Subject: Walking the Tightrope
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 15:49:28 -0400
From: dgallitz@trmnet.com
To: fksumot@ix.netcom.com

Just finished reading Gabriele Pisicchio's emotion filled plea to the magic
community on the dojo.  Brought back some things that I've been holding in
since Worlds 98' in Seattle.  Sorta made me wonder about where I want to go
with this game and how important is it going to be for me to get there.
For any of you who don't know, I am getting married to the most wonderful
woman in the world next may 22 (WOTC NO EVENTS THEN PLEASE <Grin>), and yet
I continue to find myself gallavanting around the globe to play cards with,
well, mostly young adults if you will.  It's a complete year since I
finished anywhere even close to satisfying on pro tour and sooner or later
you have to ask yourself, how important is this to me?  I know why i play
the game.  It's dynamic, it's robust, it's fun and you meet alot of people
you can become really good friends with along the way, folks like Chris
Bishop, Derek Rank, Andrew Cuneo, John Becker, Fort, Dom, Long,
Mills,Turnquist, the F'burg crew etc, etc, are a large reason why i still
play..  But it is more than that...frankly, I'm a damn competitive person
and I'm damn good at this game providing both an outlet for my aggression
and a chance to continually challenge myself.
A buddy of mine, James Farr--since gone on to bigger and better things-used
to playtest with me for hours upon hours in the formats i was going to play
before a pt...he wouldn't ever let me take a damn thing back, if i tapped
my mana it was in my pool, this led to more than one scream fest over the
coarse of our play, but you know what I practically timewalked a guy in
worlds because he put a counter on his whirling dirvish and then tried to
do further plays.  In Dallas i won a match because a guy tried to untap his
green land after he armageddoned and retroactively use a green one
instead..he died with an elf in hand.  Most recently at US Nationals I
watched in disbelief as my opponent (a very nice man) tried to cast a
jackalope herd during my main phase, i've buried peoples creatures in that
same tournament because they tried to do fast effects after putting their
critters in the graveyard.  Darwin Kastle (with John Finkle's help) put
four mana into my pool at worlds this year because i tapped my lands wrong
with a Derelor out.  This is what is called "tight professional magic"
KNOWING and PLAYING by the rules of the game.  It is neither immoral or
wrong to play this way, in fact, I fully expect to be held to the same
standards as i hold my opponents during play.  Professional magic players
should simply know and play by the rules, for this there can be no excuse.
These are the things I have a serious problem with.  You give yourself and
the game no diginity when you purposely try to win matches by trying to
have your opponent disqualified intentionally.  This is happening. More so
now then ever before.  There is a witch-hunt out right now to stop
'cheating' on the pro tour level, it's hurting the game.  Unintentionally,
WOTC is promoting the 'sucker punch' by players to each other.  Win at all
costs is the name of the game, you know what else...it works.   It's all
about correctable mistakes.  Let the matches dictate the winners of these
matches, not the facist little weasels who hunt and peck for infractions.
There has never been a marked sleeve which the prepared player couldn't
change if asked.  I carried around in my magic 'sack' 45 EXTRA black
sleeves so i would have suitable 'replacements' should my sleeves get worn
down, yet i'm willing to bet 1 in 3 of the players at worlds would have
rather called a judge for a possible match win than allow me to simply
replace the sleeve and shuffle on.  Think i'm kidding here is some of what
I saw/heard happen at this years worlds.  I heard U.S. team member Bryce
Currence expounding on how he just had pulled off a first turn kill, I was
amazed, i was like wow in draft???, how did he do it? .... his opponent
handed him a 39 card deck.  I watched in utter facination as Rapheal Levy
and Scott Johns took turns trying for the 'UPSET' of getting a match loss
of their opponent for marked sleeves.  I sat in horror on day one as Heinz
from Germany attempted to have me given a match loss for having a 39 card
deck when we both could see the plains sitting next to the shuffle
pile--the most amazing thing happened then the judge--i wish i could
remember his name---went through my deck card for card realizing it was
indeed the plains that was missing and then the most astonishing thing i've
ever seen in a pt happened, the judge put the card back in the deck, gave
me a verbal warning and made us continue to shuffle each others decks.
Heinz was ready to throw a gasket he just couldn't except that he wasn't
gonna get a free win, Heinz won...but glory be he won playing magic.
Actually I suspect that Heinz just isn't as 'experienced' a pro tour player
as some, because if he would have simply passed the deck back to me and
played a few turns, there would have been no way to reconstruct what had
happened and i would have gotten a match loss for sure...i guess germany is
just arriving late on the scene when it comes to getting a 'cheapy'.  Play
hard! play tight! correct the mistakes you can, WOTC you need to help one.
Worlds revolutionized magic this year.  Don't ever make the mistake of
calling it a game again.  It's a competition, and it's a bloody one at
that, anything goes now, mark your deck, don't mark your deck, mark your
opponents deck for him seems to be a populair strategy these days.  It is
not the fault of players such as Johns, Currence, LePine, etc. that they
see opportunities to get a free match win and take it in big tournaments
(all in the name of protecting themselves from being cheated of course) the
system encourages this in fact.  Wizards is looking for scapegoats to quell
the thirst of the Cathy N.'s of the world and the players are only to happy
to serve each other up, fast as ice cream in summer.  Hell 1 to 3 'free'
match wins in a pro tour and you are practically guarenteed to finish in
the money...with the play, deck tech, and preperation becoming equal it is
the 'new' way to get ahead.  So i've come to the crossroads of my magic
playing career, and i have some important choices to make.  Is the benefit
of the game worth the time i spend on it?  If so, am i going to try to
continue to walk the line of being friendly with people and winning?  Magic
right now is swim with the sharks or get out of the water.  I haven't shown
it yet, but i have a pretty big dorsel fin parked out behind the house and
if I do decide to continue to play this game i know one thing is for
certain, I don't like to lose.  If the system encourages us to have no
honor amongst each other why have a system at all?

later days-

Donnie