Subject: Re: WotC's LAME TAKE ON LONG CHEATING!
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 11:04:25 -0400
From: Michael Feuell <elf@CIE.CENDANT.COM>

#>When shuffling your deck, at a tournament, have you ever dropped a card and
#>NOT noticed? The typical answer is not usually.
#>When at a major tournament, have you seen someone shuffle their deck and
#>drop a card and not notice? The answer is probably not.
#>When at a PTQ, Pro Tour, or on a Nationals level, would you expect someone
#>to "accidentally" drop or misplace a KEY card in their deck and NOT notice?
#>The answer is an overwhelming no.

Mike Long riffle shuffles with sleeves, he also frequently reverse the
direction of the riffle so as to minimize damage and wear and tear on the
cards and the sleeves. While he is doing these riffles in the reverse
direction, he looks away so that he can't be accused of looking at his deck
while shuffling (which would of course invalidate the shuffle and cause him
to have to shuffle again). While he is looking away, and seeing as how it is
a riffle shuffle with opaque sleeves, it is in fact quite likely that cards
will 'pop'. What is surprising though is that his opponent did not notice
it. Probably cause he was shuffling from the Nat Balance as well.

#>See the flaw in the logic of the obviously biased judges?  A little common
#>sense, deductive reasons, and knowledge (that the fact Shlong has been in
#>trouble in every major tournament in the past year or two) of the past would
#>lead you to a much more appropriate solution.

Sadly, I am a Level III judge and probably can't honestly tell you where you
can stuff your comment about 'obviously biased judges'. But anyone should be
able to clearly see that the judges in this case were not biased. If they
WERE biased (like all of the people who weren't there that are assuming he
must have cheated based on his past reputation) they probably would have
taken the easy route, presumed he was cheating and just booted him. Sadly
however the facts did not support a cheating claim. They supported an honest
mistake claim.

#>Saying "oh yeah, well, I would have gotten mean had it been true" is a bunch
#>of bullshit.  That's like trying to justify yourself as an actual valid
#>judge after you've gone and totally fucked up the situation and made a
#>blatantly bad call.

The call was a little harsh (standard penalty for a dropped card is
traditionally 1 game loss, not double warning and match loss), but I
wouldn't call the over reaction a blatantly bad call. Despite the fact that
the match was near meaningless, a clear message needed to be sent that
mistakes of this nature, even though harmless, are not to be tolerated at
this level or stage of the event.

#>actually be headed for the Nationals team with "Cards missing from his deck
#>that he accidentally dropped".  YEAH RIGHT.  I would be counting my cards,
#>pile shuffling, riffle shuffling, letting my opponent shuffle, cutting, and
#>trying to think out every single play if I were in that situation.  Wouldn't
#>you?

Aha! You're missing some facts. The cards were all there at the beginning of
the game (multiple witnesses confirm that he 60-card pile shuffled at the
beginning of the game), in fact it sounds like you missed out on a lot of
the facts.

#>The whole situation is pathetic.  Every time I hear about Schong, I see
#>people post all over STRAT-L, usenet, and the dojo bitching constantly about
#>Long.  Every single fucking time.  Let's face it -- most of the situations
#>he gets into something happened, and more than likely, he or someone else in
#>the equation was cheating.  Since this keeps happening, it is practically
#>ruining Magic.  Why would I want to play a game where the cheating isn't
#>regulated, and it runs rampant through the cracks?  UGH.  <Spit on the DCI>

I'm against cheating. Strongly against it. But I'm also against handing out
match losses to people that forget to gain life from Soul Warden. Somewhere
in the middle is a huge gray area that needs to be dealt with on an
individual situational basis. While Mike Long has a history of being
involved in shady incidents, the facts in this case indicate that he was
not cheating this time.

-Michael Feuell
-Level III DCI Judge
-New England Region