Well, I decided to post this so you may know what the other side of the story, since I realized I'm the greatest villain in the history of Brazilian magic since I caused the Wendell's disqualification on the legacy side event on last year's nationals.

I was doing my field test to level 1  at this event and knew no one site. On Thursday I had played cube draft at McDonald's with Wendell and another crew from Fortaleza and Campinas, I believe, but we did not play each other. As he was the only person I "knew" I was watching his game after making a deckcheck and chatting a bit with the HJ.

In the first game I saw him do a bit strange shuffling (popularly known as vampiric fetchland) and I told the HJ what i had seen. He told me just to keep an eye. Inbetween the first 2 games, I saw the same thing happen again, but with his opponent's deck, this time putting a lot (8) lands on top. I asked the players to stop playing and wait and I warned the HJ again what had happened. He interviewed Wendell, shuffled the deck of his opponent and the game went on. Sometime at the end of the match, I saw again the technique of "vampiric fetchland" and warned the HJ again. When he arrived at the table, the match was over and he was interviewing Wendell ... and everyone knows the rest of that story.

Some considerations:

1) I'm sure of what I saw;

2) The final word is the HJ's. He takes into account what he learns in the interview with the player and what the floor judge reported and he makes a decision based on that;

3) DQs are SERIOUS BUSINESS. The extent of paperwork, interviews, testimony, e-mail exchange etc. that occurs in an investigation of DQ is VERY long and tiring. A HJ does not apply a DQ in jest, he at least has full conviction of what he is doing;

4) People say that I acted to "show service" because it was my test. I had about 4 years experience as a judge at Nationals Qualifiers in Fortaleza and other big tournaments here and had learned a lot in this time. I was convinced I had the knowledge and attitude necessary to be judge by conversations with other judges (Americans and Europeans, mostly, that influenced me enough to make my test) on EFNet channels and also my past experiences.

My goal here is not to demoralize anyone. I'm just stating my side because this process has generated a lot of hatred over to me, from people who don't even know me. If you think you have been injured in a decision, state out your anger, make statements, go after an annulment. It is your right. Now from there to chase people with threats of violence in the public media, ah, come on.

Regards,

Lucas Horta