[The following file is a selection from the required readings of Casting 102 - Casting History, and is offered approximately one third of the way through the course. This specific reading comes from a chapter in the primary textbook for the course: An Early History of Card Casting. Casting 102, despite the name, is a non-casting class that Cadets are required to take in their second semester at the National Card Academy of Cascadia, and is required of all Cadets regardless of major. This reading is accompanied by fragmentary recordings of matches that occurred throughout the first four International Competitive Casting Tournament - recordings Cadets will be required to study multiple times, depending on their major. Jacob majored in Card Enforcement Studies, and got a Minor in History.]
In the years that led up to the first International Competitive Casting Tournament (ICCT; colloquially referred to as “Internationals”) the world had fallen into turmoil. A world of over 200 countries became a world of over 300. While the situation was beginning to stabilize, the world had grown into a deeply mistrustful place. The olympics had been canceled for over a decade, leaving a gulf of international cooperation and competition. The First ICCT was a response to this turmoil; an attempt by the international community to build comradery and friendly rivalry, and give citizens around the world something positive to become invested in. Many of the individuals involved in the original proposal were involved in the Olympic Games before they were temporarily cancelled, and they viewed Internationals as filling the void the international competition had left behind. Few countries and psuedo-states disagreed with the proposal, and the first ICCT was held less than a year later in Bern Switzerland with competitors representing 152 nation states.
To facilitate this competition three revolutionary concepts were introduced to the world of competitive casting, and to casting as a whole. The first was the International Federation of Card Casting, an International Governing Body for Competitive Card Casting, that sought to regulate it similarly to all other internationally regulated competitive events around the globe. The IFCC would be responsible for organizing and coordinating all international card tournaments, as well as representing competitive casting at an international level. The creation of the IFCC was foundational in the organization of competitive casting as a whole.
The second - and arguably most - revolutionary concept introduced by the proposal was the Unified Casting Format, the proposed card format that led to modern Competitive Casting. The UCF was the basis of the ruleset of the first four ICCTs, before they were significantly revamped for the Fifth International (where the UCF name was also dropped; the name had never stuck, with most folks instead just referring to it as “the ruleset”). While incredibly similar to the current competitive ruleset, the UCF used in the early ICCTs had several key differences that resulted in a foundationally different competitive format - and a significantly larger amount of injuries.
Finally, the introduction of the ICCTs and IFCC resulted in the revolutionary addition of a Ban List; this list allowed for cards known to cause significant power differences and large amounts of property damage or personal injury to be removed from all competitive casting. This directly resulted in a noticeable increase in safety when fully implemented in the second Internationals, and has become a staple of all official and competitive casting to the present.
The Unified Casting System
As mentioned prior, the most revolutionary - and the most complex - of the concepts introduced for the first Internationals was the Unified Casting Format. While the first internationals was held within a year of being proposed to the international community, the UCF had quietly been several years in the making. Created by two international officials who had prior been active in World Archery and the International Fencing Federation, the UCF combined a variety of recreational casting formats that had emerged around the world. This took several years of research and practice to refine - including in several areas considered active conflict zones - and was hotly debated when it was published roughly a year before the first internationals was proposed.
The biggest revolution the UCF provided over prior recreational casting matches around the world was the introduction of a specific Turn Order. Without the development of the specific turn order used in the UCF modern competitive casting - both legal and illegal - would not be possible as it is done now, and casting as a whole would be fundamentally different. The turn order proposed by the Unified Casting System as used in the first four internationals was as follows:
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Draw Phase - 1 Card
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Spell Phase
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Creature Phase
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Snare Phase
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Second Draw - 2 Cards
This Turn Order was created by combining the informal orders used by recreational casters in Cascadia, Bangladesh, China, and Mexico, with the second draw phase taken from Recreational Casters in underground matches held in Saint Petersburg. Readers familiar with modern competitive casting likely noticed the most significant difference from modern competitive casting formats, in the lack of a Special Phase in the UCF. During the first few internationals, Card effects were resolved immediately upon casting unless otherwise noted - causing creature and spell effects to take action much faster than those in current competitive casting. The Turn Order in the UCF also required casters to draw three cards every turn, resulting in much faster paced casting that depleted decks quicker.
This however was not the only major difference from modern competitive casting in the first tournament, as the UCF had several structural differences in comparison to modern tournament. In addition to a different turn order, Snare Cards could be cast immediately upon their placement on the field, with no required set period for each card. This made them functionally very similar to Spell Cards, and was difficult for audiences to follow.
Larger than both of the aforementioned differences, was how the UCF handled its Ban List. During the first four competitive tournaments the Banned Card List was much shorter than it is in the present, and there were no categorical bans in competition - meaning Shadow Cards were fully legal. These cards proved almost impossible to control in an organized, competitive format, and wreaked havoc on the arenas and its competitors. While the first four internationals were filmed in their entirety with the goal of live broadcast, many of those video recordings were lost before the tournaments had concluded - destroyed along with the video equipment that had recorded it. The first internationals had to be stopped multiple times after a card cast significantly damaged the competition arenas, and the ICCTs as a whole were almost permanently canceled after a Gelatinous Mass shadow card grew large enough to threaten large portions of the downtown district of Seoul, where the third internationals were held. It was only the personal intervention of the New Joseon Dynasty that convinced the International Community to allow Competitive Casting to continue, and a fourth internationals to be held. During the fourth internationals in Busan there was a series of accidents and incidents that led to the tournament ending early, and the ICCF found itself in crisis. Of the 1427 competitors who entered the first four international tournaments, 364 casters experienced permanent injury during the duels - with another 98 losing their lives.
In order to save competitive casting - and the international governing body as a whole - the ICCF held an emergency session in New York immediately following the fourth internationals. The international governing body struggled for its first two days of the session to make any headway, until the ICCF president tried a bold an uprecedented strategy: When representatives from the National Casting Federations arrived to the meeting hall on the third day of the emergency session the doors were locked. They would not be opened until a solution was found. 23 hours later the doors opened, and the current competitive format was introduced. The ICCF managed to reach a compromise on competitive format, and introduced several structural changes to the tournaments and organization as a whole.
The turnaround was immediate. At the fifth Internationals in Caracas only 14 major injuries were reported - with not a single fatality resulting. Shadow Cards were banned, medical professionals were increased and required in all Tournament settings, the Turn Order was adjusted, and significant amounts of safety and security upgrades were conducted on all tournament spaces. Viewing audiences responded positively to the changes around the globe, and the end result was a competitive format that was easier for spectators to follow and enjoy in addition to the increased safety for casters. Matches became longer with reduced Draw Phases, and the sport began growing quickly in popularity. When the first four internationals concluded it was moderately rare for individual nations to have strong competitive casting communities; now the majority of countries on Earth hold their own national tournaments.
The world was a different place when the first international tournament was held, and as a result casting as a whole was different. Competitive Casting has gone through a revolution since then, with a multitude of changes that have grown and improved the sport. This growth has brought the international community together, a bonding that is sure to change and evolve over time.
This lore drop was fairly short, but the next one will be a bit longer and will cover the South Korean School Standard Turn Order - mentioned in Chapter 35: An Experiment Gone Wrong - as well as the South Korean Casting Development System - originally mentioned in Chapter 10: The Second Invite. As always thank you so much for reading, this story has grown beyond what I would have possibly anticipated, and your comments and interactions with the story help give me the motivation to keep going. If you’ve been enjoying the story consider leaving a comment saying what you’d like to learn more about, and leave a rating or review. If you really like my story, consider checking out my patreon; every little bit helps.
Until the next chapter, trust in the cards…