Recent Banning of Alex Bertoncini - Cheating and how it affect the games integrity

Hey guys,

If you all follow Magic, you might have heard that Alex Bertoncini has been suspended from competitive Magic play by the DCI. For those of you who do not know, Alex Bertoncini has been a Star City Games Open Series grinder and this past year was named the Player of the Year and won the Star City Games Invitational. The prize was $10,000 and Power 9.

In short, Alex was caught either purposefully cheating or misrepresenting the current game state. On one occasion, he Brainstormed for five and it was caught on camera. On another occasion, Alex had Kira, Great Glass-Spinner out. His opponent used Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s bounce ability and then used Cursed Scroll to kill Kira. Instead of putting Kira in his graveyard, Alex returned it to his hand. Purposefully of not, Mr. Bertoncini has on multiple occasions negatively impacted the game state that were in his favor.

I wanted to see if others have witnessed another player cheat or been part of this experience. I must admit that I witnessed another Magic player cheat at an FNM and did not say a thing. It was the last round of the night and my FNM was over. I finished with a 3-2 record, on par for me. As I went over to watch the two players playing for first place, I was not surprised when I saw a Caw-Blade deck. Its pilot was one of the better players in the shop. As I sat and watched the game progress, the game came to a stalemate. Neither player was doing much of anything until the Caw-Blade player cast Preordain. He looked at the top two in one hand and looked at his current cards in the other. Soon, he brought both hands together and treated it more like a Brainstorm. He then put two on the bottom and drew from the top. The guy basically drew three cards and put two “dead” cards on the bottom of his library. From there, he took the game over and won. His opponent had not realized what had happened as he was reading his cards while his sly opponent took advantage. Looking back, I should have said something but did not since I was not part of the game.

To help maintain the integrity of the game we all love, we all need to hold each other accountable for cheating, slow game play, and sloppy technical play. This kind of behavioral should not be allowed at any level of competitive play or on the kitchen table for that matter.

What do you all think about calling others out when you witness someone trying to misrepresent the current game state?

Thanks.
E17