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Retirements and Rookies – What to Look For at the Weigh-In

Sara Hymnia walks you through the important issues ahead of this weekend's formal weigh-in for the Imperial League.

Sara Hymnia profile picture: a young lady with pink-purple hair and glasses, her head framed by small wings and a white-flower hairpiece.   SARA HYMNIA
  Wolf Sports Imperial League Correspondent

The weigh-in is the first major event of the Imperial League calendar, and our first real chance to get a look at dragons and riders as they'll be on the perches at the Palace next weekend. Officially the weigh-in is on Friday, but the event has become much more than just its formal requirements. Every team will be at the Imperial City, and there'll be press conferences, interviews, meetings, and all sorts of intrigue and dealmaking behind the scenes.

It's easy to read too much into some of this – a few years ago we all got suckered into believing that Feran Andoal had struck a deal to replace Arden Markwe at Hermeia because of one blogger's elaborate conspiracy theory about which riders lunched with which managers at the airport on the way home. Still, there are things we'll be able to glean from the events. Here are a few of the big things to look out for.


Will Lucia Aelschu announce her retirement?

We've been expecting an official announcement of Lucia's forthcoming retirement since before the end of last season. Everyone assumes this will be her final year in the IL, and there's no point her pretending otherwise. If the announcement doesn't come by the end of Saturday, Lucia will certainly start the season under an unprecedented question mark.

Few enough riders stay in the sport a full ten years, so there's little past convention to go by, but Tony Ellman, whose tenth season was his last in 1448, announced his retirement plans in the summer of '47. No-one's quite sure why Lucia has held out this long, and it's not even that the only possibilities are bad – there doesn't seem to be much reason to keep the secret at all. The fear is that there's some contractual snag between her and Royal Hermeia, perhaps over legacy name and image rights, that might sour the end of her record-breaking career.

Just how big are Lautern's new drakes?

Quite apart from all the pageantry, the weigh-in does serve an important veterinary and regulatory function. ICDA collects an extensive range of health data on all registered dragons, and from that we get hard numbers that might contain clues to future performance. The Imperial League has increasingly relied on size, weight and muscle percentage measurements to anticipate and plan for rival team's performances, and this year there will be extra scrutiny on one team in particular.

Lautern have spent to the hilt to wipe the slate clean after last year's disaster, and by all accounts the two new drakes purchased at spectacular cost from Carthagia's Phoenix Ranch are enormous. We expect both Incandesia and Phosphora to be powerful and fast, but also possibly to test the threshold where the power-to-mass ratios start to become unfavourable. One or both drakes might break the standing size records for a new entrant, and if they do there'll be more than the usual amount of shouting about it.

What's the atmosphere like at Temisia?

There's broad consensus that Feran Andoal's move to Temisia puts him in the preeminent position for the championship, but he also presents a stark contrast in many ways to his immediate predecessor, Therese Ikaha. Where Terry was garrulous and bombastic, always cheerful for the crowd, Feran is dignified and reserved. Feran's dragon Corredeira is also more standoffish than Ikaha's Lett.

We'll have plenty of opportunities to see Feran and his teammate Gerald Ipemas together over the weekend. Support from a second rider is crucial to any championship bid, and Feran's intensity may need time to settle into rapport with Ipemas. If the chemistry between them is poor, that could forewarn of trouble during the season. The relationship between the dragons is perhaps less important, but in the past we have seen rider pairings broken up if their dragons can't get along. With Feran secure in a multiyear contract, friction between Corry and Ipemas' Renner might have profound implications for Ipemas' career.

Will Tenebrae show up?

The League's newest team is still something of a cipher – their registration lists only three personnel including rider Phoebe Tenryuu, they've done no press events so far, and as of my writing this, from my hotel room near the Palace Mount, no-one I've spoken to has seen any sign of team personnel arriving in town. Based in Rindburg, they're not that far from the Imperial City, and may be delaying their arrival to save costs, but more likely we're about to discover that the team will not make it to the grid after all.

That would be a tragedy for Tenryuu, a talented and charismatic rider with a proven record in junior competition. If she fails to gain the support and investment necessary to compete in the Imperial League, it will be the League's loss. The odds are stacked against her on and off the course, but Tenryuu is a ferocious, determined competitor and I'm not prepared to write her off just yet.

WS1's The Flock will be broadcasting live from the weigh-in from 10AM on Friday.
What are you looking for at the weigh-in? Let us know in the comments!
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You can follow more of the action from the Imperial League in The Dragon Racer by @eatthepen

Sara's PFP is from this picrew.


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