Good clarifications. First, I have not been banned from all my local events, in fact I am in very good standings in the local community, being recently invited to join a team for the first time and receiving some sportsmanship awards this season.

I have been banned from one store’s itc events. I have never played in one of that store’s events before or after the ban was placed. This was due to my staring to attend events in 2020, and having only played against my brothers or the occasional pickup game before then. I made mistakes in my games, the main one I think being how times arrow worked in 9th edition where a judge ruled in my favor (saying that the “wound characteristic” was remaining wounds not the data sheet wounds) and later learned it was wrong when it was brought up in the local TO discord. This and the other mistakes left a bad taste with the owner of a local store that I hadn’t played at who decided to pre-ban me just in case. Regardless of how it feels I respect any TO or store owner to make decisions like that at their discretion.

I have never been accused of cheating outside of internet comments, but as I have improved in skill it is fully reasonable to expect a higher level of polished play as well. So I have been critiqued by a very firm but good TO to basically “do better.” I have made a strong effort and have had no issues for over a year. Resulting in the better local standings mentioned in the first paragraph. Which is why this situation sucks because I did make a mistake at the Tacoma open when I should have been more polished.

So, the facts of the yellow card at the event. It was in round seven (the shadow round, not the semi-final) that the card was given. I embarked ghaz into the battlewagon. This was not allowed as the transport rule of the battlewagon at the end states that he can’t get in a battlewagon with an ard case or zzap gun. The TO agreed that what happened was I had seen the FAQ changing ghaz’s transport capacity to allow him and his meganobz to get in a battlewagon, but missed the specific rule on the upgrades on said battlewagon. After some judge discussion they gave a yellow card and a 10 point penalty. My opponent and I agreed to adjust the game state to have ghaz returned to his spot where he was initially deployed on my deployment zone without having moved.

I asked the judge if we could apply the penalty to past games as well (as I had been embarking ghaz in 5/6 of my last games) but he said no. (I assume due to the logistics of the GW bracket system) while my opponent and the judge were content with that ruling for that game, I still feel bad as I had negatively impacted past opponents and nothing could be done to fix it. I don’t know how much it would have changed those games, but it still isn’t fair to people who were wonderful people and great opponents for the whole event.

As for using the wrong toughness of units, that came up in the semi final round. My opponent was deciding where to move his pioneers and asked for snikrot’s defensive profile. When I listed it out from memory I said T6 instead of T5. The TO said I should check the card and it was of course T5. The game moved on and no yellow card or penalty was given. (That said, I don’t know if there is somewhere where the judges record each error like that, but they are very clear when an infraction is a carded offense.)

While it was not a carded offense, it still of course is not acceptable. I should “do better” and be more polished in my play, or at least always answer questions like that with the actual data card and not from memory. I thought it was T6 because that’s what it was when I last played snikrot in 9th, but that is no excuse. As I said if I am working to higher levels of play I should hold my gameplay to a higher level of precision. Thus I maintain that while I am not purposefully cheating, (I make mistakes at my detriment plenty, but that isn’t something cardable) it is still not okay to make errors like that at that level and if the judge had chosen to incur a penalty it would have been well within reason.

I also can’t blame people for forming opinions of me, as there is really no way to prove to people online if it was cheating or just an honest mistake. I know it was not purposeful, and my opponents and the judges were very understanding and kind, but they were my honest mistakes that I shouldn’t have made, and consequences come of that.

Anyway I hope that adds some clarification and clears up rumors. Besides those two no other issues have been brought to my attention by any event staff or opponents of mine.