Empire Deluxe Tournament 2021 – Preliminaries

Today is the start of the 2021 Empire Deluxe Championship Tournament.  Played on the final two weeks of the year (and sometimes the first week of the new year), the top players from the leader board pit themselves against each other for the title of Empire Champion for the next twelve months.

This year promises to be particularly interesting as the three-time title holder, Keiren, has agreed to bow out of the running and become Moderator for this year’s tournament following the absence of Mindy Minder.  This unprecedented event means there will be no defender of the title, and a new winner will definitely be crowned this year.  Rising to the challenge are three players:

• Mara – Mara has been a finalist in four of the last five years and will participate for the title once more.
• Holak – This is Holak’s third year as a EDTC finalist and is also one of the newest members to the community.
• Dyn – Dyn re-joins us after a four year hiatus.  He is known as a shrewd negotiator and kingmaker.

The group decided to continue the tournament in EDCE by a slim vote back in November.  The decision was influenced by the game’s ability for easy network play and streaming capabilities.  This allowed us flexibility in case there was another shutdown or unforeseen circumstance that split the group.  Since the participants would be fewer this year, this flexibility was deemed necessary in order to guarantee the championship game happened.

The map for this year’s even with be Western Anima which has been posted to EDIBLE.  The map features vast seas around a single continent that is split by peaks, making direct assaults difficult en masse.  This is the first time the map has been a battleground for EDTC and should provide some insights on which tactics work best.  Moreover, it means there is a good possibility that we see a strategy not seen before which can be added to the Strategy Guide going forward.

Good Luck to our players, and check in later this week for more updates as we progress through the tournament schedule.