Preview: Duel of the Fates - April 4, 2025

Well here we are, enjoying the first week of April.  The days are pleasant, the flowers are blooming, the vibes are good...what could possibly ruin this springtime bliss?

DUEL OF THE FATES!!!!  Or, more specifically, listening to the climactic track "Duel of the Fates" over 100 times in one sitting while playing the ever-stressful Star Wars Epic Duels!!!  The annual April Duel is sure to test the nerves and crack the psyche or our dozen Duelers...all to win the ugliest trophy in the league - the Darth Maul head!  #totallyworthit

What's even scarier than that is it's the second to last Duel of the academic year!  Time is running out to make a Dueling memory!  Speaking of which...(gratuitous plug incoming)...we have two spots open for our planned 12 12-way weekend in June.  June 19-22 we're playing 12 Duels in a row.  We'll have a mixture of character combos, all 12 league boards will be used, one Duel will feature 12 brand new characters for the league...and maybe a few other tricks up our sleeves!  The cost is $250 - that gets us a nice Airbnb to lock ourselves into for three nights/four days, plus all the food you'll need to grind out Duels from morning to midnight.  If that cost is too steep but you might be able to meet us halfway, etc., reach out to Rob - we'd love to have you play!

HISTORY OF DUEL OF THE FATES:

2024 - Grant D. won with Kylo Ren in Ewok Village

2023 - Rob won with Boba Fett in the Geonosis Arena

2022 - Grant H. won with Cad Bane on Arvala-7

2021 - Curtis won with Darth Maul in Ewok Village

2020 - Alex C. won with Darth Maul in the Geonosis Arena

2019 - Kaleb won with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Emperor's Throne Room

2018 - Ian won with Count Dooku in the Emperor's Throne Room

2017 - Kaleb won with Darth Vader in the Geonosis Arena

2016 - Alex R. won with Count Dooku in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

2015 - Curtis won with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Emperor's Throne Room

MEET THE DUELERS:

So who is insane enough to listen to "Duel of the Fates" on repeat for 4+ hours?  Here's who!

Caden - Caden has played four times with us, but has only ever finished sixth or twelfth.  That's a weird pattern!  He'd love to crack that code on the Kamino Platform.

Curtis - He finally got the monkey off of his back!  Curtis took home the Imperial March Duel trophy last month as his Tobias Beckett survived the Conveyex Train board!  It was his first win in 3.5 years.

Eric - Speaking of weird patterns...over Eric's first two career games, he finished fifth both times.  Then he finished in tenth place last month.  What's 5+5?  TEN!!!  What does this mean for Eric?  Absolutely nothing!

Grant - Grant is making his 2025 debut at Duel of the Fates after calling in sick last month.  April was his best month in 2024 - he won two Duels, back to back!  Can he defend the Maul trophy...?

Ian - Ian took last month off to bask in March Madness games...but man, the bracket this year is chalk!  If there's one Dueler who can tune out "Duel of the Fates" on repeat, it's Ian!

James - This marks James' first game since winning with Princess Leia at the February Valentine's Duel!  It's official - James has fallen in love with winning 12-way Duels.

Jonah - Jonah got jacked up on the Conveyex Train at last month's Duel, where his Stranger finished in dead last as the board unexpectedly united against him, unprovoked.  It's payback time for Jonah!

Jordann - TOP RANKED DUELER ALERT!!!  Despite another heart-breaking third place finish on her resume last month, Jordann did manage to displace Rob as the top ranked Dueler in the league right now!

Josiah - The Imperial March was rough for Josiah too.  His Captain Phasma, just by starting position on a congested board, got dumped in eleventh by being stuck in an unavoidable kill box.  He'll take a rebound performance at Duel of the Fates.

Michael - Look who's back at the table!  Dueling pro Michael, soon to be a new father this summer, is back in action.  He last played at the 2024 Championship...where he finished in second place!

Rob - Seriously.  We only need two more Duelers for the 12x12 in June!!!  This is a once in a lifetime event.  You'll tell your Dueling grand kids all about it!!!  Sign up ASAP with Rob!!!

Sam - This is Sam's first Duel back since finishing in second place at the January A New Hope match!  He'd love to join his fellow Teal CLs as a Dueler with a trophy in their trophy case.

MEET THE CHARACTERS:

We play at 7PM in the North Village Fine Arts Studio!  Feel free to swing on by and make your ears bleed with Duel of the Fates on repeat!!!

 

The Imperial March - March 22, 2024

Conveyex Train

Sometimes in this league, things are so serendipitous it makes you believe in a higher power...like THE FORCE!  Sacrilege and pending lightning strikes aside, what if I were to tell you the last two characters standing in The Imperial March were also the two big characters from the scene in the movie that the playing board was based on???   Read on for the details!

All aboard the choo-choo train!

Eric (Chirrut & Baze) became the early target with his double-minor combo of Rogue One rebels, and that included Elliot using his tow cable to jump back onto their speeder to commence attacks.  But Eric was one with the Force and the Force was with him, so the attention, almost out of nowhere, shifted to Jonah's The Stranger on the other end of the board.  Riley B/Jyn Erso, Riley E/Han Solo, and CJ/Darth Maul managed to avoid a huge infight and direct their collective ire against poor Jonah.  The Stranger was the top ranked character heading into the Duel, and folks were clearly uninterested in keeping him around.  Even Jonah's Teal bestie Alex/Reva was forced to join in.  It would be CJ's Maul who got the glory of eliminating The Stranger, and Jonah got the glory of holding the Golden Jar Jar.  Brutal!

By this point a lot of folks were fully carded on a crowded board.  Despite some early mistrust Josiah/Captain Phasma and Rob/Mace Windu had stood next to each other peacefully.  But Josiah was in an unintentional kill box and the Duelers sitting after Rob and before Josiah's turn started to give Mace the "let's destroy Phasma" vibes.  Poor Josiah couldn't defend that many enemies.  Jordann/ General Grievous landed the eleventh place blow with Make Them Suffer.  Why is Grievous so mean???

That's the "why did I get Han?" face.

With Phasma gone Chirrut and Baze became the next target.  Chirrut died first and Baze was surrounded with nowhere to run and plenty of people gunning for him.  But Eric was insistent that Elliot's Obi-Wan Kenobi make the final kill shot, and Elliot was happy to oblige.  Eric was gone in tenth.

Elliot ended up using a Force Control, and ended up surrounding Cate's Bo-Katan Kryze, who had made threats of attack to nearly everyone on the board, and everyone on the board basically agreed she should go next.  Cate's blood lust is famous at this point, as her "never have ten cards in your hand" philosophy keeps the game moving.  But the Conveyex was moving too and needed to offboard more characters.  Two attacks from Rob/Mace Windu's Clone Trooper finished the job in ninth.

The Maul-CJ partnership is as terrifying as it is hilarious.

One of the key moments of the game kicked in after Bo-Katan was eliminated.  Jordann/Grievous and Alex/Reva locked horns in a fated battle in the middle of the board.  Nobody but those two knew it was a foregone conclusion they would tangle, and that's just what happened.  The unintentional consequence was that it tipped the scales in the favor of the shooting characters.  CJ was actually next to go, after using two Blinding Surges on defense made her week.  Reva offed her in eighth with Grand Ambition.

Alex's penchant for being wishy-washy on his alliances left him no dancing partners after that move, and it would be Jordann who would secure the upper hand as her MagnaGuard pushed Reva to her demise.  Rob was kicking himself for not interjecting earlier, because with Maul and Reva gone the blades were sledding up hill on a shooter's board with plenty of shooters left.  

Fit check - does your shirt match your light saber?

Rob desperately tried to get Jordann and Elliot to stay loyal with each other, but Jordann wouldn't look Rob in the eye and Elliot was experiencing Jedi mind tricks from Riley E/Han and Riley B/Jyn.  Just as Rob was going to but severe damage on an exposed Han Solo, Riley B. used Jyn's Kyber Krystal luck to dump Mace's Wisdoms and a Whirlwind!  Rob was stunned by his sudden turn of fortunes, and was gone soon after charging in against Jyn in a final attempt to try and get even.  It was nutty!

Riley B., who was doing us a big-time solid by subbing for a sick Dueler, was playing a fantastic game as Jyn and Cassian.  But the other Duelers began to fear him and were having a hard time setting up a firm final three.  So Riley B. became the odd Dueler out.  It took quite a bit of work to whittle him down, but Elliot's Obi nailed the final nail in the coffin and Jyn was gone in fifth.

Obi-Gone Kenobi.

The game slowed down quite a bit at this point, which was a bummer because we played pretty quickly at this Duel.  After a lot of haggling, hemming, and hawing, Elliot/Obi became the target.  Curtis flew about as low under the radar as a shooter can this game.  He used a It's Been A Ride Babe! with his Val, which actually didn't kill her but did hurt Obi something fierce.  Elliot would finally go down with a subsequent attack from Val for fourth place.

The biggest move of the game went down next.  Curtis/Beckett and Riley E/Han realized they needed to work together to take oust Jordann's General Grievous.  Riley had already used her Bowcaster earlier in the game (to little effect when Mace blocked all but two points of damage), but had secretly got it again on her reshuffle.  She attacked Jordann twice...but Jordann didn't defend on the second attack...WHICH WAS THE BOWCASTER!!!  ELEVEN POINTS OF DAMAGE!  Jordann was stunned and used a couple of Spare Parts to try and recover, but there was no digging out of that hole.  Curtis used Trust No One to send Jordann out in third.  Her desperate hope to win a Duel before graduating is in jeopardy, but her absolutely stellar finishes this year have actually moved her into the top spot in the Dueler rankings!  Congrats Jordann!

Boom goes the Bowcaster!

And then there were two!!!  And who were the two???  Tobias Beckett and Han Solo...on the Conveyex Train from the Solo movie!!!  How cool was that?!

Curtis definitely had the stronger major, but Riley's Chewbacca was still alive and kicking.  But unfortunately for Riley, so was Val!  And for maybe the first time in league history, Val used It's Been A Ride, Babe! twice in the same game!!!  That was five points of auto-damage to Han, which is too much on an already weak-health character.  Riley managed a final Wookie toss, but Curtis had one last Trust No One that offed Riley in second!  Curtis won with Beckett!!!  On the train!  This broke a three and a half year winless streak for Curtis, to bring his career total to eleven wins.  This was also Beckett's third win.

Final order of finish:

12.  Jonah/The Stranger

11.  Josiah/Captain Phasma

10.  Eric/Chirrut & Baze

9.  Cate/Bo-Katan

8.  CJ/Darth Maul

7.  Alex G./Reva

6.  Rob/Mace Windu

5.  Riley B/Jyn Erso

4.  Elliot/Obi-Wan

3.  Jordann/General Grievous

2.  Riley E/Han Solo

1.  Curtis/Tobias Beckett

That was a great, and relatively quick, night of Dueling!  Next month is DUEL OF THE FATES, our annual April Duel where we listen to "Duel of the Fates" on repeat the entire night.  Pure audio torture.  It's the best.  We're looking at Friday, April 4, for that, but more details are coming.

Until then...congrats again, Curtis!  PEW PEW!

Preview: The Imperial March - March 22, 2025

How and the heck is it already late March???  Where has this semester gone?  How many thermal detonators would a Boba Fett chuck if a Boba Fett could chuck thermal detonators?

March madness indeed - we've reached the annual Imperial March Duel - which features the coveted Emperor Palpatine trophy, complete with a button that you push that actually plays "The Imperial March" - how cool is that!?  

The carnage goes down this Saturday at 7PM in the Fine Arts Studio.  The Duelers will be playing on the Conveyex Train - made famous from the Han Solo movie.  It's a fun board where the navigable terrain changes throughout the game!

HISTORY OF THE IMPERIAL MARCH:

2024 - Bekah won with Emperor Palpatine in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

2023 - Rob won with Supreme Leader Snoke on Arvala-7

2022 - Kat won with Darth Maul in the Naboo Reactor Pit

2021 - Ian won with Yoda on the Conveyex Train

2020 - Ben H. won with Darth Vader on the Kamino Platform

2019 - Rob won with Darth Maul in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

2018 - Rob won with Luke Skywalker in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

2017 - Dalton won with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Emperor's Throne Room

2016 - Alex R. won with Anakin Skywalker in the Geonosis Arena

2015 - Grant won with Han Solo in the Carbon Freezing Chamber 

MEET THE DUELERS:

Alex G. - Alex had a noteworthy side flip at last month's Duel that turned the game on its head.  He's also played every Duel since CL Training - that's quite a streak!

Cate - I can't think of a better Dueler/board combination than Cate on the Conveyex Train!  She's going to love this literally fast paced board!

Curtis - Curtis keeps sniffing at a first place finish, which he hasn't accomplished since 2021.  He's got three top-fives in his last five games played!

Elliot - It is with very mixed emotions we report Elliot will soon become a Demon Deacon!  I'm not sure that's what Truett had in mind with the MDiv. program...

Eric - Eric has played with us twice and finished in fifth place twice!  That's actually very hard to do, but he wouldn't mind an even higher placing at the Imperial March!

Grant - One of the OG's of the league makes his 2025 debut at the Imperial March!  He's looking to shake off his 9th place finish at the 2024 Championship.

Jonah - Speaking of 2025 debuts...Jonah is playing for the first time since turning professional at the Championship!  Could he secure another Teal trophy?

Jordann - She comes into the Imperial March with top-five finishes in her last five Duels played!  But she would trade them all in for her first career win!

Jordyn - Jordyn is trending in the right direction too, she has two top-four finishes in her last two Duels.  She took a lot of flack on the internet for her Vulcan hand sign at the last Duel, though...

Josiah - Folks from the Valentine's Duel are still having nightmares of Josiah and The Stranger wrecking shop in the Narkina prison, where Josiah finished in fourth place!

Riley E. - Riley comes into the Imperial March with two top-three finishes in her last two games played, she's been so close to career win number three!

Rob - Normally Rob would be mad about his eleventh place finish at the Valentine's Duel, but his moral victory of knocking out The Mandalorian first was surprisingly satisfying!

MEET THE CHARACTERS:

Here is who is playing on Saturday night!  For new characters, you can now study their decks under a new tab on the blog!

Visitors and fans are free to join us Saturday!  PEW PEW!

Valentine's Duel - February 7, 2025

Narkina-5 Imperial Prison  

Quick question: how many Golden Oreos can you eat in one sitting?  Follow up question: what if some of them in the package are randomly soggy?  Is that an issue?  Final question: when do candy canes expire?  Is February too late to be eating them?  These were some of the many culinary inquiries our Valentine's Duelers faced, as our annual February Duel encouraged the participants to bring a sweet treat to share!  Kudos to those who remembered - and shame on the league organizer for forgetting!!!

Scared Straight: The Narkina-5 Prison Documentary

The Valentine's Duelers gathered in the Narkina-5 Imperial Prison and, I know you're wondering...how soon did Duelers go off program?  The answer: almost immediately!  And it stayed off program for most of the night...except for two crucial rounds late in the game when the last four Duelers standing were too delirious NOT to raise their hands over their heads!  But I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself...

Nobody can remember the last time this happened, but the six light side and six dark side Duelers were all sitting six-in-a-row at the table, meaning the respective sides could coordinate extremely well together.  The dark side quickly eliminated Caden's Cara Dune, but the light side hatched a bold plan when The Mandalorian played Grappling Line and pulled Rob's Darth Maul into a kill box!  But Rob somehow used his Martial Defense to completely block Mando's Disintegration!  James/Leia and Elliot/Ahsoka whittled down Maul to near death, but in the first flip of the game (and maybe, maybe aided by Rob running his mouth...), Alex G./Bo-Katan didn't lay the final two hits...and instead joined the dark side!  

Prison sucks!

The light side was equal parts nauseated, disgusted, and disgruntled with Alex, while Rob laughed evilly.  This allowed the dark side to concentrate their fire on The Mandalorian!  Darth Maul got the kill shot with one of his many Sith Speeds, and poor Caden went from hero to the sidelines in last!!!  Rob managed a couple of more hits on Ahsoka too, but with zero cards left in his hand, his blaze of glory left him in eleventh.  What a way to go, though!

Elliot was still gob smacked by Alex's betrayal, and couldn't believe the position he found himself in.  The light side was imploding and he was next to go.  Cate's blood lust was satisfied when her Jango Fett used a three point attack to retire Ahsoka in tenth.  It was a sound tactic, Elliot, don't beat yourself up!

Austin, which Dueler got blind-sided?

The light side tried to rally.  Justin/Mace hopped off the safety of his table to rush Alex's table.  He landed a Whirlwind, but didn't use Wisdom to retreat.  The dark side launched a silo at poor Mace, with Alex using an Ariel Assault for the knockout punch.  Way to go down swinging, Justin!

The only two Duelers left in the light side alliance at that point were James/Princess Leia (Green Leia) and Riley/Luke Skywalker (White Leia).  They were sure they were next, especially once Josiah/The Stranger murdered Wicket.  But everyone knows Cate can only contain her urge to obliterate others for so long, and when she couldn't get an angle on the light side she Missile Launched/Rocket Retreated Mark's Moff Gideon!!!  Alliance disfunction at it's finest!  Mark was bewildered, especially when the rest of his alliance followed suit.  To add insult to compounding injuries, Moff Gideon was eliminated by being electrocuted by the floor!  The next Brooks College staff meeting is going to be AWKWARD.

Look at that face - full of Missile Launch glee!

The crazy twists and turns kept coming.  James and Riley got quiet as mice tiptoeing through a room full of sleeping cats when Josiah threw out Ian/Snoke as the next target.  The debate came fast and furious, as Ian moved the negative attention to Alex/Bo-Katan and his hesitancy to shoot the light side remnants.  Nobody had any idea what to expect from Cate, and Josiah decided her killing spree necessitated the end of her night.  In a risky move, his Mae used A New Acolyte to off Jango.  That was probably just as well - Cate had a 3AM alarm set for her rugby trip!  😦

The animosity towards Alex couldn't be ignored at that point.  He had no friends left on the board.  And in a bit of a control-his-own fate move, he chose to stay off the tables and take his kill shot from the electric floor!  The Narkina-5 Prison fried two Duelers on the night!!!

The wolves circle Austin...

Austin/Cad Bane was a loyal dark side alliance member throughout the night, and it was cool he made it to the final five because he took some damage out of the gate.  But Ian/Snoke didn't look too keen to have extra shooters on the board, so he named Austin as his target of interest.  Austin tried to shake his hand several times to indicate no hard feelings (this is a classic "you had to be there" moment...).  Nobody would rescue Cad Bane, but Austin finished a career-best fifth place.  Nicely done!

Rather than work together as the last two dominant dark side members, Josiah and Ian declared war on each other!  James, who had recently played The Stranger last semester, knew full well Josiah's character was a handful.  He and Riley joined Ian...but it took a LONG time for them to finally oust Josiah.  I'm talking poorly played Tied To A Strings, I Will Not Fight You's...the works!  But Josiah couldn't hold out forever, and James landed the final blow.  There's a reason The Stranger is the top ranked character in the league right now - well done Josiah!

How did these two make it to the final three???

This may not be fully appreciated by those who weren't at the Duel, but it was nothing short of a miracle James/Leia and Riley/Luke went from a seemingly 8th and 7th place finish to the top three.  They worked extremely well together, but the reality was James' Princess Leia had up to 16 points of automatic damage in her deck, and Riley and Ian were roughed up on their damage indicator cards, so they chose to partner against James.  The problem was 8 of those points of auto damage come from Leia's I Know defense cards, so neither wanted to go forward with a frontal assault.

Ian managed to use some Force Lightnings and Riley's minor Leia kept shooting major Leia (yes, it was trippy), but James smartly killed the minors, forcing the issue by making Ian and Riley stand adjacent to Leia.  Ian felt Riley wasn't doing enough, so he ended up turning on Riley, heavily damaging Luke.  It was a controversial move as Riley professed she was still with him.  But the attack allowed James to finish Riley/Luke in third.  Riley had the best hat at the table, though.

The final two was James/Leia and Ian/Snoke!  Both were badly damaged and searching for their automatic damage cards (Covert Operation for Leia, Force Lightning for Snoke).  Ian had some uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the night, but the worst one was when he lost count of Leia's I Know defense cards.  She has two of those - the ones that do four points of damage to whoever attacks - but Ian thought one was already in James' discard pile.  As it turns out, he pulled the second one from his draw pile.  Ian healed enough to take four points from one of them, but his jaw dropped when he attacked a second time only to get four MORE points of auto damage and lose the game!  That's right - James won his first career Duel.  Way to go!!!!  That's another Dueling trophy for the Teal trophy case.  This also marks Princess Leia's second career win.

Final order of finish:

12.  Caden/The Mandalorian

11.  Rob/Darth Maul

10.  Elliot/Ahsoka

9.  Justin/Mace Windu

8.  Mark/Moff Gideon

7.  Cate/Jango Fett

6.  Alex G./Bo-Katan

5.  Austin/Cad Bane

4.  Josiah/The Stranger

3.  Riley E./Luke Skywalker

2.  Ian/Snoke

1.  James/Princess Leia

It's always fun when a Duel produces a first-time winner!  James becomes the 41st Dueler in league history to win a Duel!

Due to the basketball schedule and Spring Break, the March Duel - THE IMPERIAL MARCH - will be played the weekend of March 22nd/23rd.  We'll have to wait for the tournament bracket to figure out which night Baylor plays (stay above the bubble, Bears!!!).  So that means we'll go silent for a few weeks.  

Until then...PEW PEW!

Preview: Valentine's Duel - February 7, 2025

Nothing warms the heart like true love...of STAR WARS EPIC DUELS!  February is upon us, and that means it's time for our 11th Valentine's Duel in league history!  Star Wars cupids will aim their Kyber Darts at the hearts of Duelers ready to take down a win in the dreaded Narkina-5 prison board.  If you're not familiar with the Andor series on Disney+, the floor can electrocute you if you aren't "on program."  If you're standing on one of the work benches that's fine!  But if you're not...it's quite shocking!  Just like true romance should be!!

HISTORY OF VALENTINE'S DUEL:

2024 - Elliot won with Bo-Katan Kryze on the Kamino Platform

2023 - Miguel won with Boba Fett in the Eravana Cargo Hold

2022 - Rob won with Rey in the Eravana Cargo Hold

2021 - Curtis won with Orson Krennic in the Eravana Cargo Hold

2020 - Rob won with Anakin Skywalker in the Geonosis Arena

2019 - Ben won with Darth Vader in the Emperor's Throne Room

2018 - Ryan won with Darth Vader in the Emperor's Throne Room

2017 - Ian won with Darth Maul on the Kamino Platform

2016 - Grant won with Han Solo in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

2015 - Rob won with Darth Vader on the Kamino Platform

MEET THE DUELERS:

The best part of the Valentine's Duel preview is you get to see which Star Wars Valentine's Day card each Dueler is passing out this year.  As best as we can remember, these cards haven't been used in previous previews!  You gotta keep it fresh!

Alex G:

Austin:

Cat:

Elliot:

Ian:

James:

Josiah:

Julia:

Justin:

Mark:

Michael:

Rob:

MEET THE CHARACTERS:

Do you want to see which characters are playing?  Sure - here you go!

This one will be action packed - there are some STRONG characters showing up for a long stretch in the Narkina pen!  Good luck to all, and feel free to come join us Friday, 7PM, in the North Village Fine Arts Studio!

PEW PEW!