I had no problem getting a WoS map from them. I just asked after the last event was over. I do agree that it would be nice if they had an exchange program or something for the fixed sciencells.

I know there were issues with events but this is more than what happened. To my recollection, the WoS event was cancelled once. That's because initially all events were set up as a "1 generic ticket" event with the plan being (as it was in all previous years) that boosters would be paid for in the hall. Apparently, however things were done in the past was not in accordance with GC rules. So the choices were:

a) Cancel the event and don't have it
b) Reprice the event

We chose (b). I'm pretty sure it's what folks would have wanted whether they had signed up for a ticket or not. It is GenCon policy that resulted in cancellation of tickets. If the GC system allowed for folks who had preregistered to get first dibs on the repriced event, that would have helped your situation.

Also, there were WEEKS of time between the cancellation and the event selling out. About 10 days before GenCon, there were still seats left. And since all cancellations included an email being sent to the ticket holders, I'm not sure how this specifically is an issue.


The WoS bridge map was given out to players on Sunday. We needed them for the hall so that folks would have at least one map to use, but they were given out like candy on Sunday. I think the road box now has less than a dozen of those maps left.


We've heard the feedback about the event times and will be taking steps accordingly for future events.

Based on you screen name, I've looked at the database from the weekend. When did you get a Bye?

That said, anyone who got a bye this weekend got a win with 0 points and that, on its own, did not hurt them. Throughout the weekend there was one policy in place - if you didn't lose, you were not eliminated. That's why all undefeated players from Worlds got into the Day 3 event.

Now, a Bye with 0 points could affect your standing in the "defeated at least once" category. I won't argue that. But at that point you are already dealing with a loss of your own making, and that's not the fault of the Bye.

Last item on this - through luck of statistics, the folks who qualified to play in Worlds Day 3 all had a 5-0 record from Day 1 or 2 or they had a combined record of 7-3 or better. The only 6-4 record to make it in - Tim Bold - was due to a player not showing up on time. There were 3 Byes given out during Day 1 and 2 and their records were 1-3, 3-7, and 4-5. The best of them , given an additional 300 points would move from position #56 to position 46 (out of the 120 unique players we had total).

I'm always willing to discuss/debate the "0 point Bye", but let's all agree on something - in practice, this just doesn't come up as an issue all that often in an event that does not penalize a player without a loss.

Which events are you referring to? The World Championships, the pre-releases, the Golden Age, etc., were all played on tables that measured 8 feet across. On those tables we put 3 maps - each one is 2 feet across. If we were to allow 3x3 maps, and all 3 players decided to use one, that would be NINE feet on an EIGHT foot table. Should we have implemented a rule that said that the first 2 matches at a table could use the 3x3 but not the one in the middle or who rolled off last?

Now, on Sunday, we had space and there were a number of 3x3 maps being used. But we were only using 2 maps per table at that point.

Event times are high on the list for better communication for next year.

When I can program robots to handle judging events, I certainly will. In the meantime, these human flesh-bags are my only resource. People make mistakes. There's a system in place to deal with it. Overall, I haven't heard too much in the way of specific judge errors, but if there's more to discuss on this, please bring it up.

Thanks for taking the time to address these issues, Norm.

What system is in place?

I also wanted to ask - is it legal during tourney play to ask a judge to re-spin someone's dial?

I've seen people who either aren't giving pieces enough clix or are giving them too many to reach a regen, outwit or other ability.

All judges working at GC know that if there is a player insisting that the ruling they are getting is incorrect that they can come to me or pull in any other judge to help.

Now, that said, there are many many times that a player is asking for a different ruling when the judge is 100% certain that their ruling is correct. Judges working at GC also know that they are empowered to say "this is the ruling - you can choose to play or you can choose to leave the match and be DQ'd, but at this point, those are your only two choices."

I'm soooo glad to have click numbers on dials now. With more character having them, this should prove to be a non-issue as players can say "You are on click 2 and I hit you for 3 damage. Your character has Toughness, so you take 2 clicks, so move your character to click 4."

Of course, that doesn't address the question of what to do in the here-and-now. I would say that if this is suspected, it is ok to ask a judge to come over and verify the click. Get the character back to the click they were on, and apply the damage with a witness. I'm open to other suggestions here.

I agree with a large part of this. If a promotion is going to be done, it should be more "across the board".

Considering that the players who design these are the winners of Worlds, are you at all surpised that metagame pieces are the result??


It would make more people stick around longer.

I'm still holding out hope that Iron Maiden ends up fully compatible.

Yeah. I've also heard complaints about judges running things differently for BRs and such. Rules need to be explained to everyone running the events so that they are all run the same way. I have no idea if this was done or not, so I can't really say more than it shold be.

It was a few years ago. Part of the problem was my game getting done early (20 minutes), and then the other one running 50 minutes, and then 5 minutes waiting for the judge.

I don't know what to do about it--it's in the nature of the game.

Or in Golden Age events. Is it acceptable to demand (for lack of a better word) that your opponent allow you to watch them click the dial so you can see how many clicks are applied?

I would recommend a polite tone and a non-accusatory position, but yes.

Actually, I was refused a map by Mike on Sunday after everything. Three of my friends that I traveled up from Houston with, however, had maps given to them by asking just like I did. So yeah, not sure that everyone was on the same page. Kind of bitter about that myself.

Yeah, you probably were. I'm sorry, but there really wasn't any way for me to know that they were to be distributed.

I'm not sure who you are, exactly, by your screen name, but passing them out really was about the last thing done on Sunday.

As far as I knew when people first started asking, they were not giveaways. Most likely when you asked was before I knew otherwise. I was under the impression that I was not allowed to give them out aside from the ones which were prizes for the top 16.

Didn't I also see you steal some poor kid's ice cream cone, twriling your moustache and laughing as you pulled your cape across your face?

This is, of course, after you tied all of the WoS maps to the railroad tracks!

"Steal" is such a harsh word. I prefer to look at it as the boy making an unwillful donation to the foundation for the satisfaction of Harpua's sweet tooth.

Speaking of which when you took that boys ice cream (Cold Stone?), did you give give him his shoes back that you were holding for ransom...

Hair 10's Hat...?

MikeHoughton's Howard the Duck ...?

The birds and the goats....?


and the list keeps going.....

I get the feeling Mike's response may end up being along the lines of "Go curate yourself".