Mahergate or DCIgate: You Make the Call Michael Clauss
This just keeps getting better and better.
Last week I wrote an article
about the Fuller/Maher suspensions which Scott
graciously posted on this site. While it covered both suspensions, most of
the writing centered on Maher because I felt, rightly or wrongly, that his
infraction was more detrimental to the Magic community.
And as expected, people did respond. Some agreed, others took issue with
some points while agreeing with others and then there were the FOM (Friends
Of Maher) who countered my statements with compelling evidence like:
"[B]ob is a very good friend of mine, and having talked to him about this in
great detail [I] know that all of the derogatory things that u said
about him are false." -Neil Reeves
"Bob is one of the nicest people on the entire pro-tour and is a pleasure to
both play against and talk to. He lets people stay in his hotel room FOR
FREE if it's not a total inconvience and people need
it, like he let a few of us in GP Atlanta." -Will Brinkman
How can you counter assertions like this?
But one of the things people kept commenting on was the timeline (or lack
thereof), and no one was able to clarify the issue totally. So I decided to
get into my wayback machine (SideBoard, Event Coverage Section) and
reconstruct what happened.
The suspension article said that Maher confessed to the DCI following GP
Seattle. That event took place in the month after PT Chicago, '99. The
article also said that his cheating had allowed him to get an invite to the
World Championships (no year provided). Since the cheating could not have
happened after Seattle, and World Championships take place in the summer, we
now have this as a timeline:
Cheating incident -- Before Summer, '99
PT Chicago -- December 3-5, 1999
GP Seattle -- January 15-16, 2000
Clearly Maher's success is a direct result of his cheating and as stated in
my previous article, I believe he should have his title stripped, his rating
reset and his suspension lengthened (at least two years).
A number of people have countered my desire for a harsher penalty by saying
'Maher might have entered the pro-tour dishonestly, but his solid play at
the PT should allow him to keep his title.' I agree he is an excellent Magic
player and he did outplay the field in Chicago. However, he should never
have been there. Someone could argue that Maher might have eventually q'ed
for the tour because of his skills, but that is just a hypothetical. The
reality is he got on the gravy-train illegally. Not only that, but Maher
and his cohorts denied several people spots on the tour; spots which were
actually EARNED.
And now we come to the interesting part of the story.
Mr. Brinkman, who I quoted earlier, made this statement towards the end of
his e-mail to me:
"They [the DCI] basically just wanted for [Maher] to 'drop out of the
spotlight' and then ban him."
At the time I ignored the comment as irrelevant. But it crept back into my
head when I was working on the timeline. If you didn't notice it before, it
took the DCI two years to wrap up this investigation.
Two years.
The DCI had testimony from one of the co-conspirators and it still took two
years. If my memory is correct, it only took a matter of months to wrap up
the T. Martin case. But for the sake of argument let's say it took the same
amount of time to wrap up both cases. The question everyone should be
asking is 'why wasn't Maher pulled from the tour right after Seattle?' And
I don't want to hear that the DCI had no authority to do that. If they
wanted him off the tour, he would have been history. Why keep him? Well I
think there is some truth to Mr. Brinkman's statement. At the time Maher
confessed, he was the poster-boy for Magic. He had just won two premier
events in a row. What do you think would have happened if his cheating had
been made public after Seattle?
The DCI had testimony from one of the co-conspirators and it still took two
years.
So to save face the DCI most likely dragged out the
investigation hoping that
Maher's flame would go out. Unfortunately, that did not happen. That means
over the last two years the DCI has allowed a self-confessed cheater to take
home almost 60,000 in prize money (not counting the cash from Chicago &
Seattle). You can argue that while the investigation was proceeding they
had to allow him to play. But remember HE HAD CONFESSED. The only thing
the DCI had to verify was the role the co-conspirators played; Maher was
already guilty.
I don't know what's worse; Maher not stepping down voluntarily while the
investigation proceeded, or the DCI letting a known cheater (known to them
at least) collect checks.
Still not convinced how wrong this is? Think about how many pro-tour
careers were effected by his continued presence. He took second at Worlds
'00, 5th Chicago Masters '00, 5-8th New York Masters '00, 3rd New Orleans
Masters '01, etc. Think back....did he edge you out of a top eight
somewhere? Did his victory knock you out of the money? If you answered yes
to either, thank your friendly DCI for moving so quickly on Maher's suspension.
This has to be, by far, the DCI's biggest screw-up.
Before I wander off I have one request:
Pressure the DCI to release the details on this case.
E-mail, call, send snail-mail; it doesn't matter. It's time for the DCI to
open up about their "investigations." We need to be able to trust the DCI,
and this incident does not instill trust.
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