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.