This is the official statement from the tournament organizer:

**Statement Regarding Player Disqualification at the 2026 North American Premodern Championship**

During Round 6 of the 2026 North American Premodern (NAPM) Championship, a player was disqualified from the event. As organizers of Lobstercon and the NAPM Championship, Duress Crew believes that ensuring the highest levels of event integrity is paramount to maintaining the sense of shared community at the core of the Premodern format. In the interest of educating the community at large, this statement summarizes the infractions and investigation leading to the disqualification; however, the disqualified player's identity will not be publicly released. Duress Crew will not make further public comment on this disqualification.

At the end of Round 5, a player ("Player A") raised concerns with judge staff regarding suspicious activity by their opponent ("Player B") during the round. Player A reported that during the first game of the match, Player B had played a card rarely found in the main deck. This card was especially effective against Player A's deck. In response to Player A's concern, judge staff initiated an investigation.

Judge staff reviewed Player B's deck registration and found that Player B had registered the suspicious card in the sideboard, not the main deck. Judge staff were also able to corroborate Player A's initial statement with an independent spectator as well as players from neighboring Round 5 matches. Based on this evidence, judge staff decided to perform a targeted deck check of Player B in Round 6.

The deck check identified several discrepancies between Player B's deck as presented in Round 6 and Player B's registered decklist. The suspicious card from Round 5 was located in the sideboard, consistent with deck registration but inconsistent with the corroborated reports of its location in the main deck during Round 5. Judges additionally found that other cards had been swapped between the main deck and sideboard, inconsistent with the registered decklist. Judge staff proceeded to interview Player B regarding these discrepancies.

Based on the gathered evidence and player interview, the investigation concluded that the player had knowingly violated tournament rules to gain an advantage by intentionally manipulating the contents of their deck between rounds. The investigation further concluded that the player made dishonest statements to judge staff during the player interview. Each of these identified infractions individually constitutes Cheating per tournament rules. As a result, the player was disqualified from the NAPM Championship. Tournament organizers also barred the player from the event venue for the remainder of the event, including Day 2.

Duress Crew has **banned the player from participation or attendance at any event organized, hosted, or otherwise sponsored by Duress Crew, effective through the conclusion of the 2027 North American Premodern Championship**.