biccat wrote:*snip*
First of all, biccat and all you other guys like him don't even know what "sportsmanship" is. Here's a couple of definitions since you guys clearly need some help figuring this out (see, that thing I did just now,
that would be "unsportsmanlike conduct" in a game of
40k, being an donkey-cave deliberately and talking down to you...get used to it because I'm tired of your
bs).
1. the character, practice, or skill of a sportsman.
2. sportsmanlike conduct, as fairness, courtesy, being a cheerful loser, etc.
1. a man who takes part in sports, esp of the outdoor type
2. a person who exhibits qualities highly regarded in sport, such as fairness, generosity, observance of the rules, and good humour when losing
First of all, the most relevant information: Warhammer
40k is not a "sport". FFS people,
real sports don't even have stupid systems like this, and could you imagine if they did? "The Dallas Cowboys utterly devastated the Redskins lastnight, winning 67-0, but sadly they will not be making it to the playoffs as the Redskins gave them a poor sportsmanship score after the game, and combined with previous sportsmanship scores, it's just enough to knock the Cowboys out. Better luck next season."
Shutouts are highly improbable in any sport, you have to play
really well to keep the opposing team from scoring even once. Likewise, "tabling" someone in
40k is difficult to pull off (although biccat seems to think highly of himself and that he could pull it off if you just gave him a random Dark Eldar army he'd never played with before and put him up against Tau), most of the time when it occurs it's because one player is abysmally bad and set themselves up for it, and the opponent took advantage of the situation. But with a "sportsmanship score" a la
40k, you would effectively be punishing a team for playing really well. The Cowboys in that example would be considered "douches" for having a super-tight defense and would be penalized for it, which in turn could prevent them from going on to the Super Bowl. That would just be stupid, wouldn't it? It would start riots!
But it's perfectly acceptable in a competitive
40k event to penalize people for playing well and knocking them down in placing because of it?
As for the other bolded parts: it doesn't matter if the game goes on until literally the last minute and gets decided by a single die roll, or if the game ends on turn 2 with a tabling,
you lost the game, fair and square. And I feel this doesn't need to be pointed out but because people on Dakka are idiots, "fair and square" obviously assumes that there was no foul play and your opponent didn't cheat or make up rules, and that he was actually respectable the entire game. "Respectable" meaning he was friendly and didn't act like an donkey-cave, i.e., getting angry or sarcastic when he rolled badly/you rolled well, getting overly excited when he did roll well/you rolled badly...I don't think I need to go on and define exactly what "being an donkey-cave" is, but considering that Dakka seems to believe that all you have to do to be considered a "douche" at a
40k tournament is to show up with Space Wolves for feth's sake, I start to wonder...
Being a good sportsman simply means you have to be gracious, win or lose, and that you have to play by the rules. The
actual rules, not these unwritten rules that super casuals expect you to follow like "You can't take _____, that unit is broken!"
I'm tired of people trying to say their opponents are dicks because they're better players, or they show up with better armies. "I suck at the game, my opponent should have realized that and went easy on me, deliberately drawing the game out for at least five turns.", or "I was playing Necrons and he had Space Wolves, this is pretty much an auto-win for him so he should play like gak and let me do some damage first." First of all, I'm not even going to bring up the fact that playing that way would actually hurt your score: tabling is obviously worth more points than if you let him obliterate half your army first, controlling all the objectives is worth more points than giving one up to your opponent just so he can have one, etc. That's the whole point of the tournament, you play a series of games, score as many points as you can, and see how you do compared to everyone else in the end, possibly even winning a prize or two if you do well enough. Every player is supposed to know this going into the event. Second, things like army balance are out of the player's hands, as I've said time and time again, that ball is in
GW's court. It's
their game, they are responsible for keeping it balanced or not. I don't deny that some newer codices perform way better than older ones, but seriously, there's nothing you can do about it, that's how
GW made their game. It sucks, it's
bs, but
GW is fullly capable of fixing that if they wanted and obviously doesn't care. It's unreasonable to expect people, in a competitive event, to deliberately avoid using the best units in their army or to avoid using entire armies altogether, just so you have a better chance at winning with your outdated codex. I don't like saying it but your only options are:
1. Shelf the old army, start a new one. If you're not on a budget then that might not be a bad idea, a new project could be exciting and fun, especially if the rules are better-written and more fun to play than your old army.
2. Understand your limitations and keep playing with the old army. Yeah, it's frustrating, you're going to have to play perfectly and even a single mistake could cost you the game, but like I said this is how
GW made their game that we supposedly love to play so much. Try to take advantage of the fact that you know all the ins and outs of your army, which units work and which don't, etc., and hope you can outplay all the Space Marine players.
3. Don't play in tournaments, and/or find a new game to play altogether. Probably the least attractive option but if 1 doesn't work ("I can't afford a new army! That's
bs!"), and 2 hasn't worked, then that's all there is. Either that or you can play in strictly comped events where your old army is given ridiculous bonuses, new armies are given ridiculous restrictions, and every opponent is required to give you a blowjob before/after/during the game in order to get full sporstmanship points.
If you're not that competitive, and you don't like high-pressure games where you have to play at your best, and you don't like not being able to force your opponent into letting you win, then
tournaments aren't for you, simply put. The reason why you're not having fun isn't because your opponents are all donkey-caves who just won't "let" you, it's because you don't understand what the point of a tournament is and you clearly have different expectations than your opponents do, you have a different idea of "fun" than they do. Competitive players have fun playing this in type of environment, they
like being tested by hard armies piloted by good players who know the game. It's just not the place for someone with a super casual mindset who just wants to mindlessly roll dice without thinking too hard about anything.
