Tournament List Submission

One of the things that is most annoying for a TO and/or Umpire is when participants fail to make the deadline for army list submission.


You will generally find (always in the case of events I run) that the date when army lists are required to be submitted to the Umpire is stated upfront. That some people can’t work to the timetable is incredibly frustrating to the umpire.

Why?

Well Umpires (like participants) have a life. It is an unpaid role (I give a small gratuity in models) and it takes a fair whack of time. Not only do they give up their weekend – when I’m sure most would rather be gaming – but also there is preparatory work before the event. This includes checking participants’ army lists to ensure that they are correct and legal.

Most umpires will seek to put aside a lump of time to do this so that they can go through them methodically – usually race by race – to reduce the overall requirement. It can be exceedingly frustrating to get lists late (and wrong) which drags out the whole process.

It also penalises those people who have got their lists in on time, in the expectation the rest of the field would do the same. How? Well increasingly TOs are sending out the lists to participants before the event so they can familiarise themselves with opponents’ lists, checking out items or units they don’t know the rules to. This is a good thing as it decreases delays at the actual event where people need to go through and explain their list to their opponents. It also acts as a second check for Umpires that they haven’t missed anything when vetting the list.

Given this, it is annoying that the Umpire for Nicon has had to send out two reminders for lists that were due last Sunday. The deadline was clearly stated in the Players Pack so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone). With 35-40 participants at the event I can sense his frustration at not receiving them all as requested. He has indicated that he will be penalising players one tournament point if they are not in on Thursday.

To me this doesn’t go far enough. In future I will be asking Umpires at any events I am organiser of to penalise people 10 Tournament Points for not having their list in by the deadline and 5 points for every day after. Penalties need to be meaningful if some individuals feel that the tournament rules that apply to other participants don’t apply to them. It’s another symptom of the Generation Me and their sense of entitlement! Too busy on the Facetwitter and Diabolical 3.

This will be in force for both Warhammer Achievements and Fields of Blood – The NZ Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament.