The 2046 AADA World Dueling Championship Tournament was held at Origins in Columbus, Ohio, July 4-7. Laird Popkin and Juliette Hartel ran the tournament, and took digital movies of the event, which will be available on the Internet at www.io.com.
The Qualifying round was on Friday. The event was a straightforward arena, with advancement based on kill points. The players used pre-generated Division 15 cars, choosing between five standard vehicles. The ones chosen for the duel were the Spitfire, Cameleon, and Flamberge.
Seven players advanced to the Semi-Finals, which were run on a 3-D arena. The layout had a safety zone (with a gas station) in one corner, and three flags. A driver could score one point by driving around one of the flags and driving back through the scoring area. One flag was at the far end of the arena, on a banked turn which (successfully) encouraged high-speed driving. The second flag was on the middle of a raised dog-leg roadway, accessible only by driving up a ramp and across a steel lattice roadway, allowing other players to shoot up through the lattice at the underbody of cars driving to that flag. The third flag was hidden behind a cluster of concrete blocks, making maneuvering extremely difficult. In order to score the points for a flag, a player had to drive around the flag and make it back through the scoring goal posts. There was a safe zone with a gas station on one corner of the arena. If a car goes in to the safe zone it cannot be shot at or shoot from the zone. It also cannot return to the duel.
Five players showed up with division 25 cars ready to duel it out. Things started out with Tim Linden speeding out into the arena and whipping around to T-bone into Jeff Tidball, triggering an oil and ice side bumper and doing 83 points of damage. This breached the left of Jeff's car, wiping out his only weapon and gave Tim a firepower kill. However, Jeff kept going forward and Tim slid, rolled and crashed to a stop on his hood into a small concrete block. Tim was eliminated with a kill point total of minus one (-1). Scott, Jim and Jeff headed off for the flags. Shots were fired among the other players, doing little damage and most of them missing their targets. Brandon hung back and started laying mines around the goal posts. Scott went for the flag in the obstacle course. Julian and Jeff headed for the flag on the banked turn, coming at it from opposite directions. After Brandon laid the mines, he left the field in an interesting tactical maneuver. More long-range shots were exchanged, but no hits were scored. Scott made it through the obstacle course and headed back to the goal posts. Jeff and Jim passed each other and also headed back toward the goal posts. Scott managed to weave his way through the mines without setting them off and scored a flag point. As Scott headed out for another flag, Jim tried the same trick, but was unlucky enough to set off a proximity napalm mine. But Jim was only moderately damaged, and managed a flag point of his own. With the three remaining combatants at closer range, gunfire erupted again, with a few more hits than before. But with all three now in the points lead and in line to make the finals, they agree to leave the arena and save it for the Finals.
On Sunday, the three Semi-Finals survivors, Julian (Jim) Kulock, Scott Orr and Jeff Tidball won the right to challenge last year's returning champion, Tim Oister. The arena was the same as for the Semis, but the scoring now allowed players to capture flag points by killing opponents who had collected flag points but hadn't made it to the goal posts to score them. Thus, if a player collected two flags and then was taken out, the driver that did the deed would score two points for the kill, and also collect two more flag points by going through the goal posts.
Scott, driving a "Samba," a pickup truck with a turret-mounted laser, started out aggressively, firing on anyone in range. Jim, driving the "Spathi Special," had an immense acceleration of 25 mph/sec, along with a gauss gun, and used them to good advantage to distance himself from the pack and take pot-shots from range as he raced up the raised roadway to collect a flag point. Rather than take the dog-leg, he drove straight off the edge of the roadway into the slope of the banked turn, but he managed to keep control and at 140 mph swung past the second flag and headed back into the fray. Meanwhile, Scott wove through the flag surrounded by concrete blocks, collecting one flag point, and Tim laid down a dense field of spikes surrounding the scoring goal posts to keep people from scoring the flag points. Jim, going for a clean sweep, headed into the dense field of concrete blocks, still at 140 mph. He kept control despite enemy fire and swerving between obstacles to collect his third flag point, and slowed to 125 to make his way out of the clutter. But his high-speed driving magic finally ran out - Jim sideswiped one of the blocks, and then another, causing him to lose control and roll, slamming to a stop top-first against a massive concrete block a mere 45 feet (3") from the goal. All top and bottom armor, driver, weapons and powerplant were obliterated in the massive collision, leaving him the first, and most dramatic, casualty of the day's contest. Scott, meanwhile, having taken a lot of damage to left side, took the other leg of the dog-leg to collect the elevated flag (his second flag point) and looped off of the roadway to drop down and collect the flag on the banked turn for a complete set. Both Tim and Jeff headed for the goal at 80 mph to keep Scott from collecting the flag points, forcing him to circle around to protect his weak side. Jeff threatened to ram Tim, but at the last minute turned away, as Tim's weapons fire breached Jeff's front armor and caused a critical hit to the engine. Jeff and Tim sideswiped each other, and slid onto Tim's spikes, which it turns out are explosive. Tim slid across the goal, scoring a flag point. Scott never made it through goal, leaving Tim Oister as the champion for the second year in a row.
Our congratulations to Tim Oister, two-time champion!
| Drivers name: "Knife" Carver | Player's Name: Tim Oister | |||
| Description | Cost | Weight | Spaces | Notes |
| Luxury | 800 | 1800 | (19) | |
| X-hvy, Chassis | 800 | 0 | 0 | max. wt: |
| 6600 lbs. | ||||
| Heavy Suspension | 1200 | 0 | 0 | HC:3 |
| Driver | 0 | 150 | 2 | |
| BC | 4500 | 500 | 4 | 5 DP |
| HESY (8 shots) | 1200 | 80 | 0 | |
| 200 cid Gas Engine | 5500 | 480 | 4 | 3500 PF total 12 DP |
| Tubular Headers | 1100 | 0 | 0 | +5% PF |
| Blueprinting | 2750 | 0 | 0 | +10% PF |
| VP Turbocharger | 2625 | 0 | 0 | +25% PF |
| (all three cumulative) | ||||
| 2 Gal. HD Gas Tank | 10 | 4 | 0 | 4 DP |
| 2 Gal. HD Gas Tank | 10 | 4 | 0 | 4 DP |
| 2 Gal Gas (1 each) | 80 | 12 | 0 | |
| Plasticore Tires (x4) | 4000 | 600 | 0 | 25 DP |
| Fireproofing/Snow Tires | 4400 | 0 | 0 | |
| Metal Armor Q 38 pts | 1900 | 1900 | 0 | |
| Laser-Reflective | 190 | 0 | 0 | |
| Plastic Armor Q 32 pts | 640 | 320 | 0 | |
| Ram Plate (Fake) | 100 | 50 | 0 | |
| Wheelhub (7 pt. + 4 pt.) | 110 | 44 | 0 | |
| Wheelguard (7 pt. + 4 pt.) | 110 | 44 | 0 | |
| Comp Armor Engine (9 pts) | 180 | 72 | 1 | |
| Comp. Armor-Gas Tanks (9 pts each) | 90 | 36 | 1 | |
| Comp. Armor - Driver (9 pts.) | 90 | 36 | 1 | |
| SD (x3) | 300 | 75 | 3 | 4 DP |
| Explosive Spikes (6 each x3=18) | 900 | 90 | 0 | |
| Anti-Power Plant Rocket (Armor-Piercing) (x2) | 1500 | 80 | 2 | 1 DP |
| Spoiler/Airdam | 1000 | 200 | 0 | |
| HD Shock Absorbers | 1600 | 20 | 0 | |
| Antilock Braking System | 1000 | 0 | 0 | |
| HD Breakes | 400 | 0 | 0 | |
| No-Paint Windshield | 1000 | 0 | 0 | |
| Tinted Windshield | 500 | 0 | 0 | |
| Body Armor | 250 | 0 | 0 | |
| Fireproof Suit | 500 | 0 | 0 | |
| DuellistUs Shades | 25 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hi-Res Targeting Computer | 4000 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bumper Trigger (x2) | 100 | 0 | 0 | |
| Links (x5) | 250 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | $45,600 | 6,597 lbs | (19)18 | |
| Last Minute Addition | ||||
| Fireproof all component armor | 360 | 0 | 0 | |
| Compact TV | 700 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | $46,660 | 6,597 lbs | (19)18 | |
| Armor: | |
| Front | ( 9/ 6) |
| Right | (12/ 8) |
| Left | ( 3/ 2) |
| Top | ( 2/ 3) |
| Underbody | ( 7/ 6) |
| Bottom | ( 5/ 7) |
| Speed, Acceleration, and HC | |
| Top Speed | 82.5 |
| Acceleration | 15 |
| Handling Class | 3 |
Breez Von Hagen, President
6823 N. Lakewood
Chicago, IL 60626
Charter expires: 6/20/48
More news next time! Until then, drive offensively.