So, I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about Saito and whether or not he’s a terrible person.  I live in Japan and frequent his store, so I’m fairly confident that he’s not a terrible person just on account of my personal interactions with him.  I felt that his own final words on the topic should be put forth.

I hope that the translation conveys the true sense of his words.  If it makes you feel angry, then you probably don’t understand.  Essentially, it confirms that AJ Sacher was essentially exactly right in his post here.  He never intended to break the rules.  His original article in Japanese is here.  Anyway, here’s the translation.  It’s pretty accurate, but getting all the nuances is hard, so mostly use it as a much better google translate. — Erek Speed

1.5 Year Suspension, About the Hall of Fame Cancellation and What I will do from here on out

I think a lot of people already know but, I, Tomoharu Saito, ended up being suspended for 1.5 years.

Here are the contents of the mail I received:

• As far the GP Florence incident, based on past warning history it was judged to be intentional.
• The 2001 Suspension was taken into account.
• I cannot participate or judge at tournaments for 18 months.

At first, I was in shock. Honestly, not being able to attend any more tournaments is a tough blow.  In light of such a serious judgment, my heart felt strange.  In my own way, I’ve been playing while dedicated to fair play, haven’t I?

And now, concerning that, the more I thought about it the more I understood.  I think the main cause was that more than considering fair play; I was overcome by the desire to win.  Being a pro player, I should have a significant desire to win but as my thoughts settle, I guess that desire overly dominated my sense of fair play.

I’ve reflected heavily on the situation; from the accumulated warnings and DQ, to my eventual suspension, and I’ve come away with something critical.  For the sake of all those who will continue going to magic tournaments, I think I will write it clearly:

[A strong desire to win] – [A strong sense of fair play] = [warnings and easy DQs]

The solution to this equation may seem exaggerated, but I ended up receiving many slow play warnings, and I think that’s the reason I was suspended. If you have an extremely strong desire to win, but don’t have an equally strong sense of fair play, then it’s no good.
I’ve always pursued victory, but in terms of fair play, at some point, the growth stopped.  The reality is that as you play in more and more professional and competitive events and your wins are noticed more and more, there’s an increased demand for fair play.
That being said, because it’s hard to quantify having the same amount of competitive spirit vs sense of fair play, I’ll summarize it as follows, “The continued pursuit of fair play is incredibly important.”
As far me, I wasn’t able to stick to that path, and ended up with the worst outcome, but if everyone holds firmly to these ideals in their play, I think they’ll be okay.
The quest for fair play:  Discussing it with more colleges and understanding every nook and cranny of the rules, I concluded various things as might be expected.  I earnestly accept what has happened to me due to my failures and from here on out I think I will make the best of my life.

I received an 18 month suspension. Moreover, I have accepted the reality of the situation. In regards to the suspension, the ruling criterion is not made public, but based on whatever it was, and because I participated in the pro tour by choice, I will, like last time, abide by their decision.
In regards to the Hall of Fame cancellation, shortly after, another email arrived. Until now, I was doing my best, and am happy to have been voted in and it’s extremely unfortunate, but in light of what ended up happening, I thought it was an appropriate action.

DQ, suspension, and a hall of fame cancellation.  What’s more, my bid for POY is now impossible.
Concerning these things, to those who have been supportive, those who have been disappointed, those who have begun to be inconvenienced, to all people related to magic, once more, please accept my deepest apologies.

Let me speak a bit about what I’m going to do from here.
After each of these events, I received a truly large amount of email and comments offering assistance and encouragement.  You truly saved me. Thank You.
Despite what happened, that there were people with these kinds of thoughts astonished me.
I was happy. However, at the same time, there were also again apologetic feelings which swelled up inside of me.
I think understand everyone’s feelings.
That there’s still a lot I can do for magic after all.
That I can contribute to magic, to the increasing of the happiness of the magic world. Indeed, with such a strong thought, I will certainly do it.  This time, I accept your kind words, and will relentlessly pursue your kind offer.
Thanks to all this I can continue with some peace of mind.

Now then, what will I do in more concrete terms.
After this, the huge amount of time I spent as a pro player with practice, competition, and travel has freed up.
Firstly, there’s the primary result of my magic success, the CARDSHOP Hareruya.  Here, more than in the past I’ll strive to put increased effort into my store.  These days, because I have many colleagues with the same thought, and because there many people for whom it is necessary, I’m not mistaken that this is the best course of action. In order to ever increase the smiling faces of my customers, I want to do my best. It also looks like I’ll increase the number of staff on hand.
Furthermore, having played tournament magic so long, until now I’ve had no time and haven’t been able to play any casual magic.  Now it looks like I’ll be playing quite a lot of it; cube draft, Winston draft, people’s original rules and so forth.  Reporting on my pursuit of casual ‘fun’ seems interesting.
And then, as I’ve mentioned to some people, 1.5 from now, as for making a pro comeback and renewing my efforts, I’m sorry to say that at present I’ve not yet thought about it.  Even though I have accepted the ruling, the mental shock is still great. I’ll use this opportunity to try and consider it at my leisure for the next 1.5 years.  Also, in addition to magic related things, I am thinking of trying to search for various possible things outside of Magic as well.

These things I’ve written are the ‘what’s next’ things which are currently in my head.
Even though I’ve added the suspension and hall of fame cancellation since my last entry, in the end, it looks like the things I want to do are the things which are related to magic.  Thanks to Magic, I can do so many things that I’d never have learned otherwise.
But if that’s what I really want to do, then even later, that’s all I’ll do, right?
At least, that’s how it goes for me.
From here on out, regarding the outcome of this, if there is good news, I’ll do my best to tell everyone right away.
With Regards, Tomoharu Saito.

Well then, I’m wishing for everyone’s and magic’s continuing long term happiness.