Kylin Assassin (KA) is a Chinese Shadow Era guild that boasts over 100 members with a reach that is far greater.

Based on the philosophy of "sharing and communicating" they have promoted the game to Chinese TCG fans and assisted many players who have a limited English language ability, all while racking up impressive competitive achievements!

Jumping into Shadow Era can be a challenge for non-English players; the rules and the cards need to be translated and even in-game navigation can be tricky. Early in 2011, Kakamong started playing Shadow Era. At the time Kakamong was a leader in the popular Chinese strategy game called Legends of the Three Kingdoms and saw the potential for international tournament play in Shadow Era - if only non-English players could figure out how to play! Wanting to make the game more accessible, he banded with other early Chinese players, such as Jeff and vAct, to discuss the game and strategies in their own language. In addition to helping translate the cards and rules, Kakamong introduced a new play style to his group. Coined the "Wind and Dust" strategy, this play style used the Zaladar hero with Dimension Ripper as the core card. As the players continued to freely share their deck building ideas such as this, the desire for a guild grew.

In 2012, the name Kylin Assasin was voted as the guild’s official name (with the initials as a tribute to its founder, Kakamong) and Sey was promoted as leader. Open to the public, the KA guild uses Tieba and instant messaging QQ (group number: 134628232) which supports Chinese communication better than the traditional Shadow Era forum. Any player of Shadow Era, competitive or casual, is welcomed to the group where members share card translations and deck building tips in their native language. "Many players ask me for advice and it makes me feel like a teacher of Shadow Era", says vAct. This open communication of deck building strategies has led to some collaboratively developed decks, including several highly competitive Baduruu decks.

While helping out any Chinese-speaking player, "the environment of competition in the guild is also important", explained the founder Kakamong. Kakamong himself was runner-up in the Asia/Australia Regional in the first World Cup of Shadow Era in 2011, played in the final stage of the 2011 World Championships, and won the first Dark Prophecies Test Server Pop-Up Tournament. In 2012 vAct and Jeff played in the grand finale of the World Championships and this year four players (Henson, vAct, Leo, and Ehtnauoy) went to the grand finale -with Leo taking home the championship! KA members also regularly compete against each other in internal tournaments and popups organized by Anson.

It’s this great mix of "friends, chats, and tournaments" that drive players like Stevevai1983 back to the KA guild and Shadow Era. The KA guild doesn’t recruit based on skill. KA welcomes any Chinese-speaking player regardless of level to join in the conversation, learn from each other about decks and strategies, and participate in the KA tournaments. "Because of the language barrier, it can be difficult for Chinese players to get started playing Shadow Era. People in KA guild helped me a lot. Without them, I wouldn’t even know how to play quick matches", says KA member Little Bear. Differing from other guilds, KA doesn’t require members to change IGNs but if they really want to, the guild will fund them to do so. Given their open idea of membership, it makes it difficult to count every member. Based on conversations on QQ and Tieba and participation in KA tournaments, the membership is estimated to be in the hundreds. As Shadow Era evolves to integrate guilds and leagues into the game with its Kickstarter campaign, KA members Kakamong and Kaewar would like to see some sort of management system, with clearly stated requirements for guilds. KA members are also looking forward to the custom card sleeves for their logo, which will make their members more identifiable.

Spokesman for KA, Mcley, explains their governing policy; "We just tell players how to act politely in games and encourage them to share information with others. We try to build a home for all Chinese players. There is no formal Code of Conduct. This is probably a cultural thing and also makes the KA guild unique". While KA has had to deal with "former guild members doing harm", the acts of a few individuals is not reflective of the much larger guild which "is more like a home", explains Little Bear. KA member Kaewar elaborates, saying that "joining a guild gave me more opportunity to communicate with others, find friends with similar interests, and improve my own game skills."

Many KA guild members have even played the physical version of Shadow Era. KA member Baorui finds playing the physical game very exciting, especially since it adds "psychological strategies" not in the digital version. Guild member Kaewar agrees, saying that he finds physical tournament play more fun and exciting than the digital version. As Shadow Era grows on the physical side, it is likely you will see KA members represented in the leaderboards too!

For more information about the KA guild, be sure to visit the forums.