Kamino Platform
Have you ever listened to "Duel of the Fates", on repeat, for five-plus hours? If so, did it melt your brain? Were your nerves shot? Or did you fall into a sort of Stockholm-syndrome scenario and decide you're going to keep listening to it the next day, like Sam said he would do last night? If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is a good chance you have played in a DUEL OF THE FATES match before!
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| Rob hadn't pushed play yet on Duel of the Fates |
Things got feisty right out of the gate when Rob's Boba Fett decided to attack Ian/Darth Maul's Battle Droid and Rocket Retreat to flip to the light side! But the dark side countered by accepting Eric/Ahoska into their midst! Unfortunately, the dark side didn't close up their ranks well, and that left Eric exposed to multiple diagonal shots. Grant's Fennec Shand moved in to make the final kill shot, and poor Eric, who had the worst starting spot on Kamino, was quickly out in last.
Grant's bravery was rewarded with evil justice by the dark side. James/Moff Gideon kidnapped Fennec into a dark side kill box! Grant nearly survived in time to use a movement card to escape, especially with some well-timed Body Mods, but Curtis moved in his Kelnacca (Possessed) to deliver a five-point death blow. That wasn't the evening Grant had planned, that's for sure.
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| Put respect on Jar Jar's name! |
It's been a minute since we've had two Duelers offed in under an hour! But that also meant it was still a 5v5 scenario. A lot of minor characters were eliminated by both sides, but things ground to a halt when the dark side made sure they weren't bunched for a potential Thermal Detonator from Rob's Boba Fett. Without a lot of options, Rob tried a high-risk move in the league - the double flip! He Thermaled a cluster of light side characters in his alliance, and then Rocket Retreated back to the dark side!
In the ensuing chaos, Sam/Mace aligned with Ian's Maul and began attacking the light side too. Josiah's Anakin took the brunt of that betrayal, and his Anakin was soon eliminated in tenth, but not before he Wrathed over to put a final shot on Rob's Boba!
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| The only living being in the room unaffected by the "Duel of the Fates" on repeat... |
Michael's Qui-Gon Jinn and Jonah's Bo-Katan were now essentially free agents. Jonah managed to escape to the back of the board but Qui-Gon got surrounded. He held on for a couple of rounds, but he eventually got down to his last health point, and was unceremoniously dumped in ninth by a one-point blaster attack from Sam's Clone Trooper. Gross!
Rob tried to play the prodigal's son when he jumped back to the dark side, but Curtis' MOTHER Koril was uninterested in that reunion, despite Rob's pleas. He led the charge against Boba, though it was Rob's arch-nemesis Jordann/General Grievous who made the final attack. Rob was gone in eighth.
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| Who's next? |
Folks assumed Jonah's Bo-Katan would be the next target, but he was on the far end of the board. Ian/Maul and Sam/Mace started making their way down there, but Ian got nervous about what happened next. He demanded a secondary target be the focus of the other Duelers on the board, and he surprisingly named James' Moff Gideon! The dark side alliance was now fractured, but the others obliged. Curtis/Koril tried to eliminate him with The Thread, but in a super cool move, James used Light Armor to deflect the damage to his minor! Alas, the next attack landed, and Moff Gideon was eliminated in seventh.
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| Star Wars sportswear |
Jonah made strong pitches to go against other, stronger characters still on the board, but his reasoning fell on deaf ears. That might have been because everyone's ears were bleeding from Duel of the Fates on repeat. Regardless, Bo-Katan chose to go down swinging! She stabbed Ian's Maul with the Vibroblade, doing six points of damage, but Maul used Blinding Surge to rebound points of damage back to Jonah, ending his night in sixth. Sam swore those cards were just made-up words.
Tell me if you've heard this before...Curtis became the target with five Duelers left! People were pretty freaked out by Koril's Vanishing powers, and both of Curtis' characters were at full health. Though he did manage to disappear for a round, he couldn't escape his fate. Ian/Maul used a run of Maul attacks and Curtis donned his fifth place title once again.
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| Final Four weekend? |
And then there were four! Ian/Maul was definitely calling the shots, with Sam/Mace more or less riding shotgun. Jordann/Grievous grew concerned about Maul, but even Caden/Beckett was worried about General Grievous. Though it seemed the three Duelers who had never won before could have eliminated Ian, the odd person out became Jordann! The number one Dueler in the league played strong all night, but nobody can withstand a three-person attack. Sam used a big Battlemind to knock Grievous out in fourth.
Things got even more frenzied with three left. There were a lot of proposals for 2 against 1, multiple handshakes, Double Blasters, and so forth. When the dust settled, Ian gave his (final) word to Caden, and chopped Sam/Mace down in third! That's right, Sam was betrayed by his favorite Dueler. He has the text chain to prove it.
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| Oh Caden... |
When Caden had used an Improvise a couple of actions earlier, it was all but guaranteed Tobias Beckett was going to win back to back Duels. Caden was full health while Ian was near death. In fact, Caden got Maul down to his last two points of health. All he needed was a final attack card to finish him off. There were 13 cards left in his deck. No problem, right Caden?
Caden? Why are you still drawing cards? Caden, no seriously, stop drawing cards and finish off Ian. What is happening Caden???
In what can only be described as the worst deck luck in the history of the league, 12 of the final 13 cards in Caden's deck were Val cards - his destroyed minor character!!! Ian was even rolling terribly, giving Caden extra time to find ANY card to finish Maul off. BUT THEY WEREN'T THERE!!! BRUTAL!!!! Ian finally reached Tobias Beckett and played two Athletic Surges - all Caden had were 10 Val cards to defend! IAN WON WITH DARTH MAUL IN THE ZANIEST COME FROM BEHIND WIN in recent memory. My goodness!!! That win also marked Ian's FIFTH victory with Darth Maul!!! That's the most wins ever for a Dueler with a single character in this league!
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| They kinda look like twins...? |
Final order of finish:
12. Eric/Ahsoka
11. Grant/Fennec
10. Josiah/Anakin
9. Michael/Qui-Gon
8. Rob/Boba Fett
7. James/Moff Gideon
6. Jonah/Bo-Katan
5. Curtis/Mother Koril
4. Jordann/Grievous
3. Sam/Mace
2. Caden/Beckett
1. Ian/Darth freakin' Maul! FIVE TIMES!
I still can't get over how crazy that ending was! Congrats to Ian - truly remarkable.
Our last Duel of the academic year (!!!) will likely go down on Sunday afternoon at 2PM...on May 4th! That's right - we always try our best to play the MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU Duel on the actual day. If you know this will be your last Duel in the league because you're graduating, etc., let me know now and I'll save you a seat!
