For the January jump-start issue of Ubique's Monthly, mastermind coordinator Random McChanse of the Rings of Honor community wrote up for us a spectacular article on all that is the
Tour de Rhydin. This article includes information of the history of the Tour, where the idea for it originated, and what was expected to occur. Though this article alone could not have possibly prepared everyone for just how precisely insane a month and a half's worth of nonstop dueling is really, really like.
2010 marked a milestone in the RoH community in which participation levels had significantly increased since nearly the two years of decline it had suffered before. The dueling community has its origins with historical data documenting as far back as 1995. In the past six months, this community has seen a drastic increase in new player registrations and participation. With this much of a come-back occurring, it is no small surprise that Random decided to bring back the Tour, which saw its first inception four years previous in 2006.
This year was not much unlike the event that occurred four years before. All of the same stages were implemented, though along the way a few small changes needed to be made. Regardless of this, the 2010 Tour de Rhydin went off without a hitch. In the beginning, thirty-seven duelists banded together into seven teams and one lone wolf participant. Later in the Tour, another team arose to accept the challenge with four members of its own, and additional members were added to other pre-existing teams along the way. In the very last stage of the Tour, one more "free agent" registered to participate in the final event, and helped one team place first in that tournament.
Many newcomers to the sports confessed being confused by the way in which Random calculated in the scores for individual duelists and their teams. In fact, we've heard that even the more experienced duelists who have been around since those early years in the mid-nineties were just as baffled by the system. Nonetheless, detailed records were kept on the Rings of Honor site under the Tour de Rhydin folder for each individual stage, with the standings being officially finalized only a few short days after the last stage event only a couple of days ago.
Before we get to that, we'll give you a run-down on what we know happened in each of the 18 stages of the Tour. To start, here's a recap from the February issue of Ubique's Monthly's headlines:
TdR Stage 1 Fists Brawl : The night of January the 17th kicked off the anxiously awaited two month long Tour de Rhydin all sports dueling tournament with its first stage event. A mighty mega Fists Brawl went down in the Annex, where a grand total of 16 duelists all met to crowd into a single ring and beat the ever-living snot out of each other. The only competitor to walk away from this pile-up of pugilistic mayhem was a glass ranked little rodent by the name of Napoleon Bonarat! Well done, little guy!
TdR Stage 2 Fists Regular : In two consecutive nights, the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin all flooded the Outback to duke it out against each other over and over again to earn Green Nobles for their teams. Of a grand total of 58 ranked duels fought, only one member of a single team walked away with the best score, and that man was Kheldar Drasinia of the Wrecking Crew! Congratulations!
TdR Stage 3 Swords Regular : In two consecutive nights, the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin all flooded the Arena to hack and slash each other for Red Nobles to benefit their teams. Of a grand total of 66 ranked duels fought, only one member of a single team walked away with the best score, and that man was Anubis Karos of team Great of Strength! Right on!
TdR Stage 4 Swords Tag Team : On the night of January the 23rd, 14 duelists consisting of 7 pair-ups from every team banded together in the Arena for a tournament to decide which of them was the best of the best in a tag team pairing. Coming out on top were Thorne and Rekah from team Deathcake! Accidentally amazing!
TdR Stage 5 Magic Regular : In two consecutive nights, spell-slingers from all teams flooded Twilight Isle to decide which single contender was the best of the best in Magic Dueling. As far as we can determine, our sources conclude that the highest scorer in this stage was Sivanna Cyredghymn from team Deathcake! Well done!
TdR Stage 6 Magic Tournament : On the night of January the 27th, 11 duelists representing all teams piled into Twilight Isle to sear and score against each other in a grueling Magic Tournament. Of which only one contender came out on top, and that was our darling Kirn friend Misty from team Fun-Tastics! Spell-tacular!
TdR Stage 7 Fists Tag Team : The end of the month kicked off the second cycle of the ongoing Tour de Rhydin tournament in sensationally fist-flinging fashion on January the 31st in the Outback with a grueling Duel of Fists Tag Team Tournament. Pairings from all teams showed up to duke it out and see which match-up was the mightiest, and in the end our sources conclude it was Matt Simon and Sartan from team CrushBob! Nicely done!
By the end of January, the Tour had only started into its second cycle, and the dueling mayhem was not even halfway over. Now we can report to you all that happened in the final stages, and eventually get to the end results of who won what and for whom. But not until we give you the run-down.
TdR Stage 8 Fists Regular : In two consecutive nights, the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin came back to flood the Outback once again and duke it out to determine which of them was the best of the pugilistic best. After a grand total of 58 duels, it was Xanth van Bokkelen from the team Great of Strength who came out on top! Spectacularly done!
TdR Stage 9 Swords Regular : In two consecutive nights, the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin once again swamped the Arena to hack and slash at each other to pile up Red Nobles for the bloody guts and glory of their teams. After 61 duels, it was Maranya Valkonan from the team Fun-Tastics who bested every competitor on the board! Talk about a surgical strike!
TdR Stage 10 Swords Tournament : On the night of February the 5th, 14 duelists from the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin met in the Arena to test their skill. One by one, competitors were eliminated until all that remained was Wyheree Ravenlock from the team FEARLESS! And boy howdy!
TdR Stage 11 Magic Regular : In two nights, the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin invaded Twilight Isle once again. After 25 duels total, only one spell-slinger walked away with the most Blue Nobles to take first place for her team, and that competitor was Sivanna Cyredghymn from team Deathcake once again! Repeat defender!
TdR Stage 12 Magic Brawl : On the night of February the 10th, 12 duelists from the competing teams of the Tour de Rhydin met on Twilight Isle to go absolutely crazy flinging spells at each other in a haphazard magical mayhem brawl. In the end, the last woman standing was Aja Bird, who as we hear it got lucky because the other two remaining in the ring with her at the end happened to KO each other. But hey. That's what happens when phenomenal cosmic powers are unleashed around innocent bystanders. Way to go, Aja! Glory for the Fun-Tastics!
TdR Stage 13 Fists Regular : The third and final cycle of the Tour de Rhydin kicked off on night of February the 15th and continued on into the night of February the 16th with two consecutive nights of pugilistic pizazz. After 40 duels in 48 hours, it was Kheldar Drasinia from the Wrecking Crew who once again accumulated the most Green Nobles for his team! Amazing!
TdR Stage 14 Fists Tournament : On the night of February the 17th, 12 contestants from the various Tour de Rhydin teams all dropped into the Outback to take part in a tournament to decide which of them was the best of the puncherific best. In the end, it was Sartan from team CrushBob who wound up King of the Mountain! Way to go!
TdR Stage 15 Swords Regular : In two consecutive nights, once again members of all teams gathered in the Arena to cut each other to ribbons and accumulate as many points as possible for their teams. This time around it was Xanth van Bokkelen from Great of Strength who walked away the winner of the stage! Well done!
TdR Stage 16 Swords Brawl : On the night of February the 20th, 11 duelists from the various teams in the Tour de Rhydin marched into the Arena to take part in a violently gruesome competition in which everybody was hacking and slashing at each other all at once. In the end, team Deathcake triumphed due to perhaps superior numbers, leaving Rekah Illyriana to face off against her team captain Salvador Delahada, and it was the latter who ranked first for the death and the cake. Now that's team work!
TdR Stage 17 Magic Regular : In two nights, members of the competing teams for the Tour de Rhydin once again invaded Twilight Isle. Alas, this time Sivanna was not destined to win this stage three times in a row. Instead, it was Vincent Smith from team CrushBob who smoked the competition! Stupendous!
TdR Stage 18 Magic Tag Team : The Tour de Rhydin was brought to a close on the night of February the 24th with this last and final stage. Five pairings from all the various teams banded together to decide which of them made the best match-up in a spell-sational tournament. In the end, it was Maranya Valkonan who teamed up with last minute register Lem DeAngelo who won the stage for the glory of themselves and the doctor's team. Fin-tastic!
And that concludes our recap of what went down in the weeks of dueling insanity that made up the 2010 Tour de Rhydin. What does all this mean? Well, as we understand it, teams themselves really didn't win much at all except for the glory and honor of being ranked number one through eight. The individual prizes were more tangible.
In total, the Tour de Rhydin awarded five special jerseys to five exceptionally amazing duelists. These jerseys are rumored to be magical in nature, but of unknown origins. Each article conforms to whichever shape the bearer wishes them to be. So if the wearer wishes it to actually be a jersey, a jersey it shall be. In some other cases, we have seen the jerseys worn as sashes or armbands, however. They are impervious to any damage whatsoever, and likely even to immune to becoming filthy. So who won them and what were they awarded for?
White Jersey : This jersey was awarded to the top ranked overall Tour rookie. That is to say, the duelist who was of the lowest rank in all three sports, yet accumulated the most points individually for his or her team. Amongst twenty other rookies in the 2010 Tour de Rhydin, this prize was awarded to the sensationally notorious piRATe known as Napoleon Bonarat, who banked in a grand total of 54 Tour Points for his team CrushBob.
Blue Jersey : This jersey was awarded to the top ranked overall Tour Magic duelist. In all the stages, only one invidual accomplished banking in the most Blue Nobles for herself and her team out of a grand total of 17 spell-slingers. This duelist was none other than the amazingly spell-sational Sivanna Cyredghymn, who accumulated a grand total of 36 Magic Tour Points for her team Deathcake.
Green Jersey : This jersey was awarded to the top ranked overall Tour Fists duelist. In all the stages, only one individual succeeded in piling up a hoard of the most Green Nobles for himself and his team out of a grand total of 23 puglists. This duelist just so happened to be a former Diamond by the name of Kheldar Drasinia, who racked up a grand total of 44 Fists Tour Points for his team the Wrecking Crew.
Red Jersey : This jersey was awarded to the top ranked overall Tour Swords duelist. In all the stages, only one individual managed to rise to the top with the most Red Nobles gained for himself and his team out of a grand total of 27 weapon specialists. This duelist ended up being the recent Baron of the Dockside district known as Neo Eternity, who cashed in a grand total of 31 Swords Tour Points for his team the Fun-Tastics.
Yellow Jersey : This jersey is perhaps the grand prize of the entire Tour, and was awarded to the top ranked duelist of all three sports throughout the Tour. Having competed in every stage and every sport (Swords, Fists and Magic), amidst a grand total of 44 competitors, and adding up all the nobles (Red, Green and Blue) from them all, only one man came out on top. This duelist just so happens to be the very same duelist who won the 2006 Tour de Rhydin's yellow jersey as well! Rhy'Din's very own two-term governor Matthew Algiers Simon walked away with this grand prize after accumulating a grand total of 99 Tour Points for his team CrushBob. What an accomplishment!
Of the eight competing teams, only one came out in first place, having smoked the competition from day one. No other team, try as they might, seemed capable of displacing them from their golden throne, and it should come as no surprise that it was the very same team which Matt Simon was leading. CrushBob gained a grand total of 752 Silver Nobles throughout the entirety of the Tour, and their closest competition was hundreds of miles behind.
The Fun-Tastics started off on the bottom, but they worked their way up throughout the Tour and managed to secure themselves a second place standing with 481 Silver Nobles. Close behind them in third place was the "accidentally amazing" team Deathcake, headed by Salvador Delahada, who accumulated 418 Silver Nobles. Great of Strength, headed by Anubis Karos, came in fourth place with 293 Silver Nobles. Behind them was team Wrecking Crew, lead by Kheldar Drasinia, who banked in 233 Silver Nobles. In sixth place was team GnomCorp, lead by the legendary G'nort Dragoon-Talanador, with a grand total of 210 Silver Nobles. They were followed up by team FEARLESS, lead by the equally legendary Xenograg Bey, who marked up 81 Silver Nobles. And last, but certainly not least -- though last to sign up for the Tour, and late -- came Victory's Secret with only 30 Silver Nobles.
So what happens now? Well, it looks as if many of the duelists who competed this year are taking a break and celebrating quietly. Will there be another Tour de Rhydin in our dueling and role-playing future? We don't know precisely now, but it would be fun to do it again. Just ... perhaps it should wait another four years. Maybe it'll turn into something like the Rhy'Din Olympics!
It is my hope that I managed to successfully cover this month and a half long event, and to make it entertaining too. All that I have mentioned can be reviewed in brief on the Rings of Honor site's forums under the
Tour de Rhydin folder itself. Having been a participant myself, I can say that I had a lot of fun, and I can only hope that those also involved had a blast as well. Special thanks goes out to DUEL Random for putting this all together, and to all of those who participated. The event could not have succeeded without your support and participation. As with all things role-play, this too was a mutual endeavor, and it was a spectacularly amazing one at that!
