Merry Christmas, Epic Duelers!

And prayers for Carrie Fisher, AKA, Princess Leia...

Rogue Won - December 15, 2016

Before we talk about the Duel, before you even read this blog recap, STOP.  Turn off your computer.  Go to the movie theater.  Buy a ticket for Rogue One.  IT'S SO GOOOOD!!!!

Ok, you watched the movie?  I told you it was good!  Please proceed with reading...

Geonosis Arena

That's right friends, we were back in the Geonosis Arena, meaning we still haven't played in the Carbon Freezing Chamber in almost a year.  When will the streak end?

I forgot to take the group shot before Princess Leia died.

 Things started fast and furious, we were almost on pace for a record time before things gradually slowed down.  Stephen, playing with Luke at the top of the columns, was the first to defect!  But not long after that, Austin/Dooku flipped to the light side and Nathan's Boba Fett did the same!

Austin and Curtis, deep in strategy.

Although Stephen made a big move to go to the dark side, he couldn't withstand the minor characters who shot him once he got down there, including Ducky's Chewbacca who bowcasted him into last place.  Daniel's Mace, loyal to the light side, was the next to go.  JD's Emperor used a couple of Force Lightnings on him and then he dropped You Will Die.  At that point, Joel's Darth Maul swooped in with a fistful of "does not count as an action" cards to give poor Daniel an early exit.

Even with the loss of Mace, the light side alliance was still looking strong.  Austin's Count Dooku dropped Taunts on Joel's Maul, and sent him to the rail in tenth.  Maul has a history of poor finishes in the Geonosis Arena.  The light side tried to descend on the remaining dark, but they were out of position.  That's when Rob/Obi-Wan used Ducky's Han Solo as a sacrificial lamb by attacking him with his cards that let him move everybody around the board.  That set up final kill boxes for Jango/Brannon, Emperor/JD, and Vader/Jonathan.

Final two selfie.

Nathan's Boba offed Han and then Austin's Dooku eliminated Jango in eighth.  Folks have grown weary of the elder Fett's deep finishes in games.  Despite Jonathan and JD's incessant chatter with Rob about flipping, Obi-Wan stayed loyal to the light side.  Austin, having a big rebound game from his previous last place finish, killed Jonathan in seventh and Curtis/Yoda ended JD's afternoon in sixth.

With five to go the alliance needed to figure out who was next.  Curtis told Rob he was loyal to him but Rob flipped that info to rally Ian and Nathan against Curtis.  Boba Fett got the final shot on Yoda and Curtis was done in fifth, though that won't stop him from parading around with his 2016 Championship Trophy.

With four to go the group turned on Austin's Dooku, and he stopped in fourth after Obi delivered the finishing blow.  With three left, it looked like Boba and Ian's Anakin would turn against Rob's Obi-Wan, but Ian feared Boba's special cards due to his own poor health, and made the surprising move to team with Obi against Boba.  Padme, still alive, shot the junior Fett off the board, setting up a final two of Anakin & Padme vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi.

This final stage took half an hour as Anakin, damaged from the game, kept using Padme as a human blockade as he danced around the columns.  Rob/Obi-Wan was nearly full health, though, and had the patience to play the cat and mouse game before finally whittling Anakin down to zero health.  That made for Rob's seventh career victory and first in nearly a year and a half!  It also brings Obi-Wan into a tie with Darth Vader for most career victories at five each!  And I forgot to mention...this is Nathan's FOURTH Duel with Boba Fett in a row!!!

Final order of finish:

12.  Stephen/Luke
11.  Daniel/Mace
10.  Joel/Maul
9.  Donald/Han
8.  Brannon/Jango
7.  Jonathan/Vader
6.  JD/Emperor
5.  Curtis/Yoda
4.  Austin/Dooku
3.  Nathan/Boba
2.  Ian/Anakin
1.  Rob/Obi-Wan

Ok, I promise, that's really the last Duel of 2016!  Thanks to everyone who plays this game, we'll start back up in January 2017 with our annual "A New Hope" Duel!

Preview: Rogue Won - December 15, 2016

In honor of the world premiere of Star Wars Rogue One, we're holding a Duel!  Because that's what you do, people.  And in an unusual move, we're playing on a weekday afternoon, in order to get to the movie on time.  That probably means we're doomed for a looooong match.

HISTORY:

There is no history!  And there will never be another Rogue Won Duel again (unless there's a sequel). This is a once-in-a-lifetime Duel.  Boom.

MEET THE DUELERS:

So who is crazy enough to play a weekday Duel right before Christmas break?  Glad you asked...

Austin - the first person to ever finish last place with Darth Vader, but the winner of the side game at CL Training, Austin is finally making his second ever official appearance at a Duel.

Brannon - he's playing his fourth match but he's trying to reverse his trend of declining finishes, including eleventh place at Thanksdueling.

Curtis - if you've never seen Curtis before, he's the guy currently walking around the offices holding a three foot tall gold Darth Vader trophy after winning the 2016 Championship.

Daniel - he skipped out on the Championship for a "student group advising conflict," but the nasty rumor on the street is that he was ducking the competition!

Donald - this will be Ducky's fifth Duel, meaning he's one short from becoming a professional.  He finished seventh with Obi-Wan at Thanksdueling this year.

Ian - you can't teach Epic Duels heart, folks.  Ian changed up the work times for his student staff to get back on the board after a disappointing finish at the 2016 Championship.

JD - he's grateful for a shot at a happier 2016 ending after his brutal backstabbing on the Kamino Platform at the Championship.  JD will avenge that treachery!

Joel - it's great to have Joel back, who hasn't played since a disappointing eleventh place finish at the Fall Brawl back in September.

Jonathan - things didn't go well for Jonathan and Darth Maul at the Championship, but you can't deny how good he looks in his new professional status Dueler blazer.*

*there's no such thing as a professional status Dueler blazer, but now I think there SHOULD be...

Nathan - poor Nathan got sick just hours before the Championship, meaning he couldn't defend his 2015 title.  He skipped a trip to WVU just to play but ended up on the disabled list.

Rob - he got a Star Wars Lego advent calendar from his mommy this year, and he may or may not be playing with them every morning before he goes to work.  Also, he is 41 years old.

Stephen - he won two Duels this semester but he was unable to guide Emperor Palpatine to a strong finish at the Championship.  He is looking  for that to change this time around.

MAGNETIC LEGO ADMIRAL ACKBAR PREDICTS THE WINNER:

Hmm.  It looks like the author of the blog post might have forgotten to snap a pic with his magnetic Ackbar and is trying to pass off this random google search pic as the real deal...

Magnetic Lego Admiral Ackbar's prediction record:  1-5.

We'll be in North Village at 1PM on Thursday everyone - those who aren't playing are free to come by and cheer on the action!

Board Analysis - Kamino Platform

Welcome to a new feature on the blog!  Thanks to some cool stat work Curtis has been running on our Duel performances, he's been able to isolate character performances based on the game board we use for a Duel.  Curtis contends that the starting position of some characters may positively or negatively impact a character's chances in a Duel.  Let's take a look at the Kamino graphs Curtis provided, since that was the spot of the 2016 Championship...

In the 32 recorded Duels for our Waco league, nine games, including the 2016 Championship, have been played on Kamino.  The first column after the character names indicates their average finish on this board.  It should be no surprise that Darth Vader leads in both average and wins - his starting position behind Slave One is a distinct advantage.  On the other hand, Emperor Palpatine should have that same benefit but he's rated second to last.  Last place belongs to Han Solo, and he easily has the worst starting position on Kamino, actually on the Dark Side of the circular portion of the board.  He doesn't have the most last place finishes, though.  That distinction belongs to Anakin Skywalker, who starts in the rear line behind the light side.  I'm skeptical that his board position should be that much of a determinant.

This graph demonstrates frequency of finishes, divided by four categories:  top three, four through six, seven through nine, and ten through last.  The more red a box is, the greater the frequency of occurrence, while the bluer it gets the less frequent it is.

You can see Darth Vader has a 77% chance to finish in the top six of a Duel on Kamino.  Liz finished fifth at the Championship, so that holds.  Despite not having a win on the board, both Yoda and Jango finish in the top three 44% of the time.  Obi-Wan has the highest percentage of any character, in the seventh through ninth place range.  That's not entirely surprising given his near-middle starting position.  Anakin has the strangest character pattern, as he tends to finish in the bottom three or the top three but usually never in the middle.

What are your thoughts about Kamino?  Sound off in the comments below!

2016 Championship - December 3, 2016

Kamino Platform

The drama of the 2016 Championship started before the Duelers even showed up to play!  Nathan had to call in sick late in the day, and you know it must have been bad because he was the defending champion from 2015.  The Jedi Council converged and found an amateur Padawan to take his place - Liz!  Having played the last three Duels in a row, her commitment and availability were greatly appreciated by the eleven Duelers ranked in front of her.

By being the twelfth seat she also got to pick the board on behalf of Rob.  Everyone was convinced it would be the Carbon Freezing Chamber, but alas, we were back on Kamino!  We haven't played in the Freezing Chamber since last Spring, a streak nobody seems to mind.

Next up were the character draws.  Liz again picked for Rob, and Rob finally got Yoda!  After 31 Duels played, he finally got his favorite character and only character he hasn't played with in the Waco leagues.  Ryan also picked Obi-Wan for the first time, though his rough starting position made the selection less than thrilling.  Jonathan grabbed Darth Maul in his sixth career Duel, meaning he is now professional status.  Incredibly though, he's grabbed a handicapped character in 67% of his games played.

Somebody at this table is your 2016 Champion

We'll deviate from our normal recap format to try and do something different - a pictorial trail of fallen Duelers, each holding the card that killed them!

 12th Place:  Stevie

Character:  Han Solo

How He Died:  Boba Fett's Thermal Detonator

Stevie made a big move at the start of the game, moving his Han and Chewie to the dark side of the board.  It wasn't a bad move, but some of the light side characters started tagging him for damage and Sakina's Boba Fett, who had flipped a few turns earlier, threw a Thermal Detonator all the way from the other end of the platform to knock out Stevie as well as some other minor characters.  When Stevie revealed his hand, it was nearly all Chewbacca cards, and Chewie was already dead!  He had a great attitude about his terrible luck.

11th Place:  Jonathan

Character:  Darth Maul

How He Died:  5 Point Attack from Obi-Wan Kenobi

Jonathan was teamed with Stevie but was also stuck on the receiving end of shots from the light side.  His biggest blow was Grant's Luke Skywalker playing "I Will Not Fight You."  He essentially had to dump his hand right as Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi moved in for the kill.  He wouldn't survive, but he didn't do anything wrong, either.  Sometimes those are the breaks in a 12-Way Duel.  Congrats again to Jonathan, though, for reaching professional status!

10th Place:  JD

Character:  Jango Fett

How He Died:  5 Point Attack from Anakin Skywalker

Admiral Ackbar's pre-game pick for the win, Jango Fett copied his cloned son by defecting to the light side.  JD made a big move and seemed to be in good standing with his new alliance, but while Vader, Emperor, and Dooku were withstanding their siege behind Slave One, the light side got a bit bored by the stagnate play.  That's when Chris, playing with Anakin, made a savage decision.  With a quick look to Rob/Yoda across the table, he made it known that Jango was under attack!  JD was stunned as Anakin swooped in.  Yoda, unable to move towards the action on the other end of the board, threw up in his mouth a little and joined Anakin in the betrayal.  While JD was begging for his life he threw Boba under the bus, which caused Sakina to attack him too.  Though he set a lot of Jedi on fire with his Flamethrower, Chris finished him in tenth.  He did make a heck of a travelling trophy for the winner, though.  Keep reading for pics!

9th Place:  Ian

Character:  Count Dooku

How He Died:  Mace Windu's Masterful Fighting

The table may not have verbally admitted it, but we were all fearful when Ian picked his favorite character, Count Dooku.  At the start of the game it looked like he might flip with JD to the light side, but he stayed loyal to the back corner posse.  He, Stephen/Emperor, and Liz/Vader, staged an epic battle of the wills as their well defended spot behind Jango's ship couldn't be accessed by the light side alliance.  They lived well over two hours before finally dying.  Rob's Yoda finally invaded and Force Pushed Dooku into a kill box, surrounded by Mace, Obi, Boba, and Leia.  Mace had the take-down shot.

8th Place:  Stephen

Character:  Emperor Palpatine

How He Died:  4 Point Attack from Mace Windu

Stephen is the only Dueler in league history to win with Emperor Palpatine, and that happened this semester, so we all had reason to fear Stephen's potential to win.  One of the reasons he and Ian's Spartan defense worked so well was because he waited to play the "You Will Die" card for over two hours.  Nobody wanted to charge in on the light side and be on the receiving end of it.  In fact, it was Chris/Anakin who got tagged with it when he made just such an attempt.  Stephen was also instrumental in wrecking Ryan's day, as his Emperor continually rained down Force Lightning on Obi-Wan.  In the end, though, Rob/Yoda Force Pushed him into the same kill box Dooku died in, and Mace once again dealt the finishing blow.

7th Place:  Ryan

Character:  Obi-Wan Kenobi

How He Died:  Boba Fett's Deadly Aim

Ryan was bold in his play with Obi-Wan on the night, often leading the light side into battle against the dark.  He was instrumental in the take down of both Han and Maul, but his forward actions gained the negative attention of Stephen's Emperor.  Palpatine repeatedly directed his ire towards Obi.  After Stephen was dispatched Ryan retreated towards Rob, Liz, and Sakina.  Nervous that the rest of the board would turn their attention on him, Rob/Yoda decided to create a diversion by attacking his alliance partner, getting Boba and Vader to contribute too.  As you can see by the picture, Ryan was very happy about it.

6th Place:  Grant

Character:  Luke Skywalker

How He Died:  Mace Windu's Battlemind

After Ryan died, Rob made the public deceleration that Curtis' Mace Windu was the most dangerous threat left in the game, and tried to rally Grant/Luke, Chris/Anakin, Sakina/Boba, and Liz/Vader to focus on him next.  Chris and Grant were more inclined to finish off the injured Darth Vader.  And that's when the most shocking move of the game happened.  Chris/Anakin attacked Luke!!!  I've never seen Grant so bewildered, but Anakin and Mace made short work of him and just like that, Grant was out of the game.  He had long odds with Luke anyway, but his death would be the turning point for the rest of the battle.

5th Place:  Liz

Character:  Darth Vader

How She Died:  4 Point Attack from Yoda

For the life of me I thought we took a picture of Liz - my apologies to the Dueler who saved our night by being able to play on such short notice!  Liz was quite deft with her ability to survive in this Duel, as she bailed on her original alliance at the right time and also helped finish off other wounded characters.  But with five to go Chris insisted she be next and Sakina and Rob reluctantly followed suit.  This was Liz's second fifth place finish in four career Duels - she's well on her way to a bright Dueling future!

4th Place:  Sakina

Character:  Boba Fett

How She Died:  Mace Windu's Battlemind

Curtis wasn't going to wait for his last three remaining threats to take him out of the game.  He pounced on Boba after Vader died and Sakina didn't have the defense to take the hits.  You can't say enough about her game, though.  She killed two major characters and wreaked havoc all across the Kamino Platform.  She dropped thermal detonators, wrist cables, and a bunch of other attacks, not to mention her sweet defect to the light side at the start of the game.  It was a great rebound performance after two rough Duels.

3rd Place:  Chris

Character:  Anakin Skywalker

How He Died:  2 Point Attack from Yoda

Nobody influenced the 2016 Championship more than Chris.  His surprise attacks on JD and Grant shifted tides, he weathered a "You Will Die," and then  he played king-maker in the final three.  Instead of accepting a final alliance with Rob or Curtis, he committed to attacking them both!  His neutral stance forced an alliance between Mace/Curtis and Rob/Yoda.  And Chris certainly went down swinging.  He knocked Mace's health down substantially before trekking over to Yoda and burning all of his defense cards.  It was an unusual strategy but Chris left with a clear conscience, and not many Duelers can say that at the end of a game.

2nd Place:  Rob

Character:  Yoda

How He Died:  Mace Windu's Whirlwind Attack

When it got down to the final two, Curtis/Mace were definitely in better shape than Yoda.  Rob was forced to use defensive cards to attack Anakin, leaving him short on defense and, worse yet, drawing offensive cards when he needed the opposite.  So Rob/Yoda did the only thing he could...he started running away in a circle around Jango's ship.  Curtis/Mace were quick to pursue.  The final two lasted close to 30 minutes, as Yoda would drop the occasional Force Lift or Insight to keep Mace at bay while he desperately drew for his 15 point defense cards and/or the Force Rebound.  Rob forgot that the Rebound wasn't in his draw pile, though, and Curtis was finally able to close the distance and play his Whirlwind for the win!!!

Losers talk about "trying their best."
Winners go home with gold, oversized Darth Vader trophies.

A big congrats to Curtis, who played a GREAT game and was smart enough to keep himself out of trouble and pouncing unsuspecting Duelers on the board.  He deserves the glory, and he moves into a third place tie for the most career victories.  The stats are updated too - Curtis jumped into fourth in the rankings, just .01 ahead of JD!  The character rankings have bunched up more too - all signs that we have some high quality Duels here in Waco!

We're still trying to pull off a "Rogue Won" Duel in honor of the new Star Wars movie.  Let Rob know if you can play on December 15th, 1PM.  The plan is to Duel, grab a bite, and go see the premiere!!!

If you can't make "Rogue Won," stay tuned as we kick off 2017 with our January Duel, A New Hope...