This particular douchery is about the sudden blossoming of many in the punditocracy that feel it necessary to sweep any cheating intentional or not under the rug. The reason I bring this up is Dashofpepper ran an illegal list at the Alamo 40k GT. His list included three arcane wargear pieces when the rules clearly state you can only have two on any single haemonculus. Now being that Dash put his list up multiple times on Dakkadakka (in battle reports) I kinda doubt this was intentional especially with all the drama that surrounds any game he plays. With that said let me make one thing clear…

This is not about DashofPepper, nor is it about the proper punishment, nor about the TOs responsibility, it is about the people that defend such behavior as being ok.

This actually about people who defend such mistakes (honest or intentional) as something we all should just look past. The main retort that the cheating apologist often says is, “Well he would have won with regardless of what he did.” or “We wouldn’t care if this happened on the bottom tables”. Such platitudinousness is pure poppycock even if the particular cheat didn’t provide any bonus and being we can never know these arguments are non-starters or deflections from the real problem.

The point is that the rules are rules. The same way when you run a red-light even by mistake you still get a ticket. The extra wargear doesn’t take away from Dashofpepper abilities as a general (even doping athletes are still exceptional at their particular craft) the fact that so many just look the other way is appalling. What makes matters worse is the message it sends to other players. Telling them that if they get a good enough rep or kiss enough TO ass bending the rules is fine and dandy.

I first noticed this behavior back at the NovaOpen 2010 when Tony the Overall Winner was over 5 points with his army. Many people had different reactions, but while organizers took time to decide on a course of action; Tony’s opponents got together to decided for the rest of us saying that it didn’t matter because they weren’t offended. Well just like the Dash defenders thank you for your opinion, but it doesn’t change the cheat. It is not their decision and isn’t about their feelings alone, in fact it is about all the other players that played the correct way. Why not just have the oligarchy pick the winner so we don’t have to go through the trouble of playing any games. Instead of being pugnacious towards the 40k version of the Rule of Law think about the message it sends to anyone that would consider playing in a tournament. At the very least it can look like condonation of such behavior and worse gives the sense of some sort of impropriety.

The triteness in which cheaters and their co-conspirators shit upon the rules when it is convenient is pathetic and screams of nepotism or cronyism. Basic codex rules should stand for something and breaking them in a tournament, especially when I have to hear prattle about competitive standards, shouldn’t that included of the basic rules? I understand standing up for a friend especially when it was a simple mistake, but they should just take the disqualification and come back next year and win within the rules.

This doesn’t have to be a big deal. It only becomes one when people drag their feet and show no taking of responsibility. If the person at fault doesn’t have the balls to stand up then at the very least the TOs and the community should do something about it. Getting mad at me just because I shine some light on the obvious only distracts from the fact that someone cheated regardless how small it may seem. Covering it up or looking the other way doesn’t change the facts, but can end up just looking shady.

What I don’t get and could be fodder for another rant is why does this keep on happening? Even if everyone is innocent just go back search for cheating on Blood of Kittens almost every major event having some bout with these “little” list discrepancies. Just image if people did pay attention to the last tables and not the top ones image what you could find…