The Fall Brawl - September 15, 2018

Emperor's Throne Room

The game started with a sense of gloom after our football team got spanked at home earlier in the day.  More than one Dueler bore unmistakable sunburns for their loyal fandom.  You can't teach heart!

It got even worse when Rob didn't bring the right secret envelopes for the board pick and we ended up on the Emperor's Throne Room for the third time in four Duels.  There was nearly a mutiny but Rob quelled the uprising and the Duelers took their seats.

The Usual Suspects

The Fall Brawl featured two rookie debuts, Owen and Jonathan.  They come from Martin, on the Outer Rim.  Playing in your first 12-Way Duel is hard enough, but they got stuck with Luke Skywalker and Count Dooku, respectively.  Those are two tough starting positions in the Throne Room.  Chris W. landed Obi-Wan for the second time on this board and he nearly started hyperventilating.  That was the same for JD, who once again got Mace Windu and aged three years from the immediate stress.

Out of the gate the dark side stayed loyal and the light side started creeping forward.  A big battle was certainly going to take place.  Rob, playing with Darth Maul, kept trying to get Chris and Obi to switch to the dark side but he wasn't biting.  Then, out of nowhere, Ben H. and his Han (yes, Ben picked Han AGAIN) flipped!  His Chewbacca blasted Owen's Luke with the Bowcaster after his Wookie Instincts card.

Many Bothans died using this Force Control.

It looked like the dark side was going to be home free in the advantage department, but JD assumed the role of field general and encouraged Chris' Obi-Wan to use a Force Control to re-balance the board and look for the high ground.  Chris obliged, and after an eternity of consulting on the light side, reconfigured the players in the Throne Room.  In the midst of that shuffling Ben's Han Solo flipped again to avoid dying first or second.  Rob couldn't believe Ben betrayed his welcoming handshake from just a few minutes earlier!

The real victim in the swap was poor Jonathan and his Count Dooku.  Chris had pushed all the dark side major characters to the back two rows while pulling Dooku forward for free hits from all the light side characters.  Jonathan defended as best as he could, but the outcome was inevitable.  The rookie died in 12th place.  He deserved better!

During the Force Control chaos Joel made overtures to join the light side too, but the dark side wasn't too keen on that.  They knocked a few health points off his Boba Fett to get him in line and Courtney moved her Royal Guard in front of him, half to protect him, half to keep him from running off.  Joel found his nerve again and unleashed a brutal Thermal Detonator on Owen's Luke that also hit Obi-Wan and Han Solo.  Then Boba hit him with the Kyber Dart and Owen was gone in eleventh!  Why is Boba so mean???

Ben P.'s face says it all...

The dark side started giggling because their batch of minor characters were not only protecting all of their major characters, but were also in perfect position to start blasting the light side characters who were suddenly exposed and vulnerable.  Chris W.'s Obi-Wan, still smoking from the Thermal, got pot-shots repeatedly, knocking his health to a dangerously low level.  That's when Joel's Greedo played the Desperate Shot card.  Obi died, Greedo lived, and Chris backed away from the table in tenth.

Rob had been half joking with JD the entire game that his Mace Windu should flip to the dark side when, out of the blue, that's what he did!  The victim?  An unsuspecting Alex and Anakin Skywalker.  He dropped two major attacks to announce to the board that his alliances were realigned.  Alex would have been mad...except he later revealed he was planning on doing the same to JD!  Ian's Jango eventually finished Alex's night in ninth place.

JD and Rob in happier times.

Kaleb, insulated with Yoda's Clone Troopers, unleashed a constant monologue of epic proportions for roughly the next 45 minutes.  He begged and implored the dark side alliance to reexamine their loyalties and dream differently moving forward.  He proposed that he, Ben P./Vader, Courtney/Emperor, Joel/Boba, and Ben H./Han could take out Ian/Jango, Rob/Maul, and JD/Mace.  Initially, nobody was swayed, but the relentless verbal barrage started working with Ben P., who wondered if maybe Kaleb had a point.  That sowed some seeds of distrust with his current alliance.

While that was going down Ben H.'s Han tried to mosey over to the dominant alliance and make friends but Rob wasn't having hit.  Fully loaded with Maul attacks, he quickly dispatched the smuggler in eight place on a final Athletic Surge.  Ben, you have an unhealthy relationship with Han.  It would be best if you started seeing other characters now...

With five characters dead, Kaleb was the last one standing from the original light side alliance.  He began his retreat to run around the drawbridges of the Throne Room, all the while running his mouth.  Through painstaking coordination, the dark side alliance minor characters whittled Yoda down to nothing, with Greedo once again landing a kill shot.

Joel has so many dead bodies he's opening a morgue!

And then there were six!  Ian wasn't impressed with Ben P.'s wavering during the Kaleb filibuster, so he announced his intentions to go after Darth Vader.  The other members of the alliance more or less followed suit.  Even Courtney, whose Emperor looked loyal to Ben, agreed to participate.  Ben couldn't defend himself from five different characters at once and was forced to take a knee in sixth.  He's slowly improved with each of his three Duels, though, good job Ben!

At this point there were five characters remaining: Ian/Jango, Courtney/Emperor, Joel/Boba, JD/Mace, and Rob/Maul.  Joel publicly asked who was next and JD suggested Ian's Jango.  Ian suggested Rob's Maul.  Rob said he was going to go down and take on the Emperor.  Basically, it turned into a big mess.  When Joel eventually took a shot at Ian's Jango, Rob suggested to Courtney and Ian that they team up against Boba and Mace.  All Rob had to do was not roll a "2 all" to take out Boba.  Rob promptly rolled a "2 all" and the plan was wrecked!  Courtney and Ian stayed true to Rob's Maul, more or less, but Ian was wrecked by shots from Joel and JD, both of who were trying to convince Courtney to hop back over to their side.  Boba finally killed Ian in fifth.  He made quite the final stand.

At that point Rob and JD made a quick pact with each other to start working together.  For the second time on the night, out of nowhere, JD attacked an unsuspecting victim - he unleashed the double Whirlwind on Boba, knocking him down to just one point of life!  Rob's Maul started moving into attack position on the Emperor, but in what can only be described as a colossal brain fart, he decided to attack JD instead.  Because he was afraid of the eight points of automatic damage from the Whirlwinds.  The Whirlwinds JD just played.  It wasn't until after his first Sith Speed that Rob suddenly remembered he was safe from those attacks - getting old sucks, people!  Rob finished his volley on JD and he and Mace exited in fourth place.

And just like that, Courtney was in perfect position to win the Duel.  She had yet to play her You Will Die card (because it was the last card in her deck!), Joel was one point from dying, and Rob was starting to card up.  Rob desperately chased Boba around the board, hoping to secure his own second place finish, but Greedo was still alive and Joel continually blocked Maul's path.  When Courtney finally pulled You Will Die she played it on Rob, dumping his beautifully constructed hand.  That gave free shots on Rob from Boba, and before he knew it, Maul was within one point of dying too.  From there it was a race to see who could kill each other first.  A Force Lightning from Courtney dumped Rob's last Athletic Surge, and Boba shot and killed Maul, giving Rob third place.  By then, Courtney had redrawn her You Will Die card.  She didn't need to play it, but for humorous effect, she did with her first action before killing Joel with a Force Lightning with her second action!!!

This is nothing short of a monumental win for Courtney!  The Fall Brawl was just her fourth Duel, meaning the second ranked amateur becomes the first amateur to win a Duel since the first year of the league!  Furthermore, she now tops the all-time list in career win percentage at 25%.  And if that accolade isn't enough...she just became the first female Dueler to win a match in league history!!!  Congrats Courtney!!!  You performance was...EPIC.

Here's the final order of finish:

12.  Count Dooku - Jonathan B.
11.  Luke Skywalker - Owen
10.  Obi-Wan Kenobi - Chris W.
9.  Anakin Skywalker - Alex C.
8.  Han Solo - Ben H.
7.  Yoda - Kaleb
6.  Darth Vader - Ben P.
5.  Jango Fett - Ian
4.  Mace Windu - JD
3.  Darth Maul - Rob
2.  Boba Fett - Joel
1.  Emperor Palpatine - Courtney

What a night!  Stay tuned for our October Duel...FIGHT NIGHT!  More details to come...

Preview: The Fall Brawl - September 15, 2018

Egads - we had a hard time finding 12 for this one!  Hence the delayed preview post.  But never fear!  The league responded in our time of need and we have a gaggle of grapplers to throw down tonight.

This is our fifth annual Fall Brawl, the traditional September Duel.  The leaves are changing colors, there's a nip in the air...wait.  This is Texas.  None of those things are true.

On with the preview!

HISTORY:

2017 - JD won with Han Solo in the Geonosis Arena
2016 - Ian won with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Carbon Freezing Chamber
2015 - Rob won with Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Kamino Platform
2014 - David C. won with Darth Maul on the Kamino Platform

MEET THE DUELERS:

Alex C. - It was the best of Duels, and it was the worst of Duels, for Alex at the Doubleheader.  He scored his second career victory in game one but brought home the Golden Jar Jar with a last place in game two.

Ben H. - The league's latest YouTube star got a double serving of Yoda at the Doubleheader.  And wouldn't you know it, he back-stabbed his competitors the same way Rob's Yoda back-stabbed Ben at the CL Retreat.  He's turned into a monster.

Ben P. - The noob Dueler had a respectable showing in his first career games at the Doubleheader.  It looked like he was heading to a top two finish in game two of the Doubleheader, but an ill-advised betrayal of his alliance partner was a good learning moment for him.

Chris W. - Chris has a taste of the Dueling life and can't get enough.  This will be his fourth straight appearance and he's on pace to reach professional status before the 2018 Championship.  He's hoping for a better showing than his Doubleheader finishes.

Courtney H. - She is the second ranked amateur dueler right now and has never finished below seventh place in a Duel.  In a word, she's dangerous!  This marks her fourth career Duel on her march towards the professional rankings.

Ian - This is Ian's first game since finishing in second place at the CL Training Duel.  In fact, he's finished second or better in four of his last five games!  That's amazing!  Bring a fire extinguisher if you're sitting next to him because he's on fire.

JD - Nobody has more on the line at the Fall Brawl than JD...his trophy is up for grabs!  He's hoping to pull the Emperor for his character.  He's played with Palpatine in two of his last three games and has a first and fourth place finish with the Dark Lord.

Joel - Joel is on a roll!  That rhymes!  He's won two of his last five games and hasn't finished below seventh place in that span.  That also includes his masterful win in game two of the Doubleheader with Darth Maul.

Jonathan B.  - Rookie Dueler alert!!!  Jonathan B. makes his debut tonight.  He comes from Martin, the home planet of JD, so he comes to us from good pedigree.  Good luck Jonathan!

Kaleb - The Hall of Famer had to miss the Doubleheader so he's excited to be back in action.  He's hoping to get Darth Vader.  He's used that character in two of his last three games and scored a second and fourth place finish with the senior Skywalker.

Owen - Another Rookie Dueler alert!!!  Owen makes his debut tonight too.  He also comes from Martin, home planet of JD...wait a second.  Have we uncovered a secret cabal???  We're on to you, JD!

Rob - Times are hard for the league founder.  He's finished tenth or worse in four of his last five games.  He's another year older.  His thyroid is bad.  He has jury duty on Monday.  Sadly, all of these things are actually true.

TREY REY PREDICTS THE WINNER:

Well Reys, your predictions for the Doubleheader were way off, explain yourselves!

Lil' Rey:  our predictions were ruined when joel destroyed lego rey.

Big Rey:  IT'S TRUE!  JOEL WILL SUFFER THE
CONSEQUENCES!!!  RUN AND HIDE, JOEL, RUN AND HIDE,
TREY REY IS COMING FOR YOU!!!

Lego Rey:  iT huRtS So bAd...mAKe thE PAin stOp...

Well that is truly disturbing.  Way to go, Joel.  Way to go.  So Trey Rey, who you got winning this thing?

Trey Rey:  WITH OUR COMBINED MIGHT,
WE PREDICT ANAKIN SKYWALKER WILL
WIN THE FALL BRAWL.  IT WILL BE SO.

Lego Rey:  pLeaSE...puT Me bAck tOgetHEr...

Trey Rey predictions for the year:  0-2

There you have it folks, the Fall Brawl is ready to rock!  Stay dry today and after the football game feel free to swing by the North Village Community Center to catch the action!

Doubleheader #2 - August 31, 2018

Kamino Platform

...and on to game two!

For just the second time in 2018, the Kamino Platform was selected as the field of battle.  And just like the first game, Ryan brought his 3D board for Kamino, complete with pretty Christmas Lights.  Twinkle twinkle, little Dueler, which of the 12 will be the ruler...?

Both Ben H. (Yoda) and Rob (Dooku) got their same characters from the first game, while Chris K. (Han) got stuck with his second shooter.  In his last four games he's been a shooter.  Thanks for taking one for the team, Chris!

We started on time - hooray!

One of the best parts about Kamino is the crazy way it disrupts the typical light vs. dark starting points.  There are three distinct clumpings on the board and anything can happen.  And anything did!  Luke, assigned Boba Fett and Greedo for the second game, used a Sudden Arrival and Desperate Shot right out of the gate, shooting toward Alex's Obi-Wan.  It was a big risk to lose Greedo right out of the gate...and he did zero damage after Alex used Jedi Block!  Greedo got obliterated, which is never not funny.  However, that also painted an enormous, Bowcaster-sized target on Alex.  Sure enough, Chris K.'s Chewey dropped the eleven point attack on Obi-Wan, and a couple of attacks later he was dead!  Brutal!!!  Alex won a first place trophy and the Golden Jar Jar all in the same night.  #hardware  This also marked the third game in a row Obi-Wan finished in last place, and I'm pretty sure that's a new 12-Way Duel record.

Curse you, JD!!!

Obi-Wan's dramatic demise sent the board in chaos.  Rob's Dooku had moved away from Vader and Emperor in the back row, but popped right back over with Obi dead.  Chris K.'s Han Solo had blood lust after bumping off the biggest Jedi on the board.  He continued an offensive press but finally bit it when Ryan's Padme zapped him in eleventh.  Ryan, at the half-hearted suggestion of Rob, then Wrathed to the dark side of the board.

It looked like the remaining light side would be pelted by more than the Kamino rain, when COMPLETELY out of the blue, JD/Emperor and Ben P./Vader jacked up Rob's Dooku with a wombo-combo!!!  Dooku was dead in eleventh.  Rob was so $$*%&*$&% ticked the #(*$&#%^ off!!!!!!  RAGE!!!!

Ahem.  Back to the recap.

Grant and Ben H., laying as low as possible...

Dooku's death gave the light side a brief reprieve, but it wouldn't last long.  Grant's Mace was getting wounded left and right by the ranged shots of dark side minor characters.  That's when Ben, for the third time that night, Force Pushed one of his own teammates to a kill box.  But instead of Mace, it was Chris W.'s Luke Skywalker!  JD said he wouldn't attack Chris...which was technically true.  Instead, the rest of his alliance did and Chris W. was eliminated in ninth. 

By the time the dominant alliance got around to killing Grant in eighth, a couple of slow, tedious hours had passed.  Just as it looked like Ben H.'s Yoda would be next, Ben P. got squirrely and started planning to betray his back row partner, JD.  JD hasn't played 40+ Duels to not sense a change in the tide and immediately picked up on it.  He rallied the rest of the board (which wasn't hard, because boy, folks sure seemed like they were kissing up to the Emperor) and Ben P. got burned in seventh.  You have to love his moxie, though, this kid has potential!

God I love this picture!

There were only six soldiers left on the board, and poor Luke suddenly found himself on the outs.  His Boba inflicted a nice amount of damage, but his alliance wanted to avoid and remaining big attacks.  Luke was out in sixth, but this also marked his sixth Duel, meaning he's a professional now.  Congrats Luke!  And even better, he's debuted in tenth place in the rankings - nice!!!

Ben H., still hobbling around the board as Yoda after it looked like he would be second to die on the night, was loud and proud about telling the remaining Duelers he was loyal to his hamburger buddy JD.  JD didn't necessarily like the extra attention.  It was pretty clear Ryan/Anakin and Joel/Maul were going to have to work together to defeat the golden oldies characters.  But instead of recruiting Kayla's Jango, Maul used an attack to remove her in fifth.  This was just Kayla's second Duel, though, and she's already landed a top five finish - good job Kayla!

Yoda/Emperor started defending each other around Jango's ship as Maul/Anakin tried to figure out how to isolate one of them.  The Emperor eventually got attacked when Joel rolled a five and unloaded on JD, who was holding a lot of special cards but not much defense.  That left little ol' Yoda versus Maul and Anakin.

And Yoda started kicking @$$.

Ben ran a clinic on how awesome Yoda is, consistently defending and outmaneuvering the twin attacks of Maul and Anakin.  The twosome were losing health points at the same rate Yoda was, which was incredible.  Eventually, Yoda started running out of cards.  Ryan went in for the kill.  For his first attack Ben defended with a 15 defense that also allowed him to draw a card.  Ryan made an even more aggressive move by using Anger, an eight point attack.  Ben turned over the card he just drew:  Force Rebound.  Eight points right back at Ryan's Anakin...who only had seven health points left!!!  It was incredible deck luck and Dueler skill.  Ryan can't complain - two third place finishes on the night is excellent work.

It took Joel a minute to track him down, but Darth Maul finally overwhelmed Yoda and Joel secured his fourth career victory in just over a year.  Amazing!  Ben H. finished second, but he put on the performance of the night by far.

Your final order of finish:

12.  Obi/Alex C.
11.  Han/Chris K.
10.  Dooku/Rob
9.  Luke/Chris W.
8.  Mace/Grant
7.  Vader/Ben P.
6.  Boba/Luke R.
5.  Jango/Kayla
4.  Emperor/JD
3.  Anakin/Ryan
2.  Yoda/Ben H.
1.  Maul/Joel

A big thank you to everyone who came out and played two games - it was an awesome night!  The next 12-Way Duel is the FALL BRAWL.  That will happen sometime in September but I don't have a date yet.  Stay tuned!  Meanwhile, the stats have been updated, feel free to peruse the tabs...

Doubleheader #1 - August 31, 2018

Emperor's Throne Room

Just as the twin suns of Robinson, TX, were starting to sink into the horizon, twelve noble souls gathered to do battle, drink Yoda Soda, and eat Tie-Fighter Ties.

Did you know Jess made 120 Tie-Fighter Ties during the two games, and all but four were eaten?  THEY'RE SO GOOD!

The food was nice and all, but the Duelers were more hungry for a win!  So the spots at the table were selected, but then Rob found a new way to ratchet up the tension when it comes to character selection:

We may have to make the punch box a regular part of the Duel league...what do you think???  Another special feature for the Doubleheader was the playing boards!  Ryan brought in his three-dimensional surfaces, which means we got to play on the "alternate" Throne Room...Mustafar!

If you look closely you'll notice he added some smoke/fire/explosion elements to the board.  I prefer to think of them as the dreams of winning, slowly burning away...

Hey - Rob is finally in the opening shot!

The game started fairly normally - the light and dark side alliances began making overtures to lure the first flipper of the game.  However, this time around...the sides stayed loyal!  It became quite intense once both sides realized this would be a 6 v 6 slug fest.  Chris W.'s Obi-Wan Kenobi had the rough starting point of being out front, as did Kayla's Luke Skywalker.  The dark side took advantage as they concentrated their fire power on those two characters.  The light side returned fire but Mace and Yoda's Clone Troopers had a harder time finding a lane of attack.  JD, controlling Mace, kept rallying his side to advance and force the dark side to start moving their main characters forward.

That tactic had limited success, especially after Chris W's Obi-Wan got sent home from Chris K's Kyber Dart.  I'm going to assume it was only a coincidence that a Chris killed a Chris.  It would mess with my mind if there was something more to that...  Kayla's Luke was bleeding out too, and just as Ben H's Yoda arrived at the front line...he Force Pushed Kayla to her death!  Was it a flip!?  It was hard to tell.

From Force Push victim to Force Push perpetrator 

The light side was in free-fall after that.  Though they continued their attacks on the dark side they began to take stock and try to figure out how they were going to get themselves off the bottom of the food chain.  Ben H's Yoda once again made a bold move, Force Lifting and then Force Pushing JD's Mace to a dark side kill box.  JD was enraged, Ben was bashful, and Rob secretly giggled because he did the same thing to Ben last game.

JD, full of revenge, convinced his kill box to let him escape so he could go after Ben for the betrayal.  Ben H. was none too pleased when JD rolled in and killed him in tenth.  Shockingly, Yoda had no defense in his hand.

The reprieve for JD was short lived.  Rob's Count Dooku dropped a Taunting and then Ryan's Darth Maul unleashed a volley that sent the CL Training champ off the board in ninth place.  Ben and JD decided to go to In'n'Out between games to hash out their differences and discuss other theological conundrums.

Ben P., playing with Anakin and not to be confused with Ben H., managed to hang back as his light side compatriots got torn up but the dark side heavies slowly advanced on his position.  He made it a point to target Joel's Emperor Palpatine but Joel made it a point to kill him in return.  Not shabby for his first Duel!

Your final three

The dark side, still six strong, made a pact to finish off the light side before the infighting started, and that's exactly what happened.  Luke's Han Solo danced around the Throne Room as well as he could, but a final Storm Trooper shot from Alex C. closed his book for the match.

Now that it was only dark side characters Rob stuck his neck out and suggested Joel's Emperor should be the first to go.  He argued that You Will Die hadn't been played yet, and that was a frightening prospect to deal with.  The others reluctantly followed suit, and Dooku's Taunt killed the Emperor in his own Throne Room.

That left a final five of Rob/Dooku, Ryan/Maul, Alex/Vader, Grant/Jango, and Chris K./Boba.  With Joel gone nobody else knew what to do.  Rob moved next to Jango and Zam, more so for cover from Boba than anything else, but when he drew a Force Push he tried to create an opportunity by tossing Jango at Maul and Boba.  Rob had made an alliance with Ryan, but Ryan surprised Rob by not attacking Grant.  Rob knew he was in trouble, and sure enough, the other four started in on him.  His one shining moment before death was using his Force Drain to successfully dump Alex's All Too Easy and Throw Debris.  And then Rob died at Maul's hands, really annoyed at Ryan.

Chris couldn't believe it when he caught Grant whispering about Boba being next, but there was little he could do to save himself.  He was out when his attack on Maul got slapped back with a Blinding Surge.  Ryan tried to work with Alex against Grant's Jango, but neither Grant nor Alex liked the idea of going against Maul at the end.  They whittled him down before Jango got the drop on him.  Third place with Maul, though, is nothing to sneeze at!

Alex's Vader was in near perfect health while Grant's Jango was roughed up.  It didn't take long for Vader to chase him around the room, jacking him up even further.  Jango succumbed to his wounds, and Alex collected his second career trophy - congrats Alex!!!  That also marked Darth Vader's tenth career win, the most of any character and the first character to reach double digits.

Here's the final order of finish:

12.  Obi-Wan/Chris W.
11.  Luke/Kayla
10.  Ben H./Yoda
9.  JD/Mace
8.  Ben P./Anakin
7.  Han/Luke
6.  Emperor/Joel
5.  Dooku/Rob
4.  Boba/Chris K.
3.  Maul/Ryan
2.  Jango/Grant
1.  Vader/Alex

...and this was just game one!  Read on for game two...