Star City Games Convention (SCGCON) is a massive series of trading card game conventions held several times a year in venues across the United States. With the international release of Riftbound at the end of October, SCGCON Vegas was the first opportunity to host a sizable Riftbound tournament in the West.
The $10,000 prize pool tournament attracted over 400 participants, and the event (mostly) went off without a hitch. However, in the aftermath of SCGCON, eagle-eyed viewers of the 11-hour VOD noticed some discrepancies in the play of Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen, a notable trading card game player.
This was highlighted in a thread by Previous_Advertising, who accuses Mikkonen of cheating during a game on stream. The accusation concerns the misuse of Riftbound's recycling mechanic, combined with 'playing fast' to distract one's opponent from the deception.
Riftbound's mana equivalent is 'Runes', which are 'exhausted' (tapped) when playing cards. However, a lot of cards have an additional 'recycling' cost, which forces the player to place a rune (or multiple runes) back into their rune deck. Essentially, playing powerful cards often requires a player to sacrifice mana in the short term.
As pointed out in the comments, there are several...
