Preview: The Doubleheader - August 29, 2026

As we are fond of saying in these parts...the only thing better than a 12-way Duel is TWO 12-way Duels!  It's the end of August and the best way to celebrate the start of another school year is two tries at stabbing people in the back and pew-pewing your way past eleven other Duelers.  This is our 13th (!) annual Doubleheader - it's a baker's dozen, baby!

We'll be playing on the Kamino Platform and the ever-changing Death Star board on Saturday!

HISTORY OF THE DOUBLEHEADER:

2025 Game #1 - Curtis won with the Clone Commandos in the Rancor Dungeon

2025 Game #2 - Rob won with Emperor Palpatine in the Naboo Reactor Pit

2024 Game #1 - Justin won with Rey in Ewok Village

2024 Game #2 - Alex G. won with Darth Maul in the Trash Compactor

2023 Game #1 - Ian won with Jango Fett in the Narkina 5 Imperial Prison

2023 Game #2 - Rob won with Yoda on the Conveyex Train

2022 Game #1 - Rob won with Count Dooku in the Trash Compactor

2022 Game #2 - Riley E. won with Darth Vader in the Naboo Reactor Pit

2021 Game #1 - JD M. won with General Grievous in the Trash Compactor

2021 Game #2 - Curtis won with Anakin Skywalker in the Ewok Village

2020 Game #1 - Stephen won with Darth Vader in the Geonosis Arena

2020 Game #2 - Ben won with Anakin Skywalker on the Kamino Platform

2019 Game #1 - Alex C. and Yoda won on the Kamino Platform
2019 Game #2 - Rob and Emperor Palpatine won in the Emperor's Throne Room

2018 Game #1 - Alex C. and Darth Vader won in the Emperor's Throne Room
2018 Game #2 - Joel and Darth Maul won on the Kamino Platform

2017 Game #1 - Rob and Jango Fett won on the Kamino Platform
2017 Game #2 - Nathan and Jango Fett won in the Emperor's Throne Room

2016 Game #1 - Grant and Count Dooku won on the Kamino Platform
2016 Game #2 - Stephen and Jango Fett won in the Emperor's Throne Room

2015 Game #1 - Ryan and Jango Fett won in the Geonosis Arena
2015 Game #2 - Grant and Yoda won in the Emperor's Throne Room

2014 Game #1 - Alex R. and Darth Maul won on the Kamino Platform
2014 Game #2 - Curtis and Yoda won in the Geonisis Arena

MEET THE DUELERS:

There's a whole mess of folks swinging by Rob's house to play - here they are and which games they're joining:

CJ (game 2) - the third sister (Reva?) will grace us with her presence for game two, and by that we mean she will be ruthless, cold, and calculating.  And with her new haircut she's even edgier!

Curtis (games 1 & 2) - Curtis currently holds one of the Doubleheader trophies and would love to return it to his office.  Anything would be better than his last place at the Twin Sun Slam.

Eric (games 1 & 2) - Eric arrives at the Doubleheader coming off the improbable but impressive CL Training win with double minor characters Migs and Q9-0!

Ian (games 1 & 2) - with the parity in the league right now (no repeat winners in 2026), Ian is ranked second in the league but is in actual jeopardy of missing the championship without a win!

James (games 1 & 2) - the Teal mafia is stuck at a retreat on Saturday, but they've sent alum James to represent them at the table in their stead.  

Jonah (game 1) - this is Jonah's first action since his disastrous 11th place finish with the KX Security Droid back at the May the 4th Duel.

Junior (games 1 & 2) - it's been a yoyo year for Junior in 2026, as he's gone from 5th to 10th to 3rd to 9th over his last four Duels.

Karis (game 1) - new Dueler alert!!!  This will mark Karis' first career 12-way, but she already impressed us at the singles tournament, where she made it to the sweet 16!

Mason (games 1 & 2) - Mason made his debut at the CL Training Duel, finishing a respectable sixth place with K-2SO.

Michael (game 2) - the wise and friendly chaplain has finished in the top four of two of the last three Duels he's played.  He'd love career win number two, though!

Miles O. (games 1 & 2) - the current rookie of the year for 2026 won his first career Duel at the Twin Suns Slam in June and turns pro in the second game of the Doubleheader!

Riley (games 1 & 2) - first year student Riley was told she couldn't return to the outer rim of Robinson until October, so we're not sure how she's smuggling herself to the Duel...

Rob (games 1 & 2) - he enters the Doubleheader off a second place finish with Kylo Ren at the CL Training Duel and defending a trophy.  The word on the street is he's making even more new decks!

Sam (games 1 & 2) - one of the great alums of the league, and the funniest Dueler in history, is back to play the game!  He'd love to record career win number one while he's here.

MEET THE CHARACTERS - GAME ONE:

MEET THE CHARACTERS - GAME TWO:

Those are some crazy looking lineups!  The first game starts at 3PM, the second at 7PM.  PEW PEW!!!

CL Training Duel - August 10, 2026

Carbon Freezing Chamber (Dagobah)

Here we go Dueling fans - season THIRTEEN is underway!!!  The 12-way league calendar always starts with the CL Training retreat, and this year was no different.  13!?!

You can see Rob off the reflection of the glass!

We had a good mix of new and returning Duelers to start the evening - that's crucial at the CL Training Duel!  And folks didn't take too long to start mixing it up either.  After Alex/Saw Gerrera subtly moved from the light side to the dark, and Mason/K-2SO played Switzerland, the remaining light side started taking damage.  Yoyo/Krennic was the first to let the lasers start flying.  Shang, not a newbie to Dueling but playing his first 12-way, became the early target.  Emmanuel's Ponda Baba got the kill shot and Shang and Sol were out first!

The light side was in complete disarray.  Mark, playing with Chirut and Baze, tried to flip to the other side too.  But Rob had ten cards and a Knight of Ren ready to start swinging.  The dark side followed suit and Junior went into self-preservation mode by knocking out his own alliance partner!  On the plus side, Mark hasn't snapped a hamstring yet.

A drowning Dueler will climb over his alliance to survive!

Alex used an 8 point attack on David's Chewbacca...who was out of defense cards!  The wookie was eliminated and that left his Han Solo exposed.  Junior/Kit Fisto kept clawing his way up the death order by attacking and eliminating his second alliance partner!  David was out in tenth, but this did serve as his sixth Duel, meaning he's turned professional.  Congrats, David!

Time finally ran out for Junior.  Mason was keeping a low profile but Kit Fisto was there for an easy elimination.  One 4-point K-2SO shot later and Junior was retired in ninth.

Tealthica

Rob/Kylo Ren could sense early in the game that the four members from Teal would likely work together deep into the match.  Sure enough, Nayshaun/Grand Moff Tarkin initiated an attack against Kylo!  But the sequels-Sith was ready and returned fire with a Force Choke.  That left Tarkin weak on health, and Mason used a Sarcastic Kick to "boot" Nayshaun from the game!

Meanwhile, on another area of the board, Kaizer/Reva and Yoyo/Krennic started to tussle.  Yoyo was aggressive with her cards earlier in the game and was left a bit short on options, especially as Kaizer was using all of Reva's big attacks.  He finally eliminated Yoyo in seventh, but there was no question Yoyo made a big impression in the game!

The doctor writing prescriptions...

The pace of play was great all night (we finished before 12AM!) and before we knew it we were down to six Duelers.  Folks were worried about K-2SO and maneuvered to vacate him next.  Kaizer's Reva once again dropped a 5-point attack to eject Mason from the game.  Kaizer's graveyard for the game was scary!

Rob/Kylo and Eric/Migs & Q9-O could sense the Teal alliance was definitely still a thing, so Kylo swooped in and started swinging at Reva.  She got down to three points of health, but her minors were still on the board so she couldn't heal.  One turn later Kylo used Force Choke and Kaizer's reign of terror was finally over.  What a debut for the rookie, though!

Lies?  Deception?

Rob wasn't keen on the two shooters left on the board (Eric and Emmanuel's Dr. Evazan) as the only blade still standing, so he tried to form an alliance with Alex/Saw.  Alex was initially receptive to that, but then used a Boom! to damage Kylo and his last Knight of Ren.  Rob used a Force Leap to move in and attack Saw!!  Alex made a great last stand but was unable to defend against Kylo and the remaining shooters.  Rob's Force Dyad parked Alex in fourth.  Alex has played well in 2026!

Rob hoped Emmanuel's insane run with Dr. Evazan might include a partnership against Eric, who still had both Migs and Q9-O on the board, but you can't trust anyone with a doctorate in this game (wait a minute...) so Rob dropped the Mos Eisley bully with his 12-point attack!  Emmanuel was gobsmacked by the point value, just as the rest of the table was with his amazing rookie debut!  Congrats to Emmanuel on third place!

Goodluck handshakes at final two!

Smoking Dr. Evazan looked cool, but Rob/Kylo were in real trouble.  Both of Eric's double-minor characters were at full health, standing on either end of a flat map and able to shoot with ease.  Rob did his best to isolate his attacks on Migs, but both shooters kept bobbing and weaving.  Eric was flawless and Rob was drawing nothing but minor cards after the shuffle.  Migs put the final laser into Kylo for the win!!!  Congrats to Eric, this was his first career victory in a 12-way!!!  This also marked the first career win for Migs and Q9-O!!!

Final order of finish:

12.  Shang/Sol

11.  Mark/Baze

10.  David M./Han

9.  Junior/Kit Fisto

8.  Nayshaun (CLMentoress)/Tarkin

7.  Yoyo/Krennic

6.  Mason B/K-2SO

5.  Kaizer/Reva

4.  Alex/Saw

3.  Emmanuel/Dr. Evazan

2.  Rob/Kylo

1.  Eric/Migs and Q9-O

That was a fantastic kickoff to the new year of Dueling!!!  Congrats again to Eric - what a great win.  Our next Duel is actually TWO Duels - THE DOUBLEHEADER!  We'll play twice in one day.  We have a *tentative* date of Saturday, August 29, set for that, but Rob will circle back with more details soon.

Until then...PEW PEW!

  

The Singles Tournament - July 26, 2026

 

Sorry for the delayed post!  But back a couple of Sundays ago we threw down for the annual summer Singles Tournament!  And for the first time ever - we expanded the character options to 64, meaning each character could only be chosen twice for the entire tournament.

It was an unpredictable day!  Only two of the original 12 characters even made it to the sweet 16 (Anakin and Mace), and by the time we got to the final four JD/Jabba, Riley/Rey, Curtis/Ahsoka, and Duncan/Princess Leia were the last four standing

But at the end of the night it was Riley and Rey who emerged victorious!  Riley is about to depart for Iowa, so what a way to wrap up his Dueling career...especially after he lost his first three matches of the day!!!  Click below for more pictures and the final brackets!