This weekend, the Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 took place, and the event generated a lot of discussion. The complete dominance of Bant Nadu is very memorable and could indicate the need for an upcoming ban. Meanwhile, the name of the Player of the Year award was changed to Kay Buddy Player of the Year AwardIn honor of one of the greatest MTG players of all time.
Perhaps the incident that received the most attention over the weekend was… Professional player Bart van Etten excluded. Something went terribly wrong in a special match between Bart and Javier Dominguez, one that went unnoticed in real time. While some disputed that It seemed like an easy mistake to makeThe exclusion was eventually handed to Bart after an investigation.
It is worth noting that Bart was severely criticized for it. Cheating Scandals in the PastSo having this issue appear on camera was not a good thing at all. Let’s review the events that led to the investigation in the first place and the eventual exclusion.
Goyf error strikes again
The events that led to the disqualification occurred in Game 3 of Round 13. In the third round, Javier threw a copy of Flagg, the fire giant From his hand. When he entered the battlefield, he targeted Bart’s Nethergoyf to deal three damage to him and gain three lives. At this point, Nethergoyf was 2/3, as there were two types of cards in Bart’s graveyard.
With the ability activated by Phlage on the stack, Bart cast He’s not dead after all Target Nethergoyf. He then allowed Phlage’s ability to resolve, returned the Nethergoyf to the battlefield with the exploit, and placed the Wicked Role token on the Nethergoyf. Apparently this was used to indicate that Nethergoyf had died and returned to play via Not Dead After All.
The problem here was that once you solved Not Dead After All and went to Bart’s graveyard, Bart now had three types of cards in the graveyard. As such, the Nethergoyf will be 3/4, and will naturally outlive the Phlage trigger. This means that the Nethergoyf shouldn’t have had an evil role token attached to it in the first place. This can be important in the game, especially considering how dependent Javier’s removal is on damage.
After all, it is not unusual for such mistakes to occur, or to be noticed mid-match by either player. Tarmojoyev The math has led to many judges being called over the years, usually when a Tarmogoyf is targeted by an instant that deals damage like Lightning boltWith this in mind, it makes sense not to make any early exclusions.
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the decision
Although the incident occurred in Round 13, the actual disqualification was not issued until midway through Round 14. The issue at hand was not pointed out to the officiating staff until Round 14, long after the match had concluded. However, this prompted the governors to launch an investigation.
Investigations are typically used to help determine a player’s intent. The truth is that game rules violations (GRVs) happen all the time in major tournaments. Something as simple as accidentally drawing a second card for the turn as two cards stuck together will form a GRV. Most of the time, simple warnings are issued. From there, referees keep track of the player’s GRVs, since repeat offenses can result in a larger penalty. However, things get dicey when judges decide that you intentionally committed a GRV offense to try to gain an advantage.
This is exactly what happened in Bart’s case. While we don’t know for sure what happened behind the scenes during the investigation, it is likely that the judges asked Bart and Javier for their version of the story. By combining this information with the images of the match itself, a conclusion can often be drawn.
Some players speculate that Bart Immediately prepare to attack to deal 4 damage with Nethergoyf the next day In turn, he played a role in the final decision. The logic here is that by declaring a four-man attack, Bart would have clearly identified the three types of cards in his graveyard along with the evil role symbol, which was never supposed to be attached in the first place. There are certainly more details to the story, but no specifics have been made public. What we do know is that Bart was disqualified for his intent to commit a GRV foul, and that the Round 13 match result was later reversed.
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Player reaction
When footage of the inherent error first appearedMany players were quick to react to what they saw. From the initial clip alone, it makes sense that many players would think that this was nothing more than Honest mistakePart of the reason this clip went viral on Twitter the way it did was because of Bart’s past issues with cheating on camera.
Years ago, Bart was apparently He was caught cheating on camera on TwitchAfter cracking. Zeina Mishra Seeing that he had a mediocre card at the top of his deck, he broke his Bloodstained Swamp into the opponent’s Maintenance in response to the Trinket Trigger. He then shuffles his cards in an almost awkward manner, and appears to be messing around with the arrangement of the cards himself. After that, he gives the opponent the opportunity to cut the deck, and then draw a copy of it ending Which helped him win the match.
This event, along with others, has led many players to question Bart’s intentions, Believing that he should not be given the benefit of the doubtBart’s past problems likely played a role in the extensive investigation that took place, as well as the writing that was released to the public. A disqualification report like this This has not been done since Yuya Watanabe was disqualified a while ago.
Unfortunately, cheating is something that players and referees must constantly pay attention to. It is good to see a written report being issued to keep people informed of the situation. This exclusion also shows that action can actually be taken Long after the problem originally occurredPlayers don’t know if Bart actually cheated or not, but whatever investigation took place ultimately led to him being disqualified. Make sure you’re aware of any ill intentions from your opponents, and don’t hesitate to involve the referees if anything looks suspicious.
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