Hi, Judges. Here is a reminder that Cheating DQ's require that the offender knows that what he is doing is illegal. This is articulated in the recent update to the IPG.

Here is an example which we see frequently on the Investigations list:

A player stacks his deck in front of his opponent; land spell spell, land spell spell, etc. Then he does one or two mash shuffles and presents. In the ensuing investigation of Insufficient Shuffling, the player immediately admits to doing this and claims that this is their first Competitive event and that they didn't know that this was illegal. You believe them (trust me - usually these are pretty obvious).

This penalty/infraction is Warning for Insufficient Shuffling, NOT DQ for Cheating - Manipulation. In the previous version of IPG, this was defined as Cheating because there was a clause at the end of the Insufficient Shuffling section that said something like “If a player stacks their deck and then insufficiently randomizes, that is Cheating - manipulation of Game Materials…” However, that clause was removed (really, go look:)), as we wanted to let the ignorant players off the DQ hook.

So, if you think they didn't know, stick with just the Warning for Insufficient Shuffling.

Oh, and the necessity to KNOW it is illegal applies only to Cheating. The Unsporting Conduct DQ's for Bribery and Improperly Determining a Winner are still DQ's, even if the player didn't know. It's not that we don't want to let those ignorant players off the hook, but we must ensure that our game is NEVER associated with gambling or bribery, lest it be banned in some or many countries. Of course, as I have suggested before, we can be very proactive about these UC DQ's and maybe prevent a lot of ignorant players from doing that to themselves and ruining their experience.

Carry on troops, and thanks for all your help!

Eric Shukan L3
Investigations, Lead

Edited Eric Shukan (July 2, 2013 07:57:04 PM)