Posted by aris on Jul 12, 2009 in
L5R 2009 European Championships The main event storyline prize has just been revealed! Check it out on the event site (click on “Story”), or just read the details below! Good stuff!
Main Event Storyline Prize: Seeking the Daughter
With a war raging in the south and the north still rebuilding in the aftermath of the War of Dark Fire, the Empire of Rokugan can ill afford any other crises. And yet, amid the horror of war, a threat potentially even greater has presented itself: plague. Seeking the truth behind this new plague, agents of the Emerald and Jade Champions have discovered rumors of a new enemy, an individual called the Ebon Daughter. This individual moves across the Empire seemingly without limitation, appearing at random across the face of Rokugan. Wherever she appears, the plague soon follows, and the Empress desires her to be detained, that this threat might be abated.
The winner of this tournament will determine the clan that will be tasked by the Empress to hunt down and apprehend the Ebon Daughter. It will not be a simple task, as the throne dare not risk exposing her existence to the Empire at large, and in the hunt, the clan bringing her to justice will likely be at odds with other clans. Still, it is a duty bestowed by the Divine Empress, and no clan will permit hardship to prevent its completion.
Posted by aris on Jul 12, 2009 in
L5R 2009 European Championships The storyline for the secondary event has been revealed! Check it out on the Event Site (click on “Story”), or read it below!
Secondary Event Storyline Prize: A Hero among Heroes
With the attack on the Great Carpenter Wall surpassing all history of such events, the united forces of the Crab, Lion, and Unicorn have had little choice but to gradually fall back, sacrificing portions of the Wall and the greater Crab provinces in order to prevent being completely overrun. As the Empire’s new enemy advances, however, the opportunity to breach their widening front lines and gain some insight into the nature of the threat they pose becomes greater with each passing day. And now a group of heroes shall breach the lines and discover the sinister, horrible truth behind these Destroyers that plague the Empire.
The winner of this tournament shall determine the clan affiliation of the samurai who will lead the incursion behind enemy lines in order to discover the truth. This individual shall be responsible for combating the threat and returning to the Empire to personally brief the Empress on the nature of that which threatens Rokugan.
Some good news for those of you planning your visit!
OASA, the organization handling urban transport in Athens, has announced the availability of a new 3-day integrated ticket covering all forms of public transport, including buses, trolleybuses, electric railway, tram, metro and suburban railway (which also connects the airport to the rest of the city’s public transport grid).
The ticket costs €15 and is valid for unlimited use of all aforementioned modes of public transport, as well as on the special “Athens Sightseeing” line (Nr. 400).
The Nr. 400 line runs every 30 minutes, the duration of a round-trip is between 80 and 90 minutes and the bus stops at all the major landmarks. The closest stop to the venue is stop #12, “Ampelokipoi”.
For more details on the ticket, click here. For more details on the “Athens Sightseeing” line, click here.
In an ongoing effort to arm you with a variety of excuses to drag your significant other along to Athens and give her/him cool stuff to do while you’re playing cards, I wanted to remind everyone that the new Acropolis museum has only just been opened to the public.
The new museum is an astounding way to acquaint yourself with ancient Hellenic history and civilization, and is justly considered an international success, both for its unique exhibitions and the way they are combined into a multi-dimensional experience for the visitor, but also for its architecture and the amenities that are offered.
The museum has a total area of 25,000 square meters, with exhibition space of over 14,000 square meters, ten times more than that of the old museum on the Hill of the Acropolis.
The museum’s site can be accessed here. Although the entire site deserves consideration, the Media Kit section especially contains a lot of condensed information in PDF form. Tickets can be booked online or bought on-site, and for a limited time are available at the celebratory price of just 1 Euro.
You can also check out a video of the opening ceremony below.
Tags: acropolis
Posted by aris on Jul 8, 2009 in
L5R 2009 European Championships Seeking the Daughter
_ _ war ______ __ ___ _____ ___ the north _____ __________ in ___ _________ __ ___ ___ of Dark _____ ___ Empire __ _______ ___ ___ ______ any other _______ ___ yet, ____ ___ ______ __ ____ a threat ___________ ____ greater ___ _________ _______ _______ _______ the truth ______ ____ new _______ ______ __ ___ _______ and Jade _________ ____ discovered ______ __ _ ___ ______ an individual ______ ___ Ebon _________ ____ __________ _____ ______ the Empire _________ _______ limitation, _________ __ ______ ______ ___ face of ________ ________ she ________ ___ ______ ____ ________ and the _______ _______ her __ __ _________ ____ ____ threat might __ _______ The ______ __ ____ __________ ____ determine the ____ ____ will __ ______ __ ___ _______ to hunt ____ ___ apprehend ___ ____ _________ __ ____ not be _ ______ task, __ ___ ______ ____ ___ risk exposing ___ _________ to ___ ______ __ ______ ___ in the _____ ___ clan ________ ___ __ _______ ____ likely be __ ____ with _____ ______ ______ __ __ a duty ________ __ the ______ ________ ___ __ ____ will permit ________ __ _______ ___ ___________
Posted by aris on Jul 8, 2009 in
L5R 2009 European Championships A Hero among Heroes
____ ___ ______ __ ___ Great Carpenter ____ __________ all _______ __ ____ _______ ___ united forces __ ___ Crab, _____ ___ _______ ____ ___ little choice ___ __ gradually ____ _____ ___________ ________ __ the Wall ___ ___ greater ____ _________ __ _____ __ prevent being __________ ________ As ___ ________ ___ _____ _________ however, the ___________ __ breach _____ ________ _____ _____ ___ gain some _______ ____ the ______ __ ___ ______ ____ pose becomes _______ ____ each _______ ____ ___ ___ _ group of ______ _____ breach ___ _____ ___ ________ ___ sinister, horrible _____ ______ these __________ ____ ______ ___ _______
The winner __ ____ tournament _____ _________ ___ ____ ___________ of the _______ ___ will ____ ___ _________ ______ _____ lines in _____ __ discover ___ ______ ____ __________ _____ be responsible ___ _________ the ______ ___ _________ __ ___ Empire to __________ _____ the _______ __ ___ ______ __ ____ _____ _________ ________
Posted by aris on Jul 8, 2009 in
L5R 2009 European Championships The Event Site is now live at http://www.l5r2009.eu! You can pre-register for the tournament, check out the venue and available hotels, study the schedule etc.
The site automatically twits all registrations, so make sure you’re following our Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/l5r2009
As the event draws nearer, the site will offer additional options to the users, such as searching for possible room-mates, printing out a registration card to immensely speed up the on-site registration process, etc. Stay tuned!
Posted by macfrenzy on Dec 21, 2008 in
L5R 2009 European Championships So, let us speak of another important issue: how to get to Athens, what to do when you are there, how much it will cost you, and how to persuade your significant other to come with you and not kill you for playing card games.
Traveling to Greece
To be honest, most of our foreign visitors, will be flying in (although for Iron Warriors, there is the concept of driving to Italy and taking a boat to Patras, and driving to Athens, or taking a trip through the Balkans, but somehow I doubt it).
You will be landing here.
Now, one of the things that we are looking into, is to plan for how to get you to your hotel or accommodation. The initial plan is to have someone be at the airport to pick you up, either one of the local volunteers, or a shuttle bus, so that you won’t have to worry about things. Alternatively, we will be providing you with instructions on boarding the Metro, and arriving at one of the stations near the hotel, where you will be picked up from one of our people and whisked away to your accommodation. So, getting to and from the airport will be done with our help, and hopefully with minimum fuss and confusion.
I just did a quick scan of prices for tickets, and without any sort of group price or bargain, prices range from €120-180 for destinations that have frequent correspondence to Athens, and €230-270 for destinations that don’t have such frequent correspondence. As we get nearer to the actual event (say in a couple of months) we will be trying to get people that want to come on over in contact with each other, so that you can get better prices.
Staying in Athens
Your choices, as they are shaping up, are the following:
- Find your own bloody accommodation! (sorry, couldn’t resist)
- Stay in the hotel where the event is taking place (we are still in negotiations, but this will cost about €90-120 per night for a double room-we are trying for the 90)
- Stay in a hotel within 5 minutes walking distance of the venue for €70-80 per double room.
- Stay with one of the players (can’t really quantify this offer yet, but there is usually a large number of Greek players that host foreign players when they come on over)
It should be noted that the prices include breakfast and that these prices are for double rooms (ie the price for one person is €40 in the €80 per room scenario).
This is the link to the venue/hotel.
Again, we are in negotiations and trying to sniff out better prices for those coming, but I want to give you an initial estimate about things, so you can budget worst case wise.
Persuading your significant other to come [EdAris: Pay attention, kiddies - this is the bit that separates the boys from the men 
]
Aha! Now we get to my master plan. Come on over with your missus/mister, who does not play L5R. The event is in early Septmeber, so the weather should be good (however, the way weather is around here you can never say). So what I need to do, is to help you persuade your significant other to come on over, and allow you to play with your little Rokugani friends.
Okay, so here goes my sales pitch: One of the reasons I like hosting tournaments in Athens, is that it allows me to look through the eyes of foreigners at my city, instead of my own jaded look, and appreciate it. Athens has many flaws, but it still remains a city of many many wonders (a rough travel guide can be found here and another one here). Athens offers a concentration of archaeological sites that few cities in the world can boast, culinary delights and shopping of quite a few things in much cheaper prices when compared to other parts of Europe. Also, within an hour to two hours’ drive, there are some pretty amazing beaches. If anything, there are enough things to see in 4 days that should keep everyone interested.
So, while you play cards, your significant other will be:
- Shown around the city by friends of ours (my my that does sound very “goodfellas”) or on guided tours (we intend to see what people want, and implement accordingly).
- Weather permitting, a bus might be chartered, so that those that want can gο to a beach and work on their tan and swimming while you suckers get to play cards (please don’t go with them, we actually want you to play in the tournament!)
- At night, they can join us for the party which will be open to all players and anyone accompanying them, or if you are so inclined, you can go out by yourselves for doing horribly un-geeky romantic stuff.
So, to recap:
- You get to play cards and be geeky.
- They get to go sight-seeing, shopping, swimming etc.
If you can’t sell this, you are doing something wrong! [EdAris: Save the "I'll give you my credit card" line as your last line of attack. You have been warned.]
Again, for any clarifications or suggestions, feel free to comment or drop me a line.
Regards,
Michael
Posted by aris on Nov 28, 2008 in
Random Nuggets of Wisdom The Tao is always at ease.
It overcomes without competing,
answers without speaking a word,
arrives without being summoned,
accomplishes without a plan.
Its net covers the whole universe.
And though its meshes are wide,
it doesn’t let a thing slip through.
Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching”, 73
Posted by macfrenzy on Nov 25, 2008 in
L5R 2009 European Championships THE NEW PLAYER IS THE LIFE!
It has been a long-standing tradition of Mouzaka Championships to have a little ceremony at the beginning of each tournament, to honor our new players. Players that have started playing the game in the last year (basically since the last Mouzaka), are called up before banzais, given an ovation from the crowd, and given some goodies. We’d like this to hold true for the EC this year. However, I am thinking that if we have sufficient players (8 or more), we could additionally make a tournament out of it, with the winner getting an award of some sort (starting L5R is daunting, especially since everyone is clobbering you with tournament decks while you are just learning the game).
Any other ideas/suggestions?
Regards,
Michael Iakovides