I just spoke with Spears and Kim to make sure I got this right. Hoh has been disqualified from the top 8 and forfeits all of his prizes.

In his second game versus Karl Horn, Horn plays reign of terror on Hoh's Shape. Later in the turn, Hoh plays Answer the Call from hand; it is his only card. This is impossible because Shape should be in his hand.

Upon a judge being called by Horn, it is discovered that Hoh's Shape has magically appeared in his resource row.

There is a question mark over whether Hoh claimed he had replaced a reservist resource with shape but the judges were apparently satisfied this was not the case.

Hoh was disqualified, has lost his prize money and Dave spears moves up a spot to take 7th (and win an extra $1000).


EDIT: This is the official metagame report on the incident:

During the quarterfinal match between Hans Joachim Hoh and Karl Horn, Hoh received a penalty of disqualification from the tournament without prizes for unsporting conduct—cheating.

In the second game of the quarterfinals, Hoh recruited Golden Archer as a reservist from his resource row, playing a new resource (Answer the Call) in its place. His opponent responded with an Alfred Pennyworth activation to fetch Reign of Terror and then played the Reign, returning Hans's Shape to his hand and KO’ing a Jetpack attached to Shape. At this point, Golden Archer resolved, and Hans switched the Answer the Call in his resource row with Shape, an illegal play. The judge ruled that Hans had replaced his reservist resource with Answer the Call at the appropriate time, so the switch with Shape was illegal.

At this point, the game was stopped, and after discussion with both players and deliberation among the judging team, it was determined that the actions were consistent with cheating. Hans was issued the penalty of disqualification from the tournament without prizes, which was upheld by Head Judge Paul Ross following Hans's appeal.

As with all disqualifications, this incident will be followed up by an investigation. Upper Deck Entertainment takes all instances of cheating very seriously and is committed to keeping it out of their games.

Source: Tim Willoughby, http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=4214

WOW! i don't want to start making german jokes before getting the full story, but this insane!

interesting.

just before everyone starts pissing in the german's cup, I can say that I have played in a few 10Ks with Hans at the top tables before and I haven't been aware of any cheating rumours.

Normally if a player cheats, he is "known" about before he is caught.


(edit: Hey, A-rod, you have replaced your flag! You abandoning your citizenship? :) )

true, but there is a first time for everything. but we should not go crazy until we get the full story.

although a DQ from the PC top 8 is pretty much a final verdict, i am still going to hold out hope that it was a mistake.

wHAT A DUMB***. I guess I shouldn't jump to conclusions. But WOW!!!!

Wow, massive beats.

I was just thinking. WOuldn't people be watching this match. I mean its the top 8. In the feature match arena.

Wow!!!

And Josh makes Top 8.

This is really surprising. I hope it's somehow not true, Hans is a phenomenal player and a really nice guy. Then again they must have been fairly certain if he was DQ'd from the top 8. :(

I will make it very clear that I am not personally commenting on motive - ie whether Hans intentionally did this; clearly I cannot do so, having not been there to watch. It is possible Hans simply made a mistake.

The reason that was given for his DQ however was cheating. Logically, to take away his prizes rather than simply giving him a game loss (which would be the appropriate response for unintentional misplay) means they must have some grounds to believe it was not a mistake.

exactly, DQ and forfieture of prize is a pretty steep penalty for an unintended mistake.

however, is this worthy for a ban from sactioned events?

It's the flag for the British Antarctic territory. ;)

I figured since most of my playing is in the states (my very first UK tournament was the other weekend at gencon and my only other european tournament was pc amsterdam), the straight up union jack might be misleading. Antarctica is kinda between the two (and I can't imagine the weather is much worse than here at home ;))

Wow. I hope they release details.

This sucks if it's true, I never thought of Hans as a cheater.

I hope this isn't some weird early April fools joke



On a side note: couldn't Hans have played Answer the Call in response to Reign of Terror?

Mel, I think the problem was he had no hand when Shape was bounced back. Then somehow an Answer the Call got in his hand, and Shape found his way into the resource row. Apparently officials think he switched them.