Hida Suka has won the Nuremberg Kotei and thus earned the indefatigable Crab clan the right to appoint the Pearl Champion from among their ranks. Read on for all the details.
16 samurai showed up for the tournament. Only about half as many as last time, but at least as much fun as last year. Every clan sent two ambassadors, except for the Crane and the Scorpion, who hoped for better chances by sending three samurai each—to no avail.
ryanbantwins was well on his way to another victory of the first day, but he was stopped short by the actual winner of Day 1, voidnoob. Three fun facts about this matchup:
First one is about ryanbantwins history: Last year, he participated as a member of the Lion clan, won the first day and also became Lion Hatamoto. This year, however, he betrayed the Lion and returned to his original clan, the Crane. In doing so, he lost his title of Lion Hatamoto and is no longer listed on our website.
Second one is that this year—again!—Lion won Day 1 undefeated (in this case, voidnoob). The third and last fun fact is that ryanbantwins lost with a modfied loss (0 points) to voidnoob. Therefore, he would not have qualified for the Top Cut on Day 2, as one needed 31 points and he only had 30. However, we were only 7 players (those with 3-1 plus challengers) in the Top Cut, and it was unanimously agreed to also let him participate, as he technically finished 3-1. You can check the final results here on Lotus Pavilion / Tourneygrounds. WorkerBee proved that it is indeed possible to become Hatamoto with only one victory on the first day.
The second day saw two tournaments. One for those that didn’t make the cut, which was called Fellowship of the Pearl Champion. Players from the Top Cut who lost their first round were able to join the tournament. KaiRong managed to decide this tournament for himself, congratulations!
The Top Cut was very competitive and tense, everyone wanted to win the tournament and the title of Pearl Champion. In the semifinals, the matches were decided by counting points: Hida Suka (Crab) won against Siri (Scorpion) by one single point, the Imperial Favour. So the Empress does have a soft spot for Her protecting clan, eh?
The second finalist, Ysarion (“The Iron Crane”) dispatched voidnoob in the semifinals, ending the undefeated run of the Lion. In the end, he lost against Hida Suka within the time limit. Hida Suka was then rewarded with a special promo of the Writ of Survey, as that’s the writ which is handed out by the Pearl Champion. He accepted the reward on his knees (!!!) from the Empress. Here’s what She had to say:
The Empress, also known as Hantei Botan, gestures with a small hand, an overly-serious expression on pursed lips, but one betrayed by twinkling eyes and blushing, chubby cheeks. She points for the would-be champion to kneel before her.
Once they kneel, she raises her voice, and takes the worked gemstone ring from the Otomo kneeling beside her. “You have been very patient in your trials today. In honor of your victory, I’m told that you get to be the new Pearl Champion. I hope you do a very good job, because I want to go explore the island too one day!”
Then she awards the ring to the winner of the tournament. A young samurai from the Seppun, just past gempuku himself, hurries forward, carrying a banner with the mon of the Pearl Champion and holds it above the new Champion as they rise, and the crowd cheers.
And to one side, Otomo Tsuji smiles.
Hida Suka decided to appoint Chronicler of Calamities as the character that is going to be the Pearl Champion. As you can see from the deck list, Suka did put a Maho card in his deck (Spreading the Darkness) and used it very often, alongside crazy experiments with humans (Kuni Laboratory). Who knows what implications this decision—to use forbidden magic—will have, both for the Crab in particular and all the clans on Sanctuary?
Here are the deck lists of the top 8 players:
- Hida Suka (Crab / Unicorn)
- Ysarion (Crane / Scorpion)
- Voidnoob (Lion / Dragon)
- Siri (Scorpion / Crane)
- Ininalia (Phoenix / Crane)
- Rob Smith (Unicorn / Dragon)
- Martin Schröder (Dragon / Crab)
- ryanbantwins (Crane / Scorpion)
Of the seven Hatamoto, we welcome three new members to our Hall of Honor:
- For the Crane: Ysarion.
- For the Scorpion: Siri.
- For the Unicorn: Rob Smith
One of our artists, Jose M. García, also showed up at our tournament to sign his first card (Fertile Fields), which was handed out as participation promo, as well as my personal playmat with the art of Onsen Quarters.
Overall, we all had an amazing time. A few of the players arrived on Friday already, so that we had time to catch up, grab some cups of incredibly good coffee, and enjoy amazing vegan food. Both tournament days went smoothly, everyone was very kind and respectful, and discussed potential story outcomes of the decision. Thanks to each and everyone who was there. You made the event possible. Tell everyone, so that we might have another tournament next year again, with more players.
Many thanks to the Nerd Nexus team, for hosting us and making the Kotei an official event of theirs. Thanks to Steve and Robin, our two hosts on the two days, it was an amazing event.
Make sure to check back regularly as we will open the registrations for the Seattle Kotei soon (and it will be limited to 24 seats)!
