I won the Warhammer 40,000 Throne of Skulls Tournament! But Games Workshop took it back! 

Ironically you probably ended up being a bigger unicorn then a tournament winner, owning one of those while not winning it! Great story and would love one of those as a book holder. It's all about the experience.

great story! will check out your other vids

20 years ago when tomb kings were unpopular, I had a friend who mopped the floor with us, and everyone he played against, with his tomb king army.

we went to school together, no idea how this popped up in my recommendations, but i’m glad to see you’re doing well ! nice trophy

So this is my first time seeing you're videos and honestly, im sorry this happened to you I've put some models together but nothing too fancy gonna paint them pretty soon with a few friends I havent played a tournament setting yet as im still very new to the game (specifically Warhammer 40k) My uncle got me a model of Ragnar Blackmane for Christmas last year and I'm very excited about starting a Space Wolves army Anyways, I gave you a sub, cant wait to see more from you

As a guy who built a dark eldar army in Third ed bc no one wanted them out of the starter I feel you. I just came back to the hobby this last year and I once again picked my spikies and orks because I believe fun over wins.

You didn't win and then lose. You won and had it stolen. My status as valedictorian had the same thing done. It was taken for the same reason (political). When I claimed it while applying to colleges, I was told I wasn't the valedictorian but I had a funny little piece of paper. It was printed by the school counselor showing that I had placed first for GPA in my graduating class.

A tournament with variable rules, how nice. And people who cant do math, even better.

As far as grudges are concerned, I still remember 1986, not just the Hand of God, but the shove by Jose Louis Brown on Gary Lineker that stopped him from meeting that second cross by John Barnes that would have been the equaliser. Never letting that game go. I'm thinking of playing Dwarves.

So, you had an unfair advantage in having early access to the codex from the start and exploited it. Not an in-game exploit, but a meta exploit. This take-back *would* have been the correct response... Right up to the part where the codex was released before the event. Since there was no "x weeks until it's legal for events" restriction on codex rules, you did nothing wrong. Shitty of you, maybe, but not wrong. Some other person who is an avid collector, fast reader, and had the crunch time to spare could have done the same. However, as this story is told, the T.O. should have eaten this failure to catch the fact that you were able to acquire a product early, and therefore gain advantage. Still, they did not have a proper leg to stand upon since the product was on the shelves. As this story is told, you won, accordingly. You should kinda feel bad about the exploit, but not as bad as the T.O. should feel about their lack of integrity.

I remember that event. May have been the one I picked up the best Space Marines player at. I'd warned the organisers that their spreadsheet had some of the equations in it incorrect on the Saturday, as it was clearly giving erroneous results. The end of play scores posted on the Saturday evening were simply incorrect in some of the totals etc! Whoever was on the phone gave you some duff info. (Zak or Nick?) The rules pack actually said if your faction had 3 or fewer players then the average they compared you to should be the tournament average of all players, but instead they had compared you to the single other player on the old codex. IIRC you scored something like mid to high teens (I want to say 19, but it's been a while), whilst he scored about 5, and it gave you about a 14 point difference, which was almost mathematically impossible for the other factions to compete with! The average you were compared to was also supposed to not include yourself (ie the average of the *other* players using the same codex), which the spreadsheet was doing correctly for factions of 3 or under, but not the bigger ones. The daft thing was several of us actually told the organisers they'd got it wrong before you'd left the hall, so no phone call should have been necessary. As a side note, they later had to remove the bonus points for favourite opponent due to people abusing the system. At the event following the one you won, the winner of most sporting got 5 out of 5. However, one of his opponents had not voted for him- and had actually raised a complaint about his unsporting behaviour. A few events later someone got 6 votes out of 5 when not only did the guy's five friends he came with vote for him- so did one of his opponents, to prove the system was being abused! It was only after this that WHW finally did something to address the problem.

sent more tanks to Ukraine than putin deserves a like haha

Feels like when they catch an Athlete with doping and then they say you are not the champion anymore.... but in this time it was them who inflated the numbers... Ok... At least you kept the trophy

When i worked for GW. The cheese players were the least fun part. Have fun, don't cheese.

I'd be so bummed. You're the winner, the internet just got mad and gave GW bad publicity and at the end of the day it's a business. Glad they made it right at least by giving you a free ticket for the next year.

Thanks for sharing with us this one took me back. I used to come down from Scotland for the tournaments, I think we may have sat and chatted in a busy Bugmans on a Saturday evening at one of them 2008 or 2009 ish ? I agree played a few Italian lads nice but frustrating...

Brilliant story!

Sending more tanks comment made me spit my coffee out lol.

'...but it's been 14 years so I should just leave it...' *continues to "tick" intermittently lol

Nice. You worked at both GW and Warlord....warlord is a great great systems of games. Love Bolt Action One of my first tournaments, at Element Games, I took 160 Hourmangants, loads of Zonethropes, 3 Manalthropes and some Genestealers. Came 13th out of 140...so was happy with that

I played throne years ago with mates and won all 5 games with a Cav vampire army in 8th edition when everyone else was using terrorgheists, other player in vamps won all 5 and a gw’s staffer and got 5 favourite game votes, 4 from players he didn’t play and won best in race. I got sweet fa.

Really enjoyed this video, nice little bit of GW history there (in terms of tournaments). At least you got to keep that lovely trophy!

I would a threaten to Sue GW if I had won that tournament and they had taken away my trophy because the internet was angry. I would have told them where to stick their f****** trophy and their competition 😠

Amazing story, even better attitude. You were very chill and considerate in a moment where most would whine and bitch.

I just got the American civil war Black powder series starter kit Guts and Glory . But that wasn't enough so I had to get the Black sails ship game as well to include naval combat because I'm a little obsessive about historical accuracy and we shall have blockades 🤣

That DE codex was the best. Loved 5th ed too

all the way to the 12 minute mark before you say I won because of a scoring glitch that only you and one other player took advantage of and that this happened 14 years ago.

Nice story I think however there is a big issue with early preview copies of codex’s being given to Tournament teams, it’s an unfair advantage over everyone else. At my local GTs a few years back we had a big problem (still do to a lesser extent) of WH40k teams showing up with the current *meta* lists with new rule books that have barely been out, yet they’ve had the unique experience of testing out army lists using the new rules for over a month. Seems really disingenuous. Thankfully some TOs have sense to ban new rules until the FAQ is out.

Fun story! That went in a completely different direction than I expected

Not a fan of those "soft points", like fairness, favorite player, best painted etc... I witnessed tournements where this things caused real fights between the players because some teams descided to vote strategicly and pushed the players of their enemy clubs down..

I quit GW when they bought out Age of 40k and moved my local store from a good sized outlet with 3 or 4 6/4 tables and another 4 4/4 AND a well lit painting table able to sit 6 or 8 people to a shoebox that just sold products. Fortunately, as mentioned the change happened around the time Age of 40k replaced Warhammer fantasy.

I can vaguely remember this, I remember your army from then.

Nice talking head story matey ......

I used to ref these at Games Day in Toronto, 2007/2008 it was such a great time. We did a midnight Combat Patrol tourney one year with all the head office staff, playing against some of the actual designers was fascinating. Played a round with Adam Troke and had a great discussion about his design philosophies for the 7th edition WFB High Elves.

I’d say regardless you won that still you got on stage and recognition so well done.

very well spoken

In an ancients player, but can relate. Stopped tournaments a long time ago, imho they are the death of my hobby. Now really enjoy the occasional friendly game with people I appreciate a Lot.

Can I make a mold of that?😊

Nice story, was good to listen to.

😂😂😂 great story thx

To be fair..you should have just told the Games workshop guy "sorry..you have the wrong number 🤷" what they gonna do, break in to your house and steal it?

Middle Earth SBG is actually decently balanced unlike 40K

Great story brilliantly told. Definitely liked and subscribed.

when I was first getting in tabletop gaming, I was like 11 and for some reason I chose Tomb Kings for fantasy and Dark Eldar for 40k. I chose the worst and oldest factions in both games. I did quite well with Tomb Kings actually because I got the rules wrong and no-one at the store ever corrected me. I didn't realise until much later, I had misunderstood the rules.

Too bad you didnt get a chance to make a cast of it. At least it d be a consolation ptize

It might be late ..but i cant get the rhyming game

Awesome story and video, tournaments are very fun (wish they were a bit chiller)

In a tournament of beta males, nobody wins.

We don't banter. We don't banter in our language either. It was/is considered not professional. When GT became decided by being "favoured" it became a death kneel for eastern europe players.

What an ego you have.

thumb down for Ukraine joke.