Rant—Good versus Bad

I remember once when I was drawing a lot of negative comments on the internet. It got me down a bit and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I did some research and found an article on the Internet that discussed positive (+) energy versus negative (-) energy. The crux of the article was that enough + energy can outweigh - energy with the stipulation that the content of any + energy posted must be sincere and honest. So I gave it a try which meant I had to stop posting lots of - energy on the Internet. I stuck with it and slowly I could see a change taking place which was very encouraging and reinforced the concept. I began to change too—learning to focus on + thoughts versus - thoughts. It works a lot like karma if you know what that is...

From Buddhism - the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.

There is the old saying What comes around goes around. There is also a Wiccan philosophy which states bad things come back to you three time—so for every bad thing you do you'd hsve to do three good things to cancel out the bad. The term bad can be used interchangeably with evil too so keep that in mind.

So why'd I bring this up you might wonder. The Feast of Blades (FoB) national tournament was recently held approximately one week after BeakyCon4... Two completeky independent events. BeakyCon4 was flawless this year but FoB had some scandal with two players caught cheating around the time of the last round with both players facing off against each other in the final round for first place. One player had an illegal army which had been checked by the TOs prior to the event and the other player was caught using some loaded dice. The TOs let the player with the illegal list modify it and play on with no penalties incurred. The other player with the loaded dice immediately disqualified himself and posted a long apology on Facebook. Several days later the player caught with the illegal list then disqualified himself as well turning in his prize support.

Some parallels were drawn on the Internet between FoB and BeakyCon2 (took place back in 2012) since the player at FoB was caught using some loaded dice and we caught another player using a loaded dice at BeakyCon2. Upon further investigation conducted shortly after BeakyCon2 it was discovered the player using the loaded dice at BeakyCon2 had used the same dice in at least one previous game prior to being caught red handed which was not brought to our attention until the post investigation. So we then knew the dice cheater at BeakyCon2 was actually aware he was cheating and had not told the truth when asked about it during the tournament when questioned. The cover story was he had purchased some random dice from a bin at a local shop unaware there was a loaded dice. A similar excuse was given at FoB and this player was present at BeakyCon2 as well.

I'm not here to make any accusations versus the player with loaded dice at FoB and in fact he is a friend of mine and we both used to belong to the same gaming club. The FoB player has an excellent reputation and it's hard to believe he would knowingly use loaded dice.

In regards to the one loaded dice at BeakyCon2 it was discovered that player used it to seize the initiative (always rolled a 6), cover saves and for armor penetration... So while one loaded dice might not sound like much it can definitely be a huge advantage if rolled enough for key situations such as those I've mentioned. The player caught at BeakyCon2 was punished but there was some consensus on the Internet that the punishment was not sctrict enough - he was banned from BeakyCon (permaban) and I've been told he quit the hobby some time ago. It might also be worth noting the dice cheater at BeakyCon2 was playing on a mid table when caught versus the player at FoB whom was caught around the time of the final game and was playing for the top spot... Still cheating is cheating even if unintentional.

Needless to say the unfortunate incident at FoB opened some old wounds from BeakyCon2 which is why I'm writing. Some tried to use it as a means to exonerate the BeakyCon2 dice cheat but fortunately that was set straight for the record. I'm a bit miffed... In particular there was an article posted back in 2012 on the Blood of Kittens (BoK) blog about the dice cheating at BeakyCon2 which rankled me since the full story was not disclosed - at the time the general consensus was the punishment meted out at BeakyCon2 was mild in comparison to what should have been done. There was more support for BeakyCon2 this time though and the full story finally came out on a popular 40k forum, which in my mind is a good thing. I appreciate all the support too !

So something bad that occurs in one location can affect other who weren't there and that's my main point. You might think you're not affecting lots of people but that's not necessarily true and it is something that should always be considered. Also if cheating is not punished it could encourage a certain type of person it's oksy even if they're caught which is definitely a bad thing.