On the weekend of January 15-17, we held the first ever world-wide Legend of the Five Rings storyline tournament, and the results were amazing! Luke and I hoped that 100 to 150 stores would participate, and that we would get between 1,500 and 2,000 players involved in deciding which clan was responsible for rescuing the Emperor Toturi from captivity. Imagine our delight when over 200 stores signed up (roughly 2/3 of the stronghold stores participated). Then imagine how that multiplied when the results showed that well over 3,000 players had participated!

The actual final numbers were 233 participating stores, and 3,314 players. Unfortunately, 23 stores did not turn in their tournament reports, so all of the following numbers are based on the reports we did receive. Even without those 23 stores, the results were impressive.

Of the reporting Stronghold stores, 152 were in the United States, with a total of 2,490 players, and 58 were outside of the US, with a total of 831 players. The average number of players per store was 15.81 and the largest number of players in one store in the United States was 50 (Cerebral Hobbies in Chapel Hill, NC) with the largest number in one store outside the US weighing in at 42 (Best Books & Games in Liverpool, England). Awesome turnout guys!

The Storming of Morikage Castle occurred in 17 countries with the United States, not too surprisingly, leading the pack (see above). Canada, at 20 stores, was the next largest participant. Australia, France and Germany followed with six, seven and eight, respectively. Also joining in the fun were England/ Scotland (4), Finland (1), Greece (1), Ireland (1), Malaysia (1), New Zealand (4), the Philippines (1), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Puerto Rico (1), Singapore (1) and Spain (3).

All of the clans were represented in the quest to rescue the Emperor, although some of them were not quite as well represented as others. This is, of course completely understandable in play terms, as some clans can be tougher to win with in jade Extended, so clans that were more likely to win were played in greater numbers. The breakdown of players per clan went like this:

Brotherhood 200
Phoenix 165
Crab 275
Scorpion 174
Crane 472
Shadowlands 92
Dragon 409
Toturi 131
Lion 243
Unicorn 647
Naga 219
Yoritomo 287

As many of you predicted, Unicorn won the day, not just in sheer number of decks played, but also in number of decks that took first, second and third place. The Crane made a valiant effort, and despite having a large difference in sheer number of players, very nearly caught up to the Unicorn in first-place finishes.

The Lion were surprisingly consistent having 10% and 11% in all three finish positions. Dragon and Yoritomo had a nice percentage in the second place category, an the Brotherhood, Dragon and Yoritomo had a fair number of third-place finishes. As these are all decks that rely far less on speed than some, those finishes are pretty impressive, in my view. The Shadowlands were the least represented, which is not too surprising, given that there was, not all that long ago, a huge effort made to purge the evil guys from the lands of the Emerald Empire.

Given the recent travails that have faced the Scorpio and the Phoenix, they made a valiant effort at helping rescue an emperor that they may have had good reason to not give a fig about. Both should be pleased with their results.

I'd like to thank all of the stores and players who participated, and hope that you all had fun shaping the on-going story of Rokugan. Thanks also to all of you who took time out of your busy days to explain certain things about tournaments and human nature to me.

Gentle lessons are always appreciated.

The results of the Storming of Morikage Castle will start to make themselves felt in the Honor Bound expansion, due out in late July.

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