October MI 2022

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

The October Mail-In Tourney is almost here! It is taking place over the weekend of October 29-30. Strategies are due Wednesday, October 26.

The ADM Freeze occurred on the weekend of September 17-18. There is no basic freeze; warriors in basic fight according to their FE count immediately prior to tourney weekend.

TVs in the dead classes get resurrected. TCs in the dead classes get resurrected and receive immortality.

TCs in the living classes earn a single Zombie potion, "which allows them to choose any of their dead warriors and resurrect it as a zombie! Zombies are not known for their intelligence (-4 Wit) but they have enhanced Strength (+2), Will (+2), Attack skills (+2 to base), the maximum damage ability for its attributes (in perpetuity), and can use both arms (and legs) equally well!"

"In addition, one bonus skill potion will be awarded to the manager of each of the Stylemasters for all tournaments (except the Tournament Champion). Primus bonus potions must be used on a Primus warrior of the same style; ADM bonus potions must be used on an ADM warrior of the same style; basic DM potions may be used on any living warrior on the same team."

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

My tourney strategies have reportedly arrived at RSI's secret underground production facility, ten days ahead of schedule.

Barring any last minute additions, my numbers are as follows:

Total entries - 66
By fighting style - 19 AB, 14 ST, 13 LU, 4 each of PL, PS, SL, and 2 each of BA, PR, TP and WS
By class - 9 Primus, 5 Contenders, 1 Eligible, 2 ADM, 1 Freshman, 4 Challengers, 3 Champions, 3 Adepts, 9 Initiates, 7 Apprentices, 11 Rookies, 3 Dead Challengers, 2 Dead Champions, 3 Dead Adepts, 2 Dead Initiates, and 1 Dead Apprentice

I like to have representation in every class, as I think that makes a person most competitive, and I also like to run at least a little of every style, as that makes it most fun for me, even while I heavily invest in the best tourney styles.

In the Numerology of Duelmasters, I am assuming that 11 is a lucky number. After all, 11 WT and 11 DF are both major breakpoints, and 11 ST allows for good weapon selection and carry. Hopefully this bodes well for me, as I have 11 Rookies, 11 dead entries, and my total entries are also a multiple of 11. Of course, 11 is not all good. 11 SP and 11 WL are big goose eggs, and 11 CN and 11 SZ are nice, but not particularly noteworthy. So while I am hoping for an 11 DF performance in this tourney, I may have to settle for an 11 CN performance, and I am prepared for the dreaded 11 SP performance.

My bust-outs are fairly weak, but my sandbaggers are getting good, and I have at least one excellent basic class. I will write more about my chances once the tourney is underway.

I like this prize. If you have the right dead warrior (or living warrior that you are willing to make dead), it results in prize-stack-like effect with a single prize. Not the easiest prize with which to dominate basic (although if I win one, I might try to focus my efforts on that), but you can end up with a powerful ADM warrior as a result.

Good luck to everyone in the tourney!

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 2:12 am

Unlike Sir OAB, I believe 11 to be a very unlucky number.

There are 11 on a football team, yet I played on an 8-man Football Team in the Pocket Athletic Conference, the last 8-Man Football League in Indiana. (some years ago.)

Eleven is a protagonist, a dangerous one, on the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things.

Eleven (11) is really 2 (1+1), which is a very small number, hence sad.

So, not surprisingly, there are no elevens in my Mailer submittals.

I seldom run in the ADM arenas anymore, hence all my submittals are lower end. (Why run in Primus, when in the KOPs I keep having to win the Rollup Drop Award?)

STYLES:
live - 3 AB, 3 BA, 2 SL, 12 ST, 1 WS
dead - 3 AB, 1 LU, 1 SL, 4 ST
(usually I run each style (something OAB and I DO agree on), but i failed

CLASSES:
live - 9 ROOK, 3 APPR, 4 INIT, 4 ADEP, 1 CHAM
dead - 1 INIT, 3 ADEP, 2, CHAM, 3 CHAL

Only 30. What's wrong with me?!

Good luck to all. Please leave one of the ZOMBIE prizes for me.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

Eerie silence from RSI on Sunday and much of Monday, which is totally appropriate for a Halloween Mail-In. But word just came in that the tourney ran smoothly and there were over 3,000 entrants.

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My 66 entries are the usual mixed bag of stylemaster hopefuls, desperate Primus wannabe TVs, guys who just happened to be timed so I'm giving them one last try, new warriors, dead warriors, and a few actual TC hopefuls, none of whom are overwhelming favorites.

Champions

It would be hard for this not to feel like my best class, fresh off of an Adepts TC at the July FtF.

My best chance in the class is that Adepts TC, MUKTUK. He is a clone of one of Howling Wolf's warriors, a 15-8-3-21-21-5-11 LU named THE WHITE WHALE. By his own admission, HW messed up basic with that warrior, accidentally running it to 11 FE and missing Initiates, and picking up too many arena PPs to sandbag Challengers. Despite THE WHITE WHALE's lack of TC success, HW saw something in the warrior and cloned it. His clone, WHALE MEAT, went on to TC Rookies, TC Initiates (with the help of five bonus potions), TC Adepts (with the help of max damage), 10-3 Champs, and TC Challengers.

That is an absurd resume, and one that I knew MUKTUK would never live up to. He went 12-3 in Rookies, 7-3 in Initiates, and then 14-2-1 in Adepts for the TC this summer. After that Adepts run, MUKTUK was at 28 FE with 155 total skills and a 6-1-1 arena record. It is a balancing act, trying to give a warrior the best Champs run possible without hurting their Challengers sandbagging potential. Another fight in the arena would have vaulted him into the Challenger Champs or to the Duelmaster spot, picking up unnecessary PPs from arena play.

I decided to leave MUKTUK at 28 FE for his Champs run, although I did add a single bonus potion (my first augmentation) to improve his Defense from +3 to +4. He has learned a little over 2.8 skills/FE throughout his 28 FE, including 18 Att and 18 Def. I wanted to give him a shot to learn some extra critical skills, but I didn't want him to get so high that he met Lee's Challengers pull criteria after the tourney. He also doesn't need a ton more skills, with Advanced Masters in Attack and Defense, a Master in Initiative, and Advanced Experts in Riposte and Decisiveness. So I had him learn skills in rounds 1-5 (which if he averages 1.4/fight like the past, should net him 7 skills and put him at 163 total skills), and then switch to physical training in 6+, going CN ST CN ST CN. The good news is that CN and ST training are totally useful, so he isn't really wasting any trains until the run-offs. And who knows, maybe he'll get lucky and pick up a 2nd or 3rd CN train if he goes deep enough. That said, even the fabled WHALE MEAT failed to TC Champs, so while MUKTUK is my best shot in the tourney, it won't surprise me if he falls short.

The good news is, he isn't alone. The whole way up, I've run him alongside DALIM, a 17-11-8-21-9-7-11 ST. DALIM earned a 14-3-1 Rookie RU (he lost to another of my warriors in the finals), an 8-3-1 Initiates TV, and a 9-3-1 Adepts TV. He has fought really well, and has a small shot at the TC in his own right.

The third member of my Champions crew is an unexpected immortal graduate, a 9(1)-12(1)-8-20-21-5-11 PL named DENEB. I don't expect anything out of DENEB, but at 29 FE, with 20 WT learning, and favorites knowledge, anything can happen.

It is rare that I think I have a double digit percentage chance to win a class, but I think I do in this one. That said, there will be fierce competition, not least of all from TDO who had multiple warriors in the run-offs of Adepts in July and sent even more warriors into Champs this tourney.

ADM

I wasn't that optimistic about my bust-outs this tourney. Three of the four (1 Eligible, 1 of the 2 ADM, and 1 Freshmen) are weak styles, so it is hard to give them any significant chance of winning.

One of them, though, I think might have a shot. KAPPA LEONIS was a contest warrior from DM 10, a 12-8-8-17-21-5-13 LU who rolled up super well: +2 endurance, +3 Initiative, +4 Riposte, +2 Attack, +4 Parry, +4 Defense, and +1 Decisiveness. I added two contest prizes to him, to bump his damage to Great and to increase his Attack to +3. On the eve of this tourney, I added an additional bonus potion to him to bring him up to +4 Attack (and +20 overall). Some of these bonuses won't help in the tourney (like the Parry), but them and the nice favorites are the reasons that I kept running him and went for an expedient ADM bust-out to advance him to Primus.

He hit his 50% WT train to 21 after the freeze, then trained WL to 22 and 23. He is going in with 196 total skills, and stats of 14(2)-14(6)-8-21(4)-23(2)-5-14(1). Tremendous endurance, Great damage, Good carry, can take a Lot, a Grandmaster in Att, Advanced Masters in Ini and Def, Masters in Rip and Dec, and an AdEx in Par. On paper, he looks good, and has a decent bust still ahead of him, with easy breakpoints in WL, ST, and DF available and a reasonable additional train in WL before the run-offs.

The thing that has me excited, though, is that he likes to win. He hasn't done many tournies, and is young (only 86 FE), but he just wins and wins, having accumulated a nice 45-16-2 record over his career. Just reading his DM 100 fights each turn, in which he mows down opponent after opponent, makes me feel like there is some extra potential in the tourney. Not a ton, but a single digit percentage chance to win seems right.

Contenders and Primus

I'll be brief here, but my Contenders and Primus crews are really starting to shape up nicely.

I am running five warriors in Contenders: 4 ABs and 1 TP. Three of the five have gotten 7 TVs between them, and the two youngest seem capable of TVing, although they haven't yet (for one of them, it will be his first Contenders tourney). My best Contender, THIRD COURSE, went deep in Contenders in July, coming in 3rd place behind MUSH and ALUCARD. Rumor has it that ALUCARD is still in the class, but with each passing tourney, there are less fully modified ABs left and my crew of somewhat normal warriors have an increased chance to TC. This is another single digit percentage class for me, with any of TUM, TMM, Chief I, HW, me and probably a couple other people with a legitimate chance to TC.

My Primus crew, meanwhile, is searching for a different achievement: my first Primus TV. I have five entries hunting for stylemasters (BA, PR, PS, SL, ST) and four ABs who are trying to TV. Two of them, SNAKE OIL SELLER (formerly SALESMAN) and CANNIBAL COOK, have gone 7-3 before. And SHARK BAIT and HAM BURGLAR have both had signature wins against perfect ABs and regularly put up winning records. Plus, I added three bonus potions to CANNIBAL COOK this past week to max out his Attack. Maybe this is the tourney?

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I didn't think that I would be this excited for the tourney. I hope you are all feeling it, too. Good luck to everyone. I look forward to matching up with you on the sands. I opted to splurge on FedEx this time, since I have Friday off before a long week of work. Here is hoping for a timely Friday FedEx delivery and a pleasurable evening of Chatzy afterwards.

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 3:33 am

I am tired of fighting those OAB Godling Sandbaggers in basic. (see above)
To OAB, I say, "get them graduated already!". (But good luck in the already run Mailer.)

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

I received two pieces of information in a very brief message from RSI today:

1. Everything is on schedule for the usual delivery dates (Friday for FedEx Overnight, Saturday or Monday for USPS Priority Mail, a little later for USPS Regular Mail).

2. There were 3,103 total entries in the tourney.

ArchMaster Poster Joined: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 2958

As relayed by HW in Chatzy:

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3101 warriors total
204 TVs
183 died
one warrior got 3 kills
12 warriors died after having TVed, including two who went very long
biggest tourney: rookies, then dead challengers
smallest: eligibles, then contenders
longest: dead challengers
shortest: champions and dead champions
most TVs: rookies, dead challengers, then challengers
only 1 TC was undefeated