Interrogation Droid- Brent Wong, X-Wing World's Judge

Welcome to another pleasant session with our friendly neighborhood Interrogation Droid. Recently I sat down with Brent Wong an avid gamer who has worked as a judge at several premier events for Fantasy Flight Games including Worlds and Coruscant Invitational. Please note, Brent is not an employee of Fantasy Flight Games and any statements or opinions are his and do not represent FFG, Asmodee North America or Disney.

Wayne Basta: Please tell our readers a little about yourself and how you got into judging.

Brent Wong: Hey Wayne! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about being a judge at premier level events for FFG. I’m a NASA IT contractor working at Johnson Space Center, and I’ve been a miniatures gamer since the tail end of the 3rd edition of 40k. While playing 40k, I was a GW Kommando and traveled to several GW Games Day events on behalf of GW.

After my interest waned from 40k, I took a several year hiatus from miniatures gaming, and in 2013 picked up X-Wing. While the city of Houston has a large X-Wing player base, when I started playing in 2013, the FLGS closest to my house did not have an active playgroup. Since I was hooked, I formalized the play group at this store and starting hosting tournaments. In 2015 when FFG announced their Flight Crew Program, I jumped on the opportunity to participate. My first event was at PAX South in San Antonio. A few weeks after PAX South, the announcement was made for the first System Open Series. So, I threw my hat into the ring to be a judge at the Hoth Open. Since Hoth, I’ve been a judge at Worlds 2016, the Coruscant Invitational 2017, and Worlds 2017, and I’m looking forward to getting to participate as a judge in future events and meeting many of your readers.

WEB: How did you become an official FFG judge (and for what games)?

BCW: To date, there is no official judging program for FFG or Asmodee NA. With that being said, my avenue into judging premier level events was through the FFG Flight Crew program. I’ve judged for Star Wars: Destiny and Star Wars: X-Wing The Miniatures Game.

WEB: Let’s address the elephant in the room first, were you involved in the infamous cheating incident at X-Wing Worlds this year? If so, what can you tell us?

BCW: I’m going to refer you to FFG/Asmodee NA’s statement regarding this issue.

WEB: What is it like judging premier events?

BCW: Judging premier events is a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. In multi-day premier level events, the tournaments are traditionally open tournaments – tournaments open to all players. With an open tournament, you get a wide variety of player skill levels. Usually in the first couple of rounds of play, you’ll come across players that are either unfamiliar with their or their opponent’s list or players that were mistaken in how interactions take place. If there is time in these incidents, you can use these interactions as teaching experiences for the affected players. As the tournament progresses, the rules interactions get more difficult, but at the same time, rule interpretation calls becomes less frequent to be replaced with arc and range measurements.

WEB: What is the hardest ruling you have ever had to make?

BCW: As a judge, if I find that there is a difficult ruling, I always defer to the tournament marshal. In a premier event, the tournament marshal is either an FFG or Asmodee NA employee.

WEB: What is the most convoluted bit of rules chicanery someone has tried to pull?

BCW: I generally don’t recall these types of interactions, but my process is to get both sides of the question. I then reform the question into my own words, ask the reformed question back to the players to make sure I have the correct picture of the game state, and then utilize any tools (such as the FAQ, core rules, range ruler, or laser pointer) at my disposal to make a ruling. In some cases, players may not agree with my ruling, and that’s okay. When a player disagrees with my ruling, we’ll call over the marshal for the final say.

WEB: What is the most convoluted rules logic someone has attempted that you’ve had to side with, especially if it was something you found ridiculous?

BCW: At Worlds 2016, I had a well known player ask me to rule on a TLT range interaction. The player asked me if his TLT could shoot because in arc, but his target was at range 2 while his ship’s base at it’s closest point was in range 1. Internally, I rolled my eyes and told him that he could not shoot his TLT at his target. Now, if this was a new player, this is a perfectly valid question, but this particular player is a known entity in the X-Wing community at large. This player has done well at many premier level events. He knows the rules. He was just trying to see if I would make a mistake.

WEB: How has judging events changed your view of the game(s)?

BCW: These are games. You are supposed to be having fun. So, have fun, and meet new people. X-Wing and Destiny are not “serious business.” People make mistakes, and those people aren’t out to get you.

WEB: What would you like to see clarified in the next FAQ (X-wing and/or Destiny)?

BCW: There are two card interactions that I would like to see clarified in the FAQ. While I know the correct ruling for both of these interactions and both rulings are correct per the game devs, players will push back if they have a differing opinion.

The first card interaction I’d like to discuss pertains to the Boba Fett crew card and the Ghost title. What happens when Boba Fett removes the Ghost title while the Phantom is docked? Can the Phantom deploy if the Ghost title is removed, can the Ghost fire out of the special firing arc, and can the Ghost perform an attack with an equipped turret at the end of the Combat phase? So, let’s take a look at the Ghost title card. The Ghost title card states, “Equip the Phantom title card to a friendly Attack Shuttle and dock it to this ship. After you execute a maneuver, you may deploy it from your rear guides.” When Boba Fett removes the Ghost title card, the Phantom is no longer able to undock from the Ghost. In this instance, the only way that the Phantom can be deployed is when the Ghost is destroyed. Since the Ghost title card makes no mention of firing weapons, the Ghost will still be able to fire its primary weapon out of its special firing arc, and it will also be able to fire an equipped turret at the end of the Combat phase.

The second interaction is between the Emperor Palpatine crew card and the Lightweight Frame modification. The most common question with this interaction is if Palpatine is declared on the initial defense dice roll, does Palpatine carry over to the additional defense die roll for Lightweight Frame? The answer here is no, the die rolls are considered separate triggers.

The third item that I’d like to see published, even though it’s not really an FAQ change, is a set of Floor Rules for X-Wing. Floor Rules would be a set of guidelines used by tournament organizers, marshals, and judges that ensure players receive a consistent play experience across multiple venues in different locales around the world. Floor Rules will have instruction on how to handle different infractions and what penalties should be given to a player for those infractions. Further, Floor Rules define a level of severity to different infractions and give recommended penalties based on severity with a rationale of why the penalty was assessed.

*Update from Brent*

A user on reddit disagreed with the way I called the Boba and Ghost title interaction and said that my ruling was inconsistent with what the game developers said in the past and how another judge ruled it at worlds. With this being the case, I shot Frank Brooks a message and asked for a clarification. Frank replied with,

“Since the Phantom title explicitly calls out being attached to the Ghost, if the Ghost title is removed the Phantom title doesn’t have an effect. The only way the Phantom can disembark is if the VCX-100 is destroyed.”

So, I was correct when it comes to undocking the Phantom, but I was incorrect about being able to shoot at the end of the Combat phase.

WEB: Any advice for people preparing to judge their own tournaments?

BCW: Read the core rules. Read the FAQ. Have either digital or hard copies of these documents on hand to refer back to during your event. Stick to your guns, but be fair and even handed. Have players stop their game if you see something that you don’t understand, and lastly, it’s okay to give players a time extension on their match if it takes some time to come up with a rules interpretation. Just be sure to write it down on their match slip.

WEB: Thanks, Brent!