There has been a bit of chatter on the tubes as of late about tournament organizers playing in their own events.
Stelek over at Yes The Truth Hurts has a very strong opinion on this matter.
Black Matt also ran into this at 'Ard Boys this weekend.
The general consensus from what I have read around the net is that people feel that TO's shouldn't play in their own events. It is okay if they are playing a ringer list in a small tournament, but the organizer shouldn't be in the running for any prizes. In larger events you want the TO to be focused on the event and one of their buddies should be playing the ringer army.
I have ran one tournament - the 2009 World Wide War - and have helped set up and provided support for some local RTTs but I have never ran into the TO playing in the event - it just seems bad form. At the last RTT I went to I brought the ringer army from my collection and let the TO play it as we were one short. Since this was a small friendly affair it wasn't a problem as the TO wasn't constantly needed by the players.
So what do you guys think? Have you ever ran into a situation where the organizer was playing in their own event and is it that big of a deal?