Greetings and salutations my fabulous FAB folk! I’m some random #FABDad, also known as Donnie K., or @Dracohominis87, depending on where you find me. Today we’re taking a look at everything that came to us from the coverage seen of Calling: Melbourne in Australia! Without further ado, let’s get right to it!

Bright Lights in the Land Down Under!

It seems the stream experienced technical issues throughout the weekend, but the coverage can be found on the official Flesh and Blood Youtube channel.

Despite checking the live blog, both days of streams, and the event details page, I couldn’t find who it was that actually handled production of the live stream listed anywhere. I wish I could credit whoever it was behind the cameras all weekend for their hard work, but, best I can tell, it looks like the coverage was brought to us by Legend Story Studios themselves.

The casting team consisted of Jacob Pearson, Kieran McEntegart, and Anthony Balmes. All event long, these three showcased a deep understanding of the metagame and their casting was both entertaining and spot on. Great job folks! Now….

The Numbers We Really Want to Know!

Day One

According to the numbers in the live blog for the event, there were 252 players vying for the grand prize on Day One. The top five registered heroes should surprise no one who’s paid attention to competitive Flesh and Blood recently. Lexi, Livewire was most represented with 39 players and Dromai, Ash Artist was right behind her with 36. There were 27 players who brought Bravo, Showstopper to the event and Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire was fourth most represented with a total of 20. And the fifth was Katsu, the Wanderer with 18 players total on the first day of the event.

The only Classic Constructed hero that had no representation on Day One was Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate. All of the other heroes had at least one iron in the fire, so to speak.

Day Two

The Day Two cut off was set to the Top 64 at the end of Swiss on Day One. Everyone with at least five wins made it through and four players squeaked in with four wins and good tie breakers. At the beginning of Day Two, there was only one player left in the room with an undefeated record and that was Thomas Dowling on Dash I/O.

The top five represented heroes on Day Two were, once again, pretty much what you’d expect right now. Lexi had the most with 13 players, or roughly 20% of the total field. Bravo was second with nine of his pilots making it to Day Two. Dromai carried eight players through the Day One cut on dragon back. Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire and Iyslander, Stormbind were tied in fifth place with six players each still fighting for the prize.

Out of the 21 heroes registered on Day One, 17 of them finished strongly enough to make the cut to keep going. Vynnset, Boltyn, Prism, and Viserai all failed to secure enough wins to keep playing.

Top 8 Cut

At the end of 12 rounds of Swiss, the final cut consisted of three Lexi, two Uzuri, Switchblade, one Dromai, one Dash I/O, and one Maxx ‘The Hype’ Nitro. Thomas Dowling with Dash I/O completely swept the Swiss rounds, taking “DIO” to the top of the standings with zero losses over both days.

1. Thomas Dowling- Dash I/O (12 Wins)
2. Michael Feng- Lexi, Livewire (10 Wins)
3. Kuan Li- Dromai, Ash Artist (10 Wins)
4. Sang Wook Kim- Uzuri, Switchblade (10 Wins)
5. German Glukhov- Lexi, Livewire (9 Wins)
6. Ben Dodd- Uzuri, Switchblade (9 Wins)
7. Drew Giessler- Lexi, Livewire (9 Wins)
8. Joel Gibbons- Maxx ‘The Hype’ Nitro (9 Wins)

Round by Round Breakdown

Day One (Seven Rounds)

Round One – Sable W. (Lexi) vs John C. (Dash I/O)

Due to technical difficulties, the stream started about halfway through this first game, and we didn’t get the player’s names until it was nearly over. The action that was broadcast was intense though, and after a furious back and forth exchange, Dash I/O won against Lexi in the first round of Calling: Melbourne.

Round Two – Aaron C. (Maxx) vs William Y. (Lexi)

In Round Two, Lexi got another chance to remind us why she earned her place in the realm of Living Legends. Unfortunately for William though, Lexi was run over by a Bright Lights hero for the second round in a row. Big, boosted attacks put Lexi on the defensive quickly, and eventually Maxx was able to Boost through all the cards in William’s hand to swing with Banksy for lethal.

Round Three – Alexander D. (Levia) vs Oliver S. (Bravo)

This Bravo vs Levia, Shadowborn Abomination game was exactly the kind of slugfest matchup that you probably assume it was. Big hits thrown back and forth, two beefy heroes trading blows, etc. Alexander/Levia was the last slugger standing at the end, with a blue Convulsions from the Bellows of Hell turning Endless Maw into a ten-power attack with Dominate to close the game.

Round Four – Damien M. (Arakni) vs Darryn Y. (Iyslander)

Seeing an Arakni, Huntsman in the 3-0 bracket was a breath of fresh air for the chat. Unfortunately for Damien, the frosty fury of Iyslander was just too much to hold back. Arakni gave a valiant effort, but when Iyslander has tempo and life advantage while still holding up Storm Striders, the writing is pretty well written on the wall for everyone to see. A good rule of thumb is this: anytime you’re at life parity (or lower) with a Wizard, you’re actually losing.

Round Five – Cody G. (Katsu) vs Troy W. (Uzuri)

An early Art of War provided Katsu an early life lead, but Uzuri weathered the storm and took control. This was a very interactive game, but Uzuri never really let go of the steering wheel once she had it, and eventually closed it out in Troy’s favor with Isolate swapping in a Death Touch while Cody was on three life.

Round Six – Thomas D. (Dash I/O) vs German G. (Lexi)

For the second time on Day One, we saw a Dash I/O vs Lexi game on camera, but this was the first time we got to see Thomas’s Dash I/O list in action. German did their best to uphold the honor of Lexi, but Thomas was not going to be stopped. Explosions, boosting, and gun shots galore ended the game firmly in Dash’s favor once again, despite Lexi’s best attempt at survival.

Round Seven – Remi G. (Dromai) vs Daniel R. (Kano)

Everything has to go exactly right for Kano in order to win the matchup into Dromai. They need a couple of turns to set up while Dromai doesn’t find the relevant dragons. That’s not what happened this game.

Remi started the game with a turn zero Dominia, then Azvolai, THEN Miragai with an Oasis Respite to stuff Daniel’s Lesson in Lava, preventing a pop off. Kano’s draws were mid on average and he did not survive the avalanche of scales aimed at him.

Day Two (Five Rounds)

Round Eight – Ben D. (Uzuri) vs Matt N. (Iyslander)

As I said earlier, if you’re at life parity or lower against a Wizard, things aren’t looking good. But Ben did a great job at maintaining a healthy life total all game while whittling Iyslander down. A Shred on Matt’s Sink Below pushed the last few points of damage through for Uzuri while Ben was still at a comfortable 13 life.

Round Nine – Daniel H. (Bravo) vs Patrick W. (Rhinar)

Another Brute/Guardian slugfest, and this one went the distance. Literally. Bravo and Rhinar threw everything but the kitchen sink at each other, but even with the extra time from being on stream, the round timer was the eventual winner. With another minute or two, it was clear that Bravo would have won due to fatigue, but everyone lost since the game ended in a draw.

Round Ten – Alex C. (Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire) vs Joel G. (Maxx)

Dash tried to out-boost ‘The Hype’ this round, and it didn’t go well for her. A well-timed Firewall in the final turns covered a critical breakpoint for Joel and the Nitro Mechanoid Overpowered the last of Dash’s resistance to end it.

Round Eleven – German G. (Lexi) vs Ben D. (Uzuri)

This game made me want to build Uzuri, and a lot of the chat echoed the same sentiment. It wasn’t even remotely close as Ben showed us all why Lexi players should fear the Spider’s boss. You almost have to feel bad for German. Losing both games where he was on camera in the Swiss was a pretty rough break, but he fought through any tilt he may have felt and secured his own Top 8 spot by winning in Round 12. Cursed by the camera, indeed.

Round Twelve – Thomas D. (Dash I/O) vs Joel G. (Maxx)

The last round of Swiss for Calling: Melbourne featured two heroes from Bright Lights. Thomas was looking to put himself into the record books as one of the very, very few players to run through a Calling level event undefeated. Joel was fighting for his tournament life to cement his place in the Top 8 cut. Thankfully for Joel, he managed to make the cut on tie breakers after Dash I/O completely exploded on camera again with a 31-damage turn. This was one of the quickest games we saw all event long, and Thomas/DIO walked away with their 12^th straight victory.

Top 8 Cut (Three Rounds on Camera)

Quarterfinals – Ben Dodd (Uzuri) vs Kuan Li (Dromai)

Ben put on another master class with Uzuri this round. Uzuri traditionally has a rough match against Dromai, but Assassin players can come back to this game to learn how to navigate the match in the future. The final blow was struck when Kuan blocked a Stealth attack for six to play around the switch, but Ben had yet another Shred in hand to drop the defense enough to push exact lethal. With no further responses, Kuan extended the handshake and Ben moved on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals – Thomas Dowling (Dash I/O) vs Sang Wook Kim (Uzuri)

The juggernaut that was Thomas Dowling’s Dash I/O deck did not slow down in this round either, throwing above-rate Boost attack after above-rate Boost attack at Uzuri. Sang and Uzuri did their best to hang on and run Dash out of cards, but there was still no stopping Thomas this round. A Pulsewave Harpoon combined with Boom Grenade at the end of a massive combat chain ended the game for Dash with only a few cards left in deck.

Finals – Thomas Dowling (Dash I/O) vs Ben Dodd (Uzuri)

This was probably the best game we saw on stream all event long. The tension was palpable to everyone tuned in across the world. Ben Dodd and Uzuri managed to present enough disruption via Frailty tokens to keep Dash from outright ending things with the insane combo turns we’d seen from him several times before, and Thomas’ near-legendary run with DIO came to an end when variance finally reared its ugly head. Ben had navigated the game perfectly to get to a position where Thomas was at two life and was caught with three items in hand. From there, Thomas was unable block out Shake Down after a Spider’s Bite hit and Thomas extended the hand to congratulate Ben Dodd on winning Calling: Melbourne with Uzuri, Switchblade!

Final Thoughts

Despite tech issues through most of the coverage, the stream from Calling: Melbourne was extremely enjoyable to watch. I would highly recommend going back and watching each of Ben Dodd’s games if you’re interested in picking up Uzuri, as his gameplay was near-perfect each time we saw him. That victory was very well-earned.

Every round with Dash I/O on camera made her look like a ton of fun to play as well. And, of course, she also looked extremely powerful. The discourse that I’ve seen online since the final plays were made almost has DIO overshadowing the event’s actual winner.

With two of the heroes from Bright Lights earning spots in the Top 8 of Calling: Melbourne, I feel really secure in the future of Flesh and Blood as we move into the new age of hero design philosophies. With Aria officially gone by the time you read this, we’ve got a brand new world of Rathe to explore. I can’t wait to see how things play out at the World Championships in Barcelona Nov. 16^th to Nov. 19^th!

Do you think Dash I/O’s undefeated run to the finals is taking away some of the hype surrounding Uzuri’s first tier three event victory? How “Hype” were you to see Maxx make the Top 8 cut? After this performance from the other Bright Lights heroes, do you think there’s hope for Teklovossen to make a splash in the competitive scene? You can look me up on my weekly podcast the Siblings in Cardboard on YouTube or Spotify, or find me on Discord/Twitter as @Dracohominis87 to let me know!

(Also, if you’re interested in a comprehensive deck tech/primer on Dash I/O, my cohost Thomas aka @WetTheSystemFAB posted a great tutorial on our YouTube channel for his PQ Top 8 DIO list. Check it out if you want to know the ins/outs of how DIO works.)