2054 Club Championship

Jim Beecher		Pete Jansen	Mike Miller
Eric "Odie" O'Denius	Christian "Flip" Nelson	Brian Strassman	Becky Teed

It was a great turnout, with all of our regulars there. Unfortunately, none of the newer folks could make it, but I'm hoping the new site and reminders on our Yahoo! Group will help with that.

Then time for the walkarounds. Becky had a sedan with a turreted laser and rockets left and right. Pete's electric lux had twin smallbores front. Brian had a sloped midsize with laser front. Mike's extra-heavy trike was only showing a turreted laser. Odie's lux had three smallbores front and a dropped liquid back. Flip had a station wagon with twin smallbores front. Jim had a compact with a turreted smallbore and a laser left.

One half of the arena started with Flip, Brian, Pete, and Jim while the other had Odie, Mike, and Becky. Flip quickly turned and shot Brian with twin HVMGs, wiping out a large chunk of Brian's armor. Mike took a chunk of damage from two shots of Becky's Laser (but no rockets were fired) and missed Odie twice with his Targeting Laser and 4 RLs hidden under blow-through.

Brian turned away from Flip and blew his dischargers, putting flaming oil counters all over the place. This got Flip off his back and onto Jim's front. Jim blew a control roll and started rolling after taking fire from Pete and turning to avoid the wall. (This caused our controversy of the day: when you roll, spinout, or vault as a result of a hazard, do you do a rotation/spin immediately or not until your next phase of movement?)

We ran it like we have in the past with the car immediately taking a rotation. This meant that Jim's car would wind up on its left side, with its turret facing away from the main arena. Unfortunately, he didn't even live that long as his driver died when his CA Frame vehicle rolled onto its lightly armored underbody. Flip gets our first kill of 2054! Afterwards, Pete circles around the nearby pillar while Brian scoots by trying to get his injured side away from the action.

Back on the other side, Mike tries a desperate turn to avoid taking another shot on his right side. Naturally, he also blows his control roll and rolls his trike. Unlike Jim, he will wind up upside-down facing into the arena two turns later. Odie closes on Becky and they trade shots: Becky with her laser and rockets, Odie with his three VMGs with Incendiary ammo. This is enough to start Becky on fire and she has no way to stop the blaze and a breached side. Things are looking good for Odie, except that as he turns away to go up the ramp he loses control of his station wagon, right in front of Becky. He skids into her, creating a head-on between Odie's right side and Becky's front which is enough to take him out. Becky, now stopped, on fire, and breached, burns to death one turn later after taking a last shot at Mike.

This brings us to the end of Turn 3. (I hope the audience was paying attention, this is a short one!)

Flip starts Turn 4 off with twin bangs, ripping through Pete's side armor and killing his driver and gunner. Pete's dead vehicle winds up over by Jim's. Brian circles around the pillar while Flip heads towards the center to score a tiebreaking point (TBP) and try to finish off Mike. Who, by the way, stops rolling in Turn 5 and is ready to take his upside-down shots at people. Brian gets Mike in his sights as he circles around the pillar, and one quick burst from his X-Ray Laser blows through Mike's remaining armor and his driver. Mike's shot earlier had already missed.

We add up the points quick and find out that it won't matter if anyone has any TBPs; the sole survivor of the duel will be the winner. Brian dodges the ramp and takes a shot at Flip. Flip hits the top, turns right, and heads back down to circle around. Brian, knowing he has to kill Flip, also circles around quick to get in some shots. Flip is on the losing end, as he blows a control roll and is skidding right when Brian gets him in his sights. One final X-Ray shot cooks Flip's car in T8P1 and that's all she wrote.

Congratulations to Brian Strassman, three time Club Dueling Champion!