Subject: Response to T.L. Patridge
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 17:58:53 -0400
From: "Jeff Donais" <jdonais@wizards.com>
To: "Frank Kusumoto" <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

Frank, this is a direct response to T.L. Partridge.

Mr. Patridge,

   A couple of things that you seem to be unclear about in your letter which
was posted on the Dojo.

You said:

>This last year
>Mike Long has been caught cheating  twice, at major events.  Sure Mike Long
>has seriously denied both of them, but they both where very evident.  The
>first of which was in a draft with many witnesses.  This being where he
says
>he drafted four muscle slivers when everyone at the table he was drafting
at
>say they saw him draft three.  He says that he bought a muscle sliver, and
no
>judge was notified that there was a mark on the card he traded it in for.
>Any player who know sanctioned rules, knows that you have to notify a
>sanctioned judge of the change and let them see the cards that are being
>exchanged.  The judges let this pass and did nothing to stop it.

First of all, Mark Justice was the player in this incident, not Mike Long.
This incident occurred at Grand Prix Atlanta.  I was the judge for this
event, and I ejected Mr. Justice for this incident.  It is important to keep
your facts straight if you are going to post on the internet.

Next you said:

>The second
>time was the weekend of July fourth when Mike Long was playing to get into
the
>final eight at the United States Nationals.  Its pretty obvious that DCI
>judges are scared of Mike Long, and his yelling, and screaming, and the
fear
>that maybe he knows more about the rules then they do.  I would think that
>Jeff Donias the head DCI Sanctioned Judges would have enough guts to DQ the
>almighty God of Magic Mike Long.  I hope Jeff reads this and gets a clue.

I was not judging US Nationals.  Charlie Catino was the head judge, with
Andrew Finch as the DCI Tournament Manager.  These gentlemen decided the
fate of Mr. Long, I was not involved in any way.  I have no problem
assigning a DQ to a player who has earned it (see above example with Mr.
Justice).

Your comment suggesting that I "get a clue" is a out of line, especially
given the glaring errors in your letter.  I sincerely hope you learn from
your mistakes, and be more careful of what you say in the future.  I am sure
you are not a bad person, but you need to realize that the things you say on
a public forum are assumed to be true by many people.  Please have the
responsibility and maturity to check your facts before hitting that
all-powerful "send" button in the future.  I am sure you will have much
greater success using that way of thinking.

Take Care,

Jeff Donais