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I cam across what honestly can be described as "LGS drama" on Reddit today, but I think it's worth sharing because it kind of stumped me. And as someone who helps to run tournaments at my LGS, it seems like a really difficult situation to handle. Considering we're heading into Prerelease weekend and there will be a ton of players out and about for all of us, it feels like a topic worth discussing.
Before we go any further, you can find the thread here, but the gist of it is that one player felt like his opponent was being a jerk, and it escalated throughout the match to where the player claiming he was antagonized eventually threatens the other player, and things devolve from there. In the end, both players are DQ'ed but no one is banned.
I have no idea how I would handle this at the prereleases I'll be running this weekend. It's a situation you want to avoid obviously, and there's always tow sides to every story. At the same time, you have to draw a line somewhere. So, after looking that over, what do you think? Do you ban players from the store in situations like this, or can a handshake and a "no hard feelings" leave something threatening in the past? How do you balance it for the rest of the players in the store? It's a tough call, and I'm interested to see what other people think.
I think the key is to not let it escalate to that level. Someone nearby should have heard what was going on and either told the TO or told the antagonizer to settle down. The TO says its a small group so theres no way that between himself and another employee watching the tournament that it ever should have reached that point.
Maybe its just me/my lgs, but none of the people who are regulars have any problem telling other people (who may or may not also be regulars) to tone it down a notch. Last week we had two new people who had never drafted before and one older guy kept telling them to hurry up with the last few picks and to “just take the land.” This obviously confused the crap out of the new guy nearest him, who then thought he was supposed to have been taking lands. I had no problem telling the old guy to shut it and then re-explained to the new kid what the deal was with lands and to take his time.
So I do think self policing by other players nearby is important. If somebody nearby had told the antagonizer in the reddit post to stop being a dick I don’t think it would have turned out how it did. The bully would have realized he couldnt push his opponent around since other people were watching and nothing more would have happened. And if it did there would be people who could vouch for the victim. It’s amazing that situations like this come up among adults playing a game, and that nobody knows how to handle it.