Subject: PTQ Rome in Huntsville Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 09:24:47 PDT From: "Jon Kaus" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com [TOURNAMENT] [ISSUE] Collusion in Huntsville (Why PTQ's shouldn't be decided by CASH) If you want a tournament report, it's at the top. If you want to read about why the finals are about cash, skip to the bottom. I'm in Huntsville Alabama. It's Saturday, September 5th. I'm playing at the Rome PTQ. I've got a good chance. I've been playtesting Rath Cycle for 3 months now. I know what to look out for, I'm pumped. I'm playing a U/W Humility/Prayer (the version without Green for Reclaim). Added 3 Winds of Rath, dropped the Diamonds, etc. So we play. First Round, I'm playing Robert Chandler with Recurring/Survival. No problem, I'd playtested against it. But this one is running Lobotomy. Sucko!!! In game 1, he Lobotomies the Wasteland in my hand and drops a Stronghold. Game over for me. Game 2, He gets out the Stronghold and starts recursion. I Winds of Rath twice to slow the recursion down. I'm Scroll Racking like a dog to find my Wasteland. The first one I'd used early on a Skyshroud Forest, BIG MISTAKE! I get it and he concedes the game. We didn't have time to finish game 3. Draw. 0-0-1 Second Round, I play Blair Simpson with Straight Red. I get pounded hard and fast game 1 (like 1 minute for the game). I get deck checked by the judge, pass. This is where I make the mistake of the tournament. I side out 2 disenchants. I'm running 3 main with 1 sided. The week prior to this I had told my teammate Brandon that he should run Hand to Hand to prevent COP's and Idols to kill creatureless decks. So what do I do? I side out my defense against them and put in COP: Red and 2 warmths. Game 2 took about twice as long as Game 1. 0-1-1 Not looking good. Round 3: I play Robert Kline playing Land Destruction with efficient Red creatures. He kept targetting the white (good call) and I'm struggling. I finally get enough white to lock his creatures and start to space out the Forbids to handle the heat while waiting for the Stone. I scrape a win in Game 1, and in Game 2. 1-1-1. Looking better, but still a long uphill climb. Round 4: I play William Ericson. He's got Hatred Black. I get lucky draws and enough countermagic to hold off the quick death and survive to lock him in Game 1. Game 2, again I get enough countermagic to hold off the Hatred and then Winds of Rath after he casts a Sacromancy. It kills him in 14 turns without the lock. 2-1-1. This is looking better. Another win and I'm in the Final 8 as there are several people at 3-1 and 2-2. Round 5: I play Stephen Nugent. Steve, if you see this: My hat's off to you. Great Deck!!! You're a great player. Had I lost this match, I would have gone home happy that I played this one. I'd tell you what he played, but I think I want to preserve his idea. It was great. Let's just say that I squeaked 2 wins out of it, barely. I had to throw everything at him, including the kitchen sink. Great match!! 3-1-1. I'm in. Finals: First final round: I play Nathan Scott. He's playing straight red. See Round 2. Except game 2 took longer because I learned not to side out Disenchants. Problem was, I didn't see any side cards, nor a Prayer. I got 1 Humility in 2 games. Good match. Straight Red is consistent and reliable, but I can't stand losing to straight red. OK, here's the problem I have with the day: Before you read on, let me say one thing. I'm a firm believer that things are what we make them to be. If things are allowed to be unfair, that will propagate itself throughout our society. If people stand up and say that this isn't right then that will also propagate itself. So, here I am. I've lost in the finals and, believe it or not, I'm happy. It's been a good day. But I have to stand up and tell you what happened. This isn't second hand knowledge, I was there. I will tell you what I saw and heard. Not what someone told me. I'm watching the finals, and there are 4 left. I'm watching 2 games at once, not really paying attention to either one and waiting for the finals. Finals: Hacker's Humility/Prayer deck vs. Recurring Nightmare. In Craig Wescoe's words (from a Dojo posted Huntsville report): >I play against another member of team Rakalite. Grey was a really good >player, but his Humility/orim's prayer deck could not withstand my cloudchaser >recurrsion with the strongholds. I'm sure that's true. Knowing Humility/Prayer as I do, Cloudchaser recursion kills it. There's only one problem: THE FINAL MATCH WASN'T PLAYED!! Before the match, Grey told Craig that he couldn't go to Rome and he'd sell the invite for $150. Craig gets out his wallet and hands the cash to Grey. They're going to split the cash prize and Craig gets to go to Rome. Then they report the match results to the judge. About 5 minutes go by. I'm right on the fence as to whether I'm going to ask a question about this. On one hand, I'll be labelled a whiner who can't make the finals, on the other hand, this is complete bullshit. This is collusion, in its pure form. Grey walks out of there $275 richer, $150 from Craig and $125 from Wizards. And Craig walks out of there with a Rome invite that he didn't earn (by virtue of not beating Grey in the Finals). No matter what I do, I'm going home to playtest some more. So I'm on the fence. I ask the Head Judge outside for a few minutes. I want his take on this. I ask him, "Is this ok with you?" He's completely in the dark about what happened. I tell him what I saw and heard. He went to talk to the players and the outcome was that he'd have to report that the final match wasn't played. After about 15 minutes, I'm outside with the head judge and Craig comes outside. He and the judge talk about it and he's wondering what the problem was. He states that he didn't pay Grey in the finals. I pipe up and say, "Why did you take cash out of your wallet and hand it to Grey?" His response: "You didn't hear me say, 'I'll buy your Vampire Hounds for $150.'?" My jaw hit the ground. I mean, does this guy actually think that anyone will believe that he hands over $150 for a Vampire Hounds, doesn't play the final match and wins the invite to Rome and that everything is on the up-and-up? Not me. I don't know what the DCI will do, but I'm here to stand up and say that this isn't fair. It's cheating, it's making money more important than play and deck building skills and it's ruining a great game. Flames, responses or anything can be directed to me: Jon Kaus angoth@hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com