The UK National Championships took place over last weekend, and for the most part it was a great event. We would like to start by thanking Living Realms, the UK National Championship TO, and the judge team for putting on an amazing event for all the players that attended.
Subsequent to the event however, several instances of involving player conduct were brought to our attention, causing us to conduct an investigation into whether there had been any breach of the Tournament Rules and Policy. Specifically at issue were the Round 1 and 8 matches involving the winner Matthew Foulkes. The investigation included the following:
- A full review of gameplay footage of the reported incidents.
- Statements from the TO, Head Judge, and various players.
- Multiple meetings of the Committee to discuss the above, assess any potential infractions, and agree on any potential sanctions.
Findings
Following the review, the Committee has made a finding of Unsporting Conduct in regard to the behaviour observed in Round 1, and has determined to issue a formal warning in regard to this instance. Specifically at issue here was a play sequence where the player in question misses the timing window for a beneficial trigger to create an Embodiment of Earth token, then silently corrects the missed trigger. However, when their opponent misses an Embodiment of Lightning trigger on the next turn, they call a judge on their opponent and prevent them from creating the token.
Flesh and Blood is a complicated game, and there is often a level of tolerance amongst players when play sequences are not executed strictly in accordance with the rules. At Professional Level events, there is an expectation that the rules will be followed, and players are within their rights to require their opponent to sequence their actions accurately. However, even at this level of play, there is often a level of understanding between players that they will tolerate some small deviations from the correct order of play in the spirit of having a good game. The finding of Unsporting Conduct has been made because the player in question has expected that a level of leniency should be applied to inaccuracies in their play sequencing, but then fails to extend that same courtesy to their opponent. We expect that players will hold themselves to a high standard of conduct at all times, and this behaviour fell short of that standard.
The Committee also investigated the other instances of missed triggers that occurred, including in Round 8. While it's unfortunate to see these kinds of misplays happen, they are not necessarily rules violations in and of themselves. In these cases, the active player themselves forgets about their own beneficial triggers, which is the kind of thing that can happen at the end of a long day of play. We address this issue further below, however without condoning the play that took place here, there is no conclusive evidence of intent with regard to these plays, and the Committee has made no further findings on this basis.
Two final notes on this matter;
- If the floor judges had intervened at the time, it's possible that they would have made a different determination from the one above. If this had been the case, we would generally have been inclined to support their finding and not overturned this decision.
- Repeated rules infringements can lead to escalating levels of sanctions. In the case of Unsporting Conduct, this can ultimately lead to a sanction up to and including disqualification and suspension. A formal warning is a permanent record on a players account and will be considered by the Committee if a case involving the same player should come before the Committee again in the future
Finally, we don't want the above matter to detract from what was otherwise a great event. The organisers and judge core did a great job running the tournament and we are very grateful to them for putting on such an outstanding event. Judges perform a critical and difficult role, often in trying circumstances, and we would like to extend our gratitude to them for their contribution to the community via judging at the event.
Expectations of Professional-level play
We would like to take this opportunity to remind players about our expectations of players at professional level tournaments.
National Championship events represent some of the highest levels of competition for Flesh and Blood and are ruled at a professional rules enforcement level. As such, we expect players to “play hard, and play fair”. Flesh and Blood is a game of skill, and we expect players to win games, and tournaments, through skilful play in an honest and fair manner, not through exploitation of the game rules, ‘rules sharking’, or ‘angle shooting’ to derive an unfair advantage. To be clear, this does not mean players are obliged to let their opponents ‘take back’ mistakes once a play has been made. We strongly emphasize, however, that players are expected to hold themselves to the same standard that they hold their opponents to.
Players should call judges to resolve disputes, clarify rules queries, and to administer fixes to the game state. Judges are there to aid in the running of a tournament, administer corrections to games, aid in the smooth continuation of a game, and issue penalties where necessary. Penalties are used to discourage players from repeat behaviour and to balance out advantages gained from particular actions. Players should not be afraid to call for a judge for their own honest mistakes, as often there is no game-changing penalty administered if a fix can ensure the game state is corrected and the player doesn’t gain an advantage.
We would also like to remind players of the following general points:
- Always be clear when communicating your plays to your opponent, particularly with respect to triggers and priority. We encourage players to clearly announce things such as how much they are attacking or defending for, any triggers, passing of priority, life total changes, and all other public information that could influence either player’s decisions.
- The playspace (defined by the outline of both player’s mats) should be clear from obstruction to preserve the integrity of physical communication and gameplay. This includes oversized and/or all non-game related objects. For the avoidance of doubt, the use of a die to represent the amount of resource you have remaining, ideally placed just above the pitch zone, is allowed and strongly encouraged.
- Tokens that are not in play should not be present in the game space. This is clearly stated in the Tournament Rules and Policy document. Tokens such as Briar’s Embodiments, Runechants, Spectral Shields, and others, must not be present if they are not in play. It is not acceptable to have these in the game space “by default”, then use dice (or move them to a different position) to indicate when they are “active” or “present”.
Expectations of recorded games and community reporting
Streaming of matches is something that is a huge benefit to the community as a whole. For those who can’t attend an event, it provides an opportunity to enjoy watching the matches and to learn more about the game as part of the global Flesh and Blood TCG community.
Flesh and Blood is a complex game - even at the highest level of gameplay, players can still make mistakes. Nearly every single high-level player will be able to give you an example of a game rule mistake they’ve made at some point. In the vast majority of cases, missing of triggers or errors in gameplay procedure do not constitute unsporting conduct, rule sharking, or cheating. It is virtually inevitable that one player or another will benefit as a result of a mistake, and that fact by itself doesn't mean that the misplay is in anyway deliberate. When watching coverage, we encourage the community to understand when misplays inevitably occur on camera, that in the vast majority of cases, they are honest mistakes, and for the most part we should assume goodwill on behalf of the players involved.
We do not condone members of the community engaging in ‘witch hunts’, or harassing/bullying players in cases where they believe a rule has been broken. We believe that a ‘witch hunt’ culture, resulting from scathing scrutiny of streamed game play, will ultimately lead to players declining to play on stream because of the perceived risk. We believe that would be a major loss for the entire Flesh and Blood community.
The appropriate way to report serious incidents that have occured at official events is by emailing op@fabtcg.com, and we appreciate those who do so.
We would also like to remind the community that while we support the right of players to report potential instances of cheating, freely express their opinions, and engage in robust debates; behaviour such as targeted bullying and harassment of players is not acceptable. Per the Penalty Guidelines document:
“Infractions resulting in suspension or banning do not need to have occurred inside an LSS event venue. LSS reserves the right to suspend players from LSS events for behavior that is believed to negatively impact the Flesh and Blood community.”
Retroactive Investigations
Legend Story Studios will not, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, retroactively investigate incidents if they have not been addressed by the judges/TO at the event. Generally speaking, there would need to be compelling evidence of actions that could warrant a retroactive disqualification for an investigation to be opened.
The primary purpose of the Penalty Committee is to investigate instances where a player has been disqualified from a professional level event.
Penalty Guidelines
We have always been consistent in stating that we view our Rules Documents, including the Penalty Guidelines, as “living documents” that will be updated when we identify changes or updates that need to be made.
During the investigation process, we noted that there were certain areas we felt could be improved or clarified, particularly those relating to Unsporting Conduct and Rules Sharking. We will be reviewing these sections, as well as the Penalty Guidelines generally, more fully at the conclusion of the current National Championship season to ensure that they are fit for purpose and expect there may be some changes to the current wording of certain sections as a result of this.