The Urbie Derbie

The Urbie Derbie (or, to give it its full "official" name, the Whenever-We-Feel-the-Needually UrbanMech Battle-Royale Extravaganza for the Making of Unit Cohesion and Good External Relations Through Simulated Omni-Directional Violence) is a BattleMech simulator competition hosted once to twice (depending on contract obligations) per standard year by the Dust Devils mercenary command. Described in promotional materials as "the premier no-holds-barred, winner-take-something, every-can-for-itself test of skill and mettle in a 30-ton kettle this side of the Galactic Core", the contest takes the form of a battle royale tournament in a simulated urban environment, in which all contestants are allowed to pilot "whatever they want, so long as what they want to pilot is an UrbanMech" in pursuit of the "coveted" Golden Bin (and a hefty cash prize).
== History ==
The Kufstein Disaster left the Dust Devils in a severely damaged state, not just in terms of wounded bodies and lost equipment, but in their morale as well. Though time and the skills of both Dr. Naomi Altera's medical staff and Chief Technician Yang Virtanen's technicians had made good progress on the former, the Devils' command staff were having a more difficult time with the latter. The frustrating results of the subsequent MRBC arbitration added additional duress, a ripple effect that exacerbated the natural difficulties inherent in integrating a significant number of new recruits, especially as those recruits were replacing lost friends and loved ones. A few months into the Devils' yearlong rebuild period tensions between new recruits and veterans began to become a discipline problem, and with Commandant Tai Kekoa's initial struggles adjusting to a role they had not expected to be in for at least several more years (while simultaneously grieving their deep personal loss), the situation was at risk of spiraling out of control.
With nerves raw and tempers running high, Vice Commandant Darius Oliveira organized a series of brainstorming sessions to come up with a solution to the problem before the Devils own internal difficulties finished the job that Graf Alban Stieglitz-Bradford and the Wolves had begun on Kufstein. After a number of late nights without results, the officers stumbled into the first of many morale improvement efforts, and probably the most effective by far. Virtanen had this to say about it in in an interview with MercNet:Everyone was aware of how tough a spot we were all in, and how close we were to losing everything we'd fought, bled, sweat, and cried for for so much of our lives, but we were at something of a loss for what to do about it. [Vice Commandant] Darius [Oliveira] did what he's best at and dragged our sorry [expletive]es to the table, but after five nights of meetings we didn't feel any closer to any good ideas. To be honest, we were still just too tore up from the Bay, and we couldn't get far enough past our hurt to get to focus on solving the problems it was causing.You know how they say that sometimes the best way to find something is to stop looking for it? Well, whoever they are, they do get it right sometimes, and that's how it was for us. On the sixth night, [Commandant] Tai [Kekoa]'s patience just... ran out. I mean, couldn't really blame 'em; we'd lost our CO and our friend, but for Tai, on top of that same loss was the fact that this was the second time they'd lost a mom. I mean, imagine that, losing your mother, twice. So Tai, they call off the meeting, but none of us really wants to go wallow alone with our cares, you know? So, as such things go, we got to drinking and talking about old times, and much to our shock and shame, we found out that not one of us, not even the Commandant... sorry, "former" Commandant, still hurts a bit to say it that way, I guess... None of us had ever told Tai about that loony old psychopath "Professor" Mencius Horvat and his bat[expletive]-crazy UrbanMech-only "Tournament of Champions".Well, we got right to fixing that, even woke up Tractor [Subaltern Malohi Tupou] and Hitokiri [MechWarrior Yagami Kenshin] for help with the first-hand cockpit perspective. I swear, seeing the ki--excuse me, the Commandant--losing it over Sumire's and Darius's spot-on impressions of the Professor and his "man-monster" (I [expletive] you not, that's what the Professor called him) Calamar Gigante made me realize how long it'd been since I'd seen them smile, like for-real smile, much less laugh. Hell, since any of had really smiled, to be honest. It felt good, I gotta say. Anyway, when the story wound down, I remember the Commandant was a bit tipsy (they're not much of a drinker, usually) and they were just looking up all wistful-like at the ceiling when they said, "You know, I wish we could put together something like that. Without the murderous psychopath, I mean."Well, Darius and I looked at each other, and there it was, one of those "holy [expletive]" moments, you know? And we realized, well Hell, why couldn't we do exactly that?
We never did manage to get much sleep that night, or the next one, once the ideas really got flowing, but hey, we wouldn't be having this conversation if it hadn't been worth a bit of baggy eyes and caffeine shakes, eh?
After several weeks of gathering ideas, discussing, refining, and planning, the Dust Devils announced the date of the first Urbie Derbie and opened participation on a first-come, first-serve basis to the entire unit, not just the MechWarriors, to participate, up to the maximum capacity of their simulator bays. One of the DDS Makani ʻino's cavernous cargo holds was cleared and provisioned with seating, refreshments, large-format screens, and a commentator's booth, creating space for all off-duty personnel to attend a watch party. Oliveira and Virtanen provided live commentary, the Chief Engineer Farah Murad and her team rigged lighting and sound systems, Kekoa reached deep into the unit's discretionary funds to hire caterers and acquire a significant amount of alcohol and other intoxicants for the event. The tournament would also be simulcast to the rest of the ships in their fleet, allowing necessary duty personnel to keep up with the action, while the command staff also offered an option to volunteer to provide extra coverage and reduce duty station shifts in exchange for incentives to free up the crew to attend at least some of the celebrations.
The first Derbie was an unqualified success, helping to diffuse tensions, provide a starting point for integration and an increased espirit de corps, revive the Devils' lapsed Intramural Simulator Leagues, and inspire a number of out-of-the-box ideas for further activities from the grass-roots of the unit itself. Of course, it also didn't hurt that the watch party converted into something more akin to a Canopian-style rave after the tournament ended, while also managing to avoid generating significant cleanup work for the Argo's crew when Chief Engineer Farah Murad came up with the novel solution of simply flushing the resulting mess wholesale out of the cargo bay's airlock.
There have been a total of three Urbie Derbies, and the event has grown more complex, more intense, and more ridiculous with each iteration:
====Urbie Derbie I: Last Can Standing====
Date: Mid-3064
Location: Unknown
Winner: Yagami Kenshin (Dust Devils)
The Devils have not disclosed where the first Urbie Derbie was held, nor the exact date on which it took place. What is known is that the first Derbie was fairly straight forward and followed the Basic Rules. The event lasted a total of four hours, with participation from every MechWarrior in the unit's roster, new recruits and veterans alike. The first edit to the rules was made immediately after the event in response to audience and participant feedback; while originally there was only a single reward to be given to the pilot of the last surviving UrbanMech, a number of other awards were designed and presented in the days following the event as "Certificates of Excellence" which were both objective, determined by specific actions and achievements, and subjective, awarded based on audience vote. 
====Urbie Derbie II: The Great Refuse-All====
Date: 19 November 3064
Location: Dunianshire, Magistracy of Canopus
Winner: Hani Kawaii (Dust Devils)
During the refit of the Dust Devils' transport DropShips to accommodate Commandant Kekoa's planned restructure of the unit, the increased down-time and crowding imposed on the unit by the teardown and rebuild of two thirds of their transport capacity was beginning to generate restlessness, and the command staff decided it was as good a time as any to organize a second Urbie Derbie. Chief Technician Virtanen tapped a few of the more artistically-inclined members of his crew to put together promotional materials for the tournament as the event was coming together, and posted them to Dunianshire's local InfoWeb "just for a lark". The posts, which included footage from the first Derbie, went unexpectedly viral, and before long Vice Commandant Oliveira was receiving inquiries, not just from curious MechWarriors interested in competing in the unusual tournament, but also local media outlets, ever hungry for new concepts in the saturated Canopian entertainment market and interested in knowing with whom the Devils planned to contact for live broadcasting and post-event recording distribution.
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Never one to pass up a financial opportunity, Oliveira assembled the command staff and drafted a set of amendments to the Derbie's rules, opening the tournament to non-Dust Devils (for an entree fee, of course), as well as signing an agreement with OmniCast (Dunianshire's largest local media conglomerate) providing the outlet with exclusive broadcasting and distribution rights within the three nations of the Trinity Alliance in exchange for a percentage of any revenues earned by OmniCast from broadcasts, redistribution to other outlets, or licensing agreements, to be passed to the Devils. Oliveira was able to negotiate the inclusion of a clause which maintained the Devils' exclusive rights to distribute Derbie-related content outside of the Trinity Alliance in exchange for agreeing to extend the terms of the OmniCast agreement to future Derbies beyond Urbie Derbie II. 
Response to initial marketing in the leadup to the Derby was surprisingly good for a virtual event, considering that live-fire BattleMech combat was an established sport with much higher stakes, but the novelty and comedy built into the Derbie's core concept went a respectable way toward closing that gap. One notable example of the positive impact of the humor involved came when, after a great deal of audience and broadcaster feedback expressing confusion over the pronunciation of the second Derbie's subtitle, Oliveira made an appearance on OmniCasts primary gladiatorial sports network to clarify thusly: "It's pronounced REF-yoos, with a groan at the end." Short clips of Oliveira's Q&A proved fairly popular on social media, and were attached to subsequent promotional materials. 
To spice up the competition and make for a better show, Urbie Derbie II would be the first to include Course Hazards and Cask Tasks as additions to the ruleset, which lent a much more chaotic, challenging feel to the contest. The additional carnage sped up the action, and Derbie II ended up lasting a full hour less than the first tournament, ending in a dramatic upset when the very green MechWarrior Hani "Dolphin" Kawaii managed to down the heavily-favored Yagami Kenshin's modified UM-R80 in an ambush. The young warrior's surprise at his victory was as visible as that of the audience, and clips of Kawaii staring at his simulator's console in shock and uttering "gosh, oh my gosh" over and over was shared to enthusiastic response across dozens of InfoWeb sites catering to the teenage and young adult demographic. The flurry of subsequent interview requests from publications and outlets focusing on "heart throb" content for that same demographic became a source of ready amusement for the reserved teen's fellow mercenaries for months. 
While initial broadcast numbers never reached comparable levels to the live-fire events of such venues as Hardcore or Galatea, the Derbie would do much better in distribution and licensing, becoming something of a cult hit in the Magistracy and the Capellan Confederation, particularly on worlds near the border of the Federated Suns. The latter was less surprising than the former; the Confederation is not only the home to Hellespont Industrials (the only manufacturer whose UrbanMech lines survived the Succession Wars), but Capellan state media had been singing the praises of their own UrbanMech pilots since the Fourth Succession War, when a shortage of more capable Mechs prompted the CCAF to throw anything and everything they could get their hands on into the face of overwhelming Davion forces. Despite their disadvantage, Capellan warriors still climbed into their cockpits and stood the line, and in many cases made the Davions pay dearly for every fallen Urbie, earning a warm regard for the scrappy little Mech in the hearts of many Capellans, citizen and servitor alike. As such, marketing materials and commentary translation for the Derbie in Capellan markets tended not to play up the comedy as much as in the Magistracy, and thus managed to fare reasonably well without earning the ire of Confederation authorities. 
In the end, Urbie Derbie II more than served its purpose of providing entertainment, distraction, and a morale boost for the Devils, while turning a fairly respectable profit for the unit. 
====Urbie Derbie III: The Battle Barrel Brawl====
Date: 3 February 3065
Location: Outreach
Winner: Captain Ellis "Carronade" Carnby (Gwydion Company)
Upon their return to Outreach from their more than year-long absence from the Inner Sphere mercenary marketplace, the Devils were somewhat surprised to find that bootleg copies of footage from the second Urbie Derbie were being passed around on the local InfoWeb, with a few clips having made their way to MercNet message boards where response was generally positive. A number of users posted requests for additional footage, while other threads contained a number of interesting ideas for new wrinkles on the tournament's rules. Seeing an opportunity to make up for the loss of "brand awareness" that any unit that is off the market for a significant time inevitably suffers, the Devils' command staff decided it was time for yet another Urbie Derbie.
With a marketing campaign refined by the lessons learned on Dunianshire, the Devils were able to drum up enough interest in the tournament that as the day approached, even the DDS Makani ʻino's relatively expansive simulator facilities were not sufficient to host the event, and other arrangements had to be made in order to avoid turning away a significant portion of applicants. With a bit of ingenuity and some very long planning meetings, the Devils came up with a solution, and the Urbie Derbie morphed once more.
Rather than a single grand melee, Urbie Derbie III would consist of three qualifying rounds. Combatants were assigned by lottery to one of three groups. Each group would fight their own battle royale, and the top one-third of each melee based on a newly-implemented scoring system would proceed to the final, where the overall winner would take home the Golden Bin and the champion's purse. In addition, to accommodate the increased number of combatants, the Devils arranged for the rental of a block of BattleMech simulators through the Harlech Hiring Hall, which would be synced via a real-time uplink to those on the Makani ʻino.
With the FedCom Civil War heating up, and conditions being what they were in the Chaos March that surrounded Outreach, there was far less interest from local media outlets in terms of broadcasting and distribution, but the Devil's didn't mind; they could live-stream the event via MercNet to build the hype and name recognition they were looking for, while still retaining the ability to block any further distribution without their consent. Also, they had the standing agreement with OmniCast for the Trinity Alliance, so even with the substantial cash outlay for the simulator rental, real-time uplink, and prize money, the Devils were in no danger of coming out of the event in the red. On a slightly more humanitarian note, the initial phases of the current conflict were proving somewhat more fatal than normal to those in the independent military profession, and the Derbie provided a number of war-wearing MechWarriors to match their hard-earned skills against others without the stakes being so final, along with the potential to have a little fun and possibly earn a fat stack of C-Bills along the way.
Urbie Derbie III turned out to be a success in the mold of the previous two; though generating significantly less media splash to this point than Urbie Derbie II, Commandant Tai Kekoa has been quoted as saying that they have absolutely no regrets. Indeed, despite the Devils' well-documented antipathy for Wolf's Dragoons, the Commandant went on record expressing gratitude to the Harlech authorities for the opportunity to host the tournament, provide their new recruits with a taste of combat against some of the most skilled MechWarriors the Inner Sphere has to offer without risking their lives, form closer bonds through the competition with their counterparts in other units, and have "a ridiculous amount of fun along the way". In light of those sentiments, it is perhaps fitting that the championship and the Golden Bin did not remain in the Devils' hands, but were rather won by an old friend from their past, Captain Ellis Carnby of Gwydion Company, who secured the trophy when she lured Wolf's Dragoon MechWarrior Jacob Kincaid and Yagami Kenshin (the Derbie's first- and second-seeded pilots, respectively) directly into the path of the "Clan Can Can-Can" Course Hazard, finishing them both off in the confusion with her Urbie's rotary autocannon. 
====Urbie Derbie IV: Der KegsKrieg====
Date: TBD
Location: TBD
While the date and location for the fourth Urbie Derbie has not yet been announced, promotional materials and teasers have already begun to appear on MercNet message boards. Additionally, rumors have circulated that at least one Solaris VII arena has extended feelers to the Devils to license a live-fire version of the competition, with a possible sponsorship from Hellespont Industrials itself, but as of this time all parties involved have declined comment.
==Rules==
===Core Rules===
The rules of the Derbie are fairly straightforward, consisting of the following statutes:
*The Derbie is open to anyone who is capable of interfacing with a neurohelmet-integrated BattleMech simulator pod. Dust Devils may compete for free, while nonmembers of the unit will be required to submit a non-refundable entry fee. Combatants who fail to check in with event staff at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the event forfeit automatically, and replacements are not allowed.
* Simulator pods will be assigned by lottery to combatants.
*From the time the Derbie is officially declared in progress, each MechWarrior is allowed thirty minutes to select a base UrbanMech variant, decorate it, and configure its loadout. 
**Combatants may use any equipment configuration they desire, with only two limitations:
***Hardpoint allotments are based on the chassis variant, and cannot be reconfigured.
***While "experimental" technology is allowed, no Clantech is available for use in Derbie Urbies.
**Combatants may use the simulators' built-in tools to configure their UrbanMech's color scheme, select a premade scheme, or submit a custom scheme to the event organizers at least three days in advance of the day of the tournament. The organizers will upload custom schemes to the simulator bank, and provide the combatant with an ID and passcode to apply the scheme to their UrbanMech during configuration.
* When the 20 minute mark is reached, each combatant's UrbanMech will be placed in a random point within a procedurally-generated urban environment simulation with randomly selected climate conditions, including weather, gravity, temperature, atmosphere, etc. 
**All starting points are at least two kilometers from any other combatant, and the generation algorithm ensures that no combatants within 3 km of one another will have initial direct line-of-sight.
**The simulation's environment and Course Hazard generation algorithms are available for combatants or their authorized agents to review upon request, however, as the code is proprietary, an intellectual property and non-disclosure agreement must be signed prior to access being given. If a combatant disputes the unbiased nature of the algorithms' environment generation, that dispute can and will be arbitrated via the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission.
* The simulated environment becomes a free-fire zone immediately upon simulated activation of all combatants' UrbanMechs, and continues to be so until there is only a single functional UrbanMech left within the environment, at which point the simulation ends.
*The simulator will occasionally generate a number of Resupply Beacons based on the number of active combatants (one per every three combatants, with a minimum of one), spaced at equal distances within the simulated tournament ground. Making physical contact with for ten seconds the beacon will replenish spent ammunition and equipment to a full state, at which point the beacon will be removed from the simulation. Replenishment beacons broadcast their location to all active combatants for as long as they exist, and will not remove themselves from the simulation until they are "collected".
*Communications between combatants will be restricted to active combatants only.
**Combatants will be subject to search prior to entering their assigned simulator pod by a non-participating neutral party. Combatants found to be in possession of external communication devices on attempting to enter their assigned pod will be considered an automatic forfeit.
**Simulator pods will be inspected by a non-participating neutral party prior to entry by combatant. Issues with the pod will result in reassignment.
**There are no restrictions on communication between active combatants, nor is there any rule against the formation (or breaking) of temporary cooperative arrangements.
**Eliminated combatants must vacate their simulator pod and leave the tournament area, but are the free to observe the remainder of the event from the venue of their choosing.
*Combatants' performance will be ranked based on a two-part scoring system using both objective and subjective scoring methods to determine advancement to subsequent rounds in the qualifiers and prizes in the final. 
**The top-scoring one-third of each qualifying group will proceed to the final round.
**Combatants are scored the following objective:
***Number of kills
***Survival time
***Estimated damage inflicted
***Course Hazards encountered and overcome
***Completion of Cask Tasks
**Combatants are additionally scored on the following subjective criteria (based on registered audience feedback via the Derbie's official InfoWeb/MercNet portal):
***Combat Style
***Cunning
***Sportsmanship
***Showmanship
***UrbanMech "Beauty"
**Scores and rankings will be updated in real-time, and will be visible to combatants at all times.
*Each round ends when there is a single functional UrbanMech remaining in the combat environment, the pilot of which is declared the winner of the round.
**The Last Can Standing in a qualifier match always advances to the next round, regardless of score.
**The Last Can Standing in the final match is declared the winner of the Derbie and awarded the Golden Bin and a Champion's Purse of 250,000 C-Bills.
**The three highest-scoring runners-up to the Last Can Standing receive progressively smaller, but still substantial, cash prizes.
* While temporary alliances are allowed, each combatant must make a good-faith attempt to win the tournament to the best of their ability. 
**Match fixing, especially in cases of prearranged agreements to throw a match in favor of another combatant for compensation, is strictly prohibited.
**Significant evidence of such an agreement will result in a life-time ban from participation in future tournaments for the individuals involved, and in extreme cases the ban will extend to all members of their parent units. Bans are final, and cannot be reversed.
=== Course Hazards===
Course Hazards are environmental dangers which can provide anything from a simple inconvenience or challenge of basic skills to a threat capable of eliminating a combatant from the tournament. Course Hazards appear at random intervals and locations, and can be generated in an area whether a combatant is nearby or not. First introduced in Urbie Derbie II, the third Derbie retained or upgraded all Hazards from its predecessor while adding new ones, and it is expected that Urbie Derbie IV will include new additions to the list as well. The following is a list of Course Hazards and a brief description, grouped by the tournament in which they were added.
====Urbie Derbie II ====
=====The Floor is Lava!=====
A flood of molten metal and stone pours up from fissures in the street and spreads quickly into a square area measuring between one and three city blocks to a side. Combatants should keep an eye and an ear out for sudden ground tremors, opening fissures, and steam venting up from the ground. If encountered, clear the area quickly or get to high ground.
=====Bombing, RUN!=====
A lance of heavy AeroSpace Fighters makes a bombing run against the city, coming in from either an orbital-insertion trajectory or nape-of-the-earth flying from the outer boundary of the simulated environment. The bombers can be shot down prior to releasing their payload, which will prevent the bombing run, but the craft can still be a hazard when they crash. In its original iteration, the bombing runs were performed by simulator-controlled craft that followed a set path, attacked a set target, and disengaged. 
As of Urbie Derbie III, the attack runs are now performed by actual AeroSpace pilots who sign up to be a Course Hazard and are activated at random by the algorithm, which assigns an attack vector and target area. Pilots are free to engage any combatant they encounter on their attack vector and target area, and are unable to determine identity of their targets; their simulator pods are configured to render all UrbanMechs in an identical color scheme, and automatically flag them as hostile, with no detailed IFF data available to their targeting systems. The AeroSpace Fighters are given a set amount of time to engage targets, after which they are immediately removed from the simulation. Though there is no pay or prize available to AeroSpace participants, there was also no shortage of eager volunteers for Urbie Derbie III.
=====That Sinking Feeling=====
The streets and structures within this area are unstable, and may give way beneath the weight of an UrbanMech, sending it plummeting into the cityscape's underground infrastructure and potentially burying the machine in crushing rubble. Combatants should be on the lookout for structural damage, cracks, sinkholes, and the like.
=====Traps=====
Just what it says on the tin. Traps include, but are not limited to, dead-falls, minefields, triplines, pitfalls (with BattleMech-scale grinding blades, corrosive chemicals, etc.), and snares and nets capable of hoisting a combatant's UrbanMech off the ground. 
In Urbie Derbie III, this Hazard was upgraded to include a new kind of snare, this one attached to a concealed rocket motor capable of carrying a captured machine to a significant distance and altitude before running out of fuel. This new Trap Hazard is noteworthy in that it was the first to receive a significant write-in campaign from the audience for eligibility to be classed as a combatant and receive Style points after it eliminated a fairly embarrassed Commandant Kekoa from the final round and granted them the dubious distinction of being the first and only combatant thus far to complete the "Reach for the Stars" Cask Task.
=====Rise of the Machines=====
The simulation generates 1-4 simulator-controlled UM-R60 UrbanMechs that fan out from their generation point in search of combatants, whom they will engage on site. Though configured to perform as essentially raw recruits, their guns still work, and can be a real threat to an inattentive or otherwise-occupied combatants.
====Urbie Derbie III====
=====The Clan Can Can-Can=====
An audience favorite (based on enthusiastic feedback), this hazard works similarly to the Rise of the Machines hazard, but rather than creating standard UM-R60 UrbanMechs, the simulation generates a full Star of Clantech UrbanMech IIC's. The generated IIC's exhibit a number of key differences from the stock model: The engines have been upgraded to increase their base speed by 50%, their armor and gyros have been reinforced as much as is possible for the chassis, they have been upgraded with both ECM and Active Probes, and their weapons systems are completely non-functional. 
The Clan Cans' programming is single-minded in its purpose: The Star will move as a close group through the cityscape until it detects a combatant, at which point it will change course to intercept at cruising speed. Upon attaining visual contact, the Clan Cans will form up in line abreast and charge the combatant's UrbanMech at full sprint, and upon reaching them, will proceed to attempt to destroy the combatant's machine via kicking it. From the initial charge to the destruction of either their opponents or themselves, the Clan Cans play a very brassy full-symphony arrangement of "The Galop Infernal" from the ancient Terran opera Orphée aux enfers at very high volume from their external speakers and over open comm channels, adding to the shere chaos of this Hazard for pilots, and hilarity for the audience.
=====Always a Bigger Barrel=====
This very straight-forward Hazard generates a simulator-controlled FLS-7K Flashman of roughly Regular ability that hunts the cityscape and engages any combatants it detects. Combatants may find this threat very difficult to tackle alone, and are encouraged to form temporary alliances to survive such encounters. However, it is also worth noting that the Flashman (like other simulator-controlled units) is not immune to other Course Hazards.
=====Dance Dance Immolation=====
Another audience favorite, this Hazard generates a set of VToL aerial drones that sweep in randomized patterns over the cityscape. Each drone is rigged with a number of very bright multi-colored strobes and spotlights, as well as an array of flamethrowers, which it uses to spray the streets below as it flies over while broadcasting high-BPM music over both every open comm channel and a set of external speakers.
===Cask Tasks===
Cask Tasks represent specific actions and/or conditions in which specific actions take place, and a combatant can receive objective score points for completing them. the esoteric nature of the Cask Tasks is meant to encourage combatants to use unconventional tactics, as the potential point rewards are significant, individual tasks can be completed for reward multiple times, and can mean the difference between advancement and elimination. It is possible, in certain circumstances, to fulfill the requirements of multiple Cask Tasks simultaneously, earning full points for each Task completed in this way. 
The Cask Tasks available to combatants in the current iteration of the Derbie's rules are as follows:
*Trash Compactor: Destroy with crushing damage, such as collapsing a structure atop them, a "death from above" melee attack, etc.; anything really that causes terminal physical destruction (excluding direct weapons-fire damage) from a higher elevation will qualify.
*Hot Pot Master: Defeat an opponent by overheating their UrbanMech to the point of critical engine/simulated biological failure.
*The Hidden Pickle: Defeat an opponent while remaining undetected by said opponent.
*Reach for the Stars: Reach an altitude of at least 1000 meters above terrain level.
*Do a Barrel Roll: Successfully evade incoming weapons fire through the use of jump jets or falling.
*Demolition Can: Defeat an enemy by collapsing a structure beneath or atop them.
*Slay it Cool: Defeat an enemy using only energy weapons, while never reaching 75% heat sinking capacity.
*Prohibition Agent: Puncture and drain an enemy's coolant system without destroying their UrbanMech outright.
*Kick the Can: Defeat an enemy in melee combat.
*Pop the Top: Defeat an enemy by destroying their cockpit.
*The Donkey Kong: Cause an enemy's destruction via fall damage.
*From Downtown: Defeat an enemy at a range of 1000 or more meters.
*Underground Rave: Engage and defeat an enemy within the simulated cityscape's subterranean infrastructure using only energy weapons.
* Garbage Can, Not Garbage Can't: Defeat two or more enemy combatants in a single encounter.
* Metal Detector: Defeat an enemy unit while having neither visual nor sensor contact.
*Poached Keg: Defeat an enemy while they are activating a Resupply Beacon.
*Nonperishable: Survive damage inflicted by at least five unique opponents.
*Combat Rations: Be among the final one-third of active combatants while using ammunition-based weapons, but without using a Resupply Beacon.
*Can of Worms: Defeat a pursuing enemy by luring them into a Course Hazard.
Category:Dust Devils AU
Category:Tabletop Game Scenarios