The Imperial March - March 2, 2019

Carbon Freezing Changer (via Dagobah)

Well...it was a long, strange night.

On the cool side, Ryan brought his latest three-dimensional board!  He modeled it after Dagobah, the planet Luke finds Yoda on in Empire Strike's Back.  He's not quite finished with it, but man, it looks cool with it's fake water, exposed X-Wing, and dirty R2-D2 watching from the sidelines.  As luck would have it, that was the board we picked to play on!

Is that a piece of sod on the table?

But things took a very strange twist later in the night when students in the next room came in to alert us that there might be an active shooter situation near campus.  Now, I'd like to tell you that our immediate reaction was to leave the table and ensure our safety by turning off lights, locking doors, etc.  I'd like to tell you they didn't have to come and tell us more than once that we might want to stop playing a pretend game of life or death when the real thing might be at hand. Hahaha, that would be insane!  Haha! Ha!  Uh, ha.  uh... *ahem*  Anyhoo, it turned out to be a false alarm!  And even if it hadn't been, we agreed not to talk strategy with each other away from the table while our lives were in mortal danger.  It just wouldn't have been fair.

The night also got off to an ominous start when JD (playing with Mace), who won the right to go first, took over five minutes to decide where to move his characters!  This was because he was convinced Curtis, operating as Luke in the middle of the chamber bog, was going to flip.  We'll never know the answer to that because JD finally attacked!  Many folks on the light side followed suit.  Even crazier, the dark side didn't welcome him over and Curtis died in last - a mirror image from last month when Curtis killed JD in last.

Ch-ch-ch-Chia!

With Curtis/Luke off the board the dark side had a big advantage.  They used their droids and Fetts to pepper the light side with attacks.  Both alliances tried to get members to flip for an advantage.  Strangely, for the first time in many games, nobody did.  And the end result was a looooooong game.  In fact, it ended up being the longest game in Duel history.  I never thought we would cross a 2AM finish line...

Just as the light side looked like it was about to collapse, a major altercation went down that changed the board.  Riley rolled her Count Dooku in and hit JD for some substantial damage.  JD responded by double-Whirlwinding Riley...and his own teammate, Ryan/Anakin!  Then Shawn, playing in his first Duel and piloting Obi-Wan, used Force Control on his last row of health.  He successfully put Riley in a kill box and left fellow noob Viktor's Darth Vader open and taking hits.  Riley couldn't last after Anakin attacked with 5 points and the youngest Dueler in league history bowed out in eleventh.  She's only one game away from being the youngest professional in league history too.

Ian's Zam Wessell eliminated Shawn next, and just a turn or too later Jango killed Ryan's Anakin in ninth.  That wasn't the only carnage.  Viktor's Darth Vader got Wookie Tossed into eighth place.  Viktor had quite a wild ride in his first Duel, though we were a bit worried by the amount of emotional stress he encountered...

Even though the dark side still had a 4-3 character advantage and the better overall health, Shawn's dying Force Control pinned them in a way they couldn't access the Jedi.  Chris' Boba, who got jacked by a Bowcaster earlier, stepped out from protective cover in hopes of killing one more light side character but Grant's Han Solo capped him before the Fett could strike.

That left three light side (Grant/Han, Brannon/Yoda, and JD/Mace) against three dark side (Rob/Maul, Ian/Jango, and Ben/Emperor).  These six started grinding past midnight before the flipping started to take shape.  Rob/Maul and JD/Mace tangled, but both realized their individual success might be dependent on the other.  That, and the growing realization that Brannon and Grant were both full health and in excellent position to be the top two, unified the dark side and brought JD over.  After previously targeting Brannon's Yoda, the dark side switched strategies and swung at Han.  Grant couldn't negate the attacks as Brannon couldn't roll more than a 2-all to come and help.  Grant finished sixth, and wasn't at all mad that it took past midnight to die.

And then there were two.

Brannon's Yoda, left without an alliance partner, still proved tricky to defeat.  He Force Lifted Zam, fully blocked Maul's Athletic Surge, and used his two Clones to block numerous shots.  But he couldn't hold out forever, and it was an expertly timed Missile Launch by Ian's Jango that ended Brannon in fifth.  That was a career-best finish for the 2018 Singles Champ and emergency backup Dueler.

That left four Duelers and a lot of questions as to who should be next.  Ben assured Rob he didn't want to attack him, but JD and Ian told Rob they think they should go after Ben's Emperor.  That's how the tide eventually shifted, and Ben found himself on the wrong end of a purple light saber.  He finally let somebody else win a trophy!

The final three started off as Rob/Maul and JD/Mace against Ian's Jango...that is until Jango was near-death and JD couldn't heal his Mace fast enough to take on Maul.  JD left Rob to fight a two-front war.  But Jango's health was so low Ian know he couldn't survive a Blinding Surge from Rob's Darth Maul.  No longer useful to him, JD eliminated Ian in third.  It was an intriguing final two as JD's Mace was high-carded but low health while Rob's Maul was high health but low-carded.  Those few cards for Maul, though, were almost entirely defensive in orientation.  As they chased each other around the swamp of Dagobah Rob finally landed an Athletic Surge and Mace was swamp food.  The victory marked Rob's 13th career win and was the first time in league history a trophy holder came home with the same hardware they won the year before!

The final order of finish:

12.  Curtis/Luke Skywalker
11.  Riley/Count Dooku
10.  Shawn/Obi-Wan Kenobi
9.  Ryan/Anakin Skywalker
8.  Viktor/Darth Vader
7.  Chris/Boba Fett
6.  Grant/Han Solo
5.  Brannon/Yoda
4.  Ben/Emperor Palpatine
3.  Ian/Jango Fett
2.  JD/Mace Windu
1.  Rob/Darth Maul

Preview: The Imperial March - March 1, 2019

This is a crazy month to cram in a Duel, and it was looking bleak until, at the 11th hour, JD worked his magic to get us to 12.  It's almost like he was determined to wash out the bad taste of last place from his mouth...

IMPERIAL MARCH HISTORY:

2018 - Rob won with Luke Skywalker in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

2017 - Dalton won with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Emperor's Throne Room

2016 - Alex R. won with Anakin Skywalker in the Geonosis Arena

2015 - Grant won with Han Solo in the Carbon Freezing Chamber

MEET THE DUELERS:

Ben H. - Look man, life is good if you're Ben.  He's won three of the last five Duels.  Basically, it's his world right now and we're just losing in it.

Brannon - Let me rub my eyes because I can't believe what I see...Yep, it's Brannon!  Your 2018 Singles Champion is saving our bacon by rolling into Waco to try and win his first 12-Way.

Chris W. -  Chris would love to make a deep run in the Imperial March after being on the unfortunate receiving end of inter-alliance betrayals in his past couple of Duels.

Curtis - He's quietly putting a nice run together with four top-five finishes in his last five Duels.  His only hiccup was 7th place at last month's Valentine's Duel.

Grant - Grant missed the Valentine Duel but has three top-four finishes in his last five Duels, including two second place finishes with Anakin.  There's a reason he's the topped ranked Dueler!

Ian - I had to recheck the stat sheets to believe it, but Ian has three tenth place finishes in his last four Duels!  Of course, that non-tenth place finish was a win at Grant's birthday Duel.

JD - There's a dirty rumor that the Imperial March is JD's "birthday Duel."  This is false and a blatant distortion of the truth.  Those spreading this lie will be tagged with the Jar Jar Trophy.

Joel - You have to hand it to Joel, he hasn't finished lower than 9th place since LAST year's Imperial March.  That includes three victories in the past calendar year!

Rob - The old man has three top-four finishes in his past six Duels and is still beaming with pride after witnessing his daughter finish third at last month's Valentine's Duel.

Ryan - Let's take a moment and applaud Ryan who, after 38 (!) Duels, finally finished last place in his last match, January's New Hope Duel.  To avoid the Golden Jar Jar for that long is incredible.

Shawn - Noob alert!!!  JD's buddy is helping us make numbers tonight, so we thank him for that!  Shawn works over at Truett, which basically means we have a Jedi Temple employee making their debut.

Viktor - Man, could you have a cooler name in a 12-Way Duel???  This new hire in Martin is making his rookie appearance at the Imperial March.  We'll have to see if...to the Viktor goes the spoils...?

TREY REY PREDICTS THE WINNER:

Trey Rey, 0-8 on picks this year, is busy battling Kylo Ren but did email this drawing of her pick:

There you go folks - we're ready for the IMPERIAL MARCH!  8PM tonight in North Village!!!