After Registration, I was quite pleased to see a chaos army arrayed against me, as my eldar seldom have any trouble with power armour.  The player was Mike Major, a GW staffer.  His dice totally robbed him in our game and with the firepower arrayed against him, not enough intervening terrain, and my going first, not only was I able to wipe him out but I won a free baneblade for being the first to kill one of the scenario special characters.  Mike had a horrible game as far as dice rolling goes, but he totally took it in stride.  A very good example of losing gracefully.  He was a joy to play.

Going into the second round I was very hyped as I had totally maxed my score in the first battle.  I was hopeful...but got totally crushed.  I faced an army that I recognised too late as the beatdown to my eldar footsloggers.  A Marine list with 13 assault cannons including 9 tornadoes for mobile firepower and 3 destructors.  Terrain fought against me from the beginning, and the first shot the marine player took with an autocannon downed my superfalcon, immobilising it and effectively taking it and my 'dragons out of the fight.  This player was quite methodical, and easy going enough...once he won.  I wont mention his name on this board but he will read this surely.  The sort of army that he piloted for the 'Ard Boyz was fine even if it was totally point and click, but it totally matched his attitude...one not acceptable for a GT for sure, but that was fine in this tournement.  I took the loss gracefully and even joked a bit with him and asked him about his speeder usage after the battle after being completely massacred by Assault cannon Cheese (which beat my eldar cheese), and that was fine.  However I was interested to see how he would wind up after the third game.  I finished MY third game early, which I'll recap in a moment, and saw that he was in a very heated late stage of his game.  I watched a bit then went off.  Later in the day, I caught up with him and asked him with interest what happened and if he was able to pull out a win.  He barely broke his stride (walking the other way) and spouted "I lost." and kept walking.  WHAT A SORE LOSER.  I could tell that he was totally angry about losing, it was a VERY jerky way to act and I can only say that the loss was well deserved.  I went and congratulated the Necron for smacking down one of  "Those" guys, he on the other hand seemed quite a friendly fellow and agreed that this particular marine player was someone who needed the win to justify himself.  As I said, he is on this forum and will probably read this, but names are withheld.  Perhaps just reading something like this will prompt a bit of an attitude adjustment without having to point fingers.

My final round of the day was with one of the guys I had come to the tournement with, good 'ol rob from Battlewagon Bits himself.  We have played each other before and really had nothing to prove to one another and new we were both out of the running.  So we played a VERY friendly game, with a single hitch,  we would play the scenario, but our commanders issued challenges to one another.  They met each other towards the middle of the field of battle, reason being is that there was prize support for killing the enemy HQ's.  We were lucky enough to have first pick of the prizes with myself picking up a shiny new predator for my Dark Angels and Rob picking up a terminator squad....since our HQ's annihilated each other.   He wound up beating me since I had a long drive ahead of me and only wanted to leave in order to get driving and arrive home as soon as possible. 

 I was giving a serious attempt at placing, but my second round loss quashed those hopes.  I hadnt expected to be out-"rapid fired" with all the scatterlasers I was toting.  Someone had brought the rock to my scissors and I had the bad luck to get matched up against them....it happens.  I was a little disappointed but it wasnt my first time to dance.  Hardly a dissappointing friday though, with a baneblade and new predator under my arm and all.  I hope they do this again next year, I'll be all too willing to try again for placement.  Great tournement, fabulous prize support, no complaints.

General comments:

Mike is an awesome guy....who does seem to have terrible luck with dice!

I played Rob from BW bitz in the first round of the GT....our second game in tournament play and we are now 1-1. He beat me with a great army, basically the Chaos version of the army I wanted to bring to the GT. Always a solid and fun game against Rob. He's quiet and will make jokes, but what makes it fun is you really need to bring your A game against him.

I hope they do Ard Boyz again next year!

now the rest of his posts on the board make more sense.

What kind of sense does that make?  Actually no, I'm not an eldar player.  Currently I play Eldar, Dark Angels, Orks, Sisters, Space Wolves, 2 armies in fantasy, 3 fleets in gothic, the warrior in Talisman, Axis and Allies,  and a mean game of Monopoly.

I see no reason to inadvertantly flame me in a thread for posts made elsewhere, other than to stir up trouble.  There are rules against sort of thing you know, perhaps you should go read them.

Man, I'm glad you didn't ask me a question after fighting with the wife or while my kid was screaming or after my credit card bill arrived. Sometimes it's tough to keep things that are bothering you far from the surface. You shouldn't take it personally.

You said he was a pretty easy going player when you played him, so how about a little benefit of the doubt. Maybe he pissed at himself for making a stupid mistake. Maybe he had to pee. Maybe his girlfriend sent him a "Dear John" text while he was playing.

Why jump to the conclusion that he's a SORE LOSER and that not wanting to stop and chat about it made "his loss well deserved". I know that I've spent a few minutes kicking myself after doing something stupid. It's natural and it doesn't make him a sore loser or one of "Those" guys.

Maybe you should give the guy a break instead of attacking him in the few forums.

Man, I'm glad you didn't ask me a question after fighting with the wife or while my kid was screaming or after my credit card bill arrived. Sometimes it's tough to keep things that are bothering you far from the surface. You shouldn't take it personally.

You said he was a pretty easy going player when you played him, so how about a little benefit of the doubt. Maybe he pissed at himself for making a stupid mistake. Maybe he had to pee. Maybe his girlfriend sent him a "Dear John" text while he was playing.

Why jump to the conclusion that he's a SORE LOSER and that not wanting to stop and chat about it made "his loss well deserved". I know that I've spent a few minutes kicking myself after doing something stupid. It's natural and it doesn't make him a sore loser or one of "Those" guys.

Maybe you should give the guy a break instead of attacking him in the few forums.

Posted By Deadshane1 on 11/04/2007 9:43 PM

...and if those type of things were bugging me so bad, I wouldnt make light of them by going to a tournement in the first place, much less bringing my troubles to the surface in such a crowded place.

No, I said he was an easy going player after he had won....and what do personal mistakes, having to pee, or dear john letters have to do with common courtesy to strangers?

You can't schedule every bad thing that happens to you so that you are alone in your room. And when something frustrates or pisses you off, sometimes it's tough to keep it  down.

I'm only suggesting that Minus not stopping to talk could've been caused by something besides being a SORE LOSER or one of "Those" guys. Since you don't really know the guy, maybe you should give him the benefit of the doubt instead of calling him out anonymously in the forums.

Posted By Deadshane1 on 11/04/2007 9:43 PM

You werent there, you didnt have the experiance of playing/meeting him, so why are you lecturing me on this? I've been to many a tournement, and 'Minus' was not exactly my idea of a "Sportsmanship" winner.   I'll also point out that I didnt attack 'him' in the first place.  I never revealed who he was in respect to the guy.  He himself stepped forward and revealed who he was.  Don't make me out to be the bad guy here, all I did was recall my experience for all to read and the guilty (or innocent) remained nameless...until they stepped forward.

I replied to this thread because I know Minus67 and he's a great guy and an asset to the hobby. He owns a gaming store in Austin, Texas and has done more to build the hobby in Texas than anyone. When I read your post, It sounded like that when you found out that he got beat you rushed over to talk trash to the guy that beat him. And then when you got home, you posted about him anonymously (knowing that he probably posts here). But I took a step back and figured that I misread your post. So I'm saying, give the guy a break. Minus didn't have to come forward and apologize for being short, but he did. That's pretty respectable in my opinion -- certainly not the way a SORE LOSER or one of "Those" guys would act.

And I wasn't there. I'm not saying you are a bad guy. I have lots of friends in the Wrecking Crew and they are all extremely cool, so I don't think they'd let a bad guy in the club. I'm just saying that Minus deserves the same benefit of the doubt I'm giving you.