May the 4th Be With You - May 4, 2018

The 2018 Hall of Fame Dueler Class

Emperor's Throne Room

The greatest day of the year for any Star Wars fan is May the 4th.  It also marks the end of our normal Dueling season.  As such, we use this date in Dueler history to honor those special Duelers who are graduating, leaving Waco, moving on, heading out, etc.  And by special we mean those who have left a lasting impact on the league and in our hearts.  Our smoldering, light saber-stabbed hearts.  Before the May the 4th Be With You Duel we inducted three new members into the Dueler Hall of Fame:

Kaleb Loomis - Kaleb graduates from Truett this month and leaves this Duels league as one of the top ranked Duelers of all time.  In fact, he debuted as a professional at the top of the rankings!  He's a winner of two Duels and has never finished below eighth place, which is sick!

Nathan Gibbs - Nathan graduates from Baylor this month with four career victories.  One of those includes the 2015 Championship.  He was also the second Dueler to ever win back to back Duels.  He was the consummate smooth operator on the board.

Stephen Buley - Stephen also graduates this month, and he takes with him a distinguished honor.  No student played more games than Stephen.  He also has two career victories.  And let's not forget Stephen was the first, and only one of two Duelers, to have ever won with Emperor Palpatine.

It was a rainy afternoon in Duels land...

It's always sad to see Duelers depart, especially distinguished warriors like these three.  Let's hope they find their way back to the Duels table at some point in the future!

As for the game itself, we had two new Duelers as well as a Dueler going pro!  Madelynn, aka Mad Dog, and Scott debuted in their first ever game.  And Kat was playing her sixth Duel, so she's a professional now.  Congrats Kat!!!

Mad Dog picked the number one chair and chose the Emperor's Throne Room for the battlefield.  She also picked Boba Fett, much to the relief of others.  Grant got Jango Fett again!  The preview jinx worked!  Joel also picked up Darth Vader for the second straight match, and he had to be happy to have the character he won with at the Birthday Surprise.

I'm in your chair, Palpatine!!!

At the start of the game the dark side began to attack Stephen's Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Grant's Jango landed a wicked Missle Launch to put Stephen in danger of going out first in his last ever Duel.  But Obi wasn't going out like that.  He found his Force Control and totally disrupted the dark side, all while retreating behind the safety of Chewbacca.  Stephen moved characters up to three spaces each, and managed to pull Kat's Count Dooku down to the light side.  After suffering numerous attacks, it was Daniel's Chewey who marched over and Wookie Tossed Kat into last place!  Poor Kat, that wasn't the way she wanted to reach the professional ranks.

Stephen's Obi was still in trouble.  As it looked like the dark side would soon swarm him and Daniel's Han Solo, a defection occurred!  Mad Dog felt the urge to defect, so she tossed a Thermal Detonator into the heart of the dark side shooter's nest.  But instead of Rocket Retreating, she Kyber Darted Grant's Zam, killing the minor character.  The dark side was outraged and focused on the defector.  Alex C.'s Darth Maul rolled in and dropped many a "does not count as an action" attacks and Mad Dog got sent to the pound in eleventh place.

That's a Bowcaster smile if I've ever seen one.

It looked like the light side would crush the dark at that point, but the bad guys weren't going down without a fight.  Joel's Darth Vader Trew Debris at Obi to end Stephen's game, and probably career, in tenth.  It wasn't the ending he was looking for, but he was scrappy and fought hard until the end.  After Alex's attack on Boba he was low carded, and the light side shooters took advantage.  They kept peppering him with shots until Daniel's Chewbacca dropped the scariest attack card in the game - the Bowcaster!  Alex finished in ninth with a gaping hole in his chest.  With Chewey in position to smoke Maul it left Han exposed to more attacks.  The remaining dark side characters made him pay.  Once he was two points of health away from dying, Joel's Vader used Wrath to kill him in eighth.  Yolo Solo.

Nothing amateur about their play.

The light side shooters started moving into the dark side territory, and Rob's Mace, Scott's Luke, and Luke's Anakin followed in behind them.  They started racking up hits on Grant/Jango and Joel/Vader.  Eventually Joel broke from the pressure as Leia's 2-point attack ended his bid to win back to back games with Lord Vader.

Ian's Yoda was down on the dark side of the board now too, while Luke/Anakin and Scott/Luke hung back in case Grant's Jango Fett Rocket Retreated away.  As it turned out, Grant was stuck with a bunch of useless Zam cards and wasn't able to defend when Yoda cracked him with a Force Strike.  Grant was gone in sixth and left wondering why he keeps getting stuck with shooters.  That left a final five of Luke/Anakin, Rob/Mace, Curtis/Emperor, Scott/Luke, and Ian/Yoda.

Final two selfie

Curtis was left as the last dark side member standing, and desperately tried to align himself with any willing partner.  But the remaining light side stayed true to their alliance and commenced attacks on the Emperor.  It was Scott's Princess Leia who hit him with two Latent Force Abilities to send Curtis into fifth place.

And then there were four.  The decision on what to do next wasn't so clear.  Scott and Luke wanted to attack Ian's Yoda, while Rob was more interested in Luke's Anakain Skywalker, especially because Padme was still alive and he feared Luke had been stockpiling shooter cards.  Scott and Rob seemed to be good with each other as Rob went after Luke and Scott went after Ian.  Ian ended up assisting Rob in eliminating Anakin.  In fact, it was Yoda's last remaining clone that put the final nail in the coffin.  Luke was out in fourth, but it was a great showing for the amateur Dueler!

Rob assumed he was solid with Ian's Yoda, but Ian was open to working with Scott's Luke Skywalker.  That was mostly because Yoda's health points were low enough for a double Whirlwind from Mace to kill him.  So Rob offered to spend one of the Whirlwinds on Scott to solidify their standing with each other.  Ian still wasn't a 100% on board but Scott was damaged enough to end his first career Duel in third place.  Congrats Scott - that's quite the debut!

Trophy #4

It looked like, based on health points, Rob's Mace would be able to dominate Ian's Yoda quite quickly, but Yoda proved his mettle by using a Force Lift and a Force Push to start depleting Mace's hand and forced Rob to move Windu away from Ian.   In fact, Rob moved to the further most point away Yoda and his remaining Clone, and it created a stalemate while the Clone prevented Mace from moving but Yoda couldn't move in to attack for fear of dying from the remaining Whirlwind.  This cat and mouse game continued for a good 30 minutes before Yoda retreated far enough away for Rob/Mace to kill the last Clone.  From there they chased each other around the bridges of the Throne Room before Mace finally rolled a four and could move in to use his last Whirlwind and end Ian's afternoon in second place.  Ian put up a heck of a fight with the little green Jedi!  This marked Rob's 12th career victory and his second with Mace Windu, who as a character has now won six times himself.

The final order of finish:

12.  Kat/Count Dooku
11.  Madelynn/Boba Fett
10.  Stephen/Obi-Wan Kenobi
9.  Alex C./Darth Maul
8.  Daniel/Han Solo
7.  Joel/Darth Vader
6.  Grant/Jango Fett
5.  Curtis/Emperor Palpatine
4.  Luke/Anakin Skywalker
3.  Scott/Luke Skywalker
2.  Ian/Yoda
1.  Rob/Mace Windu

Thanks to everyone who played in the 2017-18 season of Epic Duels!  We're going to try and tack on one more Duel the afternoon of May 24th before the movie debut of Han Solo - we're calling it "Let the Wookie Win."  More details to come on that, so stay tuned!  Also, check out the Hall of Fame tab to see the new inductees!