Finalists Tokiko Tigerpaw (1), Dassina Andel (2), KittyKat Borkotron (2).
Fighters were pitted against each other via hybrid qualification/point system this week and matches were as follows:
Tournament Round
| Combatants | Weapons | Map | Winner |
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Remarks: Confined to a very tight space between multiple mine traps, Psycho and TheBlackCloud kept their fighting fairly tight and avoided fire damage for the most part until the end, as a final misstep took Psycho Baroque out abruptly.
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Remarks: Nino made further acquaintance with the arena and its traps this week as he skuffled with Dassina over this mine, saw, spike and gas-laden map. While both fighters started out avoiding traps to a reasonable degree and Nino started off attempting the Hooper Gambit, he soon found himself poisoned and being chased in to trap-laden areas of the map. In short succession, he took on damage from a saw, mine, and gas trap. Finally, as the result of a dodge on Dassina’s part, Nino’s last swipe turned in to an overstep, landing him in a spike trap that took him out of the match.
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Remarks:After a long time away, Ironblood returned to the arena armed with only his fists in an attempt to best recent contender Tokiko. While he was lucky to receive numerous doses of healing gas when attempting the Hooper Gambit, it was clear by the end of the match that bare hands are no match for brutal smashing impliments such as the Kidney Burster. Relatively unthreatened by Ironblood’s weapons, Tokiko did not need to stray far from her cell door to defeat her opponent.
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Remarks: After a brief skirmish near the south cell, KittyKat had an encounter with a nearby saw while making a swiping pass at her opponent. The match was mostly otherwise devoid of damage from traps, aside from a few brief (failed) attempts by KittyKat near the end to gamble on healing gas from a gas trap. Poisoned twice rather than healed, she eventually expired in the south-eastern corner of the arena, leaving Cigi victorious.
Redemption Round:
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Remarks: Both competitors emerged with minimal weaponry for this match and, while the map did contain numerous gas, spike and pit traps, the fight continued for quite an extended period since the fighters were mostly able to avoid them by fighting along the periphery of the arena. Surprisingly, with no prodding from traps or launched firebombs, Ironblood was finally able to crush Psycho under his fist after an epic fight that lasted over seven minutes.
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Remarks: Nino attempted to keep KittyKat at more than arm’s length this time around by targetting her with a nailgun but switched to a flayer when he realized shooting and reloading the gun was costing him valuable escape and attack time. Even so, this seemed too little too late. In an attempt to escape further from KittyKat’s blade, he fled back and forth between the north-east and south-west corners of the map, running in to numerous spike traps and receiving significant spike and poison damage in the process. Eventually his health ran out and he expired, giving KittyKat the point for the match.
Round Two:
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Remarks: Ironblood again attempted to best his opponent using only fistwraps. The fighters kept to the walls for the most part, Ironblood moving at a furious pace, with Kittykat intermittently giving chase when she was not swiping viciously with her flayer. While neither contestant triggered any traps, Kittykat was able to take Ironblood out fairly easily and won her place in the final round.
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Remarks: Both fighters exploded out of the gates at amazing speed. While TheBlackCloud kept mostly to the relatively trap-free circular path on this map, Dassina often chose to make use of the corners of the map, where a thin grate provides a sliver of respite from sure disaster. Doing so tempted her opponent to give chase on occasion – by using this strategy, Dassina was able to lure Cloudy in, causing her to be poisoned by a nearby gas trap. At the same time, Dassina switched to the longer range slug-thrower while jumping away, then turned around quickly to take TheBlackCloud out entirely.
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Remarks: The fighters immediately converged on the south wall just outside of the cell door, dealing significant damage to each other as neither moved too far from this area for quite some time. About two thirds of the way through, Tokiko chased Cigi in to the southwest corner and was eventually able to pin her there, emerging victorious when Cigi fell from her injuries.
Final Round:
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Remarks: ‘True Random’ maps always present significant difficulties for fighters because it represents a completely mixed bag of results on the map, with, in theory, only a 43% of landing on a safe tile in the best case scenario (33% in the worst case scenario). The fighters lucked out to some degree with a reasonable number of clear, pit and gas traps, however all three initially elected to attack each other from afar using guns of various types. It wasn’t until about a third of the match had passed that KittyKat, starting from Cell B (on the east wall) switched to a flayer and attempted to reach Dassina (along the south wall). Her attempt failed as Dassina leapt to a safe tile (running in to a gas trap in the process and receiving poison) and shot her down from a short distance away. Moving on, Dassina attempted to reach Tokiko by hugging the east wall and heading northward, pausing only to switch weapons to a kidney burster. While she was successful in doing this, she was unable to evade shots coming from Tokiko’s gun. Even though Tokiko did end up switching to a kidney burster herself as Dassina approached, this was found to be unnecessary, as Dassina expired as she reached the north wall of the arena.
(( Fight Night runs every Saturday of the month at The Potato Farm, Hambone Slash, in The Wastelands, 3PM PDT. The above photo and other Wasteland event photos are available here – A.S.))