I'm withdrawing from the event + a statement about it ...

[Admin]

Hello,

For those of you who don't know me, I'm John and I'm the organizer for this event that you're all hopefully very much enjoying. Over the past several months, myself as well as others have put in a lot of time and effort to create the Challenge Series. Many of the prizes for the event are coming out of our pockets and others are coming from generous donations from outside sources. Something that we aimed to do from the very beginning is to create a series of events that gets players excited for the game that we all love and to give the event credibility as it grows to sizes that we couldn't even dream of. We succeeded in that with the very first tournament as had 187 entrants! Still, something doesn't seem right.

I'm playing in the event. After six rounds of play, I'm at 5-1 with a great shot at making the top 8 playoffs and potentially winning the tournament. That said, after some concerns were brought to me, I feel like I let some people down. Nobody knows me as a person outside of the video game except for a handful of players. Nobody knows for certain that I'd never do anything to "game" the system and find a way to cheat and create favorable situations for my own benefit. Because of that, the tournament might lose some credibility if I would happen to win the event. After all, I'm the organizer, the guy who makes the final decisions, I shouldn't also be in the event playing and I'm sorry that I didn't think that through a little bit more.

As of this moment, I'm withdrawing from the tournament and will no longer be playing in the HTP Challenge Series events. I want to focus on growing them and making them the best events that you can possibly play in. I want to ensure a level playing field, without question, and a credible tournament with a bright future. Thank you for your time and thank you all for playing in the Challenge Series brought to you by HexTCGPro.com.

In closing, I'll leave you with the finalized prize pool for this event:

1st Place - 24 Set 1 Packs
2nd Place - 16 Set 1 Packs
3rd-4th - 10 Set 1 Packs
5th-8th - 6 Set 1 Packs
9th-16th 2 Set 1 Packs

Also, don't forget that the winner of the Invitational in June will win a FREE flight to the very first HexCon!

- John

[htpkroan]

Although I do pity that you are not "able" to join the event, I do understand where you're coming from. I never doubted a second that you are a fair person through and through!

[htpfroatsylvania]

Sorry to hear it, though like Kroan, I understand. You have done a great job in the organization and hope to see it succeed!

[HTP TJTaylor]

I have never once doubted your good intentions or your integrity, John, but I think it shows a high level of professionalism and dedication to the success of this event by withdrawing from the tournament to avoid potentially perceived conflict of interest. Kudos to you, good sir.

[GPrime]

Anyone who streams their games has nothing to hide, so I hope nobody's been delusional enough to give you serious grief over this. Still, I can see the desire to eliminate all possible doubt and it shows that you're dedicated to making this a success over all else. Respect.

The one side effect I'd consider is tie breakers, with dropping out mid-tournament. To have the least effect, you might consider playing through the last few rounds then just dropping yourself from the standings after round 8.

[htpFlyingMeatchip]

John, I've played tournaments where the organizer played the tournament as well. To me its not an issue, from what I seen before directors who play risk suffering a disadvantage. Not only are they trying to play well, they are also focused on keeping the tournament moving which could take a bit off their game. Despite this John, you would certainly make it in the top 8 and I would have been honored to play against you and would think nothing of it if you have won. If there is anything I could do to be of assistance do not hesitate to ask.

[caerbannog]

I don't know you more than I've seen from your public appearances around this game, but that's by far enough to trust you wouldn't try to cheat in your own tournament.

I have no idea how people would come up with the idea that you'd arrange this to somehow possibly get a hold of 24 packs by rigging it. If you did, I imagine it would be a profit about as big as pulling a couple of hours overtime, which obviously would be much less of a hassle.

For the February series if it really goes over in 1 day I imagine you might need 100% of that time to organize it though, so for that it might be more convenient.

However, I'd really like to play you in a tournament setting, but I guess there will be other chances for that along the road in other tournaments

[htpFlyingMeatchip]

I think the packs are John's contribution too.

[juzamjedi]

Jan 30, 2014 20:01:05 GMT HTP TJTaylor said:

I have never once doubted your good intentions or your integrity, John, but I think it shows a high level of professionalism and dedication to the success of this event by withdrawing from the tournament to avoid potentially perceived conflict of interest. Kudos to you, good sir.

This is how I feel as well.  I do not mind that you were playing in the tournament at all, but I understand your position.  In any case thanks for running this great event

[matt1080]

I was thinking about that the other day, the issue is not you being the organizer but being the judge in my opinion, since this is Alpha environment the judge has great decisional power over the event concerning bugs and banned stuff.

I have never doubted your fairness but I see where this is coming from, to solve this situation I think you should "hire" or get someone (maybe a "council" of several people) external to act as the tournament judge if you want to play and not risk to compromise the tournament's credibility.

[valazdin]

John, I don't know you at all, but I do know that I can watch your streams to see if you are gaining the system. I would say that a council would give you the ability to play in the tournaments, and I feel that you should be able to because we are all (including you) here to play a game and have fun. Since its the only event for Hex and the prizes are coming out of your pocket, you should have a fighting chance at them. And really if you do win, I'm sure that the prizes would just be put back into the pool for next tournament...so its a win/win as far as I'm concerned...In the end I'm just 1 of 187 so you need to do what is best for the whole, but I don't really see it as a issue.

[chililili]

John, I think that you are putting great effort into these tournaments, I have been a tournament organizer myself IRL and regardless of your noble intentions you have made the correct decision. Even when we try to be as transparent as possible credibility and reputation are fairly difficult to maintain and can be gone with a simple misunderstanding, you are saving yourself a lot of headaches in the future by staying as organizer only, (Plus if you decide to run one day tournaments of 100+ people it is logistically impossible for you to compete and be running everything else). So while it can be tempting to listen to all those who say you could compete in future tournaments, I would recommend that you recluse yourself, in my personal experience it is not worth the headache when something goes wrong.

[htpAozora]

I want to withdraw as well I've got to much problems with the tight schedule and the big time difference. It's not that I don't have a real life, so I can't stay up till morning.