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BGonline.org Forums
Headphones
Posted By: Albert Steg In Response To: Headphones (Grant Hoffman)
Date: Wednesday, 28 March 2018, at 1:16 a.m.
I don't so much mind people complaining about their dice (or mine) when I'm winning. What I find really distracting is when I'm down on the score sheet and they're making all sorts of little passive-aggressive comments about my luck, because in those cases I get this urge to say something caustic and I have to expend mental energy to keep myself quiet. I agree with Grant that this kind of behavior can be intentional. Having headphones on can make it much easier to 'tune out' such comments as mere background noise, which is what it is.
I was playing a match in an un-clocked side event recently and was counting the race in a bear off where we each had only 6 or 7 checkers left. Just as I was finishing, my opponent said "you're up 2" -- which annoyed me and made me lose count. I said "thanks, but you're not speeding things up because I need to get my own count and now I have to start over." When I finished counting it turned out I was down 2 pips, but I thought I might be wrong so I counted again and then told him if he was going to tell an opponent the count he ought to get it right -- otherwise it might look like he was intentionally trying to mislead / distract in a less than honest way. There was an unpleasant exchange where he insisted he was right and started shifting checkers to show the brilliant counting method he was using and I got super defensive insisting he leave the checkers alone. He got huffy as though I was accusing him of cheating on a silly little side match that didn't even matter. (As though cheaters found any opportunity to cheat too small -- I heard the same line from a douchebag in Cyprus last year in the finals of a jackpot sheet).
I was seething at this point and after correctly not doubling was so distracted thinking about the entire exchange that I couldn't even focus on the next position and made a substantial cube error. I don't think he intentionally tried to distract me with all this, but yeah, I got out the music for the next game. If I had been using them in the first place, I would have just ignored him from the get-go. To be clear, I *don't* think this person intentionally tried to mislead me -- he was just taking pleasure in his ability to evaluate the count so quickly while I sat there with my furrowed brow trying to figure it out.
There's currently no downside for players intentionally distracting or annoying their with playful banter, bating, or mis-direction. Allowing players an option to nullify this kind of petty chicanery by wearing headphones seems like a very minimally disruptive measure. Do TD's really want me to ask for a distraction ruling when my well-meaning opponent offers a pip count while my clock is running (or even if it isn't?).
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