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Well, for the first time, I've come last place in a tournament, and It felt pretty damn bad. I really don't know what went wrong, my list seemed viable and the way I played the army was "OK" but I still ended up last. Though three out of the five games were against armies I've never faced in 8th (Skaven, Empire, Lizards). Now I enjoyed my self at the tournament but I'm rather miffed and quite embarssed that I came last, and I keep getting the feeling that everyone there thougth I was a joke. Not that anyone said anything, but I just had the feel that people ended up not taking me seriously and looked at me like a poor wargamer :(.

What are your guys's thoughts on it? Have you ever come last?

Someone always comes last. It's the nature of the game. Sometimes, I come last. It's not the end of the world.

Tweak your list and hope they still think you're a joke (if they do) so you catch them totally off guard and obliterate them.

A friend of mine plays necrons, and he came last in a tourney and he felt bad as well (mainly because he bought a lot of models for this tourney and still came last) this is normal, and IMHO you should not feel bad AT ALL so you came last you wont in the next one will you? and also if people think your a joke then they are usually the TFG so don't let yourself get beat up about it.

I remember playing in my first tourney and getting my arse handed over by another fellow CSM player who in the next tourney I gave him the shock of his life when I blew up most of his army, anyway the moral of they story is you will always improve and have fun while doing it.

Its worse to come second last than last because if you're second last you even aren't the best at losing ;-)

Someone unfortunately always has to come in last, is the nature of competition.

Just shrug it off and go play again.

Seems like it can be a good idea sometimes, I mean I have seen the odd little prize being given along with the wooden spoon.

But let's face it OP you played those games, you know where it went right/wrong. If you played and tried your best in spite of not knowing the opposing forces then there is no shame nor embarrassment at coming last. Enjoyment is the aim if the game after all.

Yes I try to shrug it off.

Just play with more AP1&2 next time, eh?

Most tournaments have a prize for coming in last (out here the next one is free for you or you get new dice).

As has been said, someone has to come last. If anyone looks down upon you for it, they're clearly not the kind of person whose opinion you should care about.

All in all, if you enjoyed your games, does it really matter?

I've only ever played in a couple of tourneys I never came last but i didn't do well, the important thing was I had a blast and got to hang around with a bunch of people who share the smae hobby. I still remember my second tourney my army got wiped out in four out of five games but i still had fun.

don't feel bad about your place, learn and enjoy the good memories

You are playing GW games wrong if winning is all you care about.

BuFFo wrote:You are playing GW games wrong if winning is all you care about.

I would counter this by saying why are you playing the game if you dont want to win? I have fun playing competitively in tournaments as it is more challenging and enjoyable than random pickup games.

A tournament can only have one winner. Even 2nd place is just first loser.

Don't kick yourself too hard. Talk to some friends about what you could do differently. Post your list here and what you tried. Perhaps you can get some strategic pointers.

I haven't yet finished last in my few forays into tournaments, but I have been in the bottom quarter three out of four times. I want to eventually play better and win an event at some point, but I see tournaments as an exercise in improving my play. In a pick-up game I can play at a more leisurely pace. At a tournament, I need to make good decisions faster, and bad decisions will tend to bite me harder than in a casual game. I also enjoy tournaments, win or lose, because I get to get in three or more games in a day, which is always nice.

Ultimately, you shouldn't beat yourself up over placing poorly in any event, because the best laid plans or armies can be humbled by an odd mission, a hard counter, or by the dice themselves. A lot of strategy goes into our games, but this is still a game of chance, and there are days when the dice can be really nice or really terrible to us, and there is nothing we can do to avoid that.

Johnny-Crass wrote:I would counter this by saying why are you playing the game if you don't want to win?

He didn't say that. He said that winning shouldn't be your ONLY (or, IMHO, even your primary) concern when playing the game. As exists in various forum signatures: "The objective of the game is to win. The point of the game is to have fun."

Indeed, I strongly dislike playing with people who care too strongly about winning or losing, because that's all too likely to lead to people who start cheating, being abusive or unpleasant, accusing others of cheese/cheating or otherwise impacting on the enjoyment of the other player(s).
Sure, people should want to win, they should be trying to win, but they shouldn't care if they win - at the end of the day, it's a game.

Victory is the aim of the game, enjoyment is the goal of player (or surely you would go and do something else?).

I think the problem is when players do not get enjoyment without winning - The douchebags of the world.

Almost every game lost can be boiled mistakes I made or brilliant tactics my opponent executed. Sometimes games are lost due to chance due to playing orks and me making a risky move that would have done amazing if paid off or terrible if failed (like waaagh run distances and failing to assaults can make or break a game)

Just take it is stride and learn from your losses. Even the best players can get bad matchups and bad luck.

Poppabear wrote:Well, for the first time, I've come last place in a tournament, and It felt pretty damn bad. I really don't know what went wrong, my list seemed viable and the way I played the army was "OK" but I still ended up last. Though three out of the five games were against armies I've never faced in 8th (Skaven, Empire, Lizards). Now I enjoyed my self at the tournament but I'm rather miffed and quite embarssed that I came last, and I keep getting the feeling that everyone there thougth I was a joke. Not that anyone said anything, but I just had the feel that people ended up not taking me seriously and looked at me like a poor wargamer :(.

What are your guys's thoughts on it? Have you ever come last?

Can't remember if I've ever been last. I've played in a lot of events.

As others have said, the point is to have fun, and as SOMEONE has to be last, anyone looking down on you for it can be disregarded as a person whose opinion is irrelevant.

As far as not doing well and improving, IME practice, and knowing both your and your opponents' armies and how they work, are the most important ingredients for success. If in MOST of the games in this particular tournament you faced armies which you've NEVER played against under the current rules, it is absolutely no wonder that you got your butt kicked. Going into any game not knowing how the opposing army does its thing, and thus not having a clear plan to counter it, is a recipe for a loss.

Similarly, I think I've now played six league and tournament games against the new Necrons, and hadn't played any practice games against them outside of those. I normally win most of my games in general, and I HAVE read the codex in depth and built lists for a prospective army myself, so I know what their wargear and special rules are. But even being a generally successful player, and knowing the codex reasonably well, the lack of practice games has meant that my record in those six games is 3 W, 2 L, 1 Draw. And that draw was by the skin of my teeth. So the lack of practice, which leads inevitably to tactical mistakes, turns me from a player who usually wins 80%+ of my games into a 50% player. Practice, practice, practice. If people there genuinely didn't take you seriously, the only reason I can see for it would have been the lack of practice.

I think my problem came in several forms:

1. 14/24 players were running some sort of SM list, be it razorspam wolves, DoA or Draigowing GK. Another 2 were playing Guard. Thats a lot of AP3 or better weapons.

2. I didn't get a game against the people I practiced against for a month before the tourney (the one whom I did fight had to be a cut-short game because the shop was shutting)

3. My dice fething hate me.

in general I usually finish top 5 or so (not won a tourney yet grr) but I remember two years ago I finished 2nd last at a tournament in Scotland, using my Salamanders. I lost all three games. IMO 2nd last is being a failure at failing!! To make matters worse, the person who finished last was a kid drafted in at the last minute, who also played sallies. Not a glorious day for the sons of Vulkan...

I hadn't read their tournament pack at all and didn't know that they had changed the games slightly so that was my failing. It was a humbling experience as I had considered myself a not-bad player, but I didn't feel down about, it was quite funny actually. My mates still take the piss out of me for it...

First tournament I played in was with Orks, turned up with a very balanced "Fluffy" list with a bit of everything chucked in there, not very competitive but I didn't know it at the time. I was new to 40k.

I was tabled in 3 of my 4 games and the one I wasn't ended in a very embarrassing turn with 1/2 a Grey Knight army shooting at a lone warboss hiding in a forest which he miraculously survived, while a few people who had already finished their game stood around laughing at the ironic situation that "Hectork The Brootal" found himself in.

At the end of the day they went to announce the scores and I was dreading the moment I would be read out coming 8th out of the 8 people there (one of which was a small kid under 10 I would have guessed, ouch). To my surprise I ended up placing 4th!!! Apparently my sportsmanship scores, game objectives (my warboss went down in a blaze of glory most games taking the enemy HQ with him), painting scores and bonus points for best Sport on the day combined to lift me off the bottom.

Needless to say I've never complained since about Tournaments adding these bonus scores in since it saved my arse from a well deserved last place.

notprop wrote:Seems like it can be a good idea sometimes, I mean I have seen the odd little prize being given along with the wooden spoon.

I got given a wooden spoon once. Now I use it to make chilli. Best prize ever.

Can't say I know what you're going through, but at least you know that something was wrong and you can probably identify it if you're studious and you do an in-depth self debrief. I consistently place around 4th or 5th place in tournaments that I enter. Not once have I ever been recognized for any sort of prize, etc... I have no idea if there is a problem with something I am doing and where it may lie (especially considering that on more than one occasion I've defeated the people that end up in first/2nd place ><

There's nowhere to go but up from here. It's also amazing the perspective you get from losing. Can make being a gracious winner a little more valued...

My club's 40k tournament has a wooden spoon trophy.
Inscribed with the history of the wooden spoon as a 'prize'.

It's awarded to the player whose dice hate them (in addition to new dice). Everyone who has received it has taken it in the good spirit it was awarded in. Someone has to come last, and it may suck when it's your turn, but it's going to happen - so take it as it comes and move the feth on.

If youre a nice guy to play against and have a good grasp on the rules, i wouldnt care if you came in 1st or last, id want to play you again. To me, im not super competitive so tournies act as a good place to meet people

Played in a tournament yesterday... lost my first match with 3/70 points (3 points for finishing turn 5). Stupid blendernaughts.
Went into my second match kind of bummed and had a bad matchup (KP with me playing nids agains a necron av13 wall). I psyched myself out and played horribly that match.
Final match I was literally in last place (6 points out of 140 possible) playing against someone who had never played more than small teaching games until that morning. I won that game, but not by as much as I could have.

Before the third round the TO came over and asked if we needed to go outside and talk - evidently I looked like I was having a horrible time and he wanted to see if he could do something to help me enjoy the rest of the day...

I was surprised because I had enjoyed both games and was having a great time. It really is all about your attitude - if you're playing to have fun and play new people, even losing is fun. If your absolutely only goal is to win, you should stop now - the randomness of dice means that you will lose eventually.

I came last in my first tournament ever. It was an elimination tournament, in that whatever losses you incurred in one battle, you carried over to the next, so on and so forth.

Did well my first two games, then ran into a BA player who took out half my points before we drew on objectives. Then I ran into a SW player with 90% of his points against my 40%. Needless to say I lost that match, and being the first one fully destroyed, I lost.

It was actually a lot of fun, and the store gave me a prize for losing; a little fat elvis model. I laughed, and met some great guys because I was a good, fun guy to play against. Overall, a very positive experience for me, and it still brings a smile to my face whenever I think about it.

I lost my first torunament. It was a knockout and in the first match, the guy cheated his arse off. I should've won, but lost badly thanks to his antics.

He then went on to the final, where he got his arse handed to him by an all-GK army from the old DH codex. Karma's a bitch, but sometimes she's awesome.

I've come last one other time too, a 600pter where I used a fluffy CSM list that didn't have a Lash prince (pre-FAQ), Obliterators, or Plague Marines in it.

I'm not bothered about that one to be honest, even though I was cheated a little in the second game (guy put an objective on the roof of a ruin and podded onto the roof instead of the ground floor, making it a lot harder to get up there (impossible for my list); had it been the ground floor, i'd have been fine with it.

Sounds like a good excuses to get drunk!