TimmerB123 wrote:
Wow, what is this thread about anymore?
There is so much to respond to that I honestly think with my current schedule and everything going on in my life I would not be able to address everything before GenCon . . . 2013
Where to start? So many misconceptions of intent and/or the situation as a whole.
I am sure I will bounce around on topics a bit - sorry, I'm a bit ADD anyway.
So many personal attacks on me that were somehow rationalized as not personal attacks by the one who delivered them. I will try hard not to stoop to that level. (I am only human though, and the level of this is asinine)
It's interesting that so many people are up in arms that weren't even there. They are battling a theoretical monster that doesn't even exist. (Lol, I just realized how funny that statement is considering we are all SWM players)
I do have a lot to say, and it may not all even get said. At least not here.
I guess I should start by saying these things:
It has been said that I purposefully lost the match so that I wouldn't have to face Mike G in the semis. This is not true. (I was shocked when he didn't make the finals.)
It has also been said that I purposefully lost the match to help Jake make the finals
This is also not true. (Jake was 3-1 with 9 pts going into the final round, he would have made the finals if he won regardless of the outcome of ANY other match in the last round of the tournament, much less the outcome of mine.)
I have no doubt that certain people will choose to not believe me on the points I just made above, and if that is the case, we are simply at an impasse.
So - the conversation can continue with anyone accepting the above statements
Regardless of what anyone says, I have a very good sense of personal and gaming ethics. Anyone who knows me well will attest to that. People who think otherwise obviously don't know me well.
I have a rhetorical question that I will pose to the community. Let's say you were to sit down across the table from a kid. A kid who had done really well that day, and was one step away from making the final 4, after you are already guaranteed in. He sits across from you dejected and already feeling defeated because he thinks he can't beat you. You encourage him to play, and you play fast and ridiculous just to see what happens. He wins. Is this cheating? Even if you downright let him win, to try and encourage him to keep playing and never give up, is this cheating? Is this really a bad set of morals? What if you simply conceded? What would this be viewed as then? Many will say that this is not the best way to encourage a kid, and they are probably right - but that is a whole different conversation.
I have been told more times than I can count that the only way to guarantee your way into the final 4 is:
A. Go undefeated (or 1 loss for the GenCon top 8)
-or-
B. Lose no more than 1 game (2 in the GenCon top 8) with NO 2 pt wins. (This is the case since the 3/2 system started)
You might still make it otherwise, but if you meet the previous criteria you WILL make it.
Fact: Everyone that went 4-1 with only one or less 2 pt win (in other words 11 or more points) made the finals at the 2012 Star Wars Miniatures Kokomo Regionals.
I was literally bummed that Mike didn't make the final 4. He's a great guy and a really good player. I would have relished the chance to face him.
Had he won just a single additional 3 pt victory that day (he had two 2 pt victories), he would have made the final 4. No matter what the outcome of my final match ended up as.
Regardless, as I said before, I was sincerely surprised to see him not get in. Clearly I wasn't trying to avoid facing him, since I assumed I would be facing him.
On another note, a thick level of hypocrisy is apparently rampant in the SWM community.
I was going to try and not mention specific names, or specific instances from the past, but it seems impossible in this situation.
Coincidentally, a related issue to what is being accused here happened at the 2010 Kokomo regionals.
Jason Alvey conceded to let his friend and gaming partner Brandon Pyle win in the Swiss rounds so that Brandon could have a better chance of making the finals. I know this because Jason literally told me this is what he did directly, and that this was his intention.
Of course Brandon lost again and neither made the final 4, so it wasn't really examined closely.
I would personally argue that it was in his rights to do, but according to what some people have posted that would be bracket/pairing manipulation and cheating.
I respect the opinions of a lot of different people in this community. I thank those rational thinkers who defended my integrity. I put a lot of stock into the opinions of people who I consider to be intelligent, understand the game on a deep level, and are still active in competitive play. If you aren't even active in competitive play anymore, frankly you don't contribute anything valid to this conversation. There are certain people that miss on all three points, and it's just a waste of space to have them type anything. I will ignore any posts made by those people.
Furthermore, I will say this about the strategy of losing on purpose. It is a bad strategy. There are simply too many variables to be able to accurately predict the outcome. I have actually thought about this quite a bit. It is a strategy I would implore people not to use for many reasons, the least of which being community fallout.
I can guarantee this. If you face me at Wisconsin Regional - no mercy. If you are paired against me at Danville Regional - I will make every human attempt to crush you. At GenCon, even if you are a little kid playing for the first time, I will probably make you cry as I kill every one of your pieces. The community can make any rule that they want related to what they think happened (even though making a rule preventing this is preposterous and virtually impossible). Losing on purpose is not a strategy that I will be employing, therefore it won't effect me.
I will come back to this but I need to attend to more important matters such as babies being born.