I had to speedily churn out this next article before the weekend, since my experiences at Columbus seem to have ignited a firestorm of controversy. Pojo's main page is back alive, and threads on the forums were raging about the topics that I discussed in article four. Let me go over a few of them, and then we'll run some insightful message board posts and e-mails.

1. First, I want to publicly apologize to Fili Luna for including him in the proceedings yesterday. I did not even realize those comments were included in the original article, and I should have edited them out immediately. Nothing he has done while I was gone has involved me, so unless I get people coming out and telling stories about his dirty play, I shouldn't have pointed the finger.

The "private sources" were actually extremely legitimate, but private and would amount to hearsay in the people's court. Sorry Fili, I did not mean to denigrate your skill as a player or personality at all. You are a pro.

2. Many players are suggesting I wrote the article because I lost at the Shonen Jump, and because I did not place in the top sixteen. Nothing could be further from the truth. I actually am used to missing the cut at Shonen Jumps (it has become a rather regular habit for me since I quit hardcore, competitive play), and I don't mind losing to players at all. While I have sharp wins over top players in Metagame coverage, I have just as many losses. I have never called out a player before.

Rather, I chose to write the article because of a few reasons.

a) Numerous players came to me the second the match was over and told me to count the deck, I had been cheated.

b) He drew the *exact* same hands and knocked out Chris Simoes and Dale Bellido, two friends, from contention. He then knocked out another great player, Augustin Herrera, from contention in the top sixteen with a clearly stacked deck.

3. Talks with Texas duelists alerted me to his history of stalling for time. I then recalled what he always did in the past, and realized it had continued even after I quit. I find the clear stalling, rule-sharking, and stacking to be appalling.

In essence, I am laying my reputation as a public Yu-Gi-Oh figure on the line against any cheaters who sully the game. I remember the good old days (cue good old days)...

Hearken back to the Good Beautiful Days of Yu-Gi-Oh Monsters...

*cue pretty music*

Team Comic Odyssey ruled the land. Traveling from Shonen Jump to Shonen Jump, with a legitimate cadre of polite, sincere duelists, Odyssey stormed the top eights of numerous events with nary a cheat in sight.

Belongings were not closely guarded. The packs of filthy thieves that started cropping up at East Coast Shonen Jumps were not present at the time, and beautiful times were had by all. Birds chirped in the alcoves above the museums, football stadiums, and grassy meadows that UDE hired to stage each Jump at.

Placing in the top eight of an event actually *meant something*, before it was diluted by dirty cheating and foul play. After twenty Shonen Jumps, how many players had multiple top eight finishes? Ryan Hayakawa, T, Wilson Luc, Jae Kim. How many had two multiple top eight finishes in a row? So few.

Three in a row was unheard of. In fact, any player who top eighted three in a row was a guaranteed cheater (this theory turned out to be true). I would see players *CRY* when they missed the cut of a top eight. It used to mean something...

*Greensleeves fades from the audio track*

Now we are in a filthy apocalypse where Ms. Hedberg has deserted us, Jerome Mchale has long, shiny, glorious hair, and the robots have overtaken us.

Someone mentioned I picked the wrong time to come back to the game. I do agree! I have never seen so much cheating, stealing, and violence at Yu-Gi-Oh events. Matt Peddle steps outside of Columbus and *literally sees men with ski masks ready to rob him and Lazaro.* I have numerous people come up to me with their binders stolen.

Certain players have their flights booked from L.A to Ohio just to go on stealing sprees. All of this left me quite speechless. So when I lay my honor on the line to battle the filth surrounding the game we all know and love, you can better believe I'm bringing legitimacy to the table.

Do you remember when you opened your first starter deck? And normal summoned Blue Eyes White Dragon from the Kaiba Starter Deck with no tribute costs, while your opponent had to hold his 2500 attack Dark Magician from the Yugi starter deck and cry. Drawing to the one Man Eater Bug?

The very first pack I opened, Magic Ruler, contained a rare Monster Recovery. What did I do? I ran to Pojo and desperately searched their COTD, hoping for a Monster Recovery review to read and learn from. I admired Nickwhiz and Someguy.

Nowadays, players go straight into being good. Sites like Pojo and Metagame have made the game so much easier to learn. However, a lot of the grimier players from the streets learn to hustle, to cheat, to steal, to lie, and to rob. I see this all the time at the convention where Hugo Adame runs his booth.

And UDE sits there ignoring cheaters, ignoring disqualifications, and refusing to lift a finger to help out the legit. What about the hometown duelist who was eagerly seeking his spot in the SJC spotlight? What if the native Ohioan (pity the Ohioan, for Columbus is a wasteland), who can only attend three jumps out of the year, is cheated in round 8 on the bubble by a Jason Holloway, then has his binder stolen during round 10?

Don't worry Mr. Ohio, I will fight for you. Without further ado, here are testimonials for my product.

I'll name one person I saw cheating. I was walking by Jason Halloway like round 2-round 3 of SJC Columbus as he was siding for g2 after he just won (no one else was around) and I saw a backwards Sarcophagus, Crush, Dimension Fusion, and some other cards I can't name offhand. He saw me looking so he obviously turned them back around but thats what I saw...                                     

                                                            -Message Board Poster

I saw this as he was siding in his t16 match against augustin. I saw Sarcophagus, and Dimension Fusion upside down                                                                          

                                                            -DgZ Poster confirming the first poster's account

Note: Flipping cards around is a common way to cheat. As you touch and shuffle a deck, you can feel the ruffles of the opening of the card sleeve and where it differs on cards that are turned around (with no ruffles). This also leads to opponents cutting to the flipped around cards, since they have more precise gaps.

Yeah, to me... it was depressing watching Holloway cheat Jae so blatantly and then be so quick to shake Jae's hand and say good game.

                                                            -DgZ Poster and Metagame Writer

im sure what he did to Jae wasnt as bad as what he did to Agustin. G1 (2 due to the game loss Holloway got) his opening turn consists of triple allure triple ddraw (discarding Disk + Dasher) reborn disk set crush card =\.

                                                            -Message Board Poster

Holloway is pretty shady player. Like when watching his top8 and top4 match, from about 20 feet away, i could tell where his crush card was and trap dustshoot was, and yet the judges can't do anything about this. It is so blatently obvious its rediculous.

                                                            -Message Board Poster

Note: These are all different people corroborating accounts, before my article was printed. They have no incentive or reason to slam Holloway whatsoever.

i can definitely back up the assertion that Holloway cheats. I've played him at locals/SJCs/regs for years now and have personally witnessed him stack, draw extra cards, stall and if he's playing a good player, he'll get you on any technicality possible, eg. rulings, and especially not presenting a fusion deck.

                                                            -E-mail from a Texas Duelist

Lol Holloway does cheat, at SJC Durham, every time he cut back his deck, he'd draw into CCV.

                                                            -Pojo Message Board User

at durham last year i played holloway like round 5 and he self cut into 1st turn crush both games, i had to side in decrees b/c i knew he stacked crush

                                                            -E-mail from a Duelist

Thank you for writing JK4: Touring SJC Columbus and the Filth I Saw.

Holloway cheated against me at SJC Durham last and gave me my 3rd

loss, ruining my day.  Going in to the match I was already aware he

cheated with self cutting his deck (before they changed the policys)

I pile shuffled his deck and sure enough he did a self cut on his

deck.  He went first and set one of each only to play crush card on

spirit reaper during my draw phase (a definite misplay on his part). I

opening with a amazing hand consisting of Cyber Dragon,Zombie

Master,Zombie Master,Snipe Hunter,Heavy Storm, and Trapdustshoot but

his crush card wrecked it. After he won that game I was so sure he was

stacking the crush card to the top of his deck I sided in 2 copies of

royal decree just to counter it. I drew into a decree on my first turn

and set it, Next turn sure enough he set 2 of each and ended.  He

tried the same play on my again in my next draw phase but I chained

royal decree. He made every effort to prolong the game and kept asking

me to show him my graveyard and kept asking me for the amount of cards

i had in my hand.  I managed to overcome him in that duel.  Going into

the third game I decided that I would be better off if i didn't

shuffle his deck and simply cut it to prevent him from self cutting

it.  As fate would have it, he later managed to draw CCV again within two turns and win.When he won the match i felt as though the very game itself had betrayed me.

                                                            -Email from a frustrated Duelist

I have to say I agree.  At the Jump in Philly when Perfect Circle started to take off twice he played sitting next to me and I can say that once with a little kid and again with an older guy (I myself am one) he stalled and rule sharked until his opponents seemed to just give up.  It was terrible,  this is a fun game that I got into from playing me son and its cats like this that ruin the experience for novices and veterans alike.  I am very surprised you were digusted enuff to call the guy out!!!  Props for the boldnest.

                                                            -Email from a frustrated Duelist

I just find it funny how literally EVERY SINGLE PLAYER that you talk to from Texas/the south that has never been on a team with Stalloway says he cheats. literally. ask any one of us except for Spicer, Fili, McNeely etc. and you'll all get the same result.

the guy cheats. case closed. I've seen it. I've heard about it. he's not even a very good player. stop trying to defend him.

                                                            -former Pojo Featured Writer

I can tell you right away though game three i was stacked. First turn he goes destiny draw malicious, remove malcious to grab another, then destiny draws again discarding disc then sets crush card virus and mind crush. He activated the crush in my draw phase and then activated mind crush to get rid of my trooper. So i set 1 and end, and so he mysticals me and flips survivor and summons another 1 and deals 3600 damage and then sets goats

                                                            -A US National Champion

At SJC Indy, in round 8, Stallaway and Scurry were playing. I had just lost quickly to Ryan Murphy, so I was watching the two play. The whole time, Shane was upset over Jason stalling for time. There's 5 minutes left, game 3, Holloway has more life points. He has one card in hand and one set monster. He keeps asking for the time left, the judge refuses.

There are three minutes left, the judge tells him to make a play. Holloway begins arguing for two minutes, the stall-away chants begin, and Jason gets a game loss for deliberately holding the game.

                                                            -A respected Canadian duelist

Both me and my brother Ray noticed during the feature match at SJC Houston that Jason turns his side-deck cards face-down so he can always know where they are for game 2 and 3. We saw him do this at nationals as well.

                                                            -Multiple SJC day twoer from Northern CA.

I hope all the people who felt I was moving impulsively, or did not have enough support and evidence, can sleep easy now.

Jae Kim is a creative contributor to Pojo.com. You may contact him (every e-mail will be answered) at JAELOVE@gmail.com. He can also be found contributing to the Message Boards and the Card of the Day.