Schrott Conquers the Sado-Masai Games!

The atmosphere was thickened by Majestic Crown, who hoisted the British flag in the central Ghanaian temple of sport, displeasing the organisers, but luckily nobody wanted to hold the stepladder, so the flag stayed where it was. Historical wounds, you know. The Mongolian flag then flew on the other side of the arena and the organiser stopped tempering black steel.

VOTROK (SLAfE)

Kladno has already seen several firsts. Kocour, for instance, once set the absolute tournament record that still stands to this day; just once in history there were two female winners here; and on Saturday 21 March 2026 at AfroCat, Chandra Yetti managed to pull off 3(!) PPPs (re-play penalty) in a single round. They say half of athletic performance is in the head. That doesn’t quite hold in Smoking Cat—the hand work here probably doesn’t account for 50% of performance—but where do you look for the fault in a pre-play? Is it the player’s head or the player’s hand to blame? You’ll find the truth in Nepal, at an altitude of at least 6,500 m above sea level.

Without these tactical errors, Chandra could easily have aspired to his first final, since the first to leave the 1st-round table was Mokele Mbembe, playing to his left, and neither Schrott nor Badu met the best cards in the 1st round either. Schrott eventually saved himself on four letters, while Badu accompanied Chandra to the small final. The table and the whole round were won by the youngest player of the entire tournament—and indeed of Smoking Cat history—Sir Diamond.

Table 1 ran a little longer; it began with a catastrophic run from Zamunda, who lost the first three games and was still at 50% after the 11th game. She then managed eleven games without a loss, but the unfortunate start ultimately cost her the final, even though she only went out third. Before her, Paczessa, playing for no points, said goodbye to her final hopes, and the quickest to gnaw his way to a badge was Sir Ludwig. So the ones to fight their way into the final were former AfroCat winner Kaadya, alongside his Ghanaian captain Gindraa, and the legendary Marge, who is collecting points for Kathmandu.

Small final

The table of tournament losers traditionally has a more relaxed atmosphere. The Kladno one at times came close to what we got to see two weeks ago at the Mongolian Open. Sir Ludwig, Chandra and, surprisingly, even Paczessa let Mokele Mbembe and Zamunda play to 100%, while Badu, on 90% in the end (a single letter), came away with no better than 9th place.

MASAJ (MASAI grand final)

The final was once again a lesson for Sir Diamond. One quality round isn’t enough; in the final it was 50% and the first badge of Masaj. After he left, the black pairing held firm, eliminated the winner of last year’s Masters, Kocour, but Schrott sent the final game over to Marge and would not let the home side win. In second and third place, Kaadya (3rd) and Gindraa (2nd) lined up (wrongly). Ghana is like Bulgaria, so here left is right and vice versa. That’s why the winners’ photo looks the way it does. We forgive, as in a flood.

For Schrott this is already the 4th triumph of his career; he has won his third National (US Open 2022, Mongolian Open 2024) and is also the best player of the Team Championship 2024. So far these successes haven’t earned him better than 17th place in a season, but this year he’s off to a great start, as is the whole of Royal, which leads a very incomplete standing.

What fans and players love most about the Kladno tournaments is the prize-giving, of which there was a countless amount, and there were even jersey swaps, which can boldly be declared the highlight of the entire tournament and a tribute to sado-masai-ism. See you again in a year, Africa!

Season standings after Afrocat 2026

Players

Placement					points	tournaments
	1		KERRY Animais de Sintra		25	1
	1		SCHROTT Royal SCC Vinohrady		25	1
	3		HAVLAS Royal SCC Vinohrady		20	1
	3		GINDRAA Black Dogs Ghana		20	1
	5		RUPRECHT San Diego Padres		18	1
	5		KAADYA Black Dogs Ghana		18	1
	7		GLIDE KK Bílá Hora		15	1
	7		MARGE Kathmandu Raiders		15	1
	9		LADY SANSAR Majestic Crown		12	1
	9		KOCOUR Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen		12	1
	11		SIR DIAMOND Majestic Crown		10	1
	12		FEDAZZ Burning Cards		8	1
	12		ZAMUNDA Black Dogs Ghana		8	1
	14		PETRA Royal SCC Vinohrady		6	1
	14		MOKELE MBEMBE Black Dogs Ghana		6	1
	16		TERRA Animais de Sintra		4	1
	16		BADU Black Dogs Ghana		4	1
	18		ANJELIK KK Bílá Hora		2	1
	19		BATBOLD Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen			1
	19		BLOODY MARY No Stresaran Santa Cruz			1
	19		SIR LUDWIG Majestic Crown			2
	19		PACZESSA Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen			1
	19		CHANDRA YETTI Kathmandu Raiders			1

Clubs

Placement				points
	1		Royal SCC Vinohrady	51
	2		Black Dogs Ghana	46
	3		Animais de Sintra	29
	4		Majestic Crown	22
	5		San Diego Padres	18
	6		KK Bílá Hora	17
	7		Kathmandu Raiders	15
	8		Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen	12
	9		Burning Cards	8
	10		No Stresaran Santa Cruz	0