Hi all.

Anybody going to UKGE tomorrow.

Simon

Several thousand people, I'd imagine. And at least a couple of hundred to play L5R!

K-o-t-e-i

177 players for the first day of qualifying. Details here: https://thelotuspavilion.com/tournaments/1459

Only 171 listed though, so must have had a few no-shows. Also looks to be about 25 drops as of Round 3. We'll see how many stick around to finish today's rounds.

Imperial Advisor, here , says that Brad Andres went to play to the Kotei with his Unicorn deck... with some cards from the elemental cycle. So maybe we’ll have some more spoilers later today? Somebody attending that can sneak peek?

Edit: man, look at Crab & Scorpion win rates...

Apparently there was a lot of buzz in Unicorn chat, some not-so-easy to read pics of the table with some new cards on it. FWIW it sounds like the confirmed cards so far seem to line up with some of the recently rumored cards for the cycle.

161 players for the second Grinder today. 332 players between the two days is incredible.

Guess that's what happens when a Kotei weekend isn't a $150+travel affair.

5 hours ago, Hinomura said:

161 players for the second Grinder today. 332 players between the two days is incredible.

Madrid still holds the record for most people attending a Kotei with 444 ?

Paris also got more players AFAIK.

4 hours ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Guess that's what happens when a Kotei weekend isn't a $150+travel affair.

Also lot of people arrived to play also other LCG's that was available thanks to two days of qualifiers. Many played L5R as Plan B game, next to their main goals - AGoT and Netrunner.

Final is Crab Vs Scorpion... again.

The Crab player is Pablo Pintor, winner of the Madrid Kotei. That time, he tailored his deck against Lion, reading very well the local meta. I have the hunch he did the same this time, but against Scorpion. So I’m betting he’s gonna be the winner.

Also, he’s from Spain, like me, so I’m a little biased here ?

3 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Final is Crab Vs Scorpion... again.

The Crab player is Pablo Pintor, winner of the Madrid Kotei. That time, he tailored his deck against Lion, reading very well the local meta. I have the hunch he did the same this time, but against Scorpion. So I’m betting he’s gonna be the winner.

Also, he’s from Spain, like me, so I’m a little biased here ?

Alas for you. It was Scorpion that took the crown again.

Still lots of Scorpion and Crab in the top 32. Crane doing well also.

Especially Dragon seems to have suffered from the brand new restricted list.

Maybe Joe was right, what makes scorp and crab top of the meta (eight legs aside) is the viability of their two main win conditions. They can always switch from dishonor to military and viceversa.

As we all know from O5R, honor and dishonor cannot coexist, and if we reach a point where honor is more viable than dishonor, we'll probably see Lion and Crane on top, and Scorp and Crab at the bottom (we'll only if pro players stop playing scorp, nowadays it's the most played clan, and has lots of great players that squeeze its mechanics, and that maybe biases the results).

24 minutes ago, Barbacuo said:

and if we reach a point where honor is more viable than dishonor

It will be long uphill journey because of evergreen Core Set strong Scorpion Stronghold that has in-build soft honor meta.

13 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Final is Crab Vs Scorpion... again.

The Crab player is Pablo Pintor, winner of the Madrid Kotei. That time, he tailored his deck against Lion, reading very well the local meta. I have the hunch he did the same this time, but against Scorpion. So I’m betting he’s gonna be the winner.

Also, he’s from Spain, like me, so I’m a little biased here ?

Unfortunately for him, the player he went up against at the finals was the winner of the Paris Grand Kotei and Warsaw Kotei.

And because of that, I'm hoping with a little more time for the other clans to hone their decks, and the opportunity to play koteis WITHOUT 3-time kotei winners, we'll see a little more diversity in the finals.

1 hour ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

Unfortunately for him, the player he went up against at the finals was the winner of the Paris Grand Kotei and Warsaw Kotei.

Yeah, this Jakub guy seems unstoppable.

I think one of the problems with Scorp is the amount of Top players that went to that clan because it seemed the most OP since launch. Sometimes I wonder that maybe if these players went to other clans, like Phoenix or Dragon, we’ll see a less scorp-dominated Kotei season.

4 minutes ago, Tabris2k said:

Yeah, this Jakub guy seems unstoppable.

I think one of the problems with Scorp is the amount of Top players that went to that clan because it seemed the most OP since launch. Sometimes I wonder that maybe if these players went to other clans, like Phoenix or Dragon, we’ll see a less scorp-dominated Kotei season.

People should ask why these Top players (without old game, 'clan loyalty' background) have chosen Scorpion. Because of nice pictures? I don't think so. People want to win so chose best tools to achieve it.

Exactly, nobody is required to stick to a Clan. It has never been so. Even if you get an Hatamoto title, you don't have to stick to one clan, you can play whatever you fancy at that time.

If so many players play Scorpion, it's because it is the strongest clan right now. Once Unicorn becomes the strongest clan, you'll see a lot of people hopping on the 'Corn bandwagon

Yeah, but what I say is that it creates a snowball effect.

Top players play Scorpion because it was perceived as the most OP clan after launch. Scorpion wins due to having Top Players playing it*. More players move to Scorpion as a result...

*of course, I know that being OP also helps here.

Scorpion is probably the most played clan right now, just look at the numbers in local tournaments and Koteis, so that helps a lot in having more winnings.

What I’m saying is that maybe, if all those top players chose another clan (let’s say Crab or Phoenix), we could be looking at a very different picture right now.

Scorpion wasn't the the most played Clan on either Day 1A (4th most) or Day 1B (2nd most) at Birmingham. Or at either the Atlanta (3rd) or San Francisco (4th) Koteis. Or Dusseldorf (3rd). Or Warsaw (4th). Or Paris Day 1A (t-2nd). They were however the most played Clan on Day 1B in Paris.

wtf is 4nd? lol

Typing with a dog in my lap

I think the point is that top players tend to play Scorpion, so when it gets to the knock out games we are seeing more Scorpion left standing than any other clans, and a greater number of tournament wins by Scorpion as a result. The best decks in the hands of the best players are going to produce these types of results. I've beat plenty of mediocre players playing a good scorpion deck, but, I'm not beating the top players in the world, regardless what clan they play. I bet the player that has now won 3 Kotei could probably have pulled off a kotei win with just about any of the other clans out there, even Unicorn.

In the CCG were you are actively picking which clan you like, and acquiring those cards, just about everyone had some sort of clan preference in the CCG, so clan loyalty was more prevalent. In a LCG where you have everything available to play with, you are encouraged to play the best deck, regardless of clan loyalties. You're not going to convince one of the top players in the world not to play the best deck possible...............unless you change the rewards for gaining/losing Hatamoto or incentivize playing the bottom clans somehow.

1 hour ago, Hinomura said:

Scorpion wasn't the the most played Clan on either Day 1A (4th most) or Day 1B (2nd most) at Birmingham. Or at either the Atlanta (3rd) or San Francisco (4th) Koteis. Or Dusseldorf (3rd). Or Warsaw (4th). Or Paris Day 1A (t-2nd). They were however the most played Clan on Day 1B in Paris.

https://thelotuspavilion.com/stats

Look at tournaments entries. Scorpion is the most played clan in all tournaments registered in Lotus Pavilion. Not so far from other clans, right, but always near/on the top.

I’ll try to put an example, because English is not my native language and I tend to get tangled with words trying to make my points.

Nobody denies Ferrari has one of the best cars in F1, right? So good drivers want to run with Ferrari. So Ferrari dominates the World Championship, so the next best driver wants to run with Ferrari so he can win a WC. Got me? Schumacher won 7 WC, 5 with Ferrari. Now, if he had picked another car, would he have won so many WCs? Well, probably not, but sure he would have won 2 or 3, because he was one of the top drivers out there. But he sticked with Ferrari because he knew he would have always a better car with less effort.

(Bear in mind, I put this as an example, despite my tremendous lack of knowledge of F1, which I think that begins and ends with Ferrari, Schumacher, and Fernando Alonso when he was in Renault. But I hope I made my point.)

21 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

I bet the player that has now won 3 Kotei could probably have pulled off a kotei win with just about any of the other clans out there, even Unicorn.

Well now, let’s not get crazy here. We’re talking about being a Top Player, not about being able to do miracles.