Raw Dogger is back with his opinions on the death of Ard Boyz.
A (highly opinionated) guest article by Raw Dogger
As I am sure most of you out in internet la la land have undoubtedly heard, GW has put and end to the much maligned ‘Ard Boyz yearly tournament. Now, I’m as big a fan of playing with hard boys as is your dad, but sadly I have never played in this tournament so my reaction to this news was mostly ‘meh’.
So why am I writing an article dedicated to the loss of a tournament that I have never played in? Well, the thing is I’m not actually writing an article about the tournament per-se. What motivated me to take time out from work (don’t tell my boss) and fire up the ol’ HP Compaq (don’t hate) are the comments section of the BOLS article about the demise of ‘Ard Boyz. That doesn’t make sense. Anyways, while doing my daily read and leave hater comments on BOLS articles I noticed a higher than normal occurrence of WAAC accusers and haters than normal. For those of you who have been living in your mom’s spare room with cheetos in your ears for the last 5 years, WAAC is an acronym standing for “Win At All Costs”. What does that mean? A win at all cost player will WIN AT ALL COSTS, idiot! Basically it is someone who will bend and twist the rules in order to favor their actions throughout the game. It also refers to players who are rude, fat, smelly, and generally not fun to be around.
For some reason, players who use redundant units have also gotten lumped into the WAAC category as well, but that is another rant for another article. To sum it up, the people leaving comments on the ‘Ard Boyz article are celebrating the demise of the tournament due to the player base being primarily WAAC individuals, and this was a good way to ‘stick it to them’ somehow. Normally I would just laugh off these types of comments, leave my own comments about how they sounded fat and whatnot, and go back to pretending that I am working. But this got me to thinking. Why the vehement hate for players that go to tournaments to win?
The views that competitive players are somehow jerks are not new ones. In fact, those views transcend nations. I remember playing at a small game club in Seoul, Korea and one of the first things that I was told by the other expats was to not play the Koreans, because they build lists for the sole purpose of winning. Oh heavens! You don’t say!? You mean to tell me that someone who spent from 500-1k dollars on game pieces, spent countless hours lovingly painting them and then had the audacity to build a list that would win games? For shame, sir.
Personally, I have never and will never understand the argument that players who go to a tournament for the sole purpose of winning equals a bad person. Oh I’m sorry, I paid my 60+ dollars so I can look at cool armies and stick my thumb up my butt but for two days. The sad thing is every single person who has ever, EVER, told me this in person was someone who just lost all or nearly all of their games in a tournament. Sour grapes, in the most literal sense of the word The truth of the matter is that the reason you got tabled on turn 2 was that your opponent was better than you.
Instead of crying and going onto BOLS to gripe, why don’t you ask the person who beat you to give suggestions on how to write a better army list? Maybe a Khorne themed World Eater army wasn’t the best army to take to a tournament. As for the argument that WAAC players are rude, pushy, and sometimes even violent people? That isn’t a WAAC player that is a jerk. These are the people who should be ejected from the tournament. In fact, I’m a huge proponent of tournament organizers who keep rotten tomatoes on hand for the purpose of hurling them at any player who a)throws a temper tantrum and isn’t three years old b) insults anybody during a game c)acts violently or d) yells WAAGH during their game.
So please, for the love of god, the next time you are about to type a comment on any website about WAAC players ruining the tournament scene turn off your monitor and look at your reflection in the monitor. Are you fat? Do you have a neck beard? Did you recently lose a game to a player who was much better than you or wrote a better list? If you answered yes to any of these questions turn off your computer, pop in that DVD of Backdoor Action 4, and get back to doing what you do best.
OH MAN, you totally beat me to the punch. I am in the middle of writing an article about this also. I personally noticed that many of the hater comments (both on BoLS and in my local gaming group) seem to think that the death of ‘Ard Boyz should say something about non-soft score tournaments. As if they are the same thing or that one being dropped should say something about the other. I have experience with ‘Ard Boyz tournaments bringing some unsavory gamers out who otherwise never really play(Like Reece with his unpainted SW! What a jerk). However, I have never seen any WAAC garbage at any of the respected no-soft-scores US national tournaments.
Yeah, Reece really is a jerk. I actually was reading the BOLS article, spit out my coffee, and wrote that article in about five minutes (I’m sure that part is obvious). It just came to me, as if in a rage filled dream.
Hahaha, those BoLS commenters are funny. Half of them comment before they even read the article.
Haha, I actually have a fully painted Ard Boyz army. At the semis last year, almost every army was painted, it was cool.
People in this hobby are silly, they draw connections between things where they don’t exist. We don’t know why GW pulled Ard Boyz, and it doesn’t imply anything about the Indy circuit as of now. To imply otherwise is stupid.
Yeah, I know you do man. It looks really good too. That must have been pretty sweet to see all those enormous fully painted armies duking it out. Perhaps ironically, the higher the level of competition, the less WAAC I have encountered. At the really high skill level, there are mostly only the hobby vets. who enjoy the whole tabletop gaming experience from paint to game.
Yeah, exactly. And the most angry gamers I have met are almost always “fluff” gamers. They have tended to be, in my experience, the most close minded and judgmental. That obviously doesn’t apply to everyone that plays casually, but the anti-WAAC crowd does seem to have a lot of them.
Yo man, check this out
I was just at the game store right?
Heard these two dudes talkin
One of them said to the other one
that they knew someone, who said you guys are WAAC!
Who said we’re WAAC? You said we’re WAAC?
You take it back! Who said we’re WAAC?
You talkin smack? You’re gonna get smacked!
(You sayin that I’m WAAC but it just ain’t so)
Someone said we’re WAAC, why would they say that?
I don’t think we’re WAAC, who said we’re WAAC?
Who said we’re WAAC? I can’t believe that
They must be smokin crack, to say that we’re WAAC
Say that we’re wack, you probably get smacked
if you say we’re WAAC, did you say we’re WAAC?
WHO SAID WE’RE WAAC? I’ll paint your eye chaos black!
Won’tcha check my facts – who said we’re WAAC?
How could a person up and call a person WAAC?
How could the Emperor turn the blue sky black?
How many newbs will never reach their dreams?
And how could a person call another person WAAC?
I heard a rumor that somebody said we’re WAAC
I think that’s wack, to call someone WAAC
I AM NOT WAAC, NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY
WHAT DID YOU SAY? DID YOU SAY I’M WAAC?~!
All the 40k guys in the house put your hands up
All the fantasy guys in the house put your hands up
Now whoever said we’re WAAC put your hand up
Now everyone else, put your hands down
(Oh there he is, there he is!)
Apologies to The Lonely Island.
To much time on my hands, I know.
Hahahaha, awesome!
LOL, there is no such thing as too much time on one’s hands. Lube? That’s another story entirely.
Wow! Great article!
It’s really strange that after all these years of 40k tournaments, these two kind of gamers (competitive versus story-driven) both still swim in the same pond.
I do not think any one side is more right than the other. The problem is that they still is going to the same venues.
I think you had an excellent arrangement on Bay Area Open, with a competitive and narrative event running side-by side.
Myself, as a full-blood competitive player, I really enjoy the company of the representatives from the other side; they often have new and inventive ideas, excellent painted armies and an inspirative-in depth perspective of the game that inspires my own imagination.
So final thougth; I wish we (both sides of competitive vs fluffy players) could continue to exist side by side and also get inspiration and joy from each other. It is useless to complain about the other side, as neither wants the same thing as the other. If we create separate activities that fulfills the needs of both sides, there won’t be any reason to fight each other anymore. Personally, I would want these events to be run side-by-side so I can chit-chat with those nice dudes, as I really appreciate those guys.
Well, thats all from Sweden tonight, I’ve been writing this on my IPhone and there ate not too many spelling mistakes because of that.
@Henrik,
Thanks for the kind words. I agree that it would be nice to be able to go to a tournament and not have people complaining, but I honestly can’t see that happening any time soon. The reality is that these dudes complaining on BOLS are either terrible players who make poor lists or old dudes who want to get back to the RPG rogue trader days. There is a whole lot of ‘haters gon’ hate’ stuff that happens in the forums.