Sean's Lesson on How Not to Win a Kotei Two Years Running
Sean's Lesson on How Not to Win a Kotei Two Years Running
Preamble
So, the Calgary Kotei was just held on June 12th of this year. As
some may recall, Leon Phillips and I (Sean Whittaker) made the very
long drive last year to attend the Calgary Kotei, and it was
tremendous fun. Leon finished third with his now-infamous Phoenix
Rats deck, and I managed to avenge his loss in the finals by beating
Greg Wong with my Crane military deck (popularly known as Shiro's Heroes,
although my build specialized in daimyos, not champions) and name Yoritomo
Katoa to the Imperial Court. The TO had booked a fine restaurant for an
after-party, Leon and I unashamedly flirted with the cute waitress as we
happily chatted with the nice local L5R crowd, we drove back the next day
listening to Enio Morricone's classic soundtrack to "The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly". I had a grin on my face the whole way back, as we drove through
the glorious Canadian Rockies in the bright sunshine, enjoying the conceit
that I was the tough gunslinger from out of town who rode in and
demonstrated who was boss.
One year later, Andrew Ornatov instigated the "Beat Sean" campaign
to make sure a Canadian didn't win another Canadian Kotei. This
obviously meant that the number of skilled American players
participating was going to rise dramatically, and that the field was
going to be both much bigger and much more formidable. I hardly
minded, because it meant that the road trip was going to be
tremendous fun and the "Beat Sean" campaign was going to be
bookended by a lot of partying.
The Traveling Party
Canadians:
Sean Whittaker
Chris Braun
Americans:
Andrew Ornatov
Caroline Bowker
Jeremy Holcomb
Danny Walker
Jake Bowlin
Chris Porowski
Ian Ryan
Alvaro Erickson
Shawn & Amy Hopkins
Greg Wong, last year's other Calgary finalist and all-around good
guy (he was very gracious in defeat last year), had very nicely
arranged crash space for the dozen travelers coming from BC (myself
and the incorrigible Chris Braun) and Washington (three car-loads of
Americans invading for the evil purpose of defeating any and all
Canucks on their home ground). So, with a set of directions to
downtown Calgary in hand, the road trip began very early on Friday
morning.
Alvaro Erickson and Ian Ryan show up at my door in Vancouver to pick
me up mid-morning, after an early crossing of the border. We quickly
head off eastwards to Abbotsford to rendez-vous with the rest of our
caravan, who have stopped there to pick up our other Canadian
passenger, Chris Braun. Since we're running a bit late, we quickly
hit the road, but a few minutes later Chris' girlfriend Tam calls to
give us the bad news that Chris has absconded with the car keys. So
two thirds of the caravan are stuck with another delay as they have
to double back.
Since our car is full of three hungry people who have not yet had any
lunch, we decide to stop at Meritt for a meal and we relay that info
to the stragglers so they can meet up with us. Now, Meritt is a
pretty small town in the interior of BC, but we were still
incredulous when we watch an elderly woman cross the town's major
intersection against the light with her walker full of some
groceries, all the while just staring down at her purchases. When
that hilarious obstacle finally gets out of our way, we pull into a
local pub and order some beer and food while Ian and I play a couple
of test games (I need to gain more familiarity with the Earth/Tao
enlightenment build I've decided to play). Annoyingly, we learn by
phone that Danny's decided not to stop to meet up with us, so we're
left to ourselves to finish up our lunch and catch up on the road.
We manage to do so at Golden, several hundred kilometers and a bunch
of spectacular scenery later, which is the last town of any
significance before we reach Alberta. Danny "I'm in a hurry" Walker
receives a lot of merciless grief from us as we remind him that he's
*never* been accused of being in a hurry before. I take on the
driving chores and inflict Alvaro and Ian with a selection of
Morricone music which I had taken pains to purchase the day before,
and I dream of duplicating my victory of last year.
We manage to reach Greg's 28th floor apartment in downtown Calgary
only an hour late, at 11:30 PM local time, after the scenic drive
through Banff National Park, complete with a couple of bears and deer
by the side of the road at various times. We all happily get settled in,
and have a late-night conversation, a couple of test games, and so forth
before getting some sleep at about 3 AM. I spend a lot of time
staring at Greg's impressive server which has a terrabyte of anime
in it while trying to go to sleep, and decide that I want to look
through some of it the following night.
I struggle to get up all-too-early the next morning at about 8 AM,
but I manage to get up and out the door as Greg's girlfriend Diana
volunteers to drive Ian and myself to the tournament venue in plenty
of time. I quickly head to the food court to grab a coffee and
muffin to start the day. I happily meet up with some of my close
friends from Vancouver who had driven out to Calgary a couple of
days earlier than we did, and we catch up before the tournament
starts.
The Kotei
So, the tournament gets going with registration, and so forth. I
happily renew acquaintances with many familiar faces from last year.
Unfortunately, the TO announces that we have a strict time limit as
we need to vacate the venue by 8 PM. This precludes the elimination
rounds (top 8 only, as the field was 50 players) from being best
2/3. The finals ended up being only one game, which was simply
deplorable.
Round One: Jarred Moore, Kyuden Doji, Underhand.
Jarred gets a first turn Sacred Grove and brings out Matabei and Mai
exp. by turn four. Matabei becomes a courtier and quickly hands out
a 5 honour loss via a Rhetoric'ed Ambush. The next turn, he attaches
Kenshinzen and Blade of Truths. I could've handled either the
dishonour or the PK engine, but not both. 0-1.
Round Two: Matt Cragg, Kyuden Doji, Left Hand.
This game went much better for me. I quickly got out Fire before he
set up defenses against it, and then dropped Void and Air. Since he
had five provinces and presumably also had enough personality kill in
battle actions if I only attacked with one personality per battle, I
played Tribute to guarantee I had enough disposable personalities to
guarantee presence for Strategic Crossroads to go wtih my pair of Outer
Walls to drop Water. 1-1.
Round Three: Danny "I'm in a hurry" Walker, Spawning Grounds, Black
Heart.
This is where I earned the sword (now known as "The Steak Knife")
for Best Mistake of the tournament. I got off to a really good start
and played all of my Rings except Fire before Danny got me down to 3
provinces, because he flipped almost every holding in his deck as he
tried to bring out big evil things to kill me with. I was only one
card away from dropping Fire, but I needed a second Words Cut Like
Steel to cycle in to my hand, and it was stubbornly at the bottom of
my deck. But hey, my Refuge of the Three Sisters pops up in one of
my provinces, and I have my one Show of Good Faith in hand. I
casually point to his bowed Fushiki no Oni, who has 5 chi, and play
the Show of Good Faith. I try to sack it to the Refuge to win the
game (I have two Temple of the Ages in play to bully-duel my way to
Fire). Danny points out that I can't do that because the Refuge
requires an unbowed personality. I announce to the world that I am a
very stupid person. I sit around for the next 3 turns without
drawing what I need as the slavering Onis and Iuchiban strip me of
my remaining provinces. 30 province strength wasn't nearly enough. 1-
2, and my quest to repeat appears doomed.
Round Four: Matt Cruikshank, Temple of Hoshi, Right Hand.
Probably the best game of the day. He wrecks my day with Turn of
Fortune three times (using one Shrine of the Eternal in the
process), but I manage to drop Fire and enlighten only because he
didn't have a 4 focus value card in his hand at the crucial moment.
2-2.
Round Five: Parker Wells, Razor's Edge Dojo, Voice.
My deck runs like clockwork and I easily have enough cards in hand
to discard to his stronghold. 3-2.
Round Six: Caroline "She Who Graciously Provides Me with Orange
Chocolate and Alcohol" Bowker, Morning Glory Castle, Left Hand.
Caroline says she isn't sure how to play versus Enlightenment, but
she makes the very, very savvy decision not to bring out any
personalities against me, save one that she quickly sacks to her own
Refuge. This means I can't play Fire. She manages to gain
tremendous amounts of honour very quickly through fortuitous early
events, regions, and honour-producing holdings. I make a crucial
mistake that prevents me from destroying all of her provinces: I use
Kyuden Tonbo when she is at 38 honour with an unbowed Noh Theater
Troupe. I use Tribute and proceed to blow up her Naga Storm Mirumoto
Mountain, but can't quite muster up enough force to take all her
provinces the following turn. I would have been able to do so
otherwise, as my trio of Temple of Ages were giving three of my puds
4/4. 3-3.
So, the tournament ends with Greg Wong finally coming through with a
first-place finish at a Kotei after a tough second-place finish the
year before, and a demoralizing loss to Ian Ryan at EtG4 earlier
this spring.
The Party After
We then head to the Keg for a steak dinner with Greg, his girlfriend Diana,
and her brother. The long wait to get seated very much alleviated by
all the eye candy going in and out of the restaurant. Jake announces
to me that the trip has been worth it just to see all these
attractive Canadian women. (I mock-wipe the imaginary drool off his
beard, with no success.) The antics of Ian & Chris were hilarious,
and in cheerfully poor taste, which causes our table to be convulsed
with laughter most of the time, or pretty embarrassed by some of our table
companions. Dinner is particularly good, although Shawn
isn't terribly impressed by the beer on tap (he cleverly doesn't
even try to defend weak American beer, and truthfully it wasn't all
that good as Canadian beer goes). We have a nice waitress, Katie, who got a
big tip for putting up with Chris and Ian (I thought Caroline would
turn around and stab Chris at one point). I duck out early to
retrive both my gear and Ian's from Shawn's car, who is leaving
early to go back to his hotel: I re-enter the steakhouse casually
carrying the Big Steak Knife with a big grin on my face.
Our trip back to Greg's for yet more socializing is delayed as one
of the locals who is providing crash space, Britain, had to duck out
to a bank. It turns out he ended up walking the better part of an
hour to find a functional bank machine, so we just paid his bill for
him and cram a whole bunch of people into two cars and drive over to
Greg's, where the anime videos start playing and the alcohol
continues to get poured. Greg graciously agrees to trade me some of
his extra Dragon foils, which makes me happy, and I proceed to drink
some of Caroline's fine liqueur and some vodka and orange juice (in
healthier proportions to what ChPow drinks!). Britain eventually
arrives to join the party.
Eventually the party ends and we grab a bit of sleep. We proceed to
take Greg out to breakfast the following morning, congratulate him
again on winning the tournament, and start the long drive home.
--Sean Whittaker
"What do you mean, I need an unbowed personality to use the
Refuge? . . . Doh!"
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