Cheaters and rule benders beware. There are floor rules coming to 40k & ITC very soon that may keep players on their best behavior at events!
IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING. Now that the ATC is over and fresh in everyone’s minds, some of the ITC organizers have hinted at what we’ll be seeing at their events.
It seems like all we hear from Warhammer Tournaments are people cheating as of late. In reality, it’s always been a thing but it’s just getting more coverage since most top games are broadcasted now LIVE.
Cheaters Beware: Floor Rules Coming to 40k & ITC
Frontline Gaming’s July 18th Twitch Stream held an ATC recap as well as some news for the Community.
They hinted at what guidelines that we’ll be seeing at future ITC events like the BAO to minimalize issues. Let’s take a closer look and break everything down.
What’s Causing the Change?
The ATC was an overwhelmingly positive event for most of the people that actually attended. However, there was some cheating and scrutiny that took place and unfortunately, that seems to be what people want to talk about the most. We live in a world where the negative things always stand out more than the positive.
A new 40k player standing on the outside looking in would be disheartened by all the negativity from the events because that’s mostly what they’d hear about. That’s bad for the future of the hobby.
With that being said, does anyone remember the Gamer’s Bill of Rights that Games Workshop put out over a decade ago?
Back in the day when GW had an organized play team here in the states that was directly responsible for competitive play, they gave us this Bill of Rights. The list may be old, but it’s still a valuable piece of information that perhaps all tournaments should be following still today
Rule with a Not-So Iron Fist
We have to remember these events are being held so players can have fun. You can’t just ban people from an event who have traveled X amount of miles and paid X amount of money to be kicked out day one for “cheating”.
Here in the states, we have due process. You ARE innocent until proven guilty.
We aren’t saying that everyone gets a free pass to cheating either. But there has to be a fine line between justice and excessiveness. Usually in any sport the punishment for a first offense, no matter what it is, is a lot less severe. Don’t take this as a “one free cheat pass”. Just take it as a safety net in case you or your opponent mess up because there’s no way to tell if a person was intentionally cheating or if it was an honest mistake.
Looking at the ITC
Reece, on the latest Frontline Gaming Twitch broadcast and told us what’s coming to the ITC.
Floor Rules are in the works as we speak. These will be etiquette rules for players and judges. Similar to the Bill of Rights above.
“It will give people some guidelines. You don’t have to use them if you don’t want to. Just like anything in the ITC, its optional. But it will help resolve these kinds of situations. It’ll have things like what do you do when a die goes off the table? What do you do when you can’t tell what someone’s models are? All kinds of stuff like declaring your rolls before you roll them. How to conduct good sportsmanship. It’ll help to streamline the event for everybody.”
Kenny Spoke with Reece yesterday as well and it looks like the Version 1 of the Floor Rules will be for things like being points over on your list, sloppy play, slow play, using items not paid for etc.
We will also be seeing some Chess clocks make an appearance at BAO 2018
“Be prepared to have fun and be sure to read the Chess clock rules. Because as we’ve been talking about, we will be using them. Not everyone is going to be using them because we don’t think that’s even the right approach with clocks. But we are going to be using them day two.”
“This is a big experiment. We are only going to be using them day one if both people at the table request a clock. Day two, if you have a winning record, there will be one on the table because we want games to finish.”
This is a big experiment for the competitive community. They’ll be collecting data on game times with and without the clocks as well as if the players enjoyed using them. Again, make sure you read the clock rules and be prepared to see them more and more.
What do you think about the Chess clocks? What guidelines need to be in place for players to follow? Should Warhammer Community step in and set the standard for tournament play again? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
More articles on competitive play & events
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
