Twin Sun Slam #1 - June 15, 2019

Geonosis Arena

Well, we'll start with the pressing question on the minds of all Duelers who weren't able to attend the Twin Sun Slam.

No, nobody brought cupcakes with icing that read "kill Rob first."  Your concern for Rob in this trying time is appreciated.

But folks did bring a lot of good food!  Hamburgers were grilled, stomachs were stuffed.  Really, there was only one thing missing that could have made it the perfect balance of friendship and sportsmanship.  Did I say only one thing was missing?  Because I meant to say there were TWO things missing.  The trophies!  JD remembered the mac'n'cheese but not R2D2 and C-3PO.  Everyone except Ian tried to make him feel guilty about it.  (And no worries, Kaleb brought them with him when he arrived for game #2.)

"Smile if you ate too much!"

Ben drew chair number one and picked Geonosis for our playing surface.  Everyone else grabbed their respective characters and we were off and running with the Duel.

Out of the gate the light side stayed strong with each other and the dark side did the same.  But, a couple of rounds later, Chris decided the grass might be greener on the other side and had his Darth Maul flip to the light!  The dark side were quite cranky about it and wasted no time going after him.  A big blow was delivered when JD's Boba Fett sent a Thermal Detonator into the crowd the wiped out half of the Clone Troopers, who were looking quite good in their newly painted uniforms.  But the lane Boba used also left Grant's Count Dooku exposed for attacks.  If Rob/Anakin and Ben/Mace could each roll a four, it would be game over for Grant.  However, neither did, so Ben flipped to the dark side!

That's Alex's "I don't have the Bowcaster" face.

Ben's defection was a gut punch for the light, I've never seen Curtis (Obi-Wan) look so disgusted.  It also spelled certain doom for Chris, whose Darth Maul finally died in last thanks to a Throw Debris from Riley's Darth Vader.

But the light side had a couple of tricks up their sleeves.  Curtis sent Obi-Wan deep into enemy territory to drop a Force Control.  They were able to pull Kat's Emperor Palpatine into a light side kill box.  They offered Kat the chance to flip but everyone knows Kat never plays the turncoat.  She started getting jacked up but the dark side rallied by focusing on Alex's Han Solo.  Both Fetts (JD/Boba and Ian/Jango) unloaded on Han and Chewey but failed to land the kill shot.  That left Chewbacca in position to launch the Bowcaster on Boba...except he didn't have it.  Kat finished him off in eleventh with a blast of Force Lightning.

Kat couldn't deny her own fate after that.  Courtney used a Yoda Clone Trooper to force Kat into tenth place.  Nobody likes dying to a minor character who doesn't even have a proper name. 

An interesting twist occurred right around this time.  Ben's Mace, who had flipped over to the dark side early in the game, wandered over to the light side and assumed a position on the board that seemed to indicate he had flipped back.  He stood next to Rob's Anakin, who was badly damaged, so Rob had to accept this unexpected turn of events.  But just a couple of turns later Ben revealed his true intentions - to attack Joel's Luke Skywalker!  Joel seethed after JD kicked him out with a Rocket Retreat in ninth.

These new bases are sweet!

Curtis, meanwhile, commenced on his own travels and ended up on the back line with the rest of the dark side alliance.  Curiously, he didn't attack, seeming to bate the dark side into attacking him.  Eventually they did, and as he moved back across the board he used one last Force Control to try and buy himself some time.  It didn't work out for him, and Riley's Vader registered another kill, this time with a Wrath.  That left Curtis in eight place.

Rob's card combination with Anakin had been a mess all night, especially when he was forced to discard one of his precious Angers.  Even though he kept following Ben around like a little lost puppy, the rest of the dark side weren't so keen to keep the godfather on the board any longer.  They chased him down to the back of the pillars and it would be his original alliance partner, Courtney/Yoda, who killed him in seventh with a 4-point attack.

Chris checks in with the final three.

With six to go the remaining Duelers realized the match had taken so long the second game should have already started.  Despite some protracted negotiations the infighting started once Rob was gone.  Ian's Jango got the short end of the stick, and he took one for the team to not fight to hard against the rationale - he was ready for the next Duel to start too.

That left five Duelers, and Riley's Darth Vader became the target.  She herself was under the weather all night and seemed to welcome the sweet oblivion when Grant's Dooku sent her there in fifth place.  The plucky May the 4th champ improved her average to 6 for her career with that finish.

Nobody was too excited to find Yoda still alive and kicking so late in the game, and thus Courtney began defending a three on one attack.  She held in there as long as she could but it was a Boba Fett Wrist Cable that ended her run.

And then there were three!  Grant/Dooku and JD/Boba were both roughed up that late in the game while Ben's Mace was nearly full-health.  That was all Grant and JD needed to see to justify joining forces against Mace.  Ben hung in there for quite a while, and even left some critical damage on Grant before succumbing to third place.

The Sweet Taste of Victory

Grant's Dooku charged at JD's Boba Fett several times but his Rocket Retreats kept Dooku at bay as he fired off distance attacks.  Dooku's health slowly drained away while Boba seemed to stay just out of reach of the Taunts.  Sensing weakness in Grant, JD pulled off two attacks on his turn, ending in a game-winning Rocket Retreat.  That win moved JD into second place in league history for wins.  Thank goodness Kaleb delivered him his trophy...

Your final order of finish:

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

This wasn't the last Duel of the night...