Wizards of the Coast
Last Saturday, Magic: The Gathering player Dan Lanthier was caught cheating on camera during a match in Wizard's Tower Modern Open tournament. You can watch the videos here. Now, the Canadian gaming company has responded with a statement regarding the two-time Grand Prix champion's actions in their recent Magic event, announcing that Lanthier is getting a lifetime ban from playing at any events in their store.
Here's the full statement released on Wizard's Tower Facebook page:
"On Saturday Oct 13th, during our Modern event, Dan Lanthier was caught manipulating his deck during a match. After the event, the incident was reviewed by the owner and a local Level 2 judge and he was DQ'ed from the event. A full report of the incident has been put forward by us to the DCI and WOTC of the incident. We also contacted all players involved in matches against Dan Lanthier and provided them with the correct prize based on where they would have finished.
The behavior and actions exhibited are unacceptable to anyone at the Wizard's Tower and will not be tolerated. Wizard's Tower always strives and works towards creating a safe and fun environment for all staff and customers in our store. This incident was not representative of this and we have given a lifetime ban to Dan Lanthier from playing any events at our store.
We will always work with our community and players to provide the safest and best environment for players to play the games they love.
We appreciate all of your support in helping to build our gaming community."
It's good to know that Wizard's Tower is focused on providing a safe and positive gaming community in Canada. Hopefully, Wizards of the Coast will take additional steps to penalize cheating Magic players. Pro players who have been caught cheating in the past were only given temporary bans from playing in DCI sanctioned events. A lifetime ban may sound too harsh but the consequence is fitting especially for an event with prize money involved. Cheating in a Magic tournament is theft and should be taken seriously. This is one of the issues Pro Player Gerry Thompson brought up when he protested the state of professional Magic. Hopefully, this will send a clear message to Wizards of the Coast.
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