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The Kotei
By Mark Wootton
Well I guess it is a
sign that I am growing old. Once I had the energy to go to, and organise,
tournaments all over the country. Now I am at the stage where I get asked
to write the memoirs of a serial Kotei attendee! How times change. I am not
sure that I can even remember back far enough to how it all started.
Actually
it kind of started before the Kotei really existed – I certainly can no
longer remember at want point we stopped having a UK Championship and when
we started having Koteis. The first one was back in 1998 really. Of course
it wasn’t a Kotei – it was the UK Championship held at Gen Con in
Loughborough and it was the first UK storyline event – ever.
At
the time WotC had just taken over. I had been running a series of events in
Scotland for the previous 6 or 12 months. I knew Carl Crook quite well and
decided to phone him up to demand “What are you guys doing for this game
you now own!” To my initial surprise they were very supportive and agreed
that we could have a big tourney at Gen Con and that I could speak to Five
Rings Publishing (as it was then) about getting a storyline. In the end
WotC (UK) did a great job and got Mindy Sherwood-Lewis over to run all the
L5R for the convention. Those old enough, will remember me hitting various
venues in the UK (at least Stoke, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield,
Edinburgh and Glasgow) trying to drum up support, as I had no idea what was
going to happen, and was scared to death the thing would bomb.
Of
course I needn’t have worried. The inaugural UK Championship went well. The
format was 40/40 Jade Extended with about 50 players in attendance and the
hot decks were Corrupt Lion, Crane Honour and Unicorn. I was lucky and made
it to the final where I faced Tom Mulheims with his counterattacking Crane
deck. We decided for the sake of clan harmony we would decide the game with
an Iaijutsu Art duel and placed a Doji Reju on the table and randomly
focussed 5 cards from our decks to decide the winner. The first time was a
draw and we tried to claim a win each (as per Reju’s text) but Mindy was
having none of it. She made us do it again and Tom was the first UK champ
by 1 focus value!
The
following year 1999 we were taken to Birmingham to play alongside the Magic
national championship. I had spent quite some time with friends Neil Jones
and Silas Bath working on decks as the prize this time was fantastic – WotC
had now got Keith Anderson on board who was, and still is, a mad keen L5R
player. Together he and Carl managed to pull off some great stuff for us
over the next few years. This one was going to be special. Nearly a hundred
players got together for a first and second prize of an all expenses paid
trip to US Gen Con to play in the World Championships. The big things at
the time were Corrupt Toturi Blitz, Phoenix in many guises, Unicorn and to
a lesser extent Crane. The deck I was most keen to play was an unusual
weenie Phoenix military control using Jama Suru and Rest, My Brother
together with Kolat and other personality control. At the time all shugenja
were Phoenix because of the original printing of the stronghold in Dark
Journey Home. I also had a very enjoyable deck I referred to as the Body
Bag Crane. Using all the strong ranged attacks and their support cards and
Ambushes to try and destroy opposing armies. It was particularly strong
against TA blitz. The morning of the event a bunch of the Irish players,
led by Jim Brophy, shamed me into going back to the Crane deck.
It
was a good year and I was fortunate enough to sweep through the Swiss 7-0.
My luck ran out there as I managed to pull the well known Curse of the
Swiss and lose in the top 8 straight away to some Irish guy called Justin
Walsh and finishing 5th. Still in the end I got some measure of revenge as
Silas beat Justin with the deck we had been working on in the semi-finals.
He lost in the final to Neil Jones and they both went to the States.
2000
was the biggest event to date. I think this is probably the first Kotei (by
that name). But Keith had really gone to town. Manchester was the venue and
we ended up with something like 110 players who enjoyed Chinese dancing and
martial arts displays, as well as a free Chinese meal at lunch (a tradition
that has thankfully continued). It was the time when Phoenix
enlightenment (FETA) was very strong with Rise from the Ashes, the new Fox
stronghold was good as well as a variety of Shadowlands decks and Unicorn
duelling, which is what I chose. It was a control deck that used cavalry
and one big unit wielding a pumped up Bloodsword to do the damage. It could
then straighten when attacked with the Otaku Meadows Stronghold There was a
great variety of decks, and I managed to scrape into the final rounds again
losing to eventual winner Marc Crowley with a Nio Sensei Junzo deck in the
semi-final to come in 4th. The prize support was again superb with boxes of
product everywhere and an Edinburgh player Kamal Abdullah took second with
Fox and got to go to Gen Con in the U.S. with Marc.
2001
was the year after the game almost died and we are all little hesitant.
WotC had gone and after months in limbo AEG had finally taken the game
back. The venue was Queen’s walk in Nottingham and
in the end I recall there was something like 90 players present. I had
taken the decision that I was really going to go for it this year and sold
my soul to the Spirit Clan. Other strong decks were the Phoenix toolbox,
Fox, as well as Horde. My deck was just an honour Blitz with 3 Shinsei’s
Shrines and with the region that mimicked them. It was fast brutal and did
the job. The tournament was all about speed. I got revenge on Marc for the
previous year in the quarterfinals in a very close game. The final was,
however, not a great spectacle as it was Spirit Honour versus Spirit
Honour. I was running three Tribute to Your House and Three Deeds Not Words
and so I won handily and finally won a UK Kotei!
2002
was again in Nottingham. This was another interesting year, in what has
become the home of UK Koteis. Decks were very varied. Crane was again quite
strong, so I plumped to go back to clan. I was playing something slightly
more janky than usual running shugenja and Torrential Rains. The dominant
forces, however, were Unicorn and Shadowlands. In the end it went that way
right through to the finals. Ian O’Brien knocked me out in the quarters
again with the card I love to hate in L5R – New Year’s Celebration and his
Goblin Blitz. It was a real do or die deck with about an 80 or 90% hit
rate. Unfortunately for Ian it fell apart in the final and the deserved
winner playing a ranged attack military control Unicorn deck was long-time
player Martin Provoost – I doubt there has been a more popular winner as
Martin has been a strong player for many years, as well as one of the nicest
guys on ‘the UK circuit’. My consolation was that the only two players that
beat me that day had finished first and second!
2003
and last year. By this time Gold had become somewhat degenerate. The real
problem was a round those clans that could use corrupt or at least
accelerated gold easily – this meant Crab, Dragon, Phoenix, Scorpion and
anyone that could easily use The White Rat! Although Crane honour was
decent it just lost to almost any Rat deck so I decided to go with the card
drawing machine of Kyuden Hida Rat. I faced three honour decks in the Swiss
and it was really a terrible mismatch for them. However, the high spot was
playing in a great game against Mark Armitage, returning to the game after
some absence. I managed to squeak past him on –19 honour, his only real
loss of the day. But it was great to see him back. I got my comeuppance in
the semi-finals again though when an effervescent Ben Palmer managed to out
force me with Crab Berserkers. The game hinged on his choice of provinces
when I was down to two and he was at three as he managed to pick the one
with the Peasant Revolt that would have surely won me the game. Still Ben
was a lot of fun during the match and again I had the honour of losing to
the eventual winner. And the story does have a happy end as I later went to
my first Irish Kotei and managed to win there.
I
think the most important thing, as I look back at this little descriptive,
though, is not the games or the decks. It is all the great people and
friendships I have made throughout - from Tom Mulheims in the first, to
Mark Armitage returning last year. I have been lucky enough to travel the
world to play this game and have made many very good friends and met many
wonderful people. I hope to be at the Kotei in 2004 and I am sure that it
will be a lot of fun. I don’t know what deck I will play, but I can
recommend it as an experience for anyone who plays this game, whether they
are a new player or an old hand. You will meet some great people, in a
relaxed atmosphere who just want to play and have fun – even when there is
the reward of being the UK Champ at stake. That is what makes this game and
its players special – you will very rarely meet anyone that you mind losing
to – they are all so nice!
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