Wow. Don't even know where to start here, so I'm just going to brain dump so sorry if it comes across as rambling.

Do you know what my biggest fear was going into the final game? It wasn't losing or even flying a ship off the board or doing something as embarrassing as that. It was doing something that would cause a controversy...bump a ship, a dice issue, an asteroid issue, who knows what...just don't do anything you'll regret, Rick!!! And well, look where we are now.

I'm just a regular guy. I used to do tournaments for some other gaming systems but I don't anymore. I have a wonderful family and work life and get to play some games one night a week or so as a means to relax and have some fun.

A friend of mine got me into this game almost a year ago and I immediately fell in love with it. We started playing in some leagues at some local stores and got to meet some really great people. We picked up another regular to our core group and when FF announced the store championship series we decided we should give it a shot. I asked my loving and understanding wife if I could play in a few of these and she said sure. I started messing around on Vassal some and started getting better at the game.

At some point I got exposed to the whole "Fly Casual" concept and loved it. One of the biggest reasons why I stopped playing tournaments for other systems was the "win-at-all costs attitude". I participated in a store championship and had a situation with an opponent who had rubbed me the wrong way. He made a mistake and there was absolutely no way I was letting him take it back. I was right, he was wrong but I was brutal about it. I had become the biggest a$$ in the room. Afterwards I did not at all feel good about myself. I decided that I wasn't going to let that happen. I was going to play this game for the fun of it (still flying tough mind you) but I was going to make sure it was fun! So I took Fly Casual and ran with it and in some cases I took it to extreme's that even I couldn't believe I was taking it to.
• At a store championship semi-finals game I decided to concede the game rather than take a judge's ruling that would have given me a win.
• At the Kingston regional I decided to concede the game rather than take a judge's ruling that would have given me a win.
• At Kingston I had a player tell me he didn't believe in "give and take", afterwards I proceeded to remind him of 6 missed actions during the course of our game but never asked for any in return.
• At the Kingston regional semi-finals with 10 minutes to go and the game easily in the bag I had a golden opportunity to run away and take the easy win. Instead I decided to make the game fun for both my opponent and I, went after Han and nearly lost.
• At the Atlanta regional when I was 2-0 in a very close game my opponent revealed his dial as a 1 forward putting Wedge directly on asteroid. He cussed and starting moving the ship and when I asked he said his dial slid. I allowed him to change his move and wedge proceeded to destroy most of my list. I won on a lucky shot at the end of the game otherwise the game was his.
• At the Atlanta regional when I was 3-0 (very next game) I had the game well in hand and had disengaged Corran with 1 hull left. We were running out of time but instead of running away I turned around and came back to mix it up because it would be fun. He killed Corran on the last shot of the game and won by 1 point.
Things are just some of the off-the wall things I was doing. So OK I realize some of these actions aren't normal but it's me. It's how I have come to play this game and to be honest with you it's something I am proud of. In game I'm going to do my absolute best to out-pilot you. But if a situation comes up where I think something disadvantageous to me might be fun, I might do it. If there is EVER any question about doing the sporting thing I always try to do the sporting thing. That is how I play this game.

So shoot...getting back on track.

When I won a couple store championships and the next step was Regional's I again asked my wife if it was OK and she said sure. Some time before my first regional I checked the FF forums and someone had announced "Only 4 tickets left for Gen Con". To this day I'm really not quite sure why I did it, but I immediately logged on and snatched one of the tickets completely on impulse. I started to have some buyer's remorse and wasn't sure what I'd do so I just told myself "If I can win a regional I'll figure out a way to go and if not I'll sell the tickets". I never really thought I'd win one. I knew I was getting better and had a chance but I didn't think it would happen.

To make a long post, a little less long, I won one. I again had to ask my wonderful wife if I could give the next step a chance. She's so awesome and supportive of me of course she said yes. I did have a problem though. I didn't know anyone going and hotels and plane tickets were priced crazy. We've been working hard to stay on budget and this was definitely not in it so I decided the lowest cost way for me to attend was to drive alone 10 and a half hours through the night on Wednesday. Sleep in the car when I got tired. Then sleep in the backseat of my car at the KOA campground (where they have showers...personal hygiene is a must!!!) before driving back on Saturday (which due to my making it to the finals became 2:00AM Sunday morning) immediately after the tournament.

<<<Let me interrupt myself here. I'm not making excuses or looking for sympathy or any of that crap. I really enjoy this community. Sure there are people I may not agree with but as whole you guys are awesome. I want to continue to be a part of this community without you judging me before I have at least had my chance to speak my peace. So I guess that's what I'm doing here. >>>

So I decide to bring a list that is fun for me. Yes it has hard counters. Yes it counters some other lists well but it's fun. It's so much fun for me to fly both Soontir and Whisper and I have really been focusing lately more on playing what is fun rather then what is the most competitive. So I'm running with it and hey it worked in Kingston, maybe it will work again!!

Thursday is grueling. I had already decided that if I lost I wasn't going to try again on Friday. I'd spend some time in the exhibit hall on Friday then leave to get back to family. It wasn't looking good for me so I decided to see if could try to score some wave 5 ships and rebel aces. I went back between every round and it wasn't looking good. Then during one break the line was way too long but the card guy was at the back of the line and immediately gave me the cards for the ships. All I had to do was figure out a way to cash them in before 6. I did so a few rounds later and nearly missed the start of the 5:40 round because of it, but at least I had my ships. I finished up my 3-3 sure I was going home but when the results came out I had barely slid in at 28th place. Win-win (or so I thought at the time) I have my new ships and I get to play on Saturday!!!!

I fly my a$$ off on Saturday. I'm no national power-house in this game. I'm just another guy and yet I'm in there mixing it up with the best of them. There I am with my crack-pot list beating some of the best players in the world (all of whom I have the utmost respect for).

So enough of the back-story. Let's jump to the situation. I make it to the final game:

The whole attack sequence of events with whisper as I have him set up can be very tedious.
1. Roll attack dice.
2. If focus and / or tl is used remove token(s) and reroll dice if necessary.
3. FCS kicks in and tl tokens are replaced.
4. If all damage is cancelled gunner kicks in.
5. Attack dice are rolled again.
6. If focus and / or tl is used remove token(s) and reroll dice if necessary.
7. FCS kicks in and tl tokens are replaced.
8. ACD kicks in and he re-cloaks so the token is placed.
9. If he causes a damage a focus is token is placed.

The first couple times of each game I go through this process very deliberately with my opponent (unless of course they cut me off and say..."Yeah I know how Whisper works" or something like that.) After that point it gets very tedious and in most all cases I don't think either player wants to take the time to go through it all step by step, pulling tokens, etc. So normally I work the whole sequence out then place the final tokens at the end. Again this is only done after I feel my opponent understands what is going on. I have never yet had a player tell me they had a problem with me doing so but if they did I would gladly go through it every time for the entire game.

As I was attacking Chewie in the final game for whatever reason my brain was having a lot of trouble understanding how the damage was being cancelled. I never doubted Jeff, I just didn't understand. Yes I know how C3-P0 works, I know how focus and evade tokens work and I know how DTF works but at that point in the night my brain just wasn't computing. I'd stare at the dice and the damage and not understand. I can't tell you why for sure, stress, fatigue, pressure, who knows. Alex and Jeff actually had to walk me through it a couple times (and then to be quite honest with you all I STILL couldn't make it compute but I knew they wouldn't do me wrong).

Well all that happens after I roll dice and before I place tokens. So at some point ( I don't recall when) I look down at Whisper and the tokens aren't there. My stomach sinks to the floor. He's supposed to have the tokens. He always has the tokens. Why aren't the **** tokens there????

It's all a blur to me. I have no idea what I said. I don't know if I asked to place the tokens, if I asked to do the actions (which the focus wouldn't have technically been an action), or if I just mentioned that he was uncloaked or mentioned he didn't have the tokens..I don't recall. But if my memory is right it was I who somehow pointed out to Jeff that the tokens weren't there. I didn't mean to be unsporting. I didn't mean to be anything. I just remember being horrified that they weren't there and somehow communicating that they weren't there.

I don't recall his exact initial response but he indicated that it was acceptable for me to place the tokens.
So the game goes on. To say that wasn't a pivotal point would be untrue. I don't recall the exact dice but the 4 extra green dice and 1 extra token was used over 2 attacks and whisper escaped undamaged.

The next turn he starts to move Chewie before allowing me to move Yorr. At this point I know that Chewie and Yorr will bump (thus making the ideal action for Yorr a TL on Lando) but I let him know that I would have focused had I not known and that so I will keep focus as my action. Again we are having a fun fly-casual game. It was the right thing to do.

We continued to have a fun game until I noticed one person in the crowd was apparently very upset at the decision Jeff had made to allow me to place my tokens. He approached him at least once as we were still playing the game to ask him to challenge if I had actually cloaked or not. Jeff never did so and was a super sport all the way through but it was at this point I realized that my greatest fear had likely been realized. Someone was apparently very upset about this and wasn't likely going to let it go.

When I won the game I was super excited but also had a sinking feeling in my stomach. At one point I had Alex and Frank off to the side and apologized to them about the mix up. I asked them if everything was still going to be OK with community and they assured me it would be but in back of my head I knew someone had a big problem with me.

I put on my best happy face and moved on. I also tried to do the same through the TC interview. You want a spoiler...It was so much on my mind that I even had a Freudian slip during the interview when asked how to beat the list I said "punish me when I make a mistake" I nearly puked after I realized what I said.

So I jump in the car at 2:00AM to drive home. 14 hours (counting the 3 I spent staring at the ceiling of my car at a rest area just east of Louisville). I spend the evening trying to enjoy the time with my family but this crap is in the back of my head. I try to sleep last night but can't with all this crap in my head. I can't do it anymore. So this post is going to be the end of it.

I'm at a point right now where I regret even going to the tournament. Those 6 new boxes of ships that I was so excited about on Thursday are sitting behind me and I don't even want to look at them.

I need to move on. So that's what trying to do here.

When I left early Sunday morning Jeff, Alex, and Frank were OK with things. If any of them feel differently now I hope they contact me and I promise to do whatever I can to make things right by them.

If I get the chance to play any of you reading this one day I hope we have blast regardless of who wins or loses. And I absolutely promise to you that I will do all I can to be the best sport possible.

Thanks for taking the time to read my long post.

-Rick

Well, while for me this post is not needed.

I wouldn't allow you to take the tokens back to be honest. Yes, you forgot about them. I can get that the stress etc, can be quite hard, but so it is for your opponent aswell, which is exactly in the same conditions as you are. But since i am not your opponent, and he allowed you, i don't see the problem. The discussion i think it is less about this event, and more about the general rule of thumb than most of us would follow, and i think we had a very civil discussion there.

Cheers on your victory thought, i don't think you are less deserving, and i know that this kind of things can get easilly on your skin, just like everything on the internet, you need to get thick skin. I can't wait to listen/read to your interview.

I don't think the list is really bad, i had flied it, and i see it has a lot of potential if you are a good player, and for sure you are. You just need to work on your nerves!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I basically have avoided playing in tournaments. I guess I just really enjoy the whole "fly casual" thing, and have no problem helping out an opponent to remember abilities, tokens, etc. For me, much like you, it is always about having fun, and not worrying about "winning".

I definitely believe that you can play to win, play at your very best, and still play to have fun. To be clear, I have met many wonderful, nice people at FLGS's, Store Championships, Regionals, etc. In fact, most of them have been that way.

So I don't avoid tournaments because I feel people aren't nice and all, but because I just don't want to be in a situation, such as you found yourself. I just want to have fun, and I don't want to have to consider every last thing that I say and do, and how it will impact others.

Respect. Congrats on your win.

Frankly, it doesn't matter to anyone other than your opponent. If he let you do it, then it's on him to deal with the consequences. You both played well and both your gamesmanship was superb.

Relax, man.

Seriously. Any gimmes or takebacks are between you and your opponent. If some asswad in the crowd doesn't like what happened, or some twits think they need to start a megathread about how THEY wouldn't have let you do it, they mean nothing.

It was fine with your opponent, and the game is between you and your opponent. That's it.

I'm not even going to touch the actual situation, because it's irrelevant.

Let the hecklers and naysayers piss off. You enjoyed your game. Your opponent enjoyed your game. The spectators can sit on a Tie Defender.

Rick, you won the game fair and square. Don't sweat it. It sounds like both of you played honorably and fairly. One overlooked action does not negate your win. It doesn't negate all the wins you had before that game, and it doesn't negate what happened after it. Enjoy your championship. It's well deserved.

Honestally maybe your good karma for always helping others has caught up to you. In my mind no one seems to blame you and my faith in the "Fly Casual" aspect of the game has been heightened. Also if your opponent won because you forgot to use your tokens, he could feel the same way right now.

Much respect to both you and your opponent for prioritizing courtesy and enjoyment of the game.

Fly Casual.

Don't let that grumpy guy get to you. There's a "don't be a d-bag" clause in the rules somewhere. There's a section on forgetting stuff, IIRC. You're opponent allowed you to place your tokens. He's the only one that mattered. Some people wouldn't let you and that's their right, but this guy did, because he's probably flying casual too. It isn't that bystander's decision whether or not you get to place tokens, so forget about him. Enjoy your new ships. Keep flying casual.

You, sir, are all about Flying Casual.

As Buhalin beat me to say, the game was between the two of you. No one else. What happened on your board, is between the two of you. I have the utmost respect for you and how the game was played.

Enjoy your ships. Enjoy your victory. No matter what anyone else may think or say or be something of a moron about, you earned it.

If you're ever up near Peterborough, let me know. I'll buy you a beer. And we can have a match or two. But... play first. Beer second.

Speaking only as someone who loses more tournament games than he wins, I would much rather lose a well-fought match than win because of some obvious mistake from my opponent (and this is pretty obvious, since there's zero downside to taking the focus token).

These things are very long and totally exhausting. You played fairly, you played well, and you earned it. I know exactly who you are talking about and I will tell you exactly what I said (and my opinion was the shared by all the others). It was none of his business, at all, full stop.

Don't spend another minute thinking about it. Every top player in the game knows you earned your win, fairly, decently, and completely, the opinion of one guy (and there is always one, no matter what) is just not something to be concerned about. Consider there was a Senator who was concerned about Guam capsizing, and understand there is always someone who just doesn't get it.

Congratulations, you deserve it.

Yep. The only person who should have an issue is your opponent. And they obviously didn't. And most people who watch these don't quite fully understand what meat grinder it is, emotionally, mentally, and physically. The comments people are making about mistakes of finals games that are being played at midnight are ignorant of the true situation.

Congratulations on your victory.

This thread makes me sad....dunno if i'd want to play in a big tournament now.

Your opponent flew casual, you were in the fatigue of tournament play. It was high level play, where, I know I'd want to win against someone playing at their best.

Yep. The only person who should have an issue is your opponent. And they obviously didn't. And most people who watch these don't quite fully understand what meat grinder it is, emotionally, mentally, and physically. The comments people are making about mistakes of finals games that are being played at midnight are ignorant of the true situation.

Congratulations on your victory.

I am one of those speaking about mistakes on tournaments, and i had been in 4 day LAN tournaments many times. I completely understand the situation, the nerves, etc... what you don't seem to understand isthat those kind of mistakes make or lose games. Fair and square.

As i said before, it is nobody's business but for his opponent and him, but don't make silly claims.

Hey man, I hope my comments in other threads didn't contribute to any negative feelings on your end. Its easy to post opinions on the internet about third parties without thinking how they may take it when they read it. When I use the word "punish" I mean only in the context of the game, not the people involved. I don't think you or your opponent did the "wrong" thing.

I think the reason there is so much discussion around your game is because there is no default response to situations like this which makes it hard to know what to do in these situations. As we evolve as a community hopefully there will be less of these awkward situations for high-profile players.

The important thing is that everyone on this forum who knows you or has played with you has nothing but wonderful things to say. Congratulations on your win, I hope I get to play you some day

PS its just a game.

I followed along during your game here on the boards while someone posted the play by play on the 2014 National results thread. It was exciting. It sounded like fun. You should not feel guilty because you (and your opponent) did great.

Yep. The only person who should have an issue is your opponent. And they obviously didn't. And most people who watch these don't quite fully understand what meat grinder it is, emotionally, mentally, and physically. The comments people are making about mistakes of finals games that are being played at midnight are ignorant of the true situation.

Congratulations on your victory.

I am one of those speaking about mistakes on tournaments, and i had been in 4 day LAN tournaments many times. I completely understand the situation, the nerves, etc... what you don't seem to understand isthat those kind of mistakes make or lose games. Fair and square.

As i said before, it is nobody's business but for his opponent and him, but don't make silly claims.

Why would you want to win based on a mistake like that?

Like i wouldn't want to win based on a mistake like that. A minor mistake is not minor if it can decide the game.

Edit

Since i do not want this taken out of context. This had been repeated, i am expressing my opinion on what i would do in such circumstances, not that Darktemplar or his opponent acted wrongly. I don't see any trouble if his opponent allowed him.

What baffles me is that people would had thought less of his opponent if he didn't allow him (like you said, "you have to be a wanker").

YOU GOT 6 BOXES OF SHIPS! WOAH DUDE

Gonna whisper in your ear that I echo what everyone is saying: your opponent (correctly) extended the same courtesy you've been doing to others all this time. Take that in earnest since you expect the same when you do it to others. The finals, at your height of fatigue, is no time to sourly battle on those small details, especially since your little sequence of phantom steps held no surprise.

I'm very proud of you for breaking a new barrier in the game, winning a national event with a shuttle!

edit - do you have a scanner? XD

Rick, it was an honor to meet you this weekend and watch you fly that list like a beast. I assure you I have zero issue with how things unfolded and anyone who really plays this game and is part of this great community understands the situation and has no problems with how it was handled. Class act by both you and Jeff. Take a deep breath and enjoy the victory. You earned it. Your play on Saturday was some of the best flying I've ever seen in this game. Again, great to meet you and hope to get the chance to play you at worlds in November. Congrats, man!!!

Yep. The only person who should have an issue is your opponent. And they obviously didn't. And most people who watch these don't quite fully understand what meat grinder it is, emotionally, mentally, and physically. The comments people are making about mistakes of finals games that are being played at midnight are ignorant of the true situation.

Congratulations on your victory.

I am one of those speaking about mistakes on tournaments, and i had been in 4 day LAN tournaments many times. I completely understand the situation, the nerves, etc... what you don't seem to understand isthat those kind of mistakes make or lose games. Fair and square.

As i said before, it is nobody's business but for his opponent and him, but don't make silly claims.

Why would you want to win based on a mistake like that?

Like i wouldn't want to win based on a mistake like that. A minor mistake is not minor if it can decide the game.

If he'd been doing the exact same thing, every round, for round after round, and notably indicated he was going to keep on doing that...then there was no mistake.

So he didn't physically place the token on the board - okay, fine. Heck, how many people bother to keep piling up stress tokens next to a PtL-Tycho after you've already committed to a strategy that maxes him out? ("Okay, gimme a sec, I need to find a 7th stress token in my box...") Doesn't happen! Not putting a cloak and focus token down beside a ship that has done that same exact thing every other turn, and has no reason to EVER do anything else, does not mean those things didn't happen in a "fly casual" game any more than 8 turns of PtL on Tycho with no stress tokens next to him means he isn't stressed - everyone playing knows what the situation is, and that's all that is needed.

I don't know what you are trying to argue Xanderf (for starters, you are saying he did it, but just didn't put the tokens down, something he had said he doesn't even know because of stress, etc.) but let's see:

Was is it a mistake ? Yep.

His opponent allowed him to redo ? Yep.

So everything is fine ? Yep.

But, would had been poor sportsmanship from his opponent if he didn't allow him to re-do ? No.