Alex Bertoncini's serial cheating.

[ivanpei]

I'm surprised there isn't a thread on this yet. He's locked up the invitational and is the highest ranked player in the world. All because of:



5 cards with brainstorm? Must be nice. Earlier the commentators caught him using brainstorm as an ancestral recall as well.

Also he double explores in this video:
Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd7cd-K8ImQ

There's alot of noise being made on the scg life feed now. Thoughts?

I'm going to refrain from commenting myself, but my frame of mind is: cheats don't belong in any competitive hobby. The only question now is how long should the ban hammer be?

[Tha Gunslinga]

I believe his name is actually Bertoncheaty.

[Esper3k]

Drew Levin's been making a huge stink about him recently. I actually saw a thread started on here with Drew Levin's email to Sheldon M. about it, but it looks like the thread got deleted?

Lots of stories about him drawing extra cards (like opponent Duresses him on T1 and catches him with 8 cards in hand) and preboarding.

I think there's a famous one where he was in a feature match and got someone with a preboarded Sower, then the T16 decklists came out and he had the Sowers in the board?

I also saw another video of him where he had a Kira out, opponent Jace bounces it, then Cursed Scrolls it and Bertoncini returns Kira to his hand.

[say no to scurvy]

There was a thread earlier this week after Drew Levin called him out on twitter or something for his multiple instances where he has been known to cheat

...pre-boarded sower against a reanimator with plat angel
...drawing extra cards
...3/1 mainboard/sideboard timely reinforcements against burn where his list was supposedly 2/2
...submerging forestless opps

The thread was deleted for unknown reasons

[ivanpei]

I can understand deleting a thread when there's slandering without proof. But when videos and screen caps of obvious cheating appears, something definitely has to be done. This evidence seems pretty conclusive IMO.

[Michael Keller]

I can understand deleting a thread when there's slandering without proof. But when videos and screen caps of obvious cheating appears, something definitely has to be done. This evidence seems pretty conclusive IMO.

I'm the one who started the old thread, and I asked Di to delete it because I had spoken directly with Drew who originally wanted me to put it up, but he had second thoughts because he was going to write an article or something to that effect about it.

There are plenty of videos regarding his shady antics, coercive/misleading tactics, and blatant cheating, as I'm right there front-running this absurdity right out the door for the world to see. What an absolute fucking disgrace to the game.

And for the record, that is four cards with that Brainstorm. It's pretty obvious as he was completely taking his opponent's lax attitude towards game-play in account and subliminally acting as if there was no thought behind his cheating, because of how blatantly obvious it is. His opponent is probably not even thinking twice at that moment because in the off-chance he even would think Alex was cheating, he's dismissing it as probably, "Well, who would be that dumb to cheat on a live feed anyway with judges right next to him?" He fanned out those four aces for the world to see and completely eradicated - in my mind - any credibility he has, had, or will have in any event in the future. I have no doubt he is talented, but he ruined a lot of peoples' days and cost a lot of people travel expenses at the urge to win at any cost.

It almost makes me want to vomit looking at that picture of him holding up a set of Power and a check for ten large.

Bertoncini is incredibly persuasive. I have played against him before (in the Top Four of a Jupiter Games event) and the kid is always looking for an edge any way he can get it. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work out so well.

[I am the brainwasher]

I do understand that most players are pissed (including me) but tearing SCG's head off instantly is not the way to go.
I do have a healthy criticism for them though.
There is a major difference between them letting DCI decide which action have to be taken, which is correct in general, or downgrading rules violation because of the star-character that magnetize other players towards their tourneys.
That whole dream of beeing able to make it big in MtG, mostly not in front of a computer, is represented through SCG besides the official GP's/PT's and it would be the most sad thing if they were trying to let famous players get advantages in any form for business purpose.
My hope hasn't fall down yet, but not thinking about that possibility would be pretty naive.


Really looking forward to Bertoncini running away with his gigantic paycheck while Yakety Sax music plays off, followed by a dozen judges.

[death]

Opponent: no he's good
Drew: you sure?

lmao.

[bfeingersh]

http://blip.tv/scglive/scg_sanjose_l...nd-007-4944362

There's also this. Check out between 35:00-36:00. His opponent has Jace+Cursed Scroll. Alex plays a Kira, opp. bounces and shoots it. Alex stacks up his graveyard and plays a second Kira. This time when it gets bounced+shot, he just picks it up. Nobody notices because there's still a Kira on top of his graveyard.

[conboy31]

There does seem to be an overwhelming amount of evidence being put forth suggesting that he is cheating (intent) vs. playing sloppy and not maintaining gamestates.

[Justin]

The photo of him on StarCity right now is pretty sickening. It seems clear that he is a serial cheater and this is well documented. He should be stripped of all winnings and banned by the DCI.

[Amon Amarth]

I believe his name is actually Bertoncheaty.

[Goin Aggro]

Has SCG responded at all to these claims?

[thecrav]

Has SCG responded at all to these claims?

Please see the first page of the thread:

SCG said they're merely a third party, they're leaving everything to the DCI.

As is correct, IMO.

[phonics]

Personally, I think the brainstorm evidence is not conclusive, heres a quick csi:



I do see how it could be interpreted to have a card in between RY and YB, but the shadow between the yellow and blue is not present above his pinky finger, suggesting that it is just the sleeve warped, also note the slight deviation in the angle of the shadow as it passes his ring finger.

Not defending him or anything, just saying that grainy stream footage is not really conclusive. That explore video however was definitely not right, was that being secretly taped?