PTR Szigeti Receives "Lifetime" Ban!

by News | posted at 2010-02-19 20:40:00
tagged: WOTC, MTG, Magic, Wizards, Wizards of the Coast, Magic the Gathering, Banned, DCI, Peter Szigeti, PTR, Banned Player, Lifetime Ban

Pro Tour "bad boy" Peter "PTR" Szigeti was handed a near lifetime ban by the DCI today for conduct at last weekend's Grand Prix-Oakland. The ban is effective immediately and prohibits him from DCI sanctioned events between 2-15-2010 and 1-1-2049. That's a whopping 39 year ban, one of the heftiest such penalties ever levied by Magic's sanctioning body. In the updated banned players list, the reason listed for the banning was "Aggressive behavior."

We spoke with an eye witness who saw the incident and asked to remain anonymous commenting on it. "There were two big doors separating vendors at the event. I walked in and saw a person following another around confronting him over having bumped into him. I quickly recognized PTR as the person following while the other player was simply trying to walk away. He [Szigeti] was later removed from the tournament."

The official list updated to reflect Szigeti's ban can be found here.

During the late 90s and early 2000s, Szigeti was known on the Pro Tour scene as something of a clown prince of the game. With the occasional solid performance at a Pro Tour or Grand Prix, he chased the dragon's tail of the gravy train and earned a reputation for pulling pranksters and using an inciteful play style to gain an edge on his opponents. But his antics sometimes turned harsh, and he was once disqualified from an event for excessive celebration against an opponent when he drew his single out to defeat the player on the final turn of the match.

For more on Peter's past, try the following links:

It Takes a Corporation to Raise a Villain by Michael Clauss

Week in Review by Jeff Cunningham (discusses Searing Flesh incident)

What do you think of the Szigeti banning? Do you feel the reaction is too harsh? Or too little too late? Share your thoughts through the forum link below.

(cover image copyright Wizards of the Coast)

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