Week Four Wrap Up & Week Five Previews

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Wynn Whittaker
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Week Four Wrap Up & Week Five Previews

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Week Four Wrap Up & Week Five Previews
By Wynn Whittaker for the Rhydin Review

After a one week suspension while they investigated a recent (unwarranted) complaint regarding my journalistic integrity (looking at you, Sue in HR), I am back for a quick wrap up of Week Four and some previews for the fifth and final week of the regular season. Since I missed week four, just assume I predicted all of them correctly. Now without further ado, let’s see how week four went.

Chemical Burn at Team Fist:

Now, going into the season, I know I would have called this a close one but I really would have thought it’d be in Team Fist’s favor. That said, TMF has been pretty good at dashing my hopes this season, so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Chemical Burn took this one. Let’s break it down.

Kheldar Drasinia’s straight 5-1 beat down of Anubis Karos in the fists category was the sole highlight of this match up. I wonder how Tara feels about it. In magic we saw Xanth against Matt Simon. Now we all know Matt is the bee’s knees but Magic isn’t exactly his strong sport. Xanth on the other hand is easily considered one of the best in Magic history. So with all of that said, color me surprised not that Matt lost but rather that he kept it as close as he did, scoring the max 4 loss points before Xanth finally took the win. On the flip side of the one-sided beat down spectrum, Bile pulled a stunning 5-1 win over veteran Kalamere ar’Din. It’s too bad Bile couldn’t perform like that in his Overlord challenge. Maybe if he had, we wouldn’t be facing the possibility of the mercurial Mandalorian Melanie Rostol (maybe King?) as Overlord again. Anyways. My theory is that Kalamere has seen my bets down at The Line and knows he makes more off of me if he loses. Just a theory.

So CHM trounces TMF to send Fist Nation further into a death spiral that may be near impossible to come back from this season. TMF meets Jewell’s Pains in Week Five. CHM gets Kruger’s Rock Hards.

Deathcake at Royal Pain

It’s difficult to say much about this one since as of press time, Aoife and Eva haven’t fought yet. So let’s take a look at those who got their stuff done in a timely manner.

In a magical battle of one name extraordinaires, Shae and Skid kept it a close fight right until the end. Skid narrowly edged out RPN’s Shae and unfortunately for the Pains, King DCK Salvador smartly put three Wild Card points on this fight too. In the swords match, team captains Sal and Jewell fought it out to see who took home another three Wild Card points. Unfortunately for the both of them, this one ended up a tie after 15 rounds so we all go home unfulfilled.

All in all, Aoife and Eva’s fight will determine the week. Aoife just needs two points for DCK to win the week, which they’ll definitely need if they want to hold on to a shot at playoffs. This week DCK’ll see Hydra-Foil and RPN hosts Team Fist.

Hydra-Foil at Rock Hards

After four weeks, I finally figured out the meaning behind HFO’s name. Foil is meant for your leftovers, right? It’s quickly becoming obvious that Hydra-Foil’s leftovers have been left out just a bit too long and those of us watching are only left with a bad taste in our mouths. Especially after this week. The Rock Hards were really shining this week, proving that maybe they aren’t the rag tag crew I thought.

Up for Fists, Mason took on Red and ended up on the losing end of a less than pleasant beat down. Red was red hot and held Mason to two points. Magic is where it got really interesting, both teams having bet their Wild Card points on the match. Adorable spitfire Eden went up against less than adorable and actually kind of creepy Spider. After a minor falter, Spider went on to win the match plus six Wild Card points. In Swords we saw a tight fight between Jolyon and Noah, the only one of the Foilers that managed to max their loss points.

But a loss is still a loss and the Rock Hards took home another win. In Week Five, the ROC host Chemical Burn while HFO hangs with DCK.

Week Five Previews:

Here we are in the final stretch. This week can truly determine who goes to playoffs and who is left behind. Like I said earlier, it’s truly anyone’s tournament even at this point so late in the game. So let’s take a look at our final week of regulation and see if we can’t suss out who might end up where.

Up first, we’ve got…

Chemical Burn at the Rock Hards

Right now this is a battle of top dogs and most certainly for first place. While Chemical Burn has the better W/L record, Rock’s got them beat in Wild Card points, which in Hydra are evidently all that matters. It’s sort of like Whose Line is it Anyway where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter. On both sides we’ve got a toss up line up and I’m getting kind of squeamish trying to predict this one. Let’s check it out.

In Fists we’ll see Bile up against Red urThorne. Bile’s been on a tear recently, his only Hydra loss coming in Magic against the Archmage at the time. Red has only fought twice so far, but her one win was in the Fists category. Truth be told, it could go either way but I think Bile’s fire will continue to burn brightly and he’ll take this one for Chemical Burn.

Prediction: Bile defeats Red urThorne, 5-3

Anubis and Rachael will have it out in the Magic slot and honestly, of the match ups, this is probably the only one I’m really sure of. Why Bile put Anubis into this spot despite his vehement hate of the magic sport is just beyond me. Not the mention the Egyptian’s record thus far and well, he should have let the numbers do the talking. Rachael should have this in the bag easy.

Prediction: Rachael Douglas defeats Anubis Karos, 5-1.5

Lastly we’ll see Deathlord’s Minion up against Kruger in the Swords category. Minion’s up 2-0 this season with wins in both Fists and Magic, so we’ll see if she can make it a 3-0 season with a win in swords as well. Kruger on the other hand took a loss in magic but has otherwise been on the up and up as well. As randy as Kruger can be, I think we’ll see another Minion win for the 3-0 and for Chemical Burn to take the week.

Prediction: Minion of Deathlord defeats Kruger, 5-3.5

It’ll be a close fight for both teams, I’m sure and as mentioned before, will be one that easily determines the post-season. I think we’ll see Chemical Burn surge up just enough to clinch that top spot while the Rock Hards slide to a still comfortable post-season berth.

Deathcake at Hydra-Foil:

Currently, under the assumption that they manage the win against RPN, Deathcake is still wobbling precariously at the cusp of seeing playoffs or not, so winning this week is super important for them. Alternately, Hydra-Foil could hypothetically take that place from DCK with a strong enough win this week. Keep an eye on this match, it’s a big deal.

In what will probably make or break the entire week, Captain DCK Sal and Captain Dimples Eden will meet for a double Wild Card Fists match. We haven’t seen Eden outside of Magic this season, where she is so far 1-1. Salvador is sitting at 0-1-1 with no Fists showings either. Sal’s got the higher rank and more experience so just as a precautionary measure, I’ll give this one to him. It’s nothing personal, Miss Parker.

Prediction: Salvador Delahada defeats Eden Parker, 5-4

Up for Magic, we’ll see Sabine Gabrielle against Mason Harrigan. Much like the match before, neither of these two has been seen in a Magic match within Hydra. Mason’s sitting at a paltry 0-3 record which isn’t very encouraging, but maybe Magic will be the break he needs. Sabine’s also at 0-2, so really this is the battle of the underwhelming underachievers. Let me flip a coin real quick. Oh look, we’re giving this one to Mason. Good job, Mason! Make me proud.

Prediction: Mason Harrigan defeats Sabine Gabrielle, 5-2

Rounding out the heap with a nice Swords match, we’ll see the ragin’ Cajun Canaan Devillier against Jolyon Gardiner. This is the first time we’re seeing Cane in Swords but I’m told that he’s got a decent aptitude for it. Jolyon has had a few close matches but hasn’t quite gone the distance with two 5-4 losses on his record. That said, I think this might finally be Jolyon’s chance. Do the thing!

Prediction: Jolyon Gardiner defeats Canaan Devillier, 5-2

Depending on how the points swing either way, I think we’re looking at an incredibly close match. Like I said, keep an eye on it because this one could change the course of the post-season.

Team Fist at Royal Pain

At this point, Team Fist needs a perfect storm of factors to even make it into the post-season so at this point, I’m thinking they should just have fun with this week and enjoy the break afforded by not being dragged through a few more weeks of fighting. They can retire to the Old Duelists Home and go back to eating their tapioca while playing Bingo. RPN, I’d like to see more of, even if they’ve kinda been sputtering out these past few weeks. After all, Jewell’s still the Empress of my heart even if her crew is losing steam.

In Fists, Colonel Simon made one of the smartest choices he could have by not only putting himself into the slot but also wagering three Wild Card points on himself. They’re going to need a huge win this week and that bout could be one of them. April’s a tough chick, but I think Matt’s going to steamroll the poor girl.

Prediction: Matt Simon defeats April Brell, 5-2

On the other side of things, Jewell made a wonderful wager of three Wild Card points on Magic powerhouse Rena Cronin up against the relatively unknown Lilith. In Hydra, Rena is best known for obliterating the seemingly unstoppable Bile (CHM) while Lilith barely managed a Fists win and was put to shame in Magic by HFO’s Eden. What I’m getting at is that Rena should have no problem here.

Prediction: Rena Cronin defeats Lilith, 5-2

Finally we’ll see former baron Andrea Anderson up against the Empress herself. Both of these ladies have enough collective smolder to burn the Arena down with just a look and in the ring, that translates to a tight match and some hella good eye candy to boot. Sue in HR, I’m still following your guidelines, thank you very much. Jewell has done wonderfully in Swords this season so I think she’ll keep that up here. Keep it up indeed.

Prediction: Jewell Ravenlock defeats Andrea Anderson, 5-4

Thanks to some stellar picks by both captains, I believe our final score will be determined not by the Wild Cards but rather the plain old Swords match. Keep an eye out, it’ll be a good one to watch. All in all, we’re looking at three important matchups across all six teams and when the smoke clears, we’ll have a far better picture of what the playoffs will look like.

Critical Matches to Watch:
Anubis & Rachael (DoM-CHM/ROC)
Salvador & Eden (DoF-DCK/HFO)
Andrea & Jewell (DoS-TMF/RPN)


That’s all for this week. Make sure to hit up the venues all week for both Hydra and regular regulation matches. Put those callers to work and if you’ve never dueled before, now is as good of a time as ever. Who knows, you might be the next big thing to show up on Wynn Whittaker’s (that’s me!) column. Until next time, Hail Hydra!
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