It seems the next chapter in the "Savage Cheating" Saga has drawn to a close, at least for the next few years. While I imagine allegations will continue to creep in and people who lost out on prize money and Top 8s and such will continue to feel like they got a really raw deal, they can rest a little easier knowing that Wizards of the Coast doesn't tolerate cheating.

Within 24 hours of each other, two investigations into allegations of cheating concluded very abruptly and before anyone knew it, justice was done and two pretty savage cheaters had bitten the dust. We found out about one of them before the DCI made an official announcement due to a pretty epic meltdown on Facebook, posted, edited, deleted but ultimately screencapped and posted to Facebook by Frank Lepore and others.

Speaking as an underground dojo KEYBOARD cagefighter, I am really happy with this outcome. This bizarre post has a lot wrong with it and I am sure it will be picked to death over the next few days before people get bored and move on to the next trainwreck, but for now, a few points want addressing. First of all, saying a four year ban for cheating is too severe because you didn't rape or murder anyone is hyperbolic, borderline satirical. You don't get bonus points for not threatening my life or my "womans" [sic]. "The game of how to we publicly punish Trevor" ended with a four year ban from competitive Magic: the Gathering and all of his SCG winnings not yet disbursed will be donated to charity. People were feeling pretty good about the outcome, but DCI Claus had a few more goodies in his sack for the good boys and girls in the community.

Another familiar name was to join the list of people unwelcome at competitive Magic events. The underground dojo KEYBOARD cagefighters had scored another victory by knockout.

Helene Bergeot was on the spot with some good news. The first link takes you to a statement by the DCI about the recent rash of cheating allegations and their policy to protect the integrity of the game. The second link takes you to the list of all people currently suspended by the DCI. There are a few people local to me with bans until 2049 (an effective lifetime ban unless the game is still going in 35 years) and it makes me wonder what they did. I wish the suspension page still listed the infractions like it used to. This page was how I discovered that local scumbag and current Troll and Toad employee Marcus King had a 5 year suspension for creating fraudulent tournament reports to boost his DCI rating. I'd love to know what Josiah Davis did to get a lifetime ban. I've played against him and the only thing he did cheaty was playing Ivory Mask against my red white burn deck forcing me to try and kill him with Paraelectric Feedback. He seemed like a nice guy. But didn't everyone say that about Alex Bertoncini?

Speaking of Alex Bertoncini, a Ctrl+F search of the document listing suspended players will reveal Alex's name and a ban until the year 2017. I'm not sure why a repeat offender like Alex received a lighter suspension than a first time (first time caught) offender like Trevor Humphries, but I'm not going to complain about a "mere" 3 year suspension, which may very well sap him of the will to remain part of the community. All I know is that the DCI doesn't jack around and will bring down the banhammer when it needs to.

I hope this sends a strong, clear message to would-be cheaters out there. You get caught, you get the hammer. The best thing to do is slip quietly into obscurity