There was supposed to be a short announcement of this in David Whitelaw's most recent article under his section "Question of the Week," where I was to briefly address the issue of "What happened to Riki?" The section was cut by the editor. Here is the text that was supposed to appear:
"Dave asked me to prepare a short statement to print in his article. A 'short' statement by Riki Hayashi; that's laughable. My time here at TCGplayer.com has been anything but short. During my almost three years here as a feature writer (and even longer as a forum member then moderator) I've presided over several periods that were supposed to be 'the death of TCGplayer.' A lot of people will try to make this out to be another such period, my leaving coming on the heels of the departure of other heavy hitters like Bill Stark and William Spaniel.
"Those people are wrong.
"In fact, one of the reasons I feel comfortable in leaving now is because the future of TCGplayer has never been brighter thanks to articles like the one you're reading today. Dedicated writers like David Whitelaw, his TCGpprentice cronies, and Kuan-Kuan Tian represent one of the strongest crops of amatuer talent that this site has seen in a long time. The future Stark, Spaniel, and Hayashi (nice law firm name!) are growing up right before your very eyes. Enjoy the journey.
"For those of you who have read and supported me over the years, thank you. As Q says to Picard at the end of the final episode of Star Trek: TNG, 'See you... out there.' "
I know I made some noise about this last summer and ended up staying on, but this time it's final. I've already been relinquished of my responsibilities as feature writer and moderator (but not editor because as I keep telling you, I'm not). And I've made my arrangements to move on elsewhere following a brief break to recharge and put together some of my new ideas.
Related to:
Magic: the Gathering
I feel like I missed a great writer, darn my late coming to the site......
Good luck!!!!!
