Rich Biedrzycki of Dreamland Comics in Schaumburg, Illinois read the recent article regarding Wizards of the Coast filing suit against a group of individuals in Alabama for allegedly running bogus events (see "WotC Sues Tournament Organizers") and had this to say.

I read with great interest the article about WotC suing people in Alabama for running bogus Magic Tournaments and scamming approximately between $25,000.00 to $90,000.00 worth of Premium cards form Wizards.

This week Wizards of the Coast stripped us of our Premier Store status after 10 years and now refuses to sell us any product.  Why?  Because we can't get enough players into our store to play organized DCI/WPN tournaments.  Why would they want to come into our retail store and pay and play when they can just buy the prize cards off eBay from scammers like the people in Alabama?  Or better yet they can just go get the prize cards at some store in Chicago that's doing the same thing.  Does Wizards of the Coast really think these people are the only ones in the whole country that thought of this scam?

In the 10 years that we were considered a Premier Store we never had one complaint against us for any reason and now Wizards decides to change all the rules again for the third time in two years.  They made us jump through hoops last year to become a "Authorized Wizards Internet Seller" and now we can't even buy from them!

While talking to my sales rep from Wizards last week about this I asked to talk to the person who thought of forcing stores to run DCI/WPN authorized tournaments only.  I was told it was Greg Leeds.  Is this the role he meant in your interview with him a few weeks ago (see "Greg Leeds of Wizards of the Coast on Industry Relationships")?  He said, "In the end though, we believe that there are many great stores who know how to provide gaming entertainment worth paying for and this is why our industry will continue to thrive.  Wizards is proud to play its role."

In closing all I have to say is, "Greg, who ya kidding?"

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.