Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Canadian National Championship 2013

Well now there is proof. And I can't believe that people are defending this by saying things like it's okay as long as you shuffle thoroughly afterward. No, it is not okay; things like declumping should not be happening. Period. No justifications, no "it's okay if..." Any person with a sense of morality should know that anything done wrong should not be done at all.

Have you ever gone through your deck after a swiss round to ensure that 10 energies weren't clumped together, or that 4 of the same supporter aren't all together? If you try to say that you haven't you're full of it. This isn't much different.

Aside from all of this, if people are so worried that their opponent may have stacked their deck, take the opportunity to shuffle their deck when they offer a cut. Problem solved!
 
Have you ever gone through your deck after a swiss round to ensure that 10 energies weren't clumped together, or that 4 of the same supporter aren't all together? If you try to say that you haven't you're full of it. This isn't much different.

Aside from all of this, if people are so worried that their opponent may have stacked their deck, take the opportunity to shuffle their deck when they offer a cut. Problem solved!

I have no problem in saying that I have never done that because it's true. You can say that I'm full of it all you want but when I play in tournaments I never look at my deck before or after a game. Just before a match I shuffle my deck by splitting it into 6 piles of 10, face down, then shuffle my deck in my hands, then give it to my opponent to cut. At the end of a game I just pick up my deck and put it straight into its deckbox. The contents of the deck (including the order of the cards) are not known by anyone. As it should be.

And that's perfectly fine that I can shuffle or cut the deck for fear of my opponent clumping/declumping. What I am arguing is that there should be no need to do this because there should be no form of cheating at all.
 
Everyone stop hating on Zach this cheating u talking he did not mean to CHEAT he was declupling his deck then shuffle I know he did not that much I watch the vid 2, but zach is now aware of this and is going to work hard not to do this again. Have u took 2 prize when u should have only taken 1 or play 2 support most people will say yes and then u learn from it. so please give him a break.

Taking 2 prizes instead of one or playing two supporters is minor, He literally took all the cards he would want and put them on the bottom then shuffled them into the middle and drew almost all of those cards! That is not ok
 
Everyone stop hating on Zach this cheating u talking he did not mean to CHEAT he was declupling his deck then shuffle I know he did not that much I watch the vid 2, but zach is now aware of this and is going to work hard not to do this again. Have u took 2 prize when u should have only taken 1 or play 2 support most people will say yes and then u learn from it. so please give him a break.

Considering how he clearly was looking at specific cards and moved them around I don't know how you can say that he wasn't aware.

Also, I like how you say he is "going to work hard not to do it again" instead of "he is never going to do it again." That's like saying "I'll try not to do it again."
 
Declumping a deck prior to shuffling is not the issue here.

Shuffling, then declumping, and then not really shuffling at all, as Zach did? That's a problem.
 
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Closer to 39:00 is where you see the "declumping".

I like the facade of a shuffle before he simply looked at his deck, moved cards around and cut a few times. That was really neat. Not sure how this can even be defended.

Thanks very much for the video, glad this has gotten out. Really curious as to what happened in the finals now.


Have you ever gone through your deck after a swiss round to ensure that 10 energies weren't clumped together, or that 4 of the same supporter aren't all together? If you try to say that you haven't you're full of it. This isn't much different.

Aside from all of this, if people are so worried that their opponent may have stacked their deck, take the opportunity to shuffle their deck when they offer a cut. Problem solved!

Are you kidding? Don't put the blame on the victim here. Your opponent being unsuspecting doesn't absolve you from cheating.
 
This is pretty blatant cheating, I don't see how anyone can defend things like this.

I've always felt like declumping was rather borderline to begin with, and this exact situation shows why. The reordering of a deck during deck searches needs to be HEAVILY frowned upon by judges, and the reordering of cards after shuffles have already been done should be outright disallowed and penalized.

The outbreak (or, perhaps, the noticing) of cheating lately has really bothered me. How about we all just shuffle thoroughly and not even walk these thin lines between cheating and not cheating?
 
Are you kidding? Don't put the blame on the victim here. Your opponent being unsuspecting doesn't absolve you from cheating.

I'm not putting blame on the "victim". I'm saying don't let yourself become a victim. When you leave the house, you lock the door; when I'm paying at a store I hid my PIN. There always people who go around the rules, so be aware of that, and shuffle your opponents deck.
 
I would like to see the people's reaction after they watch the video and after tell me if they believe he didn't cheat.
 
They need to just ban all forms of face up shuffling period. If your opponent does anything of the face up sort, call a judge and get them warned. Penalty if it happens again.
 
Closer to 39:00 is where you see the "declumping".

I like the facade of a shuffle before he simply looked at his deck, moved cards around and cut a few times. That was really neat. Not sure how this can even be defended.

Thanks very much for the video, glad this has gotten out. Really curious as to what happened in the finals now.




Are you kidding? Don't put the blame on the victim here. Your opponent being unsuspecting doesn't absolve you from cheating.

I believe he did this through the entire top cut.
 
Declumping a deck prior to shuffling is not the issue here.

Shuffling, then declumping, and then not really shuffling at all, ...... That's a problem.

I AGREE.

and for emphasis I have bolded the key part. De-clumping is a smokescreen. Insisting that shuffles be face down is good advice but impractical to enforce given the target market ages. Attempts to specify what is or is not a shuffle are doomed. POP wisely specify the result and not how it has to be achieved.
 
I like the fact that these kind of things gain a lot more attention thanks to recording the most important tournament games.

What I don't like is that it often leads to a public execution of the "cheater" even though it should be the officials that judge the person involved in the situation, not the community.
 
They need to just ban all forms of face up shuffling period. If your opponent does anything of the face up sort, call a judge and get them warned. Penalty if it happens again.

There is no such thing as "face up shuffling".
Once you're looking at the cards, you're no longer shuffling!
 
It was an honest declump, after watching my own brothers video several times, I myself can even see he was dividing up his deck, like declumping 2 skylas, 2 ultra balls, 2 Blastoise, etc. It's a plain and innocent declump, and there's no guideline anywhere that states what a sufficient shuffle is to my knowledge. Even Zach's opponent(s) stated they didn't feel as if Zach had done anything sketchy, and felt satisfied with the shuffle.
 
^At first it is just declumping but watch after that he puts multiple 1 of cards on the very bottom that ARE NOT clumped together. He then proceeds to "shuffle" and what do ya know he draws almost all of them
 
It was an honest declump...It's a plain and innocent declump, and there's no guideline anywhere that states what a sufficient shuffle is to my knowledge.
Any method is sufficient as long as the deck ends up "fully randomized". In other words, the shuffle afterwards should totally nullify the declump. If it does not, then the player is attempting to gain an "unfair advantage" by playing a deck that is not fully randomized.
 
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