One seeks the past to better the future.
Enlightenment is no more than understanding your place in all things.

The DCI is Wizards of the Coast's department for Organized Play. Our goals are to encourage fun and fair competition amongst our customers and to provide them with exciting opportunities, like tournaments and fanclubs, in which to meet others who play our games. For a list of contacts see the end of this document.

March 1 of 1999 the DCI began to sanction tournaments for FRPG games, including L5R. The switchover and changes have confused some who played before and begun an interest in others who have only begun to play L5R in tournaments. Herein I hope to briefly explain the how, what, who, when and where of the DCI and L5R tournaments. More complete information is located elsewhere and many references to that information are located provided here.

Bringing L5R into the structure of the DCI continues to be a learning experience for everyone involved. It does not fit the same structures that the DCI built for Magic - and it is not intended to become so. Instead the DCI is adapting to the differences found in L5R. L5R has affiliations, story tournaments, and its players have a very different sense of competitive play. Often times competitive L5R players sacrifice power in their decks for the story they wish their decks to tell.

All current members received new membership cards with new DCI numbers shortly before the tournaments transitioned to the DCL All ranking points they accumulated under AEG were transferred to these numbers. Additionally all past members were assigned DCI numbers and their points also transferred. If you do not know your DCI number, any tournament organizer can use the DCI CD- ROM to look it up for you. Anyone who wants a DCI number can get one by attending and playing in a sanctioned tournament where any individual without a number must fill out a card to participate.

For a list of sanctioned tournaments, visit: http://events.wizards.com/dcitournament/Default.asp?game:

The most important things to remember when you are here to change the Status field to reflect what you are looking for.

Rated - To look at events that have been received aii processed. tnote that if your tournament doesn't show up here look under All before despairing!

Future - To search for tournaments that have not occurred yet.

Other - Not Received, delinquent, cancelled, invalidated

All - All the above.

When looking up tournaments that have already been held, check the status of the tournament.

Not Received - up to two weeks after the event no report has been received

Delinquent - from two to four weeks after the event. no report has been received

Invalidated - more than four weeks after the event report has been received

Cancelled - when the Organizer of the event cancels it.

If a tournament you participate in is Delinquent or Invalidated contact the tournament's organizer and inform them of the status of the tournament. If you participated in a 'cancelled' tournament, please contact the investigations section of the DCI (see contacts on page 20).

Rankings and DCI numbers

DCI numbers are used to uniquely identify individuls because just too many of you are named Chris Brown. By each player having a unique means of being identified in the database we are able to keep an individual', rankings and membership separate from others with similar names or addresses. You do not need a DCI number unless you join the Imperial Assembly or partipate in a sanctioned tournament.

Rankings are a system by which players can compare their tournament activity and finishes with players from around their area and around the world. The amount of ratings points a tournament is worth depends on the number of players involved and the classification of the tournament. Players who participate in a tournament but don't provide a DCI number are not counted as having participated and thus lessen the value of the tournament, so encourage people to note their DCI numbers.

If you discover you have more than one DCI number associated with yourself you should get those rankings combined so that your points combine and your ranking is accurately reflected. To do so either fill out a change of information card at your next sanctioned tournament and where it lists "other DCI numbers" put the ones you don't want to keep or email dci@wizards. com with all the relevant information.

To view your L5R ranking visit: http://events.wizards.com/DCTRanking/Default.asp?qame=SR

Once here you'll need to input your DCI# where is says "Membership Number" and hit'SEARCH'.

To better understand what you'll find here, take a look at Togashi Mitsu. He resides in Washington State.

Each area has the following in common:

Points-total points for this area (Clan/ faction or Game)
Events-total number of events where they played that clan.
Global, North America, United States, Washington-are each the placement of Togashi Mitsu vs all other players who live in that area.

Togashi Mitsu, Seattle, Washington, United States

Legend of the Five Rings

All Clans: 310 Points 2 Events*
Personal Rankings: 488 Global 438 North America 22 United States 7 Washington

All Clans is a summary of where Togashi Mitsu stands as a player regardless of what clans he has played. He has 310 points to date. This is the sum of all his clan scores (36+169 - see below), plus the score for any tournaments where he was not affiliated with a particular clan(+105).

All Clan Events are ones in which no clan was noted in the results turned in to the DCI. Mitsu participated in 2 such events, as shown above. One of these events may be his points transferred from AEG.

Dragon: 169 Points 5 Events
Personal Rankings: 209 Global 197 North America 7 United States 2 Washington

Mitsu has participated in five contests (tournaments) playing a Dragon Clan Stronghold. Amongst those matches he has earned 169 points. This makes him ranked the 209th highest Dragon Clan player in the world, 197th in North America, 7th in his home country of the United States, and 2nd in his home state of Washington.

Toturi's Army: 36 Points 1 Events
Personal Rankings: 353 Global 280 North America 16 United States 7 Washington

In his one tournament playing with a Toturi's Army Stronghold he earned 36 points. From there you can see how that ranks him amongst other players from various areas.

On March 1st, 1999 the DCI imported the rankings that Imperial Assembly members had developed while the tournaments were tracked by AEG. This appears as a single event under each person's clan affiliation. So above, if Mitsu had been an Assembly member of the Dragon Clan previously, one of the five events would be this import. AEG has confirmed that all their records of events prior to March 1 were transferred to the DCI. There is no means to change any of this information or appeal how it was applied.

Once a tournament has been held the organizer of that tournament has two weeks to get their results back to the DCI before the tournament becomes delinquent. Within five working days of receipt of the results, the tournament is listed as received. Once received, the ratings for everyone get updated on the 15th and 30th of each month. The update process takes 2-3 days to run.

If you believe that a tournament is showing inaccurate results you now have the ability to appeal. Information can be found at http://wwwwizards.com/DCI/appeals.asp

Before going there we suggest that you first follow these three simple steps:

1. Search for your tournament in the database under All' - if it doesn't show up the event was not sanctioned and therefore we have no involvement and cannot change your rankings.

2. Look at the status of the tournament.

a) If it has rankings, review them for accuracy.
b) If it shows as received but does not show rankings please await the next ratings run (the 15th or 30th of the month).
c) If it shows as delinquent call the organizer and pressure them to turn in their results.
d) If it shows as cancelled but you participated, call the DCI at 1-800-324-6496 and ask for Investigations.

3. If you believe a received tournaments rankings are inaccurate you can submit a final appeals form - see http://www.wizards.com/DCI/appeals.asp

Rules for L5R tournaments are found at: http://www.wizards.com/DCI/UTR-L5R.asp (You can also find them in this Herald, beginning on page 28, as well.)

The DCI Universal Tournament Rules and L5R Floor rules were written to help maintain fair tournament play wherever L5R tournaments are taking place. In this way everyone plays by the same rules, rankings reflect similar circumstances, and rules in major events are familiar to players who play in smaller events.

Sanctioning a tournament

Sanctioning a tournament involves only minor organization and effort in comparison to actually marketing and holding one. To get your tournament sanctioned rea( http://www.wizards.com/DCI/Sanctioning.asp , fill out th form and send it in. After you run your event, turn in your results. It's that easy.

You must have four players to hold a tournament. The organizer and judge cannot participate, unless you have at least 8 people, then you can run the 3-Judge system in which the judges can also play.

Once a tournament is sanctioned its gets posted to the web within 2 working days. Organizers of tournaments are supposed to apply for sanctioning no less that 30 days prior to their event, but often we are lenient on this matter - however that leaves less time for players to find their event.

Judging an L5R tournament requires no formal certification program. judges are expected to be knowledgeabl of the latest rules and have access to the most recent Accumulated Rulings found at Jeff Alexander's site at www.zdi.net/jwa/15r/15r.faq.3.9.htm1

CONTACTS

The following people are key contacts for the L5R community.

Linda Roberts: 1indar@wizards.com Sanctions all non- Premier tournaments
DCI Appeals Board: dciappeals@wizards.com The body that handles appeals on ratings
Elaine Ferrao: elaine@wizards.com Investigates any problems that occur in a tournament
RE Dalrymple: thedci@wizards.com Big Guy. Writes Policies, manages others, etc
Andrew Fleckt: frpq@frpg.com Imperial Assembly and Koku redemption
Mindy Sherwood-Lewis: mouseatwork@frpg.com Premier- Events coordinator

You can find more information on the DCI by visiting these websites.

General Info: http://www.wizards.com/events/Welcome.asp
DCI http://www.wizards.com/DCI/Welcome.asp
L5R floor rules: http://www.wizards.com/DCI/UTR-L5R.asp

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