The Steve Situation

[Thomas David Baker]

So.

Wizards has reviewed Steve's ban in light of some new statements which they didn't have at the time of the initial decision.

They have decided not to alter Steve's suspension.

Personally I feel like Steve's 3 year ban is way out of whack with what went on.  He may not be a saint but I don't feel like anything he did merits being barred from Magic for three years.

I think the reason the committee has come to that conclusion it has is simply because they don't know Steve.  They know there was this guy and he was drunk, they know he was wrestling over a box with some other guy and they know blood was split, and they know he was DQ'ed in Rome.  If you didn't know the person all that was true about, you'd probably want them banned too.

But ultimately I think we all know that Steve is largely a victim of circumstance here.  Sure, he can be censured for getting involved in that situation at all.  But banning someone entirely for three years is not a suitable censure.

There's a few mitigating factors here that just won't (and even can't) have occurred to the Wizards committee:

(1) Steve is extremely pacific and the last person to engage in violence.  (He's too lazy!)

(2) Getting drunk at a prerelease or other London Magic event is (or was?) commonplace, even expected.  (I'm not making a value judgment here in any direction, I'm just imagining Americans who don't know Steve reviewing the case and thinking of him as a lone drunkard belligerently charging at random Magic players.)

(3) No offense to Martin who is a fun guy, but if you hear there's been a physical fight between Martin and Steve you pretty much know what has gone down, if you know them.

For all these reasons I feel like we need to do something else to get Wizards to see sense on this issue.

My idea is to get up a petition and have people that have played in tournaments with Steve sign it.  I'm not asking anyone to say that Steve is a saint, just that you don't consider him violent or aggressive and that you think his ban is overly harsh.

Would you sign it?

[Thomas David Baker]

I'm relying on the fact that they want to do the right thing, they just don't know that they haven't.

Andy Hedkt at Wizards was open to discussing it with me and allowed me to submit two statements that were not present in the initial discussion which then triggered a review of the ban (even though ultimately it didn't result in a change).

At this time there is a big difference in his/their opinion and mine, which is that they believe Steve is strongly at fault for the particular situation that occurred at the prerelease. I think if we can make it clear with a petition from lots of people that know him to the Wizards folks who don't that Steve just isn't that sort of person we can get some movement. It's definitely worth a try, anyway.

But yes, you are right that to some extent we are at their mercy. I have hope that their mercy does exist, though. I'll get together a formal statement so that people can sign name/email address/actual address or something similar, soon.



Kieran Symington said:

I'll sign it - though I'm not sure you're going to be able to get any sort of review on this. It's not as though you could even force a judicial review of their judgment in the European Court of Justice (though that would be awesome!)

[wv]

People who were there and who saw the 'incident' know it wasn't entirely Steve's fault, but are just too shit scared to actually say anything. And that's the truth.

Thomas David Baker said:

I'm relying on the fact that they want to do the right thing, they just don't know that they haven't.

Andy Hedkt at Wizards was open to discussing it with me and allowed me to submit two statements that were not present in the initial discussion which then triggered a review of the ban (even though ultimately it didn't result in a change).

At this time there is a big difference in his/their opinion and mine, which is that they believe Steve is strongly at fault for the particular situation that occurred at the prerelease. I think if we can make it clear with a petition from lots of people that know him to the Wizards folks who don't that Steve just isn't that sort of person we can get some movement. It's definitely worth a try, anyway.

But yes, you are right that to some extent we are at their mercy. I have hope that their mercy does exist, though. I'll get together a formal statement so that people can sign name/email address/actual address or something similar, soon.



Kieran Symington said:

I'll sign it - though I'm not sure you're going to be able to get any sort of review on this. It's not as though you could even force a judicial review of their judgment in the European Court of Justice (though that would be awesome!)

[Gary Lynch]

Who are people scared of?

I think that all the people that were there never actualy saw what happened. Most people were focused on other things and just thought they were messing arround until there was blood.

[Allan Chong]

Most definitely will sign this. Steve is so jolly all the time.

[Ben Titmarsh]

A 3 year ban after grinding on to the pro tour just seems so harsh. I really believe Steve has been an incredibly unfortunate victim of circumstance in all the cases that were cited for the ban, it's just a shame that the people at the DCI are unable to see this.

[Thom Richardson]

so true.

if you were in a pub and you saw an argument end up with someone getting glassed you wouldnt be too surprised if both people got barred. You wouldn't expect the victim to be charged by the police.

thats what this feels like to me.

Ben Titmarsh said:

A 3 year ban after grinding on to the pro tour just seems so harsh. I really believe Steve has been an incredibly unfortunate victim of circumstance in all the cases that were cited for the ban, it's just a shame that the people at the DCI are unable to see this.

[James Mills]

You are forgetting the fact that Steve also got a game loss in a PTQ top 8 and DQ'ed for cheating in a high level event. If Martin got 2 years for the 'incident' then technically Steve got a 1 year ban for the other shenanigans.

However I would very much like Steve back playing Magic again even though he did try to get me a game loss at a pre release.

Warren Vonk said:

People who were there and who saw the 'incident' know it wasn't entirely Steve's fault, but are just too shit scared to actually say anything. And that's the truth.
Thomas David Baker said:

I'm relying on the fact that they want to do the right thing, they just don't know that they haven't.

Andy Hedkt at Wizards was open to discussing it with me and allowed me to submit two statements that were not present in the initial discussion which then triggered a review of the ban (even though ultimately it didn't result in a change). At this time there is a big difference in his/their opinion and mine, which is that they believe Steve is strongly at fault for the particular situation that occurred at the prerelease. I think if we can make it clear with a petition from lots of people that know him to the Wizards folks who don't that Steve just isn't that sort of person we can get some movement. It's definitely worth a try, anyway.

But yes, you are right that to some extent we are at their mercy. I have hope that their mercy does exist, though. I'll get together a formal statement so that people can sign name/email address/actual address or something similar, soon.



Kieran Symington said:

I'll sign it - though I'm not sure you're going to be able to get any sort of review on this. It's not as though you could even force a judicial review of their judgment in the European Court of Justice (though that would be awesome!)

[Tiff Leek]

yuh