Twice a year, there is a great gathering. These tiny men with their stained clothing and great intellects do not look like your traditional gladiators, but they will meet and compete for a chance at Duel2 immortality. No, no, I’m not talking about the managers at the Face-to-Face. I’m talking about the murderous dwarves at the Bloodgames.

Its probably the worst advertised event in Duel2 history. It happens twice a year, every year, and you don’t have to fly across the country to participate. For some, the Bloodgames are just a distant memory of a t-shirt that never arrived, newer managers may have never even heard of it. For others, though, it is a way of life. And it can be your way of life, too.

The cost: $10 to roll up the team, $49 to run them. At each Face-To-Face tourney, two Bloodgames arenas are run. One of them (called the FtF Bloodgames) gets run round-by-round for ten rounds, and warriors are allowed to change their strategies, avoid, and make Bloodfeud challenges. For the other arena (called the Mail-In Bloodgames), there are no bloodfeuds or avoids and each warrior must use the same strategy and train for all ten rounds. You can participate in both even if you don’t attend the FtF, but you’ll be at a slight disadvantage in the FtF Bloodgames (the Mail-In Bloodgames is a perfectly level playing field).

The teams: Each team consists of TEN warriors, one of EACH style. You can design each warrior however you want, as long as the stats add up to 84 points and no stat is lower than a 3 or higher than a 21 (referred to as DYOs or design-your-own warriors). Simply write down the following information on a piece of paper and mail it to RSI (or email it to csr@reality.com): your name, your account number, the words “Mail-In Bloodgames” or “FtF Bloodgames”, the team name, and all ten warriors (name, style, gender, ST-CN-SZ-WT-WL-SP-DF). If you submit them early enough you will probably get a chance to see the overviews before sending in strategies for each of them (using a normal strategy sheet, remember only one strategy and train for the entire event). If you want to play it safe, however, you can submit strategies along with the team information, just write “NEW” in each of the Warrior ID spots and either “MI BG” or “FTF BG” in the Game # spot. Some managers who are especially hard-core will roll up each team more than once, and look over the overviews to determine which team had the best luck in the roll-up process. Just remember, it costs $10 each time you roll them up.

The rules: So what’s the catch? $59 for 10 design-your-own warriors? Not so fast, buddy. At the end of ten rounds, the top three warriors of different styles from each arena will be granted immortality, trained up to the minimum ADM requirements, and will graduate to ADM. Every other warrior will be gone forever. Executed, freed, or retired to a quiet life on the farm like your childhood dog Buster, whatever helps you sleep at night. If the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked warriors are a LU, a WS, and an AB, then those three will win the prizes. However, if the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked warriors are a LU, a LU, and a WS, the 2nd place LU is out of luck, his prize will drop down to the highest ranking member of a style that isn’t LU or WS. So what does it take to be one of the top ranked warriors? Warriors are ranked based on number of kills, first and foremost, with their record and recognition points being the tie breakers. Oh, did I mention that the chances of dying are FIVE TIMES that of a normal arena?

What to expect: You will run into many opponents who are SZ 3, who have 21 WT and 21 WL, who are using a 10 KD and aiming for the vitals, who are using unusual weapons that Duel2 folklore says have a greater chance of delivering that killing blow, such as the Battle Axe. You may run into such classic archetypes as the 17-3-3-21-21-8-11 ST or the 17-16-3-3-21-3-21 AB.

So why should you play? There are many reasons. You don’t have to feel guilty about killing your friend’s warrior, for starters, because that’s the whole objective. Unique kill text make it all the sweeter, too. You won’t see anyone get “pierced completely through” or “skewered through their vital organs” anywhere else (at least I hope not). Not only is it exciting to read, but my most rewarding warrior came from the Bloodgames and yours could, too. Whether you are a tournament player or an arena player, if your warrior is tough enough to survive the Bloodgames, he’s tough enough for whatever task you set him to. My first Bloodgames graduate was a warrior named Sushi Slinger of Sea Dogs: 17-3-3-21-21-12-7 SL. He left Old Valamantis with a 10-0-3 record and immortality. Since then, he has been a Tournament Victor in the Freshman tourney, a Runner-Up in the ADM tourney, and a three-time Tournament Victor in the Eligibles tourney. He is now fighting in Primus against the best of the best and holding his own. Your Bloodgames graduate could join him in Primus, too.

I have given plenty of room to design here.

ST 7 – 13: if you can only get a 7 because you need the points elsewhere, you can always use an Epee, but I like at least 9 for the Scimitar. 11 is good also because of the damage and you get more weapons.

CN: 9 – 13. They aren’t the best jumpers in the game so they need to take a hit or two, this also helps endurance, and that is one of the keys for a good slasher.

SZ 6 – 12: Actually it can be anything, but smaller is better because it makes up for less speed. I am currently experimenting with a High SZ Slasher, but I’ll tell you about that later.

WT: 15 – 21. They need to learn and 15 is good enough, better if 17. I would almost never go with a 21 because you need it elsewhere. Also with a 15 you get every Slasher weapon.

WL: 15, 17, 21. Nothing else will do. This is a Slasher’s most important stat. in my opinion, if you don’t have one of those, i’s not a good Slasher. This gives the endurance, a Slasher’s most important part.

SP: 5 – 13. Lots of room to toy with here. I wouldn’t go below 5 because they do need a little and if it’s over 13 you should make it a Striker. Others will tell you that Speed is a key but not I.

DF: 11 – 17. You cannot go below 11. 13 is great and 15 is pretty good. I have 17, but if you get a 17 Deftness, go Aimed Blow not Slasher.

I have a few guys that fit in here:

11-9-8-17-21-5-13

This is a killer Slasher in my opinion. He is curently 8-4 97 rec, challenging for the Duelmastership. He has an EX in Attack and Initiative and should have a MA in Attack in 3 fights or so. He is a very good warrior and will be in ADM anytime now.

15-5-9-15-21-6-13

He is okay but a little too much strength and a little too little constitution, but still a good Slasher. He only has 2 fights but he’s looking good so far.

9(1)-12-6-17-15-11-15

Another good Slasher. I trained his strength in his first fight to get him the Scimitar, the best slashing weapon in my opinion. Only 2 fights on this one also but again looks great.

Now going back to my experientation with a new style of Slasher, I’m going to try with a high damage, high size Slasher, and give up Will points. I know that contradicts everything I just said but it’s an experiment. I’ve been getting heat that this guy is a target, but think about the look on that scum TP’s face when you hit him 3 times and he drops. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it.

This was brought to you by Swifty McSwift, Leader/Founder of Troop 709, I am currently active in the following arenas: 4, Wrongfull Justice, 19, The Marksmen, 35, Da Bomb Squad. Drop me a line with comments whenever.

If you want to chat or need help with anything, E-mail me at: DMMalice@aol.com I’d also like to thamk Mr. Mojo for making this site so I could write this. BTW Mojo, I’m gonna pound your team in Zuwayza to nothing!! j/k =) =)

Comments_advice: I hate Speed; it’s a very annoying attribute, and it’s certainly not what you could call ‘sexy’. We all know what the sexy attributes are; WT,DF and WL. Regardless, the RUG’s not only enjoy sending out a large perentage of non ‘keeper’ WT/DF/WL rollups, but also with high Speeds. What do I usually do with a high SP rollup?

Lunger.

I don’t particularly like Lungers; they’re not what I’d call sexy. In fact, the’re downright boring. Sure, they have great bases, and will often win for a good portion of their early careers (until they hit middle AD, where skills begin to make things more of a race); but I find them dull. But I’ve got to do something with the high SP rollups I get, and I usually make’em Lungers. Don’t talk to me about Strikers; I hate those too.

Speed is a prime Lunger attribute; it gives good Defense, and a lot of Riposte. It also helps with fighting frail little toothpicks to duck more often than they oof.

As always, CN and SZ lose because they’re not sexy, long-term attributes. If you have’em, they’re great; but high CN/SZ rollups are a different breed entiely.

WT, usual story. Nothing new.

WL, a good stat for Lungers, jumping around constantly is hard work. You want a guy who’s not going to pout when he gets tired.

DF is excellent for Lungers, but not crucial; you can get by with only minimal levels. 9-11 is sufficient.

ST is an interesting stat for Lungers. High ST will enable you to have a better chance for the upper damage categories. Lower will give some weapon selection problems, but also often have the very interesting side effect of generating long, active fights. What does this do? Gives you a warrior who often has popular fights that go for multi-minutes when their in charge of the action; which enables you to more often than not have an excellent shot at the ‘This Week’s Favorite’ and ‘Most Popular’ titles. Free fghts are free fights. Also, longer fights seem to increase learning chances, so it’s not all fluff.

Most Lungers like high to very-high Offensive Efforts, and high to very-high Activity levels. 10-10-7 is a staple tactic, but I’ll point out you should experiment a little; finding your favorite will often yeld better results overall than simply going with good old 10-10-7. Lunge or Decise are good tactics to try if you want the help, Dodge can be a good defensive tactic. If you want to run up some long fights with fairly low chances of dying, seek out the pure scums in your arena and challenge them continually. Lungers aren’t very good at penetrating heavy armor, but they’re often very good at maintaining initiative over scums.This leads to fights that o for several minutes and eventually end in an exhausted Lunger and a bemused scum. But you didn’t get killed, and did rack up a long fight that should help your learns. Methods to madness.

So, nothing particularly shocking about this design; just a basic Lunger layoutthat focuses on Speed and interesting fights. With any luck avoiding the Grim Reaper, you’ll see this staple warrior in AD after about a year or so in Basic. And then the RUGs’ll send you another design that looks something like 9-13-17-5-7-12-7. Fooey.

Dave of Dave’s World (DM33)

Some tournament prizes are designed to only give a temporary benefit to a warrior. Immortality is such a prize. Once the warrior reaches ADM, the prize is null and void. The ten skill boost to learned skills is another such prize. It puts the warrior ahead of his peers, but in the long run, it does not change what the warrior will eventually become. The 87-point warrior is another example. Along with the stat-swap prize and DYO, they just give you an extraordinarily good starting warrior, but do not change what the warrior can eventually become. Resurrection is just limited immortality. The five train prize is also a temporary one since those trains will come eventually anyway.

The more powerful class of tournament prizes change the long-term potential of a warrior. The most famous example of this was the prize that added 5 skills to a warrior’s base ratings. That problem was fixed in Gateway, but it still exists in Primus. Another example is the style-swap prize. This prize allows the most skilled fighting styles to get rid of their only weakness, endurance burn. Another long-term prize is the favorites prize. This prize allows a warrior to gain a favorite weapon, rhythm, or tactics that he could not naturally get. All of these prizes allow the creation of ‘freak’ warriors. A freak is a warrior that could not naturally exist. An example would be a wall of steel fighter with very high/very high for a favorite rhythm, or a lunger getting a scimitar favorite (although there are a few running that got this favorite naturally in the old days). Another long-term altering prize is the size prize. This allows a warrior to increase his damage class rating beyond what would have been possible for his previous size. However, this does not create a freak warrior since any warrior grown is simply gaining what a warrior of the new size would naturally have. For instance, a warrior grown from size 6 to size 7 would lose a defense and parry skill, but would also gain awesome damage capability. He is still the equivalent of any warrior born at size 7. The freaks are those warriors that are shrunk, because RSI allows them to keep the damage ratings attained at the larger size, then gain the skills of the lower size. (Example: A size 7 warrior gets Devastating damage, then is shrunk to size 4: He gets to keep Devastating damage while gaining two more parry and defense skills, thus creating a warrior that could not naturally exist, a freak.)

What of the worth of the various tourney prizes? As always, worth is in the coinpurse of the buyer, but in general, some prizes are worth more than others. The most desired prizes (and thus the most valuable) are those that change the long-term potential of a warrior. The favorites prize falls into this category, with the latest offering retailing for around $700 per potion (and there’s three potions per prize!). The bonus potions sold for about $600 per potion. If the style swap were offered again, I’m sure it would command a greater sum. The size potions can go for a couple hundred apiece, and again there are three potions per prize. The stat train prize is a lot less valuable since the trains will come anyway, and it should go for $50-$75 per potion (but there’s five potions to this one). The limited use prizes (resurrection, immortality, swap, 87-point, etc.) will generally sell for around $250 per prize.

Some prizes are more valuable not for what they can do for a warrior’s long term potential but rather for what they can do for a manager’s short term potential to TC. The 10 skill prize was such a prize, as is the 5 stat train prize. Both give a temporary boost to a warrior, but that temporary boost can give a huge advantage over the warrior’s peers. These prizes become even more valuable for TC purposes when RSI fails to put proper restrictions on them. If a winner of multiple 10 skill prizes is allowed to put 20 skills on a single warrior, it gives that warrior a gigantic advantage in an apprentice or initiate tournament.

The real key to tournament prizes, in my opinion, is using them to generate more tournament prizes. Tournament prizes allow you to maintain a stronger stable of warriors than your competitors, and thus give you increased odds to garner more prizes. The best use of tournament prizes is using them in tandem with each other. Resurrection can be used to get back that really blessed, great physicals warrior that got unlucky enough to die, and then immortality can ensure he gets his chance to TC Freshmen, ADM, or Eligibles. The 10 skill prize can be used to give your apprentice a boost, but if it’s used on a favorites modified warrior, he can be a TC contender for adepts and champions as well. Or, as I did, you can take a very developed warrior, give him favorites to make him better, then give him growth potions to put him over the top. The two prizes I’ve used on Psycho Scientist have generated three TC’s in return (so far). One key to discovering these clever uses of TC prizes is to think about where the prizes can be used beyond the obvious first choices. One example is the 5 stat train prize. The most obvious use for that prize is on a warrior in ADM that is blowing out to try to TC either Freshmen, ADM, or Eligibles. Taking that 20 wit (trained from 17) to 25 instantly gives a huge boost to your TC contender. But, what if-what if you won two prizes, 10 potions? How good could a double 21 apprentice be if you took away his only weakness, lack of con? That was what struck me prior to the tourney where RSI offered that prize. Fortunately for me, I happened to win three tournaments and got 15 potions. The timing was such that I also was able to resurrect a dead clone to use the potions on. He was the perfect warrior for this purpose: a double 21 lunger that started with 23 attack skills, 81 overall. He also had riposte as a favorite learn, perfect for a high con lunger. All you have to do is miss once, then he sends his gigantic attack back at you. The rest is Cosmic Hammer history. I had successfully gotten on the TC merry-go-round where TC prizes generate more TC prizes.

Winning tournaments never gets old, and neither does trying to think up combinations of tournament prize use. It varies depending on what RSI offers when, but there are always some interesting and powerful combinations to be had, whatever the prizes involved.