Epic Duels Singles Tournament - July 23rd, 2016

Believe it or not, but we got a full SIXTEEN Duelers to commit to our crazy tournament, but the story of the day was Curtis landing not just one, but TWO of his characters in the final four!  It was in the final four that his Luke Skywalker (!) bested Grant's Yoda in the Emperor's Throne Room and his Count Dooku defeated JD's Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Kamino Platform...creating an ALL CURTIS FINAL MATCH.  Curtis declared Luke the winner.  He was overjoyed.  The rest of us groaned at our collective incompetence.  Other highlights included:

• All 16 Duelers had at least one character advance to the next round.  Hooray for participation!
• Defending champion Chris moved three characters to the second round but none to the third. Shocking!
• Curtis' Luke probably should have died in round one, but newbie Alex used the Bowcaster on Leia instead of Luke.  #FATE
• Grant did extremely well in his first Singles Tourney, moving three characters to the elite eight. 
• Funniest match of the day was Grant's Maul versus Ian's Mace.  Grant used "Blinding Surge" on Mace's attack, ensuring death to both characters and forcing them to play the match again.  Maul won the second time!
• Only two shooters made it into the sweet sixteen, and both were Boba Fett (Elijah and Rob).

Here are some pics and the final bracket:

Preview: 2016 Singles Tournament

What's the only thing more insane than eight people controlling eight characters in a head-to-head elimination bracket in Epic Duels?  SIXTEEN people controlling four characters!!!  That's right folks, summer is upon us, and we've upped the ante on the Singles Tournament.  This year we have twice the number of Duelers seeking the championship Chris won last year when his Yoda defeated Ian's Anakin!

THE DRAFT:
After the names of all sixteen Duelers were put into a random name generator on the good ol' interwebs, the following draft order was created: Elysa, Nick, Grant, Alex, Elijah, JD, Chris, Brian, Jess, Matt, Curtis, Rob, Ian, Sakina, Darren, and Cameron.  The first pick of the draft?  Elysa wanted Darth Vader!

Each character could only be picked five times, with four of them being picked a sixth time if the character wasn't one of the first four characters to be maxed out at five.  Here's the order the characters based on reaching five picks first:

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

The four characters being picked a sixth time were Darth Vader, Han Solo, Jango Fett, and Mace Windu.

THE BRACKET:

With each region represented by a playing board in Epic Duels, Duelers only have one entry per region.  Last year Chris won two of the regions, securing half the spots in the final four.  That seems highly unlikely now given the decrease in chances and increase in players.

KEY MATCH-UPS:

Emperor's Throne Room - JD's Emperor Palpatine faces off against Ian's Count Dooku!  JD has home court advantage given the board, but Ian starts off right in front of him.  Will Super Battle Droids outlast Imperial Guards?  Will Force Lightning and Taunts rain down?  YES.

Carbon Freezing Chamber - Sakina's Darth Maul versus Brian's Darth Vader.  These two big-bads square off on the scariest board in the game.  Will relatively new Brian be able to withstand Sakina's veteran knowledge?  Will it be All Too Easy, or will it require Super Sith Speed???

Kamino Platform - It's a battle of North Village summer staff!  CL Elysa navigates her Luke Skywalker against intern Alex's Darth Vader.  It's epic on so many levels!!!

Geonosis Arena - Can you say marital strife!?!?  Rob's Boba Fett goes against his wife's Luke Skywalker!  That's a tough battle that will determine bragging rights in the family.  Who will win?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

All are welcome to join us starting at 1:30 on July 23rd for the madness and mayhem.  We'll be in Heritage House.  See you then!!!