SUMMARY

RESULTS

Hikaru Hayakawa
John Mullins
Priscilla Haile

PROMOTIONS & RERATINGS

Hikaru Hiyakawa D->D
John Mullins U->E

The last day of April brought about part one (of two) of the Lone Wolf Base’s Duel in the Den Series! With the hopes of ranking up some Novice or Unranked fighters by excluding ranks C and above, Duel in the Den allowed newer fencers to test their mettle against others in the same general experience levels. Los Angeles Krait Base and Irvine Knights each sent down two members looking to get in some great fights versus Lone Wolf’s own D-rank fighter.

Coming from Krait base we had the lovely yet fierce, power-couple of Kieran and Priscilla Haile! Although they were unable to make it down to Escondido for Summer Slash V they came down with their heads high and in great spirits! John Mullins and Dinah Kolasa joined us from Knight base, with this being Dinah’s second ever appearance in competitive bouts. Hikaru “Ru” Hayakawa was the literal “Lone Wolf” fighting from his home base and the only currently ranked fighter with a D-rank. The tournament was smaller than planned due to various circumstances, and we hope to see the other fighters who had hoped to compete during our second tournament on May 14!

Dinah made a great “second debut” here in Escondido. Her third match of the night was versus Kieran, with Kieran racked 3 points on the board in the first 38 seconds of the match. However, Dinah was not disheartened and through some long exchanges bringing it back with a 4 point succession. Kieran fought back landing a first-strike and bringing us to 4-4 with only 25 seconds left on the clock. After some back and forths, including an amazing hook shot from Dinah, we were staring at 9 seconds left on the clock with Kieran leading 7 to 6. As soon as “Fight” was called by referee Liam, Dinah threw out the hook shot again and with 8 seconds left on the clock closing out the tense match 8 to 7 and claiming her first competitive win!

Priscilla brought a very interesting tandem grip style to the Duel and showed us that you cannot count out a two-handed grip in this primarily one-handed sport! Keeping very strong horse and bow stances she threw her opponents a little off of their game, as not many fencers come from such explosive stances! With such power comes amazing defense maneuvers, and Priscilla was very capable of controlling any basic one-handed blade movements against her, including scoring a parry riposte versus Dinah, which kept her well in the lead during their match and landing her a win in the pools.

Kieran kept up with his wife well by showing that he too was capable of defense bonus points! Although he lost versus John in the round-robin, he made him work for it by scoring an early 3-pointer scored by defending on the way into a hand pick! With some really great back-and-forth exchanges, Kieran was able to have a massive lead on Priscilla, handing him a win, and potentially a heated debate on the way home, lol!

John brings to us the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” John may be a big guy but his speed and accuracy made him an extremely tough opponent for most of the other fencers. With quick hand picks and amazing blade work, he kept his opponents on their back foot, afraid to come in, for fear of getting picked from his massive reach. John did find difficulty in Priscilla’s lateral and lower movements. She brought the score up to a 7-all comeback, but John was ultimately able to close it out with a fiercely accurate hand pick, ending 9 to 7.
Although John was looking to be the top competitor of the night, the true test was versus our only ranked fighter of the evening, D-ranked Hikaru. Hikaru was by far the most agile fighter in this comp. taking an immediate lead. One minute in, however, John was able to chain together some amazing picks and took the lead 5 to 4. Not wanting to lose as the “Home Team”, and also probably gathering the strength of the wolf pack, Ru pulled out some hookshots to the hand in order to close out the match 8 - 5.To make brackets extremely interesting, we took the number one fighter and gave them a bye through the brackets, letting them rest and recouperate until the finals match. Much like his showing at Summer Slash V, Ru was riding the home-field advantage in first place out of pools. The other four competitors had a ways to go to get to the final boss match, as all matches were now first eight points, but best of three rounds, with a 90 second “coaching intermission” between rounds.

The brackets started with the Irvine pair facing off in the “Quarterfinals”. John stepped into the ring with a mission and faced his teammate, Dinah, with a heavy heart. The first round was very reminiscent of their pool match with John keeping a massive lead the whole time, ending it 9 to 2. After a few words with her coach Cang Snow, Dinah looked to have a whole new battle plan. Her defensive movements were much more effective this time around and she was able to stall out John’s hand picks for a large part of the round. The end result was our very first round to go to a time call, ending with John in the lead at 7 to 3.

To find out who John was facing in the semi-finals, we went back to the lovely Krait Base couple! Kieran pulled off the win versus Priscilla in the pool match, but here in the best of three brackets Priscilla said, “Rings are off when we’re in the ring!” The first round was already a change up from the pools, as the two would go back and forth with some intense exchanges. Kieran took the first round win with some rapid fire combo attacks, but this time, Priscilla kept up, keeping it close at 8 to 5. With spectators hoping for an amazing comeback story, we entered round two with Priscilla mixing up her move pool with attacks very reminiscent of her base leader Tony Zaldua. This worked out well to her advantage as it kept her and Kieran going back and forth just long enough to run the clock down, ending the round at 7 to 6, Priscilla! Which meant we entered Round Three. As with any multi-round fight, both fighters seemed to have slowed down from their previous two rounds. Although Kieran put together some amazing combos with quick succession, Priscilla was able to counter back with amazing evasion and quick picks to take Round Three and the match, with a score of 9 to 6!

That brought Priscilla and John to the Semi-Finals match to see who would fight Hikaru! Keeping to her typical two handed stance and giving up quite a few honor calls, Priscilla realized that she was being beaten by John’s accurate snipes. Although she was able to deflect quite a few, she was still unable to retaliate at the range John was capable of, and John quickly closed out both rounds, 9 to 3 and 8 to 3. John was given as much time as needed to catch his breath, because he now faced Ru in The Finals!

What I did not say earlier is that all of these fighters drove out here to Escondido from OC and LA, respectively, to compete not only at a shot to earn their first ranks, but also to earn their own lights and sound lightsaber! Yes, a full equipped, lightweight, Lightspeed-legal lightsaber! Are you C or lower? Want a chance to get your own lightsaber? Come on out to Duel in the Den Episode II on May 14th! The tournament will be a Qualifier only event, meaning it is not “Prized”, however, all competitors will get an free entry into the raffle. Additional entries can be purchased online or on site. Raffle is open to all competitors and their guests! Tickets are on sale now on Duel In The Den 2 Eventbrite! C-ranks, please contact Andre to get your “discount code” before purchasing a ticket!

Anyway, where were we? OH! Right, The Final Fight. Although John lost to Ru in the pools, he had the heart of a lion... or a warrior... or maybe it was both, because he was on a fighter’s high and ready to take on any challenge, even if that meant the Lone Wolf at the end of the tunnel!

The First round started out extremely strong, as Ru bounced in and out looking for that first strike, while John was also stepping in and out to counter, not leaving space for Ru to feel comfortable. Although Ru opened up with a misparry and a clean hand shot, John’s extended reach proved to be a problem for Ru immediately afterwards. A few clashes in, the fight turned into survival match of who could keep their hands safe. After that tactic stalled out, John decided to aim high and score a massive head strike to keep him in the game. Ru followed up with a first-hit hand strike to close out round one, just barely, 8 to 7.

After a brief water break, both competitors came into Round Two refreshed. Irvine Coach Snow turned to his pupil during the intermission to give some helpful pointers, hopefully on how to slow down the smaller, younger Ru. The start of the round was promising for John as his tempo was definitely different this time around. Scoring a head shot early and with some quick retalitions, it looked as though John was at the start of a “reverse sweep”. Unfortunately, Ru seemingly picked up on John’s new methods and started to off-set the tempo of his fighting, which John was not prepared for. After a few devastating clean strikes, Ru finished the round 9 to 5, taking the match and first place for Duel in the Den Episode I!

For earning second place, John earns his first rank, coming in at E-rank! Hikaru re-earned his D-rank.

I want to thank all of the other competitors for coming out. I know we’re a little far from the rest of SoCal, but it means so much for us to be able to host these things, and we honestly love to have novice fighters earning ranks with us! If you fought on Saturday, you’re more than welcome to come back on the 14th. If you would like your chance to earn a ranking within the league, we gladly welcome you down here in The Den!

A big thank you to Lightspeed Saber League and Cang Snow for making all of this possible, and bringing us the World’s Fastest Light-Based Saber Fencing!

M.T.F.B.W.Y.A.

Andre “Moose” Gonzalez

Cpt. Lone Wolf Base