Today, we share an article from guest author Paolo Fernandes, about the importance of etiquette and how to enjoy the tournament scene.
Tournament Play Etiquette
By Paolo Fernandes
I know playing Destiny is not at all about trophies or medals (but as are you all, I’m extremely excited Worlds is around the corner), and even less about fame and leaving a legacy to your family’s name. But we cannot deny a very large group of players have been drawn by how competitive Star Wars: Destiny can be. The competitive scene, as in any other game, can be both fun, engaging, and challenging, but also frustrating and disappointing, depending on how you experience it.
The Experience
As strange as it can sound, the pleasure or frustration of a tournament is less about winning and losing games and more about the experience you have while actually playing the games. What I learned by playing events (ranging from 12 to 70 people) is that the interaction between players dictates much of the experience I had during those events – and that went from a delightful 35 minutes that became a new friendship, to the opposite side, with such a horrible time I actually check if the name of a player is registered in an event before determining if I will show up.
This “competitive experience” should take into account the fact that we are all newbies at Destiny and will be for the foreseeable future, for there is no way 6 months could build a mature community full of professionals. If even the designers themselves are learning new things and fine tuning rules on a daily basis, we should all be more forgiving and patient about text and rules interpretation, how cards and abilities interact with each other, and how much of the game itself is yet to be discovered.
But if at one side we should take less seriously even the biggest of the tournaments for the reasons mentioned, there are a number of other things that defines the experience you have in a tournament. These depend solely on your attitude as a player and how you behave when playing a game, especially a highly interactive game such as Destiny.
A Few Pointers
I built a list with 5 important things (in my humble opinion) we should all pay attention to when playing Destiny in a tournament – and trust me; these small things can determine 70% of your competitive experience. This won’t be a list of generic things like, “be nice and courteous,” but more of a list of facts that apply specifically to Destiny.
1 – Be mindful of the playing space.
Destiny has a lot of moving parts and the playing area and footprint can take a LOT of table space. That said, we should all remember that 50% of the table should be reserved for your opponent and their share of tokens, cards, dice, and other elements. I have played more than a few games in which my opponent took so much space that I had to stack my characters’ upgrades in order to have space to place my elbows on the table – and having to remind the other player about that is really boring. If you have questions on an efficient way to layout your cards, go and watch a couple of videos of Destiny and they will give you plenty of ideas. The Chance Cube Family YouTube Channel has some great ones
2 – Be EXTRA careful when rolling your dice
Some players are satisfied holding their dice, shaking them a bit, and simply letting them flow from the hand to the table surface. But there are others that need to throw the dice on the table as if they were on a bowling lane, knocking your dice, tokens, cards, water bottle, and sometimes even your phone out of place! More than once I had to re-roll my knocked die simply because I did not remember what it was showing before they were tackled, as if they were wide receivers, by my opponent’s dice. If you need your dice to roll fiercely, bring a dice tray or something that can keep them from flying around the table. Personally, I try to leave a 4-5 inch space between my cards and myself and roll my dice carefully over there. After I roll them and my adversary sees the results, I move them to the appropriate place in front of the character.
3 – Don’t touch your opponent’s deck, cards, dice, or tokens
Abilities and effects often let you change the results of your opponent’s dice, remove cards and dice from the game, and change the number of tokens displayed on characters. Those actions should be executed in a timely manner, but that does not mean you should make those changes. Some people are very careful when organizing their playing area, and others simply do not like people touching their things, and we should respect that. If a card, effect, or ability gives you the chance to change the board state on your opponent’s side, I usually try pointing to what should be removed or changed, or explain precisely what I’m doing and what would be the effect on his side of the table – and I always wait until he/she moves whatever needs to be changed.
4 – It is not mandatory to know what every card does – even in a tournament.
I know we currently have a limited pool of 175 cards to play, and thanks to the designers, the vast majority of them are playable, but that does not mean we are supposed to memorize them all; just mainly how they interact with each other. Tournaments can be quite intimidating, which makes people less inclined to ask a question or simply admit they don’t know that card, effect, or interaction. Another fact that can add to confusing a player is the constant “rule cheating” some cards let you do. Rey (AW38), Jango (AW21), Tactical Mastery (AW74), and Holdout Blaster (AW63) to name a few, if played too fast can get even the more experienced players confused about what is going on. With that in mind, I try to always announce what I’m doing before I do it, always letting my opponent have the time to react or ask a question if he/she has one.
5 – (Okay, I cheated, there is one generic rule here) Be patient and courteous.
As mentioned earlier, we are all new to the game, and not all of us can play 50 games a week to be as sharp as a Japanese Katana at a tournament. Let your opponent breathe, see what’s happening, think through a play, and if he/she is taking way too long, simply remind them that the game has a time limit and that is important for both of you. If there’s a rule question, or a conflict over an interpretation or effect, simply raise your hand and wait for the judge, instead of screaming their name and why you feel you are being cheated. Finally, even when the bitter taste of defeat is in your mouth, extend the hand after the game and compliment your opponent.
All the above is important to ensure more and more people will see the Star Wars: Destiny community as embracing and open to new players, which will benefit the entire ecosystem with more players and support to a game we all learned to love so much in such a short time frame.
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