Talon of Redwin Winter 2009

[DUEL Guill]

On Saturday, December 19, I, along with Sai Kurou, was honored to officiate the quarterly Talon of Redwin Memorial Tournament. For the first time in recent memory, a full field of sixteen contested the tournament.

For this tournament, duelists were seeded by their performance in the dueling rings from the week of the last Talon tournament, to the week before this tournament, a span of eleven weeks. Those that had identical percentages were ranked first by most duels, then by most wins, and then by the order they signed up for the tournament. A minimum of 28 duels were needed for the top bracket; a minimum of 14 duels for the middle bracket. The seeding was as follows:

1. TOP BRACKET - 28+ duels
2. Maranya Valkonan - 23-25-4 (47.9%)
3. Sinjin Fai - 12-15-6 (44.4%)
   
   MIDDLE BRACKET - 14-27 duels
4. ThorneFang - 14-11-1 (56.0%)
5. Delahada - 12-13-1 (48.0%)
   
   BOTTOM BRACKET - 1-13 duels
6. Wyheree - 3-0-0 (100.0%)
7. Imp - 1-0-0 (100.0%)
8. Rhiannon D Harker - 4-1-0 (80.0%)
9. Yejix Zabiru - 3-3-0 (50.0%)
10. Michiko - 2-2-0 (50.0%)
11. KelatheSkelicia - 5-7-0 (41.7%)
12. Capistrano - 2-4-0 (33.3%)
13. Shinigami - 0-4-0 (0.0%)
14. Rumiko - 0-3-0 (0.0%)
15. Garren - 0-0-0 (-.-%)
16. Rollo - 0-0-0 (-.-%)
17. Hojyn - 0-0-0 (-.-%)

In the preliminaries, Anya began her title defense by dispatching Hojyn; Sin knocked off Rollo in an overtime duel; Thorne took a relatively quick match against Garren; Rumiko scored a close victory over Sal; Wyh mounted a comeback to beat Yoshido; Imp won a hard-fought battle with Jay; Kelathe scored the second upset, beating Rhiannon; and relative newcomer Yejix defeated Michiko.

After reseeding, the quarterfinals were underway. The Good Doctor found her way to the semifinals with surgical precision, spoiling Rumiko's bid for an upset; Sin once again worked overtime, escaping with a victory over Kelathe; Thorne saw his way past Yejix to the semifinals; and Imp scored the one upset of the round over Wyheree.

Another reseed, and the semifinals were set. It was here that the attempt to become the first to win the Talon three times ended for Dr. Valkonan, as she fell to the pointy-eared Imp. In the other semifinal, another long duel awaited Sin, but his luck appeared to run out as he was dispatched by Thorne.

History was on the line in the final. There are three titles that any duelist can win without any extenuating circumstances; those are the Talon, the Panther's Claw, and the Ring of Klytus. Never before had any one duelist held any two of them concurrently. Alas, it was not to be, for Imp defeated current Panther's Claw holder Thorne in the final.

For his troubles, Imp becomes the custodian of the legendary Talon of Redwin, and receives an automatic entry into the Spring 2010 Warlord's Tournament. Congratulations Imp!

((A note: The full bracket may be seen at: http://netquiddler.tripod.com/Winter09Talon.pdf ))