Once again I find myself sitting down to write a GP Auckland report and wondering if there really is any point, given DTK is about to be released. Whilst I have a multitude of fantastic limited musings (and opinions on the tournament and format in general) it seems difficult to capture the public’s attention with a rotated format – plus I didn’t even win (cue world’s smallest violin)!

I do, however, have something else to talk about from that particular weekend. As I’m sure you have no doubt heard, Australian magic player and ex-writer for Channel Fireball, James Fazzolari, was disqualified from the main event of GP Auckland and is currently awaiting the decision of a DCI investigation which will, most likely, culminate in a banning of a certain period. I would like to use this article to share my opinion on this affair. This will not be a puff piece or a witch-hunt, but simply my honest opinion on the events that occurred.

I first met James last year at the Melbourne WMCQ, where he conceded to me in the penultimate round of swiss, as he was already locked, for no reason other than we were friends with the same people. I was very surprised to receive the concession as we had barely met and from his point of view it was probably a smarter play to bash and try to keep me out of top 8. James ultimately beat me in the finals of the event, and whilst I was certainly disappointed to lose, it was hard to feel too bad as James had helped me get to that position and had been a genuinely great guy to hang out with all day.

After the WMCQ I started communicating with James frequently, I was qualified for Pro Tour Fate Reforged and James was very eager to help me prepare. I was messaging him daily, discussing limited and modern (which he was much more experienced with than myself, albeit very biased towards decks containing Delver of Secrets or Grave Titan) and found his input to be very helpful. James was also able to get me onto a podcast with him and Josh Silvestri, which was a fantastic opportunity – as well as a lot of fun. When I expressed a desire to move to Melbourne, James asked for my resume and gave it out to some of his colleagues. In a very short period of time, James had gone from a name I saw on a website to someone I considered a very close friend.

People in our community would often (fairly) ridicule James for his history of poor interaction with people on the Internet (through Reddit and the comment sections of his articles) and I would constantly defend him, pointing out how far he had come with his online communication and I was genuinely pleased to see how positive the majority of his comments had become.

In the lead up to the GP, James and I again talked daily about the format. I was in a bit of a slump after doing poorly at the PT but I was spurred on to draft the format more and try new archetypes based on the enthusiasm that he was showing and the effort I could see he was putting in.

Cut to the GP and round 5 when I first heard that James had been disqualified from the event.

I was devastated, and ran around the venue and surrounding areas to try and find him and make sure he was ok. Due to still being in the tournament and there not being Internet access at the venue (really?) I was unable to talk to James until that evening, when I went back to the hostel dorm we were sharing. He asked if I had made day two and it was immediately clear how shattered he was – I answered him and told him that if he didn’t want to talk that was fine, but if he did I was there for him and that I still considered him a good friend. James declined and I spent most of the night lying awake thinking about if I could have been a better mate, if I could have done more and basically just about the situation in general (up until this point, I had still heard only rumours).

The facts started to come through though: James had cheated, despite initially denying it to us, the judge and the online community.

This news hit me very hard. I truly wish that James had been honest with all involved about these incidents from the start as the lies and back-tracking obviously do not help his standing in the community, or in the eyes of his friends – but I do understand that Magic was/is a huge part of his life and he was literally watching as his world crumbled and was petrified of losing everyone and everything around him

So where does all that leave us? Currently James is still awaiting the result of an investigation which will determine the length of his ban. The opinions of the local community vary – and part of my reason for writing this article was to give myself a chance to sort through all this for myself. After hearing about the GP, I started to wonder how I would feel if James had cheated against me in the WMCQ final – then wondering if he had actually cheated. This is obviously an awful thing to have think about a friend, and left me feeling betrayed by the whole incident.

I still talk to James often and consider him a good friend. I’ve come to terms with what he did and I am willing to give him the chance to redeem himself. I think he certainly deserves a ban (of length determined by the DCI) and I truly hope that he can use that period to grow and win back his friends and the community. I hope he comes back to the game with the same thirst to prove himself, but with it directed towards us first and results second. I understand people being adverse to playing against him or interacting with him in general, but I hope that they will be willing to give him another chance and that James will show himself to be truly remorseful and worthy of this opportunity.

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