Subject: Belated Response to Team Houston's Response on team tournament at Texas Regionals
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 11:19:19 -0500
From: "Hugh W. O'Brien" <obie@telepath.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Dear Frank,

I had thought all the name calling had ceased and accusations of
cheating ( veiled or unveiled ) were over and generally the people that
made the accusations were sorry that they had made them.  That is why,
as captain of Team Oklahoma A, I have not responded until now.   I guess
that is why I missed the posting that I am responding to.  I just
recently found the posting by M. Peatross on the dojo about the the team
tournament at the Texas regionals and I am compelled to make the
following remarks concerning the two major points concerning accusations
of cheating by Team Oklahoma.

M. Peatross:
Flecther did not participate in the tournament but made a couple of
valid points. Di we register decks? No. Did Team Oklahoma sit near Team
Oklahoma B? yes. Appearance is Nine-tenths of conviction.

The above comment about Team Oklahoma A sitting near Team Oklahoma B is
totally false.  Team A sat 75' to 85' feet away from its other team. As
such, to have cheated in the way insinuated by M. Peatross would have to
have been accomplished by us beating a path back and forth between the
place that we were constructing our decks and the place that Team A was
constructing their decks. I think that would have been pretty obvious to
the judge over the tournament since he circulated between all the teams
to check on their deck construction progress.  The only time the two
Oklahoma teams sat near each other is when the cards were first handed
out and when we played Team B.  No cards were opened until we were well
away from Team B.  Seems that Nine-tenths just disappeared don't you
think.

M. Peatross:
I wait to lose respect for people until they start calling people names.

I guess you qualify.

Accusations of cheating against someone and calling someone a cheater
are essentially the same.  Does this mean you have lost respect for
yourself ?

I would also like to add, that the judge for the team tournament is also
well aware of where we constructed our decks and Peatross can verify
that by contacting him through Ed Fox.  The rest of the posting I will
not respond to because most if not all of it concerns remarks by a Team
B player or Ed Fox and they can look out for themselves.  The last
comment concerning cheating that I will make in this posting is that it
is generally the case that the good players that get the best cards win
"SEALED DECK" style tournaments. If Mr. Peatross has any further
comment,  I would enjoy talking with him personally via email because
there has been enough "name calling".

Hugh W. O'Brien
Captain Team A
obie@telepath.com