Subject: OP Rankings update: 16th July 2003 - Winds of Change Pre-release
Date: 17 July 2003 00:51

Visit http://www.l5ruk.net for the latest updates on L5R events in London.

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Peeps,

Winds of Change is out very soon, and we've got a pre-release planned for
Tuesday 29th July (this is the day after Andy and I get back from GenCon).

With the pre-release kits being sold in the manner that they are - 1 booster
box & 6 starters per kit - running a pre-release of the standard 1 starter &
3 boosters leaves us with a large excess of boosters and out of pocket due
to the pricing of the kits. If we do a pre-release to accomodate 12 people
(which would be about right for our group), we are left with an excess of 60
boosters. That's an extra 5 boosters per player unsold.

What I need is a commitment from each of you who are interested in playing a
pre-release to take up the slack boosters so that the club is not left out
of pocket.

We have worked out a price for the pre-release: £25 all in. This gives you 1
starter & 3 boosters for the pre-release, plus 5 additional boosters. If you
work it out, that's £9 for the starter and £2 each for the boosters - not a
bad price I'm sure you'll agree. Obviously you all receive the special
promotional card that is EXCLUSIVELY available only through participating in
the pre-release. There will be a copy of this promo for each person who pays
up for their commitment.

If I do not get positive confirmation from enough people who are happy to
take part on these terms, we will not being holding a pre-release at all.

What I can say is that if there are 6 interested, we will run it for those
6. If there are 12, we will run it for those 12. What we do not want to do
is buy a load of kits and having to run around selling boosters to re-coup
the costs of the kit, like we had to for Heaven & Earth. I don't want to
have to do it, and the slow return of money created problems for Jason after
he put up ther initial outlay.

Get back to me as soon as you can so that we can set the wheels in motion or
not, as the case may be.

* * * * * *

On another note, congrats to Mustafa Bharmal on winning South Bank: Clan
Rivals part 1. The current OP rankings for the participants is below this
message.

I don't know how popular/unpopular the single elimination format was with
you guys, so any feedback on this would be appreciated. If you feel we
should switch to swiss, please let me know.

Additionally, seeing as the whole competitive season will soon be ending,
I'm keen to know if you guys want to run swiss tournaments or events in
other formats. There seems to be a bit of interest perking up in doing an
open format nights, which I'd happily support. Some of you wanted to do a
large multi-player again. It's all good; whatever you want. I don't want to
see Gold Swiss dominate the Monday nights; we can run other events. Just let
us know and we can do it.

I DO think the swiss formats and OP sanctioned events we've been doing have
been good for us, as it's added a structure to our night. I definitely want
to continue sanctioning events via OP. It has allowed me to obtain a lot of
promos for us that we wouldn't otherwise have had. I haven't managed to
receive promos all the time, but this is because I need a long lead time
between a sanctioning approval and arrival of the promos from AEG (if you
check the master schedule you'll see I have events lined up each night till
11th August). I also know some of you (myself included) take an interest in
your ranking, even with the problems OP had before. Part of the interest in
the game is improving your game. Comparing yourself to your contemporaries
is one way to do that.

Anyway, I don't want to blather on too much. Hopefully I'll be hearing from
you regarding the pre-releases.

Regards,
Colm McFadden

P.S. Anyone else feel the need for a mailing list to discuss these things
and what we want to do to plan events?

==================================

Name - OP Number - Ranking Pts.(Change) - Wins/Losses
==============================================
Andrew Lowther - 100202850 - 1187(+5) - W41/L63
Colm McFadden - 100202887 - 1240(-4) - W95/L74
Des Brennan - 101560701 - 1194(0) - W20/L24
Karl Chamberlain - 101560702 - 1171(N/A) - W2/L11
Keith Anderson - 101863609 - 1223(-4) - W24/L20
Mustafa Bharmal - 101863603 - 1204(+9) - W12/L13
Stuart Taylor - 100202814 - 1146(-2) - W39/L85
Vincent Chaplin - 102516100 - 1185(-3) - W4/L11