End of Season Tournament Winners

The Ducks took the skies.

The first season of the Guns of Icarus competitive scene has ended! I’d like to thank everyone for their amazing performances in the end of season tournament that we are officially naming The Fabria Conclusion.

The first day was a rapidfire round robin event that saw the Aeronautical Knights, Bully Boys, Ducks, Glowwater Thralls, Museosaurs, Sky Invading Rhinos, The Flying Dutchmen, and Zill’s Merry Men pushing onto the second day’s single elimination.

There were some amazing matches with teams showing top forms, and if you’d like to watch the action as it unfolded, you can find videos on our Youtube page.

Some of the highlights of day 1 include the Glowwater Thralls vs Zill’s Merry Men where the Thralls showed off the spires firepower by locking down ships with a Hwacha and Hades combo.  The Merry Men were were forced into a more defensive position, but their counter attack gained them four kills without answer from the Thralls.  Grouping back up the Thralls blasted through the firing line to gain three more kills without losing a ship and winning them the game.

Another amazing moment was Polaris’s Galleon in the tight confines of the Paritan Rumble. The behemoth tanked and brawled both enemy Pyramidions with a finishing ram by it’s allied Goldfish for the rounds first kill.

Second day spoilers after the jump…

The full brackets and their winners are listed here.

The first round of day 2 was on Fjords. The Sky Invading Rhinos took control of their first round with a victory over the Bully Boys. SIR’s Junker and Pyramidion applied constant pressure to the Bully Boy’s Galleon and Junker with masterful Hades shots.

The Duck vs Flying Dutchmen match was supposed to happen on Fjords, but saw an unexpected twist as the Ducks were ambushed by The Flying Dutchmen using the Ducks own Flotsam rules and forcing them to fight on Paritan Rumble.  The Ducks just barely edged out the Flying Dutchmen, nearly losing to a beautiful baiting maneuver, with a close and hotly contested 5-4 victory.

This led SIR and the Ducks into the semi-finals.  The Ducks have a long history in the competitive game and fought against almost every clan. In a pre-game talk, the Ducks gave the SIR a lot of props, identifying them as one of their greatest challenges. Both sides fought hard, but the Ducks emerged victorious and advanced to the finals.

In the other bracket, the Aeronautical Knights and the Glowwater Thralls had an amazing battle where its conclusion became another source of argument.  The match ended at 5-3 in the Knights’ favor.  The Knights’ Mobula and Pyramidion gained the upper hand against the Thralls’ Pyramidion and Spire Combo while navigating around the arch in the Fjords.

The Museosaurs, us devs who were the only team to not win a match and still advanced because of luck, was promptly knocked out in the quarters by a savage double Pyramidion play courtesy of the Merry Men which earned them an easy 5-1 victory.  At least we were not total cannon fodder.  Our single kill with twin Spires actually mirrored what Bubbles boldly predicted before the match, so we were pretty happy.

Aeronautical Knights and Zill’s Merry Men met up in their semifinal fight on Paritan Rumble.  Tracers from the Knights’ Mobula zoomed across the sky above the ruined cityscape colliding into both of the Merry Men’s ships, but the focused firepower of Zill’s double Pyra won in the final engagement putting the Merry Men into the Finals with a close 5-3 victory.

Before the Ducks and Merry Men could vie for the championship, the Sky Invading Rhinos and Aeronautical Knights had their duel for third place.  Before their match, SIR spoke briefly on their worry about assembling a team on such short notice after being voted in by the community.  They hid their anxieties well because their efforts paid off as they claimed third place with a 5-3 victory.

The final match between the Ducks and Merry Men started with a quick kill for Merry Men, which was what the Ducks had mentioned that they feared.  The breadth of Zill’s tactics and his ability to master a wide variety of builds are really fun to watch.  He is just as comfortable charging with a Pyramidion as he is at the helm of a Galleon, which makes Zill a tough opponent to prepare for.  However, the Ducks, with 2 Junkers, earned a victory despite many close calls and won the championship.

We would just like to congratulate the Ducks, Merry Men, and SIR for placing in the tournament. We would also like to thank everyone for participating in the event and watching the stream. The Ducks now have the opportunity to name one of the AI in the game 😀

Win or lose, we were really happy and proud that everyone had fun.  That’s really the most important thing and why we wanted to host the event.  We would also like to give a huge thanks and a round of applause for all the casters and CAs who took time out on a weekend and helped out.  They put in a lot of effort.  The event could not have happened without their support.  Finally, the Museosaurs would like to thank everyone who hopped on our ships to help us.  It was a ton of fun and much better than having our usual AI crew…

From a planning standpoint, we definitely have a few things we can improve upon and we’ve taken note from your feedback.  Next time around, things should be smoother and better.  For all the shortcomings, sorry and thanks for putting up with them!

Thank you again everyone for making our first season the amazing start to a new tradition.

See you in the skies!

Matt for Team Muse