Blood Games Turn 10 Preview (NO SPOILERS)

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2026 6:53 am

Bloodgames! Slow 2025-26 version - Turn 10 Preview (NO SPOILERS)

At long last, Turn 10 of the August 2025 Blood Games has run, and will publish on (or about) Sunday morning, April 26. Congrats to those managers with warriors who are both still alive AND relevant going into the final turn. This has been a typically deadly BG with over 70% of the warriors eliminated by the end of turn 9.

I’ve done a quick-and-dirty analysis of the last 4 years’ worth of Blood Games run at Face-to-Face competitions, as well as the 2023 and 2024 slow games, and I’ll use that to try and inform and explain my predictions for turn 10. Quick recap, the top 3 warriors at the end of turn 9 are / were:

TURDUCKEN TALON 2378 LU 6 3 5 55 ARCAN BBQ 2025 (236)
PROTECTOR 2357 ST 8 1 4 89 HELL'S SENTINELS (234)
GATEKEEPER 2359 PL 6 3 4 67 HELL'S SENTINELS (234)

Turducken Talon is Floyd’s LU and has shown a remarkable ability to both kill and stay alive when he loses. A valuable combo! Since arriving in the Top 3 on turn 2, he’s been listed no lower than 2nd in the rankings.

TDO has 2 in the penultimate top 3. Protector lost in round 1 and didn’t get his first kill until round 4. Obviously, he’s made up for lost time rather quickly, adding kills in round 6, 7, and 9 and debuting in the top 3 round 7.

Gatekeeper is the semi-rare killer PL. Also starting slow, and losing in round 1, Gatekeeper’s first kill came in round 3, and then added kills in rounds 6, 7, and 9, which pushed him into the top 3.

Now that we’re all caught up on the current happenings, let’s get to the interesting stuff. Who is likely to graduate? And what are the likely results for turn 10, based on previous Blood Games?

QUESTION #1: How often do the top 3 in round 9 all end up graduating?

About 1/3 of the time. In the last 18 contests, the top 3 have all graduated 5 times. Interestingly, in the slow mail-in BG (like this one), there has always been at least one warrior in the top 3 who ended up not graduating. So that’s a good sign for those of you chasing a graduate!

QUESTION #2: What’s the most likely way for a top 3 warrior to get displaced?

A simple Loss (without dying) is the most common way for a lower ranked warrior to displace a top 3 warrior; this happened to 8 of the top 3 over the last 4 years. Death is the next most common method, happening 5 times (sometimes more than once in the same round 10 turn!). Finally, 2 warriors won their final fight, but lost due to recognition points.

QUESTION #3: How vulnerable is Gatekeeper in the 3rd slot?

Gatekeeper controls his own fate, and that’s a good spot to be in: A kill and Gatekeeper graduates. But (isn’t there always a “but…”) lacking open Blood Feuds, Gatekeeper’s ability to control his next matchup could be a problem.

There are 7 warriors below Gatekeeper who are still mathematically “alive” with 3 kills, and 6 warriors with 2 kills who might (with the right combination of victory, a kill, and some luck) displace him. For brevity, I’ll only focus on the 3 kill warriors. The 2 kill warriors are left as an exercise for the reader.

Basilisk (Gentle Ben) BA 8-1-3: Has an open Blood Feud available to challenge Gatekeeper and needs a kill to graduate. At 9-1-4, none of the lower ranked warriors could beat him on the first tiebreaker (wins).

Orm (Mithril) PR 7-2-3: Has an open Blood Feud available to challenge Protector. Needs a kill to graduate. 8-2-4 would put him in 2nd place (or possibly 3rd but no lower).

Hemostasis (Howlin Wolf) AB 7-2-3: Has 4 (!) open Blood Feuds, but none against a top 10 warrior. A kill by Hemostasis, combined with a non-kill win or loss by Gatekeeper, and no kills by Basilisk or Orm, would put him in the #3 spot and displace Gatekeeper. A semi-long shot, but Hemostasis has 2 things factors in their favor. First, AB’s are more likely to graduate than any other style (13 of 18 BG have seen an AB graduate), and second, Hemostasis is managed by Howlin Wolf who has pulled this off before. But I’m not bitter.

Eyrunia(Khorvinus) ST 7-2-3: Being the 2nd ranked Striker means Khorvinus is secretly (or maybe not) hoping for Protector’s demise to have a shot. Has an open Blood Feud available with Tri-Klops, but Wall of Steels are notoriously hard to kill especially this late. Needs a lot of help but isn’t mathematically eliminated. If Protector is eliminated, and Gatekeeper loses, could grab the 3rd spot on recognition.

William L Weller (Riff-Raff) PS 7-2-3: Everybody wants to see the Piker graduate, right? I know I do! For WLM to graduate, everyone just needs to “be like three little Fonzies here. And what’s Fonzie like?” Cool. Just be cool, Honey Bunny. Nobody even has to die, except the NPC that no one will miss. Then, WLW takes over the #3 spot based on recognition, and this will all just be a happy memory.

Tri-Klops (Darque) WS 6-3-3: A long shot, but still mathematically possible. Tri-Klops needs a lot of help but has an open Blood Feud against The Shadow of Killing Ground and can be feuded by Khorvinus. Needs Gatekeeper to lose, as the PL will likely win on recognition if they have the same record.

Dry Rub Noble (Floyd) WS 6-3-3: If this was any other manager than Floyd, I’d say that DRN could be the proverbial wild card. Has an open Blood Feud versus Protector, and a kill would open 2 potential spots (also leaping Gatekeeper on record) for DRN to sneak into the top 3, giving Floyd 2 graduates. But Floyd’s superstition about not messing with a good thing is well known, and he likely won’t tempt fate. Could still graduate with a kill, and a Gatekeeper loss.

Prediction Time!

If you’re betting on the Blood Games results, here’s why I would put my money.

Most likely outcome: No change. The current Top 3 warriors graduate. Boring!

Most interesting blood feuds to watch: Basilisk vs Gatekeeper and Orm vs Protector. A kill in either fight could change the graduating list.

Wild Card: Hemostasis picks his victim, kills in round 10 and vaults into the top 3. We’ve seen this movie before.

People’s Choice: William L Weller gets a kill, in the ensuing excitement everyone else lives to retire, and Riff-Raff has his long-desired Piker BG graduate.

Good luck, everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed this iteration of the Blood Games franchise as much as I have. The anticipation of results is as much fun as the actual game itself!

You’ve Read This Far, Why Not?

Graduates by Style over the last 4 years:

Aimed Blows 13
Lungers 9
Total Parries 9
Strikers 5
Wall of Steel 4
Parry-Strike 3
Parry-Lunge 3
Bashers 3
Parry-Rips 2
Slasher 1