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Sportsmanship Recognised At Las Vegas Open 40k Championships
February 16, 2018 by crew
At one of the world's largest Warhammer 40k events held during the Las Vegas Open, a really interesting turn of events has sparked a huge amount of conversation due to one particular situation that was streamed live to thousands of viewers on Twitch.
Alexander Fennel playing Space Wolves and Tony Grippando playing Aeldari faced off against one another at the Semi-Finals of the event. A pretty huge moment with it being the culmination of the ITC season and a $4,000 cash purse which is pretty huge for tabletop gaming.
Both players knew each other and are actually both due to play for the American European Team Championships team this year.
Example of the LVO Halls
In the match, Tony got first turn and as it happened, he ended up using one hour of the two and a half hour time slot given for the game. This is important, as it may have had an impact on what happened next.
As Alex's first turn began he deployed one of his Assassins before moving any other units, however, this caused an issue as Assassins need to be used "at the end of the movement phase".
Alex realised his mistake and openly admitted this on the Live Stream. Tony enforced an "order of operations" mistake which essentially meant that Alex was not able to perform any further movement with the entirety of his army.
With a primarily assault based army stuck in its deployment, Alex conceded the game right then and there.
However, quickly after decided that although he had lost that, rather than waste this opportunity he would play out the game with Tony, show off two top players competing on stream and in a real act of sportsmanship accept the outcome gracefully while still giving a great show.
Frontline Gaming who were covering the event will have surely been incredibly grateful for this selfless act as the stream avoided having to fill time or simply show a holding screen until the next round.
As it happened, one of the many viewers of the stream was Marc Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games, who was so impressed by Alex's actions that he donated a $5,000 Sportsmanship Award to Alex.
To go even further, Alex decided to take this generosity and not only accept it but also pass it all on to a children's hospital fund, not before asking his employer to fund match the donation for a total of $10,000!
You can actually check out an interview with the LVO organiser Reece Robins, Marc Merrill and Alex Fennell where they discuss how it all played out.
There's a real success story here from Alex's wonderful actions but it does beg the question, should it ever have happened?
At what point does "just take that action back" to keep an entire game feasible get overrun by "well these are the rules with all adhere too when we sign up"?
I don't think anyone wants to win via disqualifications, mistimed actions or even due to time running out but rules are there for a reason.
What's your view on appropriate conduct during competitive events and how do you think Alex handled this outcome?
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That was a great thing to do giving the money to the hospital.
I know all the hyper-competitive folk are going to disagree with me on this, but I think your game system/tourney has a severe problem when a single, honest mistake like that assassin’s deployment can effectively end a round.
And yes, Alex did demonstrate some nice sportsmanship here, and I’m glad it’s been recognized. It’s only a shame that the 40K scene isn’t such that his opponent didn’t just say, “Hey, we all make mistakes, take it back and we’ll play on.” Instead he “enforced” an order of operations mistake and ensured that his victory would be down to a rules slip-up on his opponent’s part and not his own skill.
I don’t know if that inflexibility is on the player or the TO, but hell, it doesn’t sound like the kind of thing I want to be a part of. More power to those of you who do though, I guess.
It’s been a while but I knew tony back when we were both teens gaming at the chicago battle bunker. This sort of thing from him isn’t remotely surprising, back in the day he was routinely ‘that guy’ even in casual games. Needling and stickling rules and the like while taking every inch his opponent was willing to give him. Doesn’t make a good impression but it sure earns you wins.
Enforcing operational mistake is one thing, helping them make the operational mistake is another.
Alex is obviously a great human being and I am glad that he is getting this public recognition. He is the sort of person that we want in the hobby.
BUT “crew” has one part of this article wrong.
Alex’s magnificent act of generousity resulted in a donation to the hospital of $15000 not $10000.
Why ?? https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/02/13/the-very-best-of-sports/
They aren’t that common on BoW as they are on other sites but the next time someone bleats about that GW only care about money please consider this.
I agree and don’t want to lower the positive side of things. Not at all. Hope my post down there is showing this if anything else is giving reason for doubts…. 😉
But still, it’s always good to keep an open mind, to look at things from different perspectives. Thinking who we’re talking about and what you can do with that amount of money, US$ 5000 is a nice gesture but not really a big deal. Also, how about doing things like these (i.e. donating for good causes & promoting fair and friendly behaviour and attitudes) on their own and and for the sole reason of these acts themselves. Why does it need a private person’s showing greatness for this to happen?
I wish this whole affair is a push for things getting better as a standard not an exception.
Anyway, at least they want to make the good sportsmanship a bigger thing in general it seems.
Alex is hero that this community needs but doesn’t deserve.
I think this is sending the right signal(s): don’t be a fraggin douche. I can kind of understand Tony’s predicament then, too. But no technical rights or circumstances excuse that kind of behaviour. You really have to take in the circumstances that led to that moment. Their agreement of playing quickly and fair and generously. Tony taking so long when they had only 2,5h, then helping Alex doing the deep strike (where Alex even let Tony place his units as he saw fit) only to insist on the silly mistake that really didn’t even change a thing. There are words for this…
And after all, even if you don’t mind winning due to such a weak move, not on the field but by bureaucratism and cheap tricks, there are greater things at hand than the own little fleeting winnings. Being a good example e.g. especially in an environment like this.
But karma was quick and just for once and on top of that good things arose from all of this. Just sad that this even had to happen that way. Tony is said to be an ace guy. Sad one like him let ambition get the better of him. I like that he apologised later. Although he did to the organizers and for making them look not so good which I find okay but not what he should have for or to whom.
I think this article misses a major point out. Pre match both players agreed to play to intent, effectively meaning spirit of the game rather than rules. Which makes Tony’s actions even poorer, as he’s ditched the agreement at the first opportunity
I’m not interested in ultra-competitive events, though have no objection to those who are taking part in them. Rather than comment on this particular incident – and I haven’t watched the Twitch battle and don’t know anything about the players – I think it is a tricky question to know how strict competitive tournaments should be about the rules. This kind of single, easily correctable mistake causing someone to lose a match sounds the opposite of fun to me, but if BOTH (or rather, all the players in the tournament) know that everything is going to be super-strict then it’s not quite as easy as saying ‘well obviously he should have been allowed to retract the mistake and carry on’.
Still, the better part of this story is the spirit and generosity shown by Alex, Marc, Alex’s employer and GW. That is really cool.
Also interesting to see that GW’s coverage of the incident – and their donation – wasn’t neutral. Although they didn’t name Tony, they are clearly critical of his conduct. I think their donation, and their talk about doing more to support ‘sporty’ gaming sends out quite an important message about the kind of hobby they want to promote.
you pretty much summed up everything i was going to say on the subject, wonder if a treacherous tony will appear in a black library offering….
I was looking at this again. It took someone an hour to take a turn?
yeah, im betting that guy will get trolled to within an inch of his life for such a series of dick moves, don’t condone that sort of thing, but couldn’t happen to a nicer asshole, he’s just unlucky that hes the “that guy” that went viral, hopefully will serve as a warning to other “power players” out there, who seem to have an ecyclopedic knowledge of the pedantry rules but managed to miss the one on page 2 of the rule book in bold which says its only game have fun!…
Nah who am i kidding its a 40k tourny always gonna be filled with people who would fit well into the bureaucracy of 41st millenium, who lack the hand eye co-ordination to be good at FPS’s or other “e-sports”, nothing makes me happier than seeing those sorts get their comeuppance, lets hope that GW announcing they will do a sportsmanship award will get known as the anti-tony….
There is a reason igougo with no clock is becoming a thing of the past
Full kudos to Alex, Marc and GW but the great sportsmanship not being a bad reaction to what is some full on win at any cost move hardly demonstrates the great sportsmanship of the scene. More shows there are some great people and some twats that frankly give tournaments a bad name. Dividing line for me is the helping measure, not the procedure call. If you needvto pull that to try win, you don’t deserve too.
As a foot note off of the game table other guy may be great but what we do in life and all that stuff.