Hélène Bergeot started her career with Wizards of the Coast in France in December, 1995; afterwards, she spent a few years in the European headquarters based in Belgium and eventually relocated to the Renton office. She is currently the director of organized play and trade marketing.

I wanted to provide some clarification and context about recent DCI suspensions related to accessing and distributing confidential information prior to public release.

One of the concerns in the community about these suspensions is that many people see and discuss cards and other information prior to official release. Discussing information that has reached the wider community is not the issue, and discussing or accessing threads you see on public internet forums will not result in sanctions. That is not what occurred here.

The people suspended were members of a private group receiving stolen confidential information about upcoming sets before this information was available in any public forum on the internet. This happened over multiple sets and well ahead of preview season for the sets in question. Viewing never-before-seen Magic cards in a private group — and not seeing these cards anywhere else on the internet — should be a red flag that the information you see is likely stolen. If you come across information like this, you should immediately report it to Wizards. Major leaks in the past have been prevented by other members of our community reporting similar situations to Wizards.

Another concern that has been raised by some individuals is that they did not participate in the group during the latest leak. The issue with the passive participants is not a one-time affair; this information was shared within the group for multiple expansions.

An additional concern raised by some individuals is that the suspended parties were not contacted for a statement. As this was an investigation into theft of our intellectual property and subsequent sharing and access of the stolen property, the typical processes involved in investigating player misconduct related to disqualification at events did not apply. The suspended players may provide statements and additional information in an appeals process which has been communicated to all of them.

We take feedback and concerns from our community very seriously, and I plan to appear on an upcoming MTGFocus podcast to discuss this situation further. I’ll take up further questions and concerns then.