Update: The official story has been published by Wizards concerning the disqualification. Read the full explanation here.

The official rules for ‘Fraud’ are as follows:

Definition

A person intentionally and knowingly violates or misrepresents rules, procedures, personal information, or any other relevant tournament information. Note that Fraud, like most cheating, is determined by an investigation and will often appear on the surface as a Game Play Error or Tournament Error.
Additionally, it is Fraud if a player (or teammate) notices an offense in their match and does not immediately call attention to it.

Examples

• A player enters a tournament under an assumed name and/or using a different DCI number in an attempt to manipulate ratings.
• A player alters the results of a match after the match is over.
• A player lies to a tournament official to gain or keep an advantage.
• A player lies to his opponent about his life total.
• A player observes his opponent or teammate make an illegal play but does not call a judge because it is to his advantage.
• A spectator gives false or misleading information to a tournament official that helps another player to cheat.

If you attack with a Silvercoat Lion, and your opponent blocks with a Glory Seeker that should not die in the combat due to Veteran Armorsmith that is on your opponent’s side of the battlefield, you have a responsibility to let your opponent know—if they try to put their creature in the graveyard—that it has not taken lethal damage. Willfully failing to do so is Fraud, and will result in the same penalty that Gindy received: Disqualification.

1. From everything I am hearing on various sites, I guess it involved a misrepresentation of Game State involving Master of the Wild Hunt, but we are waiting to hear for sure.

   TheCounterGuy | November 19, 2009, 1:54 pm | #

2. that sucks! gindy gets hit in the face while kibler walks free

   KT | November 19, 2009, 6:53 pm | #

3. I guess it depends what exactly he said, but I don’t see how the post-game question proves he was aware of (and “intentionally allowed”) a misplay at the time it occurred during the game.

   JJ | November 19, 2009, 10:16 pm | #

4. WOW! How hypocritcal can Magic get. Brain Kibler wins a pro tour without having a legal target available and Gindy gets Disqualified from worlds for the same thing. I’m so glad there is so much consistancy in Magic. It really makes me want to play in tournaments. Hopefully, I’ll get a judge thats on my side since Magic is a competition of who you know not how you play.

   ryantc1983 | November 20, 2009, 9:32 am | #

5. I will now quit playing Magic in protest of this unbelievable aweful hypocritcal ruling. Magic judges are all hypocrites and should be fired. Way to go Wizards for loosing fan support.

   John Paul VD | November 20, 2009, 9:38 am | #

6. Re: comparisons between the situation at Austin vs Worlds, I’ll quote another judge on the subject:

   “Oh, so you’re psychic and know all the details of each situation? Astounding! Don’t start with your armchair judging without access to all the facts of the situation and discussion with the players.

   “Even with the scant information, the situations are already very different: the biggest difference being that Kibler’s mistake was noticed after the tournament was over and done with.”

   Also, Master of the Wild Hunt was Gindy’s card. It was in his deck. It is therefore difficult to credit the idea that he does not know how his card works. Angel of Despair was Kibler’s opponent’s card, and it is therefore more plausible that the missed trigger was a legitimate mistake.

   David Zimet | November 20, 2009, 1:41 pm | #

7. So, Gindy got DQed because Kibler didn’t know the rules…

   JD | December 10, 2009, 1:54 pm | #

8. No JD, Gindy played against Antoine Menard not Kibler. Menard didn’t assign combat damage and Gindy was dq’ed for it. Seems pretty janky to me.

   Adam | December 19, 2009, 2:43 pm | #

9. Something like this happened to me once. I was playing in a Type 2 tournament during Tempest/Urza blocks, running a WW deck. I had Soltari Priest and Worship in play slowly picking my opponent to death. He was running G/R Zoo and played Earthquake for 3 on his turn. I put my Priest in the graveyard for some dumb reason, failing to realize it had protection red. I realized my mistake one turn later but my opponent said it was too late. I was naive and inexperienced so I thought thats how the rules worked. It was DCI sanctioned so I should have called a judge over. I didn’t and ended up losing. It was the semi-finals match and I got 4th place…. just outside of the prize range. My opponent that cheated got 3rd and I had to watch him get the prize. I’ve been bitter about tournaments ever since. Remember kids if you ever have a situation best to just call a judge over I could have made it into the top 3 in my very first tournament had I got a judge involved. I’m glad Gindy got dq’ed because he cheated. Lame.

   Adam | December 19, 2009, 2:54 pm | #

10. Nobody can compare this to Kibler and think that the judges are being unfair. What Gindy did was clearly view his opponent make a mistake that benefited Gindy, and said nothing. After the game he admits to noticing the mistake in what was surely a piff of arrogance. Gindy deserves to be disqualified, end of story.

    Steve Gallant | May 8, 2010, 11:06 pm | #