So, I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about Saito and whether or not he’s a terrible person. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I felt that his own final words on the topic should be put forth.<\/p>\n
I hope that the translation conveys the true sense of his words. \u00a0If it makes you feel angry, then you probably don’t understand. \u00a0Essentially, it confirms that AJ Sacher was essentially exactly right in his post here<\/a>. \u00a0He never intended to break the rules. \u00a0His original article in Japanese is here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Anyway, here’s the translation. \u00a0It’s pretty accurate, but getting all the nuances is hard, so mostly use it as a much better google translate. — Erek Speed<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think a lot of people already know but, I, Tomoharu Saito, ended up being suspended for 1.5 years.<\/p>\n Here are the contents of the mail I received:<\/p>\n At first, I was in shock. Honestly, not being able to attend any more tournaments is a tough blow. \u00a0In light of such a serious judgment, my heart felt strange.\u00a0 In my own way, I’ve been playing while dedicated to fair play, haven’t I?<\/p>\n And now, concerning that, the more I thought about it the more I understood. \u00a0I think the main cause was that more than considering fair play; I was overcome by the desire to win. \u00a0Being 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.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve reflected heavily on the situation; from the accumulated warnings and DQ, to my eventual suspension, and I\u2019ve come away with something critical.\u00a0 For the sake of all those who will continue going to magic tournaments, I think I will write it clearly:<\/p>\n [A strong desire to win] \u2013 [A strong sense of fair play] = [warnings and easy DQs]<\/p>\n The solution to this equation may seem exaggerated, but I ended up receiving many slow play warnings, and I think that\u2019s the reason I was suspended. If you have an extremely strong desire to win, but don\u2019t have an equally strong sense of fair play, then it\u2019s no good. 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. DQ, suspension, and a hall of fame cancellation.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, my bid for POY is now impossible. Let me speak a bit about what I\u2019m going to do from here. Now then, what will I do in more concrete terms. These things I\u2019ve written are the \u2018what\u2019s next\u2019 things which are currently in my head. Well then, I\u2019m wishing for everyone\u2019s and magic\u2019s continuing long term happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about Saito and whether or not he’s a terrible person. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I felt that his own final words on the topic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[50,54,10,49,48,51],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erekspeed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1.5 Year Suspension, About the Hall of Fame Cancellation and What I will do from here on out<\/h1>\n
\n
\nI\u2019ve always pursued victory, but in terms of fair play, at some point, the growth stopped. \u00a0The reality is that as you play in more and more professional and competitive events and your wins are noticed more and more, there\u2019s an increased demand for fair play.
\nThat being said, because it\u2019s hard to quantify having the same amount of competitive spirit vs sense of fair play, I\u2019ll summarize it as follows, \u201cThe continued pursuit of fair play is incredibly important.\u201d
\nAs far me, I wasn\u2019t 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\u2019ll be okay.
\nThe quest for fair play:\u00a0 Discussing it with more colleges and understanding every nook and cranny of the rules, I concluded various things as might be expected.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
\nIn 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\u2019s extremely unfortunate, but in light of what ended up happening, I thought it was an appropriate action.<\/p>\n
\nConcerning 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.<\/p>\n
\nAfter each of these events, I received a truly large amount of email and comments offering assistance and encouragement.\u00a0 You truly saved me. Thank You.
\nDespite what happened, that there were people with these kinds of thoughts astonished me.
\nI was happy. However, at the same time, there were also again apologetic feelings which swelled up inside of me.
\nI think understand everyone\u2019s feelings.
\nThat there\u2019s still a lot I can do for magic after all.
\nThat 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.\u00a0 This time, I accept your kind words, and will relentlessly pursue your kind offer.
\nThanks to all this I can continue with some peace of mind.<\/p>\n
\nAfter this, the huge amount of time I spent as a pro player with practice, competition, and travel has freed up.
\nFirstly, there\u2019s the primary result of my magic success, the CARDSHOP Hareruya. \u00a0Here, more than in the past I\u2019ll strive to put increased effort into my store.\u00a0 These days, because I have many colleagues with the same thought, and because there many people for whom it is necessary, I\u2019m 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\u2019ll increase the number of staff on hand.
\nFurthermore, having played tournament magic so long, until now I\u2019ve had no time and haven\u2019t been able to play any casual magic.\u00a0 Now it looks like I\u2019ll be playing quite a lot of it; cube draft, Winston draft, people\u2019s original rules and so forth.\u00a0 Reporting on my pursuit of casual \u2018fun\u2019 seems interesting.
\nAnd then, as I\u2019ve mentioned to some people, 1.5 from now, as for making a pro comeback and renewing my efforts, I\u2019m sorry to say that at present I\u2019ve not yet thought about it.\u00a0 Even though I have accepted the ruling, the mental shock is still great. I\u2019ll use this opportunity to try and consider it at my leisure for the next 1.5 years.\u00a0 Also, in addition to magic related things, I am thinking of trying to search for various possible things outside of Magic as well.<\/p>\n
\nEven though I\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 Thanks to Magic, I can do so many things that I’d never have learned otherwise.
\nBut if that\u2019s what I really want to do, then even later, that\u2019s all I\u2019ll do, right?
\nAt least, that\u2019s how it goes for me.
\nFrom here on out, regarding the outcome of this, if there is good news, I\u2019ll do my best to tell everyone right away.
\nWith Regards, Tomoharu Saito.<\/p>\n