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I currently work in a game store, and I was originally allowed to play in tournaments if I was not running them as a judge or TO. At our store we try to run tournaments once a month, and I came up with the idea that I would only play in at most every other tournament. I would pay my cash like everyone else, and if I got a prize then I would not tack on my employee discount. All that being said things went great for a while, until we had an incident, when someone thought it was unfair that I was in the tournament and able to get a store discount (or so they thought), and when he tried to sign up he would have to come on as a stand by. I never heard about this directly, but was told by my boss that store employees are not allowed to play in store tournaments. To throw in a bit more of info, I had only one 1 tournament overall, and 1 best general in the 6 tournaments I played in ( I sat out 6 tournaments doing the every other idea). I really think that it all stems from the fact that yes I am really good at this game ( not bragging of trying to argue about it), and the local people are intimidated by the threat of facing me. In a way I am flattered, but at the same time should a person be disqualified for being good at a game? I was told that I was allowed to play in Ard Boyz this year at the store prelims, but I decided to decline out of principle, and if someone complained about a prize of $75, how would they complain in a tournament where you can win a 2500 point army? I was wondering what you fellow dakkaites thought about a situation like this?


Ps I took 3rd in the prelims, won the semi-finals, and took 5th in the LA finals. So I guess overall I did ok.

rednekgunner wrote:I currently work in a game store, and I was originally allowed to play in tournaments if I was not running them as a judge or TO. At our store we try to run tournaments once a month, and I came up with the idea that I would only play in at most every other tournament. I would pay my cash like everyone else, and if I got a prize then I would not tack on my employee discount. All that being said things went great for a while, until we had an incident, when someone thought it was unfair that I was in the tournament and able to get a store discount (or so they thought), and when he tried to sign up he would have to come on as a stand by. I never heard about this directly, but was told by my boss that store employees are not allowed to play in store tournaments. To throw in a bit more of info, I had only one 1 tournament overall, and 1 best general in the 6 tournaments I played in ( I sat out 6 tournaments doing the every other idea). I really think that it all stems from the fact that yes I am really good at this game ( not bragging of trying to argue about it), and the local people are intimidated by the threat of facing me. In a way I am flattered, but at the same time should a person be disqualified for being good at a game? I was told that I was allowed to play in Ard Boyz this year at the store prelims, but I decided to decline out of principle, and if someone complained about a prize of $75, how would they complain in a tournament where you can win a 2500 point army? I was wondering what you fellow dakkaites thought about a situation like this?


Ps I took 3rd in the prelims, won the semi-finals, and took 5th in the LA finals. So I guess overall I did ok.

Not picking on you, but every store employee uses this same excuse. I'm too good, they must fear me! You weren't Disqualified because your "Awesome" you were DQd because your an employee! Whenever there is money involved people expect everything to be "above board". I'm no accusing anyone of being shady, but do you really not understand why once my hard earned money is on the line the rules/expectations change! I'll play anyone even if I get my arse kicked, but in a tourney people want to believe that it’s their skill that win or lose their games, not who works for who!
I mean realistically how do you make a rules calling against your boss, who pays your paychecks? Or even your fellow employees? I’ve seen it all from TO's splitting prizes with the winner, to convenient miscalculations, that had the local player winning even though an out of town player really won!

Its completely unacceptable, unless the person in question has absolutely zero involvement in any of the judging and/or finances of the event. No matter how objective or honorable the guy is there will always be the perception that shady crap is afoot, and thats problem enough. Its absolutely vital that people trust the judges to remain completely unbiased and this kind of thing just undermines that.

They get whatever models they want for basically free, so I don't like them

I think this quote from Friday Sums it up nicely!

"Playing with my money is like playing with my emotions" - Big Worm

Kreenshaw wrote:[quote=rednekgunner

Not picking on you, but every store employee uses this same excuse. I'm too good, they must fear me! You weren't Disqualified because your "Awesome" you were DQd because your an employee! Whenever there is money involved people expect everything to be "above board". I'm no accusing anyone of being shady, but do you really not understand why once my hard earned money is on the line the rules/expectations change! I'll play anyone even if I get my arse kicked, but in a tourney people want to believe that it’s their skill that win or lose their games, not who works for who!
I mean realistically how do you make a rules calling against your boss, who pays your paychecks? Or even your fellow employees? I’ve seen it all from TO's splitting prizes with the winner, to convenient miscalculations, that had the local player winning even though an out of town player really won!

I see you took my post the wrong way. I was trying to give you a little background to the situation, and not say, "I am an employee whine......" The real question is why can't I play if I am not in any way involved with the tournament? I don't have any express knowledge to the missions/special rules, I don't pair up games, make rules calls, or any other duties. I see it as an employee pays their money like everyone else, and is on their off time, than what does it matter? I think that if an employee is involved in the planning/operation process, than NO they shall not play, but I think in a field of 14 players allowing 1 employee to play on his/her off time is perfectly acceptable. As far as the owners playing that one I think is a no go, because at that point you are someone who always has a stake in the business. For example, if I own store x, and I win, I can forgo my prize and take the profits.

Sorry, i was a little sarcastic! I didn't mean to paint you as a "I'm uber" jerk.
I wasn't trying to bash you or anything, and overall In a perfect world i agree with you!
You and your stores owner/To might run things on the "up and up" But for every store that runs things right there will be one store that scams/cheats/riggs its games!
Unfortunately your involved in a case of the bad ones ruin it for everyone!
I'm my local TO and not an employee of the local store but I don't play. Also like you I'm one of the better players in the area, and really I'm sure that the guys at the store wouldn't have a problem with me playing, but its about setting a standard!
If i win it opens the whole deal up to (well you work here...blah blah blah) and it always will! Unless your running a free tournament with no prizes! Just for bragging rights!

I have no problem with a store owner or TO playing their own tournament if they're playing a ringer. They should not be looking to win their own tournament.

Our local only allows the shop employee (it's a two-man operation) to play as a ringer. They always play the guy in last place. They do not accumulate battle points, or soft scores.
Our shop uses a rubric for all soft/subjective scores, so the ringer does rate his opponent on those, but since it's 100% transparent, there are no issues.

At a larger shop with more employees, it might be a thinner line to walk. So long as everythign is transparent, and the employee pays an entry fee, and is treated as just another competitor, I'd have no problem with it. Of course, once the entry fees and prize pools become larger, we all tend to get a tad bit edgier. If I showed up at an event that I paid $20+ to enter, and shop employees walked away with all the top prizes, I'd probably be weirded out and want to see all the pairings, battle point totals, and soft score totals.

Transparency really does help clear up a lot of problems.