Preview: The 4th Annual Singles Tournament - July 29, 2018

It's late July so that can only mean one thing...the Singles Tournament!  Unlike our normal 12-way Duels, this is a simple, head to head battle until only one Dueler is left standing.  And did we mention there are THIRTY-TWO Duelers with four entries each, meaning 128 Dueler/character combinations will start the tournament, but only one will be declared the victor!?!  INTENSE!

THE DRAFT

Each of the 32 Duelers got to submit their list of preferred characters, knowing we cap the number of times each character can be picked.  Nobody wants to see 64 Obi-Wans do battle against 64 Yodas...though come to think of it, that could be cool too...  Anyhoo, I digress.  Each of the 32 Duelers knew they would get one entry for each region of the tournament bracket (regions=the four playing boards that come with the game), and would each get two light side characters and two dark.  Here's the order of popularity for the characters this year, based on how quickly their available slots were chosen:

1.  Yoda
2.  Obi-Wan Kenobi
3.  Count Dooku
4.  Anakin Skywalker
5.  Mace Windu
6.  Darth Vader
7.  Emperor Palpatine
8.  Darth Maul
9.  Luke Skywalker
10.  Boba Fett
11.  Jango Fett
12.  Han Solo

THE BRACKETS

The 128 characters available for drafting were pre-slotted into our brackets.  Once the snake draft was over the corresponding Duelers were placed into the brackets by a randomly generated list.  Here are the results!

KEY MATCH-UPS

Each region features multiple intriguing battles in the first round of action, but here are four that are of particular interest...one for each board!

Emperor's Throne Room - In what is easily the biggest clash of the first round, previous Singles Tournament champions Chris K. (2015) battles with top dark side character Count Dooku versus Jonathan (2017) and his favorite, Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Jonathan won last year with Yoda but, given the choice, drafted Obi-Wan first this year.  You'll want to grab a seat and watch this one!

Carbon Freezing Chamber - Co-workers, office mates, and good friends Curtis and Ryan do battle against each other in the Freezing Chamber, with Darth Maul and Obi-Wan respectively.  Water cooler bragging rights are on the line!

Kamino Platfrom - Everyone knows Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine start next to each other in the cramped corner behind Jango's ship on this board.  Lo and behold, this bracket features a battle between the two Sith big-bads.  Ian's Emperor will desperately hope to avoid an early "All Too Easy" from Courtney's Darth Vader.  Can you imagine that in the first seconds of play!?!?

Geonosis Arena  - Everyone's heard of sibling rivalry, but this is ridiculous!  Two of Curtis's children, Miriam and Caleb, are playing this year...and they're pitted against each other in the Geonosis Arena!  Miriam will hope her Darth Vader can out maneuver Caleb's Boba Fett.  Family infighting between kids...this is what the Singles Tournament has devolved to!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thirty-two Duelers...128 entries...and only one victor.  (Almost) nobody is getting out alive.  We'll see you at 1PM in the North Village Community Center!