Banned judges not banned anymore.

[Quasim0ff]

Regarding the judges banned on the 23rd of December, with regards to the (suspected) leak of OGW cards (Kozilek as well as Wastes) have been unbanned.

10 of the 12 are unbanned, through their appeals, as well as the last two persons being contacted by WotC in order to appeal.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles...ies-2016-01-13

[Phoenix Ignition]

Did a social media shitstorm actually make it as high as Cardboard Comcast's headquarters?

Maybe there is some hope for the Vintage community after all.

[thecrav]

Did a social media shitstorm actually make it as high as Cardboard Comcast's headquarters?

Not necessarily. From the guys on JudgeCast, it sounded like the initial banning was pretty knee-jerk and, as with all suspensions, they had the option to appeal. The article indicates that on appeal, WotC/the DCI changed their mind. I suspect that the flip flop is at least mostly because of what was found in the appeal. (The biggest of which was probably the judges pointing out that they did not violate any rule, explicit or implied)

[jrsthethird]

Adam Hubble and Ryan Case still have their 2- and 3-year bans (respectively) on the books, but there's only one judge now with a 3 month ban remaining.

[phonics]

Im sure that the bannings nuking a ton of judges from a single region making it super difficult to have any semi-large tournaments was a factor too.

[Lemnear]

And who believes these judges don't remain pissed after a knee-jerk ban, which was the result of WotC leaking information themselves?

[Hopo]

And who believes these judges don't remain pissed after a knee-jerk ban, which was the result of WotC leaking information themselves?

No one? But why try to actively seek shitty sides when the company actually once gets something right? Or do you really think that Wizards did bad when they inspected the appeals, reflected some and decided to give them a break? It is quite amusing (while annoying) to read people basically stating that nothing good comes from this company when they at the same time are actively trying get recognition on a site dedicated to this awesome game by Wizards. It feels that the only way for Wizards to stop annoying you people would be to quit printing cards and running tournaments.

[Lemnear]

No one? But why try to actively seek shitty sides when the company actually once gets something right? Or do you really think that Wizards did bad when they inspected the appeals, reflected some and decided to give them a break? It is quite amusing (while annoying) to read people basically stating that nothing good comes from this company when they at the same time are actively trying get recognition on a site dedicated to this awesome game by Wizards. It feels that the only way for Wizards to stop annoying you people would be to quit printing cards and running tournaments.

Pardon me, but most tournaments are run by private companies/stores anyways, so I don't think we need to thank WotC for harassing these over some proxies like recently. There is no need to thank WotC for selling products. There is no need to thank WotC fueling speculation on the secondary market. There is no reason to thank WotC for cutting tournmant support and player rewards. I could continue this list.

There is no need to search for shit, if the company (WotC) leaks cards themselves and later blames the whole community and their volunteer judges for it, just to row back afterwards after a "fuck you community!" article and banning judges to cover their own marketing strategy fail. This is NOT how you keep your community pleased and attached to your product.

PR desasters, the games rising prices, ignoring community feedback, overloading the game with confusing gimmicks, etc. is stuff WotC or finally Hasbro has to terminate

[Hopo]

Pardon me, but most tournaments are run by private companies/stores anyways, so I don't think we need to thank WotC for harassing these over some proxies like recently. There is no need to thank WotC for selling products. There is no need to thank WotC fueling speculation on the secondary market. There is no reason to thank WotC for cutting tournmant support and player rewards. I could continue this list.

There is no need to search for shit, if the company (WotC) leaks cards themselves and later blames the whole community and their volunteer judges for it, just to row back afterwards after a "fuck you community!" article and banning judges to cover their own marketing strategy fail. This is NOT how you keep your community pleased and attached to your product.

PR desasters, the games rising prices, ignoring community feedback, overloading the game with confusing gimmicks, etc. is stuff WotC or finally Hasbro has to terminate

This is just how I wrote: In the sea of shitty things they actually managed to get one thing right but to you that is just one more shitty thing in their name. Is there anything that would make you say "Good job" when it's quite clear that rightfully fixing their unfair and stupid knee-jerk reaction is not among them?

[Mr Miagi]

Pardon me, but most tournaments are run by private companies/stores anyways, so I don't think we need to thank WotC for harassing these over some proxies like recently. There is no need to thank WotC for selling products. There is no need to thank WotC fueling speculation on the secondary market. There is no reason to thank WotC for cutting tournmant support and player rewards. I could continue this list.

There is no need to search for shit, if the company (WotC) leaks cards themselves and later blames the whole community and their volunteer judges for it, just to row back afterwards after a "fuck you community!" article and banning judges to cover their own marketing strategy fail. This is NOT how you keep your community pleased and attached to your product.

PR desasters, the games rising prices, ignoring community feedback, overloading the game with confusing gimmicks, etc. is stuff WotC or finally Hasbro has to terminate

AMEN!

We need to have a like button

[Barook]

This is just how I wrote: In the sea of shitty things they actually managed to get one thing right but to you that is just one more shitty thing in their name. Is there anything that would make you say "Good job" when it's quite clear that rightfully fixing their unfair and stupid knee-jerk reaction is not among them?

They have done what was necessary. There's no need to applaud them. They only corrected a massive fuck-up they have commited previously. There's no net positive for the community. That's like wasting 100$ on something, recovering 75$ afterwards and then claim you've made profit.

Or to put it in Magic terms: Reparations

"Sorry I burned down your village. Here's some gold."

We also don't know why it happened. Is it just a PR stunt to gain favor of the judges/community back? Or did they realize that you can't simply nuke the entire judge structure of several states without ruining tournaments?

Pardon me, but most tournaments are run by private companies/stores anyways, so I don't think we need to thank WotC for harassing these over some proxies like recently. There is no need to thank WotC for selling products. There is no need to thank WotC fueling speculation on the secondary market. There is no reason to thank WotC for cutting tournmant support and player rewards. I could continue this list.

There is no need to search for shit, if the company (WotC) leaks cards themselves and later blames the whole community and their volunteer judges for it, just to row back afterwards after a "fuck you community!" article and banning judges to cover their own marketing strategy fail. This is NOT how you keep your community pleased and attached to your product.

PR desasters, the games rising prices, ignoring community feedback, overloading the game with confusing gimmicks, etc. is stuff WotC or finally Hasbro has to terminate

+1. Couldn't agree more.

[Lemnear]

This is just how I wrote: In the sea of shitty things they actually managed to get one thing right but to you that is just one more shitty thing in their name. Is there anything that would make you say "Good job" when it's quite clear that rightfully fixing their unfair and stupid knee-jerk reaction is not among them?

There is nothing to applaude for a mandatory "fix" to their "stupid knee-jerk reaction", which was unnecessary from the start, especially as you cannot undo the impression this has left on the community. Asking the heads of a community-driven company to think before reacting and pissing off the beforementioned community is all what I do and the center of the critique which also blends over into their handling of other aspects in regards to the game.

Edit: seems like I got ninja'd by taking too long to finish this post.

[Hopo]

I like to think that there's some room between applauding and dissing. Then there's the notion of trying to encourage a body to make good decisions in the future by upping thumbs instead of slinging shit when something like this happens.

[Lemnear]

I like to think that there's some room between applauding and dissing. Then there's the notion of trying to encourage a body to make good decisions in the future by upping thumbs instead of slinging shit when something like this happens.

If slinging shit encourages WotC to overthink things before acting in the future, its totally worth it :)

[jrsthethird]

Maybe they wanted to make a huge statement and then planned to roll it back if everything checked out?

We all might be pissed off right now at WOTC, but when SOI season comes upon us and someone throws an unauthorized leak, I'll be damned if they don't get the whistle blown on them so that someone down the chain of information who never asked for the leak can get themselves out of hot water. For better or for worse, we as a community should learn by now to cut the leak shit out.

WOTC owns the intellectual rights to the game, and we're stealing them away. Maybe the harsh discipline is what they were aiming for all along?

[Lemnear]

Maybe they wanted to make a huge statement and then planned to roll it back if everything checked out?

We all might be pissed off right now at WOTC, but when SOI season comes upon us and someone throws an unauthorized leak, I'll be damned if they don't get the whistle blown on them so that someone down the chain of information who never asked for the leak can get themselves out of hot water. For better or for worse, we as a community should learn by now to cut the leak shit out.

WOTC owns the intellectual rights to the game, and we're stealing them away. Maybe the harsh discipline is what they were aiming for all along?

It's confusing to talk about a "leak" if MaRo himself points in three BlogAtog posts to spoilers at a certain date and at the exact date, HighRes pics of Kozilek & Wastes make it into the web and go viral. I don't believe in coincidence, but in desperate damage control as a result of MaRo giving away information in advance like he/WotC did with the GodBooks to New Phrexia and earlier.