Hall of Fame inductee Tomoharu Saito was disqualified from Grand Prix Florence. The disqualification took place after Round 6 of Day 1. The Head Judge Nick Sephton explained the disqualification as follows:

"We disqualified this player for Stalling, after it was observed that his play speed seemed to change based on his observation of the clock. It was observed by a high-level judge that twice in the round he appeared to change his play speed based on considerations that were outside the game. Consulting among the senior judges we decided that, on the basis of what we had observed, we had no choice but to disqualify the player."

It is notable that this was decided to be 'Stalling' rather than the much more common 'Slow Play' warning. The DCI rules define Stalling as follows:

A player intentionally plays slowly in order to take advantage of the time limit. If the slow play is not intentional, please refer to Tournament Error — Slow Play instead.

Stalling, as it is deemed, is cheating. Alongside Fraud (for example if a player lies about public information, such as their life total) and Manipulation of Game Materials (stacking the deck for example) and there is only one penalty provisioned for a Cheating infraction - disqualification.

This is not the first time Saito's slow play has been called into question. He has been given numerous warnings and game losses for such behavior, and in fact some Hall of Fame voters vocally left him off their ballot for his past rules infractions.

The twitter community cried out over his disqualification, some joking about pauses during the Hall of Fame induction, others calling for his induction to be withdrawn.