For some attendees, the tournament was an epilogue to the great Oblivions' Gate, and this resulted in a high proportion of "crazy" decks and odd humourous plays. It being the last storyline over here before Gold, many reached for the folder and played Thunders, Champions and more. For most it was the l5r highlight of the year and had been practising all year for this event - and for a few, Victories Cost was their first storyline, and many brave samurai journeyed from all Europe - large delegations from Finland (Suomi!) and France (Big up Tom!) were joined by Greeks, Dutch, Luxembourgians (sp??) and Germans. And more! This all added up to an immensely fun atmosphere with lots of friend-making, drinking, casual but skilful games, drinking, shouting and drinking. We also drank.
I arrived on friday, missing the midnight madness (allegedly amazing) and the Gold seminar (a recap of Gencons). Steve and Luke impressed once again, already high levels of anticipation for gold once again heightened. At some point I was handed my deck, which I had left at Gencon US, and I found waiting for me at Gencon UK! Thanks to Gordon/Mike!
Steve kicked things off with a story passage by the new story Team, called for Clan shouts (it must be said the Americans are our betters in expressing their enthusiasm through volume, maybe its all the cheerleading), and Challenges were called for! First Gareth Hanrahan of the HDM made an interesting challenge. Though as HDM as they come, gar stood up on a chair and (right in front of Steve Horvath, founder HDM) called out an honourable dragon, citing an oath to Kokujin as his reason. His deck was as bloodily corrupt as could be, Gar had lost a bet many moons ago, and kept his part, playing a deck built by our resident Irish Kokujin-fan, Mike "Kokujin is like a death star" O Brien. Gar lost, but fought the good (evil?) fight. Great stuff! Then the Mantis called out the Ninja, to make 'em pay for messing up the big Y. In an amzing match, Yoritomo handed the ancestral weapons to Aramasu who then assumed the Championship and took all 4 Ninja provinces. Amazing feat, by Gordon "And I am 22" O'Keeffe. I could claim I was jibed into the next challenge but I have to admit it didnt take much. :-) As a small sign of gratitude to the Crane for the Tear at Gencon, I played a Crab/Crane alliance deck. I called for a "Friendly challenge" to my allies the Crane, to find "the real Political power in rokugan". In case you're wondering, Yes, I do have a degree in "Digging my own grave" and a Masters in "Inserting right footinto mouth". :-)
The challenge game was a pleasure, a real slobberknocker of fun! Steve Clegg, my excellent opponent and I had loads of fun with this, and as the game went to 10 mins over time +, so a crowd quickly formed. Many moments of hilarity included my Toshimoko butchering his Ki-rin, only to be beaten next turn by Reju (he focused a 6!) in a devastating display of political incompetence by the Crab. Clegg spent much of the game using the favour to rehonour his dishonourable dead! Every turn his 3 shrines + other honour gainers would give him 10+ honour, which I would take away the next turn. Eventually, in a moment of brilliance, as my Kakita Yoshi (it took me *eons* to get his 10 HR ;-) )and his Dashmar were keeping the favour (we were using the Jade Token to represent the favour) out of it, a surprise assault of 8 1-force cranes took one of my provinces, to rapturous applause. I was crying into mu humble pie! Truly I was eating my words!! Finally, Adam called time as we were way over, and though the game was still in contention, I could not but concede for such an astonishing lesson in honour by my Crane rival. A 10/10 game, a real joy, it was at least half live action roleplaying.
:-) 0-1
Second round My Phoenix opponent this turn was a great opponent, another enjoyable game. My only memory of this was his first turn. "Hmm, lets see I'm playing Justins deck, and you're playing your Crab deck, so what was it he did .. o yeah I guess I'll hantei breach". Is there a maunal?? ;-) 1-1
Third round Another Crane, this time my good friend Rob Feeney (aka The nameless crane aka akumei tsuru (trans: "the badly-named crane", groan)). Rob and I started playing together, and is the source of our mutual pity of each others clan foolishness. As we both knew we needed a 5-1 record to go through we played a competitive game and I must say he did brilliantly, his first-turn hantei of breach helping a little, but playing like a "god" to somehow slip through my second turn "As the shadows fall" won this one. Really well played, he's not bad for the lowest ranked Crane in Ireland ;-) 1-2
Fourth round A 4-2 with poor resistance is extremely unlikely to make top 16 from 99, so I settle down to just have more fun. This round is another phoenix, again playing Justins deck with Hantei! sigh :-) He was unlucky and drew very unfortunate gold though, and conceded on hitting -1. We played some fun games, and really had a laugh - another great round. 2-2
Fifth round Naga. 3-2 ;-) No really, it was another good game, but Pauls excellent (fast! fast!) Naga deck just clunked up with a bad draw. Pauls a great guy, and will show you any time why Naga are a force to be feared!
Sixth round This fellow Crab went 7-0 at our kotei with his 4 walls deck, and it really is a perfectly constructed deck, with a few nasty surprises! Which I'll keep as surprises for him :-). On seeing me, he almost conceded as a 4walls deck practically dishonours itself. This guy has a weird kanck for *always* having an avoid in hand! 4-2
The swiss ends, and I have low hopes of making top16, as my resistance is poor. Both my losses were to Cranes - one for each Crane in my deck, a Crab brother points out, but I firmly maintain its one loss for each foot inserted in my mouth. The words "*real* political power in rokugan" will be on my tombstone! ;-)
During the interlude, Steve showed us the full set of Gold art. let me say, despite the low-res scans we saw, everyone was *really* impressed. The art we were shown at the Gold seminar was not a choice selection of the best, it was typical of Golds standard. Wow. In particular, the "sequence" cards are impressive! :-) The only art which we could recognise of older heroes were well handled, with the retired Toku and the many, many pics of Osano-Wo laying the smackdown perfect. Of particular interest to the Crab, I'll say two things: 1) Fromthe art of O-Uishi in her old age, I hope for his own sake that Yasamura is dead. Eeew! ;-) and 2) TWINS!!!!!!!!!
Everyone gathered around for the announcements, and they kicked off with special prizes for the lowest ranked from each clan who stayed the distance. Kay Kin had procured signed carsd at Gencon US for this purpose and donated them to the worthy samurai. Next were the top of each clan prizes, and as usual, whichever Crab was on 4-2 got the shirt over his 3-3 brethern ;-) This was my turn, and I received my Clan shirt. Funny story this - I've been playing the game for over 3 years, and have the fortune (and luck and spawniness) to win many tournies and nearly always place top Crab, I have never won a clan shirt! I have always maintained I would never purchase a Crab shirt, I would earn my stripes in battle, and now finally have: Its too small. ;-)
The top 16 were announced, and half were taken from the 4-2s. The final breakdown was lots of Phoenix and Scorp - and Mantis! - as per clan representation. I think every country was in too!
The finals were played and all the spectators got very drunk, and in the end (very late) Justin "Triple Hochiu" Walsh won the day, in an all-phoenix final.
Was 2000 the year of the phoenix or what? Yeah, the guy from Gencon US! ;-) His deck was 100% identical but for one card - he had added 1 "Rest my Brother" which he used to purify (well, put down like a mangy cur on the street!) the Air Dragon. Wow. Steve told more stories, of a Phoenix samurai-ko who blazed a path across the Shadowlands, leading us all home. What was left but the shake the walls with "utz BANZI"!
Amazing tournament, the atmosphere was great, really funky with *everybody* out to have a good time and enjoy themselves and their opponents. Such was the goodwill in the hall, the magic guys would refrain from PA-ing while Steve was storytelling, and we would refrain from Banzai-ing. ... oops, sorry guys ;-)
Highs
The magic/l5r buzz was great. The words "friendly rivalry" have never been more apt, culminating in an arm-wrestling match at the end, to huge cheers. I can't remember who won ;-) And he cheated anyway. ;-)
On asking what would happen in the storyline to reflect this, we told them the Weatherlight flew in and beat up the "great" Kumo. They seemed pleasedwith that, tee hee, little do they know ;-) At the end of the weekend, the Magic judges took their product in l5r, and will be kicking our asses next year. Brilliant atmosphere or what!
Umm .. the height? The dci hall was 20 million floors up and perched over the 'con like a .. like a big cool perched thing.
Stevo and Lukey-baby coming all the way over and answering the same billion questions and still being a laugh. With the game in Steves hands, I have 100% faith in Gold: 100%. Luke could sell spandex to Roseanne Barr! ;-) Big thanks ye guys!
The europeans, from *everywhere*, all cool guys who love the game. The finns were animals, real legends!! :-)
The refs - Mark and Ads (and all the wizards esp Keith "drink-machine" Anderson), what can I say but Bo! Bo! Booyakasha!!
My pants. not to blow my own horn or anything, but I think my amazing Orange pants deseved a special thanks. Did I mention they could transform? ;-)
Emptying bar of beer.
And lastly - everyone. The crowd was amazing, thanks to everyone for such a cool time.
Lows.
Emptying bar of beer, aftermath of. ;-)
That damn ninja kerb for coming out of nowhere and tripping my ass!
No Carl "The Man" Crook. Wasn't gencon without him, the big magic reffing freak! Poor guy had to demo pokemon in London! ;-)
The realisation that that number on personalities to the left of gold cost does have some signifigance after all! I'm calling an emergency Crab meeting to discuss this strange phenomenon, known as "Honour requirement". Guys, I discovered it on the cranes in my deck, and I'm telling ye, theres parts of this game we've never even heard about!
Brian Mulcahy
aka Hiha Kazuya
Eater of hats and own words: lover of cranes - puker of pukes. :-)