GW Grognard: I don’t think it means what you think it means

Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here once again to explain the nuances of the English (American) language.

I’m in a lot of Facebook groups. From casual, to competitive, from all the 40K armies, to a few Age of Sigmar armies, and a lot more groups that have nothing to do with 40K. I don’t always comment in those groups but I do take a glance at them from time to time. One of the things that bug me is the incorrect use of certain terms when people complain. In this particular case it the term “Win at All Costs”, or WAAC.

In recent times I have been seeing this acronym pop up when people complain about an army, combination of rules, or player. It is usually said by someone that either plays n tournaments, but not seriously, or by a casual player, who avoids tournaments because they are afraid of such players.  They call anyone who uses certain combos,or armies, that they may not agree with, as WAAC players and continue to make broad statements about competitive players, or the competitive scene (kind of like I’m doing here ;). What they fail to either realize, or just plain ignore, is that they are using the acronym in an incorrect manner, and actually makes it look like you are just being salty.

Just to let people understand, lets go through what defines a “Win at all costs” type of player. These are players that do more than just “bend the rules”, or maybe interpret the rules a different way, until a tournament organizer or judge corrects them. These are players that are willing to do “whatever” it takes to win their game. We have seen many examples over the last year to show what a WAAC player does. Here are but a few examples:

• Roll dice and pick them up so fast their opponent doesn’t have time to see the result
• Roll dice out of sight of their opponent and just declare what the result is
• Using weighted, or otherwise tampered with, dice
• Moving models, both their’s and/or their opponent’s, when opponent isn’t watching or when “dice down” is called
• Deliberate slow play
• Bullying opponents to concede or to agree on something
• Bullying judges to call it their way

These are just a few examples of instances that would qualify someone as being a WAAC player. I’m sure you either know of, or have see, someone act in the manner of one f the examples I listed. You may even know a few more examples of such behavior from your own experiences.

Now, you may not mean to call someone a WAAC player, in the true sense of the word anyway, but have a hard time coming up with a more suitable word, or it may be the only way it was described to you when you were starting out. There are a number of other words that could be used. Power gamer, rules lawyer, and min/maxer are just some of the terms one can use instead of calling someone a WAAC player. There may also be more colorful words you may want to use, if they are appropriate for the situation, and that’s fine also. So the next time  you wish to use the acronym, be sure they are one. That way you don’t just come off as just a salty player. Or you could just also “Git Gud, Scrub” 😉

That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and if you have any WAAC stories or other terms to use, in the comments section. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!

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