My experience is entirely event related and may or may not reflect the store's presentation on a day to day basis.
The store ran a ARG Dragonball Super Trading Card Game (DBSTCG) tournament on 2/17/2018. This was without a doubt the most unprofessional and inhospitable DBSTCG event I have attended.
The DBSTCG Houston scene has quickly gained popularity due to the professionalism and camaraderie that the stores demonstrate during every 'event'. My experience at Underground games made me question if playing at local stores outside of Houston is even worth it. Without the reassurance of a healthy store environment in Houston I would be finding a different hobby after this event. To see how backwards a store can be and still have the honor of business and blessing of Bandai, the creators of the DBSTCG, is disheartening.
DBSTCG ARG Event started nearly 30 minutes late and was not ran effectively. When called beforehand the employee stated that if any deck list was not submitted on time at 6:00pm there would be no late entry and the player would not be able to participate. Since this was a big event, I took this warning seriously only to be sitting around trying to figure out how to pass the time because of how disorganized the event setup turned out to be.
The head judge was uncertain of rulings and was inconsistent on her ruling with a common card known as Cold Bloodlust, a game defining card that can change the pace of a player's turn dramatically, and some players decided to agree on their own terms between one another to avoid the frustration of dealing with the confusion. During an event, it should never come to that. To be clear, a player asked for clarification on his understanding to convey to his opponent the ruling and the female head judge gave two conflicting rulings on the card to the same player at different times. This was not acceptable.
Word spread quickly throughout the tournament that in the 6th/7th round of the event, the store hastily ruled in favor of a Ruleshark, someone who uses the rules of the game to gain an advantage instead of using them to ensure fair and correct gameplay, regarding card sleeves, leaving players panicking and unhappy with status of the store. This was a hot topic because the Ruleshark accused the other player of cheating due to the back of her cards being slightly visible through her sleeves. This was troubling because literally over half of the participants had sleeves that faintly showed the back of their cards. Players looked up the ruling on the Official Game rules and with nothing stated against this, the judges took the matter into their own hands. The floor judge ruled in favor of the accused player, but the head judged overruled him and allowed the accuser to decide the outcome!! Although the accused player had two people not in the tournament to help re-sleeve in a timely, effective manner, the female judge and the Ruleshark naturally went against that option. The professional call would have involved the head judge giving a warning, allowing the player to re-sleeve quickly and keep going. This behavior is unacceptable from a head judge of major events and for the health of this location, I hope her position is reconsidered in the future. No one should have to endure what that player did, making it so far only to take an unjust game loss due to the lack of professional experience at the scene.
It important to note that the head judge acknowledged the negative actions of the accuser after the fact and even called him a derogatory name, but refused to revoke the disqualification.
A group of people who drove +2 hours to this event congregated in the end venting their frustrations that this was not the environment that Bandai hopes to encourage with DBSTCG.
Be wary of this events at this location if you have to drive a good distance, a positive experience is not guaranteed. read more
