Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Cheating in Pokémon TCG

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QD4U

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I was watching a live stream from a tournament a while back. In one of the top 4 games one player tried to cheat. He had a Terrakion active and it just got KO'd. Right after his active Terrakion got KO'd, he put it back in his hand along with all the energy and the Eviolite (it did not have a rescue energy attached). His opponent quickly noticed, probably told him "why isn't your terrakion in the discard?" and the situation got resolved (Without them having to call a judge).

Now, he may or may not have tried to cheat on purpose. But I will tell you that, right after he put the cards back in his hand, it seemed like he hesitated. He probably realized what he had just done, and knowing it was wrong to do so, he argued putting the cards in the discard pile immediatly to quickly resolve the situation. But he didn't. Fortunately, like I said, his opponent noticed, decided not to call a judge on him, and the situation was resolved.

Here's my theory on the situation. The guy didn't intend to cheat, but for some reason, he put the Pokémon back into his hand. (probably thought it had a Rescue attached; but it didn't. And even if it did, he would have to discard the energy and the eviolite!)
Quickly realizing his mistake, he has a decision to make. Does he admit his mistake and say "whoops, heh, this should go to the discard not the hand" or does he tries to play along like nothing happened? He chose the later, probably thinking it was the easiest way out.

But anyway, let's move on to the discussion I wanna bring up. Have you ever played against someone who tried to cheat? Did you call a judge on them? What happened? Share stories but try to keep a discussion going so this doesn't get moved to the dreaded RTC.
If someone feels there isn't enough discussion worthy material in my thread, I'll post a secondary discussion topic;
Would you call a judge on your opponent if he/she tried to cheat? Why/why not?
Finally, sorry for any misspells or grammatical errors.
And an important note: Do NOT post the names of any player who you know cheated. I'm sure everyone who has ever cheated regrets it and do not want their names posted and their rep ruined. Thank you for understanding.
 
Oh yeah. I've played against a huge cheater.
During my turn he would attempt to look at the next card he was going to draw and then if he didn't like it he would put it into the middle of his deck. I caught him doing it during game two of our top four match. I didn't report him until after he left the building after our match. I did watch him at regionals later and saw him do it so I told a Judge to keep an eye on him. I don't think he ever got caught.
 
espy87 said:
Oh yeah. I've played against a huge cheater.
During my turn he would attempt to look at the next card he was going to draw and then if he didn't like it he would put it into the middle of his deck. I caught him doing it during game two of our top four match. I didn't report him until after he left the building after our match. I did watch him at regionals later and saw him do it so I told a Judge to keep an eye on him. I don't think he ever got caught.
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Why didnt u call a judge when u saw him cheat during ur guy's game?
Posted with Mobile style...
 
The most common form of cheating I've seen is people faking mulligans. That's why I thoroughly check every mulligan. I am probably a little more likely to give them the benifit of the doubt though, as I tend to make mistakes like that pretty often.

However, I am not shy about calling judges over to watch the pace of play or anything that I see as suspicious, and if you are interested in winning tournaments you shouldn't be shy either. Just be polite, but honest and it shouldn't be a problem. If your opponent is offended, they are either too sensitive or probably were up to something.
 
Flareon said:
The most common form of cheating I've seen is people faking mulligans. That's why I thoroughly check every mulligan. I am probably a little more likely to give them the benifit of the doubt though, as I tend to make mistakes like that pretty often.

However, I am not shy about calling judges over to watch the pace of play or anything that I see as suspicious, and if you are interested in winning tournaments you shouldn't be shy either. Just be polite, but honest and it shouldn't be a problem. If your opponent is offended, they are either too sensitive or probably were up to something.
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Not to sound silly, but I just got back into play and what are mulligans?

I had my own experience at a tournament I just played in where someone evolved same turn, I didn't say anything because it was my first tournament and I was quite a bit flustered. But I did catch some hesitation on their part. Looking back I should have said something, but oh well.
 
I can't imagine anything good would come from this type of discussion.

Such a sad day when all we can do is point out all the negatives this game has instead of highlighting all the GOOD things going on.

Jimmy
 
Well we cant always talk about the good things and not even mention the bad things. It makes newer players like my self aware of cheaters, what to look out for and what to do if my opponent cheats, or if some one steals cards and all that non-sense. Its always good to be aware ya no?
Posted with Mobile style...
 
ShopCCNC said:
I can't imagine anything good would come from this type of discussion.

Such a sad day when all we can do is point out all the negatives this game has instead of highlighting all the GOOD things going on.

Jimmy
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QFT

This thread has no reason to exist. It won't give any rewarding or interesting discussion, and the second question's answer should be clear to everyone: yes, because cheating is unfair and should be punished. If someone's cheating unintentionally (accidentally drawing a card too much, accidentally playing an Item under Item lock, etc) they should be reminded of the actual rules and the game state should be corrected, but unless the game state is irreversible nothing severe should happen. Simple.

fancifulashley said:
Not to sound silly, but I just got back into play and what are mulligans?

I had my own experience at a tournament I just played in where someone evolved same turn, I didn't say anything because it was my first tournament and I was quite a bit flustered. But I did catch some hesitation on their part. Looking back I should have said something, but oh well.
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When a player gets no Basic Pokémon in their starting hand, they must shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 7 cards again. This procedure is known as a mulligan.


Josh_the_great said:
Well we cant always talk about the good things and not even mention the bad things. It makes newer players like my self aware of cheaters, what to look out for and what to do if my opponent cheats, or if some one steals cards and all that non-sense. Its always good to be aware ya no?
Posted with Mobile style...
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But you can just read the rulebook and penalty guidelines on the official Pokémon website for that, ne?
 
@ Shop and Akane: Thanks for trying to ruin my thread guys. Really appreciate it. Now if you don't mind, let's get back on-topic...

Flareon said:
The most common form of cheating I've seen is people faking mulligans. That's why I thoroughly check every mulligan. I am probably a little more likely to give them the benifit of the doubt though, as I tend to make mistakes like that pretty often.

However, I am not shy about calling judges over to watch the pace of play or anything that I see as suspicious, and if you are interested in winning tournaments you shouldn't be shy either. Just be polite, but honest and it shouldn't be a problem. If your opponent is offended, they are either too sensitive or probably were up to something.
Click to expand...
You're right about always calling a judge over. It's the best thing to do, but I can understand why some people might not want to do that in every situation. I guess a legitimate reason why you wouldn't wanna do that is because you may not want to make a big deal out of it. Your opponent cheated, you caught him, he'll surely stop. No need to involve judges. I'd understand that argument.
 
Akane said:
When a player gets no Basic Pokémon in their starting hand, they must shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 7 cards again. This procedure is known as a mulligan.
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Ok, I did not know that had a specific name. I know whenever I play, I always show my opponent my hand when that occurs. I thought that was a rule though? Or maybe it should be to solve that issue?
 
maybe the better discussion topic would be why would a player NOT call a judge when a situation like you describe in the OP occurs?

i hear/read this all the time, it seems: this happened, so-and-so is 'known' to be a cheater...but nobody wants to call a judge over at the time the problem(s) happens!

sure, you 'handled it' yourself THIS time...but that doesn't get the bad habit corrected, nor a pattern of issues with a particular player tracked with either the judges or P!P, who could actually DO something about it..

'mom
 
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fancifulashley said:
Ok, I did not know that had a specific name. I know whenever I play, I always show my opponent my hand when that occurs. I thought that was a rule though? Or maybe it should be to solve that issue?
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It is a rule; I just forgot to include the "show your hand to your opponent" part in my description of mulligans. ^_^;
 
Josh_the_great said:
Yeah true.
How many people do u know read the online official rule book though? Lol!
Posted with Mobile style...
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This is a little off topic, but I think a fair amount of the "pro" players have actually read the whole rulebook. It's actually not that bad of a read (~20 minutes if you're fast), and it contains a lot of useful information that's not obvious. The structure of top cut matches, timing rules, note taking, etc. are all things that pro players need to be well acquainted with.

As an example, it's much better for a player to know exactly what the top cut rules are before entering a tournament (so he/she can know when to scoop, how many prizes need to be drawn for game 2 to count as a full game, etc.), than for that player to figure it out as he/she goes along.
 
Well, everyone should refrain from saying cheating or calling someone a cheater unless they were trying to cheat. Accidents do happen when players are pressured. Plus, I don't think someone would openly cheat with a camera on them.
 
vaporeon said:
Well, everyone should refrain from saying cheating or calling someone a cheater unless they were trying to cheat. Accidents do happen when players are pressured. Plus, I don't think someone would openly cheat with a camera on them.
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Tell that to Alex Bertoncini, a pro Magic the Gathering player who got caught cheating on camera MULTIPLE TIMES. Just because someone is under the lens doesn't mean they won't do what they always do.
 
There are other known MTG cheats as well.

I think this thread provides a good read because it can alert us to ways people try to cheat. I'm generally a good natured person, so I tend to assume my opponents are going to always be good, honest people. But it didn't occur to me until reading someone's post that it's VERY easy to cheat on the mulligan. Now it's something I'll pay attention to more often, just in case.

If we never share these experiences and talk about these things and instead pretend they don't happen, things are never going to get better. If we don't make threads critiquing the game, or the prize structure, nothing will ever change. Healthy discussion is good for the game.
 
Kenshin's Garde said:
Tell that to Alex Bertoncini, a pro Magic the Gathering player who got caught cheating on camera MULTIPLE TIMES. Just because someone is under the lens doesn't mean they won't do what they always do.
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The best example being the two Explores trick (Alex manipulated the game state), when asked how he had six lands on turn three instead of five. (three normal land drops + two explore land drops) His opponent even agrees with him even though the feature match commentator asked him how had had six lands on turn three.

There was an extreme amount of public backlash to Alex, which led to an investigation, an 18 month ban and the revocation of his prizes.
 
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