DO NOT JOIN PPL - THEY STAND FOR SANDBAGGERS

Hi! Sharing my suprisingly disappointing experience during the PPL Visayas Open on its first week.

Context: me and my partner are casual players and decided to join PPL Visayas Open as our first tournament away from home, para paiba naman. We registered early under the novice category and I took the time to read their guidelines just to be ready of what to expect from such a big event.

Prior to week 1, it came to our knowledge that people we know also registered under novice category, but can surely pass above the categ -- sandbaggers, ika nga. So I reviewed the guidelines ulit on how to raise this concern, and even search thru the internet of prior experiences from other players. May nakita pa akong post dito regarding PPL Mindanao Open na nagreply ang PPL and I thought responsive naman ang org so might as well raise this concern. I gathered proofs and sent to their team in which they timely responded. Yung napagusapan namin, on the day of tournament na iraise yung protest since valid naman ang petition until the end of elimination round. We all agreed on this.

So tournament day arrived, wala narin kaming update from that said petition and just enjoyed our games and experience, so nagulat nalang ako when I saw those same people we raised petition for posting of finishing podium. Hala! Anyare sa plea? We tried calling PPL for updates pero di na sumasagot yung numbers nila.

So why am I so pressed? Nakakadisappoint kasi yung nangyari for 2 reasons:

1. Deserving "legit" novice players should have won those entitlements had the tournament been fair enough. Shempre mananalo talaga yung sandbaggers, ano ang binatbat ng totoong novice sa multiple low intermediate podium holder? Worse, rigged pa yung DUPR account -- talagang pinababa ng kusa from almost 4.0 para lang makasali sa novice.

2. I thought the org is on the lookout for sandbaggers, need lang nila ng active participation from the community thru valid petitions, pero it turned out, the petitions raised fell to deaf ears

So yun lang. Truly we can't totally eliminate sandbaggers wherever we go, pero it works both ways eh, if the organization would have better screening or maybe better responses to valid petitions filed, sandbaggers would have more difficulty sandbagging.

In addendum, I may conclude from this experience na if neutrality sides the oppressors, non-responsive organizations side with sandbaggers, and that's what happened to PPL Visayas Open.

Yun yung disappointing part tho, the event experience naman is good to be fair 👌🏽but if may concerns tayo on sandbaggers, wag na tayong magexpect hahaha