My brothers,

I bring you news of a splendid gathering of combatants who contested the UK & Ireland
Kotei Emperor tournament in Manchester, England this past weekend. A full 100 competitors
entered, which was far beyond the 80 or so we had hoped for. 18 of us managed to travel
over from Ireland for the event, which restored my faith in Wizards' support for the game.
A magnificent day was organized in a grand hall, the stage of which played host to several
interesting and spectacular shows as the day went on - traditional oriental instruments,
Lion dance, martial arts displays and sword katas, and traditional dance displays. Wizards
UK really pushed the boat out on this one, and even included a meal of stirfry and rice
for the hungry players. The price? Free. Thanks again to Keith and the DCI crew for a
magnificent occasion.

Despite our travels taking us from one end of the city to the other in search of our
hostel (which we found at 4.30am), all 18 Irish players were present and just about awake
for the start of the tournament. I had made many alterations to my deck that seemed like a
great idea at 2 or 3am, but never really showed themselves to be all that effective. The
deck was a dishonour/personality denial deck which could crawl to honour victory while
slowing honour runners and killing military personalities. I used Yoritomo Sensei to
stabilize my gold scheme (Sancs, Sandsmiths, and Jade Works), and Hogosha to reduce the
cost of out-of clan personalities. The big surprise was the clan breakdown. Even with such
high stakes, most people played their clan, and only 5 Phoenix, 5 TA, and 5 Ninja took the
field. Least represented were the Monk, with 2 players. At the other end of the scale,
there were a massive 15 Unicorn players, and 14 Yoritomo's Alliance, though many of these
were Fox, one or two playing out-of-clan to take advantage of the Fox strength.

And so we began, and I had the pleasure of taking part in the Feature Match of the first
round. Over the past couple of weeks, the banter and slagging on the L5R-UK mailing lists
had led to a challenge being issued in true WWF style. The result, a match between myself,
and Adam Jones, a sometime TA, sometime Ninja player, for the title of Ashigaru's
(People's) Champion to be bestowed upon either Yoritomo or Toturi. We were introduced to
the assembled horde of players, by 'Shiba Darth' Justin, and sat down to our first game.

Round 1 - Adam Jones. Toturi's Army (Palaces) with Toshimoko Sensei

Adam had settled on a Shrine Honour TA deck, with pretty much all PH3 personalities
involved. I figured I would have my work cut out to slow this one down. Adam started with
Gold, as did I, and then brought out someone for two honour on the second turn, taking him
to 6. I started my turn with a Command of the Kami, followed by a Breach, taking him to
-1, and giving me favour control with my Hogosha, and allowing me time to bring out more
gold, while he had to keep clearing to get his Sancs out and get back above 0 honour. It
was during this time that I gained control of the game, my early ability to bring out
subsequently produce a lot of gold meant that I could perform several tricks each turn
with my spells, as he finally got back above 0 and started rocketing up in honour from his
high PH personalities. He quickly regained the lead in honour, but my large amount of gold
was allowing me to keep up with Sanc, and no-one had favour control for quite some time.
Finally, enter Sagoten, who let me keep up well enough. I attached Wasting Disease to Kuni
Utagu (sick, I know :) and started to kill his personalities after dishnouring them, and
Toshimoko also helped in that department, until a tied duel with Shotai meant death and an
honour hit for both of us. We were in the mid-twenties for honour at this point, and I was
worried as I'd lost a major source of dishonour and personality kill in Toshimoko.
Finally, my Imperial Ambassadors arrived, but time was still not on my side, as it looked
like Adam would get to 40 ahead of me. He did so on his turn, but only to 40, and admitted
later that he was worried by my calmness as he did so. On my own turn, using Sagoten and
Sancs I went 45, dishnoured a Tohaku, played an Evil Portents, and Wasting Diseased him,
causing Adam a 3 honour hit from the death, and winning me the game. A very, very tight
game, and incredibly enjoyable. So, it would appear that Yoritomo is the People's Champion
(It's true, it's true :)

1-0

Round 2 - Fox with Kaede Sensei. (Sorry, I can't remember your name)

As was my offer to all Yoritomo's Alliance players during the day, I offered to ply a game
of Fortunes and Winds with this Fox player, instead of playing our decks against each
other, as I had made the dice the night before. He refused, and it turned out that this
player was a a Ninja player who was playing Fox, and he played the deck to it's strengths.
He took a second turn province, with a Diro and Ryosei using a naginata and Within your
Soul, before I managed to get any of my dishonour tricks going. I was pretty much on the
back foot for the whole game, and never really looked like stopping the flow of
personalities that the FoxBox is capable of turning out. As for my dishonour tactics, they
never got off the ground either, and with a little gold, he was able to bring out enough
people with honour to stay ahead. He quickly took my provinces, and the miracles I needed
never arrived.

1-1

Round 3 - John Rogers. Crane (Esteemed House) with Toshimoko Sensei (I think)

One of the Irish guys that had traveled over with us, and also one of the guys I play
regularly against. We bere both playing honour/dishonour decks, and as a result, it looked
like the game would be over fast through dishnour. We battered each other down to the -10
mark quickly enough, until I started to get Sanctified temples, and worked my way back
towards positive. I managed to get John to -17, and Walked the Way for a Shame, thinking
to end the game quickly. I trie d to Shame his Shugenja, and he Wind's Truth the loss to
me, then played Dirty politics to gain the 7 honour, pulling him back up. My dishonour
stalled, but my Imperial Ambassadors allowed me to establish a lead, and when I killed his
Shosuro Taberu and brought out his own, he conceded, with me in the twenties and him in
single figures. A very entertaining game, and I was glad my deck had survived against a
similar opponent.

2-1

Round 4 - Ralph Martin. Scorpion (Yogo Towers) with Hantei Sensei

Yet another Irish opponent, Ralph is one of our dedicated Scorpion players. He was
expecting my Ratling deck and so chose Hantei Sensei over Norikazu. When he saw my
Yoritomo Sensei, he was disturbed, thinking he had already lost the battle of wills. He
got off to a decent start, and was able to take two early provinces thanks to Summon
Undead Champion x2. I managed to get him down to -17 honour, but without some way to
finish him off, only my Temples to Shinsei was keeping his Undead behemoths at bay, and my
fate deck stalled. He had a dishonoured jujun in play, and I never drew the Shame I needed
to finish him off. It was my next draw, after he had taken my last province......

2-2

Round 5 - Terry Poole. Mantis (Kyuden Yoritomo), not sure what sensei.

Once again, I offered Terry the chance to play Fortunes and Winds with the dice I had made
the night before, and I was more than pleased when he agreed, rather than fight Mantis vs
Mantis. The game started well for me, but then I was reduced to my starting bet after
gambling too highly. Terry, who knew the game well, then also had a good run, with a
series of small bets putting him within striking distance of the 20 koku mark we had set
as the winning total. However, with a 3 koku bet and Lord Moon rearing his head, Terry
lost his advantage, and then failed on his next three turns to make any combination count,
and his luck ran out with his koku, making me the winner.

3-2

Round 6 - Tom Mulheims. Unicorn (Otaku Palaces) with Toshimoko Sensei

This game pushed my first one close for game of the day. Tom got a good start with his
Magistrate honour deck, but once I had gotten Norikazu exp2 out, I was able to remove his
Secrets on the Wind, preventing his dishonour tactics. Tom Kolat Mastered my Yogo Asami,
which I was none too concerned over as I had Hogosha's to use up, but this would prove to
be a mistake later - I should have killed her off at some point. My Fields of the Morning
Sun showed up, limiting his attacking options, and I set about killing off Tom's PH 2
personalities. The race ensued - me racing ahead on honour thanks to my Ambassadors, and
Tom racing through his deck to produce enough PH 2 personalities to take that last
province. My Toshimoko died yet again when he tied another duel, and I lost my best denial
combo. Still, I was safe for a while longer, and I hit 39 as Tom brought in a fourth PH 2
Unicorn and Kuni Utagu. I killed off one PH 2 personality, and then took a large gamble,
using my only remaining unbowed personality, Moshi Wakiza to walk the way for a Test of
Honour, with Sagoten in my province. The test of honour targeted one of his 3F 2 PH
personalities, and had he drawn a 3 or more, the game was mine, as he didn't have enough
force to take he province, given that I had the favour. He drew a 2, howvere, the
personality survived, and by using my Yogo Asami, he bowed my Sagoten, and had enough
force to take the province despite my having the favour. Close, damn close, but not
enough. I would have been better off waiting and defending with Wakiza, to take out some
more force, even with her loss, but I didn't think of that until later......

3-3 and out for sure

Round 7 - Scott Burns. Lion with Yoritomo Sensei

Playing for pride, and a 4-3 record. He gets a lot of gold early, and I manage to draw
three Unrequited loves, with which I take him all the way down to 0 honour after he brings
out a Morishigi. At this point, I thought I had him, as at 0 honour, the Lion struggle,
and I laid off to build up. Big Mistake. With Shiryo no Tsuko (I think), he was able to
buy a 3PH personality, giving him the honour for Suhada, who in turn took him to 5, the
require honour for Agetoki. Suddenly, he had a big strike force assembled, a way of
canceling my dishonour tricks, and 7 honour!!! It just went downhill for me from there,
and he had little trouble taking my provinces, as my fate deck stalled its production. I
must say this was a very enjoyable game, and Scott was a great opponent. Unfortunately, I
hadn't even managed a winning record - that will teach me to mess with a successful deck
at 2am!! :)

3-4, but despite a disappointing record, a very enjoyable day. I played in a DJH sealed
deck, picking up some nice cards in the process.

The big surprise of the Swiss rounds was a Crab 4 walls deck which had gone 7-0 !!! There
was a lot of consternation over Intentional Draws being allowed during the swiss, and as a
reult, all of the top 8 finished on 5-1-1 or better, which left the next 16 players with
nothing to play for going into the last swiss round - the only black mark on an otherwise
great day. The top 8 included 2 Shadowlands, a TA, a Fox, a Unicorn, the Crab 4-walls, and
two other decks ( my memory at this stage is a bit vague due to sleep depravation). The
Semi-finals saw the Fox beat the Four-Walls Crab, and one of the Shadowlands beat the
Unicorn deck, but only just. The final, between the Fox and the Shadowlands was an
incredibly well fought 2-1 victory to the Shadowlands, very close games in the first and
third matches.

All in all, a spectacular day, which ended with my continuing my victories over Adam with
a couple of Royal Rumble wins on the PSX version of Smackdown :)