1. An extra 30-ish hours in hero range. Basically the fight I got toasted, I was probably level 48, not as nicely geared, and didn't have various skills perfected. I don't know if I was even Elite yet, but if I was, I'd just gotten it, so Imperial Training hadn't gone up much. And I probably had impe def going because until later with the character, I went with that as a default (mistake, btw - I didn't rely on dodge as much as spin/parry, so that extra attack was totally worth giving up some dodging). You can see the difference in the two logs - at the end of the one I won, I got like 5 or 6 attacks.

2. I had protection up in the log I won. That much DR made it so I was only at 31% by the end instead of dead or fleeing.

3. RNG.