Duel2.Com  
•   Home  •  Rules  •  Your Account  •  Forums  • Newsletters  •
Navigate
· Home
· Content
· Encyclopedia
· Forums
· Members List
· Newsletters
· Old Newsletters
· Private Messages
· Setup
· Tourneys
· Your Account
User Info
Welcome, Anonymous
Nickname
Password
(Register)
Membership:
Latest: WasbytheGreat
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 104523

People Online:
Visitors:
Members:
Total: 0
Duel2.Com: Forums

Duel2 :: View topic - 2014 Spring Tourney
 Forum FAQ  •  Search  •  Memberlist  •  Usergroups   •  Register  •  Profile  •  Log in to check your private messages  •  Log in

 
Post new topicReply to topic
View previous topic Log in to check your private messages View next topic
Author Message
Longshot
Grandmaster Poster
Grandmaster Poster


Joined: Sep 30, 2012
Posts: 934
Location: Vancouver, BC

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 2:12 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Any news, predictions, or rumours?
View user's profileSend private message
Degralor
Expert Poster
Expert Poster


Joined: Sep 03, 2013
Posts: 56

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:38 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Rumor has it, that my prediction for winning, is bad news. Sad
View user's profileSend private message
Khorvinus
Advanced Master Poster
Advanced Master Poster


Joined: Apr 11, 2011
Posts: 393

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:50 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

More than likely the tourney is still running at the moment. So the most you would get is probably how many ran in each bracket.

_________________
Show me someone that has never failed, and i'll show you someone who has never attempted to accomplish anything.
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
Longshot
Grandmaster Poster
Grandmaster Poster


Joined: Sep 30, 2012
Posts: 934
Location: Vancouver, BC

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 7:57 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

True, but we can still have predictions.
View user's profileSend private message
Grimm
ArchMaster Poster
ArchMaster Poster


Joined: Sep 13, 2006
Posts: 1020

PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 10:49 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Manager is the true disciple of predictions; but I tend to like to write mine down to see how I do in analyzing this game. This prize is a good one, people who have some prize ponies are stuck debating between April and July. For many April is the TC they choose to shoot for...

So here we go, following a style similar to manager

Primus
Winner TMM (Tyrant); RU TUM; Sleeper Chief

Contenders
Winner Anarchist; RU TMM; Sleeper Marma Duke

Eligibles
Winner OAB; RU Mannequin; Sleeper Khisanth

ADM
Winner TMM; RU Khisanth; Sleeper OAB

Freshmen
Winner TMM; RU OAB; Sleeper Marma Duke

Challengers
Winner TMM; RU Assur; Sleeper Mgr

Champions
Winner TDO; RU Khisanth; Sleeper Howling Wolf

Adepts
Winner Assur; RU TDO; Sleeper OAB

Inits
Winner TDO; RU Grimm; Sleeper Chuck

Apps and Rooks are too hard to predict anything.

_________________
Willy hears ya, Willy don't care.
View user's profileSend private message
Khorvinus
Advanced Master Poster
Advanced Master Poster


Joined: Apr 11, 2011
Posts: 393

PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 5:25 am Reply with quoteBack to top

My apologies, was thinking spoilers when I read this originally.....

_________________
Show me someone that has never failed, and i'll show you someone who has never attempted to accomplish anything.
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
Khorvinus
Advanced Master Poster
Advanced Master Poster


Joined: Apr 11, 2011
Posts: 393

PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 5:28 am Reply with quoteBack to top

I will say that in rookies, that I will predict that a scummy TP will either win or RU. Not necessarily because I have a couple going in, but apparently there are quite a few being ran.

_________________
Show me someone that has never failed, and i'll show you someone who has never attempted to accomplish anything.
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
Stik
ArchMaster Poster
ArchMaster Poster


Joined: May 06, 2003
Posts: 2514
Location: Frozen Tundra of North Dakota

PostPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:04 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Well, this thing should be all wrapped up by now....anybody got spoilers/hints/teasers or late predictions??

My prediction? I will not TC. That's a pretty safe one! Crying or Very sad Wink

_________________
Stik
Grim Fandango (21)
Vicious Delite (33)
View user's profileSend private message
gentleben
ArchMaster Poster
ArchMaster Poster


Joined: Aug 21, 2008
Posts: 4015
Location: Round Rock, Tx

PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 1:10 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

I predict that I will get my first TC and my second TV.......KOB can KM@ Twisted Evil

_________________
Gentleben
Ben's Bazaar-21
Caress of Steel-28
Secret Squirrels-32
He Be GBs-33
Time Stallyans-45
Pawn of Prophecy-47
Primal Instinct-81
Misfit Managers-1,2,3,4,18,25,29
View user's profileSend private message
LHI
Site Admin
Site Admin


Joined: Jun 20, 2002
Posts: 1344

PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:00 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

It sure is quiet in here...

_________________
More TCs please!
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's websiteAIM AddressICQ Number
Longshot
Grandmaster Poster
Grandmaster Poster


Joined: Sep 30, 2012
Posts: 934
Location: Vancouver, BC

PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:24 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

I am with you LHI. IT is too quiet. I was sure we'd hear some rumours by now.
View user's profileSend private message
One Armed Bandit
ArchMaster Poster
ArchMaster Poster


Joined: Apr 15, 2004
Posts: 2953

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:08 am Reply with quoteBack to top

I guess its not the thing to do any longer, posting reports about your tourney. But I'll go ahead and do it anyway. First, the numbers:

Entries: 50
by style: 9 AB, 6 BA, 6 LU, 3 PL, 2 PR, 1 PS, 6 SL, 9 ST, 4 WS, 4 TP
by class: 1 Primus, 3 Contenders, 2 Eligibles, 2 ADM, 4 Freshmen, 1 Challenger, 5 Champions, 5 Adepts, 6 Initiates, 6 Apprentices, 15 Rookies

Overall record: 212-140-3-7 (60% win/loss)
in skill based classes (Primus-Challengers): 111-34-1-1 (76.5% win/loss)
in FE based classes (Champions-Rookies): 101-106-2-6 (49% win/loss)

It seems pretty clear where my strengths lie.

Primus: Uneventful. Ran my one maxed warrior, a SL. He fought 4 ABs and lost using LO/LG. Did lots of parrying, though. Back to the drawing board. Fought Harmony, a great PL, in round 5 and picked up his only win.

Contenders: Also uneventful. Entered three warriors of three different styles who were close to the top of the class, but not quite there yet. Results were 5-3, 5-3 and 3-3. Not terrible, but nothing to write home about.

Eligibles: I entered two warriors in the class. My TC hopeful was a knacky natural Fist AB (Cannibal Cook, formerly Prisoner 485) who has TC'd Inits and Challengers, and TV'd four other times. I knew he was right at the line, because he was classed Contenders with 203 skills after his ADM TV, and after remaining inactive for a year or two, he finally dropped back down to Eligibles. He didn't have a ton of room to bust, but he had a little explosiveness left in him. He learned gateway skills in the Primus arena for the three turns leading up to the tourney, picking up 9 skills (2 Att among them), and then trained his DF=20(3) for the entire tourney. He picked up the big DF train to 21 in the early rounds, but he just didn't have *it* this tourney. He took losses to three excellent sandbaggers and exited the tourney at 6-3, picking up a DF train to 22 in the final fight.

My other entry was supposed to be Cannibal Cook's wingman. Shewish Whaler began life as an 11-5-19-15-19-4-11 LU. He was a regular arena warrior from one of my first two teams, in DM-18, that I had found a use for in ADM. He picked up one Freshmen TV while passing through that class, and was an ADM sandbagger for a while, picking up three low end TVs there. I did eventually bust his WL and hit a few other breakpoints, but he never did better than 9-3 in those classes. Still, he was a sentimental favorite of mine, so when I saw that I could train his ST and pick up Unearthly damage in Eligibles, I figured "why not?" He ran in January in Eligibles and picked up Unearthly in the 1st or 2nd round of the tourney, but that didn't keep him from going 1-3. I sure as heck wasn't going to run him for eternity in Eligibles going 1-3 each time, so I decided to push him over the line along with Cannibal Cook. Three turns of gateway skills and a few final trains during the tourney got him up to 227 total skills for his Eligibles run, looking like 25(14)-10(5)-19-17(2)-25(6)-7(3)-17(6). He had a few other things going for him, like a good learning curve, a good favorite weapon (LO), and a +4 Def to help mitigate his giant stature.

For everything that went wrong with Cannibal Cook's Eligibles run, it went twice as right for Shewish Whaler. Only three opponents hit him. The Big Cat in round 1 and Blood Pie in round 11 each got in one hit before a dodge, a riposte, and an unearthly damage blow in return. Michael Scarn looked the best in round 3, landing 4 punches and kicks, but he got struck by two unearthly blows and finished off with the second of two parries. When the dust settled, Shewish Whaler was 14-0, having beaten two excellent TUM sandbaggers in the run-offs. My first TC of the tournament, and with a former regular arena warrior who I was just hoping for a TV out of.

ADM: I knew ahead of time that I had a good entry in this class, with my Bloodgames LU Kneesplitter. He began life as a 17-16-3-21-21-3-3 LU, but despite his good fortune in escaping the Bloodgames, was crippled with some wacky bonuses (+2 Att, +4 Par, -4 Def). He lost A LOT in the arena, until I trained his DF to 8 so that I could use the SS/ME combo without a penalty. Then, miraculously, he started winning and slowly clawed his way up to 50% win/loss.

Fast forward to this tournament. He is now 25(8)-21(5)-3-21-21-3-8(5) and right at the ADM line. Going into the tourney, I trained his WL to 24 and used a single ZAP potion on his -4 Def (luckily taking it to +1 Def), so he had a big boost of 17 skills going into round 1. Over the course of the tourney, he picked up 3 WT trains and 1 WL train, putting him at 214 total skills when all was said and done. On paper, this warrior looked super, but in practice, he had to fight tooth and nail to win most of his fights.

Some of his more harrowing experiences:

Round 1 vs Opal Ravioli, a TMM AB. Kneesplitter comes out with ARM/H SS/ME back-up SS/ME, with the plan to punish the Fist ABs with parries. Opal comes out with a SC. Oops. The very first attack, Opal attacks with his SC and Kneesplitter parries with... his SS. And it breaks. And he is too clumsy to draw a back-up. So my LU spends the rest of the fight battling with FI/ME. 3 minutes later, after taking his fair share of SC hits and hitting Opal three times with a ME and twice with an Elbow, Kneesplitter finishes him off with a Fist crit.

Round 3 vs Slayer 3, a PL. Kneesplitter is wearing APA/F and using a SS, with a back-up LO. Slayer 3 is dressed lightly in APL/S with an EP, and back-up EP. Slayer 3 opens with an EP crit, connects, and knocks Kneesplitter down. He doesn't bounce back up. 18 EP crits later, Slayer 3 gets tired and Kneesplitter gets up off the ground and goes on to win the fight. Thank god for APA/F and a heap of hit points.

Round 4 vs Mourning Angel, a Grimm LU. We trade a few attacks and dodges until Mourning Angel lands the first blow. Kneesplitter goes down and doesn't get back up. 12 LO hits later (plus a couple that were parried), Mourning Angel gets tired, Kneesplitter gets up off the ground and goes on to win the fight. Instead of being 4-0, Kneesplitter could've easily been 1-3 at this point.

Round 11 saw Kneesplitter's first loss to Confession, a Mannequin PL. Round 14 saw his second loss to Issus, a Gentleben WS. Both fights saw some back and forth but Kneesplitter's opponents looked like the better warriors in both fights.

Round 16 finals vs Issus. This warrior had just beaten Kneesplitter two rounds earlier, so I wasn't hopeful. He had survived a broken weapon, and two knockdowns that lasted over a minute and I thought his luck had finally run out. Kneesplitter opened with a LO crit, which connected, but his next attack was parried and riposted. It was Issus' turn. One SC crit to the throat. Another SC crit to the hip. Kneesplitter was desperate. Kneesplitter parried the next SC crit. And parried the next SC crit. He then riposted and delivered a knockdown to Issus. Issus didn't get up. Several more attack later, and the fight was over. Issus could have very easily been the victor, but it turned out to be Kneesplitter's day. Congrats to Gentleben on a great run for his first ADM bust-out.

Freshmen: I had recently decided that while my sandbaggers in Freshmen were good for a little entertainment, they weren't going to win me any prizes. So one by one, I was going to bust them out, move them up to ADM, and try to win Freshmen in the process. This tourney, I busted my Bloodgames WS, Baked Convincia. It was a tepid bust-out, to be sure. He had learned 79 of his 80 Ini/Att/Par/Dec skills, but was nowhere close to maxed in Rip and Def. So my plan was to bust his 21 WL, only burning 1 skill, allowing me to later learn some of the remaining Rip and Def to set up for ADM.

Baked Convincia looked good, but it turned out not to be his day. As the final rounds of the tournament approached, I had the last 3 warriors. Two sandbaggers, Spare Anchor (TP) and Surly Deckhand (BA), and my WS bust-out Baked Convincia. Spare Anchor drew the stand-in, while Surly Deckhand and Baked Convincia squared off. Baked Convincia only had 1 loss, while my sandbaggers each had 2, so I felt good about his chances. I shouldn't have! That Surly Deckhand is one nasty character. In a completely one-sided fight, Surly Deckhand attacked 18 times with his Great Axe and left Baked Convincia dismembered on the arena sands.

So after swearing off sandbaggers, the finals fight turned out to be between two of my own. Spare Anchor bested Surly Deckhand and gets to move on to ADM along with the dearly departed Baked Convincia. Spare Anchor, like Shewish Whaler, was a regular arena warrior from DM-18. He began life as a 13-17-13-3-21-6-11 TP, learned 20 Parry skills very quickly and trained up to 25(12)-25(8)-13-3-25(4)-6-22(11) over the course of many years. After picking up that 11th DF train during this tourney, he was only at 138 total skills (having previously been set up for the lower Freshmen line). While it takes great patience to set up a warrior like this, he also provided years of entertainment, with 3 Freshmen runner-ups and 4 Freshmen TVs prior to this final TC run.

Challengers: I was having a stupendous tournament, with 3 TCs so far. I used a Zombie potion from a year and a half ago to create a Zombie SL, bringing back Andorian Smoothie, who died in the Adepts finals to Meat. I set him up for Challengers as best I could, only to discover that he was a 5-3 or 4-3 warrior. Not entirely unexpected, as SLs have a rough go of it in Challengers because of all the physicals that the defensive styles can bring to the table.

Instead of running Andorian Smoothie for the next five years going 5-3 each tourney, I decided to train him over the line. I ran him for three turns in the arena, hitting some key breakpoints and triggering a graduation notice on the final turn before the tourney. So I had favorite knowledge and around 170 total skills going into the tournament. I wouldn't have been surprised with anything from an 3-3 to an 9-3.

He did even better, starting the tournament 13-0. Then he ran into trouble and his name was Warrior 1, an LHI LU. Andorian Smoothie took a loss in round 14 to the warrior, beat him in round 16, but then lost to him in round 17 and round 18. So he finished up with a second runner-up on his resume at 15-3, with all 3 losses being handed to him by the same warrior. Congrats on the victory, LHI.

Champs through Rookies: Not even a single TV. My best performance was a 7-3 by an Adepts SL who learned 8 Rip skills over the course of the tourney. I think my basic warriors are trying to tell me something.

All in all, I had one of the best tournaments of my life, matching my 3 TCs from July of 2011. I rarely run a warrior that is a favorite, but I try to run a handful of warriors each tourney that have a decent shot. Sometimes I end up with 0 TCs, more often picking up 1, and occasionally everything falls into place like it did this tourney.

It sounds like the summer FtF in Chicago is going to be a big one. I am looking forward to getting my ass handed to me by all the veteran managers who held back their best warriors for the summer.
View user's profileSend private message
MarmaDuke
Grandmaster Poster
Grandmaster Poster


Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Posts: 869
Location: NYC tri-state area

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:22 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Great write up OAB! It's always nice reading about other people's tourney experiences... especially when they're as well written as that.

_________________
-Marma Duke-

Deviation, State of Mind, Da Dog Powndaz, Pyromania, Rap Attacks, Slamma Jamma

May your blades always be sharp, and your opponents armor always have rust.....
View user's profileSend private messageAIM Address
Visionst01
ArchMaster Poster
ArchMaster Poster


Joined: Oct 03, 2005
Posts: 1714
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 3:22 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Excellent tourney diary and congrats on the TC's.

_________________
Visionist/Chris

Active:
Mid Earth in DM 29 Lapur
Clan Longbeard in DM 81 Shadowspire
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
Longshot
Grandmaster Poster
Grandmaster Poster


Joined: Sep 30, 2012
Posts: 934
Location: Vancouver, BC

PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:28 pm Reply with quoteBack to top

Thanks for the write up, One Armed Bandit. I really enjoyed it.
View user's profileSend private message
Display posts from previous:      
Post new topicReply to topic
View previous topic Log in to check your private messages View next topic
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum



Powered by phpBB 2.0.10 © 2001 phpBB Group

Version 2.0.6 of PHP-Nuke Port by Tom Nitzschner © 2002 www.toms-home.com
Forums ©
:: fisubsilver shadow phpbb2 style by Daz :: PHP-Nuke theme by coldblooded (www.nukemods.com) ::