Things have slowed down over past week but overall we had a very exciting game. @gaz123 played well and put up a solid fight. Really enjoyed our map with 3 separate fronts and lots of angles to consider. During the early game land-grab, he managed to take some of “my” stars in the center of the map while I took extra ground on the edges. We both kept a strong defense in the center and didn’t trade there at all. On the edges however, there were several contested stars right off the bat that changed hands more than once. Over time I built up a ship lead and was able to gain ground on both edges. @gaz123 maintained his solid border defense in the center, but eventually I attacked from the sides inwards and his position collapsed. Good game @gaz123!
Thanks for the update - glad to see round #1 matches are done.
Games ready to go that need players to join are:
23. @Dysp vs @TheLastHero - game link
25. @Trucriot vs @FinrodFelagund - game link
Yes, it was a really good game, even if did loose (again!) 
I thought I had it made in the early stages but @TheLastHero fought back amazingly. Good luck in the next round to him!
I just managed to edge out @spymort in game 20 - a good game in which I managed to build a lead in Economy, but was always behind in Science. Some of the early border battles made a big difference as well.
@Dysp I’ll join our game tonight or tomorrow morning and should be able to get my turns in relatively quickly once we get going. Looking forward to a tough battle!
yeah I should have played it better to make it closer
June 1st update.
Round #1 - all games are complete.
Round #2 - three games are in progress and look close.
Round #3 - @FinrodFelagund is waiting for you @Trucriot, so I’d recommend you guys start your game.
Wanted to avoid a very slow start caused by external circumstances. Given we’re the only Round #3 match ready - with the others still looking far from getting started - this seemed feasible, but will join soon.
@Zatoc has conceded in our match. It was a very close contest, partly due to the map which only allowed a small number of attack points early on. Once it had settled into the mid game, I made most of the attacks with little success, so I knew it was going to take a little more planning to break through the defences. I targetted a star in the East of the map which would open up a number of vulnerable stars to me, but needed range (plus an expensive gate) to make the plan work and I was already falling behind in the stats. So I slowly built the gates, moved the necessary ships about, continued probing defences so @Zatoc didn’t suspect anything (and to see if another opportunity arose). Thankfully I managed to break through and the plan worked. Good job really, as it was a risky plan that would’ve left me even further behind in the stats. At that point @Zatoc conceded as it meant the east of the map was effectively under my control as I’d managed to shift a large number of ships there.
Tough contest.
GG @Zatoc
Sounds like a good battle and sorry the map didn’t play out too well - I actually put a lot of time trying to generate maps that have multiple contact points, but it’s hard to know how things will actually develop.
I’ve updated the OP and @Karmadrome moves to the Quarter-Finals against the Jolly Green Giant.
Does this map look good to you?
FYI that I’m actually traveling all of next week … so I won’t join for a bit. Plus I’ve got an ongoing game against my nemesis @Solfyre that I actually stand a chance of winning … although I’ve made some sucky moves in the last several turns.
Joined. Looking forward to the battle… 
Another chance for 1v1-hungry players is here - sign up for the 4th edition of the Legendary Level League! It’s only a commitment for one game 
Pinging the players here who are not already involved: @TheLastHero - @kinghuang - @Karmadrome - @SimonMiaou - @gaz123 - @Dysp - @wint3ermute - @spymort
Ok, count me in!
Better to sign up directly in the LLL thread linked above, but glad to have you on board too! 
I just conceded my game against @wint3ermute. He played very well and didn‘t make any mistakes. He took an early lead in techs and stats. I wasn‘t able to catch him up and in the end he succesfully launched a full attack on my weakest spot. Nothing left to do for me to turn the game…
You deserve it!
Good luck against @plug
Two points:
Early in the game I started an attak and was really impressed that DarkDragonwing managed to defend. I wouldn’t have been able to defend if he had launched a similar attack against me.
During the final offensive I kept a gate open near my home star but outside of DarkDragonwing’s scanning range. He somehow guessed it and attacked my home star which I barely managed to defend.
Despite my lead in almost every stat it was hard to figure out a way to actually win the game. Good game.
Nicely done @wint3ermute - I’ve joined the next round game already, so whenever you want to make a start just jump in, but no rush if you need a pause. Sounds like the match between you and @DarkDragonwing was full of excitement.
I conceded to @Dysp. I’ve just missed my 3rd turn and it’s pretty clear that I can’t balance the game with everything else going on right now. Hopefully things will settle down enough for me to join the Aug/Sep round. Congrats to @Dysp, you had me beat either way. We may have had a long war ahead of us, but I’m pretty sure your lead after the first couple cycles would’ve slowly compounded into a win.
Yea, it’s real tough if you miss a couple of turns.
I’ve updated the OP and all brackets are into the quarter-finals.
Please join your game @Dysp & @panblanco and start the carange!
well I conceeded to @Trucriot forgot to buy on the first tick and it really makes no sense to play out a game against the top dog that way
I hope I will be more on top of it next time. Promise you not go that easy again if we meet!