General News
Season 520 Comes to a Close
Arthur Kane
April 3, 2003
All good things must come to an end, and so too has Season 520 of the Team Dueling League come to its end. And what a great end it was! Seeing the TDL Final being fought between one of TDL's charter teams and a rookie team was exciting. Nor was the outcome of the match a foregone conclusion at any point. The Wrecking Crew came out strong in the playoffs, vanquishing both the Company of the Dragon and the Phantom Scots (both veteran teams of great skill), while Atrebla faced off with a dynamite Shinju Dragons and the rookie Pirates From Heck. Based on their previous playoff encounters, one might have guessed the Crew to win over the Atreblans, but the veteran team held their own and won the night.
The most surprising duel of the match may have been Chris Graziano's brutal defeat of Gloria Blaze, season 520's MVP winner. Chris had a rocky 520 season, but his performance here made up for some of that and more closely reflects the dueler of past seasons.
Overall, the final was a great match, with both teams winning a duel in the first pair (Ticallion Carter for WRC over Troy Costello, and Matthias DeWinter for ATR over Tony Graziano) and both teams winning a duel in the second pair (Chris Graziano over Gloria Blaze, and Michelle Montoya [daughter of the famed Dex Montoya] over WRC Captain Maria Graziano). After Gloria's loss, the pressure was on Michelle in a big way to pull out a win. Given that she was down in the early rounds of the duel, her win was an impressive feat against a difficult opponent in Maria. For her accomplishment, Michelle was awarded "MVP of the 520 TDL Final" by the president of TDL Enterprises, Ian MacKenzie.
MacKenzie, who also officiated all of the duels of the event (including the final showdown between Will Wulfson and Ria Graziano for all the marbles), then awarded the TDL Cup to the Atreblan team captain. It was a well-earned prize for a team that has only gotten better with every season.
With the final award, TDL Season 520 came to an end, and so too does the Insider's season. I'd like to take a moment to publicly thank all of the contributor's this season for making it one of Insider's best. In particular, I'd like to thank Var Medici-Giovanni for his "Note the Quotes" series, which was a very popular column among the readers of Insider. It's our understanding that Var will not be returning next season, but that there might be someone taking over his column for 521. We wish Var good luck in his future endeavors and thank him for his efforts and contributions to Insider. I'd like to also thank Onyx Solare and Deluthan Ev'rt for producing some of the best interviews that have ever graced our pages. Your contributions were one of my favorite parts of the 520 season.
We didn't see as much of the meerkat, Tao the Furious, as we might have liked, but his articles helped bring some humorous wisdom to our season, and maybe we'll see him again in the future.
With the 520 season, we also saw the return of TDL Power Rankings, for which I'd like to thank Nickle Endime. We hope to secure his services (and wit) again for next season. Additionally, returning contributors like Olaf Liovanni (Award Watch), Buzz Novak (Ringside Review), G'nort Dragoon-Talanador (Toons), and Alain Shaner helped to flesh out the content of Insider and we expect to see them again in 521.
So, once again, a big thank you to everyone who contributed to Insider this season, as well as to all the readers who visited our pages. Thanks for reading! We'll see you again next season. Until then, good luck and good dueling!
Art Kane
Editor-in-Chief
TDL Insider
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