At least the thread title is accurate.

Seconded.

A 2014 study titled Trolls Just Want to Have Fun found that people who are identified as trolls tend to have dark personality traits and show signs of sadism , psychopathy , and Machiavellianism . ^[36]

The study defined online trolling as the practice of behaving in a deceptive, destructive, or disruptive manner in a social setting on the Internet with no apparent instrumental purpose. Trolls operate as agents of chaos on the Internet, exploiting hot-button issues to make users appear overly emotional or foolish in some manner. If an unfortunate person falls into their trap, trolling intensifies for further, merciless amusement. This is why novice Internet users are routinely admonished, "Do not feed the trolls!" The study suggested that the noxious personality characteristics known as the dark triad of personality should be investigated in the analysis of trolling. Their relevance is suggested by research linking these traits to bullying in both adolescents and adults.

Report button pushed, multiple times, others please join in on the reporting.

I wish there was a way to ignore certain forum members. Or possibly a way to identify "_____ has posted in this topic" so I know to not bother reading through it.

On topic - Whomever said that the previous was pulled down, I believe you were referring to the store in Corpus Cristi that put the entire kit online for auction, along with the SWLCG and bits and pieces of the Netrunner set. I reported them to FFG, and all of their ebay listings were pulled. But then a few days later, they were listed under a "rookie" ebay account, based in Corpus Cristi. I re-reported them to FFG, but I don't think anything happened since now it was an "individual" selling "individual" components of the kits.

*Shrug. It bugs me at first, but then I think about it again, and realize that if my biggest problem is someone I don't know is getting money for selling a piece of paper to someone else that I don't know, then I got a pretty good life. And it no longer bothers me.

There is an ignore feature. It's not the most intuitive to get there, but it is there when you go to "edit my profile".

What ELSE are you supposed to do with 2?

I mean, the events are so spread out now, gotta raise funds SOME how.

It does hurt the spirit of the competition a bit, but really, earning one is worth more than even having one.

I wish there was a way to ignore certain forum members. Or possibly a way to identify "_____ has posted in this topic" so I know to not bother reading through it.

Why would you want to ignore certain members? I find them to be a never ending source of amusement. It gives me my daily chuckle. There's some here that take this game far too seriously ( not aimed at you Khyros, but the trolls ).

I wish there was a way to ignore certain forum members. Or possibly a way to identify "_____ has posted in this topic" so I know to not bother reading through it.

Why would you want to ignore certain members? I find them to be a never ending source of amusement. It gives me my daily chuckle. There's some here that take this game far too seriously ( not aimed at you Khyros, but the trolls ).

Mainly because I normally can just sneak peaks at the forums inbetween busy times at work, and I'd rather spend that time reading about the game and what people are thinking up and ideas on the game instead of a flame war between two people that just consumes half the thread (but with good info still sprinkled in throughout to keep me reading).

I hope you guys will believe me when I say that I'm also more interested in talking about the game than I am arguing with my detractors. That having been said, the moderators are now paying attention, so perhaps we can get back to the topic at hand.

My position is this: from a practical stance, the results of any given round in a tournament are sacrosanct. You cannot win a handful of rounds and then allow your friend, or someone who has given you money, to step in and take your place. Why, then, should a first round bye be for sale? Because you have a neat little certificate? That certificate is more symbolic than anything else. It is a trophy, not a token to be bartered with.

From a more abstract point of view, a tournament (and its accompanying results) are not the property of the players, but rather those of the game and its proprietor - in this case FFG. In Magic we have the DCI, which acts as the governing body for the game itself. If a parallel exists in X-Wing I am unaware of it, but the principle stands. You may earn your victories, including prizes such as first round byes, but you do not own them.

Man...this thread went off the rails quickly.

I hope you guys will believe me when I say that I'm also more interested in talking about the game than I am arguing with my detractors. That having been said, the moderators are now paying attention, so perhaps we can get back to the topic at hand.

My position is this: from a practical stance, the results of any given round in a tournament are sacrosanct. You cannot win a handful of rounds and then allow your friend, or someone who has given you money, to step in and take your place. Why, then, should a first round bye be for sale? Because you have a neat little certificate? That certificate is more symbolic than anything else. It is a trophy, not a token to be bartered with.

From a more abstract point of view, a tournament (and it's accompanying results) are not the property of the players, but rather those of the game and its proprietor - in this case FFG. In Magic we have the DCI, which acts as the governing body for the game itself. If a parallel exists in X-Wing I am unaware of it, but the principle stands. You may earn your victories, including prizes such as first round byes, but you do not own them.

I want to respond to you, but I'm not sure I can do so without being a snarky s.o.b.

That being said, if you win your match, do with the spoils as you please. Your effort/skill/time, et al. got you there, and your Bye is a physical representation of that and is therefore fair game.

It may not sit easily in the stomach, but this is not an issue worth debating.

It may not sit easily in the stomach, but this is not an issue worth debating.

Agreed. No amount of master debating will resolve this.

My position is this: from a practical stance, the results of any given round in a tournament are sacrosanct. You cannot win a handful of rounds and then allow your friend, or someone who has given you money, to step in and take your place. Why, then, should a first round bye be for sale? Because you have a neat little certificate? That certificate is more symbolic than anything else. It is a trophy, not a token to be bartered with.

From a more abstract point of view, a tournament (and its accompanying results) are not the property of the players, but rather those of the game and its proprietor - in this case FFG. In Magic we have the DCI, which acts as the governing body for the game itself. If a parallel exists in X-Wing I am unaware of it, but the principle stands. You may earn your victories, including prizes such as first round byes, but you do not own them.

I hope you guys will believe me when I say that I'm also more interested in talking about the game than I am arguing with my detractors. That having been said, the moderators are now paying attention, so perhaps we can get back to the topic at hand.

My position is this: from a practical stance, the results of any given round in a tournament are sacrosanct. You cannot win a handful of rounds and then allow your friend, or someone who has given you money, to step in and take your place. Why, then, should a first round bye be for sale? Because you have a neat little certificate? That certificate is more symbolic than anything else. It is a trophy, not a token to be bartered with.

From a more abstract point of view, a tournament (and it's accompanying results) are not the property of the players, but rather those of the game and its proprietor - in this case FFG. In Magic we have the DCI, which acts as the governing body for the game itself. If a parallel exists in X-Wing I am unaware of it, but the principle stands. You may earn your victories, including prizes such as first round byes, but you do not own them.

I want to respond to you, but I'm not sure I can do so without being a snarky s.o.b.

That being said, if you win your match, do with the spoils as you please. Your effort/skill/time, et al. got you there, and your Bye is a physical representation of that and is therefore fair game.

It may not sit easily in the stomach, but this is not an issue worth debating.

It isn't fair to the players in the second round of the next tournament who are supposed to be playing the winner of the last one, nor to anyone else in subsequent rounds. At best this goes against the spirit of the prize, at worst it amounts to little more than event tampering.

Imagine what would happen if we permitted this in the world of professional sports. A talented tennis player earns an invite to Wimbledon, but sells it to some country club member with too much money. That member gets his clock cleaned in the first round by Rafael Nadal, who coasts to an easy victory. Every player Nadal's subsequently matched up with has to play against him while he's comparatively better rested and relaxed, including whoever inevitably wins the opposite half of the draw (presumably Djokovic). At the end of the fortnight you have a men's final where one player had to win 6 contested matches, and the other only 5. Now, does that really sound fair?

taking it far too seriously...

Tournaments are serious to some people.

Tournaments are serious to some people.

Indeed. However, this isn't a professional sport, it's a tabletop game that costs $10 to participate in to nab a potential bye.

Indeed. However, this isn't a professional sport, it's a tabletop game that costs $10 to participate in to nab a potential bye.

The principle is the same. Buying/selling tournament results is flat out wrong.

It's bad form to sell a bye or purchase a bye from someone. They should be earned. Right.

But, this is a tournament structure for a miniatures game that costs 10 bucks to enter. Frankly, there isn't enough money in it to support any type of structure to police what happens with earned byes.

It shouldn't happen, but it will (and it's not the end of the world if it does), and that's about all that really needs to be said, or am I missing something?

The by represents a contract, not a possession, sale would need to be approved by both parties. Do the buyers tell the staff they bought the by? If they hide it, then we all know it's wrong.

Tournaments are serious to some people.

Indeed. However, this isn't a professional sport, it's a tabletop game that costs $10 to participate in to nab a potential bye.

Give it time and it could get following on twitch and climb the ranks of being part of a MLG format.

And you sir must not travel for tournaments. while entry is 10, the travel costs get up there.

Played in tournaments in i think 5 states now. (not complaining, just giving another pov)

Some of us do take this game (semi) seriously. I do because this is the first game I've played, and done well enough at, that i feel i could make a name for myself in.

So a person arranges for 4 store championships in his area with 5 of his closest friends. They give a bye to 4 and the 5th is the best player of the bunch. If that last player wins his first round (and now knows he won't pair vs. his friends) he starts 2-0 at regionals if be draws one of his 4 friends. If they were really smart they would build specific lists to combat the best players worst match up so that going into round 3 he plays either one of his friends, a list that beat one of his friends and now has less strength of schedule due to beating someone with a bye, and I can stop with this highly unlikely scenario at this point because the fact that something like this CAN happen right now is kind of a problem in and of itself.

If you are going to pay "any" amount of money and spend "any" amount of travel time to participate in an event that could grant you an easier path to a regional/worlds win, it should be even and fair to all participants, not just those that spend the most money on eBay.

Being new to the game I'm going to ask a question which will undoubtedly sound stupid to those of you who know what this topic is all about:

What is the benefit to someone who buys the whatever from whoever?

I openly admit I'm commenting out of ignorance, so be gentle on me, but I shall at least try to articulate my bemusement as best as possible here:

From what I can gather, and I may be wrong, somebody was playing in a tournament. After a round or two he sold his whatever on ebay which someone bought to take their place in further rounds of said tournament. Hoping I got that part right.

Whatever your feelings toward the seller I can't figure out why someone would spend money to buy it. Why? What is to be gained?

If the seller had gone through the tournament, earned a shiny trophy and then sold it I can get that. Buyer either wants to impress someone by saying they earned it, or just wants a nice shiny ornament to sit on their shelf. But to pay so much to enter a tournament after it has already started seems a pointless waste of money to me.

Please can somebody take this ugly bag of snakes and lay them out straight for me.

For some reason my post didn't save.

In order to address all issues, make the game the most fair, and eliminate any questionable scenarios, removing byes altogether would be the most logical step.

Even then you'll have people dump matches to friends, or purposefully stall, fudge their dials, etc. The more seriously you take the game, the more likely it is someone will cheat to win.