There better than your average cheaters is my guess. I never been to a SJC, but I do know of some tactics my friends use when they go to gain an unfair advantage. Most of it is pretty simple and not obvious and can be done right in front of people without them even noticing.

Sheik_the_Geek said:
Wow, can you give some examples? You scared me...

I'll admit that it'd be a logistics nightmare. That said, the increase in top 8 size will give more people a higher chance at the gold; therefore a wider variety of decks will get spotlighted in high levels of play and the field will become more varied.

Oh yeah, no argument there. I would just be in favor of a mandatory drop after the third loss (or possibly forth with T16). Venues are often much too small.

Like the Philly Convention center.

It's kinda easy to cheat seeing that most canadian players joke about stacking like its a common trade (seeing that I know eric herdzik personally btw he's the most conceited person you'll ever meet in your life). and yes ive gone to tournaments with him and yes he and ryan carey (Tsugaru) have proven and shown me that they have stacked in even our local tournament. Same with Domino (Mike Powers). It's a common site among all. Herdzik even told me Dale Bellido had to stack a few times to win some of his games - especially when using the effect of Sangan or other searchers liike Tomato.

Seeing that Domino whines like a baby when he loses (especially when I played him with Stein and beat him turn 1 with the combo in hand). literally the dude almost cried.

no doubt there was stacking. notice that there was just one Chimeratech deck viewed during the entire swiss and that was ivan flores. he won yes... but he also pulled Future Fusion early - a very lucky draw.

now I've built Paul Lyn's Chimeratech build. I liked it alot actually - it has some nice defense and the only way you can really go wrong is drawing Blowback and Barrel in the same hand w/o a way to discard Barrel (because you can Overload out a Gatling!!).

Just something I posted at another site, I wasnt even at the SJC...just speculating what could happen within the realm of possibilty:


devil's advocate, I really think Paul Lyn was just a very lucky guy that day and congrats to him)

Now, lets say he did cheat (which isnt that far out of the realm of possibility). Most of you retort, "how could he, everybody was right there watching him and of course the judges as well, its impossible to cheat." Well I say most of you are naive little kids and or naive adults to think cheating is impossible to pull off, but what type of cheating could have been done in Paul Lyn's case?

I think it was Bribery. How you ask? Well it obviously wasnt done during the match...I think it was before the match. maybe some people from team nexus bribed off Mark Vazquez. They probably told him how Paul Future Fusion and other cards were "marked" and make sure it was on top of his deck everytime he shuffle'd it. Now of course, if they asked Mark to just take a dive, well that would be obvious if everyone could see he had good cards in his hand and wasnt playing them, well that'd be even more suspicious. So making Paul look like the luckiest man in the world that day would seem alot less so.

But Why would Mark even accept the bribe? Well, mark got his crush card right at the end of his last match, what more does first place even get you thats worth it!? A trophy? maybe it wouldnt fit in his car and let paul have it. And having your deck scrutinized under a micro scope isnt exactly a pleasant thought either. I say first place winner should get second place winners prize card as well, lol.

Notice a pattern in the decks? They all carry those worthless staples.

I guess tournament players lack originality in their decks.

Because they are good cards. And obviously not worthless.

Why use orginality when it loses?

I pride myself on fair considration of all points of view before taking any action.

It's not very often that I feel the urge to throttle someone via the internet (sometimes Tony and Haijime I guess) and this isn't one of those times. I say the following as I am hoping for a purely civilized and acedemic arguement. On both sides.

Why do you deem staples worthless? Also, could you please define originality?

Civilized...hmm...ok, we'll go with that for now...

This IS one of those internet throttle times for me, but I guess I can wait for someone to actually try to prove their case.

You don't need originality for tournament play. You need consistency.

I seriously doubt there is no such thing as originality in this game.

Before this tournament we had talks about Monarch decks being nothing but CC and blah blah. Then we have a Chemeratech theme OTK deck used buy many at this tourny and yet its not original because it was copied. So using this logic any deck is not original if alot of people somewhat have the same version at a SJC.

Still dont understand?
Example:
At the next SJC lets say a reasoning deck wins it all, But the thing is 6 players who toped 8 used the same deck. (By some chance) I can almost garantee people will call that CC and not original.

The point is I really hate when people throw the word original.

@ ZaQ: It was almost for me too. Well, one thing I've wanted to do for a while was get to the heart of these appeals to rhetoric.

@ Frosty: Yup. Although one could put forth that all one requires is 40 legal cards and $15.

@Riot: I'll agree with the basic premise that being truely "Original" (the first person to run something) is rather impossible to determine given the large number of people who play the game.

However, like most arguements the conclusion will likely change if the basic premise is redefined as something else. Thus why I asked our friend to give us a definition.

I do notice that you mention you dont think Paul Lyn cheated but that "If" he did, these are possible things that could have happened....

For those of you who might not know, I am Frank Debrito and i was the head judge at SJC Orlando. For those of you who also might not Know, I am also a member of Team NeXus. I have always had a reputation of being a fair judge and have never favored anyone in any given tournament. When I am judging an event, I am not NeXus Frank but I am UDE/(PTO's Company) Frank. I am usually harsher on my teammates when it comes to Penalties because they should know better. When you hand out a penalty, there is always the decision the judge needs to make whether there was any intent on cheating or whether the player knew about the penalties/consequences or if they just didnt know. In my team's case, because myself and the other high level judges on NeXus, we teach them better than that so they are put in a position that in some cases they might feel as if they are being singled out. Now to explain a few things, including my procedures at SJC Orlando.

I had 4 Table Judges for the 4 Matchups during the top 8. The 4 matchups were randomly distributed to the 4 judges (Judge who had Paul Lynn's matchup was not a member of NeXus). All 8 Players were deck checked thoroughly (Which includes Checking sleeves for irregularities). After all 8 players were deck checked they had a MANDATORY 3 minutes of Shuffling (Not Pile Shuffling but Heavy Duty shuffling). Now one of the players had to Resleeve his deck so he was given an additional 2 minutes which he then began his mandatory 3 minutes of shuffling (I told the other players to keep shuffling as well so in fact they shuffled for 5). After they were done, they offered their opponent the deck to cut which I then had the opponents Shuffle their opponents deck for an additional 1 minute. At this point, there was no way in which either player could have stacked. After the 1 minute was over of shuffling, each player had an opportunity at 1 CLEAN cut at their own decks (Which I dont think anyone actually did, but that I dont remember). By clean cut I mean the moment your hand touches the deck, that is the spot you will cut. You will not get to feel around edges or anything. All my judges were instructed on what to look for as far as possible cheating.

During the Top 4 Paul Lyn's Matchup had 2 Table Judges and the other had 1 (I had to give up a judge to work on the Regional). Please Notice that as Head Judge, I do not watch any particular matchup. I roam around the matchups and do my best to make sure all is well and that the games are moving along smoothly. I also made every attempt to stop at any matchup at any time any player began shuffling a deck (Of course I was unable to see all the matches as they shuffled but I did my best). Someone makes speculation that the reason why Rampage lost in the Top8 was because they were unable to cheat. Well, I am not calling them cheaters, but No, NO ONE was able to cheat as we were watching all 8 players like a hawk.

Now as the Paul Lyn/Mark Vasquez possibility of Bribing. You forget to mention that First Place also walks out with a Teched out gaming Laptop which is worth a pretty penny. Mark also plays in the South Florida area and shows up to all of our store's major tournaments and has proven time and again to be a great duelist. Team Untouchables is an up and coming team wanting to prove themselves on a National Level. They want to be able to travel and compete like we do. Mark had everything to gain by winning that match, and trust me when I say this, he is not the type of person to have accepted a bribe. Pride and the desire to finally prove that Untouchables are on the same playing field as NeXus would have been enough for him to go for the Gold.

Someone mentions probability of Future Fusion is 1/40. It would be 1/40 if you only drew one card opening Turn (No starting hand). But in fact, it is 6/40. This game does indeed rely heavily on luck.. I have matches where I draw Graceful Charity EVERY game opening hand for 6 games in a row....than I dont draw it at all for entire games for 12 games in a row. Its part of drawing cards from the top of a face down deck. We had a Mall Tour here in South Florida during Super Bowl Saturday Festivities. We got to duel against many people and since we had freedom on how we wanted to handle matches and prizes we decided to do like Tier 1 and Tier 2 matches. After someone beat our Tier 1 decks we would offer more packs and TP7 packs and ask them if they wish to play again. I was fortunate enough to play Paul Lyn's Deck as my Tier 2. I had never touched the deck before and due to Personal Reasons, was unable to watch Paul playtest weeks prior to the SJC. Needless to say, I only knew the concept of the deck and a few of the combos. Regardless of how well the deck drew opening hand, it always kept me alive long enough to pull of the combos. I had horrible hands at time, a few times winning when my lifepoints were under 1000 and my opponent at 8000...but that is what the deck does. It stalls and stalls until youpull off your win conditions. Even I, on more than one occasion, attempted to attack while Nightmare Steelcage was on the field. I keep forgetting it is not like Swords of Revealing Light and that it affects both Players. We all make mistakes, we are human.

Please note, i am not saying that there was no cheating involved during the Swiss rounds, I am not that Naive. For 477 players and only 12-15 judges, its kind hard to watch everyone at every single minute of game play. But during the top 8, all measures were taken so that everyone had an even and fair chance at the Gold. I wont say that Paul wasnt lucky that day. Drawing Future Fusion early on would definitely constitute as lucky, but than again you can say that everytime someone Top Decks a Breaker, or a Heavy Storm, or a Graceful Charity when they need it. Luck is a factor of this game and will always be. Paul Lyn is the SJC Orlando 07 Champion and he worked his rear to get there. His deck might not have been great, but showed originality. Give the man his just deserts and credit where credit is due.

Also, Ivan's deck was of legal size and matched the contents of his hand written deck list. Jason and Julia always lend a helping hand when it comes to typing/printing out decklists for the Top 8 at the events I HJ. They were typing like mad as soon as we got them the top 8 decklists and as it has happened in the past, they will usually forget a card or two. I do believe as stated, that the 40th card was indeed Breaker the Magical Warrior.

Thank you all for your time.