I've been on several teams that have won state level ACS Championships and his post rings true. Once Sunday rolls around, it always feels like the only thing they are concerned with is getting out of there. So they are always pushing you to play on as many tables as possible. Teams ALWAYS push back against this to some extent because the WHOLE point of the tournament is that it's a TEAM event, not just a bunch of individual random racks!Agreed, this is a pretty convoluted story. It should have ended here:
"ref told us we have to be playing on 3 tables. He said that he explained the situation and the ref said he didn't care and his word was final"
Just do what the ref says and you don't lose a bunch of money. Was the ref being irrational? In this moment, it doesn't matter.
Sounds like there was minimal push back from these teams. The director was probably just tired out and frustrated, then took it out on the players. What I've heard is the payouts at these events have gone down year after year. At some point the teams don't even care about the money. They are just trying to have a good time and when the tourney crew is pushing them out the door it's NOT a lot of fun.
I'm actually surprised this hasn't blown up previously.