2015 Championship - December 5, 2015

Carbon Freezing Chamber

It only made sense for the most intense Duel of the year to take place on the most intense board in the game - the Carbon Freezing Chamber!  A chill went down the spines of all 12 top ranked duelers, especially Stephen and Rob, who had Luke and Darth Vader, respectively, starting in the middle of the board.  Those are arguably the two worst starting spots on any playing surface.

The best of the best.

The game began with Stephen retreating to the light side and Rob to the dark, and it looked like folks were aligning with their sides of the board.  Rob/Vader and Grant/Emperor started inflicting long distance special cards on Ian's Yoda while a number of dark side minor characters were taking shots on Alex's Han Solo.  Nathan/Dooku played a "Dark Side Drain" on Han, taking two of his cards at random.  And wouldn't you know it, one of them was the bowcaster!!!  That was a tough blow for Alex, and as he was bleeding out, he was surprisingly eliminated first when Daniel's Mace Windu finished him off, the first crack in the light side alliance.

Not long after that Ian's Yoda, unable to rally an attack against the dark side, bowed out after a final "Wrath" from Rob's Darth Vader.  JD's Boba Fett managed to land a thermal detonator on a trio of Jedi, including Stephen's Luke Skywalker.  Banged up, Nathan and Curtis (Darth Maul) had an amusing sequence of attacks.  Nathan used a "gentleman's" force push on Maul, sending the double-bladed Sith next to Luke.  Curtis made short work of Stephen, and Luke was done in tenth.  JD and Chris/Obi-Wan had been exchanging blows since the thermal detonator, and despite an attempt by Chris to join the board against Rob and Ryan/Jango, Boba shot Kenobi into ninth place.

mmm...cookies!

It looked like the dark side was going to make a clean sweep of the light, with Daniel's Mace and Sakina's Anakin as the next targets, but the backstabbing started early!  JD's Boba, loyal in his ranged attacks against the light side, was eliminated by Grant/Emperor.  Then in another surprise move, Nathan/Dooku and Curtis/Maul flipped on an unsuspecting Rob/Vader, who landed in seventh but did end his streak of last place finishes.

Though it appeared obvious Dooku and Maul were together until the end, the other remaining duelers didn't join together to change the tide. Sakina was soon gone in sixth place, which was a nice rebound from her last Championship match. #neverforget.  The remaining four duelers not using Mace Windu converged on poor Daniel, including Grant dropping the "You Will Die" card on him.

It's not who has the most trophies - it's who has the last!

This left a final four of Nathan/Dooku, Curtis/Maul, Ryan/Jango, and Grant/Emperor. Grant believed he was on equal footing with Nathan and Curtis, but was soon confronted with the hard truth that he was on the outs when both Dooku and Maul began attacking. Ryan kept his Jango on the periphery while Maul put the death blow on Grant.  Grant continued his impressive streak of high finishes as he left in fourth.  Ryan commenced with his powers of persuasion, trying to convince both Nathan and Curtis that they needed him to finish off the other.  Neither took the bait, so Ryan started unloading on Curtis, significantly weakening Maul who couldn't heal because he still had a Battle Droid on the board.  Even as Curtis went in for the kill, Ryan offered one last promise to align versus Dooku, but Maul stayed loyal and chopped Jango to pieces.  Ryan made a great run at defending his Championship title, but fell just short in third.

Darth Maul was on a kill spree, having delivered the death blow against five major characters, while Nathan's Count Dooku hadn't eliminated a single character yet.  But the Count and his lone remaining Super Battle Droid had the health advantage and after a short skirmish were able to make Curtis the runner up.  Big congrats to Nathan, our 2015 Championship winner!!!  He's just recently reached professional status but has won the last two duels!

The final order of finish was:

12.  Han Solo - Alex
11.  Yoda - Ian
10.  Luke Skywalker - Stephen
9.  Obi-Wan Kenobi - Chris
8.  Boba Fett - JD
7.  Darth Vader - Rob
6.  Anakin Skywalker - Sakina
5.  Mace Windu - Daniel
4.  Emperor Palpatine - Grant
3.  Jango Fett - Ryan
2.  Darth Maul - Curtis
1.  Count Dooku - Nathan

This represents the first ever league win for Count Dooku, so that's another feather in Nathan's cap.  Nathan also leaps into third place in the dueler rankings, which are now updated.  Interestingly, this is only the second last place finish for Han Solo over twenty league duels.

The Championship match is usually the last duel of the calendar year, but we might try to arrange one more 12-way on the day The Force Awakens opens (December 17).  Stay tuned for more details!

As always, thanks to all of you who dueled in 2015!  We couldn't do this without your interest and support.