As mentioned in the previous post, even though this was supposed to be the first Duel of the day, it was already the second! Geonosis Arena was the board picked, and the characters were assigned. Curtis and Alex were surprised to see themselves repeating their use of Anakin and Mace. One would fair better than the other by the end of the game...
Excitement and tensions were high as the game started. There seemed to be a natural divide, once again, between the light and dark sides. However, after some tricky board maneuvers, including JD's Emperor joining Rob's Dooku in the Dooku hidey-hole, Alex's Mace made a bold defection by running down to the dark side. It was reminiscent of Ryan's same move from last Spring. Not long after that, Nathan's Luke did the same thing. The dark side characters were welcoming while the light side had to scramble to try and turn the tide.
That's when the first brutal take down of the night occurred. The dark side had been slowly advancing towards the Jedi, and doing damage along the way, but out of nowhere Stephen's Obi-Wan played the "Force Balance" and moved all of the characters in play up to three spaces each. The terrible effect was poor Elysa/Darth Maul being completely surrounded by the light side characters!
She fought valiantly and inflicted damage, but it wasn't enough to escape a twelfth place finish. Not long after Chris/Yoda and Curtis/Anakin were gone, victims of a blind-side by Ethen/Han Solo.
My memory is a bit fuzzy on what happened next, but I do know Alex's Mace made numerous public declarations that all he was seeking in this Duel was "friendship," going so far as to have his Mace hold hands with Ryan/Jango for numerous rounds. That was especially ironic given the two characters and the board we were playing on. Alex was clearly drinking too much Yoda Soda. Tommy's Boba was next to die, and then Stephen/Obi and Ethen/Han got thrown into the triangle of death by Rob/Dooku. The triangle consisted of Nathan/Luke, Alex/Mace, and Ryan/Jango, who rewarded each arrival with exits from the game. Ethen did manage to drop seven points of damage on Dooku with the "Bowcaster," though. That brought the game down to six players. Nathan, lacking defense cards for Luke, was identified as next to go, and then there were five.
What happened next was one of the most grueling, painful, un-fun hours in league history. The final five were stuck in a stalemate. Rob/Dooku and JD/Emperor were strongly aligned. Alex/Mace and Ryan/Jango were more or less aligned, but Jango was feeling weak and Sakina's Vader was hard to pin down as far as her alliances went. The five traded barbs and slowly started whittling each other down. Sakina eventually bowed out in fifth, but not after hanging on much longer than anyone thought. Rob became delirious and worried about the start time for the next Duel, so when Alex proposed that they align to take out Emperor and Jango, he agreed.
That didn't go well for either, as they were next out. That's right, we had the same final two from earlier in the afternoon:
This time, though, it would be Ryan with the upper hand! Ryan had played the stalemate the most patiently and evasively, giving him a strong hand to finish off the battered Emperor. Congrats to Ryan! He won his second career Duel with the victory, which includes the 2014 Championship. It also marked the second victory for the topped ranked character in the league, Jango Fett.
Order of finish:
12. Elysa - Darth Maul
11. Chris - Yoda
10. Curtis - Anakin Skywalker
9. Tommy - Boba Fett
8. Stephen - Obi-Wan Kenobi
7. Ethen - Han Solo
6. Nathan - Luke Skywalker
5. Sakina - Darth Vader
4. Rob - Count Dooku
3. Alex - Mace Windu
2. JD - Emperor Palpatine
1. Ryan - Jango Fett
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