The proxy cards are the only verifiable concern I see there. I'm sure people would have let him borrow their cards though, so it's not like it couldn't have been fixed.

I disagree. A Store Championship is little more important than a local tournament. Let the TO play. It only becomes an issue, imo, when you get the larger tournaments. 25 plus.

I was at this event, and there's even more questionable behavior from what I saw.

• At the beginning, the TO didn't even want us to turn in list sheets. "As long as we'd shown him our lists". We insisted and he said fine.
• At the start of the event, the store owner announced there would be 4 rounds and a cut to top 4. After the first round ended, (where the TO picked his oppoenent and won) the TO announced we'd only be playing 3 rounds, making it harder for those that lost the first round to catch up.
• There were no score sheets of any kind, and people were asked to just report their scores to the TO, who then "did some magic" behind a the screen to enter scores and pick matchups.
• At the end of the third round all games were finished except for the TO and the #1 seed's game. I went to take a look at the standings and I was in 3rd with a 100+ point lead on the TO. The game ended and the TO lost by a 4 point MoV, which would give him 96 points. And yet somehow after that game ended he jumped to 4th and I dropped to 5th (the winner of that game also jumped me). I should have been in 4th but had no way to prove it since there were no score sheets.
• When the top 4 started, the TO saw that he was 4th and the hardest list was 1st. So instead of doing 4v1 and 2v3 like the rules CLEARLY state, he manipulated the matchups YET AGAIN to try and make an easier matchup for himself.

I attend these events because they're fun and I like playing with good people, but I also like to compete. I left this event feeling pretty disgusted and I feel like I was cheated out of my chance to compete for a store championship.

That really puts it over the top if you ask me. The guy was clearly manipulating the tournament in his favor.

TO competing in a store championship .. NO!!

The TO should remain completely impartial. Sadly, to ensure this sad tale of woe isn't repeated .. can only be achieved if TO is a non-player.

I'm in agreement. Even with a backup TO, there is too much room for shenanigans.

I disagree. TOs are not paid. It's going to take more than a few nice tokens to keep a knowledgeable player out of the game and solving (mostly whinny) disputes for 8+ hours. It is often a thankless job and rarely does anyone on this forum take the time to start a post with the title "Wow! What a great TO this tournament had!" You want this game to go to hell in a hand basket quick? Run the TOs off and let the players solve their own disputes.

As to what CruzinToVictory said, he was manipulating the match ups. I was there and a friend of the TO, who was the tertiary judge, left after the second round ended leaving me with a bye for the last round. And that was after the back up judge left after the first round with the store owner. So there was no accountability for him seeing as how store leadership up and left, and I think that was wrong on the owners part.

I'm curious, Conandoodle, Jo Jo, and anyone else asking that the TO not participate in a tournament : How many Store Championships are there in your area, say within a couple hours drive?

If there's a single, or a couple Store Championships in someone's area, asking them to give up one of their only chances to play in a Store Championship so they can act as a TO is asking a lot. If there multiple Store Championships around, acting as a dedicated TO for one is much less of a sacrifice.

Also, as ScottieATF has said a couple times now, just because a TO doesn't participate in no way makes them impartial. And, similarly, having a TO participate doesn't mean they'll bend the rules in their favor.

In OP's story, the problem isn't that "the guy" was TO and was participating. The problem is that "the guy" is (allegedly) somewhat of an jerk. Had someone else been TO and "the guy" had been participating, we probably would've seen a post complaining about him slow playing, putting his dials face up, intentionally ending his game in a draw to guarantee his spot in top 4, or performing some other act of jerkiness.

I'm curious, Conandoodle, Jo Jo, and anyone else asking that the TO not participate in a tournament : How many Store Championships are there in your area, say within a couple hours drive?

If there's a single, or a couple Store Championships in someone's area, asking them to give up one of their only chances to play in a Store Championship so they can act as a TO is asking a lot. If there multiple Store Championships around, acting as a dedicated TO for one is much less of a sacrifice.

Also, as ScottieATF has said a couple times now, just because a TO doesn't participate in no way makes them impartial. And, similarly, having a TO participate doesn't mean they'll bend the rules in their favor.

In OP's story, the problem isn't that "the guy" was TO and was participating. The problem is that "the guy" is (allegedly) somewhat of an jerk. Had someone else been TO and "the guy" had been participating, we probably would've seen a post complaining about him slow playing, putting his dials face up, intentionally ending his game in a draw to guarantee his spot in top 4, or performing some other act of jerkiness.

I recommend reading my post as well. The TO did far more to manipulate things than just what the OP pointed out.

That said, I completely understand why TOs should be allowed to play, but when they have free reign and take advantage of it like this it's completely unacceptable.

but when they have free reign and take advantage of it like this it's completely unacceptable.

When they do things like that, they shouldn't be allowed to be a TO. They maybe shouldn't be allowed to play at all, depending on what they try to get away with when playing as just a guy.

But the above story doesn't really provide a reason why a TO shouldn't be able to play at all, just why you need to be careful about who the TO is.

I recommend reading my post as well. The TO did far more to manipulate things than just what the OP pointed out.

That said, I completely understand why TOs should be allowed to play, but when they have free reign and take advantage of it like this it's completely unacceptable.

I did read your post.

I still think the problem is with the TO, not with the rules. You've stated yourself that the TO did things that are specifically forbidden in the current rules:

• He used proxy cards
• He seems to have screwed with the pairings during Swiss rounds
• He changed the number of swiss rounds mid-tourney
• He had 1st play 2nd and 3rd play 4th in the championship bracket

He's already doing stuff that's explicitly against the rules. How would having more rules stop him from breaking them?

Jerks will be jerks, no matter what the rules are.

Any decent, self-respecting TO will have the rankings after each round available for people to verify everything was entered correctly. This stops the TO from playing with the pairings for the Swiss rounds. I suppose this could be put in the rules, but I don't think that would've stopped your TO from disregarding that rule as well.

but when they have free reign and take advantage of it like this it's completely unacceptable.

When they do things like that, they shouldn't be allowed to be a TO. They maybe shouldn't be allowed to play at all, depending on what they try to get away with when playing as just a guy.

But the above story doesn't really provide a reason why a TO shouldn't be able to play at all, just why you need to be careful about who the TO is.

Of course he should be allowed to play in general. He didn't cheat in actual game play (that I'm aware of). But he did cheat by manipulating everything from matchups to tournament structure to actual scores. That combined with the secondary TOs leaving after the first round leads me to be of the opinion that he should never be allowed to TO again, period.

I recommend reading my post as well. The TO did far more to manipulate things than just what the OP pointed out.

That said, I completely understand why TOs should be allowed to play, but when they have free reign and take advantage of it like this it's completely unacceptable.

I did read your post.

I still think the problem is with the TO, not with the rules. You've stated yourself that the TO did things that are specifically forbidden in the current rules:

Ah, I apologize, I must have misread your last post. The way I read your post made it sound like you were just referring to the first couple matchup issues, when it went deeper than that. I agree with you though, more rules wouldn't have helped in this situation as he would have just ignored those too.

The only real solution is more careful selection of trustworthy TOs, and a way to report TOs like this so they can't do it again. If I were a brand new player and this was my first event I might never have gone to one again, and that's bad for the game.

Answer to the OP's question: Yes, talk to the store owner. If that doesn't get you the results you want, talk to the other players. If three players tell a store owner, "We'll never play in another tournament if that guy is in the room" that's probably going to solve it.

AS a TO I must apologize to you. That TO is unprofessional. I take a strict no play stance when I run tournaments. Only time I would consider it, is at a non-serious tournament and we needed an even amount of players. Our recent SC I ran the tournament, had players write down their lists, and use score sheets. All seedings were presented on a computer anyone could come up and look at.

He didn't cheat in actual game play (that I'm aware of).

This what he is accused of doing as I understand it, I can't say that he did any of these things...

He intentionally paired himself to fly against a list that he knew would be a favorable matchup.

He intentionally paired himself against someone who lost the first round, again to provide himself a favorable matchup.

He changed the number of rounds from 4 to 3 after the first round was over. I assume he did this to make it easier for him to make the final 4 cut.

These are all cases of the TO cheating and worse abusing his authority. This can do a lot of damage to the local community which makes it worse than cheating. Plus that, anyone willing to do the things he did, is going to do similar things whenever they can. So they are most likely cheating during game play in other ways, ways that may not be so easy to notice.

If I were the store owner, I'd ban this person from ever stepping foot in my store again, just to make it clear that he will not tolerate such behavior.

If I were the store owner, I'd ban this person from ever stepping foot in my store again, just to make it clear that he will not tolerate such behavior.

But what do you do if the store owner left after the first round, as what happened in this case. Obviously they are close friends to leave him alone in his store without supervision

Report this to the store owner so he may be banned from events at that store.

Call FFG and see if he can be blacklisted as a TO or banned from attending official FFG events.

Report this to the store owner so he may be banned from events at that store.

Call FFG and see if he can be blacklisted as a TO or banned from attending official FFG events.

FFG won't do anything except maybe not give the store another SC or Regional.

You grossly overestimate how much FFG is involved in thier own OP progam.

But what do you do if the store owner left after the first round, as what happened in this case. Obviously they are close friends to leave him alone in his store without supervision

When you talked to the TO about the problems you had with the way things were run, what did the TO say?

I recently TOed a Store Championship in which I did play in. However I had not one but two dedicated alternate TOS and we used the Cryodex software to run the event so that there was no funny business at all. I have to admit I was a little weary about playing in my own event, but with the alternate TOs and the software doing all the pairings, everything was legit and no one ever questioned my matchups.

Just a suggestions for those who chose to play in their own events.

But what do you do if the store owner left after the first round, as what happened in this case. Obviously they are close friends to leave him alone in his store without supervision

When you talked to the TO about the problems you had with the way things were run, what did the TO say?

I believe most people (myself included) were uncomfortable saying anything without tangible proof of foul play. The only thing I mentioned was when I made a protest at the end about the scoring, to which he replied by saying "Nope, looks like I beat you by about 20 MoV".

And to be 100% honest, I did't realize the full extent of everything that was happening until I left and went over it all in my head. After all, I was focused on vanquishing my opponents!

If the second TO leaves, then the first TO must drop from the event. TO's can only participate in their own even if there is a 2nd TO present, and as soon as the 2nd TO left, the other TO was no longer eligible to continue participating in the event.

Proxies are *not* allowed, but yes there is a rule that says TO gets final say on all components brought by players, so there's nothing stopping a TO from entering his own tournament, disqualifying everyone for illegal components, and declaring himself the winner.

I think you guys need to just blacklist this person as a community. You all need to tell the LGS's in your area that you won't attend any event that he is the TO of and why.

I should have been in 4th but had no way to prove it since there were no score sheets.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all... But if it were me, I'd of insisted that he keep some sort of official score sheet, and tried to get everyone to refuse to start playing until he did.

Looking back, you're absolutely right. If anything it was a lesson learned and I'll be doing this if it ever comes up again.

I recommend reading my post as well. The TO did far more to manipulate things than just what the OP pointed out.

That said, I completely understand why TOs should be allowed to play, but when they have free reign and take advantage of it like this it's completely unacceptable.

I did read your post.

I still think the problem is with the TO, not with the rules. You've stated yourself that the TO did things that are specifically forbidden in the current rules:

• He used proxy cards
• He seems to have screwed with the pairings during Swiss rounds
• He changed the number of swiss rounds mid-tourney
• He had 1st play 2nd and 3rd play 4th in the championship bracket

He's already doing stuff that's explicitly against the rules. How would having more rules stop him from breaking them?

Jerks will be jerks, no matter what the rules are.

Any decent, self-respecting TO will have the rankings after each round available for people to verify everything was entered correctly. This stops the TO from playing with the pairings for the Swiss rounds. I suppose this could be put in the rules, but I don't think that would've stopped your TO from disregarding that rule as well.

This was my first store championship and my first time ever playing X-Wing in the area. I don't personally know any of the players nor the TO, and I'm not very well versed in how pairings and scoring and such are supposed to work. All I can speak to is the 4th point, about the final 4 pairing. I have no idea where I was ranked in the final 4, but I had played and beaten 2 of the other 3 in the top 4, and I played (and lost to) the only other top 4 player. That might explain the pairings, so I wouldn't play the same guy twice? I dunno.

Everyone I met seemed pretty nice, including the TO (who did run proxies, now that I think about it, so I guess I can speak to 2 points). I had a good time, and I am kinda bummed to see all the hard feelings this event has produced. I don't know if the TO knows the store owner, but I've been shopping at that store for years and the owner is a super-nice guy, and I don't think he deserves any heat for how things went down.

This type of post is why I refuse to play in a tournament (Store Championship or otherwise) in which I am a TO. Even if his intent was to be fair, and he truly tried to do his best to be impartial, it is impossible for some or all of the participants to view it that way if the TO in question has any amount of success.

I honestly believe that Judges and TOs should not be allowed to play in any tournaments they are running whatsoever.

Allowing them to play creates, even if it is simply perceived, an unfair play environment. Every store I have ever run a tournament in would rather provide the TOs additional/alternative prizes for running and avoid any issues with an event they ran over it being called into question.

The funny part is I frequently get asked why I choose not to play even though the rules allow it. For all of you out there: this is why!