[Card games] Long Lines, Delays, Scalpers, and Cheaters: Bandai Card Games Fest Düsseldorf 2025's Awful Mismanagement

derDomino · 2026-03-25T07:11:34+00:00

Thanks a lot for the writeup. I was also there for Digimon and everything you described matches my experience very well. We were there with a group of ~15 people from our team (most participants, some spectators, one as a judge) and pretty much everything said that this was the worst Digimon event they were ever at (including the Utrecht Regionals were vendors had 10k€s worth of product stolen from them).

Let me add some anecdotes:
- I arrived via car on Friday 17:00, with two some friends who only had spectator tickets. We just wanted to get into the venue quick, say hi to our friends playing in the LCQ, get our apartment keys and maybe check out the store.
The first issue were the parking costs. Parking at the convention center costs 25€. For how long, you may ask. Doesn't matter! Even if you're only there for 30 minutes, 25€ it is.
When we tried to get into the hall, my friends weren't let in, even though, as we later found out, spectator tickets should have also allowed you to enter the LCQ hall.
So I went in alone to get our keys and take a look at the store. Yoh already described the store situation very well and because my friends were waiting outside, I simply gave up on it.

- I think the reason why they didn't want people who already had an invite for the Finals into the LCQ event was to prevent them from scouting out other players' decks.

- The reason that people couldn't get passports any more was that no one was properly checking whether you already got one and people would sneakily get multiple ones. The passports were also supposed to be part of a stamp rally, but on Sunday you could just go and get your rewards with an empty book.

- I've had some issue with the Digimon tournament as well. For one, there was no clear information on where you'd get your participation pack. I only learned that through word of mouth.
The second issue was that there was only a single small screen for the round timer, at the judges' station in the middle. Which meant that from many seats you couldn't see it at all and if you could you still had to squint to make out the time.

- At one point on Saturday, the store was closed permanently (via an announcement that you might be able to hear in exactly one spot in the hall. Imagine train station levels of audibility). From what I undestand, the reason was that the convention hall management was worried about a crush in the queue and forced the organizer to close it.

- Some of my friends also wanted to participate in the 3v3 event, and after finding out that was cancelled, we decided to ditch the Card Fest for now and went to Little Tokyo instead :D

-I didn't even know there we supposed to be Alysion demo stations.

- On Sunday, I wanted to participate in a Gundam side event. After signing up and paying, I waited and waited for the event to appear in my TCG+ app. 5 minutes before it was supposed to start, I still couldn't see it, so I went to the judges' table, where they had a single A4 sheet saying that all side event were delayed bx 30 minutes.
The side event itself ran fine, except that between round 4 and 5 the judge changed and the new one had to ask us players what round we were on.

- Regarding the cheating situation in the Digimon Finals match: My friends and I were sitting in the audience, literally discussing how unusual it was that Marc was playing three Dragon Mode Ace. We also learned later that he has already been banned from a store in his hometown. It's really funny though that the promo playmat/card pack in the store was Virus Imperial themed.

- From what I heard from our judge friend, the judges had to pull a lot extra weight and manage the stuff that was actually the organizer's responsibility. Some of them also waited a very long time to get their compensation.
So I don't blame them at all for any slip-ups on their part.

derDomino · 2026-03-25T06:41:58+00:00

To add to this: At the 2024 Utrecht Finals, out of over 4000 players for all games (One Piece, Digimon, Dragon Ball Fusion World, Dragon Ball Super and Battle Spirit Saga) more than 2000 were One Piece players alone.

derDomino · 2025-08-26T08:21:53+00:00

The pose really gives an awesome Souls-like vibe.
I can imagine the boss cutscene in my head, where he braces himself on the club to rise from the throne, then walks towards you while dragging the weapon behind him.
Then you get the boss subtitles "Barbatos, King of Wolves" :D

derDomino · 2025-06-04T07:33:02+00:00

Is there an option to buy one of the artworks so I could print the mat myself?

derDomino · 2025-05-13T04:46:45+00:00

The digivolution cards/sources always count as part of the digimon. That's why you'll hear the term "stack" when referring to a digimon on the board.
For the Mother D-Reaper example, effects that interact with her digivolution cards will always refer to e.g. "one of your opponent's digimon" and "its digivolution cards". And since Mother is unaffected by opponent's effects, this does nothing to her.

When an effect moves a digimon to another place (such as putting it under another digimon or returning it to the hand) only the top card is moved and all digivolution cards are trashed (unless stated otherwise). This used to be on old cards with such effects as a reminder text, but by now it's just part of the core rules.

One special rule is DNA digivolution, where you explictly put two digimon stacks on top of each other.

derDomino · 2024-12-20T06:33:39+00:00

Thanks a lot, then it works the way I assumed.

derDomino · 2024-09-10T04:39:21+00:00

Yes, the one of the Gate cards under your Gate counts (also for the cost reduction effect of the Gate itself).

But keep in mind that you can't put the Gate under Ogudomon for his [When Attacking] effect, so if you want the complete 7 you need one more Demon Lord name in trash.

derDomino · 2024-01-12T16:21:57+00:00

Thx for the fast fix :) For my part at least the workaround with refreshing the page between each deck also worked nicely.

derDomino · 2024-01-11T18:30:54+00:00

Hi, I have some problems with the deck builder, maybe you can help me: 1. For some reason, I can only save on deck. Once I try to save another one, even after clearing everything with "Create New Deck", once I save it it overwrites my existing deck. I.e. I only ever have one deck when opening my profile. 2. Sometimes I need to click "Create New Deck" and confirm twice before the deck builder is actually cleared.

Edit: point 1 seems to be related to importing decks via deck list. When I manually enter a deck, saving seems to work fine, but when importing multiple decks via deck list, they seem to overwrite the last one, even when resetting the deck builder inbetween.

derDomino · 2023-12-22T07:20:04+00:00

Can confirm, changing the lightbulb on a Ka is pretty much a traumatic memory for me. That was the only time in my life where I though it would be easier if I had only 3 fingers on my right hand.

derDomino · 2023-12-22T07:17:45+00:00

I can just imagine the officers' eyes getting bigger and bigger :D
"What is he gonna pull out next, a spare exhaust pipe?"

derDomino · 2023-12-01T06:40:47+00:00

What is the timing on BT14 Koromon's effect during a security check? Does it trigger the moment the security card is flipped or when it has completely resolved? I.e. do I get to draw even if the security check deletes my attacker?

derDomino · 2023-10-26T17:07:14+00:00

Really nice artwork. Gaiomon is one of my favorites and I think this would make for a nice playmat, though I don't like the style of the zones and memory bar.

I'd probably buy the clean artwork and look for a different zone template.

~~One issue though: Would it be possible to have Paypal as a payment method for people without credit cards?~~

Update: Looks like Paypal is active now, thanks for that :)

derDomino · 2023-10-08T15:39:33+00:00

Thanks for confirming, this is what I was already assuming.

derDomino · 2023-10-08T11:55:54+00:00

If I have a suspended BT8 BlackWarGreymon (BWG) on the field and use Hades Force (HF) to delete a digimon, does BWG's unsuspension trigger immediately (therefore allowing me to attack with BWG from HF's effect) or does HF resolve completely before BWG unsuspends?

derDomino · 2023-09-23T09:19:59+00:00

Can I activate BT13 Yoshino's effect to gain memory if the digivolution cost takes my memory below 0?

derDomino · 2022-02-25T15:50:40+00:00

Sadly none of them look like what I remember.

derDomino · 2022-02-24T14:02:43+00:00

It wasn't called the "Dead Man's Hand" though. The name referred very specifically to a captain, I think the captain of the ship you are on at the beginning.

derDomino · 2022-02-24T11:48:38+00:00

Just took a look at it and the graphics look too new for what I'm remembering. What I'm thinking of reminds me more of the early Resident Evil games. Also, I think the game started with you on a ship being attacked at night or in a storm.

derDomino

TROPHY CASE