| SAN DIEGO, September 17, 2007 - After the cheating-accident during the European mahjong championship in Copenhagen last summer, another major mahjong event has been disturbed by a fraudulent action of a player. The winner of the European on line championship was disqualified because, in the final round of the competition, she had someone else played for her. The final will be re-played the coming weekend.
The first Open European Online Championship was organized by the internet mahjong server Mahjong Time, in co-operation with the European Mahjong Association (EMA). According to Mr. William Sutjiadi of MahjongTime, the player was not guilty of 'collusion nor a malicious breaking of the rules', but only of 'a foolish mistake'. Mr. Sutjiadi claims that the cheating player was exhausted after the first six rounds of the tournament, so she asked another (Asian) player to take over for her during the final.
William Sutjiadi: 'We spotted this incident as soon as it had occurred, but, as this was an unprecedented situation in a major online tournament, we needed to liaise with Uwe Martens, president of the EMA, about the proper course of action to take and to carry out a full investigation.' After this discussion, Mr. Sutjiadi says, there was no other solution but to disqualify the player.
No further actions
EMA and MahjongTime will take no further actions against the player nor will her name be made public, 'because we don't believe her actions were malicious'.
The replayed final will involve the three losing finalists and the fifth-ranked player. The winner of this re-staged final will be declared OEMC-Online Champion 2007.
It is the second known cheating incident in a major mahjong event. During the OEMC in Copenhagen, a Japanese player was caught in the act while playing with two extra tiles. This player was also disqualified and removed from the tournament.
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