Rancor Dungeon
It was mentioned during the preview but we need to mention it again here. The 2021 Thanksdueling! battle marked Alex's last Duel in the league. He's moving down to Austin and plans to start wearing a lot of ugly orange in his wardrobe. But we can't fault him for his new career opportunity - we wish you well, Alex! In his time in the league he played 33 times (tied for 11th all-time) and won six times (tied for 7th all-time). He also retires as the top ranked Dueler! For all of these reasons we inducted Alex into the Duels Hall of Fame. Congrats!!!
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| Two grown men trying not to cry. |
Ok, ok, enough with the mushy stuff. We have a Duel to recap! We were playing in the Rancor Dungeon, and Rob came with a fresh new Rancor t-shirt along with matching stickers for all the Duelers. The big intrigue, though, was who would be randomly picked for the Rancor! After entering all of the names in the random list generator, the lucky Dueler was...Evan!!! This was supposed to be his sixth/professional debut Duel, but he got the Rancor instead!!!
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| Evan wearing a Jabba shirt - he must have known! |
The rest of the Duelers took their seat, knowing Evan/Rancor couldn't join them until a character died. Surely nobody would want to do that early in the game...right?!? Wrong! To absolutely nobody's surprise, Miguel (The Emperor) just couldn't help himself. He got a Force Lightning right out of the gate, and decided to fry one of Kevin's (Maul) Battle Droids! The gate opened and The Rancor was loose! He immediately ate one of Karson's (Mace) Clone Troopers.
In one of the more ironic moments in league history, Ian (Dooku) took great offense at Miguel's shenanigans. The same Ian who did the exact same thing as Miguel at the last Thanksdueling! in the Rancor Dungeon! He, combined with an outraged Kevin (who had ever seen someone so attached to a measly Battle Droid before???) lobbied the board to go after the Emperor. Despite being in the best position on the board, Miguel had his hands full as the attacks started coming from everywhere. He retaliated by...using Force Lightning on the other Battle Droid! God bless Miguel, he was entertaining all the way to his last place finish - a kill shot of retribution from Kevin's Maul.
The rest of the board did little to stop the Rancor, so it made it's way into the center of the board and kept eating minor characters and attacking majors. On one end of the board Karson/Mace and Rylie/Grievous found themselves fully carded and needing to attack. They took out their aggression on an unlucky Juan/Beckett. Juan couldn't do anything, stuck between a Rancor and the Whirling Arms of Grievous. Poor Juan was out in 11th.
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| Behold the Rancor buffet! |
JD/Boba finally started talking sense into the rest of the Duelers, encouraging them to band together to take care of the elephant Rancor in the room. Folks complied and the Rancor started taking damage...but not before he ate two Clone Troopers, a Super Battle Droid, Lobot, and Padme! My goodness, that guy's appetite is disgusting. But after Rob's Lando got the Rancor within a point of dying, it would be Alex's Clone Trooper #1 that killed him with a one point attack. Well played, Evan!
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| Remember that time we were friends, lol?!? |
With the Rancor mercifully off the board, the next phase of the game commenced. Peach/Han and Fiona/Anakin had been whispering furiously for most of the game. A lot of folks assumed they were thick as thieves, so Ian's Count Dooku Force Pushed Han into a kill corner at the other end of the board while Rob's Lando took a shot at Anakin, followed by a Maul attack. While it looked like both of them were in trouble, only one would fall...and that was Peach! She took hits from Obi-Wan and then was shocked to see her tablemate Rylie move in to attack with Grievous! Han fell to the Whirling Arms in 10th.
Fiona went next, and she used a Wrath to get the heck out of Dodge. Some folks thought she was still the target...but then a surprise occurred! A group of Duelers had conspired to go after Ian's Dooku! Obi used a Force Control to place Ian in a custom-made kill box! It was a shocking turn of events, and Ian had no hope for survival. In what would be a theme for the night, Rylie's Grievous delivered the final blow and Ian, out of nowhere, was gone in 9th!
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| A doomed Dooku. |
JD's Boba had made it known earlier he was keen on working with Ian, but he suddenly found himself without an alliance. Rob was equally nervous, having been unaware that the hit was on for Ian. So he positioned himself near the leftover kill box and attacked Boba with an Altered the Deal, meaning he could switch places with the Fett! The lingering kill box participants thought, "eh, why not?", and roughed up JD's Boba. Alex's Clone, the same one who killed the Rancor, eliminated Boba Fett too! JD was ousted in 8th, but Boba Fett has a new series coming out on Disney+ so I think he'll be fine.
That left seven to go, and folks were getting antsy. Kaleb (Leia) casually threw out Rob's Lando, but in a surprise twist, the majority of folks remaining went after Kevin's Darth Maul! Kevin wasn't expecting it, and got caught low carded. It would be Fiona's Anakin, who once looked doomed for 10th, that landed the elimination. Kevin was gone in 7th.
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| Of course we didn't forget to take a group pic! |
Once it was down to six Duelers, some folks were back to being fully carded, and Rylie's Grievous decided it was Anakin's turn to walk the plank. Fiona was outraged but funny about it. She didn't last long, and using a MagnaGuard, Rylie had yet ANOTHER kill! Congrats to Fiona, who has played before but never in person. Top six!
Immediately after Fiona's exit it was Rob's turn, and the board waited to see what he proposed. A grown man wearing a cape should never be the leader in that type of situation, but alas, that was the predicament. After some deliberation, Rob's Lando attacked Karson's Mace, noting he still hadn't used his Whirlwinds and he was at full health. Karson went on the defensive, but his hand was unluckily weak so he had to retreat. This had the unfortunate effect of making him look vulnerable. Other Duelers started to attack him too. Despite his best efforts, Karson had to bow out when - GUESS WHO - a Grievous MagnaGuard took him out in 5th. (On a side note, Rylie looked like a Duels hustler with her hat pulled low and her eerily silent demeanor all night!)
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| Final Four Focus |
And then there were four! Rather than stick with his fellow shooter, Kaleb proved the only things certain in life are death, taxes, and Rob and Kaleb not working together at the end of a Duel. He decided to use Wicket's Whirling Rocks...but rolled a 2-all! That means they hit Wicket instead of Lando, hahahaha! Thought it was temporarily three against one, Rob warned Alex's Obi that he would likely land in third without Lando at his side, so it turned into a Rob/Alex vs. Kaleb/Rylie battle. This went on for quite a while before Alex played Force Balanced and dumped everyone's hand. Not long after a badly injured Lando once again faced Whirling Rocks, but this time the Ewok's coordination was better and Rob got concussed in 4th.
Meanwhile, Alex's Obi and Rylie's Grievous were trading blows. They were both weak and starting to turn their attention against Kaleb's Princess Leia. Kaleb sprung into action and eliminated Rylie's Grievous in 3rd place with a You're Going to Regret This attack. Alex was also badly wounded and now risked an automatic death if Kaleb defended with an I Know card. But Obi had his two best attack cards in his hand, so he risked the homerun swing. Alas...Kaleb had I Know, and Alex, in his last Duel, finished second, eliminated by his BFF and fellow Duel Hall of Famer Kaleb! Well done to both of them, but especially Kaleb who came out of retirement to pad his resume! This also marks the first character win for Princess Leia.
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| Who invited this guy??? |
Let's see that final order of finish one more time:
12. Miguel/Emperor
11. Juan/Beckett
10. Peah/Han
9. Ian/Dooku
8. JD/Boba
7. Kevin/Maul
6. Fiona/Anakin
5. Karson/Mace
4. Rob/Lando
3. Rylie/Grievous
2. Alex/Obi
1. Kaleb/Leia
The December Duel is the 2021 Championship! This is a special invite Duel and the biggest Duel of the year! Any Dueler who won a game in 2021 gets an automatic bid, and the remaining slots will be filled by the top ranked Duelers. And now that we have 24 characters, we're doing the same for them! Characters who won in 2021 will be used in the Championship. Rob will contact those who qualified, but it looks like Saturday, December 4th, will be the date for the best and toughest Duel of 2021!!!
