Ininvited guests steal $18,100 from Magic pro players!
magi...@aol.com
<<Yes, you heard right. Two uninvited guests raided the Type I pro tour
in Dallas, and stole $11,200 and $6,900 respectively for the #1 and #2
spots. Their names? Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe.
What do I mean by them stealing the money? They made it to #1 and #2
in the tournament, fairly.
Nay, I say! NEITHER Scott Johns, who won the tournament, nor
Huei-Saint Shwe, who got second, were INVITED. According to WotC's
web page, invitations to the Type 1 event were based solely on being
in the Top 128 in the DCI's Type 1 ranking. On the invitation list on
WotC's web page, Scott Johns and Heui-Saint Shwe are listed nowhere. >>
It is no secret that Wotc allowed ANYONE who appeared in the top 128
at any point in the last month to play. It was either that Wotc would
actuall yhave to Defend the legitimacy of theier ratingsystem!!!!! And
we know they had no prayer of pulling that off.
-Eric Covener
Jeremy Fuller
Yes, you heard right. Two uninvited guests raided the Type I pro tour
in Dallas, and stole $11,200 and $6,900 respectively for the #1 and #2
spots. Their names? Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe.
What do I mean by them stealing the money? They made it to #1 and #2
in the tournament, fairly.
Nay, I say! NEITHER Scott Johns, who won the tournament, nor
Huei-Saint Shwe, who got second, were INVITED. According to WotC's
web page, invitations to the Type 1 event were based solely on being
in the Top 128 in the DCI's Type 1 ranking. On the invitation list on
WotC's web page, Scott Johns and Heui-Saint Shwe are listed nowhere.
That means one of either two things:
1) I'm wrong, and the DCI offered entry for people who were not in
the Top 128, or Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe WERE in the Top 128.
2) The DCI made a HUGE faux pas and they may soon be bombarded with
lawsuits galore.
Hopefully, it is #1. As a sidenote, as many people on IRC will tell
you, during Charles Keith-Stanley's Cybercast, he started reading
mail. (This was during the first rounds of Type 2) He began reading
my mail, saying, "And here's a note from Jeremy Fuller, from
CCO.NET... thanks for writing, Jeremy. He says here that....." then,
the cybercast stopped, and consisted of only a 15-second portion where
he repeated the beginning of my message. After a minute or two, the
cybercast re-started, NEARLY identical to before, but clearly
different. CKS also skipped my letter this time. I wrote another
letter, which was ignored (I believe). It's a coverup! Gwah!@#
--
Jeremy Fuller
jfu...@cco.net
TheWurm on IRC
--
Uncoverer of the DALLAS CONSPIRACY! =)
--
The views expressed in this message are solely the
opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the views of Satan or his unholy minions.
Barry Young
jfu...@cco.net (Jeremy Fuller) wrote:
>Nay, I say! NEITHER Scott Johns, who won the tournament, nor
>Huei-Saint Shwe, who got second, were INVITED. According to WotC's
>web page, invitations to the Type 1 event were based solely on being
>in the Top 128 in the DCI's Type 1 ranking. On the invitation list on
>WotC's web page, Scott Johns and Heui-Saint Shwe are listed nowhere.
>That means one of either two things:
> 1) I'm wrong, and the DCI offered entry for people who were not in
>the Top 128, or Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe WERE in the Top 128.
> 2) The DCI made a HUGE faux pas and they may soon be bombarded with
>lawsuits galore.
What's the old saying? "Never assume a conspiracy when mere
incompetence is sufficient?" And indeed, the DCI has repeatedly shown
(to me anyway) that they are incapable of correctly tracking and
calculating simple ratings.
In my case, for instance, I knew what my current type 1 rating was
supposed (about 1745) to be and that that should give me a ranking of
around #42, easily sufficient to get me invited to Dallas. You will
note, however, that my name appears nowhere on the list.
To make a long story short, after about a week & a-half on the phnoe
with the DCI, they finally conceeded that I was correct & that I
should be invited. (Of course by that time, I was no longer eleigble
for the 21-day notice Airline discounts, and I could not afford the
AirFare.) I was fortunate, because when I called I was armed with the
time, place, win-loss count and Director's Names of every sanctioned
Type 1 match that I had ever played in.
How did I have all of this, you ask? Because this was not the first
time the DCI had done this to me, it was in fact the third time. On
the second time the had actually lost out of their "Database" any
record of any match I had ever played, a fact which prevented me from
being invited to Pro-Tour 3.
And I doubt that I am the only person that this happens to. You might
recall that one of the OMS brothers was not invited to the World
championships because they had incorrectly calculated his rating as
well. Based on this I can only assume that:
A) Many of the ratings, perhaps even MOST of the ratings are
completely incorrect.
and B) The DCI Rankings list are about as meaningful and accurate
as a Lotto drawing.
and C) That most of the "top" players are wise to this, and track
their own records and ratings, and whenever they get excluded from an
invitation list, simply call up the DCI and get it fixed in order to
get an invitation.
This is what I assume happened to all of those people at the PT Type-1
event that do not appear on the invitation list.
-- Barry
DCI #: 6969-1-800-IAM-FUCKED
DCI Rating: Whatever the DCI pulls out of a hat this week.
Daniel M Gray
jfu...@cco.net (Jeremy Fuller) writes:
>Yes, you heard right. Two uninvited guests raided the Type I pro tour
>in Dallas, and stole $11,200 and $6,900 respectively for the #1 and #2
>spots. Their names? Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe.
>What do I mean by them stealing the money? They made it to #1 and #2
>in the tournament, fairly.
>Nay, I say! NEITHER Scott Johns, who won the tournament, nor
>Huei-Saint Shwe, who got second, were INVITED. According to WotC's
>web page, invitations to the Type 1 event were based solely on being
>in the Top 128 in the DCI's Type 1 ranking. On the invitation list on
>WotC's web page, Scott Johns and Heui-Saint Shwe are listed nowhere.
>That means one of either two things:
> 1) I'm wrong, and the DCI offered entry for people who were not in
>the Top 128, or Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe WERE in the Top 128.
> 2) The DCI made a HUGE faux pas and they may soon be bombarded with
>lawsuits galore.
The answer is neither 1 nor 2. What happened was a large portion(or
maybe even all-- I've gotten conflicting answers from different people at
WotC) of the Type I DCI database got corrupted somehow. Much of the new
stuff entered in September and October was fine, but everything else in the
system got messed up somehow. This resulted in some totally ridiculous
stuff-- Brian Weissman, ranked #107 on the previous list somehow fell to
#404, tumbling over 100 rating points WITHOUT PLAYING A SINGLE TYPE I MATCH.
He called up the DCI and asked what was up. They told him that a tournament
he had gone 8-0 in during early 1996 had somehow turned into him going 0-0-8
in the database. This happened to a LOT of other people. WotC, therefore,
decided the only solution was to invite anyone who could make a reasonable
argument that they had been in the Top 128 sometime in the past month or
so(which both Scott and Huei were, along with a bunch of other people).
Considerably more than 128 people recieved invites, as invites were given
not only to every person in the top 128 of the ranking list which resulted
from the corrupted data, but everyone who called in and complained as well.
I believe the actual number of players in the Type I on Friday was 144.
Dan Gray
wized
Daniel M Gray wrote:
>
> jfu...@cco.net (Jeremy Fuller) writes:
(lots snipped)
> >That means one of either two things:
>
> > 1) I'm wrong, and the DCI offered entry for people who were not in
> >the Top 128, or Scott Johns and Huei-Saint Shwe WERE in the Top 128.
> > 2) The DCI made a HUGE faux pas and they may soon be bombarded with
> >lawsuits galore.
>
> The answer is neither 1 nor 2. What happened was a large portion(or
> maybe even all-- I've gotten conflicting answers from different people at
> WotC) of the Type I DCI database got corrupted somehow. Much of the new
> stuff entered in September and October was fine, but everything else in the
> system got messed up somehow. This resulted in some totally ridiculous
> stuff-- Brian Weissman, ranked #107 on the previous list somehow fell to
> #404, tumbling over 100 rating points WITHOUT PLAYING A SINGLE TYPE I MATCH.
> He called up the DCI and asked what was up. They told him that a tournament
> he had gone 8-0 in during early 1996 had somehow turned into him going 0-0-8
> in the database. This happened to a LOT of other people. WotC, therefore,
> decided the only solution was to invite anyone who could make a reasonable
> argument that they had been in the Top 128 sometime in the past month or
> so(which both Scott and Huei were, along with a bunch of other people).
> Considerably more than 128 people recieved invites, as invites were given
> not only to every person in the top 128 of the ranking list which resulted
> from the corrupted data, but everyone who called in and complained as well.
> I believe the actual number of players in the Type I on Friday was 144.
> Dan Gray
This problem of data corruption seems to be a recurrent theme at the
DCI. In 1995 the same thing happened to me and several others.
Fortunately I kept a record of all my matches and when I called the DCI
with the information they correct the situation, for which I was
grateful and was invited to participate in the '95 Nationals. A lot
however has changed since then however and this system should have been
worked out in the last 2 years.
Data of this nature should always be backed up weekly and a backup kept
separate from the working source. Since this data is being used to
invite individuals to high price money tournaments it should also be
verified for accuracy be two people as data it is entered into the
database. The most important of the 2 is the first one about data
corruption which should never happen. I've only lost data once in over
ten years of computing because of a power failure. It seems like the
common occurrences here could be prevented very easily with proper
backup precautions. Take care.
Ed
Aziz
> from the corrupted data, but everyone who called in and complained as well.
> I believe the actual number of players in the Type I on Friday was 144.
> Dan Gray
>
>
Pretty small turnout.
Aziz
Barry Young
dg...@merle.acns.nwu.edu (Daniel M Gray) wrote:
> The answer is neither 1 nor 2. What happened was a large portion(or
>maybe even all-- I've gotten conflicting answers from different people at
>WotC) of the Type I DCI database got corrupted somehow. Much of the new
>stuff entered in September and October was fine, but everything else in the
>system got messed up somehow.
Yes, I know that this is what the DCI tells everyone, but it just
doesn't wash. They have in fact, been telling me that "the Database
got mysteriously corrupted last week" story for about 6 months now.
Its their favorite line, right after "the Tournament Director never
sent in those results" a statement that I have discovered to be untrue
more than 50% of the time.
As for the "Everything from September on is OK" story, most of my
matches that they either lost or misprocessed were in September and
October (this last time anyway).
I sincerely believe that we will *never* see our match records
available to us online, though they tell us on their Web page and
elsewhere that they will "real soon now". Because if they did, it
would quickly become obvious to everyone just how shoddy their records
and calculations really are.
-- Barry