Subject: Play for second at World's!
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 23:09:31 PDT
From: "John Thompson" <wyrkham@hotmail.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

There has obviously been a lot of discussion recently about how to fix
cheating.  I've personally been cheated by a member of Team Tongo in a
qualifier, but I'm not going to relate that story here.  Everyone knows
that its a cheating team, and I'm sure its not the only team out there
that does it.  Everyone has stories about being cheated.  The real
question is not whether cheating happens, but why.

There's really two parts to the cheating problem.

Problem #1
There is no systematic, enforcible set of rules for judges to apply for
the punishment of mistakes/cheating/infractions.

Possible solution:

You don't need to assume that a player is cheating when he makes a
mistake.  All players make mistakes, better players make fewer of them.
Establish a penalty for having a card for your lap (or not shuffling, or
inaccurate life total).  Don't ask how it got there, don't investigate
it.  Just apply the penalty.  And put the penalty on the players record,
where it should remain for a year.  And if the same player gets caught
in 'infractions' repeatedly, increase the penalties.  This seems
complicated, and unfair to beginning players, but its certainly no more
complicated then the rulings about all the cards that are already in
place.  And if a beginning player makes a mistake, he should be
penalized, whether its a strategy mistake, or a procedural mistake.

Problem 2: The DCI/WotC doesn't care.

This has to be obvious to everyone reading this thread.  WotC is a
business that is trying to make money.  The Pro-Tour generates publicity
and therefore generates money.  All of the carping on the Dojo and the
net doesn't amount to anything compared to the party-line articles in
Duelist and Inquest.  Any attempt to fix the cheating problem carries
with it an admission that cheating occurs.  As long as they can
plausibly deny that there is rampant unpunished cheating on the
Pro-tour, they will never have to fix the problem.

Possible solutions:

#1 Inquest.
As much as all of us laugh at Inquest, and its mediocre deck lists, out
of date strategy articles, etc, etc, it is read by a lot of players, its
influential and most important; it is not owned by WotC. All it will
take is one article in Inquest exposing cheating on the Pro-Tour, and
WotC will be forced to respond.  Please if anyone from Inquest is
reading this, it'll greatly increase your magazines reputation if you
write one serious investigative article about cheating on the pro-tour,
and it just might save competitive magic.

#2 The players have to take a stand.

If the players don't do something about it, the DCI won't either.
Boycott the Pro-Tour.  Don't go to the shows, start a petition, quit the
DCI, do whatever it takes.
Here's an interesting idea:  What if at the World Championships,
everyone refused to play against Mike Long.  They just sit at the table
and concede the match.  Play for second place at the World's.  Its
obvious that the fix is in as far as Mike Long is concerned.  Don't
participate in the charade, just straight up give him the world
championship.  How would Wotc respond to that?  Having to announce that
the entire field refused to play him because he's a cheating asshole and
then having to write him a big fat check.  I doubt it'll happen, but it
would be interesting.

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