Netrunner in the UK - The London City Grid

by Philip Harvey

The story of the London City Grid starts with a small, loosely connected group of people, most of whom knew next to nothing about CCGs. We became aware of each other through our local comic shop, just before the Star Wars CCG was released. With all of us thinking how cool it would be to recreate Star Wars by playing cards with pictures from the film on them, we came together once a week for friendly fun. This was to be the beginning of bigger things.

Our involvement with Star Wars drew us gradually into the world of collectable card games and the elements within. Making new contacts with time, two of us learned of Netrunner, with a colleague informing us that Inquest scored it 6/6, the only game at that time to achieve this mark. Our curiosity was piqued when we were told that cards were played face down. We wondered how that could possibly work!

Having found this new game we were initially put off by the more-expensive starters, but Barry Coote and I couldn't resist the temptation and we snapped up a pair on a Friday afternoon. When we opened them up the cards looked - and smelled - great. The rulebook was a good size and was very well written. We spent the best part of the weekend playing our first games, impressed that the card selection within a starter was not a problem at all.

Excited by our discovery, we took Netrunner to the others in our group and started playing, showing it off. It took almost no encouragement to get them to buy it and, very shortly, everyone was enjoying the new game. It was not long after we started playing that those with email joined on to the Netrunner-L list and became more involved in the international B>Netrunner community. This allowed more strategy and a greater understanding of the game to come into the group.

The next defining moment for us came almost a year and a half later, in the autumn of '97. The chatter on the NR list about tournaments made me want to compete myself, but no one could do much about it due to a lack of knowledge and experience. Not letting petty details like this stop me, I took it upon myself to get something started. I arranged a sealed-deck tournament, enlisting the help of the ever-helpful Jennifer Clarke Wilkes for advice and prizes. Advertising and using some contacts gained through trading Netrunner cards, I was able to get a decent turnout. It was through this tournament that I first met Richard Clyne, DCI Judge and later-to-be-first UK Regional Director, Huw Morris and Ralph Grimble, now members of the Oxford City Grid.

Flush from running my first event, when I saw an advertisement for a card gaming convention, I contacted the organiser. I was told that he had no plans for a Netrunner tournament, but that I was welcome to run one myself. This not only coincided nicely with Gridlock II, it was a foot in the door. Huw and I each qualified for World Domination '98 but were both knocked out in the first round. (Even though I won both of my matches. Grrr.)

At Card Wars, the GWII venue, I met the organizer of PolyCon. At PolyCon I met the organizers of Games Fest. Between these two I was invited to the Dudley Bug Ball. The Netrunner tournament scene was gathering momentum. The higher-visibility tournaments attracted the attention of other gamers and brought to the surface the competitive streak in the regular players. Along with DCI sanctioning of the convention tournaments through Carl Crook of Wizards of the Coast UK, these factors combined to reinforce the notion that Netrunner was being taken seriously.

During this time the Cambridge City Grid, led by Simon Johnston, had come online and had started running their own events, held on campus. Enjoying the tournament scene, the London City Grid had participants in virtually every one of these, with Oxford occasionally joining the scene. On one occasion there was a better turnout for the Netrunner event than a Magic: The Gathering tournament - Yay! Paul Grogan, a Magic player who also organised regular, DCI-sanctioned tournaments, likewise turned his interest to Netrunner. Paul started running Netrunner tournaments alongside Magic, which have attracted some peripheral interest. Paul is now UK Regional Director and his tournaments and promotion of Netrunner have been wonderful contributions to the game in the UK.

In each tournament it was Mark Applin's proficiency at constructed-deck play that enabled him to finish highly, usually coming in first. This led to him ranking number one at constructed Netrunner in Matthias Nagy's world ranking list for many months. Mark is one of the best players I have come across and he continues to create great decks, not just for Netrunner. With the spread of information as fast as it is, it is hard to say precisely how innovative he has been, but he certainly manages to see things in some cards that most people miss.

In the late summer of '98 we were to be battling it out with little mercy, as the UK Championships at Gen Con UK in Loughborough approached. Staying with Lee Walker's brother, we prepared for the competition the only way blokes can -drinking and playing Groo until the early hours of the morning! Surprisingly, we were all able to turn up at both of the weekend's tournaments. Despite our long friendships, with plenty at stake the atmosphere and games were very intense. The constructed event saw many a Corporate War scored with Artificial Security Directors, with Bartmoss Memorial Icebreaker and Joan of Arc almost as prevalent. In the final outcome, Mark became the UK Constructed Netrunner Champion and I was the UK Sealed-Deck Netrunner Champion, also taking the overall UK Netrunner Championship.

Things have continued apace since then, with regular tournaments in each City Grid, but the sad truth is that casual play appears to be on the decline. As no new cards have been released for so long the same decks or themes emerge time and again. I have noticed that in the London City Grid, despite the usual enthusiasm to play in tournaments, Netrunner is not played as much as another game during our weekly meetings. There are opportunities coming up to recruit some more people into playing the game, but new weefles will probably not entice the more experienced Netrunners to play for fun. The good news about the release of new cards later this year will most certainly generate interest and I am sure Netrunner will become, once again, the best card game to play.