Twin Sun Slam #2 - June 16, 2018

Geonosis Arena

Samuel had to peace-out for game two, but Elijah came to the rescue and Riley was still ten years old and still playing with us.  Also, those cupcakes were still hanging around, taunting Rob.

Chris had Jango, his second Fett of the night, and made an early flip to join the light side.  It looked like the light side would mop the floor but Jonathan, playing with the Emperor, began executing strategic suggestions and the dark side started clawing back.  Ben's Boba Fett chucked a Thermal Detonator and vaporized a bunch of clones.

Rob, playing with Luke, tried to take out one of Maul's (Courtney's) droids but he left himself exposed and, by God, like the cupcakes said, they killed Rob first.  Twice.  In the same night.  At his own house.  So...much...anger...

Kaleb, whose Count Dooku had also flipped to the light side, was also taking damage.  And right around this same time Stephen/Obi and Heidi/Mace decided to flip back to the dark side!  Heidi dropped a Battlemind on Kaleb to give him a career-worst eleventh place.

Just as it looked like the newly strong dark side was going to crush the light...half of them flipped again!  It was all very confusing.  Jonathan went from being the ring leader to dying in tenth at the hands of Courtney's Darth Maul.

That left Stephen/Obi and Riley/Vader as the last two standing on the dark side.  The light side focused their attacks on Obi, and even though he played a Force Balance, he couldn't withstand the onslaught.  Riley was gone after that - she kept trying to chase Elijah's Yoda but couldn't make it happen.

That meant there were seven Duelers left.  Grant's Chewbacca pulled a Bowcaster and used it to kill Heidi's Mace for another trophy.  The remaining crew then flipped on Courtney's Emperor Palpatine.  Even though she bowed out in sixth she now has a sub-5 average finish in her first three Duels!

Elijah's jovial approach to piloting Yoda around the board came to an end in fifth place.  Ben had ignored an earlier suggestion by Grant to go after him and paid the price when they converged on the Fett.  It was Chris' Jango Fett who delivered the kill shot.

That left a final three of Alex/Anakin, Grant/Han, and Chris/Jango.  These three Duelers all had top five finishes in game one and here they were again!  The shooters stuck together and dwindled Alex's health points until there were none.  It might have been to Chris' advantage to partner with Alex before he died because Han had the card and health advantage and, FOR THE THIRD TIME, won a Duel with Han Solo!  That pushes his career total to seven.  He's on quite a roll, winning two of the last three Duels.

The final order of finish:

12  Rob/Luke Skywalker
11.  Kaleb/Count Dooku
10.  Jonathan/Emperor Palpatine
9.  Stephen/Obi-Wan Kenobi
8.  Riley/Darth Vader
7.  Heidi/Mace Windu
6.  Courtney/Darth Maul
5.  Elijah/Yoda
4.  Ben/Boba Fett
3.  Alex/Anakin Skywalker
2.  Chris/Jango Fett
1.  Grant/Han Solo

Twin Sun Slam #1 - June 16, 2018

Carbon Freezing Chamber

For the first time in league history we held a cookout before a night of Dueling.  It was so nice!  Rob tended the grill, slinging burgers while everyone who attended brought supplies and food to further the festivities.  Some brought chips, others side dishes, a couple of folks brought two-liters of carbonated liquid energy.  It was all great!  All except the dessert a person who shall remain nameless (**cough cough HEIDI cough cough**) brought:

In his own home Rob had to deal with this!!!  I give this anonymous Dueler credit (she's not anonymous, it was definitely HEIDI), that was a record for the fastest somebody tried to turn the table against Rob.  Even his own kids were eating these tasty treats...

The big story of the night, besides the cupcakes, was the debut of a rookie Dueler...ten year old Riley!  We had a late cancellation and Riley, already wearing her Rey costume from The Last Jedi, was all too eager to join the fray.  After dinner the Duelers took their seats and picked the Carbon Freezing Chamber to do battle.

Samuel, playing his first Duel in over a year, took his Obi-Wan Kenobi over to the dark side of the board for an early flip.  Riley, navigating Mace Windu, threw the table into further confusion by attacking Ben's Anakin Skywalker immediately after!  Chaos ensued after that as Riley stalked Padme and other members of the light side also moved towards the dark.  That left Riley/Mace, Stephen/Yoda, and Rob/Han Solo all by their lonesome.  Chris threw a Thermal Detonator to destroy the last of Mace's Clones, who were also protecting Han.  A Kyber Dart and Desperate Shot later sent Mr. Cupcake, Rob, out in last.  Curse you, cupcakes!!!

Not the first, and certainly won't be
the last, Duels-inspired marriage
counseling session...

Ben had no choice after that but to attack Riley's Mace since she was hell-bent on chasing him.  Still, killing a kid in eleventh place does weird things to your psyche.  Stephen tried desperately to join Jonathan's Luke as they pursued Samuel and his back-stabbing Obi-Wan across the chamber.  But Alex's Zam Wessel saw an opportunity to eliminate Yoda from the game and did just that.  Stephen was stuck in tenth.

The Duel was flying by at this point, but with nine Duelers still in play, alliances and enemies weren't fully formed.  Bartering and strategery was fluid, and somehow Heidi found herself on the outs with her Darth Maul.  Kaleb's Darth Vader eliminated her in ninth. 

What happened next was one of the more amusing moments in recent Duel history.  Courtney, playing with Emperor Palpatine, decided to attack Ben's Mace.  If you don't know Courtney and Ben, they happen to be married.  Courtney was playing to win, and Ben was aghast at the move.  First he was attacked by a ten-year old, and then his own wife plunged a light saber into his heart. 

Jonathan had tried to align wit others for most of the game, specifically to put down Samuel's Obi-Wan, who was still alive and kicking.  But with Ben now dead his allies were running short and Kaleb once again took out the trash by putting Skywalker on the curb.  That made it six to go, at which point Kaleb turned his attention to Obi.  In a bit of an overkill, he used All Too Easy to eliminate Samuel in sixth. 

Chris had been maneuvering his wounded Boba Fett around the confined Chamber for quite some time, but it was his alliance partner, Grant, who stabbed him in the back with a vicious Taunting card from Count Dooku.  Grant and Dooku won the last Duel and it looked like that might happen again as now there were only four Duelers left.  But Courtney was still crushing it with Palpatine and, at the perfect moment, she hit him with the You Will Die!  Now card-less, the vultures started circling and Alex's Zam sniped him for the kill.

And then there were three!  It looked like the obvious play would be for Courtney/Emperor and Alex/Jango to team up against Kaleb's Vader, who was the healthiest character left on the board.  But Kaleb managed to talk Alex over to his side and their combined efforts stunned Courtney in a third place finish.  Still, that was an incredible effort in just her second Duel!

The final battle between Vader and Jango was...wait for it...EPIC!  They traded shots back and forth before Vader charged to make a point-blank final attack.  Alex barely survived, and had to make the hard choice between retreating or going for the kill.  He went aggressive...and it worked!  Vader's defense cards were maxed and Alex, playing his sixth career game to turn professional, won his first Duel!!!  A big shout out to to Kaleb, too, who showed again why he's so dangerous with Darth Vader.

The final order of finish:

12.  Rob/Han Solo
11.  Riley/Mace Windu
10.  Stephen/Yoda
9.  Heidi/Darth Maul
8.  Ben/Anakin Skywalker
7.  Jonathan/Luke Skywalker
6.  Samuel/Obi-Wan Kenobi
5.  Chris/Boba Fett
4.  Grant/Count Dooku
3.  Courtney/Emperor Palpatine
2.  Kaleb/Darth Vader
1.  Alex/Jango Fett

But that's not all - read the next post for game two!

Preview: Twin Sun Slam - June 16, 2018

This June a group of hardcore Duelers tried to organize the "Holy Grail" of our league: holding twelve 12-Way Duels...in a row!  This insane idea has long gestated in the hopeful minds of the most psychotic Duelers, but alas, we couldn't find enough people to pull it off this summer, so the idea will continue to percolate.  Perhaps it will reemerge in the future?  Time will tell...

But with all the frenzied interest in trying to Duel this month, the masses asked...why not a summer Duel?  July features the Singles Tournament, and August has both the CL Training match as well as the Doubleheader.  June has always been dormant in our league, but if Dueling is what the people want, Dueling is what the people get!

So here we are, the first official Twin Sun Slam!  And since the word "Twin" is in the title, we figured we might as well play two!  We're going to tailgate at Rob's house beforehand and grill some burgers.  The Yoda Soda will flow.  Summer Dueling, had me a blast...Summer Dueling, happened so fast...

MEET THE DUELERS:

Alex - the amateur Dueler finally turns professional this Saturday!  And with a more than respectable average, the only question will be how high in the rankings he debuts.

Ben - nobody has had a more scorching 2018 in terms of average finish, but Ben would turn in all of those top five finishes for his first career victory.  He has two shots this weekend to pull it off.

Chris - well look at what the cat dragged in!  The cagey old veteran didn't play much this past year, but as Chris likes to say, "Sun's out, guns out!"  And by guns he means blaster rifles.

Courtney - she made her debut at the Let the Wookie Win Duel last month, and placed admirably in seventh.  That's not too shabby for a first Duel!  However, her husband did pass on his Han Solo curse with her character pick.

Grant - Grant moved into sole possession of second place on the career victory list at Let the Wookie Win.  His first place victory with Count Dooku gives him six total wins and now he sits squarely in second place in the Dueler rankings.

Heidi - nearly two years ago Heidi played in the 2016 Doubleheaders...and hasn't been seen since!  But her long absence is no more!  Perhaps she only wants to play when there are two games a night?  That's hardcore, and I admire it!

Jonathan - the retired Dueler is coming to the table one more time to finally secure that first career victory.  Or he's using these two Duels as a warm-up for his Singles Tournament title defense.  Either way, nobody counts cards better than Jonathan.

Kaleb - the retired Hall of Famer is squeezing two more games onto his resume!  He's looking to recover from a career-worst ninth place finish at Let the Wookie Win.  Still, how sick is it that his worst finish is only ninth?!?

Kat - the word on the street is that Kat stayed on campus this summer solely to train and prepare for the coming Dueling season.  You can't teach heart, Duelers!  She's looking to recover from her last place finish at May the 4th Be With You.

Rob - the number one ranked Dueler nearly accomplished the impossible at Let the Wookie Win - win two Duels in a row with the same character!  He nearly made it, finishing second place with Mace Windu after his first place at May the 4th.

Sam - and here's another blast from the past!  Retired amateur Sam had a short but furious run of Duels in our league and he's been chomping at the bit to get back into the game.  Here's his chance!

Stephen - it looked like his swan song was going to be his tenth place finish at the May the 4th Duel, but this Hall of Famer ain't going out like that!  Stephen's history of success at doubleheaders shouldn't be ignored either.

There you have it folks - the Twin Sun Slam is locked and loaded!  No Pez Vader prediction this time around, but fear not - we have a new prognosticator for next season.  You won't be disappointed!  Feel free to stop by Saturday if you're around!