CL Training Duel - August 12, 2019

Emperor's Throne Room

Believe it or not, this was the SEVENTH annual CL Training Duel.  Seventh!  It also marked the kick-off of our sixth season of 12-Way Duels.  SIXTH!!!

Are you ready for more numbers?  The CL Training Duel is the 75th Duel in league history.  We've reached the 3/4 century mark!  When will this insanity stop?  NOBODY KNOWS!  And that's the beauty of all of this.  It's overgrown all expectations.  It can't be stopped!!!

Photo bombers!

This was also an important Duel because the league saw several veteran Duelers graduate this past spring.  We needed an injection of new blood!  The siren call to play a 12-Way Duel fell on five new ears, which was awesome.  Everyone was a rookie Dueler at some point in their career, and CL Training is the perfect time to dive in.  So, welcome aboard David, Christoper, Ryan, Jordan, and Noah!

Mason drew the #1 chair and picked the Emperor's Throne Room for the battleground  It was a fitting selection given the eventual outcome of the game!  #foreshadowing.  The characters were selected next and the Duelers settled in for a night of destruction and betrayal. 

She will not go quietly into the night!

Things got off to a rocky start for the dark side when the light side shooters started roughing up the front line.  Mason's Dooku flirted with going over to the light side, but instead dropped a couple of Tauntings on David's Chewbacca!  Christopher's Greedo ended up finishing off the Wookie and David's Han was in immediate trouble.

About this same time Ian/Vader and Kaleb/Emperor started distance attacks on JD's Yoda.  He was not tickled by the experience, to say the least.  In an effort to break the cycle of abuse, he attacked Ben P.'s Luke Skywalker and Force Pushed him to a dark side kill box!  Ben P. talked himself out of an immediate death by playing I Will Not Fight You on Katie's Obi-Wan. Katie's hand revealed she had the Force Balance, so Rob's Maul decided to use his hand of attacks to finish off Ben P. before losing his cards.  This marked Ben P.'s fifth Duel - he's one away from going pro!

Sure enough, Katie dumped all hands, which forced everyone to reset and start drawing anew.  As this was occurring Mason didn't think Christopher's Boba Fett was doing anything, so he Force Pushed him to the light side to stir things up.  That made Rob's Maul extra nervous, so he teamed up with Noah's Zam Wessell to eliminate Mason in eleventh. 

Not your average rookies.

Ryan F.'s Mace Windu didn't take too kindly to what JD did to Ben, so he played two attacks but was rudely rebuffed by the Rebound and a Jedi Block.  Alas, Yoda wasn't long for the world as the ranged attacks continued and JD was done in tenth.

From there, the focus turned on Katie's Obi-Wan.  Obi's starting position in the Throne Room is never favorable.  To Katie's credit, she laid a couple of big hits, including a Force Control, but got eliminated by Maul's Athletic Surge for ninth place.  David's Han Solo was next.  It was somewhat miraculous he had lasted that long, and nobody could remember such an entertaining verbal performance by a Dueler, Jordan's testy partnership with him ended after an Anger.

That left seven Duelers, and Ryan and Christopher had formed a partnership at one end of the board while the other five huddled on their half.  They began to advance slowly, but not without Mace and Boba causing some damage, including a Thermal Detonator.  It would be Kaleb's Royal Guard who broke the line, sending Boba to the sidelines with a 5-point attack.  Kudos to Christopher, though, for surviving that early Force Push.  Ryan's Mace had rolled forward and laid one attack on Rob's Maul before switching tactics and shooting at the Emperor.  Rob unloaded all of his Sith Speeds and Ryan got eliminated in sixth.

We're in the end game now.

Noah's Jango, who had previously been aligned with Rob's Maul, took a surprise attack on Maul, which really put Rob on tilt.  Kaleb didn't help when he played You Will Die on Maul.  Rob talked Noah out of continuing to shoot him and redirected the attacks on Jordan.  Well, that made Jordan cranky and he moved in on Maul.  Rob begged and pleaded and tried to paint the target on Kaleb, but Jordan wasn't having it and Rob was out in fifth.

From there Jordan and Noah started taking pot shots at each other while Vader and Emperor slowly advanced.  Pretty quickly Jordan, low carded, fell to a four point attack from Ian's Vader while Noah 's Jango got cornered and eliminated by a two point attack from Emperor.  And then there were two!

I have to say, this final two was one of the most exciting in recent memory.  Ian's Vader was low carded after a second You Will Die and began running away from a pursuing Emperor.  Just as it looked like he could be done for, Vader played Your Skills Are Not Complete and dropped both of Kaleb's Meditations!  The mouse chase reversed as Ian ran after a retreating Emperor.  Kaleb had to draw again, and AGAIN top-decked a You Will Die!  They were both heavily damaged but it would be a final Force Lightning that propelled Kaleb to victory!  That marks his fourth career victory and makes him our new, #1 ranked Dueler.  Congrats Kaleb!

FINAL ORDER OF FINISH:

12.  Ben P. - Luke Skywalker
11.  Mason - Count Dooku
10.  JD - Yoda
9.  Katie - Obi-Wan Kenobi
8.  David M. - Han Solo
7.  Christopher - Boba Fett
6.  Ryan F. - Mace Windu
5.  Rob - Darth Maul
4.  Jordan - Anakin Skywalker
3.  Noah - Jango Fett
2.  Ian - Darth Vader
1.  Kaleb - Emperor Palpatine

Stay tuned for details on the DOUBLEHEADER!  August 30 - more info soon!