This is me: Pedro Federico Hegoburu. I am a Marketing professional and games are my passion!
I have been playing games for many years: board games, miniature games, PC games, card games, role-playing games. If it's a game, I have surely played it!
I have been writing previews and reviews for PC games in the two most emblematic and renowned Argentine magazines: "Xtreme PC", and once it closed down, in its spiritual continuation "[Irrompibles]".
Here I am interviewing Alex Mayberry (Blizzard's Senior Producer for Diablo III) for [Irrompibles] PC Games magazine.
How much do I like L5R and how far can I go to enjoy it? I hope I can show you in images and words...
The T-shirt I usually wear at L5R events. I play several factions because I like to experiment... and I need a new culprit to blame for my lack of success!
The 2010 South American Championship in Rosario was my first big and important L5R event, I played Onis out of a Spider SH and ended 2-4 after losing some won games!
That was my first trip to visit the L5R community in Rosario (290 kmts. NE of Buenos Aires) and we started a friendship with many local players that is cultivated to this day.
Playing my good friend Federico Varela in the Drunken event after dinner - he went on to win the event!
In January 2011 we traveled (again!) to Rosario for an L5R draft. It was hot, we had a pool party and of course, a typical Argentine barbecue!
Chilling out after my first Kotei (Buenos Aires 2011) with other participants, among them Diego Lastorta (Lion, in orange T-shirt), fellow playtester Diego Vergara (Dragon, standing in black T-shirt), fellow playtester and owner of URZA COMICS Stronghold Store Ariel Caccia (Ronin).
Later during the same Kotei, with Kike Forcada (Crab), Federico Varela (Unicorn), 3-time Kotei winner Ariel Alvarez (Crane) and Ariel Caccia (Ronin).
I was so hooked-up on L5R that I started traveling quite often! This time for a sealed event in Rosario in June 2011.
+otra+mas.jpg)
Drafting L5R during the "Rosario Juega Rol" (Rosario plays RPGs) games convention (August 2011).
.jpg)
Another, wider, view of "Rosario Juega Rol" games convention.
Having lunch during the 2011 Winners' Choice organised by URZA COMICS with Ariel Alvarez and Javier España (long-time L5R TO).
Drawing all the attention in my game against Emilio Guzmán (Crab) at the Amethyst Championship 2011 held in Rosario. I was playing Spider Monksai and finished 3-3. This game I lost!
Explaining the game to some bystanders during the Drunken Master event following the Amethyst Championship dinner. We had a typical Argentine "asado" (barbecue) at a local club and people from other tables came to see us drink and play L5R.
Discussing the ongoing game during our Saturday L5R League.
What better way to end 2011 than traveling to Rosario to participate in the "Favored by the Fire Dragon" event on December 31?? Here I am playing Dragon Monks against Federico Varela. I ended 3-2 and barely missed making Top 4.
We had a great end-of-year party after the event!
A couple of months before this event we created an L5R official Playtesting team, and I was one of the 9 (!) founding members. With time, we reduced the number of playtesters to the current 4. We are playtesting our 10th consecutive set for AEG, and I have been PT Team Leader for the last 7 sets. Our productivity has slowly but steadily increased over time, we performed at 113% of our expected results for Ivory Edition Playtesting, then increased our performance to 150% for the next three sets and we are performing at 241% the current set (6 completed weeks out of the planned 8-week period).
In early 2012 we had the Emperor Edition release event in Buenos Aires. I played Spider.
A few weeks later I traveled to Rosario to participate in their Emperor Edition release event, this time playing Dragon... and I won it! Here I am beating Diego Lastorta in the final.
My round 2 match against Aneley Tasada (Phoenix) during the 2012 Kotei in Buenos Aires.
I lost (she's a very good honor player!).
My round 4 game against Martín Di Doménico (Scorpion). He dishonored my Spider Paragons.
I organised and sponsored (paid the appearance fee) a IAIDO demonstration by the late Sensei Carlos Loffreda (Shibucho Komei Juku Argentina) after the Swiss part of the 2012 Buenos Aires Kotei.
Here he is being introduced to the audience by Ariel Caccia (URZA COMICS Store owner and TO).
I have organised several times travel arrangements (a 14-passenger mini-bus with driver) for our Buenos Aires L5R community to attend events in Rosario (290 kmts. NE of Buenos Aires). On this occasion we are traveling to the COLISEO Stronghold Store championship (July 2012).
What are these "Stronghold Store championships"? They are events organised by each local Stronghold Store, open to all L5R players. These events are an integral part of the "SILVER CHAMPIONSHIP", which is a calendar of L5R events I created and run. This calendar includes all official AEG events organised by our community (Kotei; Winter Court; other extraordinary events such as South-American Championship or Jewel events or "Favored by..." events) plus the Stronghold Store events, thus creating a 6-7 event calendar for players to attend. Each tournament grants points toward a Grand Prix Final where the top 8 players qualify.
It was my idea to create these Stronghold Store championships in order to stimulate player participation and competitiveness. The first "season" was held during 2012 and the calendar included 6 events: Kotei (Buenos Aires); Ogro Alegre SH championship (Buenos Aires); Coliseo SH championship (Rosario); Winners' Choice (Rosario); Level 10 Urza Comics (Buenos Aires); Urza Comics SH championship (Buenos Aires).
The second season (2013) included 6 events: Kotei (Buenos Aires); Monkey championship (Buenos Aires); Coliseo SH championship (Rosario); South American championship (Buenos Aires); Level 10 Urza Comics (Buenos Aires); Urza Comics championship (Buenos Aires).
The third season (2014) will begin with our Kotei in late June.
My game against fellow playtester Christian Calleja (Unicorn) during the Winners' Choice held in Rosario (2012). Here I am playing Onis out of The Forgotten Temple.
Ready to lose my "Buenos Aires vs. Rosario" friendly match following the Level 10 held in Buenos Aires (2012).
This is an event I copied from the Spanish L5R community (I think they play "Real Madrid vs. Barcelona"). We played it in 2012 for the first time and the winning team gets its line-up written on a fan.
On the left, the "Buenos Aires" team; on the right, the "Rosario" team. Rosario beat us badly 4-1!
Having dinner after the Level 10 event and the friendly match. Socializing is one of the main reasons we play L5R!
Top of clan players after the Level 10 event. I was Top Spider with a score of 4-2.
Hard at work trying to beat Ariel Caccia (Ronin) during the Urza Comics SH championship in November 2012.
2012 end-of-year L5R gathering for the Buenos Aires crew. Needless to say, an "asado"!
On my way to losing against my good Brazilian friend Dr. Napoleao Claro (playing Imperial) during the 2013 Buenos Aires Kotei. I player Lion Paragons.
At least I won the Honor event! We had to create an L5R card and I designed this Event card:
"COMMUNITY OF FRIENDS"
FESTIVAL
The game ends immediately and everybody wins.
"The pain of parting is nothing
to the joy of meeting again"
Charles Dickens - "Nicholas Nickleby"
The prizes offered at the Monkey Championship during June 2013, an event I co-organised with my fellow playtester Diego Vergara.
What was the "Monkey Championship"? It was an event "from the players, to the players". We honored Toku who rose from being the son of a farmer to becoming a Samurai, and like him, both Diego and I rose from players to playtesters to Tournament Organisers. We wanted to give the community something back, and we decided to do it through a tournament.
We had very few resources so we had to be very creative: we sold many cards from our collection in order to raise funds; we bought several booster boxes and had friends bring them home from the US in order to save on shipping; we bought on eBay a new set of "Dawn of the Empire" in order to give some emblematic cards (personalities) as Top of Clan prizes; Diego put the Rare set he won by making Top 8 at the Kotei as prize in a raffle; we bought a Monkey Clan honor counter and gave it as prize for pre-registrations; we had a beer chopp engraved and gave it to the event winner, who also took home a special illustration of Toku made by our local L5R artist Jorge Matar; we created an L5R-themed 60+ crossword puzzle and gave prizes to the best 5 results; we gave every participant an L5R-themed pin; the "Most Honorable Player" was given a Buddha statue. In order to stimulate the participation of all players (new or old to the game; players with great skills and those not so good) we implemented a parabolic distribution of prizes, plus prizes per match won and prizes according to final standings. We bought an "Honor and Treachery" set for the best Newbie, and finally, as befits a Marketing professional, we conducted a "Customer Satisfaction" poll to see where we had made mistakes and where we had nailed it.
It was through my chess contacts that we could organise the event in the famous "Club Argentino de Ajedrez" (Argentine Chess Club) where the 1927 World Championship Final match between Capablanca (Cuba) and Alekhine (France) took place.
The Clan breakdown (29 players):
CB: 5
CN: 1
DG: 3
LN: 2
MN: 2
PX: 5
SC: 3
SP: 0
UN: 2
Ronin: 0
Imperial: 3
TFT: 0
Fudo: 1
P'an Ku: 2
Co-organizer Diego Vergara handing out tournament prizes.
The Top 8 players.
I had these two banners (2 metres high x 1 metre wide) made for our Monkey Championship, we used them during our L5R demo at "Gamer Kai" convention held at the Buenos Aires Japanese Garden two days prior to our Monkey Championship. I also made them available to anyone who needs them via the L5R Facebook group (I uploaded the files to a Gmail account and gave access to the account to everybody).
Playing my Top 8 match against Nahuel Gómez at the 2013 South American Championship. We were both playing P'an Ku decks and he won 2-0. I ended 5th. It was organised at the Argentine Chess Club with my intervention.
Playing Munchkin after losing the Top 8 match!
For the 3rd. time in a row we had an event organised at the Argentine Chess Club in Buenos Aires, this time it was the Level 10 organised by Urza Comics Stronghold. Here I am watching one semifinal.
In early December 2013 I organised a trip to Paraná (a city 500 kmts. NW of Buenos Aires) in order to teach the game to the small but growing L5R community there. We were 4 traveling from Buenos Aires to Rosario by bus; once in Rosario we boarded a car and drove 200 kmts. to Paraná, where we arrived at noon. We met half a dozen new players at "Entre Ríos y Dragones" game convention and we taught them the game, spoke about upcoming Ivory Edition changes, and played a draft.It was a great day!
After the draft in Paraná, the 5 of us drove back 200 kmts to Rosario, where we had... yes, an "asado"! We then played a game of Seven Wonders, but I collapsed. At 3 AM I boarded a bus to Buenos Aires, where I arrived at 7 AM.
Playing a huge game of Arkham Horror with all available maps during my birthday, that was some party! At the same time we were watching the Rugby World Cup Final between New Zealand and France.
Playing in a World of Warcraft CCG tournament I also organized. I was friends with the store owners and I had a free hand at organizing whatever kind of event I came up with, so we played normal Swiss tournaments, draft releases, "Alliance vs. Horde" matches (8 players per side), 2 vs. 2 player matches (in pairs), team matches (3-player teams, organised in board order like Chess Olympiads).
I have been playing chess for many years, and competitively for more than two decades now. In 1997 I attended my first ICCF Congress (in my home town of Buenos Aires) and was entrusted with the responsibility to be Project Manager and Editor-in-Chief of the Jubilee Publication (ICCF GOLD) to commemorate the 50-year anniversary since the foundation of the International Correspondence Chess Federation.
After 5 years of hard work we published a 376-page book in English language, containing all sorts of information: chapters on its history,
on the 65 affiliated Federations, organised events, commented chess games,
annexes, crosstables, etc.
Former Ladies World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) holding a copy of ICCF GOLD.
 |
| Reporting during the ICCF Congress in Rimini, Italy (2001). |
With Correspondence Chess World Champions Grigory Sanakoev (Russia, top left) and Vytas Palciauskas (USA, bottom right).
Receiving the International Master title (Seixal, Portugal 2002).
Marketing Director and senior member of the ICCF Executive Board (Portugal 2002).
During the ICCF Congress in Ostrava, Czech Republic (2003) I was elected GENERAL SECRETARY. This is the newly elected Executive Board.
In 2004 the ICCF Congress was held in Mumbai (India) and I received my Senior International Master title.
With my friend, Correspondence Chess World Champion Tunc Hamarat (Austria).
In 2005 the ICCF Congress was held in Villa La Angostura (Argentina). In the background is Correspondence Chess World Champion Fritz Baumbach (Germany).
The 2006 ICCF Congress took place in Dresden (Germany) and I was awarded the "Bertl von Massow" Silver medal for 10 years' meritorious service to ICCF.
Once again, a senior member of the ICCF Executive Board (General Secretary, a position I held from 2003 until 2009).
