I was watching the streams of the Stele Open this weekend, and more than once the crowd watching brought up people using the range 3 ruler as they set up. For some reason, people were acting like this was somehow cheating.

These comments thoroughly confused me, as I saw no one measuring anything - they seemed to simply be using the range ruler to make sure they set up their ships inside the range one mark on it. The core set only comes with the large range ruler that is delineated into the three ranges with the marks on them. I myself did not have the one, two and three range rulers until I bought some fancy acrylic ones from a third party manufacturer. In fact, at a local store tournament this past Saturday there was a brand new player who only had the materials that come with the core set. A few of us even welcomed him into the fold by handing him some of the excess acrylic tokens we have collected in the various tournament hands outs, winnings and stuff. People still do do it to me, as I am still relatively new.

Unless the venue specifically handed out range rulers with separate ranges like I now have only because I paid for some fancy third party ones, a player might not even have anything but a range 3 ruler.

In my aforementioned relative "newbness" did I misunderstand their concerns and the comments? I specifically remember a comment by a user in the stream chat that said something to the effect of being super fired up by the r3 measuring and I few people agreed. Did I miss something? Were they perhaps cheesing some sort of measurement to the nearest asteroid or debris cloud that I did not notice? Because as I have said, until both my friend and I (who got into the game around the same time) shelled out for third party acrylics, all we had to use for measuring were the cardboard range ruler that comes with the core sets. I do not see how you could cheat using them.

The official tournament rule is

Quote

5. Players place their ships in ascending order of pilot skill as per standard X-Wing rules. Players cannot measure distance and spacing with physical objects during setup except when using range rulers and maneuver templates within Range 1 of that player's edge.

You can still measure inside Range 1 using the cardboard range ruler by placing 2/3 of the range ruler outside of the play area, but that would seem somewhat inconvenient.

2 hours ago, Pixelman said:

I was watching the streams of the Stele Open this weekend, and more than once the crowd watching brought up people using the range 3 ruler as they set up. For some reason, people were acting like this was somehow cheating.

To some looking at the board "funny" while holding two fingers in front of your face is CHEATING because YOU MIGHT SEE SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN ALREADY SEE BUT MORE PRECISELY AND THUS IT WILL BE CALLED PRE-MEASURING!

You want to place the end of your range ruler on the board when you setup that should be prefectly fine.

Ah..I understand now. It was the WAY they were placing the range ruler down. I understand the placement rules thoroughly, just could not understand what they saw as cheating. The players in question were putting the entire range ruler down in the play area, with the bottom of range one at the base of the mat and ranges 2 and three extending past the deployment area. I knew it was something I missed, yet somehow it did not click until reading your guys' wording. They should have had only the range 1 third of the ruler on the mat, instead of the whole thing and using the first third to align their ships. I am sure my wording is making it sound complicated, but it clears up the issue for me. Thank you! So, they were basically cheesing the system by laying the whole ruler down, and experienced eyes could judge other things that could be pertinent to the game play by doing so. My friend and I who play regularly don't even think that way yet, lol. But newbs will be newbs, and I can definitely see now how it can give a little leg up.

The change for deployment is a relatively recent change (still several document versions old though). Previously you could use templates/the range ruler however you wanted you just couldn't use anything else or have a premade template. Now as mentioned you can't exceed range 1, and it's fairly impactful since 5 straight is 2 range bands (each range band is 2.5 base lengths) so you can 'preplan' a little with the full ruler. I hesitate to call people cheaters since that's a hefty accusation but they certainly were outside of your rules if they used the full length extended out of range 1.

In a lot of cases, there's not enough room from the edge of the mat to the inside lip of a gaming table to use a standard range template with 2/3 outside the play area. I don't have a range 1 template so I guess you have to assess the situation. I didn't watch any of it, but I would wonder if there were limitations on how they could place the range template.

5 hours ago, USCGrad90 said:

In a lot of cases, there's not enough room from the edge of the mat to the inside lip of a gaming table to use a standard range template with 2/3 outside the play area. I don't have a range 1 template so I guess you have to assess the situation. I didn't watch any of it, but I would wonder if there were limitations on how they could place the range template.

No, they were on small flat tables with toppers on them to give more room. I know because it is mentioned and the tables lean dangerously sometimes when the players lean on them as you often have to in X-Wing. That topic comes up with some chuckles a few times too. I understand now, like I said it confused me initially, but now I can see what they were talking about, although I personally don't worry about things like that mostly because my eye is not good enough to gain an advantage that way. It may very well become a concern for me when I am more experienced and actually compete at the higher levels. For now, I really just have fun and strive to become a better pilot.

Quite honestly there have been times I should have called a judge in a match but I just give it to my opponent, or suggest we roll for it and accept if we are both willing. I've gently teased by some of my friends for being too laid back, but right now it's not a big deal. I'm sure that would probably change if I ever were to say...end up in a situation where a judgement could determine if I moved into the next tier at a premier level tournament.

To date I have only played local store gaming kit tournaments and more casual affairs. I missed regionals due to being out of town, so maybe next year.

Thanks all for the responses. I definitely see what I was t this point I just don't think it would bother me, but I am still new and honing my skills.