Marc Berenbach vs Dave des Jardins	Aaron Fuegi vs Steve Koleszar
Dave Finberg vs Sean McCulloch	Ed Rothenheber vs Justin Thompson as Grant Dalgliesh observes.

6s and mutuals are part of 2-player Titan lore. It often helps to roll consecutive 6s at the beginning of a match. Steve Koleszar rolled four 6s in a row at the start of his quarterfinal game against 2007 champ Sean McCulloch and won the game on the next roll. Julie Ehlers also rolled four 6s to start her Round 1 game vs Bruno Wolff, but this did not lead to an immediate win. The game ended only after both players had gained titan teleport and Julie rolled another 6 to teleport into the last battle. More on mutual eliminations will be forthcoming shortly.

6s are also hits in all battles against all opponents. Failure to roll a hit can turn a battle. In his semifinal against David desJardins, Steve entered with a superior stack, titan, two behemoths, two gorgons and a warlock against David's wyvern, three rangers and three trolls. Failure to get timely hits swung the tide of the battle and Steve lost his titan and the match in a battle he was favored to win. In another example of probability distribution and the "tail," Aaron Fuegi moved two wyverns next to a ranger and had a hydra range strike, 19 dice total needing either a 5 or a 6 to hit, and hit the ranger only once.

In the semifinal between Aaron and Dan Strock, Dan was ahead on points and his 8-high titan caught Aaron's 7-high titan. Aaron defended with two hydras, two griffons, a guardian and a lion. In support, Dan had four gorgons, a behemoth and a Cyclops. The Cyclops was left off the board to ensure a spot for the angel upon summoning. The battle came down to titan vs titan and both rolled enough hits to cut down the opponent. When a mutual occurs, there is a single roll to determine the winner. It would be too time consuming to ask the participants to play the match over again. Dan rolled and lost the rolloff, sending Aaron to the Final.

The Final was a nine-hour marathon between Aaron and David, with neither opponent able to gain an advantage. By the time the final titan on titan battle took place, David attacked with a 10-high titan against Aaron's 11-high titan. Aaron defended in the swamp with two hydras, a griffon, a ranger and a warlock. David attacked with three hydras, a griffon and a warlock. David had an angel to summon; Aaron had the fourth turn recruit of a Hydra. In the next to last round, Aaron moved and placed a hydra on a hydra, a hydra on the angel, and his titan on the warlock. The two hydras each scored nine hits on each other in two strikes. Aaron's hydra killed the angel in two blows, receiving seven hits damage in return. The titan killed the warlock in a blow, but the warlock earlier had range struck the titan for two and now, with two more, put Aaron up to four. David's unwounded titan moved in, with ten dice to get seven hits for the win. Only four resulted, putting Aaron at eight out of 11. Aaron struck for five hits, moved in the hydra that had finished off the angel and completed the task. David easily got the last three hits for the mutual. Since David was the attacker, he rolled the dice. Not enough hits were scored, so Aaron won on the mutual rolloff, becoming the first champion to have a mutual in each of his last two games, and with the further unusual result that he was the defender in both final battles.

If its true that you have to be good to contend and lucky to win, Aaron has now been lucky five times.

Jonathan Barnes vs Brian Sutton	GM Rich Atwater watches his finalists in action.