Cheating

The biggest problem with writing about cheating is the people who most need to read it will likely never find this.   I'm sure this is a true, albeit rather cynical, point of view.   To me, people who intentionally cheat are like shoplifters in that they believe their actions won't hurt others.   I place the act of cheating with lying and stealing.   I have no patience or tolerance for either (as my sons have found out over the years).   The number one problem with cheaters is they have been taught their selfish behavior is socially acceptable.

There are times when a writer should protect people from being exposed.   In this article, every step has been taken to protect the person involved.   The issue was with a juvenile and was not an event held under Competitive REL.   This is NOT an easy topic for me to discuss - I hope to both do it justice and to give players something to think about.

So without any further ado, let's pick up this sticky wicket and start where all stories start...at the beginning.


The Crime
During the pre-release weekend for Dragon's Maze, my son and I witnessed the following sequence:

Player George is at the front of the store, talking with the one staff member present (who opened the store and started the events that day by himself).   George's body language seems agitated and physically challenging.   He's demonstrating a board state that had occurred during his most recent round, pointing to cards or proxies and stating that there's no way that should happen.   The staff member seems to understand the point George is attempting to make and tells him to go get the other player in question.   The other player, Paul, who's about 14 years old comes up while my son and I both report our games.   The staff member then turns to Paul and asks him to explain himself.   I could tell that they were dealing with some call regarding the previous game, so I grabbed my son to leave them to their discussion and we returned to the play area.

(Some time passes, people are making comments regarding the situation, taking one side or another.   I'm trying very hard to recall something I knew regarding Paul because I'm sure it relates to the situation.   When it finally hit me - this particular individual did something to me in the first week of league play 3 months ago, I went to the front to tell the staff member).

As I pulled to the front though, it was clear my help wasn't needed.   If you can imagine, half the players were there, most seemed to be taking George's side.   George may not be loved by all, but he's a grinder and the players there respect that and his abilities.   There were some I thought who were defending Paul, but not his actual actions.   This is not to make light of an ugly situation, but the only thing really missing, when I looked at the faces of the players were the rusty pitchforks and torches.   The players were angry and the staffer at the time wasn't able to defuse the situation.

After some attempted mollification by the staff member, another player, angered that it wasn't being treated as a cut and dry case of cheating, made promise to take his business elsewhere if Paul was allowed to continue to play.   The staff member had clearly felt conflicted, likely since he wasn't an actual Judge.   His take was that he should have Paul continue on after taking steps to prevent further occurrences of cheating.

But the threat of losing business and the escalating unrest of the 15 or so players at the front of the room seemed to force the hand of the staff member.   He dropped Paul from the remainder of the rounds, and seemed saddened to do so.   This solution seemed satisfactory to player George.   But was it the right one?   And what else should be done?

Before we allow either side to argue their position, here are five undisputed facts of the case:

1. Player Paul absolutely added cards that were not available in the pre-release packs to give himself a gameplay advantage - he's smart in that the cards added made his deck much tougher to win against.
2. Player Paul stated he didn't know he wasn't allowed to do this.
3. Staff member is not a MTG Judge and he was the only store representative present.
4. Player Paul has been caught or has been suspected of cheating in the past at this LGS.
5. Player Paul is not new to Magic, he has at least a year worth of playtime invested in the game.

For the Plaintiff
Your honor, my client, Player George, was damaged by this event you'll hear about today.   He was scarred, and will likely never play another trading card game for as long as he lives.

The facts you'll hear today support that Player Paul did knowingly add cards to his deck from outside sources to generate card advantage   You'll hear that he has attempted to cheat before in this exact same manner in MTG League play.  Furthermore, he knew this to be wrong.   Player Paul is a cheater of the first degree, a master criminal.   His actions jeopardize Player George's enjoyment of the game, robs him of a win, lowers his chance at winning a prizes and potentially has repercussions across the entire prize pool if left unchecked.

It is your responsibility to not only disqualify him from this tournament  but you must notify a Judge and WotC, have him disqualified from entering future tournaments until such a time as WotC sees fit to reinstate him, ban him from your store, and run him and his little dog out of town.   It is your moral obligation.


For the Defense
Your honor, my client, Player Paul, is simply misunderstood.   You see, it was just an accident, he placed his deck next to some other cards of his and they must have been mixed in together.   It's no big deal, really.

Oh wait, you have someone who knows Paul and says this has happened before and he's been told not to do it and why by another player?  Allow me to confer with my client.   [Hurried whispers].   Ahh, I see.   Your honor, my client wasn't explained the rules of this particular event by the proprietor.   It's really just a matter of a failure of the LGS to inform my client of his responsibilities.

Furthermore, I find it odd that there was no Judge present at the pre-release.   Should a store who wants to run a successful pre-release not arrange to have MTG's version of MIB present?

Your honor, I understand that examples need to be made.   My client though has been drug through the mud.   There was no consideration given to his age or other factors before he was tried and convicted by an angry group of players who couldn't mind their own business.




The Appeal
The problem with what happened this past weekend is that it can happen anywhere at anytime given the right conditions. At this point, it's important to realize no situation is identical and not all stories have happy endings.   This is the part of a story where I can often fall into a trap of writing a list of how to fix the problem.

Instead, ask yourself some of these questions.   Don't worry; they're all easy:
Should the store owner have had a Judge on scene?   How would this have helped?
What information do you feel is missing to pass a ruling if you were the Judge?
Would it make a difference to you if Paul was 11?   Or if he was 17?
Would knowing that Paul has other problems in his life, some of them personal, cause you to weigh your decision differently?
Should this situation be treated differently if there is a large prize pool?
What responsibility does the proprietor have to run an event that is problem free?   Should the proprietor take additional action?
What could the staff member have done differently to prevent things from escalating?   Or do you feel that there was nothing that could be done?
Since I'm inserted in the story, should I have made my experience known to the staff member?   If yes, when and what is your reasoning?
What should his punishment be?   Should their be both a store punishment and a Wizards punishment?

If you leave comments or questions below, I'll answer them to the best of my ability.   I've purposely withheld a few pieces of minor nuggets of information to allow you the chance to think about the questions above free of a few of the nastier side comments or supporting arguments.   Cheating does have an exact consequence in all levels of play, but is there ever a time when it is more important to teach than it is to punish?





What's it all About?
What I wanted to write this week was a story about how much fun my son and I had at the two Dragon's Maze events we attended.   I wanted to share our victories, what we learned and our defeats.   Our most exciting moment was playing 2HG against another father/son team - and if it wasn't for my boneheaded play, we had a chance of winning.   I wanted to share all of the fun we had together.   It would have been more personal, but my goal was to create something more for my son than for you.   In the end though, perhaps maybe I've done just that.

Son, don't cheat.   You'll never win if you set off to cheat before you begin.