The star of the disqualified rally of the tournament for having claimed to have cheated

Yuuya Watanabe, of Japan, twice player of the year and member of Magic Hall of Fame was expelled from the Mythic Championship II in London this weekend, after the judges found marks on the back of some of his cards.

Shortly after officials discovered it on the 15th day of the tournament, Wizards of the Coast released this statement:

During a check of the bridge during the 15th round in the Mythic Championship II, the judge's team identified a problem with the Yuuya Watanabe Bridge, where the handles of its Urza power plants were marked in a specific way. Three Urza mines and one Urza tower had different markings, and three Urza towers and one Urza mine also had different markings. No other card in the deck or the buffet had any of these marks. The judge's staff determined that the likelihood of this happening by accident was almost non-existent and excluded Watanabe from the event.

According to representatives of Wizards of the Coast, the MPL will investigate this offense.

The disqualification was not the only time Watanabe had made the headlines because his match against Andrew Watts was followed by a final whistle that led to a reset table and an unlikely win in overtime.

In response to the disqualification, Watanabe tweeted that he did not realize that the cards were in an altered state before the judges told him, before accepting their decision and apologizing to the fans for letting them down.

Watanabe won the Magic World Championship title in 2012, was named player of the year in 2009 and 2012, won seven Grand Prix wins, was inducted into the Hall of Game in 2016 and won the World Cup in 2017 with Japan.