How do you handle disrepectful players

[Ninja_Of_Ni]

As I'm getting more and more into playing draft at FNM, I'm starting to notice 2 groups of players forming: those there for a good time and those that are taking things maybe a little too seriously. I would classify myself in the first group. I do enjoy winning and yes, I do play my games to win, but it isn't the only thing for me. This is just my way to unwind at the end of my week and start my weekend on a positive note.

Anyways, I'm looking for advice for dealing with some of the players I come across that would fall into that second category. At my draft, I regularly see the same people week after week and am starting to find a few that I enjoy socializing with and a few others I would rather deal with as little as possible. So I'm just curious about a good way to deal with being pitted against a not so nice player.

 

[turgy22]

Smite them. That's what I usually do. However, if you lack godly powers, that's not an option. Actually, there's not much to do. If you don't like someone's personality, just don't hang out with them. If you're matched up in a game against such a person, just act as you would against any other player. I always try my best to be respectful and humble. If they're full of bluster before and throughout the match, they'll end up looking like an ass if they lose. That's always an immensely rewarding feeling.

 

[Oversoul]

Well, you could always poison them. Wait, no, I'm kidding. Don't poison them. That would be wrong. Even for a ninja. Probably.

I try not to let that sort of thing get to me. It's not worth getting worked up over. Haters will, inevitably, hate. Most of the people who are taking things a little too seriously will probably lighten up eventually anyway. Or die. Whichever, really. Uh, not that I meant anything by that. And some of them are probably idiots, so there's that. And if they're idiots, that's even worse for them than it is for you, so really, just feel sorry for them. And put them out of their misery. But don't actually do that last thing I just said. It would be bad. But seriously, you can't control what other people will do. If it doesn't really affect you, then just let it go. I mean, that applies to all sorts of social situations, not just Magic. It's normally the only sensible option, other than goading them into attacking you physically and then throwing them through a window in "self-defense." I mean, uh, I don't know? Just listen to Turgy instead of me.

 

[DarthFerret]

Unfortunately, you are not really in a position to do what I normally do about it. If a certain person is annoying me (particularly true of players like you described) I just don't play them anymore. If they ask, I am pretty upfront about it. In an FNM Draft, you don't have much control over who you play against. I usually try to find some humor in thier behavior. One of the last pre-releases I went to (think it was Time Spiral, maybe?) I joined a guy I knew from my local shop in a 2-headed giant. We ended up winning and the team that we beat in the final game called us a "couple of noobs". Now yes, I know that is sour grapes on thier part, and poor sportsmanship, however, we both just laughed at them and walked away to collect our boosters. There is my 2 cents.

 

[turgy22]

We ended up winning and the team that we beat in the final game called us a "couple of noobs". Now yes, I know that is sour grapes on thier part, and poor sportsmanship, however, we both just laughed at them and walked away to collect our boosters.

They called you "noobs" after they lost to you? Seriously? That's the best. You simply reply, "How does it feel to get beaten* by a couple of noobs?"

That's why I'm always respectful toward my opponents and usually try to treat them like they're the best players in the world. There's no shame in getting beaten by a skilled opponent. Losing to a "noob", on the other hand, is highly embarrassing. Or at least I would think it is. I've only lost to skilled opponents.

*Feel free to substitute the words "get beaten" with "have your butts** handed to you".

**Feel free to substitute "butts" with "asses".

 

[Mooseman]

Seeing as I rarely play in tournaments, but judge and officiate them, I just throw their buts out or ridicule them into oblivion.
If they are being disruptive to the game, let whom ever is running it know about it, but if it just rude behavior, then when you play against them, make sure you are correct behavior is overate and obvious.

 

[Spiderman]

All good advice, can't add much more.

 

[turgy22]

Hehe, I just finished a match online that reminded me of this thread.

So, yeah, I've been on a little MTGO kick lately, maybe the past two weeks. I decided to buy a bunch of packs from the sets of the past two years and do some drafting / sealed 8-player tournaments. I've actually been doing pretty well, considering I don't know any of the sets too well (Zen/Wwk, RoE, M11, ME4)... I don't know if I'm better than I used to be or if everyone else just got worse. But that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, tonight I entered an ME4 (Master's Edition 4) 8-4 queue, which tend to be more competitive. I chose that format because I only had 3 packs of ME4 left and figured I might as well rare-draft and either end up with no prize or get lucky and get enough packs (either 4 or 8) to enter another event. I prefer to do that when I only have 3 packs of something left, as opposed to entering a 4-3-2-2 event or a Swiss event, which give better odds of winning something, but then I might end up with just one or two packs and I'd have to either sell them, open them (waste) or try to trade for a playable set of packs. Or go buy more packs to complete a set. But, I guess that's not really important.

Moving on...

So I entered this tournament and ended up drafting a white weenie deck, with a bit of blue splashed in for some counter / draw spells. I didn't think much of it, especially since I screwed up one pick by taking an Alaborn Musketeer over a second Angelic Voices and completely gave up my first pick of the last pack by grabbing Tropical Island (which alone is almost worth the price of entry). Somehow, I managed to eke out two match wins (both 2-1) against my first two opponents and made it to the finals (woot! guaranteed 4 packs). Now this has happened to me before and usually I end up getting crushed in the finals, but I thought of myself as playing with house money at this point and didn't really care. Well, what do you know, I ended up beating my opponent. And it wasn't even that close and he really played kind of poorly (there were at least two instances where I took gambles and immediately realized they were mistakes and instead of capitalizing on them, he actually played into them) and just as I was about to beat him on the last turn in the second game, he says to me:

"This is going to cost me a lot of rating points."

Now, this might seem like an innocent statement and I'm sure he didn't mean to offend me (and I wasn't offended), but the subtext of this statement is this: "I have a lot of rating points. You have very few. When a player with as many rating points as me loses to a player with as few rating points as you, the loss in rating points of the higher-rated player is much more pronounced than when a highly-rated player loses to another highly-rated player."

Or, in layman's terms: "You suck. I can't believe I lost to you."

My thoughts, in return, were as follows (in chronological order):
-You care about ratings?
-I guess you do. I'm sorry to hear that.
-Wait, you made it to the finals... isn't that good?
-Why even enter this draft if you have so much to lose?
-Unless you weren't expecting to have so much to lose.
-What scenario would cause you to lose less rating points?
-If you lost to a more highly-rated player, I suppose.
-???
-Oh I get it.
-!!!
-You suck. I can't believe you have so many rating points.

The lesson, as always, is that there's no shame in losing to a quality opponent. And by denigrating an opponent you've lost to or are about to lose to, you only make yourself look worse, by comparison.

 

[Shabbaman]

Meh. "This is going to cost me a lot of rating points" could mean more than what you made of it. It's also something that's said to new players that are obviously talented. DCI ratings are global; I play a lot of FPS online, and you hear the same thing on public servers a lot when there's a new player on a rampage. Here the ratings are local, so if a new player shows up there's a big chance he's a big player somewhere else. And it happens quite often that a regular would bring a teammate from a (competitive) clan, and then everybody already knows they're screwed even before the guy has started. So I hear that phrase a lot I've even heard it in magic tournaments mentioned to me (ha!), but I'm very sure there was no malicious intent.

But generally speaking I recognise the player you describe: someone with too much time on his hands to practice the game, which leads him to believe he's talented. Seriously, people like to inflate their ego. You can't get far in life with this kind of behaviour. Ignore it, and like Mooseman says, ridicule their flaws and make them ragequit

 

[Oversoul]

Maybe he should have worried more about improving his gameplay than maintaining his rating points. Seems like the one should be more important than the other for pretty much every single player in the world.

 

[turgy22]

I'm very sure there was no malicious intent.

Yeah, I agree, and I wasn't trying to imply that there was. The story and player don't have much to do with the title of this thread (the guy wasn't really disrespectful, since we didn't converse throughout the game and that may have been the only thing he said the entire time) but the experience reminded me of my previous posts here. But his comment was definitely more geared toward being bitter at losing to a low-rated player (and the consequences of such) than being stunned at the ability of an underrated player (which I'm not even sure I am), especially since, IMO, I didn't put together a great deck, nor did I play exceptionally well. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it's just this kind of thing that makes me wonder about the way people think.

 

[Mooseman]

Ignore it, and like Mooseman says, ridicule their flaws and make them ragequit

Wow, it didn't sound that good when I said it...... I like your version much better....... Ragequit... that is fantastic.......

Turgy: He could have been saying more to himself... like, wow, what a schmuck I played like. But, I doubt it.

 

[turgy22]

MM: Yeah, that's true. But generally, when I say things to myself, I don't take the time to type them out. But that's just me.

 

[Oversoul]

I'm out of milk. I need to remember to buy milk.

 

[Shabbaman]

Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it's just this kind of thing that makes me wonder about the way people think.

I have the feeling that Magic has a higher attraction for people with issues than it has for "normals". I guess this is the case for all sub-cultures, but at least for Magic it seems very clear: a lot of magic players aren't very confident people. Frankly, we're all nerds that were picked on in school When you grow up, you get over this. But before you've grown up you start to compensate for things. You see you can win a game, and somehow you think that makes you a better person. Personally I don't think that if you find yourself a better person that'd mean you're a superior being, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who think they are. That's the thing, and then people end up being jerks.

It's get worse with this:

But generally speaking I recognise the player you describe: someone with too much time on his hands to practice the game, which leads him to believe he's talented.

I can't deny you'll be a better player with practice, but that won't make you more intelligent or whatever it is you're aiming for (hoping I'm not hurting someone here). I think most of us are pretty old by Magic standards, so I'm sure you guys understand what I mean. Winning tournaments won't get you anywhere in real life. Making friends does though. It's a game, enjoy the social aspect. If you've spent a lot of time on something you are probably good at it. But seriously: if you can do a trick that doesn't mean you have talent. Some magic players pretend like they are gifted, but face it: most of them aren't. And then some of them have to compensate for having to pretend they're gifted by being even bigger jerks. Blegh.
Bottom line: people are poor at judging themselves. If you know what you're doing wrong, then maybe you're a better person.

End rant.

 

[Oversoul]

I didn't remember to buy milk.

 

[EricBess]

I've come across this before in the store where I used to play. I had one guy who was a decent player, but he was rude and annoying to play against. I got to the point where if I was ever paired against him, I would just concede. Not because he was better than me - we were actually decently matched. Just because every time I played against him, I would end up so irritated that it didn't matter to me if I won or lost, I would be upset.

He thought it was great, but I'm hoping at some point in his life, he grows up enough to realize that he was losing out far more than he was gaining.

This strategy obviously only works if you simply don't care about winning. I found out when I did this, that I do, but not as much as I thought.

 

[Mooseman]

Unfortunately I care about winning too much....

Did anyone fall for that? KJ? Spidey?

That is a perfect example of a time to mock someone. But mocking is, like magic, a skill that requires experience.
Strat slowly, like giving someone a complement that is too flattering, like, "Wow, you are such a good player." and work you way up to< " wow, you are such a good player, I can't believe it took you that long to beat me."

 

[Killer Joe]

My gut reaction to the "serious" player, and by "serious" I mean A$$H0|3S, in tournament play is to NOT allow myself to be distracted by them. I once had a player bounce one of my permanants back to my hand by using their card to catch the edge of my card and then flip it at me....cute. I said nothing but then returned the favor (yeah, I always go down to their level, it makes the experience much more fun and since I'm old it makes it even MORE fun) the next game and he said that wasn't nice of me. I laughed. Anyway, I lost the match but had hellafun just thinking that at some point that kid had to go to bed at night and realize that he was a hypocrite and even if he didn't maybe he yanked one off while I had real sex.

 

[Spiderman]

Did anyone fall for that? KJ? Spidey?

Umm... fall for what? I'm not sure which in EricBess's post you're referring to...