This is one of two events happening this weekend. At last, the Kotei season is kicking off in America and we have a chance to see what the meta is currently like over there. These will be the last two events before the restricted list, so it’ll be our last chance to judge the post-disciples pre-restricted list environment.
Welcome to the new environment! This is the first big tournament with the Disciples of the Void Phoenix clan pack legal. While this did have a few minor changes for most clans it was a big change for the Phoenix. The common opinion is that Phoenix are now a top clan along with Scorpion and Dragon. Düsseldorf is where we get to see it in action.
Okay, I’m a little late on this. We didn’t have a stream, the tournament was under 100 people, and it was the last tournament in the pre-disciples tournament. I’ve also yet to see decklists for it. So I didn’t think it was that important.
After discussing with some of the players at Düsseldorf however, I’m going back to make sure I have the info for Warsaw. The reason is: Poland is dominating Europe right now. Out of the 5 major events Madrid, Cork, Paris, Warsaw, and Düsseldorf; Polish players have come second at Cork, won Paris, won Warsaw, and won Düsseldorf. So maybe we should go back to see what happened in Warsaw.
The Paris Grand Kotei was the final tournament before the release of the upcoming Phoenix clan pack. At PAX South, the new Scorpion Dynasty-Go deck was unveiled. At Cork, despite meta cards added, players just weren’t ready for it. Paris, then, was the first real chance for the clans to challenge this powerful Scorpion deck. In the end, the Scorpion played by Jakub Irzyk remained victorious and undefeated, but is there more to the story? We look at the numbers and have some comments by Jakub himself.
The Paris Grand Kotei is in progress as we speak. Updates are being posted on the Facebook L5R group and on Discord. There are also streams running in both French and English. We’ve provided a summary below.
This weekend we have the Irish Kotei in Cork at Warpcon. This is the second Kotei with the full Imperial cycle and at around 200 people in attendance is the biggest yet, although the Paris Grand Kotei is sure to blow past that number. This is home turf for many of us on Imperial Advisor and we’re all going to be in attendance either playing or staffing. Updates will be added as the Kotei progresses. …
This weekend PAX South is running the first Kotei in the full Imperial cycle. Attendance is a disappointing 61 player. Some have alternatively suggested this was due to the location, college starting up again, and the cost. …
This weekend is the first Kotei held at Game On in Madrid, Spain. Currently, it looks like it will be bigger than Worlds with numbers over 400 players! The first two packs of the Imperial cycle will be legal so it will give us a taste of the new environment, but only a taste. Spain is super serious about L5R so I’m expecting some interesting results.
This weekend PAX, the first Grand Kotei, is in progress. It’s not quite as exciting as Worlds so we’re not giving blow by blow breakdowns, but we are keeping an eye on it. Once we do get some decklists in a week or two, these will be added to this post.
Starting on the 1st of November, a total of 317 Legend of the Five Rings players competed to see who would claim the title of Shogun for 2017. At the end of 4 fierce days of battle and intrigue, one player remained. Shogun Samuel Benies claimed that honor for the Lion clan defeating the Crane Hatamoto John Urbanek on the field of battle.