A second scarf for Kocour

The preliminary line-up mirrored the balance of power on the world stage, and all five KK Bílá Hora players—fully half the field—were due to play Masters 2025. For health and family reasons, however, Katarinator and Glide ultimately skipped the tournament, with reserves Paczessa and Maczka moving up from the standings to take their places. Paczessa, nominated for this tournament as a referee, sat down at the last moment from seventeenth in the standings opposite the season’s number one and number two. Also missing was the season’s third-ranked player Petra, who chose an exhibition somewhere in French Indochina instead.

KLÍŠTĚ

At the aforementioned table 1 sat Paczessa, Siisa, Jooki, Kechup and Niti. Tired and out of practice, Paczessa held 60%, yet still left the table first. The experienced Niti survived three rounds on match point and sent Siisa out of the game. Jooki became the table leader with 85%, and in a relatively even tournament that was enough to earn him the final seat F.

Table 2 produced the same total of 24 games, which led to a curious situation when the final was being seeded—but more on that later. The evening’s first bit of light drama: the longest losing streak went to Kocour, three games in a row and four letters after just 12 games. But then it stopped, with another 11 games in a row without a loss. Just under 81% in all, the same as two other players at table 2, Maczka and Augustyn. And at table 1 Kechup matched the result to the dot, so the seeding of all four! players in the final had to be decided by a draw, which had never happened before in history. Terra left the table with a loss, scraping just over 50%, and took home the Masters consolation prize; the third member of the star KK Bílá Hora trio, Anjelik, spent another seven games at the Masters. Here began Kocour and Midgard’s hunt for the scalps of the dominant team’s representatives. But the best was yet to come in the final.

ŠKWOR

“Now that’s heavy metal!”

the fans called out in the arena as Midgard’s trio Maczka, Niti and Augustyn, backed by the ever-improving Kocour, began without scruple to demolish the Bílá Hora dream of total dominance over the season—and above all to take revenge for last year’s Masters, which Kerry had surprisingly snatched from the very same pair, Kechup and Jooki. But last year’s snows were full of tenderness compared with this year’s. This year’s snows bit, and a gale came with them. A gale that had already swept the legendary Jooki out of the final by the fifteenth game, with the promising Kechup capitulating three games later.

“We haven’t had a defeat like this since 1620.”

“From hunters to hunted!”

“I bet a grand on you, you nags!”

and other statuses from Bílá Hora “fans” flooded social media. For Midgard, though, this was only meant to be a warm-up for the decisive battle. Three players surrounded Kocour, who had erred only once until then, and a second hunt began. But here, unlike Kocour, Midgard ran out of cards.

“The only better cards I’ve ever seen were at Eddulla’s,”

Kocour declared after the tournament. Even so, we got to see one cracking hand worth mentioning. It was the 21st game of the final, when Midgard pulled off a unique—though, sadly, their only—piece of teamwork. For seven tricks Kocour managed to defend with a clean table, and in the end he chalked up 19 points on the eight in the last trick. A textbook hand, as if played by the Vízeks. But then nothing. Kocour wasn’t dealing, so he avoided his one weakness—namely that he can’t deal himself a good hand—and comfortably fended off every further attempt.

He thus became the first two-time Masters winner (his first title coming in 2014) and chalked up a third scarf for Dashinchilen, with which the club also pulled clear of San Diego Padres, who have two.

Smoking Cat gala night

The Masters closed out the season. The points were tallied and, for the third time in a row, the Player of the Year was a member of KK Bílá Hora—this time Kechup, who took home, besides the gorgeous prizes, the popular Rony statuette. In only his second season Kechup amassed a fantastic 97 points, the second-best performance in history after Jooki’s record of 2023 (110). At the Masters he was just two places short of the magic hundred. Runner-up Jooki also achieved his own second-best score (89), and bronze-medallist Petra comfortably held her position despite missing the closing tournament.

The picture had been far clearer among the teams even before the season’s climax. The Joke Riders Cup was carried off once again, a year on, by the dominant KK Bílá Hora. The trio of Kechup, Jooki and Anjelik gathered an incredible and, naturally, record 240 points over the season, shredding their own world record, also set in 2023 (196), and setting the bar truly high for future generations of players.

Notional silver was claimed, in their own and a Canadian record, by Midgard, who bought the California stars before the season and saw them shine brilliantly right away in their first campaign.

Third place belongs to Animais de Sintra, who now boldly rank among the absolute elite of Smoking Cat. They left behind Royal Vinohrady, Dashinchilen and other quality clubs, and with 125 points matched the standings record from 2023. Their consistency of performance is incredible.

The season’s disappointment, on the other hand, is the flop of modern Cat’s only African representative, Black Dogs Ghana. After last year’s solid results all the way to the World Series and their failure there, the Dogs this year took part only in the Nationals series, mostly on home soil, and did not continue further into the season for entirely unclear reasons. Probably some coup or the like, over which SCWU can have no influence. Even so, at the Masters we welcomed, in the role of spectator, a former star and the best African player of all time, winner of the classics Fiesta del Sol (2016) and Košiška Cup (2021), the gazelle Zhaf, who was awarded an additional badge for 1,000 games played. Congratulations from the whole editorial team!

The 2025 season did not bring another GreenHorn Cat—there weren’t that many newcomers—yet two new clubs did appear: the British Majesty Crown and the Vietnamese Burning Cards. Both clubs are unquestionably a breath of fresh air, and next season we’d love to see them at the Team Championship. And we wish for more players, more teams, more tournaments. Simply more fun!

Final season standings after Masters 2025

Players

Placement					points	tournaments
	1		KECHUP KK Bílá Hora		97	5
	2		JOOKI KK Bílá Hora		89	5
	3		PETRA Royal SCC Vinohrady		81	4
	4		AUGUSTYN Midgard		64	5
	5		KOCOUR Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen		60	6
	6		TERRA Animais de Sintra		55	6
	7		ANJELIK KK Bílá Hora		54	5
	8		SIISA Animais de Sintra		50	5
	9		KATARINATOR KK Bílá Hora		49	3
	10		NITI Midgard		45	5
	11		MACZKA Midgard		40	5
	12		GLIDE KK Bílá Hora		38	3
	13		BLOODY MARY No Stresaran Santa Cruz		35	3
	14		EDDULLA Doha Smoking Cats		30	3
	14		BATBOLD Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen		30	4
	16		LADY SANSAR Majestic Crown		24	5
	17		PACZESSA Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen		23	5
	18		POLDA No Stresaran Santa Cruz		23	3
	18		HAVLAS Royal SCC Vinohrady		23	3
	18		CDR RIKER San Diego Padres		23	4
	21		PADRE Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen		22	3
	22		BLANCHE Burning Cards		20	3
	22		FEDAZZ Burning Cards		20	4
	22		PARTIN Animais de Sintra		20	1
	22		LUCKA Hardangervidda Smoking Elks		20	1
	26		AUNTIE CATHERINE San Diego Padres		18	3
	27		MATITI Royal SCC Vinohrady		15	2
	27		KERRY Animais de Sintra		15	4
	27		SCHROTT Royal SCC Vinohrady		15	3
	30		SIR LUDWIG Majestic Crown		12	3
	30		ZAMUNDA Black Dogs Ghana		12	1
	32		FENHO Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen		10	2
	32		BADU Black Dogs Ghana		10	1
	34		ZUUZA No Stresaran Santa Cruz		8	1
	34		OSVALD Doha Smoking Cats		8	2
	34		ZHAF Black Dogs Ghana		8	1
	34		KAADYA Black Dogs Ghana		8	1
	38		PAUL VON REICHENBERG Royal SCC Vinohrady		7	4
	39		GINDRAA Black Dogs Ghana		4	1
	40		MOKELE MBEMBE Black Dogs Ghana		2	1
	41		ALIDA No Stresaran Santa Cruz			3
	41		RUPRECHT San Diego Padres			5
	41		OLDIN Midgard			2
	41		BHARA Animais de Sintra			2
	41		MARGE Kathmandu Raiders			4
	41		CHANDRA YETTI Kathmandu Raiders			2
	41		SLAVUSHKA Banskobystrické Šelmičky			1
	41		SIR DIAMOND Majestic Crown			2

Clubs

Placement				points
	1		KK Bílá Hora	240
	2		Midgard	149
	3		Animais de Sintra	125
	4		Royal SCC Vinohrady	119
	5		Smoking Chingiss Dashinchilen	113
	6		No Stresaran Santa Cruz	66
	7		San Diego Padres	41
	8		Burning Cards	40
	9		Doha Smoking Cats	38
	10		Majestic Crown	36
	11		Black Dogs Ghana	30
	12		Hardangervidda Smoking Elks	20
	13		Kathmandu Raiders	0
	13		Banskobystrické Šelmičky	0