I am more than a bit confused here. This particular DQ was thoroughly
vetted and the investigation was closed, so discussing it anonymously is
not a problem.

At a grinder for the Grand Prix of Magic Weekend Paris, I caught someone
very obviously asking for help under the table. He didn't realize I was
standing behind him. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I asked him
separately from his friend what was happening. Some times looks are
deceiving.

He gave me a story that I was quickly able to falsify by asking for details
from each separately. Since this was single elimination, a ML versus a DQ
only made a difference in terms of investigations. Luckily, there were a
plethora of L4+, including Investigation Committee lead Kevin Desprez there.

Since he was asking under the table, it was obvious that he knew what he
did was wrong. The judges I spoke with about it were pretty unanimous. He
had turned a Match Loss into a DQ for himself by lying. I was told that
this was indeed discussed when the policy was decided and Outside
Assistance is a Match Loss even if it is deliberate.

Withut reading the above replies:

Case 1: This sounds like a “derp” (OK, I read a bit of the above replies). It sounds like Adam lost a game and was like “Well, what could I do? There was nothing I could do, right?” and said a similar phrase in a way that sounded like OA. Without further evidence that Adam was intentionally asking for advice rather than just being grumpy and tilty, I wouldn't give Adam a penalty here.

Case 2: This actually happened to me, when I was in Steven's positon. I got assessed OA for this and got a match loss, which punted me out of contention. I was really pissed about it at the time (who wouldn't be?), although I knew it was the right call.