Kleptochase

Kleptochase is one of the four national sports of the Dashed Utopia of Az-cz. Of the four national sports Kleptochase is the only one that is an individual sport.

Overview of Kleptochase

Kleptochase is a sporting event that could be described as akin to maze- running. Each match features two individuals. They each start at points in a constructed grid. Somewhere else in the grid, equidistant from both chasers there is some object, usually an action figure sized stuffed toy in the shape of a gnome. Each chaser has a goal point somewhere else in the grid, again equidistant from the target object. The object of the match is to gather the object and return it to your target area. After one team has gathered the object they become the "thief" and the other chaser becomes the "law". If the law is able to touch the thief with both hands before the thief returns to his goal area, they replay the match. If the law catches the thief in three consecutive matches they play a fourth match that ends when the first player reaches the object. Every course has a certain number, no fewer than 2, of locked doors, traps and other obstacles. These obstacles are defeated using theif-like skills, especially lock-picking.

Deeper Rules Explanation

Course Construction

Before each match the course is rebuilt slightly. Walls are moved, locks and traps are moved and locks or traps can be added or removed. This course renewal includes replay matches after a match where a law has caught a thief. However each course in each tournament has a similar structure. There are four types of courses that comprise the different kinds of tournament. These are: Sprint, Strength, Technique, and Maze.

Sprint Courses

Sprint courses are the first type of courses that players learn to play Kleptochase on. They are courses designed to test running speed more than anything else. They have a small number of locks and traps, usually the minimum of 2. They don't have complex wall layouts and they don't have non-technique obstacles, nor is one provided much benefit from having a complex tool set. The traps and locks in sprint courses are usually designed to be relatively easy to open with basic tools. Sprint courses are also usually longer than normal courses as they test stamina as well as speed.

Strength Courses

Strength courses are courses that are designed to test the physical strength of chasers. They have more traps than sprint courses, but not as many as technique courses. The two features of strength courses that most courses don't have are physical obstacles and traps that are much easier with cetain kinds of tools. Some examples of physical courses are climbing ropes, monkey bars, and similiar things. Many things similiar to the Eliminator event in American Gladiators. The other key difference is that there are some traps that can save much time by carrying specific tools in your tool kit, usually quite heavy ones. While these traps and locks can be opened using the basic tools, they can be opened much faster using these special tools. This favors strong people who can carry the tools without having their running slowed down too much.

Technique Courses

Technique Courses are considered by some to be the purist form of Kleptochase courses. They have the greatest number of traps and locks, and they come in many different styles. Unlike the strength course they don't require that many specialized tools, although a few specialized tools can come in handy. They aren't as long as stealth courses. This is the most common kind of course.

Maze Courses

Maze Courses are courses that have at least two, and usually quite many possible ways to the target object and from the target object to the target area. These courses have less obstacles than technique courses, and roughly the same number as a strength course. The main challenge of these is navigation. They are quite long courses and purposefully designed to get people lost, especially on the way to the target object. From the target object they become a little bit easier to navigate, but are still quite difficult. These courses have the strongest reward for becoming the thief. Because the thief can take many routes it is very hard for the law to catch the thief.

Tools

The main tools that are required for all chasers are a basic lockpick and a listening device, for cracking combination locks and similar devices. There are many other devices that a chaser can choose to bring in, but any device that a chaser uses must be from the list of approved tools released by the Kleptochase rules comittee. This list is issued once at the beginning of each year. Tools developed during the year are submitted to the comittee, but may not be approved until the next season. The chaser can change his tools from chase to chase, even replays.

Maps

Whether to provide the chasers with maps to their course is a decision left to the tournaments. However each tournament must have a consistent policy. There are five different possible map types:

• Full maps, including all walls and all obstacles
• Full maps, including all walls, but only some of the obstacles
• Full maps, including all walls, but no obstacles are shown
• Partial Maps, showing some walls, and no obstacles
• Mapless events

It isn't possible to have a map that shows obstacles unless all walls are shown.

Other Rules

There are a number of other very important rules. The first and most important rule is that you aren't allowed to stop moving, unless you signal for a timeout. This rule is one rule to prevent players from camping at the target object. If a player takes a timeout they must stop for a full minute. This means that a player takes a big gamble by taking a timeout and can give up a lot of ground. Another rule designed to prevent camping is the rule that enforces a fifteen second rest upon the law when the theif is declared. When the first player reaches the target object a siren rings in the stadium which orders the other player to stop for fifteen seconds. This gives the theif some time to move away from the target area before the law begins to chase. If these fifteen seconds beging while the other player is in timeout, they are added on to the end of the timeout. Thirdly, a player may not call a timeout in the room with the target object. Fourth, any action other than two hands being placed on the body of an opponent has no standing for the law catching the thief.

Tournament Structure

Nearly every week in Az-cz there is a Kleptochase tournament. Similar to the structure of golf there are many smaller tournaments and five majors. The five majors are:

• The Orc Strength Showdown (strength)
• The Elf Maze Masters (maze)
• The Gnome Thievery Tournament (technique)
• The Dwarf Celerity Challenge (speed)
• The Human Open (mixed)

While other tournaments can set the size of their fields from year to year the fields for the five majors always consist of 128 competitors. The four majors that test a specific skill only use courses of that type. However the Human Open uses all four types. As their are seven rounds, the first four rounds consist of one day of each type of course and the next three rounds consist of three of those types. No type can appear more than once in the first four rounds, more than once in the last three rounds, or more than twice overall, and every type must appear at least once. These will be chosen by the organizers of the Human Open and annouced at the beginning of the year. All of the majors use full maps. As it is the only mixed tournament, the Human Open is considered by some to be the most prestigious, but as there is also an element of luck involved of when each type of course appears, there are some who claim that the Thievery Tournament is the most prestigious. In general of the 5 majors, the Celerity Challenge, and speed courses in general, are looked upon as the lowest level.

A note on the naming of the majors. These names do not reflect the opinions of the organizers about racial characteristics of current nations, but rather of the characteristics of these races from the homeland of the founder of Az-cz.

International Competitions

Recently Az-cz has began hosting an Atlantian Oceania Kleptochase Championship which they did not compete in.

For AOKCC1 Eight countries each sent four racers. It is a two stage tournament with first a round of group matches, only determining rank without eliminating any racers, and then a knockout stage. It is an open tournament meaning all four event types are used. In AOKCC1 there were problems with the foreign chasers being unaware of the rules.

Az-cz is currently planning a Nation States Kleptochase Championship.

Chasers

There are two types of chasers: Specialists and Savants. Specialists are chasers who excel in one type of course and Savants practice all the forms. However since they all compete in the various events, it is an entirely regular occurence for a specialist to win an event outside of their specialty. While this does happen most events are won by specialists in that event or by savants.

Famous Chasers

There are only three chasers who have won all five majors in their career. Not suprisingly all of them were Savants.

Grand Slam Winners

Art-Bob

Art-Bob was the original grandmaster of Kleptochase. He was the first person to win all five majors and to this day is the only person to have won 3 majors in a season. While strong in all events, his best was Maze. He won the Maze Masters 5 times. His weakest event was the Celerity Challenge, which he only won once. In all he won 14 majors in his career.

Tex-Mex

Tex-Mex is regarded as the greatest chaser of all time. He is the only chaser to have won all the majors twice. He was truly a master of all events, winning the Human Open a stunning 7 times. In total he won 20 majors. He is also the father of Bub-Rub, a member of the first Az-cz National Football Team

Zg-Mk

Zg-Mk is the only active chaser to have won the grand slam. At the young age of 25, he has already won 8 majors. His greatest advantage is his natural speed, which can be seen in the fact that he has already won four celerity challenges. His overall skills are improving and if he continues on at this pace, he might have a shot to catch Tex-Mex's record for major championships.

Other Famous Chasers

Cpd-Bz

Cpd-Bz is the most talented Specialist to compete at Kleptochase. His specialty was strength events and in his prime won 9 out of 11 Strength Showdowns. Unfortunately his career overlapped with Tex-Mex's. The only two Strength Showdowns he lost in that stretch were the two won by Tex-Mex. He also won the Thievery Tournament twice and the Maze Masters once. He came close to the career slam, advancing to the finals in both other events. Twice he made the finals of the Human Open, both times denied by Tex-Mex and once the finals of the Celerity Challenge where he lost to a little known racer named Grt-Bl.

Azo-Zo

Won the first major ever held, the Celerity Challenge. Won five majors in two events, the Strength Showdown being the other.

Kx-Mu

Considered to be the first truly great savant. Won four of the five majors, only failing to win the Celerity challenge, where he had two second places and another trip to the semifinals. In total he won 8 majors, including to Thievery Tournaments. Also was the first person to win the Human Open.

Jeff Mendelsen

Mendelsen is the first Human to win a major in Kleptochase. He was a Strength Showdown specialist, winning four in his career and adding two more seconds in losses to Art-Bob and Dx-Dx.

Dx-Dx

Dx-Dx is probably the best chaser to have the unfortunate circumstances of competing against both Art-Bob and Tex-Mex while they were winning majors. He competed against Art-Bob for many years and caught the very start of Tex-Mex's career. He specialized in the physical events, winning five Celerity Challenges and Two Strength Showdowns.

Stefon Cokbert

Cokbert is considered to be the greatest human Kleptochaser of all time. Although he only won five majors total, he did manage to win 3 different events, including winning the Human Open twice in a row. To this day he is the only Human chaser to win the Human Open more than once. He also won Maze Masters and Thievery Tournaments.

Mo-Pet

Currently Zg-Mk's biggest challenger. However unlike Zg-Mk Mo-Pet at 33 is running out of chances. He has won seven majors in total, including four of the five events. The only major he hasn't won is the Strength Showdown. Although he is 8 years older than Zg-Mk, Zg-Mk actually won a major before Mo-Pet did. Unlike most top level chasers he struggled to breakthrough in a major. Even now after winning seven, the label "best chaser never to win a major" is readily associated with his name.

Mar-Mar

The reason Mo-Pet hasn't been able to earn the career grand slam. He is the best Strength Showdown competitor of modern times, winning 5 of the last 7, although he was beaten last season. In six of those seven years he directly beat Mo-Pet and in four of those years beat both Mo-Pet and Zg-Mk. However he is a true specialist, never advancing past the quarter finals in any other major.

Noy-Nek

Noy-Nek is the new wave of Kleptochasers. Only 16 he has already won two majors, including the Human Open. To win the Human Open at 16 speaks to his skills. The other major he won was the Theivery Tournament. That speaks well of his future. As his body grows he will improve at the physical events but to already be quite strong in the mental events is a big advantage. He is also very popular because of his incredible good looks.

Major Winners

A complete list of Major Winners