Not just KOTH but our whole tournament scene was really his idea. He started with the Hakumite which eventually became Kryder's main tournaments which spun off Gem's follow-up tournaments as well.

This site, this community owes a lot to this great man.

That first Hakumite was great, so many iconic moments:

1) Hakeem sending Peepy to the shadow realm after all that trashtalk:




2) Mobius going on a salt crusade against all of his opponents (the vids of him playing Gemini's and HailToTHeKing's decks are ******* legendary)



3) The super tense match of CGB vs Hakeem where CGB killed Hakeem's Ruined servitor TWICE to topdeck into the answer to save him



4) And most surprising of all Barney taking the whole thing down!




And this is all just off the top of my head, Hakeem was definitely the trailblazer for Duels tournament (he nagged us all about starting a Steam/IoS version of the Hakumite which sparked the Steam showdown, and gave me a bunch of help running the first one as i had no ******* clue haha and this shouldn't be forgotten

2 and 3 were huge highlights for me. I remember laughing hysterically watching Mobius' vids. But that Ruined Servitor thing was AMAZING.

I was looking through my installed Xbox games last night as I was trying to decide what to watch on Crave, I noticed that I have ALL of the previous Duels games installed still and I remember why I have them on there. From time to time Hakeem and I would play an older Duels game together. It was a very sobering moment

Pictures from the memorial & wake coming soon, CBG should have them up some time soon.

I too was fortunate enough to have the chance to message and play with Hakeem on Duels on Xbox, I was and still am Mastercardgold on Duels and now Arena. He taught me a lot in the few times we played. I found a lot of enjoyment in his posts and replies here on NGA as well, he will be missed. I really don't know how to put this properly and don't feel like I'm doing him any justice like others who knew him better are. I am about 90% sure that I found NGA thru the mothership/Hakeem and am very thankful to have found people like you all with the humor, salt and warmth you all have. Kinda rambling, so yeah.

I'll just echo what a lot been saying here. He is reason I enjoyed / got into Magic and Digital magic. Never met him, but his videos gave me a lot of joy during a tumultuous period. As a dad of 2 this is quite heartbreaking. Carpe diem..

So tragic. I think I met him playing 2012. He was inspiring on the old magic forums.

Terrible news.

“There is an appointed time for everything, . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to wail and a time to dance.”​—Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4.

It seems he took advantage of the time he had starting a family and he forged strong friendships through several mediums. He danced in his own way playing a digital card game and creating a community we all enjoy. May we all take a moment to reflect on how we use the time we have and try to dance a little.

I'm so sorry to hear that. We barely knew each other, but as a family man it hurts me to even think about the loss to his wife and children. I hope they find happiness again.