Invitational Preview - Kingsley Dragon Master



A strong U.S player from California Kingsley was the initial star of the League. He has also had success in paper tourneys getting 3rd place and Hatamoto status at the Worlds.

Season 1

Kingsley was the only undefeated player in season one setting him up nicely to be the initial consistently standout player.

Round 1 beat Dragon TaoOfBees [1500]
Round 2 beat Scorpion WhiteLiger [1500]
Round 3 beat Scorpion Battoukiri [1500]
Round 4 beat Lion bill.jr [1500]
Round 5 beat Crane Chutereve [1500]
Round 6 beat Dragon Khift [1500]

Season 1 Cup - Rating 1847

In the most 'famous' upset of a Cup filled with upsets he was promptly knocked out by the bottom seeded bill.jr. Connection issues certainly occurred in what was a disjointed game on TTS but this was the scalp of scalps and the first discord league exclamation mark.

T16 lost to Lion bill.jr [1565]

Pre-Season - Rating 1712

Shaking of the Cup Loss the pre-season was a success with a strong 5-0 record.

Wins vs Crab Abruzzi [1500], Crane Kakita Minto [1384], Phoenix KP [1500], Crab Click5 [1500], Crane Chutereve [1751]

Season 2 - Rating 1880

In a weak pod Kingsley continued his winning ways with a 5-0 actual (7-0 with drops) taking 1st place.

Wins vs Lion Seba_strian [1500], Lion Dexology [1500], Unicorn Foxhound657 [1170], Crane Kakita Minto [1289], Crane Tessarakonteres [1457]

Season 2 Cup

The success continued with a very strong Cup push getting to the Top 4 knocking out strong opposition on the way and taking him back to the number 1 ranked player.

T64 beat Scorpion yaba [1751]
T32 beat Crab Cody [1657]
T16 beat Scorpion Heinzel [1707]
T8 beat Crane Daidoji Micah [1853]
T4 lost to Scorpion SirLargeness [1740]

Season 3 - Start Rating 1978

Yet another 1st place with a 5-0 actual (7-0 with drops) though bar Zergling there was not a lot of high ranked opposition to take out.

Wins vs Crane FlyingZergling [1615], Phoenix foxhound657 [1165], Scorpion Bayushi Yamaneko [1279], Lion jmart [1500], Crab Finster [1433]

Season 3 Cup

In the cup the key game was the meeting of giants between the then number 1 (Kingsley) and the then number 2 (MindsDesire) which Minds won taking over the mantle of best Dragon (though until Season 4 Cup was second overall player behind Wydwen)

T64 beat Lion KailamPD [1413]
T32 lost to Dragon MindsDesire [1879]


Season 4 - Start Rating 2020

Another 1st place with a 4-0 actual (7-0 with drops). 

Wins vs Crab sla-dreamer [1283], Phoenix Sintor [1500], Crane D4rkWolf10 [1154], Crane Daidoji Micah [1926]

Season 4 Cup

The low pod count meant a low cup seeding and a harder first game. Which obviously resulted as he lost to Pimittens. A loss which hurt the rating badly again.

T64 lost to Crab pimittens [1762]

Season 5 - Start Rating - 1871

Took his 6th 1st place but his first pod loss with a 3-1 actual (6-1 with drops)

Wins vs Crane Kibosh [1375], Scorpion firesa [1672], Unicorn DrBrownFat [1500]
Losses vs Crane Raphelos [1500]

Season 5 Cup 

Had a decent run but fell to ZELIOS in the Top 16

T64 beat Scorpion Anemone [1785]
T32 beat Crab Csonti [1685]
T16 lost to Crab ZELIOSisback [1500]

LCQ

Not such a good LCQ meeting new invited Greek player (invited players were high ranking players from player tournaments) Raphelos who won.

T64 lost to Scorpion Raphelos [1700]

Kinglsey gets through to the Invitational on the strength of his strong cup performances.  You would have to say that the small grouping of Kingsley, MindsDesire, Wywen and Bayushi Nomen have been the standout players for the first 5 seasons of the league.

And on to the questionnaire..


Did you play a lot of Original L5R? and if so how long/when

No.

Do/have you played other competitive card games at a high level?

Yes, I was a competitive player of Android: Netrunner and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest.

What were your experiences of the Discord League – any highlights ?

The 2h45m game against Chutereve during the first season is either a highlight or a lowlight - not sure which! Overall I've very much enjoyed the Discord League.

Do you have any advice for the other lower ranked players?

Get to know your deck to the point where all your moves are obvious and you don't have to think about your plan - just what they want to do and how you can stop it and/or respond.

What is there that you like/dislike about new L5R and what would you like (or not like) to see moving forward.

Duels are probably one of my favorite parts of the game, but comparatively few cards use this mechanic at present - I'd love to see more design time focused on them. In terms of dislikes, probably my least favorite would be the "this card is OP but you can only put one in your deck" mechanic - Kanjo/Karada District in particular are a bit over the top.

What are your favourite/least favourite matchups?

I don't think Dragon has any unfavorable matchups, just advantaged matchups and 50-50s. My favorite matchup is probably Lion; both Lion and Dragon have "big numbers" gameplans but go about it in very different ways, and I find that interaction interesting.





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