Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 29: The Windy City Conquest!
111 Plays1 month ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba, Nick Sperry, and Windy City Conquest CHAMPION, Bill Hayes (Sevwall), discuss the recent Windy City Conquest!
The 312 Conquest Series is an online qualifier series, one tournament a month, across various timezones. Top 8 players from each event win an invite to the Global Conquest in December!
Rollbetter link for the Windy City Conquest: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/1956
Insights: https://www.pattern-analyzer.app/tournament/rollbetter/1956/squads
Check out the 312 Conquest Series: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JZpohWBP4cOnN00kQ2Vk1zsEU1fQzmQ4sXtbliTQtc0/edit?tab=t.0
Video Announcement: https://youtu.be/XGdpsR3DEnE
Tickets: https://www.ticketleap.events/events/312-squadron
New XWA content has arrived and 312 has exclusive cards and MORE for them! Become the ultimate supporter of 312 Squadron and get awesome perks! Including quarterly rewards like tokens and cards, unedited recording sessions of the podcast with early access, and MORE! Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/312Squadron
Check out our Merch store: https://streamlabs.com/312_squadron/merch
XWA Site: https://www.xwing.life
Visit the 2.5 Edition Server: https://discord.gg/x-wing
FAQ Link: https://discord.com/channels/627648261456527371/1262114191972503624
Support our partner StrataStrike by using this link and checking out with code “312Squadron” for 15% off store-wide! https://www.etsy.com/shop/stratastrike/?etsrc=sdt
Hey, join the conversation, hop into our Discord! https://discord.gg/xknEegJw67
You can follow us live for weekly content on our Twitch channel: http://twitch.tv/312_Squadron
Like our page on Facebook for updates on future and current things: https://www.facebook.com/Squadron312/
Catch replays and edited content on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@312squadronChicago
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the 312 Conquest series
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the 312 Squadron podcast. I am your host, Andrew Kuba. And I'm Nick Sperry. And I'm Bill Hayes, also known as Civil. And we are going to be discussing the 312 Conquest series. We just came up from the first series, the Windy City Trial, and we are we are here with the champion, Bill Hayes.
00:00:22
Speaker
We are really excited to be discussing how the tournament went, what some of our insights are, and a little bit about where we're seeing the XWA meta going in general.
Windy City Conquest format and participation
00:00:32
Speaker
ah So Nick, I'd like to pass it over to you for running the entire event. It was a ton of fun, but I would just love to hear what it was like from your perspective. Sure. Yeah. um Windy City Conquest happened this past weekend. um Was it ah was it a week ago now? see on the 19th. So yeah, weekend ago. Yeah, um it was all it's all blur.
00:00:55
Speaker
It ah is the first of ah nine um series that we're hosting one a month in different time zones all the way through the end of the year when we have the global conquest.
00:01:07
Speaker
So kind of like a similar to Galaxies and in some ways, if you guys remember GSP Galaxies, but these are one day events with a top two final. So four to five rounds of Swiss top two final for the champion.
00:01:17
Speaker
They win a cool plaque. And in this case, Sevwell also won a ah sealed Adepticon 2020 matchup. chrome n1 starfighter so he got some extra hardware i'll be dropping that off in the post office in a couple of days for him and uh yeah it's it's a great way to bring people together from ah all across the globe play some online x-wing more accessible that way and uh for us more content um more to stream uh just you know be able to to do more with giveaways and um it's It was a great first tournament.
Tournament logistics and execution
00:01:48
Speaker
This one ah went really well. We had sixty over 60 people signed up. We had, ah of course, always a few drops before the tournament started.
00:01:56
Speaker
And when 58 was the number we started with. And everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I'm obviously going to throw it over to Seval in a moment to speak on how he saw things on his as his end as a player. who was wearing a bunch of different hats, you know, streaming, TOing, helping with judging,
00:02:12
Speaker
and just logistics on the back end. But it all came together really well. The players ah really got the hang of it, and it's not their first rodeo, and it went smooth. And honestly, it's kind of the dream, because getting up extra early to host 12-hour event from you know beginning to check-in to the end of the final table stream and wrapping that up and posting about the winner, it's it's a full day.
00:02:35
Speaker
And a lot could go wrong. Thankfully, nothing really did. And I'm excited for the next one, which will entail me getting up at, I think, ah one in the morning. Yeah. So, yeah, we'll talk about that later.
00:02:48
Speaker
Saval, how was the tournament? ah And Andrew, you played in it, too, but we'll throw over to the champion first. You guys can both talk about your experience playing in this conquest and just overall the series in general, what your thoughts are on it.
Online tournaments experience
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, so I... um I really like online tournaments.
00:03:04
Speaker
um I don't have too much of a local scene, so most of the tournaments that I've been playing online in the last ah year or so have been online. um I think it was run really well. it went it went I compare it to, um I don't know, if people played Galaxies.
00:03:19
Speaker
feel like a lot of people who have played online X-Wing are probably familiar with Galaxies from from a Gold Squadron podcast too back in the day. Yeah. And those were always run very effectively. And I feel like this, it felt just like being in those tournaments where everyone got into a room and all the rules were clearly explained and your time, like, like I, it just very functional, very efficient. And I didn't, there were really no problems with how it was run.
00:03:46
Speaker
so I give it like an A plus for that. I paid him a lot of money to say that. why Yeah, I mean, I was going say, so this actually was my first rodeo. This was my first online tournament where, you know, I've have recently joined the online leagues, but I was a little bit nervous on like how this was going to go. I wanted to make sure that, you know, it was easy for me to follow along and find out where I needed to be. So I think I was like one of the first people in the discord room.
00:04:14
Speaker
ah which was actually one of the most fun introductions to a tournament that I could have had. It was just great talking with everybody in the Discord room. The conversation immediately went to Star Wars, like, lore and canon and stuff and and people debating, like, the movies.
00:04:29
Speaker
um But it was, honestly, it kind of felt as close to an in-store championship as I've been to online, where, you know, you when you first show up, you're just saying hi to your friends and, you know, everyone's just kind of having these, like,
00:04:43
Speaker
great conversations. It was such a relaxed environment. um And it was really nice just to have the documentation there. ah You know, Nick, you came on explained all the rules. Like I really felt that i i didn't feel like I was out of place on anything. And it was easy for me to jump into TTS rooms.
00:05:00
Speaker
The responsiveness for the judges in chat, I want to say was incredible. And that really even made a difference in just like the tournament time, being able to get answers to questions that you had just so, you know, so quickly. So I know you did, you know, such a great job there.
00:05:16
Speaker
The other judging staff as well. And also like just had a ah good time. All the opponents were great. It was nice even, you know, having a lunch break in there. Yeah, no, thank you. I appreciate you guys both saying such nice things about how things were
Judge team and community partnerships
00:05:29
Speaker
run. I mean, without really, you know, stroking my ego, I do feel like just objectively...
00:05:33
Speaker
things went very well um obviously if we were hosting a tournament with 124 people online but you know who knows um there's a reason why i kind of set a tentative cap though i'm never really willing to run an event that big by myself um in the future maybe if it's a joint effort but for now you know i think these these 48 to 72 player sized tournaments are going to do really well for us in the community and um something that's manageable on the judge side to do want to shout out Maui, who really just kind of donated his time that day to just be around and answer questions and and help out. And um that was really huge. And ah appreciate Maui and the work he's doing leading the rules team for XWA and also helping us out kind of puts the partnership in that blurb that we have about partnering with the XWA for this event. Those are examples on how we're doing that.
00:06:21
Speaker
um partnering with people like maui um like sith taker tim who's the op planning lead he helped do a little judging and commentary on our stream uh and obviously of course um kester smith helping us with uh matt carey and i to put together the trophies and artwork for those from curled paw which a lot of shout outs but just kind of it's really cool to to partner with so many different people in so many different ways to put these tournaments together and um You know, I hope to continue to to do things like that just beyond the series, you know, going into next year as well.
00:06:54
Speaker
So, yeah, but I do appreciate the the mention of the judges because I was really impressed with just how quickly people got their answers. I tried my best. I feel like I was impressed with myself and how quick I was able to remember to check Discord because sometimes when I'm streaming, I forget.
00:07:09
Speaker
And it's hard. You can't really necessarily do that when you're running a tournament at the same time. You got to be all over the place, so. ah yeah Yeah, for sure.
Tournament list diversity
00:07:17
Speaker
And also, you know, getting into the the actual tournament itself, I think that there was a kind of a lot of like cool takeaways that that we could just have from the tournament.
00:07:28
Speaker
mean, if you're listening to this podcast, not sure if you're checking out like any of the roll better stats or or trying to keep up with, you know, what the the meta of the tournament brought. But i I was really interested, like shocked at how many different and varied lists there were across the entire tournament.
00:07:47
Speaker
That was even if I was like playing the same faction, i was just seeing completely different archetypes like in each faction, too, which was ah wild. I remember those were the days, right? I mean, we used to have that a lot more often. um Even at times in 2.5, we were AMG points um earlier on, we were seeing more variety and then we would get less variety and maybe a little bit more and then it would be less again. And it seems like XWA has really leaned into i providing opportunities for that variety and and getting back to the most variety we we could possibly want in ah in a semi, you know, and and um in a mostly balanced game,
Strategies for using Boba Fett
00:08:21
Speaker
right? You can't ever perfectly balance a game like X-Wing, but...
00:08:24
Speaker
um Zev, you brought a faction that benefits from some of the new content. um you know What were your thoughts on what you saw? um You don't have to necessarily do a you know bat reps or anything, but you brought Scum.
00:08:37
Speaker
And just how did that all pan out? And what was your experience going through Swiss? um Yeah, I mean, I put this list together mainly to to fly with Boba. um He's been one of my favorite characters in Star Wars for a long time, and I've always liked to play him. I have never managed to use his previous incarnation terribly well in Scum, um so I figured I would give this one a shot and see how it worked.
00:09:02
Speaker
um I think the new SLs from XWA have been pretty well balanced to not...
00:09:14
Speaker
Break the format open like some of the AMG SLs did. Yeah. But also not be terrible. So like I used to feel like when SLs would come out, there was a pretty even.
00:09:27
Speaker
You could pretty much draw a line down the middle, put some cards in the I'm never going to use pile and put some cards and I'm always going to use pile. and then occasionally there were a few that you weren't so sure about. I feel like the XWSLs have been ah very much on that middle line, where sometimes you're going want to use them, sometimes you're not going to want to use them, but you're never entirely sure that it is like an obvious great choice.
00:09:49
Speaker
yeah So what I've been doing with this list is to just kind of figure out what works with Boba and what um what doesn't. So I've been ive spent the last...
00:10:02
Speaker
since since the SLs came out, just kind of experimenting. um And this is actually the first time that it that it clicked. um This list has not been doing terribly well for me outside of ah outside of this, because I was trying different things like Dengar.
00:10:18
Speaker
And um if we want to discuss the list specifically, we can do that later. why don't you do it? Do you mind actually telling us what you flew? Just um that way makes it easier for whenever you would refer back to it. You don't have to then yeah break it down later.
00:10:30
Speaker
ah So I have ah custom CAD bane with composure because I have a point. Sync laser cannons and proton rockets. Those are both two.
00:10:41
Speaker
Very great cards with Cad, the Sinked Laser, because it just gives him the three dice, and Proton Rockets, because combined with his ability to prevent you from modding shots, or modding with green tokens defensively in his bullseye, Proton Rockets are pretty devastating.
00:10:55
Speaker
yeah Also, Boba Fett. um Let me bring up the list itself, because I'm looking at Roll Better, which doesn't break down the cards.
00:11:07
Speaker
And funny enough, I'm actually... One of my problems with this list is remembering all the individual pieces and what they do. um Boba, he's obvious the the new version of him wants to take locks on ship. He's entirely lock dependent, which puts him in kind of a weird a weird place where he's very strong if you're making the correct decisions about what you want to lock and when you want to lock it.
00:11:35
Speaker
But if you do that wrong, he feels ineffective. And occasionally you can run up against a list that has anti-lock tech. Like, Gorin is pretty popular in Empire at the moment. And that doesn't ruin him.
00:11:47
Speaker
He still functions. But you just have to be very careful about what you're doing, when you're doing it, and probably focusing on Gorin a lot with Boba. So that's the homing beacon ability ah that ties into it that lets him lock from outside range 3. That's critical to his play. You're always going to be wanting to lock range 1.
00:12:04
Speaker
So you want to make sure you have a good plan going into it because you're going to be making those key decisions about how you're playing turn 1 the moment you start. yeah Fennec Shand ties into that.
00:12:16
Speaker
If you are attacking or receiving an attack from a locked ship, they roll one list dice against you. um very frustrating for your opponent but also a little bit frustrating for you as the boba player because you kind of never ever want to spend your lock yep even in situations so like some some nominal situations like let's say you roll blank blank hit against a ship with two defense dice normally if you spend that lock you might get three attacks but they're definitely getting an extra defense dice
00:12:48
Speaker
So every time you spend that lock with Boba, you're losing some offensive... you're You're giving them some additional defensive power. So you have to be really careful um with Boba. And a lot of the times when you're flying Boba, you'll feel like you don't have a target lock. Like all you're doing is rolling you know natural dice and sometimes hopefully modding it with a focus shot. um And then he's got seismic charges, which is great for when...
00:13:17
Speaker
when You know, you want to just, just with your pathing, you can kind of finish people off with your charges. And then the card that I always forget, which is slave one, um same as the standard when you're in their back arc, you get crits.
00:13:29
Speaker
I'm sorry. Did you want to say something about Bubba? No, I was going to say that, yeah, that ability, it makes spending that lock a really tough decision. You have to be very tactical on when you want to do it. And yeah, oftentimes it just feels like you just kind of leave the target lock on and you just play it as if you don't even have the lock.
00:13:46
Speaker
Yeah, and that's not to complain about bobo Boba. Boba's great, obviously. He's a very good card, but I just want to highlight that unlike some... There are some ships in the game where you're not making a lot of tough decisions with... Like, things just kind of flow more naturally. Like, a Defender Vader, not down a terribly popular pilot at the moment. When you're flying Defender Vader, it's you're brute-forcing your way through things, and your decisions are pretty obvious. Yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
With Boba, a lot of the decisions are slightly more painful, and you can get just as well rewarded for them as you can with any other ship, more so in some cases. His ability to fire, I don't know if I mentioned it, but his pilot ability is if a locked ship, a ship that you have locked, attacks someone other than you, you can perform a bonus attack against them. that That's devastating when it works, but you have to be setting yourself up in the right positions with the right pathing, locking the right targets.
00:14:39
Speaker
So there are many ways to mess that up During a game. And in the tournament, I felt like that was clicking for me. Whereas in my previous experiences, it wasn't.
00:14:52
Speaker
So just just to kind of highlight, ah when I go through the whole list, I'll talk about my experiences with the list overall. But oh um it's not a brute force list.
00:15:04
Speaker
what would you say What would you say is like something that you generally know for a fact and that you're limited to time playing this archetype or Boba himself that you don't want to go up against that you feel like is kind of a deterrent or a counter to what you brought?
00:15:20
Speaker
um So i six is rough because you want to try to make sure that you can get your arc on somebody because it doesn't matter who you lock if you're not pointed at them.
00:15:35
Speaker
If you don't have your firing arc over someone that you have locked, you you don't punish them for attacking someone. you don't um you don't You're not more effective attacking them with their one less defense dice, and they don't have to attack you. So the fact that they roll one less dice against you doesn't really matter.
00:15:51
Speaker
That can also sometimes happen him with I-5s. I've had games against FO where the obvious lock and person to punish was Kylo Ren. And then if you win the initiative roll every round and Kylo Ren is effectively I-6 against you, you run into the same problem.
00:16:06
Speaker
So that's the most common thing that happens. um as Obviously, as I mentioned before, Goran is a problem. um He can remove locks. The obvious answer there, a lot of the Empire lists at this tournament were interesting because a lot of them felt like Goran lists but didn't have Goran.
00:16:21
Speaker
yeah um So I didn't really run into it here, but I've run into it in in practice. um So you did not play Andrew. Yeah. yeah i was I was running to Goran and found him very effective against a lot of lists in the field.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah. And then just list the... I played against a CIS list that was a seven-ship CIS list. And they killed Boba relatively quickly, and that's pretty devastating to this list.
00:16:51
Speaker
So things things that can kill Boba are a problem for Boba. Sure. Yeah, i guess that goes for any Boba. Yeah, it sounds obvious, but he's he's kind of a linchpin to the list in a couple different ways.
00:17:04
Speaker
um he just he He has a lot of threat that he puts out by picking a target and saying that that target is really bad against him. So the more ships that your opponent has, the less you picking an individual target matters.
00:17:19
Speaker
And the more they have the ability to kill Boba, get seven points from you, remove a big threat, and then go from there. how was um How is Mando when you're like, give me what what's your ah give me your overview and ah maybe opinion on i flying the Mandalorian. He's a four point.
00:17:39
Speaker
he's not a He's not a filler, obviously. He's got definitely had as a decently high ceiling, but... he's ah you know He's in your list. I think you probably, i would assume you don't have super high expectations for him, but you you you hope to put him in a good position to do some damage, right? Like, what are your thoughts
Role of the Mandalorian in tournaments
00:17:55
Speaker
on him?
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, so the last two ships are the Mandalorian in the N1 and Fenrau. So just to give you a sense of like everything that's that's in the list. The Mandalorian is there to get into a flank position and then continue dealing ship damage over the course of the game.
00:18:15
Speaker
Or, if the game plays out where like each of you has one guy on the flank, his job is to just kind of harass the enemy flanker or use his I-5 to continually claim um in something like Scramble the Transmissions.
00:18:32
Speaker
But I'm not relying on him to to do all that much other than be the idea of a threat. um He needs to do something. I can't just run with him all game um because this list, in order to function, really needs like four things that are threatening.
00:18:52
Speaker
I ran a version of this list that was Cad Bane, Boba Fett, SL Dengar, and Sarco in the quad ah quad jumper. And i always ran into problems with that list where I only really had three threatening things.
00:19:07
Speaker
um So it was too easy for the enemy to focus on killing one of those three things, leaving me with two threats left, and that in a game of X-Wing isn't always enough. So the Mandalorian is good because he... With his outmaneuver and with his ability to get bullseye and ah the force so that like he can roll to get bullseye and still mod his shots, the Mandalorian can always do actual real damage while also being a ship that can run.
00:19:33
Speaker
Um... from the perspective of just the ship itself, I was talking about how the SLs, like, it's, a lot of them fall on the line. I don't really think the Mandalorian falls on the line. I think that ship is very clearly good.
00:19:45
Speaker
Not because it's too strong, but because Scum doesn't have a ship like the N1 that can slam I-5, cares about, um like, very effective when it gets behind you, and can play objectives as well as as the Mandalorian does.
00:20:04
Speaker
So, I think that it's a very clear winner for the faction because it provides Scum something. It provides them ah ship that they just didn't have.
00:20:17
Speaker
that It doesn't replace anything because it didn't exist before. um The types of play that you can do with the Mandalorian in Scum are unique and and help fill a weakness in the faction.
00:20:28
Speaker
So that's another reason why he's here is just you can't... if If I couldn't take the Mandalorian in the four-point slot, I'd have to take some kind of bruiser-type ship that can't get around people and can't focus on objectives, and he's just invaluable to be able to spend four points to get something that can do those mean, what are your other options? like I guess I-5, it'd be Dirge, right? i mean, Dirge has always been kind of that de facto four-point piece for so long for Scum. To have other types of options is good, um you know?
00:21:00
Speaker
I'm curious. I got to see him a bit over the course of the tournament. You and ah and Doug and ah Doug and Andrew played on stream, and that was quite that was quite a game to watch. Very entertaining. you know Andrew's going to beat himself up over that game a bit, but it was very on the streaming side. it was a very fun game to watch, and um oh it's interesting to see how people approach using Mando, but it seems that the consensus is you have to at least try to get him to be a flanker. like he cannot He's not just someone that you can...
00:21:27
Speaker
throw in the middle of the board and come up through the middle or or whatever, unless that's where your opponent is not setting up. He will just die immediately. And you you don't want to like get him killed so fast.
00:21:38
Speaker
He can be an X factor, I think, in in a and a list that maybe you don't expect him to be, but he has the potential for it. Well, also, you know, he's he's a piece that your opponents can't ignore at the same time.
00:21:51
Speaker
It provides in the scum list, it makes your opponents have to make a tough choice of how they're going to set up because they do have to dedicate some ships to to deal with the Mandalorian. And those are ships that are not now dogpiling on, you know, the aces and the linchpins in your list.
00:22:10
Speaker
Right.
Tournament strategies and gameplay
00:22:12
Speaker
um Real quick, Andrew, I wanted to ask you to you played um and you've got you got the hunger to play again because you you signed up for the Crumpet Conquest. Yeah, I'm going to be up. Yeah, I'm going to be up early in the morning with you.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Joining me in solidarity there. I'm going to Trader Joe's and I'm going to actually get some crumpets from there too. So I'll be enjoying that as my breakfast to keep it theme.
00:22:34
Speaker
Maybe I should get some then I can review them on stream. I think I kind of need to do something like that. Does Mariano's have them? I'll find out. But anyways, um what was your experience? ah Talk about, you know you brought a gore list. You talk about that. And, you know, this is, I feel i feel like, correct me if I'm wrong. This is kind of your first, like you mentioned, you this is your first like online tournament. Yeah. Right.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, this is my first. i was like What was it like? Large online tournament. Yeah, like I said, it was it was great chatting with everybody um in the morning. I brought i my list that that I had practiced with. So I had been noticing that there were a lot of ah Boba and and scum players out there and also some of the Republic lists and our resistance lists that like to take a lot of target locks and depend on that.
00:23:20
Speaker
So that's kind of where, why I chose to go with a, a Gorin list and had been practicing that for, for a couple weeks, um which, for those games where those target locks mattered, it was a a huge benefit.
00:23:36
Speaker
um Started off very strong, played probably some of the best closest games of X-Wing that I have ever played in my life. um By round three, you know, I was kind of happy to be in my own home just because of just how like exhausted i was like mentally and just being able to go and get like food from the fridge and I have to walk that far and get like water it was like,
00:23:59
Speaker
huge so i really enjoyed that aspect of it uh and the caliber of players that you know i was playing up against were also just so competitive um and it was super fun going through like all of my games um for every faction really having to like sit read and try to understand my opponent's list because they were so different and unexpected than a lot of the lists that i was even practicing against uh going into this so i really made me consider you know what my game plan was what my win conditions were and it was ah challenge you know for me just even identify the targets i i was thrilled with you know how i started you know three o and then kind of you know at the end there uh even on stream like i think you could kind of tell the moment where like i think my
00:24:48
Speaker
brain just kind of gave out. And I ah started just, you know, making some some poor like decisions and stuff. But ah still, overall, super fun. and My opponents were great as well. And it was a pleasure you know just talking with them on on stream too.
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, overall, i think that this is probably one of like the healthiest metas and places that we've seen. And it's just been so interesting for this being one of the first like major XWA, like online XWA tournaments to kind of see, you know, what everyone's bringing to
Faction representation in tournaments
00:25:23
Speaker
the table. Because I still think that it hasn't really been, you know, figured out or or solved by a long shot.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, looking at the insights on the faction side, you know, I am was one of the main with with the timing of this tournament and the new content that had just come out.
00:25:39
Speaker
you know, I think a lot of us are asking ourselves, what's the, what's the faction representation representation going to be like when, ah you know, factions get new content. Typically there's a spike in terms of, you know, how many people bring them to a tournament and,
00:25:52
Speaker
um so while winning the you know winning the tournament with scum scum at second place it was 16.95 or 17 percent of lists were scum resistance though number one 25 percent so a quarter of the entire field uh was resistance um which uh they did benefit from new content the evacuation of dakar and armed and dangerous are the two packs that came out for three factions resistance first order and scum and we we did see ah honestly almost let's see what what does that end up being little over 41 percent yeah of the field just scum and resistance um and then you get a what's really interesting is going from there
00:26:31
Speaker
You're like, okay, well, First Order, right? First Order got new the new that new Kylo. They have these new SFs, these new FOs. ah No, bear with me. is and Rebels and Empire tied at at about 15% each represented in this tournament. And then you get to First Order at fifth.
00:26:50
Speaker
with only 10%. So I think well we'll we'll get back to that point in a second on FO. But I believe that at least as of right now, the faith in the new content, they don't feel like the power level is is at the same level, maybe as um scum and resistance, at least in this tournament. That is a hypothesis you could create.
00:27:11
Speaker
that maybe uh fo players uh either just didn't play in this tournament which is the fo players are very dedicated bunch or uh they didn't feel like maybe kylo was enough for the for them um kylo and friends and then we got the grand army the republic and cis as the last two at both eight percent so uh cis dominating in xwa for so long pretty much almost unbeatable in the hands of someone who knew how to play the faction Yeah, ah not not represented super well in this one, but we did see a Django Zam make top four. So there there is that and we saw a dark ball list get top eight in there as well, which is cool.
00:27:49
Speaker
So, you know, they had a 56 percent win rate. I mean, overall, that's pretty good. Yeah, so not brought a lot, but the people who did played well is basically what that ends up being, which is good.
00:28:03
Speaker
That's been the story for the Separatist faction ah since the dawn of X-Wing. Yeah, Isofate always proves that that statistic too. Whenever he brings us CIS, he's one of the few, and he always does very well with it.
00:28:15
Speaker
yeah um But let's talk about a First Order really quick. um you know and We'll talk about Resistance, of course, and and a little bit more on
First Order's strategic impact
00:28:21
Speaker
Scum in a moment. But um I don't really believe in the... I don't think the new content is... um There's anything wrong with it. I don't i think that that's ah it's a misleading claim to say that Efo didn't get enough. um However, I have seen some people try to make that claim. um I'm curious what your guys' thoughts are on Efo. Sev, I'll ask you first, and then Andrew, if you want to chime in after.
00:28:45
Speaker
Efo with the new stuff, the new toys. Yeah, so I'm primarily an Empire, Scum, and Efo player. Not necessarily in that order, but those are the three factions that i I played the most. I had a lot of success in the draft league with Efo in the first two seasons that I was in there.
00:28:59
Speaker
So I don't think... I just have a lot of experience with the faction. I think... With the SLs specifically, talking about how they affect the faction, I don't know that they are any better or any worse than the Scum SLs or the Resistance SLs.
00:29:17
Speaker
I think...
00:29:20
Speaker
When I was talking about a lot of them being a lot of the cards being on the line, um i still feel like that's true for FO. I feel like playing as a SCUM player, that the SLs in SCUM gave me new and different ways to do things that I didn't have access to before.
00:29:37
Speaker
Like a fire spray that I want to play and put on the table, and the N1 is just completely new. I don't play resistance enough, but I look at resistance and I see two resistance bombers that do things that you really wanted bombers to be able to do that they couldn't just really do before.
00:29:54
Speaker
You have Stomeroni, who is ah essentially a new chasis, you know, an A-Wing with X-Wing stats. And um even Poe, to some extent, just kind of...
00:30:06
Speaker
is a bit of a newer version of that ship. It takes a little further. When I look at the FO stuff, I'm looking at ships that mostly seem to be doing the same thing that I could do now in a different way.
00:30:21
Speaker
So I could always roll a bunch of attack dice with my TIE FOs. Those are the ones that you would take. You'd take Scorch or most ah you know Whenever you're playing Malorus or Midnight, you're taking a way to get that third dice.
00:30:35
Speaker
So the three the the new FO TIE Fighters provide that in a different way, but I'm still kind of doing the same thing I was trying to do before. TIE SFs.
00:30:46
Speaker
They're a big thing, having mobile arcs, rolling three dice. The new SFs do that same thing too. They do it with munitions, which is interesting and unique. They're definitely different to play, but I'm still sort of doing the same thing.
00:31:00
Speaker
And then Kylo, 7-point Kylo, is doing things that I used to be able to do before with Kylo until they changed him down to six points. um So I think that people will integrate these new SLs into FO, and people will want to play FO with them. I just don't know if it's the first faction I leapt to. like I play FO in Scum, and I chose to do Scum because there's a lot of interesting new stuff that I can do that I couldn't do before.
00:31:27
Speaker
I imagine that's probably the same for resistance people who are who were putting that stuff on the table. I just don't quite feel like it's there to that extent with That's fair, right? Nothing new new, no new chassis feeling you're getting from the the additions to First Order, which a lot of people have described FO as being the faction that just feels the most limited because it has such a limited number of options across the chassis they can use.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah. um I think that's a pretty reasonable assessment. i honestly think it's fairly objective when it comes to just like the fact that there isn't, you know, there is no new... ah There isn't a new pilot that uses a different dial for its ship like Stomorani does in Resistance, right? First Order simply just didn't get that.
00:32:07
Speaker
And it's not normal to get stuff like that. you know It's kind of ah breaking new ground in that regard. But um still, I mean, the new Kylo, seven points, but um very aggro, right? Like he has the Protons, Warpedos. He has the extra force. He...
00:32:21
Speaker
is just he can add results when he has people in bullseye taking by taking damage like there. And that's that's something restricted only to him. There's a few of the other pilots that get to do that as well that were added to FO. But at the same time, there's still an existing chassis.
00:32:35
Speaker
And, you know, that's that's sort that's a good point. I agree with that. I understand where you're coming from. that. Yeah. And I was gonna say, i don't even know, though, if it even comes down to, you know, excitement level, i from the online, you know, testing that I've been doing. And even like, from what I'm hearing in the NCX, know, draft league, the feedback I've been getting from players is that ah the SLs are pretty good.
00:33:04
Speaker
Lahuse is a huge problem for a lot of players. The new Theta and Zeta FO fighters are do a great job ah punching above their weight ah when when you can you know exploit that.
00:33:18
Speaker
and so And it's the same too where even Lahuse in the SL version is a different flavor completely than you know you fly them in a different list in a different way than you would the build your own Lahuse. So FO, i think two of all the lists, their SLs are the ones where the decision is harder in that middle ground because it isn't obvious when you should take an SL, when you shouldn't. it What they do is open up different archetypes within the faction.
00:33:50
Speaker
But I think that it's a faction that has more diamonds in the rough that you have to spend more time playing with to pull out ways that you can use those new cards, even the old cards to make your archetype in certain lists click.
00:34:06
Speaker
If that makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. The ceiling for for what you can do with the F.O. as a faction is higher than what we think right now. I think that for all the factions with the complexity of F.O.s build archetype, which is the, you know, um hurt your friends to give yourself bonuses and and power.
00:34:28
Speaker
it does require a little more finesse to like find out what clicks then maybe some of the other like factions do and filling like those pieces with their archetype yeah it's tough i mean i'm just look i was just curious i know that our team league our last team league was before the new first order content had come out um but their overall win rate in that was um
00:34:52
Speaker
39% just round up to 40. It's like 39, seven. um And then in looking at the incredibly small sample of this one tournament, the least number of games played at 23, which makes sense. We don't bring, not many people bring the the faction. There's not as many games played seven and 15 overall 30% win rate.
00:35:10
Speaker
um What I would, would be curious is if I were, you know, you know, 10 tournaments from now, oh enough data that I crunched it and averaged it out. If that win rate, what I'd want to see is that win rate is at,
00:35:21
Speaker
above like 44 or 45 percent or in that general range it it being 30 to 40 um is does not inspire i think confidence um you know long term uh and you know obviously the new content can't it's objectively good it's not even going to make the faction worse it would be because it would be concerning if that number dropped um if you know you go from the team league data around 40 percent which is you know acceptable but not good because to being you know closer to 30, 35, I think what the story would just be that people aren't bringing it as much because they don't want to.
00:35:58
Speaker
And First Order is already kind of a fickle bunch of players. like there's You don't just have... First order players don't tend to also be rebel players. um You know, I think several, you know, several plays empire. That makes sense. I think fo players, if there's any other faction that they would also play would probably be empire because there are similarities and overlap with eight, know, ace choices, fighters, et cetera.
00:36:20
Speaker
um but it's just something to keep in mind. I think it's way too early as as we all can kind of agree. It's just is and the sample doesn't really exist. But just so far from what I'm looking at, um first order does need to to improve.
00:36:33
Speaker
um And I would hope that that the next few events that we run, we i want to stream more FO games. We were able to do a couple for the Windy City Conquest, but I hope we see people bring more ah FO.
00:36:46
Speaker
um You know, it's it's what's another interesting point. There was something else I was going to bring up. um If I look at just our top eight, and this is slightly off topic, but going through all the factions the only two factions there's three factions not represented in the top eight it's rebels empire and uh first order and i know i think there's a number 10 finisher that have had rebels so pretty close they they could have made top eight they went four and one but then to find fo yeah 29th yeah
00:37:19
Speaker
um so similar archetypes between the 28th and 29th player or 29th and 30th place players. Uh, they both brought FO. They both had a Kylo in there. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's really just, uh,
00:37:34
Speaker
you brought up a point about taking damage you know that in the meta it's objectively can be really really risky to be even taking one extra damage to to add a result you know that aggressive nature that is very thematic for first order ah could come back to haunt you especially if ship counts uh still average closer to five um you know oh for sure one extra shot you're taking is very dangerous taking all those strain tokens or a you know a lot of abilities turn on when they lose like their shields and stuff yeah uh and then also too i mean this is a tournament that had two chance engagements uh as well uh like for for all the the the tournament like or for the for the games that we play and you know that
00:38:19
Speaker
It would be interesting to see you know how that also kind of determined some of the... Yeah, I mean, would Chance be more beneficial, Sevwal, to First Order right now? like I feel like it can't be that... like of Of the couple scenarios that they wouldn't mind playing, I feel like Chance would be one of them, right?
00:38:35
Speaker
um i I haven't... I could talk for like 45 minutes about First Order. have a lot of opinions on that faction in XWA at the moment.
00:38:45
Speaker
um I don't know if chance is good or bad. It really depends a lot on what you're playing against. um yeah yeah A lot of times when you're playing FO, if you look at... It is kind of depressing to have to scroll down to 29th to see the first FO person here.
00:39:00
Speaker
um But like if you look, they don't... they don't there's There's no like consensus, really, in these in these various lists. like I think a lot of people play a lot of different First Order lists and what you put your pieces, like how you put your pieces into your list.
00:39:16
Speaker
But I think playing against First Order, a lot of the times, it doesn't really matter what you're playing against. A lot it feels the same. Unless they're really going out of their way to fly like Force Silencer or they put like an Upsilon on the table or something.
00:39:29
Speaker
So I think Part of First Order's problem at the moment is that there's not a lot of different things that they can do. There's just a lot of different ways that they can do it. So what that means is that when you put your first your First Order list on the table, it's not so much about what you have, it's what your opponent has. Because they have things that are going to counter like the idea of First Order and what it can do, or else they're not going to have that sort of stuff. so i feel playing First Order, I feel like that's much more of the factor in how well you do than what scenario you get, per se. like I don't think that there are any better or worse than chance at at other factions. Yeah.
00:40:09
Speaker
you know, to to a meaningful degree. I think it's kind of more about what you're, what you line up across from. Yeah. I mean, i remember when I was doing pairings for the team league, i I was like for FO, I was like constantly, it was like, it was you scramble or,
00:40:22
Speaker
ah it or chance. It was like, it couldn't be a assault. And and salvvaed like Salvage, I think, in the past, in 2.5, EFA was a lot better at, but now i'm like, Magpul's tech is different, rightfully so. like you know So i think First Order is one of those factions that maybe um is more matchup dependent than others right now.
00:40:43
Speaker
I mean, I think Resistance and Scum, ah it's it's interesting to mention Scum in that and this category, are are a little bit more flexible. And in 2.5 with scenarios, you do need to be more mindful of flexibility across your matchups and scenarios that that it factors into your matchup. you know um scott I think FO is one of those factions that is just more adverse to who it goes up against.
00:41:12
Speaker
And these things ebb and flow a lot with with the meta. um its Scenarios always kind of add a little bit of ah kind of ah a linchpin thing to consider. when it comes to how you build your lists um but at the same time i think it is difficult to be able to fully lean into just oh well you know i won't play the objective i could just blow up all my opponent's ships that is a strategy that is very um bold and uh yeah a little you know it's so it's a little too grandiose so it doesn't really work that way that's not know your opponent has agency and pretty much everything that they do and how they set up
00:41:46
Speaker
um So you do have to be mindful of that building list that can at least try to play the objective. And, um you know, FO, think Assault is really the more obvious one where it really struggles.
00:41:58
Speaker
ah Unless you bring an Upsilon, which is going to take up a ton of your list, or a medium base in the Zai Shuttle, which will never really do any damage at all and will die very quickly if it's getting shot at. ah You just won't really score many objective points and your opponents have lot access to a lot of tools that will allow them to farm.
00:42:16
Speaker
assault points so it's just another thing we had like several said you can talk about fo for a long time i do i i feel like it's a little cathartic talking about fo because i've wanted to talk about this stuff for a while with this faction and just kind of haven't because i know that there are a lot of things that are developing and this faction is going to shift around a bit but they've kind of been at the bottom for a while um this isn't yeah This isn't a new development. They have struggled for months before the new content, going all the way through the team league, and in testing before in the first few iterations of beta points.
00:42:50
Speaker
They were staying at the bottom. They were not doing well. um So i'm I'm excited to see a prospect of them being more middle of the pack as they have been and historically where, you know, they're not, they're not ever going to really blow anyone away with the number of people who bring them and, you know, the sheer number of people who may cut with FO, but there there will be people in cut with FO.
00:43:11
Speaker
There will be people in the top 16, couple players with FO. That's what I, I feel like I need to see um to feel more confident in where they're heading. And it's going to be difficult because they just don't have a lot of choices still.
00:43:25
Speaker
It comes down to that a lot of the times with that faction. That's my rant. That's my TED Talk, my X-Wing ah TED Talk on First Order. i I do find it interesting looking at the f the the First Order list here is that what I don't see, what I think the XWA did a very good job when they introduced the Red Fury Zealots.
00:43:44
Speaker
to First Order. Those are the Whispers without the the config, I think it is. yeah don't think it's a title for that. They can't jam, but they're three points. They can take Fanatical and Advanced Optics, and they're extremely good at objective play, going around the table while getting lots of two-hit shots.
00:44:04
Speaker
And they're very good at avoiding dying because they can go very fast. um And as ah as someone who plays FO a lot, I do feel like when the XWA introduced that, it was kind of like a...
00:44:16
Speaker
a real but help to the faction. And I'm curious if people are kind of ignoring it because it's, it feels like a nerf to the whisper because they don't have the config. So you can't do the jam stuff that you're used to, but it's just an incredibly efficient ship.
00:44:32
Speaker
And with all the hype for Dakar and all the new SLs, just if you're, you know, i feel like there's some unexplored space here, especially since it doesn't look like anyone flew them.
00:44:42
Speaker
for people to experiment around with them and maybe have some more success with the faction than they've been having so far. Yeah. I mean, it pretty much like it's almost a ah three points, uh, X wing with a better dial.
00:44:56
Speaker
I mean, and for how long has FO just basically been the faction where it's like, all right, do you want Kylo? you want Von Rigg? And then Malra Scorch, DT? You know, like there's just kind of like handful of like your all-star roster that you picked from. And that was essentially it. There was a couple of filler choices from there, but it was like the same smattering of the same options.
00:45:16
Speaker
um And yeah, I think that... those whispers, those three-point whispers does kind of open the door for ah little bit, maybe some more aggressive um opportunities to to incorporate more choices for the faction.
00:45:31
Speaker
um At least we know what needs to be addressed. I think everybody in XWA knows, okay, well, it's just choices. It's really, that is the biggest hurdle for this faction is like, once you get past that, there a lot could happen for for fo um And I know this is kind of turning into a first order simp podcast here, hey just but but it's it's it's a it's good to talk about.
Faction needs and comparisons
00:45:54
Speaker
um You know, it's but that's a good point. I mean, bringing bringing in the whispers kind of just opens the door for there to be like, okay, well, if I'm seeing a whisper, it's not going to be Kylo or it's not going to be like Whirlwind. um You know, or there's a couple other that people sometimes bring.
00:46:10
Speaker
um Hey, like it's nice to be reminded that there are other pilots for the chassis that you see the same faces and all the time. Well, this is something that we've we've been talking about a lot ah previously before, you know, XWA with scum and ah the AMG points where, you know, we were saying that it's a faction that was missing those options. If it had access to the extended ship pool, that that would just be a huge boon for the faction of itself.
00:46:36
Speaker
And I think that we've even seen that with the new SL cards coming out that it, filled a lot of gaps that the the faction really needed to thrive, and it has. and you know There's no arguing that.
00:46:47
Speaker
And so you know I think that bringing that same logic to what can be done for First Order is, but as I think, i you know pretty apt. Yeah, and the new content for First Order, it it provides, I think what ends up going back to what Selval had mentioned earlier, is that it basically gives you a similar power level to what you're already, what you've already been used to. It's like, you know, you have this or you have this, both of them are going to kind of achieve something similar or, you know, in the same ballpark.
00:47:17
Speaker
It's really that X factor of like this, this gap of like new feeling, new feeling, new, like this feels really new and and something that we haven't had before kind of thing that will, will get them to the, ah the promised land of being back towards the, the middle of, you know, pack middle of the pack where they belong.
Top eight players and their strategies
00:47:36
Speaker
let's Let's talk about that top eight really quick. If you guys go over to Pattern Analyzer um and you go to squads from left to right, it'll break down the you know top place finisher, which is several, of course, to um the the other lists that finished um top eight overall. So these eight players receive their invites to the Global Conquest, um which will be in December, date to be announced.
00:47:59
Speaker
um for those of you considering playing or or already signed up to play in future ones these will roll down so let's say south all finishes you know in gotham city he finishes eighth it'll roll down to the ninth place player assuming they don't have an invite because he already has this invite so um just keep that in mind there are going to be a lot as the series continues and goes on through the year there will be more opportunities it'll be a little bit easier to get your invite as more people who have already gotten theirs continue to play as well um So, Sav talked about his four ship scum list, ah his ah the second place finisher, ah Brendo ah playing in the final table. Lots of candlelight vigils for all the ships that exploded in that game. That was very entertaining. um That game snowballed very fast. It was it was I don't think anyone was truly prepared for how quickly things would go several way in the matter matter of a few minutes. But you you did what you needed to do seven.
00:48:53
Speaker
Brendo ships exploded um brought it out brought a uh an empire list um it's a five shipper it's uh it was really cool is there's just a lot of everything in this list chassis wise uh in terms of abilities power level everything uh battle over endor soon tier at the top echo with joke and lone wolf that is the custom uh uh TIE Phantom Pilot, Magna Tolvin for the coordinating and the ion cannon squad leader combo.
00:49:21
Speaker
Lieutenant Karsabi, Lieutenant Karsabi, the three points gunboat or star wing with ion cannon, the assault config to shoot while disarmed. An advanced slam. Then you have double edge with barrage rockets and dorsal. That's in the another extended ship.
00:49:36
Speaker
That's in the help me out, guys, which is TIE Aggressor, which thank you. and Wow. Haven't seen that on table. Yeah. a cheap three point barrage rock carrier and a dorsal for potential double taps with double edges ability and an obsidian squadron pilot so a six ship list i honestly ah brendo they're playing in salvage mission which is uh really you know not everyone's favorite cup of tea not everyone's favorite scenario not really great for scum for several list versus you know brendo's list and brendo tried very hard to grab as many crates as possible and several took the i'm just going to blow you up approach and knocked a lot of them off and
00:50:17
Speaker
basically just you know stop that from really snowballing um salvage is one of those where if you don't get the rng with the crits and you don't get the uh the the kills you need even if you if you are you know out damaging your opponent they can still kind of run away with the game if they have three or four crates um sev what were you thinking going into that matchup um you know so it was salvage you probably weren't thinking like oh i'm gonna lose this but you know you probably figured it would be a bit of an uphill climb right yeah um Going into it, I was really just mostly thrilled that he didn't have Goran. Not because Goran is better or worse in this list, per se, than Echo um or anything else that he took. But just against my list in particular, it's it's kind of it's rough.
00:51:00
Speaker
It limits my decisions. um and Everything went my way this game. That's all. That's kind of all that happened. He... ah Got Karsabi. put Karsabi aggressively in front, and turn one, I was able to deal four damage with a Procket and pass him a stress, and it just that was kind of how that game went for him.
00:51:20
Speaker
um So, yeah, I mean, I think it's a very good list. I think that... A lot of times people talk about Gorin lists because Gorin is usually part of these lists.
00:51:32
Speaker
But I think this helps illustrate that the strength of Gorin lists are in the cheap ships that he gets to take with him. Double-Edge, Karsabi, and Magna are not good because Gorin exists. They're good because they're great.
00:51:46
Speaker
i think there's another Empire list. I don't know if it was in the top eight. um But there was another Empire list I played against in round four, I think. um where it was similar, where they had a lot of the low initiative ships that usually feature in Gorin lists, but they didn't have Gorin just kind of because of kind of how strong it is. so Yeah, ah they're they're definitely just, you know, good on their own.
00:52:09
Speaker
um I know, like, for you know, for my list, I brought i ah Faroff, Gorin, Countdown, i Scimitar 1, and Ubal. There's a lot of Scimitar 1 out there. You know, i for the I3, Faroff is an I3 as well.
00:52:23
Speaker
um So even in that you know that list, yeah I only have two ships that Gorin can really i can can really ah affect, but Scimitar 1 is just so strong on its own that you know your opponents are would rather shoot at Scimitar 1, but they have to deal with Gorin because they can't do anything to Scimitar 1 until Gorin's gone.
00:52:41
Speaker
And it just forces those tough choices. Yeah, and this list just forces those tough choices in a different way by having Echo in sunier there so and Same way, like you can focus... I mean, he doesn't have Scimitar 1, but you can focus on...
00:52:53
Speaker
on double edge or karsabi to try to take them off the table but if you're doing that you're ignoring soon to your echo who you know could be putting instead of making their ships more survivable just killing you know yeah i mean i mean it's great less for a second place it has the high initiative in there but it also has i mean every single piece is is good on its own yeah yeah we got to see a classic uh soon to your uh hit direct hit die moments as well um you know it was uh One of those, yeah, just one of those games where, ah you know, you just kind of know you're not meant to win. Brendo just, you know, it was determined early that it wasn't going to be, you know, it was going to be difficult for Brendo to be able to pull this one out and things that just kind of favor Sevval in terms of a little bit of RNG, but obviously both, you know, I think Sevval made some really good moves, especially springing on Karsabi with the Proton Rocket early. That was something that I don't think anybody expected, but when you have
00:53:49
Speaker
The ability to decloak and then do your maneuver bank into the focus or the bank boost focus or rather focus bank boost um definitely can make that happen and can catch your opponent by surprise.
00:54:03
Speaker
Yeah. um So, yeah.
Victory and luck in tournaments
00:54:05
Speaker
it It was a very it was a it was cool to see scum, you know, really. I feel like the ceiling was kind of hit in that game in a way. i know that, you know, again, some things just kind of went your way, Sev, but with new content, especially it's it's cool to see well just exactly what even a four ship list is capable of, including a more fringe four point piece in the Mandalorian.
00:54:29
Speaker
Yeah, that that game just went my way. it's Actually, the the whole tournament I was going... i think my scores ranged from... thirty So I had one 13-21 game, I had three 16-21 games, and one 15-21 games. So, like, things really it really could have just broken a different way, you know? Like, if you notice those scores, all of them are within seven points.
00:54:50
Speaker
So if I lose Boba in some of those games, like, the game's over and I'm not in in finals. um So, just unfortunately for... for for ah for Brendo, it just really didn't work out for him that game.
00:55:03
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, that's nice way to end it for me, but not so much for sure. right Right. I mean, as I've said in the past, to be able to make cut and win it all, you have to have fortune. Fortune has to favor you. Yeah.
00:55:14
Speaker
Yeah. There's there's dice exist in this game and and are very much a big part of it as well. Like you you don't you don't stumble into winning a tournament. Right. You know, if you're if you're hitting rocks, you're running in yourself.
00:55:26
Speaker
um i so I firmly believe in in a game like X-Wing. If you make a lot of mistakes, you do not deserve to win. You do not. um It's just, and that's how you learn. You should not be able to get away with making um a slew of mistakes. as Everyone makes maybe one or two errors. You can recover from a self bump. You can recover from clipping an obstacle.
00:55:44
Speaker
There are ways that you can recover, but if you ultimately are are underplaying underperforming and your opponent is is is just objectively playing better than you, they deserve to win. um And then obviously if you're doing things that don't include making a lot of mistakes and you have some luck, that's how you win it all.
00:56:01
Speaker
Yeah. And, you i mean, yeah, we were um talking about that you this before. yeah you have it's You have to be good. But once you're in the top eight, then, you know, that that luck also takes over, I think, a little bit more because everybody there is good.
00:56:17
Speaker
Right, yeah. You at least know what you're dealing with. yeah Known commodities of good players. You know, X-Wing is a game of of gambles in strategy regardless.
00:56:28
Speaker
um Even from you know from turn zero, you have to make that choice. is your You have to guess, is your opponent going to play this aggressively? Are they going to you know slow roll it and hold back? um And, you know, you have to there is that point where you know these pivotal moments in the game where you have to kind of make that big play that will give you the big best chance of winning, but it could still, you know depending on what your opponent does, if you guess wrong, could could be the end of it.
00:56:57
Speaker
Yeah, and ah road rolls are really, i mean, going back to luck, road rolls are magnified in games of of more significant importance as well. um You know, you tend to not forget when you you you're playing at a high level that you went first six rounds in a row, for example.
00:57:12
Speaker
Yeah. Stuff like that certainly can can dictate a lot. It's hard to even quantify exactly what it dictates, but you know that it matters a lot because more information for your opponent than you get.
00:57:23
Speaker
It's done so on.
Top eight list analysis
00:57:25
Speaker
Um, especially when it comes to scramble, scramble and road are not my friend. I do not like those two together. Keep them in separate rooms. Uh, we had, so third and fourth, we had two CIS lists. I'm just going to quickly run through, run through these. Um, and if anybody wants to chime in, feel free, maybe wait wait to the end when I'm done with, uh, the, the eight, and then we can talk about anything that stands out to you.
00:57:46
Speaker
Uh, we had la chancellor. Who's, uh, one of our long time, uh, discord, uh, community members. Um, Andrew provotes, um, When we first started doing leagues, Andrew was playing in these. not Yet another Andrew, ah a sweet guy, really talented X-Wing player, and he has his own stream on Twitch, LaChancelliere. can check that out.
00:58:05
Speaker
um He streams ah in French, X-Wing games. ah He brought Darth Maul in the Scimitar, and gosh, is that thing with the combination of hate, malice, Palpatine, and the title really ah filthy.
00:58:17
Speaker
the oh i took a damage and uh also take a stress uh i took a damage take a stress take a stress take a stress basically free stress passing because every time he gets a force back he can spend it after ah and just basically just deliver stress tokens and hinder every everybody that takes a shot at him he can double tap really well um grievous is in this list with his impervium plating and soulless one and then he has uh dbs 404 in the hyena plasmas energy shells landing struts dis 347 with dead eye shot energy shell charges and interceptor booster that's one of the tri fighters and then dgs in the uh the rumba hmp with kraken and repulsor lift stabilizers um so congrats to andrew in getting his invite
00:59:03
Speaker
um He's accompanied number four by a ah and number four by Rocket City Rogue, who brought Jango, Zam and Grievous. So nice to see that that that ah that very wholesome combo, that trio, ah you know, it used to be Durge. It's Grievous because Grievous is four points in XWA doing very well and still capable of just making people miserable and kind of mostly ignore the objective or ignore it ah when, you know, they know they can to to still be able to win.
00:59:31
Speaker
um One Republic list at number five, that dude, Carlos, bringing a ah combination of Anakin and the Y-Wing with a plasma torpedo Anakin and a few other toys. Rick Ali has plasmas and passive sensors.
00:59:44
Speaker
And then you have a ah a torrent oddball with rockets and proton torpedoes he's got so much load out for his four points uh plocoon to be able to pass uh green tokens for double modded pockets or ah or uh pro torps to oddball that is in the aether sprite with clt and then boost also has proton rockets and some other toys that is the uh uh boost
01:00:10
Speaker
ah boost And then just quickly, this last three we have, who was our resistance player? That was fun. Lock fun. Lock loves to play resistance. He's a his team made it to the final chance to the championship in our team league.
01:00:26
Speaker
Also former teammate of mine in draft league. He brought heralds of heroes of hope. Poe. So not the new Poe, but the one that is at five points. ZZ to low. This is the new ZZ with evacuated the evacuation of the car.
01:00:38
Speaker
Zori Bliss with plasmas and wartime in that Y-Wing I-5, two copy actions for double modded shots. Teza and with wartime barrage rockets in that Y-Wing, and then Finn, the sneaky one in the pod with pattern analyzer and heroic.
01:00:54
Speaker
And we had Doug who played Skam as well. This is a Fed route, Dengar Mandalorian, Kanan Jarrus in the Hawk combo. We got to see that on stream against Andrew. Kanan is mean, but he doesn't at least have small, so he doesn't get extra force. But still, that one time a turn to neuter a shot is very effective and can keep ships so ah alive for those's very meaningful engagements. Yeah, especially when, you know, Dengar has that double tap ability, too.
01:01:21
Speaker
Yeah. um And lastly, at number eight, s we had Miguel Justignano with a ah new the new Fenrau, the six-point Fenrau from Armed and Dangerous with fearless adaptable power systems and Beskar reinforced plating.
01:01:38
Speaker
It's just a little bit more of a flexible piece, a little slightly less predictable than the five-point version of Fen and the Fang. He has Captain Nim with a bunch of bombs. These are bombs, a veteran turret, dorsal, seismics, Havok title, all that, and the Skrg bomber, which is cool. I already love like what I'm seeing in this list. Mando in the N1, because of course, why not have them?
01:02:01
Speaker
And then Forlom. This is not Armed and Dangerous Forlom. This is the custom Forlom in the Mist Hunter. Contraband Cybernetics, Advanced Sensors, and Elusive. Another four-ship scumless, getting four wins.
01:02:13
Speaker
or better and making top eight so he rounds out top eight um no rebels no empire no first order really surprised to see no rebels or or sorry sorry no not empire no rebels no first order and i'm missing my missing a faction it's just those two factions that didn't make cut because obviously brendo was playing onpire um yeah but still a couple of factions missing out but good good variety here otherwise um what do you guys think of the top eight the first thing i know is just i think probably just because number three and number four cis is that The lists are... CIS had a thing for a while there where there were some pretty key obvious pieces that you should be taking.
01:02:50
Speaker
And then in the in the most recent, or you know two most recent points changes, they kind of tamped that down a little bit. So now it's nice to see CIS being much more diverse. I think there are five CIS lists total in this tournament, and they're all...
01:03:03
Speaker
it's nice to see that they're all, they all incorporate different pieces. um i do think in the least surprising statistic, General Grievous is in 100% of CIS lists yeah at the moment.
01:03:14
Speaker
um I'm curious if he gets his day one day in the points change ah point change room, but we'll see we'll see what happens with that. um But it's just nice to see that c what they've done with CIS so far has mostly been working as far as giving that faction more choices and less obvious win conditions.
01:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I mean, the one thing that stands out to me is just how different all of all of these lists are. that even with Even between all of the you know the four points, or the four ship SCUM lists, they all have different Fenraus. We have you know like the the SL Fenrao, but then also the two Build Your Own Fenrao are completely different.
01:03:56
Speaker
you know Where, you know, Sev, you took Predator ah versus Doug, you know, putting Fearless. like on there, I, instead of Boba Fett, you know, you'll have Dengar, like even, you know, though they all have like the, the Mandalorian, that last piece that comes into it is also completely different, you know? ah So it is cool to see just the, the wide array of creativity in all of these lists.
01:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. yeah looking um Looking at them, I don't see any that like, I would say are obviously like, You know, just 100% meta, right? like right the The Resistance list and the um Republic list are the most, like, you see a lot of these pieces everywhere, but even they, like, boost is not is not totally is not terribly common, and then, like, Finn and Teza are kind of, like, so a little spicy for what you normally see in there, so it's...
01:04:47
Speaker
yeah It's nice to that variety. Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah, even with the Republic list too, like it doesn't have to be odd. Well, sometimes it can be Axe. Sometimes people will be taking, you know, Jag i ah or, you know, like Hound, like the Lap Gunners are now coming back.
01:05:03
Speaker
Definitely. um Overall, just really happy with This being kind of a first data collection, um first kind of foray into ah tournament circuit with new content, you know at least I know it's online, but still a lot of lot of people bringing a lot of stuff, a lot of excitement around this, and to see that kind of evolve into where ah Top 8 ended up, a bunch of new SLs in Top 8, being able to see two new SLs in Sevwal's champion list as well.
Evolving meta and future tournaments
01:05:36
Speaker
i just you know Not only is it kind of a beacon for a bright future, but it's just generally helpful.
01:05:43
Speaker
it's It's just really good to be able to take a look at this stuff and be like, okay, so we can dissect things. We have things to talk about. we we have... um things that we can start to try to you know kind of idealize what trends are looking like with a new and you know ever evolving meta with xwa and ah there's just a lot it's just a lot of significance uh this this tournament has beyond just for 312 which i haven't even really talked about how big of ah of a step this is for our own channel but um you know i'm happy to be able to be a part of that and to help the community with that and hosting this and
01:06:16
Speaker
um Sav congratulations again for yeah you know um playing very well and and obviously being a pretty big part of you know not just our community but obviously over at NCX and being a captain over there and your role with helping XWA um I believe you do you play test i correct me if I'm wrong you you do help in some way I just want to make sure I did the initial round of yeah i did the initial round of play testing over there in XWA um and they're a great system and I would still be doing it I'm just not personally compatible with extended play testing if I know that there's something new that I could be playing with, it makes me hate every minute that I'm not playing with it.
01:06:52
Speaker
Yeah. So like if I knew these SLs were being developed, like if I knew what their rules were, and even when there was that period of time where you couldn't play the Mandalorian and like we knew his points and we knew his rules, I was just so mad.
01:07:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. People like, they're a great organization and I recommend everybody participate in them as much as possible. If you want to be a play tester, I don't know what their process is, but reach out to somebody, you know? Yeah.
01:07:16
Speaker
but it's just not for me personally. Yeah, you can, you guys, if you guys go to reach out to me, I can direct you to who you need to talk to as well if you're interested in stuff like that. um Andrew, any final thoughts on the yeah tournament?
01:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was going to say it's going to be interesting comparing this and then after the Crumpet Conquest series to see the differences or to see if any of these trends continue ah in into that because we have that coming up next week. So I think once we have both of the these conquests ah behind us, we're going to really start to see some more trends and and maybe some other more interesting like ideations and and lists and to get a better picture of what the the broad meta might be going forward.
01:08:02
Speaker
yeah absolutely. and that's coming up. I mean, it's a perfect segue. Attention all of Europe and everyone overseas or people who don't mind getting up super early like Andrew and myself.
01:08:13
Speaker
The Krumpet Conquest is on May 3rd. It's going to start at 9 a.m. m GMT. Player check-in will be at 8 a.m. m Tickets are still available. We're still trying to boost the numbers a little bit. It's looking okay right now, but I'd like to see more if we can.
01:08:26
Speaker
um So we'll include a link in the description to get a ticket to play in the Crumpet Conquest. As of right now, with our numbers, it's looking like it'll likely be ah four rounds of Swiss. It could be five if we we get a slew of entries ah here in the last week.
01:08:42
Speaker
But this will be a really great opportunity to get some some Europeans who claim that they are the best excellent players to show off their skill in this conquest. um And I'm excited to stream it.
01:08:53
Speaker
And I hope to see as many of you there on the stream side or, of course, playing with Andrew, um trying to compete to get that invite to win that plaque. um And, of course, the next several conquests all the way through September have been announced and tickets are available.
01:09:11
Speaker
So you can get tickets for Gotham City, the Pierogi, Bay Area, and Middle Earth Conquests as well. So take a look at those dates. Mark them in your calendar. Consider playing with us in any and all or one of them.
01:09:23
Speaker
and we are ah excited to host you. um Anything else before I just do our little outro here to wrap up? Or Seve, is there anything that you want to plug? Because I'm i'm good. Plug? No. I just want to thank you guys for for hosting Conquest. It's a lot of fun. I plan on participating in more of them.
01:09:40
Speaker
I'm not sure if I'll make crumpet. That's pretty early for me, but I'll definitely participate be participating in all of the United States time zone ones. So you'll hopefully see me again. And thank you to Sev for also putting together some beautiful paint jobs for the Crumpet Conquest. I'm but i'm going to announce that later today. Yeah. hold Post some pictures. He did an incredible job. he's He's very good at doing the custom TTS paint jobs. So, Sev, appreciate you ah volunteering your time for that as well.
01:10:06
Speaker
Thank you. Anytime. Yeah, I love seeing those in Discord. You do such a great job with that. Yeah, very they're very cool. all right everyone so just a quick heads up here it wouldn't be a three one dollar sign without at least mentioning our patreon really quick a big news big update from us on our on the side of patreon we do you have our uh mando and one base plates that we're offering to our deep dish and component patrons that's the 10 and 20 a month tiers and on top of the beautiful paula rue cards you're going to get in the mail for any of the paid tiers
01:10:39
Speaker
If you are a deep dish patron or Capone, you will also get the beautiful acrylic and one base plate made by our friends, Andrew Knuckles over at Curlpaw Creative. So consider joining our Patreon. And if it wasn't for all of you supporting us over there, ah we would not be able to do nearly the ah the extent of things that we can do and we continue to plan to do.
01:11:00
Speaker
So please check that out and really do appreciate you guys and get some really awesome swag in the mail. in may for our q2 rewards if you guys aren't in our discord should consider joining and being a part of an awesome community joining in all the various conversations happening of course that is where we host our conquest series so make sure you subscribe to us on youtube like our page on facebook if you are ah fan of the zuck facebook you can certainly like us there and of course you can catch us live on twitch
01:11:36
Speaker
Well, we appreciate you all listening to episode 29 of the 312 Squadron podcast. We hope to see you in future Conquest online and anywhere and everywhere.
01:11:47
Speaker
ah More to come on in-person streams, including our event in July, we'll announce fairly soon. And that's going to do it for us. Thank you all very much for your continued support.
01:11:58
Speaker
My name is Nick Sperry. I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Bill. And we'll catch you all very soon. See y'all later.