games in one day at a tournament and was barely conscious by the fourth game.
Publicly shaming a single player to cover for your own gross incompetence is shameful. The 40k GT 2018 was an embarrassment to competitive 40k in the UK.
I don't often get mad about 40k, it is just a game we play for fun. However, having spent the time, effort and money to go to this sad excuse for a tournament has left me livid.
As a result the player has been banned from their events, so will not be attending next year's GT. I imagine many of the competitors at this year's GT will joining him.
As I said, normal service will resume on the blog tomorrow, be sure to like and follow the Facebook page to keep up to date on all the news on the blog.
Wonder if people will mention that in the comments.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, a lot of people have been calling them out on it.
DeleteI have never been more glad to be a casual player. The fiasco around this tournament is enough to put me off ever attending.
ReplyDeleteThat's a real shame, as tournaments are normally great fun. It's just a pity this will be a lot of people's impressions of UK tournaments for a long time to come now.
DeleteThat's the problem though. This isn't how all tournaments are but that's going to be the perception now
DeleteUnfortunately so. Look, I know some events hit problems, not everything can go to plan. But the sheer number of mistakes and poor planning at this event was unbelievable.
Deletethis is disgraceful.
ReplyDeletetrial by social media.
from my comment yesterday i was hoping they would have a good look at the event and fix the issues.
however this shows they are not interested in that and just want to save face and so have done some things to look pro active about things people don't like.
in reality all they are doing is deflecting the real issues of a poorly run event
i am not condoning "cheating" but player shaming is not the way to deal with this.
i was interested in going next year but will not now after this
I would recommend some of the great events held at Element Games or Wargames if you are looking for a good 40k tournament.
DeleteWell, if they decided that one of the problems of this event was too many participants, whether that be queues for entry, queues for food and drink, not enough room between tables and having to do too many tables worth of scenery to actually put any effort in... they are certainly doing a good job of making sure they don't have the same problems next year when only half the amount of people attend...
ReplyDeleteYou say that, but the past few years have apparently had the same problems, and they have continued to grow and push to be the biggest despite all the flaws.
DeleteHopefully, the massive protest and backlash this year will force a few people to reconsider going.
I can understand some of the problems happening when your just starting up a tournament, there's a lot to learn but they don't seem to have learnt and seem more interested in the prestige of being the biggest and best than actually presenting a good tournament.
DeleteWow. There's so much wrong with them doing that to the player. I don't even know where to begin.
ReplyDeleteI have the feeling that this event won't be so well attended next year.
I would hope not. Third strike by the organisers.
DeleteWhile I think it is right to call this out, I also think that it could have been handled so much better. It's sad it's happened but it is a competitive environment and people will try and bend rules. After a very long day and several games, I'm not surprised good judgement was compromised and some of that is down to poor planning on the part of the organisers. By the sound of it, this game should have been postponed in its entirety until the next day and given the players a chance to rest and clear there heads.
ReplyDeleteThe whole event has been so poorly handled. I hope it does have some sort of effect on them for the next year, whether in better planning or not. I would be surprised if GW were such vocal sponsors again.
DeleteI have to admit, this tournament sounds absolutely terrible. I mean, I saw the pictures of the scenery and stuff, but it just goes from bad to worse. To be honest, the worst thing I heard was about the bag searches. I'd rather walk out than let some random security person root about in my carefully packed layers of miniatures.
ReplyDeleteAs for calling someone out for cheating on social media, what a mess. Cheating is pretty much unforgiveable in a game that should be fun, but if the tournament is that bad it basically deserves to have people to cheat in it. I mean everything else sucks, so the guy was probably just trying to get the game over with so he could go home and regret spending all that money on the ticket!
In all honesty, the bag searches were hardly anything. I opened my case, they had a quick look (didn't even take the top foam off) and just had a quick look in my backpack. The time delay was the biggest annoyance.
DeleteI did thnk the way they handled it was disgraceful. Some of it may have been cheating, it is hard to know intent. However, the game didn't get started till after 9 pm, and both players had been gaming for 12 hours, so some of it may have been honest mistakes or tiredness.
At this rate Battlefield Birmingham will overtake them... I'm surprised by the quality of the terrain (shows how good my previous experience has been) - but player shaming goes a touch too far...
ReplyDeleteYeah, most tournaments I've been to have had excellent or at least a decent standard of terrain.
Delete