Phil -

You conveniently left out some important points in

your "Letter to the Editor".

First of all, you admit that you "helped a player I

hardly knew get a BYE at the ECSTS", but you left out

how you did that. You filed a tournament report

stating that this person participated in a tournament

that, in reality, he never attended. How many more did

you file that we never heard about? We'll never know.

Filing even one false report destroys your

credibility.

In what world is that not filing "False Tournament

Reports"? It certainly is in this one.

Did you genuinely earn your DCI score of 2233? Did you

finish in the top 2 or 4 at the STS? Maybe you did,

maybe you didn't. Are you a skilled player? I don't

know, and I honestly don't care. These points

irrelevant to the issue at hand.

You were old enough to apply to become a DCI Judge,

you're old enough to understand and follow DCI Rules,

and you're old enough to accept their punishment. If

you're old enough to understand that age might make a

difference in punishment, then you're old enough to

know better. Age is not a mitigating factor, and is

not relevant either.

What's important here are the following questions:

Did Phil Mondiello violate the trust of the WOTC, the

DCI, and the Pokemon Community as a whole by breaking

serious DCI Tournament rules?

If so, were these violations punishable by the DCI?

Was the punishment handed down by DCI equivilant to

similar rules violations?

The answers are:

Yes, you have already confessed your violations to DCI

and publicly.

Yes, it's well within DCI's authority to issue

punishment for these admitted rules violations.

Yes, the punishment you received was equivilant to

other similar rules violations, even more lenient than

some.

If you really want some sympathy, you should stop

boasting of how great you are, how great your

apprentice is, and how he's going to win the WCSTS

undefeated, as if that's going to validate your

abilities and actions. Being a great player DOES NOT

make it "OK", or even "less wrong", for you to cheat.

You aren't the victim in this incident. You're the

perpetrator of wrong-doing, not the recipient. Stop

acting as if you are the person who has been wronged.

Instead, you should try apologizing to everyone you

have wronged, beginning with DCI and WOTC and ending

with everyone else that has ever played the game of

Pokemon. Accept responsibility for your actions.

Phil, you screwed up. I can understand how something

like this might happen. You rationalized to yourself

that you were "doing more good than harm", that you

thought you were helping a friend. But you still

cheated, and you were caught.

The reality is that you asked for and were granted a

position of authority and responsiblity. You then spat

upon it. You were punished appropriately. Take the

punishment that has been handed down.

If you think you can challenge it in a court of law,

then file the lawsuit and let a judge decide the

merits of your case. I don't think you have a

Snowball's chance in Hell, but it's your money. If you

want to hand it over to an Attorney to file a

frivolous lawsuit, knock yourself out. But please stop

parading yourself in front of us telling us how

someone else did it to you and that your punishment is

unjust. It's simply not true.

To Pojosama: I respectfully request that you not give

Phil Mondiello center stage again. In addition to the

points you made, he has had plenty of opportunities to

state his case. Every time, he confesses his

violations, and then stamps his feet like a 3-year old

child, demanding that he not be held accountable for

them. 

Thank you for providing the opportunity to rebut Mr.

Mondiello's statement.

JD

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