The Magic Worlds tournament happened recently in Rome, and the most notable incident was, sadly, not the crowning of the champion, the rookie of the year, or even the hall of fame inductees. No, what the event will be remembered for is player Chris Gindy and his disqualification during the first day of the event, which led to the disqualification of the entire United States team from the team competitions of the subsequent days.
You see, unlike many other sports, Magic does not use their backups to step in for a player if they are ejected from sanctioned play. The reason for this is to prevent fraudulent actions; the assumption being that a player may intentionally cheat as much as he can to see if he can get away with it, with the team “playing straight” once they’ve used their alternate. Even technically ethical players could abuse the system by determining one of their players is just underperforming and have him eliminated, and this kind of collusion is something that’s been controversial since the inception of organized play.
So what’s the solution? I don’t know. As it stands, the alternate is there basically only if a player is incapacitated… But here’s the rub. It’s not like the National Team chooses who participates; if one of the players is fraudulent in their individual competitions, the entire team is punished completely out of hand. It’s a situation that is almost entirely indefensible and, as we’ve seen in this year’s event, does a lot to damage the game’s professional credibility.
Of course, we still have that sticky wicket; if we just allow an alternate to be what the name implies, what’s to stop intentional fraud for an advantage in the tournament environment? Call me daft, but I would think the ability of a team of top level judges to examine the circumstances of the players involved and the possibility that the disqualification was intentional should be a factor than a blanket “rocks fall, everyone dies” scenario. Further, for something as grave as “intentional fraud” at the top professional level, disqualification from the event really seems like a slap on the wrist. Certainly, Gindy himself was left hurting a bit according to secondhand accounts of what he had to go to in order to reach Rome, and the DQ meant no prize to recuperate the expense, but I would think a year-long ban from competitive play minimum would be an additional penalty for disqualification from a top tier event. Is that severe? Yes it is. But the gravity of it also really puts the impetus on the judges to maintain the highest levels of skill and professionalism, as the controversy that swirled around the circumstances of this DQ and the vague official statements wouldn’t hold water, but there would be a need for detailed, clear accounts and a record of significant deliberation.
Further, of course, it would take steps towards rectifying the team alternate issue. Why do I think such changes (perhaps not those exact changes, but along the same mindset) would be beneficial to the credibility of the game? Personal responsibility. Certainly, there’s somewhat of an illusion of camaraderie amongst the professional players, especially the ones on the national teams, but in reality, you’ve got the four people that happened to make top four in their nation’s championship event. Do they play on the tour together semi-regularly? Likely. Does that mean they’re a tight-knit band of brothers that will lay down anything and everything for each other?
Dream on. There’s already all the incentive they need to cooperate as a team; team prizes. Up the ante on personal responsibility and the notion of giving up a year of competitive play, something that’s likely to be a source of income for you, for a shot at winning a share of the team prize? I think common sense just might win out there.
But anyway… Just a possibility, not an absolute answer. Of course there are more factors to consider, but I merely thought to offer a possibility. As it is, there really seems to have been a lot of sturm und drang over what happened for it to all just as quickly die off, and if that’s what the people are satisfied with, so be it. But I for one hope we do get a new set of penalty guidelines at the beginning of next year, because the more recent version is a definite negative in light of Magic: The Gathering’s attempts at streamlining and simplifying their product.
For more information, check the following:
Worlds 2009 Round 6: Disqualifications
DrawGo Radio Worlds ’09 Episode
