The final weekend of gladiatorial spaceship combat came to a close on 2 December after fifty-nine dramatic explosion-filled matches. Each of the 10-minute clashes saw up to 16 pilots pitting their strategic nous, cool heads and coiled reactions against one another in a bid to win the $6,000 first prize.
Of the 27 competing teams, only six made it to the third weekend of the tournament and only four to the last day. The final showdown for the grand prize came down to Asine Hitama’s team and RONIN and pixies.
Each of the final two competitors had delivered a number of surprises on their route to the final, with RONIN and pixies taking some impressive scalps in the shape of the favoured Why Dash and the Expendables, who hailed from the feared HYDRA RELOADED stable. Asine Hitama’s team‘s matches were perhaps not against such famous competition, but they had nonetheless impressed with repeated solid performances, more remarkable for a refusal to subscribe to the conventional approach of using logistics repair cruisers as almost universally favoured by other teams.
With a best-of-five matches format for the tournament title, RONIN and pixies were perhaps favoured, but it really was anyone’s competition.
Match 1: The Big Opener
The opening match saw Asine Hitama’s team field a trademark logistics-free fleet led by three Golem marauder-class battleships armed with cruise missile launchers… [read full match report]
Match Score: Asine Hitama’s team 70 – 19 RONIN and pixies
Match 2: Advantage Asine Hitama’s team
Faced with the possibility of letting the $6,000 prize slip through their fingers, RONIN and pixies needed to turn their fortunes around quickly… [read full match report]
Match Score: Asine Hitama’s team 0 – 70 RONIN and pixies
Match 3: All’s Square in Love and War
Level on match victories, whichever team won this next bout would be one win from taking the prize. The pressure was immense… [read full match report]
Match Score: Asine Hitama’s team 70 – 8 RONIN and pixies
Match 4: Last Chance Saloon
Asine Hitama’s team had total victory almost in their grasp, whilst RONIN and pixies‘ title dreams were hanging on by a shred. The next win could decide everything… [read full match report]
Match Score: Asine Hitama’s team 2 – 0 RONIN and pixies
With a third win for Asine Hitama’s team, it was all over for RONIN and pixies.
The match, and the competition, had been decided by the destruction of the smallest* of ships, worth only a paltry 2 points, but also $6,000…
