Unintentional vs. Intentional Cheating

‘What the heck is unintentional cheating’ you may ask yourself? ‘Isn’t that just an accident?’ Well, yes and no. The answer is not as simple as one or the other, but rather falls somewhere in between. This article is an attempt to clarify the varying degrees that fall in-between a mistake and what is commonly thought of as cheating. The following is just an example to illustrate where the lines may blur between mistake and cheating.

In a draft, each player is given a set number of packs and, from these packs, a set number of cards. Once all of the packs have been drafted, each player should have the same number of cards, and that number should be equal to the number of cards in the packs that they were given to draft from. If you have more cards, you are cheating. It may not have been on purpose, but a larger pool of cards to draft from is still an advantage that is gained by not following the rules. Did you purposefully mis-pack the cards at the printer? Of course not, but it doesn’t mean that you aren’t breaking the rules; you just aren’t breaking the rules on purpose. An unintentional cheat, if you will.

Now at this point most of you may be wondering what the big deal is. ‘So what, your benefit if you got lucky enough to get an extra card, big deal,’ you might say. True, it may not be that big of a deal; after all, the cards left over are the crappy ones that no one wants anyway, right? But let me pose you this question: how will the judges of the event know if someone has purposefully slipped extra cards into their draft pool if we just accept that mis-packs occur?

As you can see, a mistake can unintentionally lead to a cheat, or possibly assist someone else in a cheat. It is important to be cognizant of what you are doing during a game, and insure, as much as any one individual can, that they are not responsible for the allowance of an unintentional cheat.

Going back to my above example, if each player were to count their cards after opening the pack to make sure they had the correct number and counted the number of cards they had at the end of that pack’s worth of drafting, each player would make sure that they have the correct number of cards. This does multiple things. First, it makes sure that you have enough cards (making sure no one took two cards with one pick.) Second, it makes sure no one else let a pack with too many or too few cards into circulation. Third, it helps insure that the judges will be able to have an accurate count of the cards at the end of the draft so that they can catch anyone who is cheating.

Now I know that you may be wondering why you can’t just take advantage of a good piece of luck that befalls you. Perhaps you got extra cards in a pack in a draft, or maybe your opponent forgot to gain the 2 honor from Last Step Castle (even though he used the action and you didn’t take a province) or one of any number of other mistakes. What is wrong with taking advantage of your opponent’s bad luck, or your own good luck? The answer is because it is cheating. It just isn’t cheating in the way most people think of cheating. Also, no one wants to be accused of intentionally cheating, so by not unintentionally cheating, you avoid the possibility that a judge may feel you did it on purpose.

You may be asking yourself what steps you can take to avoid the unintentional cheat so that no one accuses you of intentionally cheating. There are several steps, and they are all simple, just no one really wants to do them.

First, keep track of all of your game state changes. Changes to the game state such as honor, force bonuses and penalties, whether someone is dead or discarded, etc. are all easy enough to track, but sometimes people just don’t. This could lead to accidentally playing Civility to bring into play a dead samurai instead of a discarded one, or may lead to a disagreement about whether an ability on a card was already used or not. Simple things like having an honor counter, glass beads to show when you have taken actions on cards, using a clear sleeve and two Border Keeps (back to back) with one side having the second ability marked out for when you use it. All of these are simple and effective ways to avoid the unintentional cheat.

Secondly, keep track of your opponent’s game state changes. This one is less common, and most players don’t follow this piece of advice. There is no recourse if your opponent claims they didn’t gain their LSC honor unless you are tracking it as well or unless you can recreate the previous game states exactly to figure out what honor was gained where, as an example. This can all be handled by doing things like having an honor counter on which you track your opponent’s honor, using glass beads on your opponent’s cards to mark actions used, even if they won’t, asking them to differentiate between dead and discarded personalities, etc. Again, these are all simple measures that can be taken to insure that neither you nor your opponent is cheating.

Third, follow the floor rules as much as possible. This may, again, seem like a simple enough suggestion, but it hides a level of complexity that some may miss. In order to insure that you are following the floor rules, you may want to start prior even to the beginning of the tournament. Take a shower, put on deodorant that does not have a strong smell, don’t wear cologne or perfume, wear clothing that will not offend anyone, pack extra card sleeves, build your deck with cards that have the same back, etc. While you may not think anything of it, your opponent might, and you may just find yourself facing a game loss or even tournament disqualification because you were in violation of the floor rules and were not able to rectify the situation.

The best example of this is the rule regarding changing the game state roughly every 20 seconds. It may not seem like a big deal early in the round, but stalling could happen right from the beginning of the match. By the time you notice that your opponent may be stalling you, it could be too late. By the time you hit 5 minutes left and realize your opponent wasted the extra 5 you need to clinch the game, it may be too late. Whether it is the beginning of the round or the end, playing in a timely fashion is always important. It may not be fair that you have a hard decision to make and want some extra time, but opponents have hard decisions to make themselves and are under the same time constraint.
Fourth, avoid behavior that might look like cheating even though you are not. Don’t fidget a lot, keep your play hand above the level of the table and in the line of site of your opponent at all times, if you knock cards around or off the table be very careful when picking them up and placing them back on your deck while making sure to let your opponent witness everything you are doing (even going so far as to ask your opponent if they wish you to shuffle your deck.) These are just a few of the many things you can do to avoid looking like you are cheating. While it may seem like it is not even unintentionally cheating, the behavior makes it that much more difficult for judges to spot suspicious behavior and stop actual cheaters. Also, you don’t want to have to be called on it during the active judging in an elimination round as it might just throw your game off or distract you from an important thought process that you don’t recover.

Finally, as I always say, call a judge. If you are unsure about your opponent’s behavior or something they have done, call a judge. Even if it is a mistake it needs to be rectified so that it doesn’t turn from a mistake into a bad habit. After all, who knows, your opponent may actually be cheating and you may be able to keep them from perpetrating any more cheating against not only yourself, but others as well.

The next article will cover intentionally cheating and the signs to look for if you feel you are the target of a cheater.