With 75 best-of-three matches and 175 individual games in the books, the group stage of ARH’s inaugural Destiny World Cup is complete! That means now is a golden time to recap the dramatic ups and downs from the final rounds, where each group went down to the wire and risked an epic “penalty shootout” for a spot in the semifinals.
Group Stage Leaderboards
Group A
With the Scotland squad dropping just before the Cup, each Group A team only had 4 matches to prove their mettle and this led to an extra-compressed leaderboard throughout the group stage. England-South was first to qualify as LandoWonka emerged victorious 2-1 from a “win and you’re in” matchup with DarthCluny (stream HERE), leaving the Echobase crew to truly enjoy their round 5 bye.
Elsewhere in Group A, the heat was on. With 26 best-of-three matches complete and just 4 to go, each team had a theoretical path to the semifinals. Here, Canada-OuterRim and Poland each entered the home stretch in control of their own destiny; wins in their remaining matches would put either of them at the top of the group with a 3-1 record. The Americans on the other hand, needed to win their matches and count on a bit of luck from others, with USA-MidRim and and USA-East each hoping to emerge from a 4-way scramble at 2-2.
First up was Aproderick vs. Darteo, with Poland represented by Jango/Dengar/HighStakes and the young American showing up with his tried-and-true “Blue Bean” – Sabine/Asajj/ProfitableConnection. The first two matches reached a 1-1 deadlock before timezones interfered to increase the drama… After reconvening the following day, Darteo emerged victorious – earning the distinction of the only player in the Cup to play all 3 games of every best-of-three match.
Darteo’s victory set the stage for a critical rubber match later that day between Night and MrPapagiorgio, who was following his USA-East teammate’s lead in bringing Sabine/Asajj to the table. Not to be outdone, Night also invited Sabine to the party, but it was her thematic partner Ahsoka who did the heavy lifting – resolving her weapons against multiple characters on the way to a Poland victory.
Elsewhere, Cyne and RandoMando (stream HERE) squared off for the rubber match of the Canada-OuterRim vs. USA-MidRim showdown. Pivoting from earlier pairings, each player brought their own versions of Sabine/Asajj – setting up a wild mirror with downgrades, rerolls, and pumped-up weapons everywhere. When the dust settled, Rando had earned the win, effectively knocking out Canada and keeping MidRim hopes alive.
In the final day of group stage play, Aproderick and Vika (stream HERE) met with the fate of Group A in their hands. A win for Poland would bring semifinal glory and the group A crown in light of their earlier head-to-head win against England. Vika played his spoiler role beautifully, however, handing Aproderick’s bounty hunters their second straight loss to Sabine/Asajj and allowing MidRim to sneak into the semis by virtue of their head-to-head wins against Canada and Poland. Phew…
Group B
Not to be outmatched, Group B had set the stage for its own rollercoaster final week. Undefeated through 4 rounds, pre-tournament favorite USA-Missourado was scheduled for a clash of the titans with Canada-Toronto, whose first 2 matches against Brazil had already guaranteed they’d enter the final round 3-1.
Across the pond, England-Midlands was also making things interesting, winning their first two matches against World to guarantee a 4-1 finish and send fans scurrying to analyze how tiebreakers would sort out an increasingly likely logjam at the top of the table.
First up in the Missourado/Toronto match was SpartacusN7 and StrongBrad, with the Canadian bringing Hunter/Bo-Katan/TMTNE against his southern neighbor’s Leia/Daughter/Flexible mill. After nearly 90 death-defying, tightrope-walking minutes, StrongBrad emerged with the 2-1 win to put the Torontonian backs against the wall: OldBenKenobi and LiquidSnake would *both* need to win in order to force the three-way tie.
To pump up the drama, these matches were scheduled simultaneously so fans could flip between the coverage – a feat that required multiple devices at tournament central (aka Casa Casero).
Putting his trust in mill, LiquidSnake notched a first win with Leia/Daughter/Flexible against NuteShunsrey’s villainous eVader/Palp/PtM, tiptoeing around Vader’s big damage sides while picking off some big upgrades.
Meanwhile, in the arena across the way, OldBenKenobi stayed true to form, bringing Sabine/Asajj/Profitable for the 4th straight round against Norman’s latest trooper squad: PreVizsla/Enoch/TMTNE. In game 1, the blue/yellow heroines delivered some remarkably consistent rolls, which proved enough to bury the zombie troopers in a hail of ranged and melee damage.
Back in mill-land, the imperial villains from Missourado blunted the Canadian momentum, with NuteShunsrey riding the wave of an early kill to tie the match at 1-1 and notch an all-important “individual player win” that would serve as tiebreakers in the case of a three-way tie.
Back at Norman’s table, Sabine/Asajj’s hot streak continued, leaving the villainous troopers dumbfounded and looking up at the wrong end of an 0-2 loss.
All eyes then on LiquidSnake and NuteShunsrey’s final game. A win for Missourado would secure a 5-0 group stage ranking and top seed heading into the semifinals. A win for Toronto would force the triple tie at the top of the table, with Midlands and Toronto each having one more opportunity (against World and Brazil, respectively) to pick up individual player wins.
The game started ominously for the charming heroines, with Vader and Palpatine knocking out Daughter early in round 2 and sitting with a healthy deck of 17 cards.
And then, in a scene reminiscent of her feistiest showdowns with Vader, Tarkin, and the rest of the Imperial establishment, Leia decided to punch back. Power Action for 4 cards to end the second round. Fresh Start for 4. Then another Morai-fueled Power Action for 3 more. And insult to injury: Deep Meditation to flip a dangerous Force Sense die to a useless 2 shields. NuteShunsrey swung hard in the final round, but with only a couple of cards in hand, it was only a matter of time until LiquidSnake delivered the final result for his Toronto teammates.
When the dust settled the next morning and the Destiny community surveyed the scene, Missourado was still clinging to a semifinal spot with a 4-1 record, 23 individual player wins, and hopes that Toronto (23) and Midlands (22) would fail to pick up any additional individual wins in the final matches of the group stage: OldBenKenobi (Toronto) vs. Filipels (Brazil) and Gameslayer (Midlands) vs. Djclero (World). With a high stakes “penalty shootout” format on deck as the 3rd tiebreaker, each team realized the enormous upside of separating themselves from the pack.
Gameslayer’s match with Djclero (stream HERE) was up first and the Destiny world watched as a crew of unusual suspects squared off with the semifinals on the line: Chopper/Bix/SenateGuard vs. Momin/SithAcolyte/SithCultist/AwaitingFate!
Relentlessly passing abilities back and forth between them, DJ’s “Sith Club” fought valiantly but found itself overmatched by an avalanche of cheap droid upgrades from Bix and Chopper. Gameslayer’s 2-0 victory put England-Midlands safely into the semifinals with 24 individual player wins, heralding in what might be the beginning of the “Meebur Meta.”
And so after 44 matches and 100 individual player games in Group B, it all came down to OldBenKenobi and Filipels (stream HERE). A Brazil 2-0 win would force Toronto into a dramatic penalty shootout with Missourado, but any other result would allow Toronto to claim the top spot.
To the surprise of no one, Ben stuck with “old trusty” (aka Sabine/Asajj/Profitable), but Filipels showed up with a spicy Syndulla family affair: inviting Cham and Hera to throw *lots* of indirect damage across the table. The “everybody yellow, everybody blue” dynamic duo claimed the first game handily but ran into trouble in game 2, where the Twi’leks skirted within one damage of claiming a win for Ryloth (er… Brazil) before finally succumbing 2-0 to the group champion. Phew… (again)
Choose Your Champion
The conclusion of the Group Stage provides a perfect opportunity to check in on the “choose your champion” competition to see whose bracket is busted and who is still in running for sweet prizes: professionaly printed copies of the Dicey Companions draft kit from Dice Commando! For refresher on the scoring format, check out the info hub HERE.
All in all, 18 community members correctly predicted at least one of the 4 semifinalists. England-Midlands was the biggest surprise, with only one fan predicting they’d claim one of the top cut tickets from Group B.
Quinlan Vos had the best crystal ball, missing out only on Toronto in predicting 3 of our semifinalists in their correct positions and earning 6 points so far.
OldBenKenobi also predicted 3 semifinalists, but Toronto was the only squad he slotted in the correct position so leaves the group stage with 4 points in hand.
Just behind the leaders with 3 points each are LiquidSnake, Norman, SpartacusN7, and ThatWookieSmell
With 3 points available for predicting the champion and 2 points for picking runner-up, members of the 2 point club are still in the running which means Fablewick, KingGrouber, NuteShunsRey, and Thyagumm, RandoMando will be hoping for the perfect podium in order to claim their prize.
Meta Review & Decklists
Overall, the World Cup meta (raw data HERE) continues to be a Sabine show, with the yellow/blue apprentice and her pumped up weapons appearing more times (29) than the next two characters combined: Asajj 16 times and Paz 11.
Elsewhere, Pre Vizsla and Enoch stock rose over the final rounds, while some early/middle round stars like Gorian, Luke, Merrin, Qi’ra and Yaddle faded down the stretch.
Although the World Cup is first and foremost a team competition, now is a terrific opportunity to recognize individual player accomplishment: the five players who each successfully navigated the group stage without losing a single best-of-3.
Gameslayer, semifinalist from England-Midlands, went 5-0 across his matches, losing a single game to Fablewick. Impressively, Gameslayer was the only player to run the table with different decks in each round:
- Hondo/2xSenateGuards/NoAllegiance
- Pre/Enoch/TMTNE
- Gorian/Palp/Heist
- Dooku/Momin/AwaitingFate
- Bix/Chopper/SenateGuard
LiquidSnake’s 5-0 performance led Toronto to the semis, but stuck with just two decks: Hunter/Bo-Katan/TMTNE and the trusty Leia/Daughter/FlexibleLeadership team that won the decisive 2-1 match against Nute Shunsrey.
RandoMando’s 4-0 streak was also built on just two pairings: running a a go-go-go Paz/Jannah/TMTNE team until his final match against Cyne where his 2-1 win in the Sabine/Asajja/Profitable mirror was just enough to sneak USA-MidRim into the semifinals.
Rounding out the club were Quinlan Vos (USA-Missourado) who went 4-0 with Paz/Wrecker/Warfare without losing a single individual game and Vika (Canada OuterRim) who rode Sabine/Asajj/Profitable to his own 4-0 streak, losing only one match (to Darteo) along the way.
