Grand Prix Richmond Crackstyles

About

Grand Prix Richmond Crackstyles, also known as Magic The Gathering Buttcracks, is a series of photos by Magic player Sid Blair taken at the Grand Prix Richmond. Following Blair’s publishing of the photos, the series quickly went viral on the internet and gathered a variety of feedback.

Origin

On March 10th, 2014, Magic: The Gathering player Sid Blair uploaded an Imgur album^[1] of a series photos he and his friends took at Grand Prix Richmond, one of the biggest Magic: The Gathering tournaments of all time, a day earlier, showing Blair doing the prison pose in front of a series of unaware players who had their buttcracks exposed. Blair subsequently posted the images to the r/funny sub-Reddit.^[2] As of June 10th, 2015, the Imgur album has over 5 million views and the Reddit post gathered more than 38.000 upvotes (96% upvoted).

“I participated in one of the biggest Magic: the Gathering tournaments of all time this weekend. In an effort to document it, I posed for pictures near people with exposed asscracks. I present to you Grand Prix Richmond Crackstyle.”

Spread

Following the release of the photos, the gallery quickly went viral on both Reddit and outside. In the following days, various news sites wrote about the album as well and the reactions it gathered, including Kotaku,^[4] Daily Dot,^[5] Gawker^[6] and Time.^[7] Although many replied positively towards the photos because of their humor, others accused Blair of bullying and public shaming players. In an interview with Magic: The Gathering blogger Matt Sterling, Blair claimed that he “never intended to shame, bully or harass anyone.”^[3] On March 14th, an official statement was released by Magic: The Gathering magazine Wizards of the Coast that Blair had been banned from playing competetive Magic because he violated “the Magic Code of Conduct and tournament floor rules” (shown below).^[10] A day later, Blair shared in the comment section of the original Reddit post that the length of the ban was 18 months.^[9]

"Unfortunately, the experience at Grand Prix Richmond was dampened for many because of the hurtful acts of an onsite participant.

Following the event, players reached out to us, expressing their frustration and dismay over the division of the community and how Magic players were being treated and portrayed. As a result, we have reached out to the members of the judge community that make up the Investigation Committee, who have communicated with the player. They have reviewed the event, and handed down a recommendation for action that we feel is appropriate, and have acted on.

Participants at events are expected to demonstrate appropriate conduct toward others, whether they are players, spectators, judges or tournament officials. Disrespectful, harassing or bullying behavior, whether onsite or online, is not welcome at Magic events and violates the Magic Code of Conduct and tournament floor rules. Wizards of the Coast is committed to ensuring a positive and safe environment for all players and takes infractions of this nature very seriously."

Following the photos going viral, various people started associating Blair with other images of exposed buttcracks and similar types of images. On March 12th, Tumblr user Dappericious posted a photoshopped image of Blair over a photo of a cosplay of Princess Peach from Super Mario (shown below, left),^[14] which managed to gather more than 30,000 notes as of June 10th, 2015. On March 17th, the Wordpress blog Liquid Ribcage posted an article which included a series of photoshops of Blair with other people, including Miley Cyrus’ 2013 VMA Performance.^[12] On April 29th, Pixiv user moiky uploaded a drawing of Blair posing behind the Kantai Collection character Shimakaze while dressed as the admiral from the same series (shown below, right),^[11] which managed to receive over 9,400 points as of June 10th, 2015. On March 11th, 2015, Tumblr user Rkitsune also posted an image combining Blair with Shimakaze in a photoshop taken from the 2014 anime adaptation,^[13] which gathered over 8,000 notes in the following 3 months.

External References