The quest for the greatest skills & championship players is not over.
It it great to read this healthy discussion on the game, in particular the skill of the Oga Ota of Nigeria ๐ณ๐ฌ Brother Johnson.
What makes future planned events an exciting prospect for me, is the knowledge that in the main we are yet to witness the skills of master players from Barbados ๐ง๐ง, Burkina Faso ๐ง๐ซ, Cape Verde ๐จ๐ป , Ivory Coast ๐จ๐ฎ, Mali ๐ฒ๐ฑ, Niger ๐ณ๐ช, Saint Lucia ๐ฑ๐จ, Sierra Leone ๐ธ๐ฑ, Senegal ๐ธ๐ณ, The Gambia ๐ฌ๐ฒ etc.
At the moment we have master players regularly playing on the platform from Antigua & Barbuda ๐ฆ๐ฌ, Benin ๐ง๐ฏ Ghana ๐ฌ๐ญ, Nigeria ๐ณ๐ฌ & Togo ๐น๐ฌ. So the majority of the master players from countries that traditionally play the game are yet to join the fray.
Brother Adejare, what I do know is that it is not impossible for there to be a more skilled player than the Oga Ota of Nigeria ๐ณ๐ฌ mrjohnson. I say this not just because of anecdotal evidence but factual as well.
On the playok platform the player that has given mrjohnson the stiffest opposition is a player from Cape Verde ๐จ๐ป tchayna. If you look at his record with mrjohnson you will see that the scores of games between them is 6 - 5 to mrjohnson.
Now this is a player who I first met and played on LudoTeka and used be able to occasionally win the odd game against him. Once he migrated over to playok and started playing the master players in the ashanti room the improvement was drastic. Compounded by as he told me training from his father in-law who is much better than him. Unfortunately due to work commitments he no longer frequents the ashanti room. When he is able he will be back.
What I also know is that there are battalions of Oril players on the 10 Islands that make up Cape Verde ๐จ๐ป. One of them Edmilson Semedo from Santa Cruz, Santiago after losing dismally to akrugu in friendly games beat him to win the Ethno Festival Games Oware Championship in Saudi Arabia ๐ธ๐ฆ in 2019. So what we know is that there is a depth of skill in Cape Verde ๐จ๐ป yet to be fully discovered & they are fast learners.
So in conclusion from my view point in any championship where we will be graced to have representation of master players, who have gone through preliminary competitions to establish themselves as national champions, it will not be a straight forward conclusion. I will go as far as to predict that there will be upsets in some quarters.
As Brother Trevor & Madam Glenda have witnessed beginning in 2003 with Ibrahim Abubakar - the Oware Assassinโs ๐ฌ๐ญ win in Antigua & Barbuda ๐ฆ๐ฌ, 2018 ayirungoโs ๐ฌ๐ญ win of the Grandmasters Invitational Oware Championship in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan ๐ฐ๐ฌ, 2019 Edmilson Semedoโs ๐จ๐ป win at the Ethno Festival Games Oware Championship, Saudi Arabia ๐ธ๐ฆ and finally mrjohnsonโs ๐ณ๐ฌ domination of the ashanti room since July 2021. So the quest for the greatest skills in the game on the planet & best championship players is far from over. I rest my case. ๐๐๐