Naboo Reactor Pit
It sure was exciting to play in person again at Rob's house. This was the first Duel at the Godfather's abode since COVID started, and the Twin Sun Slam also marked the one year anniversary of playing in person again. These moments we used to take for granted feel so much sweeter now!
It was also exciting to be playing a doubleheader for the Twin Sun Slam too. It was the first time since 2019 we managed to acknowledge both balls of fire which Tatooine orbits. How exactly does that work, anyway? Any astrophysicists in the house?
And maybe the most exciting component of the first Twin Sun Slam of the day was, for the first time in Duels history...we played an all-light side Duel! With the new characters (13 light, 13 dark), we have more than enough to do it. We also picked characters via draft for the first time, with the caveat being the person with the first pick got the last board placement, etc. Here's how the draft went:
1. Lawson - Fennec Shand
2. Ian - Rey
3. Kat - Anakin Skywalker
4. Rob - Yoda
5. Miles - Mace Windu
6. Karson - Princess Leia
7. Duncan - Qui-Gon Jinn
8. Jillian - Obi-Wan Kenobi
9. Elliot - Lando Calrissian
10. Grant D. - Jyn Erso
11. JD M. - Luke Skywalker
12. Riley - The Mandalorian
Not Picked - Han Solo (Grant...how could you???)
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| Duncan is already thinking about the burgers. |
Once the characters were picked, the spots on the board were filled and we were off and running! The afternoon Duel was short on Duelers, so Grant stepped up by bringing three of his kids. Don't think these three were mere cannon fodder, as all of them have played in the Singles Tournament. They came to play! Unfortunately for Lawson, though, his starting position was brutal after his first overall pick of Fennec Shand. As enticing as it is to play the new character, he wasn't set up to defend himself well, and he was quickly taking hits from behind and the main reactor room. It would be Karson's Princess Leia that landed the final shot, and poor Lawson got stuck posing with the Golden Jar Jar in his first Duel.
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| No worries, Lawson. The Loser's Lounge recently upgraded to Disney+. Enjoy Star Wars cinema! |
Historically the main reactor room Duelers try to shoot down the hallway with the laser shields on the Naboo board. This game, however, saw each side move to the sides like an awkward 8th grade school dance. The infighting started up, and though it looked like Karson's Princess Leia might be an early target, especially after Riley's Mandalorian blasted him with Disintegration! But Grant's Jyn didn't like the backstab, and soon it would be Riley, not Karson, bowing out in 11th. This is NOT the way.
Meanwhile, in the laser wall rooms on the other end of the board, the infighting had begun. The conflict was especially heavy between siblings Jillian/Obi-Wan and Miles/Mace. That's when Jillian proposed using a Force Control to put Miles in a kill box right next to Ian's Rey. Nobody could recall Ian ever smiling with a bigger Cheshire grin than at that moment. He was practically salivating! We managed to get a picture of it, as you can see below! Miles soon found himself surrounded by four Duelers, and it was an ignominious 2-point attack from Duncan's Jar Jar that put him away in 10th.
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| Three very distinct emotions happening right here! |
Not long after that Ian's Rey decided to go bold into the reactor room to take on Kat's Anakin Skywalker. At the same time, JD's Luke Skywalker moved in the opposite direction, dropping two I Will Not Fight You's on Kat and Grant/Jyn. It was a stunning turn of events, as the reactor room side of the board was in total collapse. Elliot/Lando and Karson/Leia agreed to turn on their own alliance. The walls turning on and off with great regularity (especially when Rob's Yoda ever tried to move out of the back compartment) merely delayed the inevitable. Rob's Yoda gave a somewhat friendly Force Push to Duncan's Qui-Gon to join the fray since he was fully carded and couldn't get there himself. Duncan would indeed take down Kat with a 7-point Prophecy. Grant didn't last too much longer, though he proved how tricky Jyn Erso is to pin down. Ian's Finn finally shot him into 8th. Grant and his sons had a rough go, but his daughter was still in the thick of it!
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| Walls up! |
It was down to the final seven Duelers, and the walls were going up and down so frequently it was hard to maintain long term strategies. Karson's Leia had been loyal since the flip, but the searing effects of the Disintegration had kept him low health, and at the encouragement from others, Jillian's Obi moved in for the kill. Karson used I Know to defend with auto-damage, but Ian generously used Jedi Healing to negate Obi's lost health points. Ironically, it was JD's minor Leia who shot major Leia off the board in 7th.
Rob's Yoda was still stuck in the laser rooms, and he had taken half-hearted attacks at Elliot's Lando and JD's Luke, mostly because he was fully carded. But JD and Elliot ultimately decided to lock horns against each other, and really started laying the hits on each other. Around the same time, Ian made a declaration that he thought the board should go after Rob's Yoda. But Duncan's Qui-Gon was playing very conservatively, so Rob kept giving Ian the "are you really going to let him get away with that?" eyes, and Ian finally relented, switching the target to Qui-Gon. Elliot's Lando headed in to help on that, leaving a low-health JD next to Rob. Rob dispatched Luke in 6th to make it five Duelers to go.
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| The sooner we finish, the sooner we eat! |
Duncan's Qui-Gon went on a Quixotic quest to redraw There's Always a Bigger Fish, but it was to no avail. After a tough final stand, Ian's Rey chopped him down in 5th place. From there Ian suggested the half-damaged Obi-Wan (Jillian) and mostly healthy Lando (Elliot) join him against Rob's Yoda. Rob was peeved, thinking he and Ian/Rey should partner to eliminate the other two. Jillian knew, however, that Rob's Yoda had yet to play Force Rebound, and she couldn't yet risk auto-damage coming back to her, especially with her Clone Trooper still alive. When Ian wouldn't partner with Rob, Rob talked Jillian into helping him go against Ian. Elliot basically went along with that, assuming Jillian would join him against Rob/Yoda after that. Ian was chagrinned by the turn of events, but went out in 4th place all the same.
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| Obi at the end in Reactor Room...feels familiar... |
Elliot/Lando and Jillian/Obi did indeed pair together to go after Rob, while Ian and Grant started grilling the burgers on the back porch. Rob tried his best to sustain a two-front defense, but eventually died when Lando hit him with a 3-point attack. Rob loves Yoda, and always will.
And then there were two! And two who had never won before! NEW WINNER ALERT!!! Jillian was holding on despite all the damage, but Lando is hard to beat one on one. Jillian evened the odds with a Force Balance. Despite that, Elliot stayed aggressive and had Obi down to one point of health. But Jillian pulled through with a Force Attack to win...in her very first 12-Way Duel!!! That hadn't been done since the second game in league history (Curtis)!!! That's a span of 113 Duels!!! CONGRATS JILLIAN!!! She became the second youngest Dueler to ever win. She also played Obi-Wan into the final four at the last Singles Tournament. What a pair!
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| Historic performance! |
Let's give a shoutout to Elliot, too! He was SO CLOSE to his first win, tying a career-best finish in second place. The final order of finish:
12. Lawson/Fennec
11. Riley/Mando
10. Miles/Mace
9. Kat/Ani
8. Grant/Jyn
7. Karson/Leia
6. JD/Luke
5. Duncan/Qui-Gon
4. Ian/Rey
3. Rob/Yoda
2. Elliot/Lando
1. Jillian/Obi-Wan
Ok, time for a dinner break...we'll be back for game 2 in the next post!
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