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League Behaviour
- Thread starter robotgreg
- Start date
UKCS Hangover semi final group with you was a damn good laugh thoughwoah...this thread makes for interesting reading... guilty of talking to competitors whilst competing but only because i want to get to know you all...
just being friendly...no tactics involved...
I've seen someone kick the coin door before, also a game had to be restarted at a northern meet due to a youngster doing the same and slam tilting the machine.
wow, this thread has legs.
i know Lukasz, and i like him, and i would let him come and play my games anytime (even though he'd knock all my high scores off - excellent player). but as someone pointed out to me earlier, i would feel differently about someone i didn't know, some guy who i knew had broken glass before and had been seen pushing and shoving games, i might think twice i suppose if i heard he was coming over. i definitely think it was different because the meet was held in a bar rather than in someone's house, but the games are still someone's property so he's still a naughty boy. pinball is a physical game and it wasn't broken on purpose so i think the punishment was fair and that from now on he'll be on eggshells.
i know Lukasz, and i like him, and i would let him come and play my games anytime (even though he'd knock all my high scores off - excellent player). but as someone pointed out to me earlier, i would feel differently about someone i didn't know, some guy who i knew had broken glass before and had been seen pushing and shoving games, i might think twice i suppose if i heard he was coming over. i definitely think it was different because the meet was held in a bar rather than in someone's house, but the games are still someone's property so he's still a naughty boy. pinball is a physical game and it wasn't broken on purpose so i think the punishment was fair and that from now on he'll be on eggshells.
Not the same person we've been talking about but a couple of years ago we had another player getting very physical with my machines at a meet. I ended up ignoring it but if I'm honest it felt like it was taking the ****. Similarly when I lent machines to the LPC last year I caught a player who had travelled from a different country smacking the lock down bar on my Metallica in anger. That one really ****ed me off and after seeing it I'm far less keen to lend new machines out to future events.
I suspect part of the problem is the leagues are now a victim of their own success. Last Sunday's meet was quite with only 30 players, the one before had 45. I think I had over 40 in my place 2 years ago. I think Dawn said the mailing list was over 200 players for the area. While it's great to see so many people it does potentially open up the possibility of more people you don't know coming and damaging machines etc.
I suspect part of the problem is the leagues are now a victim of their own success. Last Sunday's meet was quite with only 30 players, the one before had 45. I think I had over 40 in my place 2 years ago. I think Dawn said the mailing list was over 200 players for the area. While it's great to see so many people it does potentially open up the possibility of more people you don't know coming and damaging machines etc.
OP
OP
@DRD, I appreciate your thoughts and comments and understand there is a strength of feeling here.
I am in charge of the league but consult with other regional co-ordinators when making any key decisions or changes to the way the league is run, quite often with long discussions!
We reviewed and considered the circumstances as we don't have specific rules for these occurrences. The consensus was that a disqualification from the meet was the least merited but any further punishment eg ban for the season for a "first" offence deemed to be excessive. Furthermore the punishment did change what would have been a 1st (even after 0 was awarded for the one machine) to a last on the day.
I'd also like to point out that I didn't know who the culprit was when we were discussing an appropriate punishment so any conscious or subconscious element from knowing who it was, was excluded so I can safely say the decision was made entirely fairly regardless of who it happened to be.
I'd also like to note that this isn't the first time when a league player has "offended" by either knocking the machines about excessively or using excessive, loud swearing or general unruly behaviour. And this is the first time we have disqualified anyone so given that we haven't imposed sanctions in the past when certain types of behaviour may have merited it, we felt it was unfair to unduly punish this person by making an example of them.
What I would say however is that now with this and last year's announcements and general warnings over future conduct, we'll look less favourably on offences where no damage is necessarily caused but it may have been based on the level of abuse involved.
I'm not excusing for one second what happened but we do need to bear in mind it was plate glass not tempered so required less force to break. Also I was not there to see it so can only go on reports of what happened but do also read Pipeline Tom's post who was there.
Please note that any ban on UK comps outside the league is out of my remit.
I totally agree that it's fantastic that hosts open up their houses and let sometimes complete strangers come and play their machines, usually at their own financial cost, not including the time involved when preparing and cleaning up after a meet. So it is with great thanks and appreciation to all who do open up their houses. As I say I hope and believe this was an islolated incident and we won't see similar abuse in future but if so will impose punishments for incidents which don't but could have resulted in damage.
I will be updating the rules on the league website in due course.
Appreciate your views but the decision has been made, so please let's just move on and enjoy pinball. Some of you may agree, some may disagree but we're not changing the punishment. Hopefully this was a one-off and can soon be forgotten,. The culprit is very sorry, paid for the glass and is unlikely to repeat the offence!
Cheers
Greg
I am in charge of the league but consult with other regional co-ordinators when making any key decisions or changes to the way the league is run, quite often with long discussions!
We reviewed and considered the circumstances as we don't have specific rules for these occurrences. The consensus was that a disqualification from the meet was the least merited but any further punishment eg ban for the season for a "first" offence deemed to be excessive. Furthermore the punishment did change what would have been a 1st (even after 0 was awarded for the one machine) to a last on the day.
I'd also like to point out that I didn't know who the culprit was when we were discussing an appropriate punishment so any conscious or subconscious element from knowing who it was, was excluded so I can safely say the decision was made entirely fairly regardless of who it happened to be.
I'd also like to note that this isn't the first time when a league player has "offended" by either knocking the machines about excessively or using excessive, loud swearing or general unruly behaviour. And this is the first time we have disqualified anyone so given that we haven't imposed sanctions in the past when certain types of behaviour may have merited it, we felt it was unfair to unduly punish this person by making an example of them.
What I would say however is that now with this and last year's announcements and general warnings over future conduct, we'll look less favourably on offences where no damage is necessarily caused but it may have been based on the level of abuse involved.
I'm not excusing for one second what happened but we do need to bear in mind it was plate glass not tempered so required less force to break. Also I was not there to see it so can only go on reports of what happened but do also read Pipeline Tom's post who was there.
Please note that any ban on UK comps outside the league is out of my remit.
I totally agree that it's fantastic that hosts open up their houses and let sometimes complete strangers come and play their machines, usually at their own financial cost, not including the time involved when preparing and cleaning up after a meet. So it is with great thanks and appreciation to all who do open up their houses. As I say I hope and believe this was an islolated incident and we won't see similar abuse in future but if so will impose punishments for incidents which don't but could have resulted in damage.
I will be updating the rules on the league website in due course.
Appreciate your views but the decision has been made, so please let's just move on and enjoy pinball. Some of you may agree, some may disagree but we're not changing the punishment. Hopefully this was a one-off and can soon be forgotten,. The culprit is very sorry, paid for the glass and is unlikely to repeat the offence!
Cheers
Greg
Zero tolerance to farting in confined spaces too!
Hi Ian, yes that was a real fun event..no glass smashing there, no comments from us on body odour or breaking wing though.....UKCS Hangover semi final group with you was a damn good laugh though
