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Episode 28: The End of the Beginning
102 Plays11 days ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba, Samuel Graebner, and Nick Sperry discuss their trip to the final official Worlds for X-Wing. The three discuss the new venue, the vibes, and the event itself!
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Transcript
Introduction and Trip to X-Wing Worlds
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron Podcast. My name is Nick Sperry. I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Samuel Graibner. And the three of us are fresh off of our trip to Worlds 2025 in Milwaukee. Just got back.
00:00:18
Speaker
We're recovering.
Venue Shift to Milwaukee
00:00:20
Speaker
That was the last official supported ah by AMG X-Wing Worlds. And um we're going to dive into... Obviously, you know, performance lists, Mr. Caitlin Wong, spoiler alert, taking it all our predictions and everything like that. But also, I just want to start off with just how it was for us and, you know, how you guys felt Adepticon moving from Schaumburg in the Chicagoland area to a new venue in Milwaukee, and how how your experience was with that and obviously just the con in general.
Experiences at Adepticon
00:00:53
Speaker
So Sam, I guess I'll start with you. Yeah. What was the depth icon like for you? That's common was a blast. I had so much fun. i came up from Tennessee to ah spend. I came in Thursday night, spent ah Friday playing X-Wing, spent Saturday playing X-Wing Sunday, moseyed around the con a little bit.
00:01:14
Speaker
um I had ah I had a great time. It was it was a ah absolute delight to get to play X-Wing in person again. It's been a minute for me. um And ah yeah, i I had a great time. i i would do it all over again.
00:01:30
Speaker
And Andrew, what about you? Oh, yeah, absolutely wonderful. i Came up Thursday as well. It was so much fun seeing everybody and just had absolute blast. i I loved Milwaukee as a venue.
00:01:43
Speaker
It was so nice to be able to walk around outside of the venue, have a lot of places that were really easy to get to. i feel like in general, it was kind of an easy spot for a lot of people to get to. the Like when I was talking with a lot of people that they didn't really have an issue getting there.
00:01:59
Speaker
And then for us, you know, it's only just like an extra 40 minutes, maybe. So it wasn't really even that big of a ah drive for for us to really be there. And that's with traffic. It was like an hour. 20 for me.
00:02:12
Speaker
Not too bad at all. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I left Thursday after work and didn't really run into any traffic there either. and But yeah, just had ah a great time overall. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend to do it, especially because it was really nice on Friday, but having ah it be kind of a little cold and rainy the rest of the time was a great reason to spend indoors and just play
Midwest Experience and Venue Comparison
00:02:36
Speaker
X-Wing.
00:02:36
Speaker
It's perfect X-Wing weather. Yeah. Yeah, it was ah it was a true non-spring kind of spring that we ah were entering into. ah felt like I got that true Midwest experience. Being from California, i have spent enough time here that I've gotten used to that. But it just when I go home, as I did a few weeks ago, it is kind of ah a funny reminder that weather patterns are vastly different in the state of California on the West Coast and the are in Wisconsin, Chicago, you know Illinois, just the Midwest in general. Right.
00:03:09
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I agree with you guys. I think it being moved, the Depticon being moved at first kind of stung only because I was thinking about all the international travelers that like, you know, worlds is worlds. Right.
00:03:22
Speaker
And I was like, ah, that's not great. It's still not great because O'Hare as a hub airport is easier for people to get in and out of and get to. um but as a venue, it was it was like just miles, eons, galaxies above what ah what we had at the Renaissance Center in Schaumburg.
00:03:44
Speaker
It felt like being in Milwaukee, actually being in the downtown area, like you're in the venues in a real place. It doesn't feel so isolated. it it feels like you're around life, um for lack of a better way to describe it. And um it felt bigger like they said it was bigger that's why they were you know they outgrew that's what they adapt to god said we've outgrown schomburg we got to move and this is where we're going i i could see that it felt it felt bigger while also not being overwhelming you know what i mean like i didn't feel like whoa this is like there's just way too many people like gen con gives that vibe it's like oh my gosh like i'm gonna get covet i'm going to get very sick from existing in this general area because I'm going to get ram so massive.
Event Reflections and Gameplay Insights
00:04:28
Speaker
Right. I'm going to get just completely trampled. Yeah. Overall, I mean, if I were to give it a rating, I get it at nine. You know, was I had no complaints on that side of it. The con itself I thought was great. I didn't really get to explore too much. And that's on me.
00:04:42
Speaker
But Unfortunately, I mean, there are some downsides to play well enough for you make day two that you don't get to do as much as maybe you'd be able to when it comes to side events and just exploring. You just you're playing 10 rounds of X-Wing takes a lot of time, especially with 90 minute rounds.
00:04:57
Speaker
So we'll dive into that as well. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, that's true. How did you guys feel like you played overall? like you know Without doing a bat rep of all your games, because there's a lot of games that we played, like you know what were your expectations going in?
00:05:13
Speaker
um And you know how did you feel about it walking away?
00:05:19
Speaker
i felt like I played not up to my best, I'll be honest, um but ah played like some very stiff competition um and played i i liked my list going in i liked my my setup i didn't have as much in person like physical on the table practice as i wanted so i could tell coming in that i was a little rusty like i my hands were a little shaky i was ah not seeing the board as best i could in that first round um didn't make any horrendous mistakes as far as i can tell but i did have a
00:05:57
Speaker
ah a judge call where I accidentally picked up the wrong ship while marking a ship, which is just like a dexterity error that yeah absolutely should never have happened. But and it worked out like we got it sorted out and and the judges were excellent about that. But it was it was just one of those things where it's like if I'm on my A game, it doesn't happen.
00:06:17
Speaker
i mean, in the and that happens. I get that. Yeah, I would say, you know, for for me, i went into this hoping to do well. I definitely did not play up to my best. I didn't do as much practice as I would have liked going into it. I felt that my list was good, but I was making some blunders in my first game.
00:06:39
Speaker
And but the second game, you know, had a little bit of like of bad luck ah probably also could have played better as well but both of those things combined knocked me out early and I had fun you know the rest of the game going ah two and three ah it definitely this weekend showed that there are a lot of blind spots in my game and there's a lot I think more that I can be doing to just be a better player but Nick how about yourself ah yeah I mean
00:07:12
Speaker
i
00:07:15
Speaker
I felt a little by confidence in my play has wavered a little bit in the over the last year. i play a lot of online X-Wing and I have my moments where i you know I'm like, you know, i feel like I'm really making big brain choices and things are working out and I'm having some luck and then I'm having things not not go my way at all.
00:07:37
Speaker
and playing in person at at some smaller events than LVO and playing pretty well at LVO, but still missing cut. Like my expectation when I go to events is to make cut. And when I don't, that LVO was particularly frustrating because i I had enough mission points to I should have made cut and I just didn't because of the numbers and the amount of people that played.
00:07:56
Speaker
I was just like I was unsure of like really what to expect. I was i really thought I wasn't going to make day two. I hoped I would. But every game that I played day one, I felt like I was in complete command. It was is weird to describe, but like I could see everything ah kind of unfolding the way I wanted to.
00:08:17
Speaker
I understood what my opponent's lists were doing, which in 2.5 is generally kind of hard to do to fully grasp. what your opponents are trying to do because there's so much to keep track of in 2.5.
00:08:28
Speaker
yeah um And my opponents were just great people. So I felt like I could relax a little bit and maybe just dedicate more focus to my game because of the more relaxing environments where I felt like, okay, this is competitive, but you know, we're not, no one's at each other's throats. No one's making bad assumptions or about, you know, bad faith arguments or, or anything that's just truly can be really awkward in tournament settings.
00:08:50
Speaker
ah The X-Wing community is not known for that, but there are people who kind of take it very seriously, right? like it's just It is just so so important to them that they win. Yeah. um I felt really confident myself, and my day one went well, and I took the draw at the end because if I don't and I lose, I i don't even make day two, so just kind of a victim of circumstance with the ID thing.
Nick's Performance and Mental Endurance
00:09:10
Speaker
Not a huge fan of that, but it is what it is. And then day two, I was just like three games, three three oh All of my wins were I just felt really good about it.
00:09:22
Speaker
And then my last two games didn't go my way. um i had it took eight rounds for me to make a blunt. It's my ninth round of ten where I actually made like ah see an actual mental error.
00:09:34
Speaker
um I wasn't succumbing to the fatigue like I thought I would. normal Not normal to play that much X-Wing in that little time. to say the least yeah and even the game where i made a serious mental error too actually i only lost my four points i almost like i i recovered almost fully but i shouldn't have um and what really sucks is my last game against raythos uh steven kim good buddy of mine and we worked together at xwa ah everything just went his way. It was just, well, it was disappointing because I had no chance from turn zero or turn one, really turn one. My turn zero was fine, but turn one, the game was taken away from me and I just knew I couldn't do anything about it.
00:10:18
Speaker
Folks, when he plays Scramble with overlapping initiative and he moved first almost the entire game, but you will not win against good players. You just won't. And that's what's that was disappointing. But I was really thrilled with how I played. it like, man, I can't be bad about about this six and three and one or whatever. Six, one and three, one draw in there.
00:10:37
Speaker
um Yeah. No, you had ah yeah an excellent showing. Validating, affirming. I'm not terrible. I'm actually pretty good sometimes. And it was nice to walk away from the last world feeling like I had a really legitimate, a legitimate shot to make top cut. I was right there on the cusp.
00:10:53
Speaker
I was like 21st, I think. Yeah. Top 24, which is like, again, really happy with that. And, Ultimately spending time with you guys was really why I really wanted to do this. um If I was alone and play, I honestly feel like you, the overall vibes hanging out with you, Alex, um Sam, um and all these other friends of ours and being able to to to catch up and have a good time is is what sets you up for success to be able to play well.
Community Spirit and Transition Period
00:11:19
Speaker
If I was a lot alone and isolated, I don't know how many wins I would have gotten, but it would have been really hard because it wouldn't have been in as good of a mood. So ah yeah, yeah. the The vibes were immaculate, as they say.
00:11:30
Speaker
And yeah, I felt good ah overall. Really happy, honestly. No, you should be. That was it was incredible. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it was just great. I think it was interesting when you said that your opponents were all great people, but the vibes were a lot more chill this time around, which I felt that too. Right. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Last year was different. Yeah. Last year was different. Yeah, for sure. It was a little more cutthroat. I think that because this is kind of like the the end of the AMG era,
00:11:58
Speaker
and that everyone's looking forward to like XWA and the horizon that this time around, it was kind of just a more chill environment. You know, there was less at stake.
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah. But would you guys have predicted that though? Like, I feel like there's enough people out there who likes treat this as the end of X-Wing when it's not, but they do treat it as the end of X-Wing that it would have been a little bit more cutthroat, but you know, would you have expected it to be as chill as it ended up being?
00:12:25
Speaker
ah There's an interesting thing that occurs in competitive gaming when you've got a dead format where like nothing, everything's been solved or there are, there are no more changes coming. And so like everyone knows that there's no, there's no point in trying to innovate or ah like stretch the boundaries or you're only stretching the boundaries and, and, and not playing the metal lists.
00:12:52
Speaker
You know what i mean? So I can see that because it's the end of AMG points, it there's the sense that like not nothing matters, not none of it matters, but like there's there's less at stake. there's There's less personal investment online because you're just playing dead points.
00:13:09
Speaker
Yeah, like it it opens up the space for a calmer, more chill environment. Yeah, I mean, it was it was chill. Chill is a great word way to describe it. Honestly, i mean, I had a game against ah Brian Barter and i was two. Oh, he he was had already taken a loss day two and is like, our I didn't realize that our game mattered a lot for both of us, for me to keep the momentum going for him to not get eliminated mathematically or
Community Support and Resilience
00:13:38
Speaker
um whatever.
00:13:40
Speaker
yeah You wouldn't have guessed it. We were joking with each other, laughing, like just like talking shit and and being dumb. And like that ended up being the greatest game that I had played of the 10 rounds I played, especially when I look back at my score sheet. I took a photo of it.
00:13:54
Speaker
I scored 18 salvage points that game. but fifteen 18 out of 20 to win. is an unbelievable master class of playing salvage mission and getting a little lucky at the same time like i'm like wow i get to say that i did that and i didn't even know it until i returned i asked for my slip back from the judges and looked at it again was like oh my god wow okay um and you know brian and i were talking you said yeah that was one of the most fun games that he had played and but What was really nice is that people were just like... i just had they just They tell me, it's like, I beat them, right? They're like, I just had so much fun playing you.
00:14:30
Speaker
And I'm not saying this to pat myself on the back. But just like... You know, everyone wants to win, but Being a good opponent or just like creating an environment where the game goes the way it goes, but you're both still engaged and having a good time is like so important. and I feel like we really, gen like we collectively did a really good job of making that a thing, like making that a point so at this world. Just going back to what you're talking about earlier as well.
00:14:57
Speaker
I didn't get the vibe from anybody that they thought X-Fing was dead. Yeah, certainly not. This was just another like kind of just another world. Like, yeah, ah we everybody was looking forward to next year at the end of it.
00:15:10
Speaker
Everyone was looking forward to next year. I had so many people being like, all right, great. Like, see y'all next year. and Because I think no matter what happens, we will probably see each other next year in some capacity. Yeah.
00:15:21
Speaker
The funny thing was i went over. I had a friend who was playing Kill Team. ah the Warhammer side, and they were all talking about how they were surprised at how packed X-Wing was because they were the ones who thought X-Wing was a dead game.
00:15:36
Speaker
And i was telling them, oh, far from it. That's the thing, too, though, right? It's like optics, you know? um Exactly. Yeah. The way people see a game like X-Wing when it hasn't been getting a lot of support and then the company like, you know, AMG announces that they're they're done with it.
00:15:52
Speaker
People like, OK, well, you know they're just going to kind of go through the motions. They'll have a few dozen people show up and they'll corner them in a little room and get it and get that done. And, um you know, I heard i can't corroborate this or not, but I heard that the post Worlds recap photos did not include photos of X-Wing or Armada from AMG.
00:16:13
Speaker
I don't know if that's true. That's so true. That's really petty. And actually, I wouldn't be surprised. Not any sort of deliberate commentary on AMG, but like, yeah, I hope that's not true. i i don't know, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised in that.
00:16:28
Speaker
Now, the one thing we can say for sure is that X-Wing of all of the events had the most ah people signed up for it. had the most attendees playing tournament level play of the amg events of the amg events yeah which is just like i mean how does amg ah ah they it's the true answer is they probably just don't care but like is it a little embarrassing like it like is it is it you know do do they to me i would be a little ah if i was like an asthma d like a high level asthma d employee i would notice that and be like wow um but when it doesn't matter you know there's no hidden narrative like super you superhero story or whatever about like yeah Oh, I'm inspired by the numbers. We're going to bring it back. You know, it's like, that's what happened. Part of me now is like, no, like we we got a good thing with XWA.
00:17:13
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Do we even want them to bring it back? No, no, no. That's not what I'm suggesting at all, by the way. i just am wondering, just like if you if if somebody's paying attention, they have to that.
00:17:23
Speaker
That's a noticeable thing.
Prizes and Rewards Discussion
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Right. You know, they they really showed up last year and then they still really showed up this year. um You know, choice of card or die. A lot of people just chose not to die.
00:17:35
Speaker
yeah it chose to show up and play card choice of card or die we're passionate if if if nobody understands that reference uh the uh prize wall for uh for x-wing and armada and shatterpoint know the amg prize wall um for x-wing it listed on the wall very vaguely and cryptically said choice of card or die and the die is like it's defense die or you know marbled new a new marbled defense or attack die they looked pretty cool a little harder to read but they looked really cool uh but it's just like the just the way it was phrased it's just like immediately like okay there's there's a little like immediate quip that people could make kind of like making fun but of the situation because it' it just looks like it's a threat like a veiled threat
00:18:22
Speaker
Barely veiled. Barely veiled. not-so-veiled threat is what I meant to say. But yeah, before we get into the details of like you know obviously talking about the games, what did you guys think of the the prizes? Yeah, that's what I was going to say next. The the prizes were you know ah like like an official printing of the print-and-play cards.
00:18:45
Speaker
They gave everybody as a participation prize Karsavi, and the rest of them were... You got an alternate art on the back of the card, but the front of the card was the same as the as you would get in the Thai Phantom pack, which was wild to be. So I spent all of my tickets on dice because the dice were cool.
00:19:08
Speaker
But now I have tons Atomic Mask games like pins or temporary tattoos or anything. yeah Yeah, they also had yeah patches, pins for the same price as a die.
00:19:20
Speaker
Except, well, the patches were you could get four dice or you could get Atomic Mask games patch. they made X-Wing patch or an X-Wing temporary tattoo or pin, I would have gotten a bunch of those.
00:19:33
Speaker
But AMG? Yeah. g Those have been so just AMG branded. It was like it was i mean, i'm not so I don't want to say the the word insulting, but it's just like they they knew that nobody wanted those right like that. Like, ah who wants? Well, um they put it in there, I think, is just filler because otherwise yeah they only have.
00:19:51
Speaker
ah three different kinds of prizes you can get right the the cards were plastic to be fair i didn't realize that because it didn't say plastic on the wall it just a card they were plastic so that's why they were more expensive ticket wise but they were very faded like the print quality was not good um muted i guess is a better word to describe it so yes you get a waterproof card yeah And yes, I got to be honest, guys, I know that my prescription of my glasses has changed, so I'm not the best person to ask. But the new dice is gorgeous. And the marbling is the results themselves in terms of legibility leave a bit to be desired. I found myself not knowing what my defend the defender rolled on their defense dice pretty often.
00:20:36
Speaker
And the crits were very hard to see. crits are hard to see. and Yeah, the crits and in the defense die is a little harder to read than the the attack dice on this one.
00:20:48
Speaker
I will say it is still better than the old red and smoke die from a couple years ago. Oh, yeah, those are you have to paint those.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm a firm believer that if you if you're using dice that your opponent can't read, that is an NPE and should be addressed. Yeah, yeah. hi you Unfortunately, there's just a lot of cool promo dice that have been won or you know distributed over the past like decade, and over a decade that are just harder to read, like, ah you know, the frosted like white.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, um that clear semi-translucent ones. Those are like prized those are very hard to read. Yeah. um But yes, the smoky, the the hyperspace trials dice that you're talking about. i etched mine with white Sharpie so I could use them.
00:21:34
Speaker
um Yeah, I filled mine in with just some like white acrylic paint. and because you have to i think the white actually looks cooler than the red too i will say though i don't i think gold is still the best color they could have picked because i don't know if there's just a way that they could have made it a more legible um yeah there there i think i'll go over mine with another gold layer or two just to really make it pop more i think that's the plan is just to do that you know ah Cool before real quick, just for those that are watching because we're doing this live on Twitch for subscribers.
00:22:08
Speaker
I do have my template tray signed by ah dozens and dozens of players. A lot of people that I've played with for a long time or that I've known of in X swing for a long time. This is my first ever template tray.
00:22:20
Speaker
um What made out of wood here that our my our friend Austin just made for me out of the kindness of his heart. um because he had a wood shop he had access to. And so, yeah, I decided to bring it, bring a Sharpie and just ask people to sign it. And it looks super awesome. and It's going to be a ah prized possession of mine for a very, very long time.
Faction Analysis and Meta Dynamics
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, that was cool. Even though X-Wing still going, it's kind of an end of a type of era of X-Wing, at least from an official support perspective. Right. So. Will I get to see all these people in the same room again? i hope so, but probably not likely all of these people.
00:22:55
Speaker
um So, yeah, i just wanted to take advantage of that. That's great. Yeah, no, that was a very cool idea. So guys, should we talk about ah the the people who are better than us?
00:23:05
Speaker
yeah Yeah. What's the the the the final breakdown? I mean, we can look at what was Worlds in the AMG meta. What was the faction distribution like? And yeah.
00:23:18
Speaker
Let me bring up that poll that we did really quick. Just come to um there. Yeah. Let's see. I have to scroll. out Oh, that's the podcast chat that i have to do. One second. Correct.
00:23:29
Speaker
Scroll up, scroll up, scroll up. Lots of chatter in that. channel Here we go. Okay. So which faction wins worlds? It wasn't, let's see, what was the sample size here? 38 votes, so you know not a ton of people. But it was a decent variety of people. And Rebels was... Brave souls willing to venture a guess.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yes. 17 said Rebels, 45%. And then Empire was runner-up 26%. forty five percent and then empire was the runner up at twenty six percent So rebels did win worlds. um They showed up in massive force.
00:24:01
Speaker
um Actually, more massive than I thought compared to Empire. i was actually like, oh, wow, there's really not that much empire. Yeah, it was a lot of empire. But I was like, whoa, there's not as much empire as I thought.
00:24:12
Speaker
you know what you know what you know you know why i'm gonna i'm gonna die on this hill tomax bren went up to four points yeah that's the big the big deal there for me is why empire wasn't as popular that was a huge change for that faction that is it the best value piece you could have possibly hoped for yeah yes now that he was four points he was like yeah he's a bit nuts at three yeah and you could the list you could build with him at three was just like it was just not so um any of that surprised you though guys like just you in terms of like what you guys saw like firsthand as you were playing like looking around in terms of list archetypes or just faction representation did anything make you turn your head or you know make you think oh like i you know i thought i was expecting this but i'm actually my expectations have been subverted i expected more republic um
00:25:04
Speaker
ah not Not quite like as dominant as it was in the previous year, but I expected it to be... like ah I expected there to be a top three, basically. ah A Rebels, Empire, and Republic as like the solid... like These are the most competitive choices, and everything else down there is solidly Tier 2.
00:25:25
Speaker
And it it was it was very sparsely represented. um I think it came in at ah looks like fifth overall in terms of representation, like Empire was underneath resistance even.
00:25:42
Speaker
um And then Republic was was under ah was tied with scum for faction distribution. That's that's in that's insanity. Yeah, it's it's very odd. It's an odd world to be living in. But my testing going in.
00:25:56
Speaker
proved to me that like the rebel list that ah basically the basically the rebel list that a that was the majority of the top eight, ah the two X-Wings and and then I guess not the majority of the top eight, but made up that made up a significant chunk of of the cut um was just the best thing to be doing. um It it it's it's powerful, it's streamlined, it's efficient, it's it has like insane offense has pretty good defense and is, is just generally like nicely well-rounded.
00:26:33
Speaker
And from there it was breaking down like, okay, what, how do you beat this? Very often you, you don't, how do you, how do you ah beat it at objectives? Very often you don't.
00:26:46
Speaker
So what, what do we do there? Um, Did you guys have the B-Wings, the Battle over Endor B-Wings on your bingo, like still being a thing on your bingo card? Because I was like, huh, there's a lot of B-Wings.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah, especially with them going up in points too. right especially with them going up up in points too yeah the the first list that i tested The first list that I tested for Worlds was basically Wedge, Luke, Gina, Braylon.
00:27:17
Speaker
and And my conclusion was like, four ship list is not quite good enough, but that still ah a packs a walloping punch. Yeah, it would be a nightmare to play against Steve with a five ship list like no, no, no, no. Yeah, no, thank you.
00:27:34
Speaker
No, thank you. Yeah, yeah, I had a I got lucky guys. I played against two rebel lists in 10 rounds. That's crazy. Yeah. What what was you? Now I'm looking.
00:27:48
Speaker
I mean, I will say, so day two, Rebels made up 39.6% the total field. So that's ah not surprising Interesting. So yeah, but day one, I expected to face more rebels. i don't know why i placed more resistance than I expected, including a seven ship resistance list to start the day, which was wild.
00:28:08
Speaker
That was that was something um a lot of Falcons for the resistance, though. Our dear friend Gold Squadron podcast in the twist chat mentioning a lot of ah Chewys and Rays.
00:28:21
Speaker
Falcons were kind of everywhere. Yeah, we saw that. I was going to reiterate, like, I kind of felt the same way that that Samuel did. Thought I would be seeing a lot more Republic and didn't really see that much at all.
00:28:33
Speaker
i And ah saw hardly any f FO. um And I thought that Empire would be, I'd be running into Empire a lot more often, but didn't really run into that either. I'd say even for me, most of my games were against Rebels.
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, it seems like like let's if we were to look through the global player lens and be like, this is like, you got to bring something to tech against this.
Strategic Insights and Player Skill
00:29:02
Speaker
I would have to think that a lot of people were just thinking about target locking like target locks because rebels like like love taking target locks that list needs needs locks to achieve its goals that's why marcel brought goran and did really well with it it's because that disrupts so much of empire and rebels strategies republic not as much because there's a lot of barrage rocketing and like delayed lock taking and stuff like that right but clearly people were expecting to see a lot of
00:29:37
Speaker
alpha type stuff. And a lot of that goes points to rebels with wedges, APT, Luke's proton torpedo. And then the, the B wings, you know, Gina has a proton torpedo. I'm the resistance Falcons.
00:29:50
Speaker
ah Yeah. Right. Exactly. The resistance Falcons is like an interesting, way to address that because they have a lot of health but also a lot of hole and low agility but they also could make t65s disappear very quickly they're like magicians in that way especially ray right ray is very scary yeah the the ray rose finn combo i mean it works amazing on defense too yeah And heroic to just like, oh, no, I rolled a blank out of blank, re-roll two blanks, re-roll at a third blank. It was like so many heroic opportunities as well, which I still don't really understand how you're allowed to do.
00:30:29
Speaker
that like like i get how, but it just seems kind of like defeats the purpose. like You never rolled that die. You added the result. You're to tell me now you can heroic. like you know it It works, but it's just kind of dumb. This is a weird hill to die on, I'm not going to lie. It's very cheesy.
00:30:47
Speaker
Is it... No, I don't think it is. i think I think for so for Ray, it's like adding reinforced tokens to shots like it's so good because of her ability, plus the just the ability to add results is not there's a reason why you don't see it very often in X-Wing.
00:31:03
Speaker
Sure. Being able to add results. Extremely powerful. Yeah, right. Now, is it was Rey a problem at Worlds? No. but i was Did I have to deal with one in my last round of day two to get knocked out?
00:31:17
Speaker
ah Yeah. I'm not going to make that. But yeah, it's just heroic is nasty ah on Rey. Otherwise, it's very fair. ah Not often do you get a chance to reroll your blanks with your X-Wings. When I'm playing Rebels, I don't get to do that really ever.
00:31:34
Speaker
So I'm just jealous. I'm just a jealous guy. No, you just get a double modded APT that hits like five dice every time. What? No. what's even better is I'll just boost a pleat, remove the deplete. It's like, right exactly oh, there's just nothing I can do to stop this.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just happening to you. Yeah. i don't know what you're talking about.
00:31:59
Speaker
It's gotten to the point, like going back to you know us bringing our lists and what were our expectations were, the meta had gotten kind of to a point where it was just like, AMG just hands you something. It's like, hey, just use this. like Bring this.
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. so like wedges a Wedge is very much a, you gotta to bring this. like You're not bringing it. What are you doing, man? What the heck are you even doing here if you're not bringing Luke or Wedge?
00:32:23
Speaker
What are you doing? The rebel lists feel very preconstructed. Like... well You are just taking the the best things at at at slot and playing them and just moving on with your life.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, however, the second place list, Edfan, no wedge. No battle over Endor anything. Yeah. Yeah. ah The winning that the does have. one Yeah.
00:32:49
Speaker
It seemed like the Fang fighters prevailed over the double T 65. I thought Paul Heaver and I's archetype would be i mean, Paul made top eight, so he wasn't far off. um But the the I six I six I five and in his case, the swarm tactics to make it three I sixes, I thought was going to get over the hump of the Boudicca archetype with the Soka.
00:33:10
Speaker
but clearly double tap and action economy with an i5 three agility like that's all high agility besides one x-wing i understand why it won i get it it's not my flavor but that's like that's that's a crutch of like that i'm leaning in and in terms of me being like It's not my flavor, even though it's better.
00:33:32
Speaker
And I do that a lot. I'm like, that's better, but I don't like that. I like my Kyo with Lone Wolf and Ion Missiles. You like your Kyo with Juke and Vectored Cannons. And I know that's better, but I don't care. We are not the same. We are not the same.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah, i mean I mean, that comes down to... being an exceptional player, especially with those Fangs, when you're playing with something that's more of a glass cannon and and you have two of them in your list, but you can play at that high enough level, I mean, that that's where you're really going to shine through.
00:34:04
Speaker
That's what it takes to get to the top, is being able to fly those glass cannons consistently well. yeah X-Wing such a weird game because everything such so small sample sizes and player skill is so enormous.
00:34:20
Speaker
and And so like trying to trying to take data away from like, okay, was was was the actual like double Fang Fighter Ahsoka build ostensibly better or was it just flown by someone that could have mopped the floor with anybody he went up against? like it's It's hard to tell.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah, you know what I i told Louie? I drove Louie Louie back to ah O'Hare at the end of the day on on Sunday. And I told him it's like you get to a certain point, you make cut, you make day two. It's just a lot of fortune.
00:34:52
Speaker
It's a lot of RNG. Oh, absolutely. For sure. And Boudicca double tapping. Boudicca is certainly an example of like, well, just like, you know, double taps real good. If you're on all paint and you're on a lot of hits. yeah and i didn a lot of times where bodica does absolutely jack shit and for you and you're like cool i just have a thing fighter that can explode yeah and you know it's a glass cannon kind of thing um and you hope that you hope that you get the the results you need i mean obviously that goes for anything any game when there's rng especially x-wing right it's just something it's just really you you get to a point where you just a lot of luck goes your way and that's why you went that's why you win it all
00:35:28
Speaker
It's because you got lucky in a lot of ways at times. Right. I mean, I think that that's exactly what that is. Like once you're in day two, it's going to be a lot of skill, but then also a lot of luck. You also just kind of you got to be a little lucky.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah. And that's not to say that it's it hasn't, you know, it's a lot. It mostly has to do with your skill level and decisions. But the the best way to be is to put yourself in a position where luck benefits you. If you're making decisions and choices where luck doesn't factor in at all, like you need to set yourself up to be benefited by good fortune, if that makes sense. Right. Exactly. you need to You need to put yourself in that position.
00:36:05
Speaker
And that's the that's where the best players in the world ah thrive is that they do that all the time. For sure. Yeah. and And we're talking about the difference between like top 16 and, you know, top 40, you know, like, we're like,
00:36:18
Speaker
Skill is still the most important element here. Yeah. Rule one, roll well. Rule two, to set yourself up to roll well. Right. Yeah. rule Rule one, roll well. Rule two, don't roll badly. Don't roll badly.
00:36:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I had a great moment in one of my games where Fen'Rao had Beskar, a Focus, and Concordia, and Wedge rolled three hits and a crit into into Fen, and Fen blanked out and still died.
00:36:49
Speaker
And I was like, wow. do Like, what are the odds of that happening? That's pretty good. That's some bad luck. so I was like, okay, okay.
00:37:01
Speaker
I best card and still died. It's like, you know, it's bad when that happens.
Winning Strategies and Competitor Analysis
00:37:05
Speaker
Yeah. Good, good stuff. Real good stuff. Well, we can talk about obviously the winning list and some other lists that stand out to us. um It is the most internet thing for me to to pronounce.
00:37:19
Speaker
The winner of the X-Wing World Champion, his name on Rollbetter is Squishy Balls. yeah ah and one that is no plural single single singular ball like squishy ball squishy balls list so it's it's just plural because it says list after it his name is squishy ball but i like squishy balls even better because it just looks even worse but that's not his name it's It's not, but it just it just it it's it looks like it is when I'm reading the Roll Better breakdown because it it's plural it made it plural.
00:37:50
Speaker
Gotcha. So, Kalen Wong, aka Squishy Ball, not Balls, let the record show it is one ball. It's so sweet. Brought Rebels, let the record show. ah brought ah his rebel list with that two fang archetype. He had wedge until he's battle over end or honestly, the the best designed way anybody who's ever had a complaint about anything wrong with custom wedge or the battle over battle of the oven wedge, this battle over end or wedge.
00:38:16
Speaker
Every, every one of those qualms is answered. The design is just immaculate. He's so good. He's got extra, extra health linked actions.
00:38:27
Speaker
access to re-rolls uh the r2a3 advanced proton torpedo he has the initiative he's got everything right he's like he's just so good for five points he leads most moves very good right i don't know if i thought goes he's close to broken if he had an a if he had a if he had a proton torpedo i would be really curious probably busted at that point oh he would be completely busted because he's like cool easy double odds easy double odds at least he has get into range one which is very hard to stop right um but he had that route boost he's got the boost and because of and he is he is a as a a x-wing sommelier is a fine pairing with fen row in the fang fighter because fen row allows him to remove his stress tokens his deplete tokens uh before he engages if he uh is at range one to two of fen wedge as long as he has an enemy ship
00:39:18
Speaker
in his front arc or I think you're in their front arc rather you can remove one of those non lock red tokens and it's just very keeps wedge very mobile and just good fan had clan training crack shot and best car reinforced plating um my version of Fendon have clan clan training or crack shot I had Mando optics and predator but this is also really good because crack shot is really good uh bodica uh in the fang as well this is the one that as long as uh she's not the one getting shot at if a friendly ship gets shot at she can just double tap and shoot at the attacker uh and then gain a deplete to do so she has martin ship predator and beskar reinforce plating
00:39:58
Speaker
And then Ahsoka Tano, one of the a few changes in the the ah last update, kind of pseudo update they gave us, points update, she went down from five to four.
00:40:09
Speaker
Three-fourths can spend two to give Friendly's actions at range one to two, even while stressed. With instinctive aim marksmanship and Magpulse warheads. Magpulse is clearly, you know, very strong in a, uh, in salvage mission and just being a good tech piece against lower initiatives.
00:40:27
Speaker
She is an I five, right? So very good. And then Sabine in the tie rounds out the list five shipper, a pattern analyzer clearly shows the data favored five ship lists, but there were more for ship lists than I expected, but I, I knew a five ship list was going to win worlds and I figured it'd be a rebel list and for it to be ah a list with, uh,
00:40:45
Speaker
with fan Bodeca and a Soka in it, you know, that's pretty neat because I, ah two of those three were, were not played in any very serious competitive capacity for quite a long time.
00:40:57
Speaker
So cool to see them be popular in the, uh, you know, wrapping things up here with AMG worlds. What are your guys thoughts? The federal build is very interesting to me. Um, I, again, we're just leaning into upside, right? Like you're, you're leaning into variants with,
00:41:13
Speaker
you know there's There's skill there, but Crackshot being good is sometimes a bit of variance, and it can be kind of useless sometimes. So it's an interesting slot to bring.
00:41:27
Speaker
I really like Ahsoka. um I want to talk about this a little bit later, but Andrew and I played a doubles tournament where we brought Ahsoka with ah some other stuff and ah was very impressed with Ahsoka at four.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah, Ahsoka at four is a heck of a ship. Yeah, just really great ability. She's great for objectives. She's great on defense if you if you don't want to use that ability and on offense as well by being able to take concussion missiles um on her too.
00:41:55
Speaker
Just all around is, I think Ahsoka is one of the linchpins that can make like that archetype work or just something that's giving the extra actions. You know?
00:42:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, um no patience. um She's yeah there's some builds where she will just kind of as long as she's got somebody in front of her, she just recovers her force so she can like consistently use her ability every turn. Yeah.
00:42:20
Speaker
Otherwise, after after two rounds, you four star for where she can't use her ability. And that's when she's the most vulnerable. But, you know, again, Kaylin's like, I'm going for the damage. I'm going for the ah the I'm going to coordinate somebody and then I'm probably shooting a mag pulse with a force.
00:42:37
Speaker
Right. Especially in AMG points, like how often i guess anecdotally, Nick, how often were your games going past turn six, like where Ahsoka being four starved for for two turns really mattered?
00:42:52
Speaker
Well, I mean, or I don't know about you guys, but I mean, i played, i think, eight rounds on maybe seven and a half rounds on average. My games, none of my games went to time. I think maybe one of them, like almost all my games are resolved before time.
00:43:06
Speaker
Huh. played a lot of rounds. i was I was going to say, I didn't really notice the 90, the extra 15 minutes as much. And I think a lot of that just because it was cutting into the setup time.
00:43:17
Speaker
it didn't really feel like it was making that much of an impact on my games. I'd say most of my games went to like six, like the standard six, six rounds. Yeah. Six rounds was pretty, pretty common for me.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah. I loved being able to just set up and start. I, I, I gained an extra 10 to 15 minutes because of that. It was amazing. Yes. I'm pretty, I'm pretty quick with my turn zero, I guess that helps. Like I try to be fast on my end, but sometimes you have to really think things through depending on the matchup.
00:43:46
Speaker
Take some time. Yeah, my my i mean my cards were all sta like almost all standard loadout cards, so it was really easy for me to set up. Yeah, I did not have standard loadout cards. I brought resistance and had 16 or 17 individual cards to set up.
00:44:04
Speaker
Not a lot of charges, thank God, but a lot of lot of cards to lay down. Well, the one thing that takes the most time for me is I empty my dice bag and then I have to portion out every single type of die with its own grouping. It's like my OCD. It's like terrible.
00:44:20
Speaker
like i i like like okay the uh the core set like the core set looking marble dice from last year ago in one pile the the sparkly attack dice get their pile sparkly defense gets a pile like yeah and but it doesn't do it like while my opponent's like doing like i i do it in a way that it doesn't take eat up a lot of valuable time but like i cannot just have a pile of these like all this like assorted dice just like a like a it It just it bothers me It's like not it's like getting out of bed and not making it, if that makes sense.
00:44:50
Speaker
Like I have to do it to feel like comfortable to proceed to play the game. and it's just, you know, it's just me being a little cuckoo. It's fine. I've always been a little cuckoo anyways. What I'm getting from this. Want to talk about Fonz list?
00:45:03
Speaker
Yes, I do. that i do. Ladies, ladies, he makes his bed. He has a bed frame is a bedpost. um So Fonz list. um I need to go back to look at it. Andrew, you want to?
00:45:18
Speaker
Is it? Oh, yeah. Sam or Andrew, either of you i want to break down email list? You want to take this? Yeah, go for it. Yeah. So we've got ah double fangs again. um Fenral, Fang Fighter, Swarm Tactics, Clan Training, Beskar.
00:45:33
Speaker
Boudicca, Predator Clan Training, Beskar, Kyo with Lone Wolf and Magpulse, then Luke, Boy Luke in the T-65, and Hull Okend in the Y-Wing.
00:45:46
Speaker
ah This is the APT Y-Wing from Battle Over Yavin. Only three points. Battle Over Yavin, excuse me Only three points, which is kind of crazy considering he can just toss a double modded advanced proton torpedo at you.
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah, ah just get past him, though, and then he's stressed and he doesn't have R4 and he's pretty miserable. That's what I did. Yeah, that he just never participated in the game but at all. I just flew right past him. And he's like, I'm like, yeah, I knew he was going to try to kill box my Luke. So I was like, I'm just going to fly over a rock.
00:46:17
Speaker
to say i'll take I'll take a guaranteed one damage, maybe two over dead. I mean, yeah, sometimes that's the right call. That is right a good level. And he was like, oh, I wasn't expecting that. was yeah, yeah. That was the game where I scored 18 salvage points because I got Luke behind everybody with a crate.
00:46:32
Speaker
Pretty good. ah But yeah, so Fawn brought the Swarm Tactics Fen um that was a little more common. no No double I6, so we're only swarming ah only swarming I guess you're swarming Bodeca or Hall up ah if because Luke the like swarming Luke up is less valuable, but it's still still very good.
00:47:00
Speaker
Still a powerful effect. Yeah. Lone Wolf and ion missiles like Keo with lone wolf is really solid. But we're starting to Ion missiles, Magpulse. Yeah, um I suppose I three swarm up Keo. The Magpulse is much better.
00:47:14
Speaker
But true. you're not Yeah. wolfing her So, right. Yeah. It's so awkward. A thing. Fire with, with swarm tactics is like, I just don't like it, especially like it makes more sense for like, ah for Luke, but for like a Kio. Yeah. It's still awkward.
00:47:28
Speaker
I mean, it's for Boudicca. Sure. Yeah. Especially with the clan training. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that. Yeah. position They just kind of ride together. Right. Right. yeah And then you guarantee the the focus lock. Plus you want Fenn to be around so that,
00:47:43
Speaker
yeah they can knock off that deplete if it's like still there or stress for the next turn. Makes sense. I mean, it's a, it's a powerful combination. However you, you, you want to play it.
00:47:54
Speaker
It is, you know, two I sixes is it kind of seems like even if you are swarming one of them up to I six, two I sixes kind of seemed like it was the necessity for playing the game, at least in AMG points.
00:48:10
Speaker
Would you agree with that? Yeah, just the higher initiative in general. You need it. You well, I'll say the necessity you have to have an I five and you really should have more than one ah combination of an I five slash I six.
00:48:23
Speaker
Like if you don't, you probably will lose. Yeah. So the requirement is an I five or higher in your list. and Unless you're you doing something crazy like Marcel or like with the with Gore playing the Goran lists.
00:48:38
Speaker
True, true. CIS it will take dirge usually. So like he counts. But um yeah. Yeah, that's that's true. um Marcel basically found a ah pocket to be able to exploit because everyone kind of gravitated towards their basically got to the point of Marcel's like, I know exactly what everyone's bringing.
00:48:55
Speaker
So I know this will work. Sure. Yeah. Everyone's it's just so so predictable now. It's like it's a perfect medical. Yeah. Well, and I mean, Marcel, I always expect Marcel to be in the running and top cut for, for an event like this and yeah auto ofship and um I don't bat an eye when I see that though. Like I know that's where he belongs and i'm I'm happy that he played so well and represented Chicago so well as he tends to do, you know, we can talk about his list. Um,
00:49:24
Speaker
But yeah, Fonzless, like it's and what's difficult about that matchup for him in the final table. I mean, he got, you know, with all due respect to an incredibly good player, Fonz is it was not close. It was not very competitive. That final game when it comes to score wise, like I don't know how much road mattered in that game, but there's a lot of overlap with initiative in that matchup. And that's tough. I mean, I think what would have been cool was to see like a, that five ship rebel is taking on like ah ah a scum list or like a scum salad list or a resistance list with Ray or something like that would have been a really cool like, OK, like how is this going to unfold?
00:50:01
Speaker
Road doesn't matter too much. um Or maybe it does on this turn, but like these other turns, it's not as big of a deal like this is in a lot of ways a mirror when it comes to certain overlapping abilities.
00:50:13
Speaker
Yeah. Obviously the initiatives. Yeah. I mean, I just think that also, i mean, this archetype is just so powerful. The rebel side just has so much offensive and defensive capabilities. you know I would also say that Fawn's list benefits from just being a lot more defensive in that the current meta.
00:50:33
Speaker
ah Still getting the extra action, still having the offensive output, but you have the additional hull just with the Y-Wing that you kind of have to ignore because everything else in the list is so it's just so much more deadly.
00:50:46
Speaker
And then you also have the the force with Kiyo and Luke being able to get that defensively. And then you to have the maneuverability and you know agility of Boudicca and Fenn, especially with the Beskar Reinforce plating in i meta right now where, you know, proton torpedoes and crit generation is just so easy. So having an answer to that can just be so powerful.
00:51:10
Speaker
I was going to say the one unfortunate thing, and I think that's something that we kind of knew was that like, I don't think we were and ever close to seeing like scum and the no at like the top.
00:51:24
Speaker
That's why I corrected, of course, corrected, etc. Resistance lives with the Ray because like that was more possible. There's there's two of those. There is not. ah Yeah, two of them, right?
00:51:36
Speaker
Two resistance array lists. There's one or two in top 16. But yeah yeah, yeah. Two in the top 16. And there's two separatists in the top 16 as well. Yeah. um um I want to talk about Duncan is for there's four resistance lists in the top 16.
00:51:54
Speaker
That's awesome. It's very cool. Duncan has always been one of the like he's he's an elite player. He is. Duncan is like the Shohei Otani of X-Wing, in my opinion. Like the dude is like you expect him to just be a stud and he he delivers. That's the thing.
00:52:15
Speaker
um He didn't you didn't get ah he went pretty far and cut, but he did lose top four to to Levi, who's on my Nickel City X-Wing draft league team. um Levi was rocking a 312 painted TIE fighter, which was really cool. and I didn't even know it.
00:52:31
Speaker
Yeah. I'm sorry, he lost. ah I think it was top eight that he had lost to Levi, not top four. um But anyways, yeah Duncan brought ah list that really seemed like I think he brought it because it was kind of an homage to his days of playing 2.0 with custom soon tier and also to to to try to prove what he always proves is that I can build a list that nobody else is going to expect me to bring.
00:52:58
Speaker
And I'm going to do incredibly well with it. And it was a four ship empire list without a single standardized loadout. And I think yeah what he was trying to prove was I don't need an SL to win.
00:53:10
Speaker
And he, you know you I mean, dude, how many people bringing this list would get even within 40 placements of where he ended up? I mean, it's crazy list that he brought.
00:53:22
Speaker
It's wild. He won a tournament with it, too. yeah ah prep A World's Prep tournament like two weeks ago. So we knew he was going to bring this list, um but still won a whole tournament. But yeah, that's just that's just a showing you its player skill is amazing.
00:53:38
Speaker
really so important because I don't yeah it this list in in other people's hands are and is not going this far for sure this is oh yeah it's uh go ahead oh I was gonna say this is just an excellent example of like a player that could win with a
Community Highlights and Future of X-Wing
00:53:53
Speaker
ham sandwich winning with a ham sandwich there is there is just yeah yeah like it's and and and I get it like there's there's elements of this that are that are good against the metagame and I understand all the choices but like You're like he he he tied one hand behind his back and one anyway.
00:54:15
Speaker
I know. And for those of you guys wondering what he brought, i mean, it's it's custom Vader is the seven point Vader with brilliant evasion debris gambit pattern analyzer, fire control and after burgers.
00:54:26
Speaker
A lot of loadout um um as he should be seven points. um Very hard to take off the board, though, as know debris gambit and brilliant evasion alone is just very strong on Vader.
00:54:37
Speaker
And then he's got soon to your it's got the other five point suits. You're the one that lets you take juke and predator. Basically just evade booster of a barrel lineup bullseye. Have the reroll, have the focus with suitors ability and juke your opposition.
00:54:52
Speaker
So Duncan Howard, I when I first was introduced to X-Wing, Duncan was ah known to me as the suits your felt player. Like he's the best suits your felt player in the world. um And he brought, I mean, he brought his love and he did really well with Zooter, which honestly is a great storybook ending to his like official X-Wing career when it comes to official support.
00:55:15
Speaker
Yeah, fifth brother, the V1, that's the I-4, two-force, spend two-force after the neutralized result step if the attack hits. ah You know, you add a crit um damage to the attack. He has fire control system and concussion missiles.
00:55:31
Speaker
And then Vizier with Emperor Palpatine.
00:55:35
Speaker
um So that's a four shipper and Palpatine giving that extra extra help to fifth brother Vader, whoever needs it here, whoever needs it. Yeah. Very 2.0 list for sure.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yes. This is this is the like the heyday list, but recreated for 2.5. I was just going to say we had a we had a like 10 to 12 people on the Twitch side and and everyone dropped off and I just don't think they care. Yeah.
00:56:05
Speaker
Not to say that this isn't very important because it is. I just find it amusing. They're like, right, I'm going to watch some XWA X-Wing or something. right, whatever. Yeah. um Yeah. ah just It's funny ah because Lambo is like, it's just us. So like it is. And that's, you know what? That's enough.
00:56:19
Speaker
Like, that's all we need. That's all we need. The best subscriber podcast stream ever. Yeah, well, thanks for hanging out. Appreciate it. Yeah, it was great to see Lambo low and spend time with him. He's a huge supporter of us and GSP and, you know, the excellent community at large. He's been just an amazing, generous man.
00:56:38
Speaker
And we got to hang out with him, bought him a drink but ah of the many that I owe him for sure. Got to get him at least one. ah Got to get to knock one of those down. um Also, real quick, like we're just talking about Duncan's list. We can keep talking about it, but like.
00:56:53
Speaker
I don't know how to fit this into the conversation, but I just want to give like ah in terms of overall vibes and stuff like we were talking about at the beginning, the fact that Alex Davey, who helped develop X-Wing second edition, just showed up, brought scum and went really played really well with it and made day two blue. It just blew my mind and made me so happy because it's like here you are.
00:57:13
Speaker
playing without really a lot of people didn't know who this person was because he he hasn't been a part of the design team in a long time, but to be able to play a alongside or against someone who created the game that you love and helped make it the version of the game that you love, uh, is just, it's just the vibes. Like it's just so good for morale. I'm so happy he was there.
00:57:33
Speaker
he was such a it was such a pleasure meeting him and talking with him and picking his brain. And, um, yeah it's so cool you know we could ah he brought a five ship scum list with fenrau and manoroo bosk and uh i think dirge and lima and he and he kicked ass i mean not surprising considering he knows the game really well but you it's just his attitude was a really great kind of reinforcement of uh you know hey we're not done yet right like this game is awesome and the people who play it will continue to play it and we're not like walking away um and he said the same he's like yeah there's like no reason why community support can't thrive
00:58:09
Speaker
Yeah, so no, he was throw that in there. No, he's super cool, super nice guy. And also, I mean, yeah, it's it's fun that they're still are deeply in love with the game that they helped create and have contributed to.
00:58:20
Speaker
it was really neat. Gives you that. He's that warm, fuzzy feeling. Is there any do you want to talk about? Is there any other list we want to talk about? Sides the Goran list by Marcel. um Maybe talk about one of these resistance archetypes just because we've been talking about resistance. We can kind of break and talk about one of those as well. Like, what do you guys think?
00:58:41
Speaker
ah We can talk about resistance. The Goran list is is fun, but it's I don't I don't know how this I don't know how interesting it is to talk about because it's it's it's it's a meta list built to fight against specific things that no longer exist.
00:59:02
Speaker
And Marcel's a great player and a very good list builder and brought a cool list, but also it What do you mean? It's a medalist built to against things that no longer exist. what do you mean? Well, so like the, the setup for AMG points is okay. We are, we are playing hyper efficient. I five plus with target locking, right? Is is that yeah kind of what we've been saying?
00:59:23
Speaker
i mean, mostly right there. Yeah. Yeah. A few exceptions with a few exceptions, but, but that is generally what, what we are setting up to play with the Goran list. Like you are, you are saying, okay,
00:59:37
Speaker
I know that you are trying to do that. I can eliminate at key points your ability to do the one thing that you're trying to do that makes your list efficient and then pick you apart from there.
00:59:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'll just do really quick. I mean, it's it's just it's Gorn with sensitive controls and shield upgrade countdown who's impossible to kill the shield upgrade discipline and ruthless because every time countdown would take a bunch of damage countdown. It's like I'll just take a damage of distress and cancel everything instead. Yeah.
01:00:02
Speaker
um Fair off with target and computer tactical officer ruthless for the coordinating ability also defensive because of his ability if you're attacking him and you don't have any green tokens he just gets an auto evade scimitar one double easy double modded proton torpedoes friendly shoots at anybody scimitar one has them in range to spend one of two charges to just gain a lock It just focuses every turn. It's easy double mod of pro torp.
01:00:27
Speaker
And then two black squadron aces. Those are two point generics. So it's a six ship list. Gorin is the the key to it. As George Lucas would say, is the key to all of this.
01:00:39
Speaker
um he If he goes down, the list is just awful. No offense, but it is. I mean, it's stick around. It's a it's a bunch of low initiative.
01:00:50
Speaker
ships that will pop if you point a proton torpedo at them, but Goran makes them powerful. Goran's like, i'll take i'll I'll take away that target, Loxie. Don't get a proton torpedo and give them an evade.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yep. and And just having the extra body just really helps out with objectives, too. even if it is like, you know, those two black squadron aces. this is This is exactly what I would, like, if I was going to draw up what I would say a ah like meta attacking list in AMG points looked like, it would be this.
01:01:21
Speaker
you're You're playing objectives, you're you're playing against like the one particular thing that you know everyone's everyone's going to play, and you're being efficient and rolling a lot of agility dice.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yeah. And i mean, and it worked out for him, too. Yeah, it worked out. How about the resistance list? Who wants to, you know, if you guys see one that you want to mention before we kind of start to wrap things up here?
01:01:46
Speaker
i I really like um Ninja Elf. I believe this is Nicholas Tobin. um His list ah for ah its its Poe in the in the Y or in the Falcon.
01:02:00
Speaker
Jerick Yeager, L.O. Asti, Temin Wexley, and BB-8. It's a, you know, and they're all loaded up with, ah ah most of them actually are loaded up with Ferrosphere, ones that can take it.
01:02:14
Speaker
um And Jerick Yeager is M9G8 plus Marksman Ship Heroic, Targeting Computer, and Kaz Fireball. And then Poe has all the Poe stuff um with Trickshot, Lone Wolf, Chewbacca, Ray, Engine Upgrade, and Ray's Millennium Falcon.
01:02:30
Speaker
This list just hits really hard. And um so i I watched the top 16 game that he played that against Paul Heaver.
01:02:41
Speaker
And i i am i can firmly say that what that came down to was the the way that crits got do doled out. He took like three blinded pilots in the game and just like could not really play the game anymore from an early point moving forward.
01:02:58
Speaker
This list is is pretty dangerous. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, you got to you got to bring that you got to sink as much into it as possible as soon as you can. Yeah, ah especially if you get those crits through. Yeah, blinded pilot weapons failure.
01:03:12
Speaker
ah but i mean, damage sensor ray is really brutal to the wombo combo of damage sensor ray and blinded pilot. Oh yeah. It's he something else.
01:03:23
Speaker
He just, he kind of, kind of couldn't, couldn't play the, the, you know, the, the, the nest necessity of double modding in AMG points, just like, I mean, and like X wing in general, but in the AMG points, it's hyper important.
01:03:40
Speaker
He just, he just couldn't, couldn't do it. And, and Paul picked him apart from there. Eddie, give a shout out to well, I do want to give a shout out to, to ISO. Um, The California guy I got the had the pleasure of playing him, and that's when i my ah my gaffes kicked in a little bit. i also had a very unlucky judge call go against me that I think...
01:04:02
Speaker
It would have helped me win that game. But he is always and the top cut combo, and he loves Separatists, and he always plays well with ah with CIS, even though CIS is kind of handicapped in lot of ways. and He brought Dirge with ah Grievous to cancel hit slash crit results, Sandu Blood and Proton Cannons, couple Tri Fighters that get to like share tokens and take free locks. One of them is Predator, one of them is Crackshot.
01:04:27
Speaker
And then he brought two HMPs. One has Kraken to keep the calculates around. That's a tactical relay. Very, very strong. ah The other one has cluster missiles and discord missiles. And then a couple of vultures. We have a TFS-081 with independent calcs and energy shell charges, as well as the struts to just sit on rocks and pivot around.
01:04:47
Speaker
And then the iron assembler has discords and independent calculations. So seven ships. It's a lot. um cheap, lot very cheap. Uh, it's really hard to play against this list on, uh, scenarios like assault because they just take a lot of points from you early on because there's so many of them. And then when do you start to try to play catch up, you're always just a couple of points behind.
01:05:07
Speaker
That's what happened to me. But, um, you know, shout out to ISO Fane. Great dude, super generous as well. Supporting the community and very good. Yeah. brought And brought a great list. Uh, Doug, how the other suffrages did as well.
01:05:19
Speaker
And if you're looking at like the pattern analyzer i results, and if you are looking at the the day two results in pairing, you're going to see that Separatist Alliance has a 70% win rate ah because there's just two players who dominated yeah so hard. I'm glad you mentioned that part. Yeah.
01:05:39
Speaker
Yeah. ah So it may be like I had profited that maybe Separatist was a sleeper faction, but looking at the the numbers, I, in reality, it's just Doug how and,
01:05:51
Speaker
isophane are the sleeper faction whatever those guys I lost both of those guys yeah here's the thing yeah they only have two losses in day two combined yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah so when when him and I were paired up he was super just super depressed about it i was like dude we still have one more we still have one more game after this like it doesn't matter what happens like see we can still make it both of us he's like oh okay and then BB yeah so that's that's really funny well there you go yeah so cis 3.7 percent of the factions represented in day two but with a 70 percent win rate it's pretty good pretty good and also with also 100 cut rate to top 16 yeah that's my favorite stat in the final amg world cis at 100 cut rate
01:06:47
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, overall, it was it was good to see some more variety than I was expecting. it was nice to see Resistance with the Resistance Falcons performing
Global Initiatives and Closing Statements
01:06:57
Speaker
well. It's good to see, honestly, the people that I would hope and would expect to make cut, you know, and and to be able to experience playing alongside you guys and also some of these these folks who have been playing X-Wing lately.
01:07:09
Speaker
for, you know, three times as long as we have and who have stayed so dedicated and committed to being a part of the community. And honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. um I'm we're all exhausted from it, but it's a good kind of exhaustion. It's just conventions just do that to you. And, um you know, I and it's, it's, I wouldn't say it's bittersweet just because I know that nothing's over. Um, but it's just weird, I guess, to like, be like, man, um, I'm, I'm glad on one hand that we get to end the official support on like such a high note with such good vibes and optimism and positivity and experiences.
01:07:47
Speaker
But on the other hand, I just never really expected diving into X-Wing as deep as I have with 312 Squadron for us to like be here where we're talking about how there is no more official support, right? Like, um We've had a long time to to quote unquote grieve and get over it. And and and and'm I'm pretty much over it.
01:08:03
Speaker
yeah But just reminiscing and reflecting, it's like, damn, here we are. This is where we're at. And it's it's time to keep moving, keep keep marching on. um But I couldn't have asked for a better quote unquote like final worlds when it comes to like, you know, sanctioned.
01:08:20
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. and And it's all the people that really make it. And that's been true from the beginning. um any Any other last kind of thoughts or comments or complaints, insults my way? well i mean I was going to say, i do want to give just a big shout out to the Gold Squadron podcast for allowing me to fill in and do some commentary at Worlds.
01:08:43
Speaker
That was an absolute joy, pleasure and just something that i'm I'm so grateful for and was just one of the coolest experiences that made my weekend.
01:08:55
Speaker
Yeah, i love that you got to do that. They had did a great job covering worlds as they have always done. Yeah. Yeah, it was. damn What about you? man Super fun. um i I want to give a shout out to Andrew, actually, because he and I, i mentioned this before, but and I played a the the doubles tournament yeah we did the partner tournament on Saturday. um And it was it was easily, hands down, the most fun I've ever had playing X-Wing.
01:09:21
Speaker
Honestly, same. X-Wing is great, but like being able to like strategize and and talk through and and like put together a plan and on the fly while, um you know, like putting, putting our brains together and making it work. Like that was, that was great. You, you were a great partner and, uh, um, I had, I had a blast. It was so honestly, you, you as well.
01:09:45
Speaker
Um, I, I learned so much playing from you. You're exceptionally skilled. No, that was one of the, the best like on like experiences that I had, I've had all weekend as well.
01:09:57
Speaker
yeah I will say I kind of wish that there was like an official partners like tournament either. That's what I'm saying. not Not just a side event, but I think it would be really cool to do something like that just in regular X-Wayne.
01:10:11
Speaker
The logistics of it, I'm sure, are terrible and the trying to figure out like how how okay how do we how do we make a tournament with double the number of players in it with you know the same setup. I thought of like i right can't imagine it would ever work, but it's it was so much fun.
01:10:29
Speaker
It was just it was a blast. Yeah. And do Doug Kenny, I got to to to meet and play for the first time being the first ever world champion playing at the last official worlds, bringing um this incredible Mos Eisley like pod race course made out of Lego that spanned five feet that like had a sign up sheet because so many people were playing and racing each other like and I took a cool picture of like Poe Dameron the other end which if i honestly overdrive thrusters Poe is like a cheat in that but it's really funny you just bring what you want um and it's just like the goofiness and the fun and like it was just so like
01:11:10
Speaker
I'm so I wish I so I wish I scrubbed out so I could play at that or play to the doubles thing because you guys aret time about how much fun you had. And obviously, i don't actually wish I had scrubbed out. But a part of me is like, I missed that. I had the FOMO, though. It's tough because like it is what it is. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You played well enough to make day two. Like, shut up. I get it.
01:11:29
Speaker
But like I missed out and I'm just I'm just acknowledging the fact that I missed out. like The thing is, he's making he's making it bigger and he's going to bring it next year. Yeah, yeah, I'm not surprised. He's going to be a Brick World.
01:11:42
Speaker
Did you hear about this? didn't hear about that. he ah So the Brick World is a Lego convention in Schaumburg, the same place that Adepticon used to be at in June, usually. And he's going to have a display there because he's a Lego...
01:11:56
Speaker
builder. He builds like Lego stuff, obviously made this trench or this ah this most easily pod racing circuit. But like he he showed me his design and it's incredible. I'm super excited to go so I can see his is he's building a circular moving mosaic.
01:12:12
Speaker
and i've like And he showed me the concepts and everything. And like we we kind of geeked out over Lego. And he's just like, what a dude. He's an absolute bro. And he allowed so many people to just goof off, drink, and just have fun. And um yeah I felt like that added a lot to the experience for people to hit him doing putting in that level of effort. It was just so awesome.
01:12:34
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. No, it was really cool um for him to run. I actually, I got pictures of Stephen Weiland flying the ghost through it. Oh, nice. if If you see pictures of it on social media, because it was one of the most photographed things all weekend, the canyon is about as wide as the ghost. So...
01:12:51
Speaker
Steven grabbed me from the tournament HQ desk and he's like come here and he put his arm around me and walked me all the way to the back table and he walks me all the way around and there's a ghost he just points at it he looks at me with a big wide smile he's just pointing at it I'm like this is like this is ridiculous so I mean it's just like but so everyone was just so giddy about it was like amazing it was so cool yeah It was really cool.
01:13:16
Speaker
I mean, from a Lego fan perspective, it's even cooler. Well, anything else, guys? No, that's it. No. i Yeah. That's the same. I'm already back to list building for XWA. And so for me, it's not really ah slowing down at all. It's ah inspired me to really get better at ah X-Wing, I think this year and get some more reps in.
01:13:41
Speaker
And, you know, on that note, it's a great segue. ah We move into the world of the X-Wing Alliance, us and many other communities who are going to seek to continue playing this amazing game of X-Wing are going to be moving to just playing XWA points.
01:13:56
Speaker
Um, and we, we invite those who are kind of skeptical or on the fence after this last worlds to give it a shot. Um, there are a lot of really exciting things happening with the X-Wing Alliance, which is not just a group of just a few people who like to pat each other on the back.
01:14:09
Speaker
This is a global community run. ah initiative. And I'm very proud to be a part of it and in working on the PR side of things to help spread communications.
01:14:20
Speaker
And um I'm very thrilled um from what with what I've seen on the on the inside with what is coming out. And a lot of you guys have seen the previews for the new pilots, which come out probably within just a couple of days of when this ah episode drops.
01:14:36
Speaker
um And then we look forward to being able to look at maybe on newer points building structure that isn't too much of a deviation from what we're used to, but that kind of refines and tunes things up a little bit more.
01:14:49
Speaker
And, you know, eventually maybe some scenario changes and other gradual but much needed and exciting additions and changes to the game that we love. So.
01:15:00
Speaker
Make sure you guys stay tuned. We we always talk about XWA and we have our own announcement channel to spread the XWA news. um You guys could also join the Xwing 2.5 edition server, which is where the XWA is basically hubbed.
01:15:16
Speaker
um You can kind of stay up to date on the conversation there as well. We'll have a link in the description to that. And lastly, on the 312 side of things, we have our conquest series starting this month. Today is April 1st. We're recording this April Fools. I should have said something about quitting X-Wing at the beginning of this as a joke, but I just don't want anyone to actually think i'm being serious because that's the risk of April Fools is people take it seriously because it's just another day for a lot of people.
01:15:42
Speaker
But... In a couple of weeks, just little over a couple weeks, we'll have the Windy City Conquest to kick off our nine month long conquest series. We'll have one a month single day events.
01:15:53
Speaker
We'll have a link to tickets to the first three in the next three. The dates will be announced very soon. Online X-Wing. I know, Sam, I think Andrew, both you guys have signed up to play in the Windy City Conquest.
01:16:05
Speaker
Absolutely. Super excited. Yeah, we should host you guys. I'm excited. There's just we're we're looking to do a lot of things and continue um our growth. We appreciate all the support that our patrons have given us to allow us to do all of the amazing things that we've been able to do, including this conquest series, which is a huge leap for us that really amped up about.
01:16:24
Speaker
So lots lots lots of good stuff coming from XWA for the the world of X-Wing and from 312. Make sure you guys subscribe to us on YouTube, like our Facebook page, join our Discord to be a part of an awesome community that we have there.
01:16:38
Speaker
And if you want to support us even further than the generous support you give us and your with your time and your subscriptions, you can also check out our Patreon. All right. That is going to do it for this episode. What is this, guys? is this, Andrew, episode 28? Episode 28. That'll do it for us. My name is Nick Sperry.
01:16:57
Speaker
I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Samuel Gravener. And we'll talk to you all and fly with you all soon. See you soon.