Winter Court 2018 – Final Day

We are into the final day and it looks like it will be an intense one. FFG will be doing a full day over coverage on their twitch stream so keep an eye on that.

We still have a lot of unanswered questions on who gets to qualify. Currently, we think you needed 42 points (so those players on 41 points who decided not to concede when time was called don’t make the cut). We also believe there are no clan challengers this time around, so no sneaking in with lower points.

Considering the day ahead, we don’t yet know if there is another round of swiss or if it goes straight into single elims. Luckily, we can make wild speculation on limited facts and hope for the best 😀 So here we have a single elim bracket with everyone 42 points or better. https://challonge.com/WinterCourt2018IACopy

Obviously, we might need to redo this, but in meantime, predictions have been enabled. So you can have some fun picking your own winners for each round and see how close you get it. It has some fun potential pairings like a replay of Birmingham finals with Jakub and Pablo, Fro and Shen facing off in a Jade Throne round, a rematch of Gencon (and Origins) with Aneil playing Travis. This is going to be an exciting day!

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Updates from the floor say they did read out challengers! So they’ve been added into the bracket now.

Official bracket is here: https://challonge.com/i1ic9dxi we’ve updated our version to match and you can see clans there which is kinda interest. Stream is live and Shey from the Jade Throne is commentating!

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FFG posted info graph! This is totally the best part 😀

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FFG have also posted some of the upcoming Kotei changes and prizes. Very much worth checking out.

Going into the top 32 we have some pretty big shocks with Aneil, Jakub, and Nicolas among other notable players out. The Montreal players are doing extremely well! The top 32 remaining have 10 Scorpion, 6 Crane, 6 Dragon, 5 Phoenix, 3 Crab, 1 Lion, and 1 Unicorn.

After a few more super tight games streamed we’ve hit the Top 8: 3 Scorpion, 2 Dragon, 1 Phoenix, 1 Crane, 1 Crab.

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The final is Erik Baalhuis playing Crane versus Johnny Shen playing Scorpion with Erik taking victory.

For his role pick Erik picked Seeker of Fire and for his story pick he selected Kakita Kaezin to protect Doji Kuzunobu from threats that lurk in the perilous Kitsune forest.

This has been the most competitive environment we’ve seen so far with the best L5R players in the world all competing for a position. There were more than a few surprise upsets and the few games we’ve seen on the twitch stream have all be epic!

Top players of each clan in order

• Crane – Eric Baahuis (Netherlands)
• Scorpion – Johnny Shen (USA)
• Dragon – Davis Kingsley (USA)
• Crab – Pablo Pinter Espinosa (Spain)
• Phoenix – Jose Luis Saenz
• Lion – Phillipe-Andre Pelletier (Canada)
• Unicorn – Ben Wooten

Role Picks

• Crane – Seeker of Fire
• Scorpion – Seeker of Air
• Dragon – Seeker of Void
• Crab – Keeper of Water
• Phoenix – Keeper of Air
• Lion – Keeper of Earth
• Unicorn – Seeker of Water

Story Picks

• Crane – Kakita Kaezin protects Doji Kuzunobu from threats that lurk in the perilous Kitsune forest
• Scorpion – A samurai of the Yogo Family is willing to sacrifice everything and anyone to fulfill their duty.
• Dragon – A samurai of the Kitsuki Family investigates the intrigues of the Forbidden City.
• Crab – A samurai of the Yasuki Family recruits aid from their neighboring allies to reinforce and defend the watchtower.
• Phoenix – A samurai of the Asako Family seeks the leadership of the Crab Clan, that they might aid in convincing Tadaka to return to the Phoenix—and to help point to where he can be found.
• Lion – A samurai of the Kitsu Family commands the Emerald Legions with guidance from the recently departed.
• Unicorn – A samurai of the Moto Family rules in the style of their ancestors, bringing foreign traditions to the people of the village.

We’ll have more updates as decklists start filtering through over the next week.

Since we didn’t have anyone from IA at the event, our coverage was completely reliant on other players volunteering their time to give updates. Although there were many (and God help me if I’ve missed someone) big thanks to Tsar Agus who kept us updated on Facebook, pimittens (and others on discord including Erik himself), Merlin from the Hidden City Rollers, and Jason. These were the people who had traveled to far off places and were tired after playing dozens of games but gave me everything I needed to update the site while I was sitting in my pyjamas with a coffee. Thank you!

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If you have any comments or feedback please post them in the comments section below. Check us out on the Imperial Advisor website, podcast, and YouTube channel for more discussion about the L5R LCG.