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Ticket to Ride Cheating!

Ticket to Ride World Championship cheating scandal!

http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/press-release/096/#newsstart

Not surprising. In a game with such a low skill cap, the card draws are going to end up determining the winner. No way to achieve victory among equally skilled players other than cheating.

Comments

  • edited November 2014
    How did he cheat?
    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • How did he cheat?

    I'd like to know as well, but it doesn't say. The only effective cheating I can imagine wouldn't be immediately detected by other players would be card manipulation.
  • Actually, it's about ethics in board game journalism, not cheating.
  • I think this is actually pretty cool.
  • According to Reddit

    https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/2l9g7v/ticket_to_ride_world_champion_stripped_of_title/clsome6

    There were TWO judges watching the game. Meanwhile the cheating player drew extra cards and even supposedly took multiple turns in a row! These judges didn't notice! So garbage. Wow.
  • ....why weren't the referees dealing the cards?
  • Koeniou said:

    ....why weren't the referees dealing the cards?

    Indeed.

    We should do a show on cheating in tabletop specifically. One thing that isn't discussed in reviews of games (even by us) us how possible it is to cheat, or to detect cheating.

    For example, games with lots of card/tile drawing allow for very easy low-level cheating by drawing/having extra tiles.

    It's not a concern for, say, us, because we don't play games with shitheads. I would never even dream of any of the crew cheating on purpose in a game. But in tournaments? Some games just aren't good for tournament play without competent judges. Few games have enough humans capable of being judges for them that wouldn't instead want to compete.

  • How boring was the game? Didn't the other players speak up when these things happened?
  • I'm disappointed it involved taking two cards instead of one. That's easy cheating.

    But taking multiple turns in a row? WTF? That takes real balls!
  • HMTKSteve said:

    How boring was the game? Didn't the other players speak up when these things happened?

    In my experience with Settlers tournaments, the players are very unsocial. They're also concentrating so hard on their hands/plans that they completely ignore other players and only pay attention to their moves.

    They also weren't the best at games really. The people who spend the time to compete in tournaments of largely solved tabletop games tend to be hyperfocused people who don't really play a lot of other games.
  • That's probably what I'd say too... except the press release did say "Mr Pauelsen has admitted to his dishonesty and agreed to hand back his title and trophy."

    What a storm in a teacup!
  • Stuff like this is actually why I rarely if ever enter tabletop tournaments. Unless there is a thriving serious tournament scene and a judge community, mistakes happen constantly.
  • Rym said:

    Stuff like this is actually why I rarely if ever enter tabletop tournaments. Unless there is a thriving serious tournament scene and a judge community, mistakes happen constantly.

    Mistakes, or "mistakes"?

    I think it's interesting that even Magic, which HAS those things, has had several high-level players blatently cheat in the past few years (That guy who blatently played cards out of his graveyard is a noteable example). I think the big deal is that once you put money or prestige on the line, some people are just hard-wired to be assholes.
  • But how long can a tournament scene continue without cash prizes? There are so many new games coming out all the time that people need incentive to stick with an established game. And I mean non-collectable games, where the influx of new cards means the scene stays vibrant.
  • I'd rather see tabletop tournaments that are multigame rotations. So, say, in 2015, it's Settlers qualifiers, then T&E, Puerto Rico, Eclipse, Wizard, and Netrunner. In 2016, they replay Settlers with Carcassonne and Wizard with Pandante. Etc...
  • Rym said:

    I'd rather see tabletop tournaments that are multigame rotations. So, say, in 2015, it's Settlers qualifiers, then T&E, Puerto Rico, Eclipse, Wizard, and Netrunner. In 2016, they replay Settlers with Carcassonne and Wizard with Pandante. Etc...

    I have a notebook on doing EXACTLY this.
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