A New Power Rises!

For the 21st consecutive WBC, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit attracted players of all ages to recreate The Phantom Menace’s exciting finale! Attendance dropped slightly from last year with 23 players competing across three Heats. One absence stood out as perennial competitor and five-time champion Larry “Lord Vader” Lingle rejoined to the force earlier this year. His memory and legendary performance will be remembered in the annals of WBC history for years to come.

At the same time, the next generation of talented Queen’s Gambit competitors continues to perform at a high level. The eternal battle between earned experience and raw talent wages on, and this year was no different.

Attendance varied slightly across the three Heats, with 16 players in the first, 12 in the second, and 10 in the third. It does seem like more players are able to compete earlier in the week when there are fewer conflicts. From this pool of competitors, 13 arrived for the single-elimination bracket on Friday:

• Ian “IG-88” Moffitt
• Alexander “4-Lom” Lange
• Eric “Kitster” Moffitt
• Ted “Tamtel Skreej” Lange
• Darrel “Max Rebo” Morris
• John “Sebulba” Schoose
• Chris “Exar Kun” Kizer
• Ian “Zuckuss” Lange
• Frederick “Ochi” Shea
• Roderick “Jolee Bindo” Lee
• Declan “Teemto Pagalies” Powers
• James “Mawhonic” Blair
• Sean “Whorm Loathsom” McCulloch

The bracket got off to a blistering start, including a remarkable upset as young Declan “Teemto Pagalies” Powers upset former champion Ted “Tamtel Skreej” Lange in just under 25 minutes! Declan’s Anakin was unstoppable and blew up the Droid Control Ship on turn 3! With Maul still battling the Jedi, Ted had no way to stop the Naboo forces from capturing the viceroys. Meanwhile, Ian “Zuckuss” Lange’s Jedi obliterated Chris “Exar Kun” Kizer’s Sith lord, dealing 14 unanswered damage in the first round! Chris fought back as best as he could, but the might of two undamaged Jedi in the Palace made the outcome academic.

When the dust settled, only six remained for the Quarterfinal. The first match saw Alex “4-Lom” Lange’s Naboo take on Ian “IG-88” Moffitt’s Trade Federation. Their game got off to a slow start as both the Jedi and the Sith rolled terribly. Instead, Ian’s palace guards rushed forward and managed to occupy the Droid reinforcement hexes for most of the game. However, Anakin couldn’t seem to figure out how to operate his Naboo Starfighter and spent literally the entire game in the hangar. This gave Darth Maul time to overcome the bad dice rolls and defeat both Jedi before making his way into the palace to mop up the remaining Palace Guards. After mopping up Panaka and the other guards, Alex secured victory and a spot in the Semifinal.

At the next table, speedster Declan “Teemto Pagalies” Powers as the Naboo faced Darrel “Max Rebo” Morris as the Trade Federation. Declan’s Anakin struggled against Darrel’s Starfighters, resulting in a slower-paced game. Eventually, Darth Maul defeated both Jedi and emerged into the palace to wreak havoc. After killing Captain Panaka, Queen Amidala, and many palace guards, Darth Maul seized victory for Darrel.

At table 3, defending champion Sean “Whorm Loathsom” McCulloch’s Trade Federation attempted to repel Ian “Zuckuss” Lange’s Naboo attackers. Once again, Darth Maul’s was too much for the pair of Jedi to overcome, and so he emerged onto the palace floor. However, Ian was able to evacuate many of his remaining palace guards and Captain Panaka to the third floor. He tactically positioned his guards to block stairways, slipped several into the throne room and then stationed Panaka at the door with just 1 hit point remaining. Sean went two full rounds unable to draw a card to activate his destroyer droids to deal the final blow to the heroic captain and open up the throne room for the win. Normally, this would have given Anakin time to try and destroy the control ship. Unfortunately, 7 out of the bottom 12 cards in Ian’s battlefield deck were Anakin cards, and so he was unable to capitalize on this temporary advantage. Sean finally found the cards he needed to wipe out the remaining defenders and reach the Semifinal.

With three players in the Semifinal, one had to face an eliminator. That ended up being Sean, who faced GM Chris “Exar Kun” Kizer in a rematch from last year’s Final. Chris bid 1 droid to play the Trade Federation and started the game strong by bringing a Destroyer Droid to the Palace from the Battlefield. These two Destroyers wreaked havoc on Sean’s Palace Guards, the Red Queen, and Captain Panaka. They were backed up by many surprisingly capable Battle Droids. During the first few rounds, Chris literally rolled 13/14 hits on gray dice to inflict serious wounds on Sean’s Palace Guards. Of course, statistics eventually regress to the mean, and he proceeded to roll 12/13 misses on gray dice afterwards. Sean used that shift in luck to retake control of the ground floor, defeat Darth Maul, and start wiping out Destroyer Droids with Qui-Gon Jinn. Qui-Gon worked his way up the palace and ultimately killed every single droid in the palace. Sean lacked the forces to block the reinforcement hexes, but Chris had no reinforcement cards to even try. Rather than spend the next hour trying to obliterate Gungans and draw cards to spawn a few Battle Droids, Chris conceded and Sean advanced to the Final.

Meanwhile, Alex “4-Lom” Lange faced Darrel “Max Rebo” Morris in the other Semifinal. This game also began relatively normally as Darth Maul killed Qui-Gon before falling to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan was heavily wounded from the battle, though, so Alex kept him far from the action. Instead, Alex used his guards, Panaka, and red Queen to secure the first floor of the Palace and block all the reinforcement hexes. Once they were blocked, he sent his queens and some palace guards up to start clearing out the other floors. Darrel was undeterred and managed to keep a pair of destroyer droids alive to repel the attackers, kill Queen Amidala (purple), and push the remaining queen back towards the first floor. Soon, Alex was left with just 12 pieces: the ten blocking the hexes, a heavily wounded Obi-Wan, and a Red Queen on the second floor. Darrel only had 2 destroyer droids and 2 battle droids defending the palace. Outnumber, but not outgunned, Darrel’s droids slipped downstairs and dealt the final blow to Panaka to start opening up space on the reinforcement hexes.

Alex sent Obi-Wan to try and fill the gap, but Darrel was ready and spawned a Destroyer Droid on the 1st floor. It was quickly dispatched, but his remaining troops carved more holes into the remaining Palace Guard forces. Soon Darrel was able to bring groups of battle droids over to further interfere, while Alex had no window ledge movement cards to escape. Anakin made multiple desperate attempts but got stalled on the 4th space. It did not help that Darrel had played literally every starfighter card to block Anakin’s path.

As the game continued, Darrel wiped all the Gungan units from the battlefield while moving just enough reinforcements to the Palace to diminish the Naboo attackers. Soon, all the Naboo had left were the Red Queen, Obi-Wan, and 2 Palace Guards. But all Darrel had were 1 destroyer and 2 battle droids. The tension was high, and Darrel was literally shaking. With one action card remaining in his order stack, he looked up at Alex and extended his hand. He offered to concede, saying that he didn’t think he could win from this position. Alex stared at him like he was speaking in tongues! He pointed out that all Darrel needed to do to win the game was kill two Palace Guards. He refused to accept the concession and told Darrel to play his last card. Darrel swallowed and flipped over his last card: Intruder Alert. His first battle droid had been sitting on the second floor, taking pot shots at the Red Queen. He rushed downstairs and shot the first Palace Guard. A hit. His second battle droid was stuck in stairway facing Obi-Wan. Darrel moved that droid back up, over to the other stairway, and back down to shoot the final Palace Guard. A hit! Darrel wins, and advances to the Final! All of the spectators erupted with congratulations and gentle ribbing. How could he even consider conceding one turn before he won the game!?

After a short break, Darrel and Sean sat down for the final. Sean took the Trade Federation, while Darrel played the Naboo. The game started relatively normal but quickly took a dramatic turn. Darrel opened with Qui-Gon’s fury to score some early hits on Darth Maul. Then in round 2, he pulled out Obi-Wan’s Fury to seriously wound the Sith Lord. Sean attempted to fight back, but Darrel pressed his advantage by using a “Draw a Theed Palace card and play it” action from the Battlefield deck to get an extra Jedi activation on his turn. He rolled a strong hit and wiped out the Sith lord. Sean looked at his cards and then offered a hand to Darrel. With both Jedi at nearly full health so early in the game, Sean’s odds of victory were incredibly slim. Rather than drag the game on for another hour and half to possibly eke out a victory, Sean opted to concede and accept second place. And so, after a duel where Darth Maul fell on his face without accomplishing much of anything, Darrel “Max Rebo” Morris achieved victory and claimed his first Queen’s Gambit championship! Congratulations Darrel!

As usual, allow me to share some stats on the tournament:

• In 31 games, the Naboo won 17 while the Trade Federation won 14
• Darth Maul survived 14 games, with the Trade Federation winning 10 of those
• Darth Maul was killed by Obi-Wan 8 times, Qui-Gon 4 times, and once by a squad of brave (or stupid) Palace Guards!
• Qui-Gon died in 21 games. The Naboo won all 10 games where he survived, while the trade federation won 14 of the games where he died
• Obi-Wan died in 13 games. The Trade Federation won 10 of the games where he died, while the Naboo won 14 of the games where he survived
• The Purple Queen was the true queen in 28 out of 31 games
• Captain Panaka fell to Destroyer Droids in 10 games, Darth Maul in 9, and Battle Droids in 3

Interestingly, bidding this year was sparse. Most players opted to randomize side selection or were able to claim the side they preferred without either side bidding. 5 games featured an actual bid of 1 or 3 Palace Guards to play as the Naboo, and one game had a bid of 1 Battle Droid to play as the Trade Federation.

Once again, I want to thank all of the players who participated, and especially everyone who brought copies of the game! This game is relatively accessible for players of all ages, but it is always a struggle to find enough copies to accommodate all the players who wish to play. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who keeps this event going!

For next year, one change I’m investigating is reducing the time slot back to 2 hours. 90% of the games this year finished in 90 minutes or less, while the remainder went almost 3 hours. One person suggested a way to adjudicate games based on the relationship between Anakin’s position and the remaining Naboo force hit points, which I think is a decent way to try and assign a victor to games that run long. Of course, that assumes that we will be returning next year, since our player count dropped from last year. Thank you once again to everyone who competed, and I look forward to seeing you next year!