The IDL Bloodbath was run on September 15th, and featured 8 duelists, as well as a number of pedestrians to spice things up. In tribute to the recent terrorist attacks, and to those brave men and women who lost their lives trying to save as many people as possible, the Internet Dueling League decided to make a contribution to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster relief fund in the name of the winner of the event. As defending champion Curt Lindmark put it: "This time, it's not just for glory".

This month's IDL duel saw a number of new competitors to the IDL circuit. Thomas Dawe, John Lewis, Paul Spence, and Martin Caldwell. They were up against some tough veterans, Curt Lindmark, David 'Stee1 Cobra' McGee, Joe Barlow, and Glen Bucher.

Curt and his Defiant took prime Gate, but much of the credit there belonged to his pit crew, as he edged out David McGee by 3 points. Half of the starting field was within 10 qualifying points of the prime gate, but then it deteriorated quickly, down to Martin's "Minor Damage". Relying heavily on dropped weapons, Martin turned around a very poor qualifying score.

John Lewis also kept the crowd on it's feet as he blazed away with his Vulcan Machine Gun. 4 solid hits, combined with 3 rams, turning 2 targets into confetti, earned Lewis the United States Navy Top Gun Award. 

The pedestrians were expected to provide some added excitement to the duel, as they came out armed and ready. Each one was offered a free 10 year Gold Cross contract, if they could manage to disable any vehicle. The fan favorite was Willie, who entered the arena with swim fins, scuba gear, a life jacket, and a spear gun, as well as a riot shield and a heavy pistol.

If Willie had been facing the right direction, perhaps his riot shield would of protected him from the discharger onslaught unleashed by the Stee1 Cobra.

Pedestrian Doug, however fared a little better. Armed with a Heavy Anti-Vehicular Rifle, a backpack full of weapons, and protected by Body Armor and an Armored Battle Vest, Doug managed to run around the field for a while before Martin Caldwell's Minor Damage side-swiped him, leaving him unconscious on the arena floor. When Joseph Barlow swept by to finish the job, the Flechette Dischargers mounted on the IHammer did little but crack Doug's Body Armor. Doug survived the duel, an unconscious ped, earning him the Raysbestos Lucky Break Award.

Despite the three solid impacts delivered by Lewis' Lilabror, the biggest ram of the event came from defending champion Curt Lindmark, who with less than a second left on the clock, made a sudden jot to the right, just as Barlow tried to avoid the head on with an equal maneuver to the left. Although Curt slammed on his brakes before impact, in car telemetry tells us that the impact speed was at 100 MPH, without a ramplate. This shattering impact demolished the IHammer, earning Lindmark the Cactus Jack Heavy Hitter Award. Flames kicked up in Curt's cockpit, but quick action with a portable fire extinguisher knocked the flames back down.

JL: Just kidding. I've dueled in lots of minor leagues and events. To be honest, I think I was just lucky. Most of those duels were quite deadly and I think just getting out alive is the most important thing.

AI: You had a huge lead, until you lost not one, but three tires. You were also the only vehicle without Wheelguards or Armored Hubs. Do you think this was a design flaw, or was it just a lucky shot that took out your first tire, and things went downhill from there?

JL: Well, it was a design decision to go without, in order to add the maximum amount of armor to the front. Even with all the armor, the front was breached with that last impact. I toyed with the idea of fake guards and hubs, because your tires a never safe. Having prefaced with that, I think it was the eventual winner who took the tire shot and it was a brilliant tactical move. Next time I'll just have to go with solid tires.

AI: This was the most impressive start for a rookie since the inception of the IDL. Do you think you will be back?

JL: Oh yes. You don't walk away from a joyride like that and not want to come back for more. My wife is concerned for my safety, but it's also why she married me.

AI: You were less than a second from victory, before Curt Lindmark stole it with a head on ram against Joe Barlow, even though neither had a ramplate. Lindmark was also responsible for shooting out all three of your tires. Do we detect a bit of a grudge, or maybe the hint of revenge in the air?

JL: Lindmark is a great driver, and for him to have the sense to take a header for the win shows he has a competitive spirit. I heard that when I smashed that last car he thought I was coming for him... in a way I was. My intent was not to confetti that last car, but to push it back into his path. I just lead footed it. Next time I'll be sure to take him out early.

AI: Did your design team have to do anything different in preparing for the IDL event?

JL: At first I thought this was a 50K event. The car I built for that event was a monster and I was trying in Lilabror to scale the basic idea down. Some of the design decisions, in retrospect, were flawed. I should have gone with a turret for the Vulcan and solid tires. Lindmark had an interesting idea with the flames, but as a ram vehicle Lilabror did great.

AI: Not only were you a rookie coming into today's duel, but you took out veteran autoduelist Glen Bucher.

JL: Obviously my first kill was due to the Nitro and the incredible acceleration it gave. It was a little hard to control and I don't know if I will be using that again.

AI: Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers of Autoduel Illustrated?.

JL: I enjoyed the duel very much. The facilities were top notch and the IDL is clearly the best league for this type of event. The officials were all great to work with.

As for Lindmark, I'll see you next duel.

return to top

Victory, like love, is sweeter the second time around

By Curt Lindmark

When the news came down the wire that the Internet Dueling League was having another match, I and my design team went right to work, reviewing film footage, juggling priorities of speed vs firepower, and came up with a dream machine: Defiant.

Defiant is everything that RathUvKahn was not. It was fast (hoo boy, it was fast!) It was nimble. But Defiant and RathUvKahn did share something in common: a spot in the winner's circle.

This match was based on points, first to 20 wins. 5 points for a vehicular kill, 3 points for running over a pedestrian, 1 point for killing a pedestrian by gunfire. Negative points for dying (aren't there always?)

I qualified in the Prime Gate, so I took a brief look at the other cars and decided where they should go. Let's take a look at the cars:

I recognized Irish Hammer and Stee1Cobra from the previous match, and knew that they wanted to test their metal against each other, so I put them in the other drum, away from me. I also put Minor Damage on their end, figuring he'd either be a victim, or cause enough headaches (and tireaches) for the two of them that I wouldn't be near them. Thomas Bloodbath I put in the tunnel next to me. I was expecting him to come my way, and I planned on crossing his tee with a HMG burst and a FC trail for him to run into. Yorkshire Surprise I put to my left, counting on my speed to keep his RL off me, and planned on dancing around him. Streak, I put opposite me, figuring he had an Anti-Tank gun (wrong), and was also counting on my speed to keep his shells off me. To round it out, I put Lilabror in the far tunnel, forcing him to choose one half or the other, and thereby giving me plenty of time to avoid him if I needed to.

Right about this time, Stee1 and Thomas were doing some fancy coordinated stunt driving. The crowd loved it! They both skidded out of control at each other, with Thomas up on two wheels! Thomas skidded to a halt and dropped his wheels on the trunk of Stee1's car as he drove off. Very impressive! As I came charging out of the tunnel, I saw Irish Hammer following the outer wall, and I figured this was the perfect time to start dropping flame clouds. I came to that conclusion too late, though, and left a wide enough gap for a truck to drive through. Oh well. Meanwhile, Minor Damage, Yorkshire Surprise, Lilabror and some very unlucky man named Bob were all occupying the upper tunnel, along with a very unhealthy amount of mines. Miraculously, two cars actually survived that mess! Minor Damage came out relatively unscathed, Lilabror came out with yet another kill (after rear-ending Yorkshire Surprise into Yorkshire Pudding), but Yorkshire managed to deny Lilabror the 3 points for running down Bob, by being pushed into Bob first. (10 points for Lilabror, -2 points for Yorkshire) As I rounded the middle column, Lilabror came lumbering out, Yorkshire's flaming truck slowly drifted in and halted against the center column, and Thomas was slowly starting to accelerate back from his stunt driving. Irish Hammer had cleared the flame wall I had badly placed and headed for the other drum. Stee1 passed by him and headed for the southern part of my drum. As I passed by Thomas, Lilabror kicked in the afterburners and plowed through Thomas. Poor Thomas. I had the unique opportunity to be moving faster than the ram car, and be at point-blank range, so I took it. I flipped the switch to put the FC on automatic, and drilled Lilabror's front left tire with a hail of lead. Lilabror managed to lose a total of three tires in the blink of an eye, and skidded to a halt, facing the wall, becoming my first vehicular kill of the match! (8 points for me, 10 points for Lilabror).

As Fred and Bob were dead, more cannon fodder, I mean pedestrians entered the arena. Doug, on the far side, was going to fall victim to either Minor Damage or Irish Hammer, whoever got there first.

On my side of the field, there was Willie! Willie isn't all there. He was sporting scuba gear, fins, a spear gun, a riot shield and a heavy pistol. Looks like Willie wasn't taking his medication. Stee1Cobra was a few car lengths closer than I was, but I was going much faster, and still had more speed left to go, so it became a race to see who would run Willie down first. What didn't occur to me was that someone would use firepower when ramming was worth three times the points. Stee1Cobra fired off flechette dischargers and turned Willie into something matching the consistency of chuncky salsa. Poor Willie.

Stee1 and I passed by each other, and I headed for the other drum, seeing way too many obstacles in this drum (Lilabror's flaming carcass, a host of mines, Yorkshire's flaming carcass, Stee1Cobra's car, and yet another pedestrian, Tim, with a tripod mounted Vulcan Machine Gun! As I was leaving, I took a potshot at Stee1Cobra's car, and marked him. Nothing major, but enough to cost him a paint job. I also, for grins and giggles, floored the engine to its top speed of 83 mph, most likely securing me the British Petroleum High Octane Award.

Meanwhile, Minor Damage got credit for taking out the other Pedestrian, Doug, but did not kill him, so no more pedestrians could come in until one of them was killed. Irish Hammer and Minor Damage had passed by each other without firing, and Irish was coming towards me. Time was running out, and I was still 2 points behind Lilabror. I needed a rammed pedestrian or a vehicular kill, and I needed it right away! I was out of flame cloud shots, and there wasn't enough time for me to circle behind Irish and pepper him with lead to take him out. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided to ram him. Considering what happened to him the last match with a collision, I figured he would dodge away and give me the opening for a T-bone. No such luck. As I realized it was going to be a head-on, I drilled the brakes. My lead design technician told me not to intentionally collide with anything over 80 mph, and right now the meeting speed was at a earth-shattering 130mph! I managed to get my speed down to 40 at the last instant of tire-screeching, and crumpled my entire front end, and half my engine! It burst into flames before my eyes, and my training kicked in to drop the wheel, grab the fire extingusher, and douse the flames. As the smoke cleared, I was able to see that Irish Hammer was my second vehicular kill of the match, and that put me at 13 points, enough to secure victory in the nick of time.

Drive Offensively,