Queen of the Ring
by: Kalamere - April 25, 2010
The 2010 DoS Madness Championship came down to a number one seed vs. a number two seed, both of whom began the tournament as Barons. Maria Graziano representing the Western divisions and Neo Eternity coming in from the East. They met last night in the Arena while Corlanthis supplied the color commentary. The finalists spent the first four rounds feeling out each other's strategies. Neo scored with a superb sidestep and a high cut, while Maria landed a low cut and caught a poorly timed thrust with a stop hit. After four rounds the score was tied up at two. Then, all of a sudden, Neo picked up two straight points in the 5th and 6th with a bookend parry to double up on Maria and get within a point of the win. With a 4-2 lead it didn't look good for the Baroness of Old Temple, but Neo just couldn't seal her out. Rounds 7 through 9 would belong to Graziano. As Neo tried to push the bookend to a third parry, Maria slipped quickly around him with a sidestep and elbowed him in the ribs to pick up the point. She followed up by thrusting over a low cut to tie the match at four and then ended young Neo's hopes by once again sidestepping a parry. Congratulations to Maria Graziano, the 2010 DoS Madness Champion...even though she refuses to cover the point spread.

	Payouts and Thank Yous
by: Kalamere - April 25, 2010
With last night's Graziano over Eternity match, this year's madness tournament is brought to conclusion. With the end of the tournament, of course, also comes the end of the 1,000 Silver Noble Pool. The six points earned from Maria's ultimate victory moves my entry from 4th place to a first place tie with Xanth, while also knocking Wyheree out of the money positions and into my vacated 4th position. Marc Franco moves down one slot to finish 3rd. Much to my surprise, the tie breaker comes into play here and gives me the ultimate win, having correctly selected the tournament winner, so Xanth gets bumped to 2nd. The pool had 18 entrants, so the final payouts are as follows: 1st Place: Kalamere, 9,000 Nobles 2nd Place: Xanth, 5,400 Nobles 3rd Place: Marc, 3,600 Nobles I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone involved in this year's tournament. From the duelists who participated, to all the folks who joined in on the Pools and/or the Casino betting. Many thanks to G and the divisional managers, not to mention all the DoS callers, who made the tournament happen. Madness is far and away my favorite dueling event and we all appreciate the work the volunteers put in to make it happen. Thanks also to Jake who makes the news updates and casino betting possible and who supplied space for this little news stand. As well, Marc Franco, Smith and Napoleon who helped supply some great news articles and assisted me in keeping the winners updated so we could track the pools. Graham Jackson introduced us to the pick six pool, which I found pretty interesting and will likely add to the Madness display here (with his permission) next time around. I look forward to doing all this again next year! Or maybe sooner if Fists or Magic decide to explore a little Madness of their own.

	Most Recent Mad Action
Maria Graziano IS THE DoS MADNESS WINNER!
Neo Eternity Wins the Eastern Confernce and advances to the Final!
Maria Graziano Wins the Western Confernce and advances to the Final!
Sylus Kurgen Wins the Xenograg Division! Advances to the Final Four.
Maria Graziano Wins the Dalamar Division! Advances to the Final Four.

	Semi-Finals a Wrap
by: Kalamere - April 20, 2010
This weekend saw very close duels as Madness wrapped up the last of its multi-duel weekends. The first took place Saturday night and was the Graziano Grudge Match. Or, at least, that's what I like to call it because I like the way it sounds.
Read More

	Next Stop: Final Four
by: Kalamere - April 12, 2010
Maria made it to the Annex for the Dalamar division final last night, despite spending all of last week at Mercy Medical. Considering the number of undead wandering around in support of DeathLord's squire tournament, she looked pretty good.
Read More

	Sunday Update
by: Kalamere - April 11, 2010
We're half way though the divisional championship round, having fought through the two matches in the Southern quadrants.
Read More

	Madness - Round 4
by: Marc Franco - April 7, 2010
Here we are in the heart of Madness with only two more rounds to go! The championships of each division will take place this weekend in order to leave us with our Final Four.
Read More

	On to the Elite Eight
by: Kalamere - April 5, 2010
Sylus stepped into the ring with Teagan on Saturday night and brought an end to the previous night's trend of victorious women. Ria Graziano made up for this though and sent Porthos back to the spectator seats to enjoy the remainder of the tournament in comfort. This brings our Elite Eight to an interestingly even proportion of men and women duelists. To close out a Mad Saturday night, Neo took on Cass and earned himself a spot in the divisional Championship. This left only the Anubis vs. Stiles match to take place on Sunday. Despite a strong first and second round showing, expectations weren't very high that Stiles could pull this one off and, when their blades finally met, Anubis demonstrated why. The Egyptian was in fine form once again, not only dispatching Stiles, but doing so handily and once again beating the point spread. We're getting towards the end of the tournament now, with only 4 matches to happen next week. At least we hope to have all four matches take place. Aya may get an easy advance into the Final Four, seeing as Maria was admitted to Mercy Medical Center in New Haven late Friday Night. Sports fans are rooting for a swift recovery. Check back tomorrow for the betting lines. As always, the DZ Casino welcomes your silver.

	Ladies Night
by: Kalamere - April 3, 2010
Two more matches for the Sweet Sixteen have gone down, so we're halfway through to the Elite Eight! Both came from the Dalamar division which nearly wraps up the West, having only the Ria vs. Porthos duel remaining. First we had Aya take on Tass. Aya might have been the underdog in this one, but she certainly didn't look it. In this seven round contest, Tass managed to keep things close, though he never held a lead. In the seventh round the old man threw up a parry only to have it slashed down. Aya advances. Next up was the match we all knew was going to happen from the day the brackets were released: Maria and Jake. Despite looking like she ought to have stayed in bed, Maria was in rare form inside the ring. By the fourth round she was up three - nil on our Orcish Brewmaster, who scored his only point in the 5th when a high cut caught the Baron of Old Temple trying to dance away. Maria wrapped up the match in eight rounds and a solid 5-1 score. She advances to meet Aya next week to determine the Queen of the Dalamar division. Four of the Sweet Sixteen matches remain to be fought in the next two nights. Usually I'd advise getting out there to see them, but with the New Haven squire tournament going on, the arena is a scarier place than usual. Be careful out there!

	Thursday Night Recap
by: Kalamere - April 2, 2010
April Fools day came and went, taking with it two duelists from the Sweet Sixteen. For the record, those two duelists are not Maria and Jake, who I believe will be meeting up tonight some time. Yesterday's news story was all in good fun, but apparently threw Maria's agent into a bit of a frenzy. I've got a nice bottle of Lagavulin headed his way. Nothing says "I'm sorry" like 16-year-old single malt goodness. In real action, the first duelist to move into the Elite Eight was Jay Capistrano. It was a close fought match with a couple lead changes, but in the end Jay came out on top, demonstrating why he earned the higher seed in this matchup. The win, assuming the rest of his weekend goes well, is enough to push Jay up to the rank of Warlord. Congratulations! Barons, beware. The second match of the night was fought almost immediately afterward and it was everything I had expected it to be. Rekah jumped out to a 4-1 lead, looking to end things quick, but Wyheree wasn't letting her get off that easy. Scoring three consecutive unanswered points, the Lady Ravenlock fought her way back to even, tying the duel up at 4 points a piece. An exchange of cuts in the following round advanced them both to 5 and sent the match to overtime, but the extra innings belonged to Rekah. With a quick parry in one round, followed by a high cut to beat Wyh's low parry in the next, Ms. Illyriana finally brought it to a close. The 6.5 - 5 point win notches the first upset of the Sweet Sixteen and advances Rekah to next week's divisional championships. Be on the look out for more Madness tonight. This round has some great matchups, so catch some if you can!

	Madness Update: Jake and Maria out of the Tourney
by: Kalamere - April 1, 2010
In a surprising twist, the Dalamar Division is suddenly down to two duelists. Sources inside the Red Orc brewery report that Jake and Maria have both withdrawn from the remainder of the Madness Tournament. Stating that they refuse to have to duke it out yet again to progress in Madness, they've decided instead to step out and have filed grievances with the seeding committee. Storied duelists both, I can't help but agree it would be nice to see one in the East and one in the West, rather than having them both dropped into the same quadrant. Public Relations for the Wrecking Crew has so far been unavailable for comment. Crew sponsors, on the other hand, are livid and planning to withdraw funding. Sources also report that dueling officials are threatening to stop carrying Badsider Brew at the dueling bars unless Jake reconsiders. The overall result is devastating to the state of the Madness Pools. With 7 pool entries selecting these two as the winners, this has far reaching effects. On the other hand, anyone who picked Tass or Aya is suddenly liking their odds much better. The winner of their match this weekend will collect both Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight point values while taking a free trip to the Final Four.