Sprotmenship in nationls-Is This Pokemon's Future??

[FireFighter095ReBorn]

As the nationsl started alot of diffrent decks and attitudes roamed the field and as it progressed i noticed something in the field that i very much hated:

The sportsmenship of players were thrown away and the field was a fierce competition. Alot of players were at boiling points cheating,lying,getting bad attitudes and just plain out making the game a hostile enviorment.

Is a trip to worlds as big as to cheat your way there,fight over calls that can easily be reversed and liturlly walk in all tought stuff thinking you will win ebcayse you bar or a bar reversal deck. Here is an example:

I was playing this game and next to me some guy accuses his opponent of cheating. This problem could of been easily solved but instead they are at each others throats and it took sensei to come over and shut them up before the problems were solved. Later some kid was said to be chating by drawing too many cards a turn whne the judge wasent looking. At one point a guy who walked in all high and mighty was sitting down almost in tears because he felt he had the top deck and he fell through. At times i saw players almost ready to explode because of eaither bad calls or they felt they were gonna win and came up short.

This is a GAME! Just a GAME and nothing more. You expect to copy a bar,gary,water deck and expect to muscle to the top and if you dont dont get angry or stoop to cheating or blowing up at people.

Everyone who knows this game knows nomatter if it a trip to compete in orlando or a trip to london to compete in worlds this is a game and neds to be treated as a game. Noone deserves to treat this as a competition because if you do you will lose your chance to paly in the future.

One of the reason wizards stopped the 15+ was because of competition and the will to win is more powerful to us the the fun of the game. If we cant play for the fun of it and only play for winning then what is the point of having a 15+ division??

Even at times i lose control and play to win but when it comes down to it i play for the love of this game and to have fun in it. Many players this weekend should be ashamed at thier actions and thier non sportmenship in the pokemon TCG. I fell if this game dosent get washed ouit and played with more fun then it has no future. I dont agree that the cards/deck make the player,i agree the player makes the cards and only players who believe in a deck they build can win over a player who wants to copy a deck to win.

 

[Adv1sor]

I'm glad to say that I saw none of this behavior with any of my opponents in any of the events.

Now, when you're at the 1-3 table perhaps the game isn't as cutthroat. But then I won the sealed deck on Friday and saw nothing but good sports all around. I ended up 4-3 in the main event.

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that maybe it was just a few bad eggs?

 

[Professor_Chris]

I agree it must have been just a few bad eggs. All of my opponents were very good sports, including the one I ID'd with and he ended up not making it while I did. I beleive at a tournement at this, everyone plays to win and becomes much more competitive than usual. But, most people can keep that in check and still have a great time win or lose. Although, those who would stoop to lying and cheating to win are an entirely other story. It is still a game, and while games are meant to provide fun and competitiveness, cheating is despicable and there is no excuse for it. Fortunately, those few who do cheat aren't the future of the game, because if their only way to win is cheating and they play just to win, they will end up quitting soon enough. They become especially frustrated when you slaughter them in spite of their cheating. I've done it 2-3 years ago. ^_~ But I wouldn't worry too much about the future of this game...I beleive those with good sportsmanship out weigh those who are bad sports.

 

[ultimate_healer]

even with every tournament ive gone to i have never had myself or my opponent cheat. ive played against some of the most friendly players who i never would imagine would cheat. Chris and Colin are two of those people. they have made some of the greatest matches for me and i really appreciate that neither of us hav cheated. now as for wat happened at nationals...thats a whole different story. these people are fighting for a right to go to florida for worlds. but i would most likely believe that they were just the bad players that would never stand a chance to win it at all. all that u would really see win is the honest players that dont cheat. look at the top 4 at nationals. all people that dont cheat...from wat i believe. well not much else to say though...i believe there is still hope in the game for the true people that play with true sportsmanship. i just hope we dont see any cheating or lying at worlds.

 

[GreatFox]

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=84

I think this points it out perfecty!!!!

 

[Professor Dav]

Even at times i lose control and play to win but when it comes down to it i play for the love of this game and to have fun in it. Many players this weekend should be ashamed at thier actions and thier non sportmenship in the pokemon TCG. I fell if this game dosent get washed ouit and played with more fun then it has no future. I dont agree that the cards/deck make the player,i agree the player makes the cards and only players who believe in a deck they build can win over a player who wants to copy a deck to win.

I agree, but we need your help. If players don't report these issues to judges, there's nothing we can do. If players feel judges are not taking the appropriate actions, the must escalate to the head judge, and eventually, the TO.

I DQ'd a player for stealing prior to the beginning of the first round. This player was ejected from the event, and the convention, and will also be suspended from POP entirely. Had I heard any of these other issues during the day, suffice it to say, I would've gotten out into the event area more, and had a look for myself. However, since I wasn't hearing any of these reports, I felt it best to stay at the tournament registration area and deal with the issues as they arose there.

Please, remember, we need you to report those players who aren't living up to the level of sportsmanship that we expect in this game. It's very hard for us to find them without you reporting them. I believe that the majority of our players are good sports who do not engage in this type of behavior, but as they say, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, so we need those bad apples removed asap.

Thanks!

Prof. Dav

 

[White Gryphon]

My goodness. I wish I could have been there (unfortunately, Dad only has 2 weeks vacation, and June 26th didn't fall on either of those two weeks) so that I could bear witness to this and somehow become more educated in the matters of dealing with that horrid behavior... Lying? Cheating? Stealing? These people are worse than the tiny crowd I have to keep cool at my own league! Of course, the ones I have sometimes leap up and start pounding the snot out of each other over the smallest thing, but at least they're starting to get the idea of "representing" and setting a good example to the parents who sneak into the store to watch us and to see whether or not it's a good idea to send their own kids to the league.

These people who steal and cheat just to try and make it to Worlds with decks and strategies that they didn't even design themselves, these people are not real pokemon trainers. They don't belong among us nor do they have no business associating themselves with those who play this game with respect and dignity towards other players as well as towards the game itself.

 

[DARKGeNGaR094]

Worst slop ever, yeah RIGHT
you haven't heared my story yet and probably don't want to
hint: dutch nationals yesterday (sunday)
hint: little belgian boy known for being rude to judges and complaining about everything
hint: if i win this match against him i'm going to worlds (next to last round)
hint: he wants a draw
hint: it was 1-1 and i was murdering his gardies (with b/ex) 3 mins before time
you think up the rest

 

[SuperWooper]

At one point a guy who walked in all high and mighty was sitting down almost in tears because he felt he had the top deck and he fell through.

I know this person, and he lives in my area. He's got a pretty impressive tournament record, but there are rumors that he stacks his deck, and he doesn't let people cut his deck. Hey, these are just rumors, so I don't know if it's true or not, and I'm not sure that I believe it or not. However, I have seen him in matchups where his opponent forgets to cut his deck, and he doesn't remind them. Why wouldn't you remind them unless your deck is rigged? *shrug* I'm going to give him the BOTD for now, but if he ever pulls anything funny on me, don't expect any mercy.

FireFighter, you're making it sound like people do not have the right to get angry about when others cheat. You make it sound like people were angry that they lost so they made up things like "my opponent drew too many cards". You make it sound like there weren't any cheaters at nationals, and that we shouldn't get angry when our opponents cheat. Ever heard of righteous anger? I'm not saying you should be yelling at each other, but you certainly MUST report the cheating incident to somebody who's got the power to turn it around.

I think the reason some of the cheating wasn't caught was lack of staff. I'll stop there, so I won't get bombarded with flames and arguments and people trying to defend themselves even though I wasn't accusing them. 0_o

This is a GAME! Just a GAME and nothing more.

Do not tell that to Zuver...he'll sick his Furret on you! ^_~

 

[Xeno]

I remember accusing someone as a cheater because he refused to put the damage counters he forgot to put on his Rayquaza ex because of Desert Ruins. But this was all a joke and we continued to play and laugh after I said "Cheater!" in an angry tone. I did call over Sensei to make him put the counters on and we continued onwards in a friendly manner. He's a really good friend of mine and we like to mess around a lot.

 

[Glumanda]

I DQ'd a player for stealing prior to the beginning of the first round. This player was ejected from the event, and the convention, and will also be suspended from POP entirely.

Does that mean that the actual penalty guidelines are turned over and we get new, improved ones?

 

[Rainbowgym]

There is also sportive behaviour.
My son was in his last game and had a draw against his opponent, because time was called.
For him that 1 point was enough to be on the first place, but he didn't realize that fully.
I only told him that if he could win that game, he was the champion. But it was a draw so he was a bit confused when everyone started to congratulate him.
All the 10- kids had a booster on their table and he picked up his and walked to me and said Mom is it oké to give it to him, and I said yes that's nice to do.

Don't tell me that it was an easy one, because for a nine year kid a booster is the same as a bag with goodies, they don't see the value difference.
It's for me more important that he had eyes for his opponent and thinked about him, even if it was "only" a booster.

 

[Articjedi]

Yeah, not all players are bad, it's just those bad eggs that get to us. However, I still beleive that we need stricter penalties. Although this game is meant to be fun and light-hearted for all players, cheating takes all of the fun and light-heartedness away. The thing is, as dark as this sounds, you have to assume that players are cheating no matter what, even if they aren't in their mind. Worlds should have penalty guidelines similar to the guidelines for worlds under WOTC. I was there in Seattle hearing about the last round, as sad as it sounds that both finalists received game losses, it seems to be the only way to ensure fair play and that players should know exactly what they are doing. The lack of sportsmenship and the seemingly high amount of cheating here at nationals shouldn't be allowed to happen again imo.

 

[White Gryphon]

Perhaps there is a different way of going at that, Articjedi... I hate to think of any player, good rep or not, as guilty until proven innocent. I am attempting to train myself to handle the stress brought on by settling a gaming dispute, mostly through calming exercises... I have no idea if I will be successful or not... But there certainly are ways to tell if a person is attempting to get away with cheating, all I want to figure out is how to differentiate stress through lying from stress through being unnecessarily competitive. In the end there should be a way of seeing players as innocent until proven guilty, to restore the integrity of this game without imposing a mental lockdown over the players...

 

[Cyrus]

I remember accusing someone as a cheater because he refused to put the damage counters he forgot to put on his Rayquaza ex because of Desert Ruins. But this was all a joke and we continued to play and laugh after I said "Cheater!" in an angry tone. I did call over Sensei to make him put the counters on and we continued onwards in a friendly manner. He's a really good friend of mine and we like to mess around a lot.

Lol, are you talking about ole Seth? =P

 

[Xeno]

Lol, are you talking about ole Seth? =P

Although old Seth came with us, it was another person who doesn't come to the boards at all. He does play in places around Texas because his mom also plays so they get to go on all the road trips. He played Gator at Nationals and his name is Trent, you remember him, Johnny Boy? =P

Back on topic...

Besides the whole issue with the sleeves and joking with my friends, the event itself had really nice people in it. Everyone else shook my hand when I said "Good Game" and all that and when they made a coment about it, I would say that I'm trying to be polite and we would laugh about it.

 

[HYPER EEVEE]

yeah i know what u guys mean one guy who comes to our legue when we have tournaments his dad shows him how to cheat, but at nationals i was crying when I played my friend we wanted to id but it was the first round. WE both ended up not making the top i lost out thanx to the dumb tie breaker which favored those who were given two wins which i had to work for

 

[Tormentedsoul14]

I didn't see any of it goin on at Nationals but I heard about it. The people I played were very nice.

 

[davechri]

I posted something, but changed my mind. I don't want to open a can of worms.