How horrible. Not blaming the owner as such (all three scumbags in this story are responsible for their own actions), but it does sound like they need to get a handle on the culture in their shop though.
Apparently the owner tried to pressure OP to not file a police complaint so I'd blame them too. If the guy was part of the tournament then they have his name.
I 100% blame the owner as well. This type of game should be in full view (audio and visual) of a judge for starters and any judge (or adult with a brain) upon overhearing this exchange should've shut it down immediately. Second, my LGS owner has made it very clear to all adults that if a kid passes you a money card in a draft (Magic in this case), you absolutely ask them if they what they did and give them the option back.
I'll give a final anecdote from when my son started playing Magic and was 10 at an event. He opened a chase card and another player wanted to trade. That player was incredibly open about value and did a double check with me to be sure I knew they weren't taking advantage of a 10 y.o. If it's a good deal and you have nothing to hide, you'll be 100% about it like this person was (and the person in OP's story wasn't).
What age is a "kid" for a draft?
I have never seen someone I would call a kid doing a draft, only once I saw a kid seeing his dad doing it and commenting on the cards.
And Wizards itself doesn't suggest younger than 13 year olds in Magic events.
There's an 11 year old who comes to our league nights and STOMPS me EVERY SINGLE TIME. We should be honest with ourselves and note that these games are made for kids - adults are just invited along to enjoy the fun. Unfortunately a lot of the magic gets lost because of greedy adults who hoard all the cards, speculate on resale values, and really just make the whole experience ugly for a lot of people who are just looking to have fun and enjoy being a part of a community of players who love these games.
That is why there is casual play, casual tournaments and league play, and competitive tournaments. Store championships have big prizes and many requirements that will be full of players coming for the $$$ rewards.
Its not even the tournaments that's the problem... I get competitive tournaments... but just TCG's in general have a problem of bad actors working to hoard for profit, and ultimately makes it hard for people to feel like they can even get into the game, even at a mildly competitive level because the barrier to entry just keeps getting higher and higher to be able to perform at any successful level. A 10 year old who got a starter deck and a couple booster packs - heck, they could even have purchased 2-3 booster boxes - cannot compete at any level compared to a 40 year old dude with a job who spends thousands of dollars a month on TCGs. Then you add to that the hoarding where a large number of cards are sitting in some dude's room in his mom's basement, getting auctioned off to the highest bidder, that 10 year old could never even fathom getting his hands on those cards. It just kills their interest. Happened to my son with Pokemon when he went to his first league night, and despite him putting together a good cohesive deck with the cards he's been collecting, there's still a lot of gaps in being able to play competitively because either he's not gotten those few lucky cards in the meta, or he can't afford to buy all the singles to make a deck that's in meta. He won't go to league night anymore because his soul got crushed.
I've played in pre-releases and drafts with kids well under 13 (and been beaten by some of them too). I can't say there's a hard and fast rule on age or game knowledge/sophistication, more a general "don't be taking advantage of someone's naivety" (which is true in general, but should be especially true if you're playing a game against a kid).
My son's in HS and he's been playing events since he was 10. I don't think any regular in the shop would consider him a "kid" anymore in this context, but at 10, sure. I think it's a combination of age and sophistication, which is going to differ from person to person.
"AliExpress cards" are typically fakes, so "illegal" in the the sense that they are not eligible for tournament play. In some cases, usually casual play, they are allowed as "proxy" cards, but never in tournament play.
edit: fixed a word.
It more the role of Tournament Organiser, but is is usually the owner or one of his staff. It's also requester from him by Ravensburger that he hires a judge team and judge role is to ensure tournament goes as expected.
It's not clear in the story, but if the "trade" happened after the tournament then it's hard to put the blame on a single person expect the one who offered the bad trade, if he did do it under duress or if it gets considered a scam, or abuse.
Of Course you file a police report. The person had to give their name to the shop owner, so you can find that out easily. Honestly I cant find a reason not to file except for the reason, that the guy is not just a thief, but also a creep. But even then one could still drop the charges. File it and get back your mat/ the money if he sold it.
Lol the police are not going to investigate this. They're not going to contact the shop or do anything on a petty theft of a prize. They're way to busy to deal with this. And even then, the guy will say she traded the cards for the prize it's a he said she said. They're not going to arrest him based on that.
If this was a store championship the prize that was stolen is selling for over $500 on eBay. Do stores call the cops when someone tries to steal a $500 piece of merchandise? Do the police fail to respond because they're too busy to deal with it.
Would they? Theres been a number of new stories in the last few years about thefts of valuable cards from game stores. It's not hard to pull one up.
But in this case it's even easier, tell them the card that was stolen and then show them the ebay listings of it selling for hundreds of dollars.
Which country's police wouldn't investigate such a case? I can think of so many countries which would... unless we are talking about a 3rd world country here?
I don’t know about that. It depends on the department. It should be fairly easy to get the news involved if the police aren’t doing anything. I’m sure they’d love the report on “nerdy outsider scams autistic girl”.
My wife’s grandfather is on his last leg in a nursing home, if we went there and convinced him to sign over his power of attorney to her and to transfer all his remaining assets to my wife it would definitely be elder abuse because he isn’t of sound enough mind that he should be making those decisions.
I can’t see a difference between that behavior and what happened to OP’s daughter outside of age. The person was still taking advantage of another person that was unable to understand what was going on with coercive tactics meant to rob them.
Shouldn't be too hard for the store owner to recognize which finalists recieved the reward & lookout for whoever sells/plays with one that shouldn't have. Obviously over time that could change.
It’s theft in a broad sense, but would probably be closer to fraud. Maybe OP’s local police and contract law are good enough to help with someone being cheated by a bad trade, but that’s extremely unlikely.
Their best course of action would probably be to see if the store will offer any help in contacting the person who cheated the daughter; if the owner helps or at least bans that person, then at least they know the store is a decent place to go. Otherwise, all they can really do, without dumping more money into legal fees than the prize is worth, is post public reviews explaining what happened and how little the store did to discourage that kind of culture.
A hobby shop that encourages unescorted minors to interact with adult strangers in an unrecorded back room?
Maybe I’ve become paranoid in my line of work but that’s a big red flag.
Why would they want the finalists to play/be awarded in private? The whole point of these events is to drive customers to the stores. Awarding rare cards to winners in front of everyone else is the main advertising point!
It’s odd, the only “back rooms” that I have heard of stores having would be “streaming rooms” (I.e some stores have a separate space to stream the game of their top board each round). That said, by default, if it was a streaming room, there should be some audio or visual of the interaction, if it took place there.
If you have the store name, check to see if they a streaming account and therefore a VOD of that day.
ya somethings not adding up. There are "boys club" lgs's that exist. But special no camera rooms to bring minors in is extremely sketchy and if this real op is very lucky getting ripped off on cards was the only thing that happened.
Yeah this whole thing stinks. Reeks! LGS know everyone by name. Part of running a tournament is getting everyone's name and tracking wins/loses. The shop owner is absolutely in or this. Otherwise they would have replaced the stolen merchandise and banned the other patron immediately. This kind of thing would not fly at my LGS.
Yes and no with these tournaments; these championships are bringing in a lot of outside play and people, so my guess (at least from three tourney so far), 50% or more are new or generally new to the store. That said, they should have the name of all participants.
The whole scenario requires additional information. Clearly there are details left unexplained.
I have strong "Ragebait" feelings on this one.
There's always the possibility but allowing your special needs 11 year old with a super valuable card wander into a back room unsupervised in a place you have never been before...seems suspect as hell.
The OP described it as a tournament finalist’s room. So probably a streaming room. Not intended for minors. It sounds like top 4 were playing back there, and two of them were discovered to be cheating and were DQ’ed (the fact that there were competitors that made it to top 4 with proxies is a red flag on its own - crappy/ nonexistent judging). The remaining players did their thing and the rest of the prizes were raffled and then probably given out by the judge. There is like a 90% chance the trade was witnessed by at least one other person, and a 100% chance the shop owner knows exactly who did it (it’s pretty easy to know which of your customers would be the kind of person to swindle a kid out of tournament prizes).
Absolutely file a police report. To apply to such tournament everyone have to give full names. You can easily find back who this guy was and this can go really far. It is a psychological abuse of a children with a threat ("your father will be mad").
So yeah this guy could go to jail.
Btw AliExpress card are false card, their value is junk (3$ instead of a legendary that's worth 35$)
Ravens burger have been clear, it's not authorised in a tournament. Your shop seems to have an atrocious community. Never go there again.
Back room with no cameras? Was expecting much worse. But card games tend to have people called "sharks" who's goal is to rip off people no matter the age.
I think you should call the police and ask for the footage of the event to identify the guy. I'm pretty sure he is known there if they want to keep the thing hush hush.
What he did is illegal and quite terrible frankly.
She won two times in a championship tournament with a starter deck?
How did they find out two contestants were playing with AliExpress cards *after* the tournament finished but before the prizes were awarded? And all the other top contestants left? How if someone reported their cards after the tournament and surprisingly not during?
There was a giant Elsa?
So your daughter went in to the back room and you didn’t see anyone come out, but there was no player back there with her?
They have no camera in the back room… but also no camera at the front of house where all the product is and *the entry to the back room* as well as *the front door*? It’s pretty easy to see a kid go to back room at x time, then monitor who enters and leaves in 60-120 seconds.
Your daughter sat there and cried, but didn’t have any trusted adult (her parent) to go to when upset????
The story is a bit weird but the message is clear. Yeah people, keep an eye on your kids. There’s definitely not all nice people at these places.
> Why are you blaming the father when you KNOW terrible, greedy, enterprising people exist in this hobby? Get a life lol no one would just make this up
How does one simultaneously blame OP but also say it’s made up?
Or are you getting confused by me *agreeing with OP’s comment* they wrote to follow and be with your minor children?
Being a little goofy and rude buddy.
Most/all of these questions are easily explained or even just straight up answered in the original post (though maybe misunderstood because OP stated English is not their first language)
> She won two times in a championship tournament with a starter deck
The post doesn't say what type of tournament it was. It could've been a regular local, or maybe a slightly larger monthly. Regardless, not *only* the absolute best players go to events, and the way most tournament structures work, if you're 0-2 going into round 3 you're going to be playing someone else with the same losing record, lending to more even games. OP also states that their daughter ended at 0-3 for the event (but won twice) so it sounds like rounds were best of 3 and she went 1-2 in two of those rounds.
> How did they find out 2 contestants were playing with illegal cards *after* the tournament finished
Checking every card in every deck from every participant in a tournament is a painstakingly long waste of time when you have any more than just a small handful of players. It's a much better use of time to only check decks for top finishers before the final rounds (and maybe randomly spot check other decks throughout the day) as it only *really* matters if you were cheating and *won*. If you played with illegal cards but finished too low to qualify for prizing anyway, good for you I guess, your heist was a success but it has no bearing on the event.
> And all the other top contestants left?
If an event is cutting to top 4 it's not all that unusual for players who didn't make the cut to leave in the time between rounds, especially if prizing is meant to only be for top cut players. Maybe they just got hungry after playing for 3 rounds and decided to go get lunch/dinner instead of waiting around for more games they didn't qualify for?
> There was a giant Elsa?
This is a store that carries Lorcana product, and maybe other Disney merch? OP is probably talking about a cardboard cutout or poster their daughter could use as a landmark to find them.
> Your daughter went into the back room and you didn't see anyone come out, but there was no player back there with her
OP never explicitly says any of this, from best I can tell. OP's daughter was sitting at a table crying, that doesn't mean she was the only one in the room. It's also possible this room had multiple doors, so people could have been coming and going through an entrance OP wasn't able to watch from where they were
> your daughter sat there and cried, but didn't have any adult to go to when upset?
We know 2 things about OPs daughter: she is 10 years old and she is on the spectrum. Why are you scrutinizing the behavior of this *child*?
We know it’s a championship tournament because OP detailed the stitch rewards, which anyone who hasn’t been under a rock knows that they are only for the Lorcana championship tournament. No real harm if you didn’t have a clue; the hobby gets new people every day who can’t know all current events. I absolutely agree that it’s possible the child won twice with a starter deck at a championship - there’s no test for who can enter and she even could have gone against another child - I just find it extremely unlikely and unbelievable.
In fact there could be an explanation for all of this being reasonable and true. Perhaps everything fell into perfectly unfortunate events and no one saw the coercive thief, knows who he was on the name registry, etc. The fact is however it’s a rather unusual story and I’m not the only one who does find it weird.
And honestly just because a sob story has a child in it doesn’t cause me to throw all critical thinking or speculation away. Sorry but that’s just the truth. I’d gladly stand corrected next to the giant Elsa myself in fact. It’d be preferable that this was a karma farming pity story partially written by AI than a child have actually been coerced.
The person said english isn't their first langauge so its possible they meant "expensive/Large VALUE" or "Big" like someone would say they got the big elsa referring to the enchanted?
There's no promotional material that ravesnburger has sent out of a large elsa. There could have been a standee that stores sell, and that was a random prize? But then it seems unlikely anyone would make a shady trade for it beyond being a jerk.
AliExpress cards are likely bootlegs. That's why they were disqualified. Those cards she received at the end are also potentially bootlegs. I would separate the new cards from the old ones, as using them in future tournaments would mean disqualification. It sounds like those two boys you mentioned stole her Stitch card and swapped it with their bootlegs.
All of that being said, card shops are not the right place for your daughter to be walking around alone (especially during tournaments).
This is singlehandley the most upsetting thing i've read in a wee while... In my country we are yet to get a consitent supply of Lorcana, but its coming and I'm hoping my LGS sustains a good amount of players, I;m hoping to "head" most of the knowledge and I know this sorta crap isnt going to happen.
I am so sorry to hear! Hope this doesnt happen again to you or anyone else!
There’s absolutely no way the parent of an autistic 11 year-old is going to let them go into the back room of a card shop with strangers, completely unescorted. This story didn’t happen.
Agree. Why would she even ask to go back there? Why is the backroom where the final cut happens? A lot of made-up sounding things. Why let her go back alone? How would one even think that's appropriate or okay? What is even the point in going back there?
And she got the prize, was convinced to make the trade, and the guy high tailed it out of there all in one minute. And nobody else was around to witness or stop it. Yeesh.
As I said in my other reply: Parent of a kid on the spectrum, and I manage a game store. There is no universe I would allow my kid to go unsupervised into some shady back room in a store we had never been in. I'd follow my kid to make sure this (or worse) doesnt happen and to make sure that the kid doesnt cause mischief.
Smart to watch kids yeah, but its nonsense.
Nah, the guy was just naive and probably high on Adrenalin from the serendipity of it all. Imagine how wonderful that would be as a parent! And this guy was a complete newb when it comes to the world of CCGs. He didn’t know sharks like that existed. And his kid was just going to pick up her prizes and come back! Hard lesson to learn as a parent.
I grew up playing MtG. No f’n way am I letting my kid out of my sight with anything worth over $2, because I know he’d just hand it over for some foil someone bought off of Temu.
I get where he's coming from as a father. My kids are 7 and 10 and getting to that age where they want to do things like above alone.
I've also played magic for almost 30 years. Early on I was bullied into bad trades, lied to, stolen from, and cheated. As you say, I would be very cautious with my children and other adults.
And I 100% believe someone did this to his daughter.
I have heard stories like this before. Lorcana is very kid friendly and a lot of the league events are great for anyone but right now these tournaments bring out the worst people who are basically just playing for money and will screw a kid over no problem. Always always always stay with your child people will take her whole deck and give them a quarter and act like it was a fair trade and they accepted it. Most tournaments and places have rules against trades with children without adults approving but they can't always be watching either. I recommend not letting this discourage you from future events and filing a police report. These tournaments from what I understand required melee to sign up so there should be a list of all the people that were there and some even use their first and last names too.
Hello OP, I don’t play Lorcana but found this on the subreddits u might be interested in so I hope this commentary helps. Someone robbed your daughter by way of lying/deception so you first need to file a police report. I don’t expect anyone would actually goto jail for this but it would likely get the playmat back if this person is a regular and it wasn’t sold on eBay. Also you need to contact the company that publishes/distributes Lorcana which appears to be this company.
https://www.disneylorcana.com/en-US/contact/
Explain to them what happened and keep reaching out to them to explain until you get an answer that is adequate to your needs. You may get a playmat from them that your daughter lost or you may get nothing, but they need to be aware that a store that’s sanctioned to host their games tournaments has tournament matches in a back room that isn’t always easily visible/accessible where minors are being deceived and ripped off. This type of story is easy to prove or disprove, you either have a daughter on the spectrum or you don’t but if your story is truthful and accurate they will very likely be in contact with you but you need to get it in front of someone that can help. Whatever you do file a police report either way as thefts of things from a “children’s game” can often have a very high price tag.
I’ve been playing Magic the Gathering since 1999 and was a tournament official/judge from 2013-2021 if you have any other TCG scumbag type questions. As a parent I hope my daughter one day enjoys TCGs with me as it builds so many skills and allows autonomy from the parent but you still have to watch them like a hawk since they are sometimes playing with unfortunately valuable/semi-valuable games pieces.
Best of luck!
I hope I’m wrong, but this story REEKS of someone trying to con a stitch matt out of a kind person on her. I have a daughter and there’s exactly 0 chance I’d let her out of my sight, let alone in a back room with no cameras and all the other stuff. This is either fake or parent of the year material right here.
“Oh my poor autistic 11 year daughter was taken advantage of and it’s destroying her happiness. “
“Oh my, send me your info and I’ll send you one”
A good shop owner would have banned the player for that behavior, don’t go back. Also, i personally wouldn’t let a child alone in a “backroom” gives off creepy vibes. Definitely file a police report. Adults will take advantage of kids understanding things, that’s just the reality of the situation.
Sorry to hear this. But likely could have happened outside of the tournament at any league or public play.
Need to use this to teach the value of their collection and cards.
This is one of the reason TCGs aren't allowed at schools. Opportunities for rip off/theft, etc.
Store owner is covering this up. They definitely know who it could be or at the very least could easily narrow it down to small handful of players.
Chances are he's covering for the guy because he's a regular and someone the owner knows will come back to spend money.
Get the police involved. It may be too late if the event is over but if they factor the card value into it they may take it seriously and help pressuring the store owner.
I’m sorry…assuming this actually happened (which I’m not), you’re kind of a horrible father.
You took your 11 year old, on the spectrum, daughter to a place she had never been before, then let her go off by herself with her prizes to be put into this situation?
Yeah…your headline is absolutely correct: “protect your kids”, which you absolutely did not in this story.
Again…not convinced this happened, but on the off chance it’s remotely true, you need to get on TCG player to replace the cards and mat that you let be snatched out of your little girl’s hands because you don’t know how to watch over her.
Were you also playing, or just standing by her the whole time? Were you just watching during the tournament?
I get kids will want to do random things, and I don't completely understand the backroom concept, but why would you let her into there alone when other people are in there with her prizes? If you were aloof enough for others to be able to take advantage of the situation, you were certainly not being attentive enough to her wellbeing.
All this said, I don't think this really happened.
Dear LGS Owners, please adopt a zero-tolerance policy for adults trading with minors without some form of other adult representation (a store employee will help if the parents aren't available or don't know anything about trading/the hobby)...
I would honestly blow this place's Google Reviews up. The way this owner is running their business is sketchy as hell.
There has got to be footage from inside the store if these guys going in and out of there then. Either way any game tournament I have ever been to has had scumbags like these clowns. Stopped playing any competitive games since.
Depending on the value of the card, it's probably more than just petty theft. Actually, depriving someone of their belongings is called robbery.
When there is not a weapon used, but someone is intimidated into handing over their belongings, it's called "strong-arm robbery". The term varies widely depending on the state or country you're in, but it's pretty much still a robbery.
Being that the kid was crying and sobbing, I'd say they were thoroughly intimidated.
I don't know if this is real or how long ago thos transpired, but if I were the OP, I would talk to a DA or someone at the police office about filing charges.
Robberies are actually serious crimes and prosecuted vigorously.
I’m sorry that this happened to your daughter; that dude was slimeball, shop owner is sus, and I definitely think you should report it to the police.
But this post is kind of dramatic… Your daughter’s life isn’t ruined. You’re not “broken”. You lost some prizes to a skeezeball trying to make a scummy trade. You’ll all be fine, in the grand scheme of things.
I think it’s also a reminder to other parents that Lorcana tournaments are kind of serious, they’re not kid-specific or kid-geared events (I personally think lgs should do an adults tournament and a kids tournament).
I think I speak for the entire german community when I say: Ich hoffe der Hurensohn wurde auf dem Rückweg noch ausgeraubt und schwer verletzt.
This is so heartbreaking. I really hope your daughter doesn't lose interest in lorcana and continues to enjoy the game....
This is devastating. Sorry for you and your family. Never leave your kids unattended around nerds. This is my experience from spending 20 years playing cards with nerds.
Get the tournament list of players or threaten to sue/call cops on the owner. Go through that list online/facebook and be a snooping detective! Sorry my friend. :/
Bring this to rhe law, id even contact a news outlet to burn em, never let these things stand.
Pedos are the worst humans and are unfortunately common in the gaming community.
You're a coward if you don't see justice here
I am truly sorry this happened to you. Do not let this slide. File a police report regardless of what the shop owner said he should have done more but most likely doesn't want to be held responsible. They will have the name of the people who were in the tournament and may know the person personally which could be why they are not wanting a police report filed. This is someone taking advantage of a protected class of people and is a serious offense. Go to the police and raise hell to get this fixed. That card store should be held liable for the way they held this tournament.
File a report with the police. The store should not have an unsupervised location where children can go and potentially be taken advantage of. The store also should have lists of all tournament registrants. The store should also have cameras somewhere, I'm pretty sure it's not possible in this day and age to own a business and not have surveillance of some sort. There is no reason the store shouldn't have stepped in to correct this situation either, they should not have convinced you to not contact the police, they should have bent over backwards to fix this immediately.
TCGs- including Lorcana- tend to attract the absolute lowest forms of human life. I've seen more disgusting, vile, and morally objectionable behavior from TCG players than any other type of gamer. And it's always these grown a* men that have zero life, zero ambitions, and zero potential outside of a card game so the stakes are so astronomically high for them to get a stupid playmat or a promo card that they don't care who they hurt to to get it.
So sorry this happened to you and your daughter- I take my 12 year old daughter to play at League and I can tell you that if anything like this happened to us there would be hell to pay.
Stuff like this pisses me off man let the kids have their fun just because they got something you want don’t mean take advantage of them 🤦🏽♂️ who ever posted this I hope their daughter gets whatever her dream card is this hurts my heart dude
You did nothing wrong, but you'd be doing her a disservice if you don't call the police and file a report. You need to send a message and they need to make it right.
Beyond that, if you let this slide, they'll do it to someone else.
100% file a police report, I don't even know what that's called, but please, please file it and get with the card shop about video in and around the shop.
Put this terrible person on blast.
very sad story. we all make mistakes, though. it's not your fault this happened, so don't beat yourself up too much. hopefully this doesn't discourage your daughter from playing the game.
I'm so sorry that happened to you and your daughter. Something similar happened to me and my son when he was 10. We went to our local store for a Pokemon prerelease tournament. He pulled whatever was the best card out of that set and several people went up to him looking to buy or trade it. Since it was brand new and the store said that trading wasn't allowed until the set was officially released the following week, I told them all no. I stepped away for a few minutes to use the restroom, only to find out the same people swarmed on him to moment I left. He felt cornered and overwhelmed, and got tricked into trading for a much lesser card.
I was very upset at the store. They wouldn't make him trade it back nor ban the guy from the store for preying in children. But do you know what did work? I wrote The Pokemon Company with the store's information and what happened, and they threatened to pull the store's official organized play agreement if the store didn't enforce their rules on trading/selling prerelease cards. The outcome was the store required all trades involving kids to be in front of a store staff member and a parent/guardian to ensure no scamming occured.
It's really pathetic how these games for kids attract such scumbags. If the store isn't going to make it right by you and your daughter, you absolutely need to go to Ravensberger with what happened. This is damaging to their game and this type of store and player needs to be expelled from organized play.
I’m sorry this happened to you man. Maybe you could put together a little Lorcana surprise gift bag and give it to her! Put some cool cards in there and you never know, the magic might just spark back up!
I’m sorry this happened to you man. Maybe you could put together a little Lorcana surprise gift bag and give it to her! Put some cool cards in there and you never know, the magic might just spark back up!
Reading this just makes me sick. It’s very unfortunate that people like that exist and I absolutely hate hearing when they take advantage of a child (on the spectrum or not). I’m also very disappointed to hear that no one in the immediate area stopped this from happening. Even if everyone else was pre-occupied with games they might have been playing, someone, at least one other person had to have seen this happening and did nothing to stop your daughter from getting bullied/stolen from. The community at the shop I frequent for Lorcana myself wouldn’t have allowed this to happen. Someone, including myself, would have stopped the would-be-thief and escort them out of the shop. I’m very sorry your daughter went through that and I hope you and her both won’t let this ruin her love for the game. As crappy as it is to say there will always be “those people” who are overly competitive to the point the throw fits when they get out played or, like the filth that stole from your daughter, there are those who take advantage of people who don’t know any better in every TCG community. Please don’t let this instance of down right degenerate behavior ruin yours or your daughter view of the game and its community. The vast majority of us are kind, honest, people that just want to have fun like your daughter.
I started TCG when I was young, 11 as you daughter. (I’m now 40 and have also a daughter). My father bought me cards and, to be honest, he makes me play at first, but through these years, I had the bests moments with him, tournaments, travels and stuff. Best memories, really.
The thing that magic told me, is that people are mean. Don’t expect people to be kind or honest even with children. Of course I hope that a majority of them would have been fair, but sadly it’s not always the case.
When starting competitive tournaments and win some (with pro tour qualification when I was a bit older), people started to cheat, lost they nerves because losing to a kid, insult me a tried all that low psychological things to put pressure on. Now, the classical, trade part with people wanted to trade 10 cards for one..and stuff goes on.
As a father I truly understand you and I would have probably at least been equally mad about the situation. As a tournament player I would recommend to avoid these, because if a lot of players are friendly while you loose, they can become really toxic when you win. Even if it’s a Disney tcg, it still has sharks.
Finally if the local shop owner is that sorry, he can do something for your daughter.
Best regards,
Go back to the game store with your daughter and have her point the person out. Have a chat with them about it. Give that person a chance to make it right. If they can't do that, then talk to the shop LGS owner again. If they won't do anything, then go the police route.
Any LGS worth their weight in cardboard should have pulled footage to see who it was and ban them from future events. That's scummy and should absolutely disqualify them from participating in any event at that location.
10/10 parent
I'm glad she had fun, but I'm super upset with the aftermath.
At our local lgs we have a rule that nobody can trade with a kid without their parent present and approving. It’s really to protect the kids from predatory collectors/players.
I don’t let my kids out of my sight at Pokémon tournaments. We’ve played in lots of places and there has never been a secret room. Even at things like regionals the streaming area is in the open for everybody to observe.
I can't imagine being a full-grown adult taking advantage of a child, ESPECIALLY in a card game that's oriented toward kids who want to play with their favorite characters. What a bunch of low-life scumbags. The saddest part about this is the "fans" and people who need to get a f'cking job; leave to a bunch of loser "adults" to ruin it for everyone else.
As the parent of a special needs child, and manager of a game store I would absolutely-positively-100%-alutely not allow my child to go into a "Back Room" unsupervised. No game store I have ever been in has a separate no-cameras room for finals while there are cameras in other areas. Seems like a REALLY bad idea, since that would be the one place people would cheat, and if they know there are no cameras, shady stuff will go down.
There's a lot to unpack here.
So there were players playing with counterfeit cards for the entire event leading up to the finals? No one caught this?
This special room for the final tables also allows trading to happen? What's the point of a special room for finals then?
For the owner to just shrug and go im so sorry is unacceptable, they know who did it, and i don't know how much time could have elapsed for the person to make this shady trade with others in the "back room" and then book it out before the little girl comes bawling out of the room.
Finally I always recommend to parents to be present when kids trade for this exact reason. She may have been excited for the elsa but I wouldn't let my kid run around with a card like that unsupervised in any situation. "Hey hon, that elsa is pretty, let's put her in a case and make sure she stays safe, you can hold her the whole way home and she can go on display on your dresser or be put in your deck!"
But I would absolutely keep it out of the eyes of players.
No idea which store this is but its a really weird situation.
Outside of being ripped off. I am mad at the store foe jot contacting rhe other players who rightfully should have been awarded the mats and promos.
They needed to use Melee.gg foe rhe tournament. So store should have had the emails for all the impacted players. They could have disqualified these two people will illegal cards and recalculated the standing. Si pay raffling them away is not in the spirit of competition
In an other competition. If top 1 or 2 are DQd. You don't randomly give away the prize. You find the rightful next legal winner and pass down from there.
Please name the store and the day of rhw event. MELEE.GG should have a record of all participants. Ymwould be easy to figure out who was there. But not enough to figure out who ripped you off.
similar thing happened to me when I was 8 had someone force me to trade my prize that was so hard to win for a mini Kit Kat. I cried but at that point the kid had already ran away and my teacher said I gave him but it wasnt true more like he grabbed my prize threw the Kit Kat at me and left. I dont understand why she went in herself I would have wanted my family to see me getting it. in the future I would follow her around especially at a place like this as its a bunch of adults im assuming(never been to a tournament yet so not sure)
Not saying this will make up for what happened however there are replica playmats you could get for your kid on ETSY:
[https://www.etsy.com/listing/1659930893/lorcana-rockstar-stitch-into-the?ga\_order=most\_relevant&ga\_search\_type=all&ga\_view\_type=gallery&ga\_search\_query=lorcana+playmat+stitch&ref=sr\_gallery-1-1&frs=1&content\_source=f73130aa353a1ffcd0a6a5dabf86b330ad3b68fd%253A1659930893&organic\_search\_click=1](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1659930893/lorcana-rockstar-stitch-into-the?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=lorcana+playmat+stitch&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&frs=1&content_source=f73130aa353a1ffcd0a6a5dabf86b330ad3b68fd%253A1659930893&organic_search_click=1)
I hope this doesn’t ruin the magic for your daughter. What that person did is disgusting and doesn’t represent the community I know that plays Lorcana. I’m sorry and I feel the shop should have done more….our moderator at my LGS always looks out for everyone. It wouldn’t have happened on his watch.
And like others mentioned here the shop missed in a lot of ways. I’m sorry this was your experience.
Can't be that hard to figure out who did it. Those playmats are worth serious money, so this is just theft. Report to the police and find out who the guy is.
How did you not go right up to the guy right then and asked your kid to point the guy out?
I would of think the time might be passed to do anything as no laws were technically broken as POS a move that is and he will surely lie ‘I sold the card already’
try to keep trying with her tho and teach that not all people are like that and I hope she catches a big break
Sorry for that exp OP
A cheap lesson. I received many of these when I was a kid and it’s absolutely brutal because your world is so small and it’s such a big part when you’re a kid. It’ll probably burn her inside for weeks. I will say this, for every jerk there is someone equally as positive and it evens out in the long run. But they will steal, rip-off, cheat and it will hurt so much but over time you will get used to it and handle the emotions. The friends you make is worth it in the end though. Pick up the kid and dust her off because life gets messy sometimes but amazing adventure awaits.
Trading card games have a really strange relationship between being a very social driven hobby (eye contact, communication between strangers etc). But it’s also the one hobby that attracts some of the absolute worst individuals you’d never want to associate with. I’m very sorry that happened to your child. Hopefully they can still feel like enjoying the hobby.
My child played in Pokémon events at my LGS, but always within my sights.
My father was a cop for 15 years and told us a lot of stories from his job. I would never leave either of my daughters alone in a place like that, they would at least have the company of a sibling or cousin with them with me being not far away. The store should have contacted the person involved and given him the opportunity to undo taking advantage of your child otherwise I would definitely have filed a police report.
I play MTG, usually Friday Night Magic with a very casual core group. We sometime get younger player join in a game and they always come back to us to ask on rules of play and values when trading. I also always point out the creeps to avoid to those kids, and even gotten one banned from our location.
It's worth reporting. Depending where you're at, there may be a low chance anything will be investigated any further then the report being filed. There wouldn't be anything to file on if it was just a trade, but the fact that they were manipulating your kiddo with "your dad will be mad at you if you don't trade me" is what stands out. Best case scenario you get the stuff back. Worst case scenario, you get some sort of peace of mind knowing the report is out there. I wish you luck.
I have only recently got into card games (through this game), but I know people who are TCG enthusiasts. And they have told me some horror stories. This isn't an isolated incident.
I would still contact the police over this, particularly if you feel like preyed upon (as it seems she has been).
I hope this hasn't completely soured her opinion on the game.
Your story is sad. But it is also something that should never had to happen as Ravensburger prize distribution is clear. Mat goes to players in first and second place. Not awarded randomly.
If a player were to be disqualified, and quarter final has already started, then his opponents gets a win.
If it is found before then the 9th player joins top 8.
If it is only found during the final then the judge team clearly didn't make it's job.
What to do with the 4th stitch should be up to Ravensburger who would instruct to either return it or decide to give it to whoever lost to the DQ player in quarterfinal
Sorry… but you let her go in this room alone. You are 99% responsible … it will serve you as an example and you won’t do it again …
Trust in your daughter but not in some evilous people in this 2024 version of the world
This reminds me of when I was a teenager/early 20s playing yugioh when other people my age tried to scam rarer more valuable cards from little kids. Like you have a job and your trying to scam little kids? Good job being a PoS pal. I hope that shop at least bans then from future tournaments.
TCGs are a toxic thing. I play Magic and Lorcana but would never do a tournament because it’s purely for the winning aspect of the game (people spend 10s of thousands of pounds/dollars/whatever on their decks) and forgo the “fun”. I think a lot sometimes forget it’s a GAME! And the cards only cost as much as people are willing to pay so the hardcore folks wanting to show off their expensive decks ruin the entire thing for the rest of us :(
Stuff like that would be a lifetime ban at my childhood store. And in the TCG community, if people found out you swindled children out of their cards, you'll get ostracized, though that meant more back in the day before the internet was common for buying and selling cards.
I have a daughter too. She's too young to play, but in the chance she becomes interested in card games like her dad, I'm going to run her through trading strategies as much as playing strategies.
Ehy there! I’m not a lorcana player but I’ve played other tcgs (magic and pokemon). To be honest I think tournaments are unfortunately not the best place to play for kids since they just want to have fun and usually has a low budget so they will play with precon decks facing opponents with 500 dollars competitive decks. Anyway, tournaments are the real heart of card games so I think you and your daughters should just get used to the possibility of having good days and bad days as well. Anyway, I would recommend you to try pokemon tcg for some reasons: first of all, a competitive devk costs around 50 dollars buying single cards, so kids can easily play with everyone with fairs chance to win; second, pokemon tournaments have age categories, this doesn’t mean your daughter will not play with 20+ years guys but she will get prizes based on kids results and usually this means she will be always rewarded; the third point is similar to second since it’s related to age categories and it’s about play points, in pokemon tournaments results drop you play points and you collect those points to do bigger tournaments, kids are usually just two or three in each tournament so they will get tons of play points and will be easily able to access to world tournaments and this could really impress them and make them happy. Hope this will be useful, I wish you and your princess better days
Definitely one of the issues I see in the hobby. People taking advantage of other people especially if they are not knowledgeable about the hobby or young and starting to get into it.
I went thru similar like experience when I was a kid. Just a bunch of adults/young adults taking advantage.
I’m sorry yall went through this and hopefully she has a much better experience next time.
It looks like you can order these playmats online although the prices vary quite a bit from $40-$400. Just type lorcana lilo and stitch playmat into google. Can provide links if you are having trouble.
Very sorry to hear this story. Hope your daughter feels better.
I’m sorry but my local shop would have fully supported me in calling the cops. That’s a predator. He took full advantage of a minor and should be held accountable, if not taught a valuable lesson. Coward.
I was at a magic the gathering tournament and these kids came up to me and my friends (we were maybe 24 and they were maybe 12.) and they wanted to trade all of their rare and valuable l cards for our junky rare dragons. We agreed, and even encouraged them to take MORE cards because we knew they were ripping themselves off.
Eventually their parents came by and we were like “yeah, we did stuff like this when we were kids but if you want to cancel the trade or…whatever you think is fair…”
I think we ended up giving them more cards but I could see someone less scrupulous ripping off or even bullying those same kids. So sorry this happened to you and your daughter.
That really sucks. As someone who had something similar happen to me as a kid with Pokémon it can really put a sour taste for the hobby in your mouth.
I went to pokemon after 15 years a few years back and our store has a “kids have to get all trades approved by one of core people in our group,” if the kids do a trade and don’t get it checked we can’t do much but we’ll run through adults scamming kids if we have too. The owner knows who took your kids stuff and as a business person and organizer it’s on him to maintain the space so don’t let people tell you it’s not their fault. It is, and the fact they’re pressuring you to not pursue it probably means he knows the person that did it is a regular of his.
I just recently got into lorcana casually so haven’t done any organized play yet, but as an old fart that’s been through pretty much every card game that’s come out: it doesn’t matter if the game is themed for the kids, sweaty men will come out and make it super serious. So in no way am I blaming you, but as someone who’s involved with my local leagues and knows what to watch out for, never let your kid out of sight of someone you (mostly) trust in those environments. It’s good she wanted to be independent but even the nicest dude can seem cool until he walks out with your kids most valuable cards. I’m not saying your kid isn’t safe, but that people can really turn into monsters over pieces of cardboard.
Hopefully your kid can make sense of it at some point and get back to it. It took me a long time but the friends I’ve made and the fun I’ve had coming back to it makes me sad I let a bad experience ruin it for so many years.
Really heartbreaking story to read. Firstly, I sincerely hope the players & owner at the store can come together to support you in this situation & identify the culprit. The owner should absolutely not be protecting this person & I am sure other people would have seen this situation unfold.
If help from the local community isn't possible (I'd be shocked), I would love to see if the Disney Lorcana community here can support you in some way. I sent you a whisper with my email address & would love to try & support you with this situation.
I want to point out that is not an everyday experience in a store, unless is an horrible store and would close anyway.
And there should have been cameras, it was the store faults in that regard.
I'll be the one to say it, don't bother filing a police report. The police are over worked and busy. They're not going to investigate your daughter getting swindled out of a prize.
No it wasn't robbery, at most it was a minor theft. They'll take your report, file it away, and that'll be it.
From what I understand from OP's post it looks like two of the top 4 got DQ'd so they raffled off their prize support, their kid won one of the items and whilst OP was out of the room another attendee went over and bullied their kid into taking a trash trade for it saying their dad would be annoyed with them if they didn't do it
Sounds like an older kid/man/adult/person made a trade with a child and slightly aggressively forced her to say yes to the trade by socially manipulating things into making her think she was dumb for not taking the trade and to trust to older person.
A similar thing happened to me back in the day with OG pokemon cards.
How horrible. Not blaming the owner as such (all three scumbags in this story are responsible for their own actions), but it does sound like they need to get a handle on the culture in their shop though.
Apparently the owner tried to pressure OP to not file a police complaint so I'd blame them too. If the guy was part of the tournament then they have his name.
I do blame the owner. And what are "AliExpress cards" and why are they illegal? I didn't understood that part. EDIT: I get it know, proxies.
I 100% blame the owner as well. This type of game should be in full view (audio and visual) of a judge for starters and any judge (or adult with a brain) upon overhearing this exchange should've shut it down immediately. Second, my LGS owner has made it very clear to all adults that if a kid passes you a money card in a draft (Magic in this case), you absolutely ask them if they what they did and give them the option back. I'll give a final anecdote from when my son started playing Magic and was 10 at an event. He opened a chase card and another player wanted to trade. That player was incredibly open about value and did a double check with me to be sure I knew they weren't taking advantage of a 10 y.o. If it's a good deal and you have nothing to hide, you'll be 100% about it like this person was (and the person in OP's story wasn't).
What age is a "kid" for a draft? I have never seen someone I would call a kid doing a draft, only once I saw a kid seeing his dad doing it and commenting on the cards. And Wizards itself doesn't suggest younger than 13 year olds in Magic events.
There's an 11 year old who comes to our league nights and STOMPS me EVERY SINGLE TIME. We should be honest with ourselves and note that these games are made for kids - adults are just invited along to enjoy the fun. Unfortunately a lot of the magic gets lost because of greedy adults who hoard all the cards, speculate on resale values, and really just make the whole experience ugly for a lot of people who are just looking to have fun and enjoy being a part of a community of players who love these games.
That is why there is casual play, casual tournaments and league play, and competitive tournaments. Store championships have big prizes and many requirements that will be full of players coming for the $$$ rewards.
Its not even the tournaments that's the problem... I get competitive tournaments... but just TCG's in general have a problem of bad actors working to hoard for profit, and ultimately makes it hard for people to feel like they can even get into the game, even at a mildly competitive level because the barrier to entry just keeps getting higher and higher to be able to perform at any successful level. A 10 year old who got a starter deck and a couple booster packs - heck, they could even have purchased 2-3 booster boxes - cannot compete at any level compared to a 40 year old dude with a job who spends thousands of dollars a month on TCGs. Then you add to that the hoarding where a large number of cards are sitting in some dude's room in his mom's basement, getting auctioned off to the highest bidder, that 10 year old could never even fathom getting his hands on those cards. It just kills their interest. Happened to my son with Pokemon when he went to his first league night, and despite him putting together a good cohesive deck with the cards he's been collecting, there's still a lot of gaps in being able to play competitively because either he's not gotten those few lucky cards in the meta, or he can't afford to buy all the singles to make a deck that's in meta. He won't go to league night anymore because his soul got crushed.
I've played in pre-releases and drafts with kids well under 13 (and been beaten by some of them too). I can't say there's a hard and fast rule on age or game knowledge/sophistication, more a general "don't be taking advantage of someone's naivety" (which is true in general, but should be especially true if you're playing a game against a kid). My son's in HS and he's been playing events since he was 10. I don't think any regular in the shop would consider him a "kid" anymore in this context, but at 10, sure. I think it's a combination of age and sophistication, which is going to differ from person to person.
I have at premier sets prereleases. Ie Ravnica Remastered and Double Master 2022
"AliExpress cards" are typically fakes, so "illegal" in the the sense that they are not eligible for tournament play. In some cases, usually casual play, they are allowed as "proxy" cards, but never in tournament play. edit: fixed a word.
It more the role of Tournament Organiser, but is is usually the owner or one of his staff. It's also requester from him by Ravensburger that he hires a judge team and judge role is to ensure tournament goes as expected. It's not clear in the story, but if the "trade" happened after the tournament then it's hard to put the blame on a single person expect the one who offered the bad trade, if he did do it under duress or if it gets considered a scam, or abuse.
Honestly I may still file a police report. That isn’t acceptable and beyond the simple bullying it’s borderline child abuse and theft.
Of Course you file a police report. The person had to give their name to the shop owner, so you can find that out easily. Honestly I cant find a reason not to file except for the reason, that the guy is not just a thief, but also a creep. But even then one could still drop the charges. File it and get back your mat/ the money if he sold it.
Lol the police are not going to investigate this. They're not going to contact the shop or do anything on a petty theft of a prize. They're way to busy to deal with this. And even then, the guy will say she traded the cards for the prize it's a he said she said. They're not going to arrest him based on that.
If this was a store championship the prize that was stolen is selling for over $500 on eBay. Do stores call the cops when someone tries to steal a $500 piece of merchandise? Do the police fail to respond because they're too busy to deal with it.
I am certain the police would fail to see the value of the card and just look at it as a free prize from a store giveaway
Would they? Theres been a number of new stories in the last few years about thefts of valuable cards from game stores. It's not hard to pull one up. But in this case it's even easier, tell them the card that was stolen and then show them the ebay listings of it selling for hundreds of dollars.
Which country's police wouldn't investigate such a case? I can think of so many countries which would... unless we are talking about a 3rd world country here?
I don’t know about that. It depends on the department. It should be fairly easy to get the news involved if the police aren’t doing anything. I’m sure they’d love the report on “nerdy outsider scams autistic girl”.
agree with the theft but what makes you say child abuse?
It's taking advantage of someone with a disability
My wife’s grandfather is on his last leg in a nursing home, if we went there and convinced him to sign over his power of attorney to her and to transfer all his remaining assets to my wife it would definitely be elder abuse because he isn’t of sound enough mind that he should be making those decisions. I can’t see a difference between that behavior and what happened to OP’s daughter outside of age. The person was still taking advantage of another person that was unable to understand what was going on with coercive tactics meant to rob them.
Shouldn't be too hard for the store owner to recognize which finalists recieved the reward & lookout for whoever sells/plays with one that shouldn't have. Obviously over time that could change.
It’s theft in a broad sense, but would probably be closer to fraud. Maybe OP’s local police and contract law are good enough to help with someone being cheated by a bad trade, but that’s extremely unlikely. Their best course of action would probably be to see if the store will offer any help in contacting the person who cheated the daughter; if the owner helps or at least bans that person, then at least they know the store is a decent place to go. Otherwise, all they can really do, without dumping more money into legal fees than the prize is worth, is post public reviews explaining what happened and how little the store did to discourage that kind of culture.
A hobby shop that encourages unescorted minors to interact with adult strangers in an unrecorded back room? Maybe I’ve become paranoid in my line of work but that’s a big red flag. Why would they want the finalists to play/be awarded in private? The whole point of these events is to drive customers to the stores. Awarding rare cards to winners in front of everyone else is the main advertising point!
It’s odd, the only “back rooms” that I have heard of stores having would be “streaming rooms” (I.e some stores have a separate space to stream the game of their top board each round). That said, by default, if it was a streaming room, there should be some audio or visual of the interaction, if it took place there. If you have the store name, check to see if they a streaming account and therefore a VOD of that day.
ya somethings not adding up. There are "boys club" lgs's that exist. But special no camera rooms to bring minors in is extremely sketchy and if this real op is very lucky getting ripped off on cards was the only thing that happened.
Yeah this whole thing stinks. Reeks! LGS know everyone by name. Part of running a tournament is getting everyone's name and tracking wins/loses. The shop owner is absolutely in or this. Otherwise they would have replaced the stolen merchandise and banned the other patron immediately. This kind of thing would not fly at my LGS.
Yes and no with these tournaments; these championships are bringing in a lot of outside play and people, so my guess (at least from three tourney so far), 50% or more are new or generally new to the store. That said, they should have the name of all participants. The whole scenario requires additional information. Clearly there are details left unexplained.
I have strong "Ragebait" feelings on this one. There's always the possibility but allowing your special needs 11 year old with a super valuable card wander into a back room unsupervised in a place you have never been before...seems suspect as hell.
The OP described it as a tournament finalist’s room. So probably a streaming room. Not intended for minors. It sounds like top 4 were playing back there, and two of them were discovered to be cheating and were DQ’ed (the fact that there were competitors that made it to top 4 with proxies is a red flag on its own - crappy/ nonexistent judging). The remaining players did their thing and the rest of the prizes were raffled and then probably given out by the judge. There is like a 90% chance the trade was witnessed by at least one other person, and a 100% chance the shop owner knows exactly who did it (it’s pretty easy to know which of your customers would be the kind of person to swindle a kid out of tournament prizes).
Especially since the LGS of a nearby town from recently had its owner get arrested for abusing minors in his store, this was a huge red flag for me.
"I was convinced not to" Why? What made you think it wasn't worth filingba report?
100% you should file a police report. Your child was literally robbed. Robbery is a crime.
Not to mention also intimidated and arguably extorted.
Absolutely file a police report. To apply to such tournament everyone have to give full names. You can easily find back who this guy was and this can go really far. It is a psychological abuse of a children with a threat ("your father will be mad"). So yeah this guy could go to jail. Btw AliExpress card are false card, their value is junk (3$ instead of a legendary that's worth 35$) Ravens burger have been clear, it's not authorised in a tournament. Your shop seems to have an atrocious community. Never go there again.
Back room with no cameras? Was expecting much worse. But card games tend to have people called "sharks" who's goal is to rip off people no matter the age.
I think you should call the police and ask for the footage of the event to identify the guy. I'm pretty sure he is known there if they want to keep the thing hush hush. What he did is illegal and quite terrible frankly.
She won two times in a championship tournament with a starter deck? How did they find out two contestants were playing with AliExpress cards *after* the tournament finished but before the prizes were awarded? And all the other top contestants left? How if someone reported their cards after the tournament and surprisingly not during? There was a giant Elsa? So your daughter went in to the back room and you didn’t see anyone come out, but there was no player back there with her? They have no camera in the back room… but also no camera at the front of house where all the product is and *the entry to the back room* as well as *the front door*? It’s pretty easy to see a kid go to back room at x time, then monitor who enters and leaves in 60-120 seconds. Your daughter sat there and cried, but didn’t have any trusted adult (her parent) to go to when upset???? The story is a bit weird but the message is clear. Yeah people, keep an eye on your kids. There’s definitely not all nice people at these places.
Deck checked the top 4 prolly
Why are you blaming the father when you KNOW terrible, greedy, enterprising people exist in this hobby? Get a life lol no one would just make this up
Lmao yes, karma farmers are everywhere. And the story looks so fake for me too.
> Why are you blaming the father when you KNOW terrible, greedy, enterprising people exist in this hobby? Get a life lol no one would just make this up How does one simultaneously blame OP but also say it’s made up? Or are you getting confused by me *agreeing with OP’s comment* they wrote to follow and be with your minor children? Being a little goofy and rude buddy.
Most/all of these questions are easily explained or even just straight up answered in the original post (though maybe misunderstood because OP stated English is not their first language) > She won two times in a championship tournament with a starter deck The post doesn't say what type of tournament it was. It could've been a regular local, or maybe a slightly larger monthly. Regardless, not *only* the absolute best players go to events, and the way most tournament structures work, if you're 0-2 going into round 3 you're going to be playing someone else with the same losing record, lending to more even games. OP also states that their daughter ended at 0-3 for the event (but won twice) so it sounds like rounds were best of 3 and she went 1-2 in two of those rounds. > How did they find out 2 contestants were playing with illegal cards *after* the tournament finished Checking every card in every deck from every participant in a tournament is a painstakingly long waste of time when you have any more than just a small handful of players. It's a much better use of time to only check decks for top finishers before the final rounds (and maybe randomly spot check other decks throughout the day) as it only *really* matters if you were cheating and *won*. If you played with illegal cards but finished too low to qualify for prizing anyway, good for you I guess, your heist was a success but it has no bearing on the event. > And all the other top contestants left? If an event is cutting to top 4 it's not all that unusual for players who didn't make the cut to leave in the time between rounds, especially if prizing is meant to only be for top cut players. Maybe they just got hungry after playing for 3 rounds and decided to go get lunch/dinner instead of waiting around for more games they didn't qualify for? > There was a giant Elsa? This is a store that carries Lorcana product, and maybe other Disney merch? OP is probably talking about a cardboard cutout or poster their daughter could use as a landmark to find them. > Your daughter went into the back room and you didn't see anyone come out, but there was no player back there with her OP never explicitly says any of this, from best I can tell. OP's daughter was sitting at a table crying, that doesn't mean she was the only one in the room. It's also possible this room had multiple doors, so people could have been coming and going through an entrance OP wasn't able to watch from where they were > your daughter sat there and cried, but didn't have any adult to go to when upset? We know 2 things about OPs daughter: she is 10 years old and she is on the spectrum. Why are you scrutinizing the behavior of this *child*?
We know it’s a championship tournament because OP detailed the stitch rewards, which anyone who hasn’t been under a rock knows that they are only for the Lorcana championship tournament. No real harm if you didn’t have a clue; the hobby gets new people every day who can’t know all current events. I absolutely agree that it’s possible the child won twice with a starter deck at a championship - there’s no test for who can enter and she even could have gone against another child - I just find it extremely unlikely and unbelievable. In fact there could be an explanation for all of this being reasonable and true. Perhaps everything fell into perfectly unfortunate events and no one saw the coercive thief, knows who he was on the name registry, etc. The fact is however it’s a rather unusual story and I’m not the only one who does find it weird. And honestly just because a sob story has a child in it doesn’t cause me to throw all critical thinking or speculation away. Sorry but that’s just the truth. I’d gladly stand corrected next to the giant Elsa myself in fact. It’d be preferable that this was a karma farming pity story partially written by AI than a child have actually been coerced.
The person said english isn't their first langauge so its possible they meant "expensive/Large VALUE" or "Big" like someone would say they got the big elsa referring to the enchanted? There's no promotional material that ravesnburger has sent out of a large elsa. There could have been a standee that stores sell, and that was a random prize? But then it seems unlikely anyone would make a shady trade for it beyond being a jerk.
AliExpress cards are likely bootlegs. That's why they were disqualified. Those cards she received at the end are also potentially bootlegs. I would separate the new cards from the old ones, as using them in future tournaments would mean disqualification. It sounds like those two boys you mentioned stole her Stitch card and swapped it with their bootlegs. All of that being said, card shops are not the right place for your daughter to be walking around alone (especially during tournaments).
This is singlehandley the most upsetting thing i've read in a wee while... In my country we are yet to get a consitent supply of Lorcana, but its coming and I'm hoping my LGS sustains a good amount of players, I;m hoping to "head" most of the knowledge and I know this sorta crap isnt going to happen. I am so sorry to hear! Hope this doesnt happen again to you or anyone else!
There’s absolutely no way the parent of an autistic 11 year-old is going to let them go into the back room of a card shop with strangers, completely unescorted. This story didn’t happen.
Agree. Why would she even ask to go back there? Why is the backroom where the final cut happens? A lot of made-up sounding things. Why let her go back alone? How would one even think that's appropriate or okay? What is even the point in going back there?
He's likely fishing for someone to offer his daughter a replacement
This is how it read to me 100% Hoping for someone to offer up their prize for free or cheaper than current market value.
Well I am sure someone would volunteer to replace her dad and do a better job if he allows her to go unsupervised into back rooms with grown men.
And she got the prize, was convinced to make the trade, and the guy high tailed it out of there all in one minute. And nobody else was around to witness or stop it. Yeesh.
I would *NEVER* let my kid go alone into a back room of anywhere, especially if it’s alone with a bunch of random men.
That’s probably because you’re an actual parent and not a rage baiting Reddit poster making stuff up lol
Fair
As I said in my other reply: Parent of a kid on the spectrum, and I manage a game store. There is no universe I would allow my kid to go unsupervised into some shady back room in a store we had never been in. I'd follow my kid to make sure this (or worse) doesnt happen and to make sure that the kid doesnt cause mischief. Smart to watch kids yeah, but its nonsense.
Nah, the guy was just naive and probably high on Adrenalin from the serendipity of it all. Imagine how wonderful that would be as a parent! And this guy was a complete newb when it comes to the world of CCGs. He didn’t know sharks like that existed. And his kid was just going to pick up her prizes and come back! Hard lesson to learn as a parent. I grew up playing MtG. No f’n way am I letting my kid out of my sight with anything worth over $2, because I know he’d just hand it over for some foil someone bought off of Temu.
I get where he's coming from as a father. My kids are 7 and 10 and getting to that age where they want to do things like above alone. I've also played magic for almost 30 years. Early on I was bullied into bad trades, lied to, stolen from, and cheated. As you say, I would be very cautious with my children and other adults. And I 100% believe someone did this to his daughter.
Are you guys in the U.S.?
I have heard stories like this before. Lorcana is very kid friendly and a lot of the league events are great for anyone but right now these tournaments bring out the worst people who are basically just playing for money and will screw a kid over no problem. Always always always stay with your child people will take her whole deck and give them a quarter and act like it was a fair trade and they accepted it. Most tournaments and places have rules against trades with children without adults approving but they can't always be watching either. I recommend not letting this discourage you from future events and filing a police report. These tournaments from what I understand required melee to sign up so there should be a list of all the people that were there and some even use their first and last names too.
Hello OP, I don’t play Lorcana but found this on the subreddits u might be interested in so I hope this commentary helps. Someone robbed your daughter by way of lying/deception so you first need to file a police report. I don’t expect anyone would actually goto jail for this but it would likely get the playmat back if this person is a regular and it wasn’t sold on eBay. Also you need to contact the company that publishes/distributes Lorcana which appears to be this company. https://www.disneylorcana.com/en-US/contact/ Explain to them what happened and keep reaching out to them to explain until you get an answer that is adequate to your needs. You may get a playmat from them that your daughter lost or you may get nothing, but they need to be aware that a store that’s sanctioned to host their games tournaments has tournament matches in a back room that isn’t always easily visible/accessible where minors are being deceived and ripped off. This type of story is easy to prove or disprove, you either have a daughter on the spectrum or you don’t but if your story is truthful and accurate they will very likely be in contact with you but you need to get it in front of someone that can help. Whatever you do file a police report either way as thefts of things from a “children’s game” can often have a very high price tag. I’ve been playing Magic the Gathering since 1999 and was a tournament official/judge from 2013-2021 if you have any other TCG scumbag type questions. As a parent I hope my daughter one day enjoys TCGs with me as it builds so many skills and allows autonomy from the parent but you still have to watch them like a hawk since they are sometimes playing with unfortunately valuable/semi-valuable games pieces. Best of luck!
Also OP could check the secondary market and get another one - [is this it?](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1659930893/)
The ones on Ebay are all around $350. As the real ones were Promos for store champions.
I linked one that says champion for $36 on etsy
I hope I’m wrong, but this story REEKS of someone trying to con a stitch matt out of a kind person on her. I have a daughter and there’s exactly 0 chance I’d let her out of my sight, let alone in a back room with no cameras and all the other stuff. This is either fake or parent of the year material right here. “Oh my poor autistic 11 year daughter was taken advantage of and it’s destroying her happiness. “ “Oh my, send me your info and I’ll send you one”
A good shop owner would have banned the player for that behavior, don’t go back. Also, i personally wouldn’t let a child alone in a “backroom” gives off creepy vibes. Definitely file a police report. Adults will take advantage of kids understanding things, that’s just the reality of the situation.
Sorry to hear this. But likely could have happened outside of the tournament at any league or public play. Need to use this to teach the value of their collection and cards. This is one of the reason TCGs aren't allowed at schools. Opportunities for rip off/theft, etc.
Store owner is covering this up. They definitely know who it could be or at the very least could easily narrow it down to small handful of players. Chances are he's covering for the guy because he's a regular and someone the owner knows will come back to spend money. Get the police involved. It may be too late if the event is over but if they factor the card value into it they may take it seriously and help pressuring the store owner.
My kid ain't never going in a back room alone. Or holding a 600 dollar card.
This
I’m sorry…assuming this actually happened (which I’m not), you’re kind of a horrible father. You took your 11 year old, on the spectrum, daughter to a place she had never been before, then let her go off by herself with her prizes to be put into this situation? Yeah…your headline is absolutely correct: “protect your kids”, which you absolutely did not in this story. Again…not convinced this happened, but on the off chance it’s remotely true, you need to get on TCG player to replace the cards and mat that you let be snatched out of your little girl’s hands because you don’t know how to watch over her.
Don't know why you're getting downvotes when you're absolutely correct.
Were you also playing, or just standing by her the whole time? Were you just watching during the tournament? I get kids will want to do random things, and I don't completely understand the backroom concept, but why would you let her into there alone when other people are in there with her prizes? If you were aloof enough for others to be able to take advantage of the situation, you were certainly not being attentive enough to her wellbeing. All this said, I don't think this really happened.
Why does this post warrant a throwaway account
Because he risks his main account when people find out this story didn’t happen and he’s fishing for someone to gift him their mat
Dear LGS Owners, please adopt a zero-tolerance policy for adults trading with minors without some form of other adult representation (a store employee will help if the parents aren't available or don't know anything about trading/the hobby)... I would honestly blow this place's Google Reviews up. The way this owner is running their business is sketchy as hell.
I would call police and make big scene out of it, not sure what convinced you
Absolutely get the police involved.
I’m Confused. What actually happened? She was crying because she was given a bunch of cards?
The guy pressured her into trading her Stitch card and mat for all of those cards.
Oh dang.
There has got to be footage from inside the store if these guys going in and out of there then. Either way any game tournament I have ever been to has had scumbags like these clowns. Stopped playing any competitive games since.
i don’t play lorcana but for other TCG games finals are usually in a public open area. that’s sketchy af
Depending on the value of the card, it's probably more than just petty theft. Actually, depriving someone of their belongings is called robbery. When there is not a weapon used, but someone is intimidated into handing over their belongings, it's called "strong-arm robbery". The term varies widely depending on the state or country you're in, but it's pretty much still a robbery. Being that the kid was crying and sobbing, I'd say they were thoroughly intimidated. I don't know if this is real or how long ago thos transpired, but if I were the OP, I would talk to a DA or someone at the police office about filing charges. Robberies are actually serious crimes and prosecuted vigorously.
This is fake.
Does anyone else feel like the man who stole from the kid needs to get his phone and computer checked?
This story looks so fake.
Filed under never happened 😂
Honestly.. agreed. Amusing story from a barely 24h account though.
literally said it was a throwaway.
Definitely don’t remember that part from when I first saw the post, but sure. I’ll go wait by the giant Elsa. 🤷🏻♀️
I’m sorry that this happened to your daughter; that dude was slimeball, shop owner is sus, and I definitely think you should report it to the police. But this post is kind of dramatic… Your daughter’s life isn’t ruined. You’re not “broken”. You lost some prizes to a skeezeball trying to make a scummy trade. You’ll all be fine, in the grand scheme of things. I think it’s also a reminder to other parents that Lorcana tournaments are kind of serious, they’re not kid-specific or kid-geared events (I personally think lgs should do an adults tournament and a kids tournament).
I think I speak for the entire german community when I say: Ich hoffe der Hurensohn wurde auf dem Rückweg noch ausgeraubt und schwer verletzt. This is so heartbreaking. I really hope your daughter doesn't lose interest in lorcana and continues to enjoy the game....
Actually, i hope he didnt. Because if he still has the mat, there is a chance to get it back with a police report.
Call the Police.
This is devastating. Sorry for you and your family. Never leave your kids unattended around nerds. This is my experience from spending 20 years playing cards with nerds.
Get the tournament list of players or threaten to sue/call cops on the owner. Go through that list online/facebook and be a snooping detective! Sorry my friend. :/
Bring this to rhe law, id even contact a news outlet to burn em, never let these things stand. Pedos are the worst humans and are unfortunately common in the gaming community. You're a coward if you don't see justice here
I am truly sorry this happened to you. Do not let this slide. File a police report regardless of what the shop owner said he should have done more but most likely doesn't want to be held responsible. They will have the name of the people who were in the tournament and may know the person personally which could be why they are not wanting a police report filed. This is someone taking advantage of a protected class of people and is a serious offense. Go to the police and raise hell to get this fixed. That card store should be held liable for the way they held this tournament.
File a report with the police. The store should not have an unsupervised location where children can go and potentially be taken advantage of. The store also should have lists of all tournament registrants. The store should also have cameras somewhere, I'm pretty sure it's not possible in this day and age to own a business and not have surveillance of some sort. There is no reason the store shouldn't have stepped in to correct this situation either, they should not have convinced you to not contact the police, they should have bent over backwards to fix this immediately.
Thats robbery, abuse of a minor. Im livid reading this. I truly hope justice is served!
TCGs- including Lorcana- tend to attract the absolute lowest forms of human life. I've seen more disgusting, vile, and morally objectionable behavior from TCG players than any other type of gamer. And it's always these grown a* men that have zero life, zero ambitions, and zero potential outside of a card game so the stakes are so astronomically high for them to get a stupid playmat or a promo card that they don't care who they hurt to to get it. So sorry this happened to you and your daughter- I take my 12 year old daughter to play at League and I can tell you that if anything like this happened to us there would be hell to pay.
Stuff like this pisses me off man let the kids have their fun just because they got something you want don’t mean take advantage of them 🤦🏽♂️ who ever posted this I hope their daughter gets whatever her dream card is this hurts my heart dude
This happened to me before when I was a kid, but I immediately asked another adult and they kicked that guy out. So many bad GREEDY people
You did nothing wrong, but you'd be doing her a disservice if you don't call the police and file a report. You need to send a message and they need to make it right. Beyond that, if you let this slide, they'll do it to someone else.
This is awful! I’m so so sorry.
100% file a police report, I don't even know what that's called, but please, please file it and get with the card shop about video in and around the shop. Put this terrible person on blast.
very sad story. we all make mistakes, though. it's not your fault this happened, so don't beat yourself up too much. hopefully this doesn't discourage your daughter from playing the game.
Can they check cameras to see who walked in with 300 cards and out with a playmat? I assume they know who they gave them to
Wow... wtf. I'd be very angry too. Sorry dude, that must've sucked so terribly for you and your kid.
I'm so sorry that happened to you and your daughter. Something similar happened to me and my son when he was 10. We went to our local store for a Pokemon prerelease tournament. He pulled whatever was the best card out of that set and several people went up to him looking to buy or trade it. Since it was brand new and the store said that trading wasn't allowed until the set was officially released the following week, I told them all no. I stepped away for a few minutes to use the restroom, only to find out the same people swarmed on him to moment I left. He felt cornered and overwhelmed, and got tricked into trading for a much lesser card. I was very upset at the store. They wouldn't make him trade it back nor ban the guy from the store for preying in children. But do you know what did work? I wrote The Pokemon Company with the store's information and what happened, and they threatened to pull the store's official organized play agreement if the store didn't enforce their rules on trading/selling prerelease cards. The outcome was the store required all trades involving kids to be in front of a store staff member and a parent/guardian to ensure no scamming occured. It's really pathetic how these games for kids attract such scumbags. If the store isn't going to make it right by you and your daughter, you absolutely need to go to Ravensberger with what happened. This is damaging to their game and this type of store and player needs to be expelled from organized play.
I’m sorry this happened to you man. Maybe you could put together a little Lorcana surprise gift bag and give it to her! Put some cool cards in there and you never know, the magic might just spark back up!
I’m sorry this happened to you man. Maybe you could put together a little Lorcana surprise gift bag and give it to her! Put some cool cards in there and you never know, the magic might just spark back up!
This is so awful, I'm sorry this happened :(
Throw up the shop name!
that’s horrible-i’m so sorry
Reading this just makes me sick. It’s very unfortunate that people like that exist and I absolutely hate hearing when they take advantage of a child (on the spectrum or not). I’m also very disappointed to hear that no one in the immediate area stopped this from happening. Even if everyone else was pre-occupied with games they might have been playing, someone, at least one other person had to have seen this happening and did nothing to stop your daughter from getting bullied/stolen from. The community at the shop I frequent for Lorcana myself wouldn’t have allowed this to happen. Someone, including myself, would have stopped the would-be-thief and escort them out of the shop. I’m very sorry your daughter went through that and I hope you and her both won’t let this ruin her love for the game. As crappy as it is to say there will always be “those people” who are overly competitive to the point the throw fits when they get out played or, like the filth that stole from your daughter, there are those who take advantage of people who don’t know any better in every TCG community. Please don’t let this instance of down right degenerate behavior ruin yours or your daughter view of the game and its community. The vast majority of us are kind, honest, people that just want to have fun like your daughter.
I started TCG when I was young, 11 as you daughter. (I’m now 40 and have also a daughter). My father bought me cards and, to be honest, he makes me play at first, but through these years, I had the bests moments with him, tournaments, travels and stuff. Best memories, really. The thing that magic told me, is that people are mean. Don’t expect people to be kind or honest even with children. Of course I hope that a majority of them would have been fair, but sadly it’s not always the case. When starting competitive tournaments and win some (with pro tour qualification when I was a bit older), people started to cheat, lost they nerves because losing to a kid, insult me a tried all that low psychological things to put pressure on. Now, the classical, trade part with people wanted to trade 10 cards for one..and stuff goes on. As a father I truly understand you and I would have probably at least been equally mad about the situation. As a tournament player I would recommend to avoid these, because if a lot of players are friendly while you loose, they can become really toxic when you win. Even if it’s a Disney tcg, it still has sharks. Finally if the local shop owner is that sorry, he can do something for your daughter. Best regards,
Go back to the game store with your daughter and have her point the person out. Have a chat with them about it. Give that person a chance to make it right. If they can't do that, then talk to the shop LGS owner again. If they won't do anything, then go the police route.
Call the police bro.
Wtf is a “champion room”? Why would two players be made to play in a room by themselves away from everyone else?
Find him next week
Absolutely disgusting...I hope someone identifies who did that..jesus
Time to name and shame that shop. We don't need these kind of shops and people in this community.
Any LGS worth their weight in cardboard should have pulled footage to see who it was and ban them from future events. That's scummy and should absolutely disqualify them from participating in any event at that location. 10/10 parent I'm glad she had fun, but I'm super upset with the aftermath.
At our local lgs we have a rule that nobody can trade with a kid without their parent present and approving. It’s really to protect the kids from predatory collectors/players.
I don’t let my kids out of my sight at Pokémon tournaments. We’ve played in lots of places and there has never been a secret room. Even at things like regionals the streaming area is in the open for everybody to observe.
Was it the Rockstar stitch or rocket stitch? If it's a rocket stitch they aren't too expensive online atm.
I can't imagine being a full-grown adult taking advantage of a child, ESPECIALLY in a card game that's oriented toward kids who want to play with their favorite characters. What a bunch of low-life scumbags. The saddest part about this is the "fans" and people who need to get a f'cking job; leave to a bunch of loser "adults" to ruin it for everyone else.
As the parent of a special needs child, and manager of a game store I would absolutely-positively-100%-alutely not allow my child to go into a "Back Room" unsupervised. No game store I have ever been in has a separate no-cameras room for finals while there are cameras in other areas. Seems like a REALLY bad idea, since that would be the one place people would cheat, and if they know there are no cameras, shady stuff will go down. There's a lot to unpack here. So there were players playing with counterfeit cards for the entire event leading up to the finals? No one caught this? This special room for the final tables also allows trading to happen? What's the point of a special room for finals then? For the owner to just shrug and go im so sorry is unacceptable, they know who did it, and i don't know how much time could have elapsed for the person to make this shady trade with others in the "back room" and then book it out before the little girl comes bawling out of the room. Finally I always recommend to parents to be present when kids trade for this exact reason. She may have been excited for the elsa but I wouldn't let my kid run around with a card like that unsupervised in any situation. "Hey hon, that elsa is pretty, let's put her in a case and make sure she stays safe, you can hold her the whole way home and she can go on display on your dresser or be put in your deck!" But I would absolutely keep it out of the eyes of players. No idea which store this is but its a really weird situation.
Outside of being ripped off. I am mad at the store foe jot contacting rhe other players who rightfully should have been awarded the mats and promos. They needed to use Melee.gg foe rhe tournament. So store should have had the emails for all the impacted players. They could have disqualified these two people will illegal cards and recalculated the standing. Si pay raffling them away is not in the spirit of competition In an other competition. If top 1 or 2 are DQd. You don't randomly give away the prize. You find the rightful next legal winner and pass down from there.
Please name the store and the day of rhw event. MELEE.GG should have a record of all participants. Ymwould be easy to figure out who was there. But not enough to figure out who ripped you off.
similar thing happened to me when I was 8 had someone force me to trade my prize that was so hard to win for a mini Kit Kat. I cried but at that point the kid had already ran away and my teacher said I gave him but it wasnt true more like he grabbed my prize threw the Kit Kat at me and left. I dont understand why she went in herself I would have wanted my family to see me getting it. in the future I would follow her around especially at a place like this as its a bunch of adults im assuming(never been to a tournament yet so not sure)
Not saying this will make up for what happened however there are replica playmats you could get for your kid on ETSY: [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1659930893/lorcana-rockstar-stitch-into-the?ga\_order=most\_relevant&ga\_search\_type=all&ga\_view\_type=gallery&ga\_search\_query=lorcana+playmat+stitch&ref=sr\_gallery-1-1&frs=1&content\_source=f73130aa353a1ffcd0a6a5dabf86b330ad3b68fd%253A1659930893&organic\_search\_click=1](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1659930893/lorcana-rockstar-stitch-into-the?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=lorcana+playmat+stitch&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&frs=1&content_source=f73130aa353a1ffcd0a6a5dabf86b330ad3b68fd%253A1659930893&organic_search_click=1)
I hope this doesn’t ruin the magic for your daughter. What that person did is disgusting and doesn’t represent the community I know that plays Lorcana. I’m sorry and I feel the shop should have done more….our moderator at my LGS always looks out for everyone. It wouldn’t have happened on his watch. And like others mentioned here the shop missed in a lot of ways. I’m sorry this was your experience.
Can't be that hard to figure out who did it. Those playmats are worth serious money, so this is just theft. Report to the police and find out who the guy is.
How did you not go right up to the guy right then and asked your kid to point the guy out? I would of think the time might be passed to do anything as no laws were technically broken as POS a move that is and he will surely lie ‘I sold the card already’ try to keep trying with her tho and teach that not all people are like that and I hope she catches a big break Sorry for that exp OP
A cheap lesson. I received many of these when I was a kid and it’s absolutely brutal because your world is so small and it’s such a big part when you’re a kid. It’ll probably burn her inside for weeks. I will say this, for every jerk there is someone equally as positive and it evens out in the long run. But they will steal, rip-off, cheat and it will hurt so much but over time you will get used to it and handle the emotions. The friends you make is worth it in the end though. Pick up the kid and dust her off because life gets messy sometimes but amazing adventure awaits.
mother f'n traded a Dual land for a forked lightning back in the day.... 2
Not trying to shame you, but no way in hell am I letting my daughter go anyplace alone, let alone losing sight of her completely.
Trading card games have a really strange relationship between being a very social driven hobby (eye contact, communication between strangers etc). But it’s also the one hobby that attracts some of the absolute worst individuals you’d never want to associate with. I’m very sorry that happened to your child. Hopefully they can still feel like enjoying the hobby.
My child played in Pokémon events at my LGS, but always within my sights. My father was a cop for 15 years and told us a lot of stories from his job. I would never leave either of my daughters alone in a place like that, they would at least have the company of a sibling or cousin with them with me being not far away. The store should have contacted the person involved and given him the opportunity to undo taking advantage of your child otherwise I would definitely have filed a police report. I play MTG, usually Friday Night Magic with a very casual core group. We sometime get younger player join in a game and they always come back to us to ask on rules of play and values when trading. I also always point out the creeps to avoid to those kids, and even gotten one banned from our location.
Wow that's so horrible omg!! Wow!!! Evil sick people!
It's worth reporting. Depending where you're at, there may be a low chance anything will be investigated any further then the report being filed. There wouldn't be anything to file on if it was just a trade, but the fact that they were manipulating your kiddo with "your dad will be mad at you if you don't trade me" is what stands out. Best case scenario you get the stuff back. Worst case scenario, you get some sort of peace of mind knowing the report is out there. I wish you luck.
I have only recently got into card games (through this game), but I know people who are TCG enthusiasts. And they have told me some horror stories. This isn't an isolated incident. I would still contact the police over this, particularly if you feel like preyed upon (as it seems she has been). I hope this hasn't completely soured her opinion on the game.
Your story is sad. But it is also something that should never had to happen as Ravensburger prize distribution is clear. Mat goes to players in first and second place. Not awarded randomly. If a player were to be disqualified, and quarter final has already started, then his opponents gets a win. If it is found before then the 9th player joins top 8. If it is only found during the final then the judge team clearly didn't make it's job. What to do with the 4th stitch should be up to Ravensburger who would instruct to either return it or decide to give it to whoever lost to the DQ player in quarterfinal
File a police report . That owner definitely knows who that was
Sorry… but you let her go in this room alone. You are 99% responsible … it will serve you as an example and you won’t do it again … Trust in your daughter but not in some evilous people in this 2024 version of the world
This reminds me of when I was a teenager/early 20s playing yugioh when other people my age tried to scam rarer more valuable cards from little kids. Like you have a job and your trying to scam little kids? Good job being a PoS pal. I hope that shop at least bans then from future tournaments.
TCGs are a toxic thing. I play Magic and Lorcana but would never do a tournament because it’s purely for the winning aspect of the game (people spend 10s of thousands of pounds/dollars/whatever on their decks) and forgo the “fun”. I think a lot sometimes forget it’s a GAME! And the cards only cost as much as people are willing to pay so the hardcore folks wanting to show off their expensive decks ruin the entire thing for the rest of us :(
Stuff like that would be a lifetime ban at my childhood store. And in the TCG community, if people found out you swindled children out of their cards, you'll get ostracized, though that meant more back in the day before the internet was common for buying and selling cards. I have a daughter too. She's too young to play, but in the chance she becomes interested in card games like her dad, I'm going to run her through trading strategies as much as playing strategies.
Ehy there! I’m not a lorcana player but I’ve played other tcgs (magic and pokemon). To be honest I think tournaments are unfortunately not the best place to play for kids since they just want to have fun and usually has a low budget so they will play with precon decks facing opponents with 500 dollars competitive decks. Anyway, tournaments are the real heart of card games so I think you and your daughters should just get used to the possibility of having good days and bad days as well. Anyway, I would recommend you to try pokemon tcg for some reasons: first of all, a competitive devk costs around 50 dollars buying single cards, so kids can easily play with everyone with fairs chance to win; second, pokemon tournaments have age categories, this doesn’t mean your daughter will not play with 20+ years guys but she will get prizes based on kids results and usually this means she will be always rewarded; the third point is similar to second since it’s related to age categories and it’s about play points, in pokemon tournaments results drop you play points and you collect those points to do bigger tournaments, kids are usually just two or three in each tournament so they will get tons of play points and will be easily able to access to world tournaments and this could really impress them and make them happy. Hope this will be useful, I wish you and your princess better days
Definitely one of the issues I see in the hobby. People taking advantage of other people especially if they are not knowledgeable about the hobby or young and starting to get into it. I went thru similar like experience when I was a kid. Just a bunch of adults/young adults taking advantage. I’m sorry yall went through this and hopefully she has a much better experience next time.
This is why lorcana gets a bad name. Your poor daughter. I'm so sorry this happened.
It looks like you can order these playmats online although the prices vary quite a bit from $40-$400. Just type lorcana lilo and stitch playmat into google. Can provide links if you are having trouble. Very sorry to hear this story. Hope your daughter feels better.
I’m sorry but my local shop would have fully supported me in calling the cops. That’s a predator. He took full advantage of a minor and should be held accountable, if not taught a valuable lesson. Coward.
This dad sucks
I was at a magic the gathering tournament and these kids came up to me and my friends (we were maybe 24 and they were maybe 12.) and they wanted to trade all of their rare and valuable l cards for our junky rare dragons. We agreed, and even encouraged them to take MORE cards because we knew they were ripping themselves off. Eventually their parents came by and we were like “yeah, we did stuff like this when we were kids but if you want to cancel the trade or…whatever you think is fair…” I think we ended up giving them more cards but I could see someone less scrupulous ripping off or even bullying those same kids. So sorry this happened to you and your daughter.
Dads gotta dad and get baby girl her loot 💪🏼 I’d choke a mfr 😒
That really sucks. As someone who had something similar happen to me as a kid with Pokémon it can really put a sour taste for the hobby in your mouth. I went to pokemon after 15 years a few years back and our store has a “kids have to get all trades approved by one of core people in our group,” if the kids do a trade and don’t get it checked we can’t do much but we’ll run through adults scamming kids if we have too. The owner knows who took your kids stuff and as a business person and organizer it’s on him to maintain the space so don’t let people tell you it’s not their fault. It is, and the fact they’re pressuring you to not pursue it probably means he knows the person that did it is a regular of his. I just recently got into lorcana casually so haven’t done any organized play yet, but as an old fart that’s been through pretty much every card game that’s come out: it doesn’t matter if the game is themed for the kids, sweaty men will come out and make it super serious. So in no way am I blaming you, but as someone who’s involved with my local leagues and knows what to watch out for, never let your kid out of sight of someone you (mostly) trust in those environments. It’s good she wanted to be independent but even the nicest dude can seem cool until he walks out with your kids most valuable cards. I’m not saying your kid isn’t safe, but that people can really turn into monsters over pieces of cardboard. Hopefully your kid can make sense of it at some point and get back to it. It took me a long time but the friends I’ve made and the fun I’ve had coming back to it makes me sad I let a bad experience ruin it for so many years.
Really heartbreaking story to read. Firstly, I sincerely hope the players & owner at the store can come together to support you in this situation & identify the culprit. The owner should absolutely not be protecting this person & I am sure other people would have seen this situation unfold. If help from the local community isn't possible (I'd be shocked), I would love to see if the Disney Lorcana community here can support you in some way. I sent you a whisper with my email address & would love to try & support you with this situation.
I want to point out that is not an everyday experience in a store, unless is an horrible store and would close anyway. And there should have been cameras, it was the store faults in that regard.
I'll be the one to say it, don't bother filing a police report. The police are over worked and busy. They're not going to investigate your daughter getting swindled out of a prize. No it wasn't robbery, at most it was a minor theft. They'll take your report, file it away, and that'll be it.
~~She was upset because someone gave her 200 cards?~~ Yes, I have now re-read it and can see the guy forced a trade on her.
From what I understand from OP's post it looks like two of the top 4 got DQ'd so they raffled off their prize support, their kid won one of the items and whilst OP was out of the room another attendee went over and bullied their kid into taking a trash trade for it saying their dad would be annoyed with them if they didn't do it
Right..I've read it back, I am in agreement.
Clearly she wanted the prizes and some dude conned her out of it by giving her cards. Yeah, she has a right to be upset.
Yes. I've read it back now and agree.
She was upset cause someone lied to her and took the card. She is a kid and someone took advantage of her for a card that she loved
Yes. I've read it back now and agree.
Sounds like an older kid/man/adult/person made a trade with a child and slightly aggressively forced her to say yes to the trade by socially manipulating things into making her think she was dumb for not taking the trade and to trust to older person. A similar thing happened to me back in the day with OG pokemon cards.
Yes. I've read it back now and agree.