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Episode 36: Did Somebody Say - WORLDS?
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A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba and Nick Sperry are joined by the XWA OP Planning Lead, Dwight Lindsay,, to discuss some recent X-Wing events and the excitement with WORLDS next month!
312 is streaming WORLDS! Keep an eye out for upcoming key dates: https://www.adepticon.org/2025/07/09/adepticon-2026-key-dates-announced/
Watch back the XWA Discord Stage on YouTube: https://youtu.be/H2IFCMResqI?si=v2SQ4EfhbiHUcEZa
Torchlight G&H System Open
event link: https://xwing.longshanks.org/event/29346/
List Fortress: https://listfortress.com/tournaments/10168
Windy City Trials 2026 New Years Edition
Event link: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/2474
List Fortress: https://listfortress.com/tournaments/10133
The 312 Conquest Series is returning with 4 qualifiers this year! Get your tickets in time for the debut event! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w5AfGKgP_gRVku_WKudeZru55u-VdrSDKphHSsZEE9g/edit?usp=sharing
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 Sponsor, Infinite Arenas! Need components compatible for the game of X-Wing? Infinite Arenas is the place to go! https://infinitearenas.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron Podcast. My name is Nick Sperry. I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Dwight Lindsey. And we have lots to discuss on this special episode, including the recent Windy City Trials, the Torchlight GNH System Open in Ontario, Canada, and as well as all things Worlds.
00:00:21
Speaker
We have a the XWA Organized Play Planning Lead here with us, Dwight Lindsey. Congrats on your new role, by the way. It's fairly new at this point. um But thanks for joining us to talk shop.
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, my pleasure. It's ah it's good. i haven't had a chance to really talk to anyone about the new role yet. So excited to be here. Yeah, you've been kept busy, my friend. Non-stop. Oh, my God. It's a busy time, but a good time. Yeah, it's a good problem to have, as we like to say, right? yes it's It's good to be busy. It means that things are in motion. Things are happening for the X-Wing community.
00:00:55
Speaker
um But yeah, behind the scenes, it is. i'm I'm a part of the prize team now as well to try to help with prizing. And, um you know, it's just there's just a lot happening all the time. And it's it's a little chaotic, but we're looking forward to to worlds and i look forward to talking about that a little later in the show.
Reflections on New Year and Weather
00:01:11
Speaker
Gentlemen, I hope you guys have had a good ah New Year so far. I know that we're ah really three weeks in basically into the new year. It's this month has gone by really fast and yet also felt like an eternity. and but I almost felt like, wow, like it's just going to be a January is going be like 90 days, but it's also like near the end of it. It's kind of a weird feeling.
00:01:32
Speaker
Chicago has been keeping us honest. It's it's like almost negative 50 something or it will be over where Dwight is in Canada um soon to be our 51st state. So it is hometown. Yeah. oh my Just kidding. I'm kidding. Someone's going to complain about me making that comment, but um hopefully not. Hopefully their sovereignty remains intact after this episode. um But I hope you guys are all staying warm. How was your new year, though?
Importance of Vaccinations
00:01:59
Speaker
How's it been so far the first few weeks of 2026?
00:02:02
Speaker
Good here. My family, we're pretty busy. They took the wife up to go visit my folks for a week and we came back and then celebrated Orthodox Christmas because half the family's Orthodox, so January 7th. So it's like you got a little bit of a break in between, but yeah, you get hit with like double holidays and my dad's birthday is right before Christmas. So it was like busy, busy, busy. And then had a few days off before I had to go back to work. But, you know, blessed with busyness isn't a bad thing. I agree with that.
00:02:37
Speaker
yeah my my new year's i i spent a lot of it just uh had a low-key new year's just being sick with whatever uh flu is going around globally but i'm better now so we're all good yeah yeah i uh i got the um and this is a story this is not meant to scare anybody away from getting you should always get your flu shot i got the flu shot i got the covid vaccine booster too and um you know my girlfriend was like teasing me he's like hey you're oh i can't believe i'm dating an anti-vaxxer because i just hadn't gotten my flu shot yet flu shot yet i was like all right like well i'm not an anti-vaxxer so i go ahead and got got everything and i was feeling totally fine but then like the antibodies went to war in my body overnight and i got the flu for like six hours couldn't sleep at all felt terrible woke up feeling okay and it's just like kind of crazy to like experience how
00:03:28
Speaker
that whole thing works in your body the way that i did it's it's it's interesting it's the weirdest thing right because like you feel so sick for like ah half a day and then you wake up next day and it's like nothing ever happened yeah like what was that yeah and then people are well that's why i don't get the flu it's like no that's it's proof that it works ah yes get the flu shot if right you know unless you can't for some reason but it's just it's important The flu shot just protects against the the deadliest mutations of the current flu.
312 Conquest Series Announcement
00:04:00
Speaker
That's all it does. So if the flu doesn't mutate that way into like a less severe version, then you can still get the flu. Like, yeah.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That was that was a quite a quite a tumultuous 24 hours. But, you know, yeah I know that a lot of people are experiencing the strand of the flu and it's knocked a lot of people out for a couple of weeks. So if you are sick,
00:04:22
Speaker
I hope you feel better. And if you're not sick, just stay stay safe and stay warm, especially you're in a cold place like here in Chicago. Well, let's talk about Conquest really quick, and then we'll dive into our our tournaments that happened recently.
00:04:36
Speaker
um So 312 Conquest series is back. We just opened up tickets. Again, this is an online tournament series that will go through the end of the year.
00:04:47
Speaker
We're doing four qualifiers in four different North America time zones a couple of months apart, and we'll have a global conquest at the end of the year. Just like last year, we'll have a top eight, including roll down invites handed out to those in the qualifiers to compete in that global conquest to determine the grand champion. Shout out to Eric Kingery, who was on our episode. last recording our last episode who won the grand championship so he is our reigning champion right now but yeah i mean andrew you played in a bunch of them it it was a really great time excited to bring these back and once they're so fun and raise money to help support x-wing and the x-wing alliance
00:05:28
Speaker
doing this so make sure you guys get your tickets uh link in the description to the document that breaks down how the conquest series works we'll kick off the first one in april with the next windy city conquest so make sure y'all hop in if you have the time all of the dates have been announced so um for those of you that say there's a there's a random bank holiday like selfie day or something i don't know plan accordingly Yeah, no, they are they're just so much fun. So I really do encourage like anyone who can join to do it It's just like a good time. It's a great way to meet people in the community, too. We've had a bunch of like new players jump in during this last conquest series, too. And it was it was just such a heartwarming environment. So, yeah, seriously, grateful
Windy City Trials Recap
00:06:12
Speaker
to play. I was like, oh, it like, you know, reminds me why I do this. Sometimes when you have new people that you don't know who are new and join and be like, oh, said so much fun and can't wait to play again. I'm like, yes, yes. Like fires me up a little bit. Yeah, for sure. New players excite the hell out of me. um
00:06:30
Speaker
We have a newer player named Sean. He's been playing with us for a while locally. Yeah. And um we he won ah the Fang Fighter um raffle and then the X-Wing, the Rebel X-Wing core set.
00:06:46
Speaker
like the AMG one that has the four ships, Steven Weiland one, and then re gifted to Sean. So it was kind of fun to see Sean get drowned with. It's like, you're, you're borrowing stuff to play the game. Maybe not for much longer. Cause now you're drowning at all this X-Wing stuff. But yeah, that was, that was fun. It's exciting to, to get ah new players into the game. So.
00:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, we're going to quickly talk about the Windy City Trials and then we're going to go over, Dwight, to you and talk about your System Open. A lot of thoughts on the System Open series and how they kind of evolved um across the different regions and continents of America.
00:07:26
Speaker
Sorry, the world. Yeah. And but we'll start with Windy City Trials and New Year's Edition. Andrew, you were able to play in that. How was ah how was it for you as a player? And we can talk about how it all went.
00:07:39
Speaker
I mean, i mean as as a player, I had ah a great time, had a wonderful record. The only game that I lost, I lost to the champion. um It was a very close stream game and it was definitely a fun switch. Like this is the first in-person tournament I think I've played in a long time because I've been doing just so much on TTS. I mean, I really love the the in-person play and it was just great to kind of stretch those muscles again.
00:08:05
Speaker
Also such a fun time with like a great group of people just hanging out too. Yeah, we had ah we also had arguably the greatest participation prize for a tournament that you could have. I'm going to say arguably because I'm sure there's. Oh, oh my God. um Yeah, because like you you had made ah hopefully we can get some ah some pictures and stuff up on on our discord. But ah you had made ah points counters and they had a magnetic initiative token that you can slide between them to the they were like they are the perfect like weights in like tactile feel to and I you're not going to like bump them and like move the score around to it was honestly like ah one of the reasons that I was just excited to even show up was just for this participation prize. I'm excited to bring it to worlds. It's so cool.
00:08:56
Speaker
That sounds pretty cool. On Twitch right now for those who are watching the cast and who watch it. Yeah, it's these really nice like laser cut like acrylic set that's all like magnetized. But the the magnetic initiative tracker that really just seals the deal and making it something that I think could be sold in stores.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a strata strike is the ones that made these for us. Shout out to my man, Mark. He's we've been partnering together and making prize support together for like, I want to say four years now, maybe five. I've had stuff. I've bought stuff from him dating back to pre COVID. He's the if you think of wood templates, have you ever seen those really nice wood template? That's he's the guy that does those. But he does a lot of acrylic stuff. And when he said, hey, I've got this new thing. I've been working on the score counter. He sent me a picture. I'm like, It's like that meme. It's like, this is delicious. I'll take 17 right now. You know, it's like, but I ordered way more this. I was like, give me a 312 version and I will send you money immediately. And so cut us an amazing deal to have these for our tournaments. And you can go onto his Etsy site and you can buy them. You can buy one Never mind. Okay, it is sold in stores. Yeah, it is sold in stores. Yeah, it's just not the exact... Ours, I'd say, is pretty cool and the only way you can find it is if you win in a giveaway. But he has a non-312 version that you can buy.
00:10:21
Speaker
So if you're looking for a score counter, again, if you're at a tournament, you do need to keep track of points by writing it down. But these are really nice ways, especially for casual play, um to be able to kind of all-in-one keep track of your games an easy, fun, and accessible way.
00:10:36
Speaker
100%. That's something that is, you know, we play a lot of games casually. The X-Wing tournaments are, you know, fewer fewer and farther between than your game nights. So, yeah. Better better than the... way that I usually keep score casually, which is on the back of whatever grocery store receipt is in my pocket.
00:10:53
Speaker
i mean, Hey, at least you keep the receipts for, for that reason. I just throw the receipts out. um Dwight, if you want to do me a favor, like ah I want to include you in this conversation. You obviously weren't a part of this tournament, but if you want to take a look at just like the the list and if anything stands out to you, even if it was, you know, no matter where it placed and I'll i'll throw it over to you in a second. i'm just going to talk about the winner of this event. And then if something something kind of fun stands out to you, ah let me know.
00:11:19
Speaker
So final tape, we had four rounds of Swiss in this one. um We had 18 players, so we didn't end up having to do a final table. We usually do four rounds and that then two undefeated players play final table. We've also played it where it's a one undefeated and a three and one have done final table, but... At this rate, it's like, like you know, we're playing with we have the the bounty puck. It's still ah before, you know, the system opens are officially over. So we wanted to make sure that we we did this correctly. And, you know, we have a true winner after you know four
Empire Strategy Discussion
00:11:49
Speaker
rounds. And that's that's the way the math shook out. So it was copper, blue, John and Jared facing off final table.
00:11:56
Speaker
uh cis versus empire two of the stronger factions uh in the game right now cis and sun fact though uh seems to be ah steady for sure it's very threatening um you know jared brought he's the winner of this tournament spoiler alert uh he brought uh sun fact with targeting computer and snare gravidic deflection in predator General Grievous had impervient plating, outmaneuvered in Solus-1. And then we had some droids, DBS-404 with landing struts, proton bombs, and plasma torpedoes.
00:12:28
Speaker
DBS-32C, that's the one that could spend and calculate to choose a friendly ship with network calculations. you can ah that That ship can ah be coordinated with landing struts, energy shell charges, and Kraken. And then DFS-311. Lots of token passing coordinating between these droids with the struts, discord missiles, and independent calculations. So ah five ship CIS lists, you know, pretty modest in terms of, you know, CIS known for the swarms. Five ships, pretty decent. You get your aces, you get your droids in there. Kind of a nice little package.
00:13:00
Speaker
um Jared played you, Andrew, earlier in the game. You guys had a really low scoring close game until like the last round. and then you guys both score scored like a combined like 25 points or something. Yeah. Yeah. How did that game go? And how worried were you about Sunfak with your list? Because he is really threatening.
00:13:16
Speaker
Super worried. um So, I mean, I was flying a um a three interceptor Reaper and a TIE fighter like Empire list. If Sunfak gets initiative and I'm only rolling two dice on those interceptors, that makes my list like very fragile right away.
00:13:33
Speaker
that That was our game was so super close, but sun fact was always a part of my calculations like every move. um and One of the reasons why our game was like so low scoring at first is just you know he he's got thicker ships my ships like we had all of these ships hovering near half points and then like the last turn everybody's half points kind of. kind of proc and and also too it takes time because when playing in person we had to do a lot of arc checks if you go watch the game back you'll see there's so many bullseye checks arc checks in the middle of this like crowded area um so that took up uh some time though too i've been playing against cia cis lists i think for the like most of the time for the past like three months and uh i think this like
00:14:20
Speaker
Sun fat grievous crack and carrier combo is definitely like one of the strongest lists in the game right now. And it's been a tough nut to crack for for that game. The first turn that I set up, I was like, I have to if I can get Sunfak off the table that that will will like really help me out.
00:14:40
Speaker
I was in a position to to do that. um and and I was very fortunate. I positioned all of my ships just outside of range one of Sunfak. So he wasn't able to pass his token, got him down to half points. But my dice were not with me, couldn't finish the job through. And that Sunfak ended up coming back, getting half points on Soontir, which was a huge, you know, like factor in the win later. um Plus, but at I-6, you know, it kind of makes you if you have a lower initiative list you have to factor in trying to catch sun fact because it's so maneuverable and can just dodge arcs so easily that uh that can put you in positions where you love ships that don't aren't taking shots at anything if you guess wrong and uh yeah i mean it was a ah super like tough close game but ah and jared also like flew it extremely well
00:15:36
Speaker
um And then also you just have like some of the survivability with Kraken ah being able to hang out in the back and then just give these extra tokens and that, you know, these droids are able to keep. So they're essentially can be double modded every turn too.
00:15:48
Speaker
Yeah. The energy shells are, I mean, they can come out of nowhere and hit you really, really hard. I feel like they're easily forgotten because droids, we're never going to be intimidated by a vulture droid until they fire a you know hit, crick crit, crit, energy shell charge or crap. That's
00:16:08
Speaker
ah Dwight, you've played a CIS quite a bunch, especially when we were playing, you know, in the AMG OP when i you played CIS at LVO, right? And you probably played at other tournaments as well. What are your thoughts on SunFact, you know, then and versus now and how CIS is performing?
00:16:27
Speaker
Well, I think it was, you know, CIS, they're kind of like how First Order used to be. I think it's very, like, location dependent to where you see, like, the frequency of their use. I know, like,
00:16:38
Speaker
In my area, you don't get the, you don't see a lot of CIS. And if you do, it usually not Sunfac. It's usually like the fire sprays and Grievous and the different combinations of that. The bombers, even the typical vulture droid swarm, I don't see a lot of. i think they're...
00:16:55
Speaker
starting to come out now. like you know They had their peak when XWA first came out and everyone was cursing you know their CIS name for the first few months, but then they took a bit of a dip, and I think they are coming back now.
00:17:09
Speaker
I'd like to see more of SunFact personally in the other Nantex, but that's just because you know I'm sick like that. but I do think for Worlds coming up that SunFact is definitely a ship to keep your eye on.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Like if there's nothing changes in the points, I think we're going to see a lot of Sunfac at Worlds. Sunfac, you know, I don't I don't I wish I got more reps playing against Sunfac. I've played just a handful of games. i feel like everyone else has played way more than me. he's say I don't know if you do.
00:17:40
Speaker
but But yeah, it's good for practice. It's just good. challenge It's a good challenge. um And yeah. Yeah, it's like it's one of those things where you can feel just how easy it would be to take him off the board. and then he you know takes the ship that you would do that damage with
Torchlight System Open Highlights
00:17:56
Speaker
and he throttles it all over the place. And you're like, well, never mind. I guess not.
00:18:00
Speaker
um Copper Blue playing Empire Final Table. John, are ah in his Rollbetter affiliation, is still listed as the 312 Squadron unpaid graphic design intern. But we're really happy with the unpaid work that he's been doing for us for years. Shout out to John for just helping design the shirt that I'm wearing, the world shirt and the conquest logos and the X wing Alliance logo and and and everything else. So we love you, John. And I was really rooting for John. I really Jared has won windy city trials before. And I really liked Jared. He's a great dude. it was great to see him come back out he had been playing in a while um but i was really pulling for john because he's been at final table at our tournaments before and uh it just didn't work out he had a he had a darth vader this was the um standardized loadouts uh hate there was the hate ion missiles and after murders vader um he had battle over endor soon tear wampa with precision ion engines and then death rain kind of that linchpin piece that can kind of do crazy things with expert handling trajectory simulator
00:19:06
Speaker
thermal detonators ion bombs and delayed fuses And honestly, I think without being too hard on John, I think why he didn't win this game, and i think based on the way the game was evolving, I thought he had a really good chance. was just that his Vader was never was like often not rolling three hits. He was getting like two hits, and and this especially at range three can be tough to get anything through.
00:19:28
Speaker
And then he had a chance to one-shot a droid with Soontir, and he boosted forward and still had the range one-shot, but instead of focusing, and then he could have just... repositioned with the ability out of arc um and so he took a an unmodded shot essentially at a couple of rerolls but couldn't take dfs off the board and so there was just some moments where there's just not enough damage coming through uh jared's sun fact was in kind of was not really doing much damage most of the game till towards the end so john was able to play around sun fact pretty well but just not enough ah for his aces to be able to pull this one out so uh it was still a good game he'll he'll he'll get that dub soon we'll just rig it so that he can get to final table yeah no that'd actually be a good match to watch like looking at the lineup there that was Like that'd be so interesting to see on the table against each other. Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker
Right. I know it's like two very unique archetypes, but both, you know, matched up fairly well. I think Jared would say, well, death rate, I could put a lot of damage into death rate with my list.
00:20:33
Speaker
And then John would say, well, I could one shot, or you know, or one round half the list with my aces. So, um, Yeah, it's it's it is it is on paper. i feel like a little bit of a toss up, but I lead Empire just because of the spike damage that those two ships are known for.
00:20:51
Speaker
the The problem with putting all of your droids up against a Death Rain is also that he's just going to throw an ion bomb at you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Ionized himself, which was unfortunate in that game. bummer Yeah, ah but yes, that is true. Yeah, Ionized droids being ionized. not They're not fans. They do not like that. Yeah.
00:21:12
Speaker
All right, well, let's let's ah let me ask you, Dwight, anything stand out? Any lists really? like Oh, that's interesting. I did take a little peek, and there was a CIS list by Paul, number eight there. He was eight with the Grievous, Darth Maul, and Jango Fett. Just because on paper to me, this doesn't seem like the best idea as a Separatist player, but you know sometimes I crave violence, so it it it does pique my interest.
00:21:44
Speaker
ah You know,
Tournament Meta and Strategy
00:21:45
Speaker
standard Grievous, standard Maul in the Infiltrator, and then Django with the Contraband, Cybernetics, Proton Bomb, Savage, and Composure. It's three ships.
00:21:56
Speaker
Even with the scenario changes, I do feel like a it would be a little lopsided for the objective play, but I don't know. i it's Maul at least has the double tap.
00:22:09
Speaker
putting a fire spree in there without a double tap that i'm not sure of but that's the suit to taste kind of thing but i'd be interested to try a variation of this list yeah yeah that's that's that's tasty for sure that would have been a fun one to have on stream as well so unfortunately we didn't get that one but uh i love paul paul's a good dude Well, guys, let's want to move on to the the torchlight system open.
00:22:37
Speaker
What does G&H h for Games and hobbies. got And hobby. It's one single hobby. No, not more than one. Probably an S there. it's torchlight games and hobbies.
00:22:49
Speaker
yeah Okay. I think hobby would be funnier if it was just like, we have archery here and a bunch of games. That's it. Yeah. Um, so Dwight, you were the, the TO for this one. How did it, I heard you guys had a good turnout and you had a decent amount of players show up. How did it all go? we It was, it was a great turnout. It was a lot of work planning and going through because usually whenever I host anything myself, I always like to overdo it a bit in prizes and things like that. But, uh,
00:23:17
Speaker
We ended up with like 45 players, which was great. I think that might be one above the highest one to date in North America, but I'm just happy over 40. You know, that to me is solid attendance.
00:23:32
Speaker
We had like great faction representation around the board. Like our lowest was like four for a faction. We had like Empire, CIS and First Order at four, but Scum, Rebel, and Resistance, like nine lists each. like I like that seeing that little bit of diversity there. Sometimes Scum and Scum just not taking all of the lists.
00:23:57
Speaker
But no, it was a two-day event. We know we did five rounds of Swiss on the Saturday. i have recently purchased two 3D printers, so I printed out all kinds of things like templates, cardboard holder, dice towers, token holders.
00:24:15
Speaker
participation was 3D printed a full Mando set, the base plate, the dial, the dial cover, everyone got one of those, some Cloak Evade tokens that Camry printed for me. it It was just trying to give stuff out as much as I could. And then on Amazon, I found these golden scratch tickets, like golden tickets, like Willy Wonka there.
00:24:39
Speaker
And you could customize them. So I had like different, like, spin the wheel for a prize or pick a blind dice bag. And I was handing those out like crazy throughout the event randomly. Or if like, you know, yeah, I saw good sportsmanship would hand them out and it was really good. But the only problem was, is when you run an event like this, where you're trying to give out prizes and do little side things, you usually need a helper. And unfortunately uh, my helper eight, uh,
00:25:10
Speaker
the wrong gummy, I'll say in the morning and and i ended up putting them off course for the rest of the day. So I was ah kind of running around by myself, but my good friend, Greg Chandler Burns, who was our judge for the event, you know, he's, you know, he took the reins and just made sure everything, all the calls got answered, the questions got answered, and did a lot of running around for me. So big shout out to him for supporting me that day.
00:25:37
Speaker
with the With the golden tickets thing, did you force the players every time they beat their opponent? They say, you lose, sir! yeah Well, you know, nothing quite like that. Last year, in Canada, we're all about sayings. You know, like when you do that whole resistance card where you put the ship out round four, you got to yell out it's the resistance.
00:25:58
Speaker
The Canadians also have this thing when you roll dice, if you roll two hits, two crits, they call it socks and sandals. So you gotta you like yell that out as loud as you can. and It's so interesting. that Yeah, things like that. Or if your opponent turns away from you, you know you gotta call him a coward.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah we we do that all the time. yeah oh yeah we that That's a universal thing, for sure. yeah The coward taunting. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to, so I'm trying to re-familiarize myself with Longshanks here. It looks like Raythos played, which is cool, and made top cut. yeah Oh, yeah.
00:26:35
Speaker
He's one of my locals. he He'll come out whenever he can. Council. Raythos, Mr. Councilman himself. um Reese James, is that right? Am I looking at Reese as the as the winner here?
00:26:48
Speaker
oh yes, Mr. James. And that was another good thing about the event was that we, uh, Even though there was a snowstorm, a few of the guys from the you know the South came up. We had a couple from New York, New Jersey, and Oregon.
00:27:05
Speaker
but yeah James came up and he he whooped everyone. it was It was good. I know that James is fully undefeated. yeah oh yeah, through Swiss and cut, which is quite rare these days to see.
00:27:18
Speaker
Absolutely. No, that's very impressive. who wants to do the list Who wants to read out his list? I have it pulled up here on Twitch. Yeah, sure. All right. So he starts off with one of my favorites, Dirge, in the Rogue class, with Marksmanship, Proton Cannons, Contraband, Cybernetics, and Deadman Switch. I actually seen him use Dirge's ability several times, you know, where you turn... a hit to a crit to cancel another hit to try and reduce the damage. I've seen several games where he did that, and I thought I was like the only person who did that, but it worked out well for him. And then the big surprise in his list was Lando and the Falcon. So he had the Mandalorian, the child, BT one engine upgrade. So basically, you know, He can reinforce. He can shoot. He's not throwing a lot of red, but he's a large base. He's like circling around the board doing his thing. He's hard to kill, but can still be a pain.
00:28:17
Speaker
And he's regenerating the child force. Yeah, if you don't shoot at him, he gets the force back. If you do shoot at him, he gets the force back. It kind of gives you... forcing your opponent to make one of those decisions.
00:28:28
Speaker
That's a fun build. Wow. ah And then he had a Terani Kaluta in the... like Kimagula Fighter. So that's the one where if you're in Bullseye after an attack, you either have to lose a green token or take a damage.
00:28:46
Speaker
And then to top that off, you put Snapshot on there. So the ability to try and trigger that twice a game or twice a round, quite good with R5, P8 for rerolls and Babu Freak. So at one point in the game, you can do that 4K and still take an action.
00:29:05
Speaker
And then Guri with Lone Wolf and Advanced Sensor. So basically just making it so you can never block Guri. Guri will just dance around you the whole time and make you feel like an idiot.
Challenges of In-Person Events
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's just gurry. Does this harken those memories for sure? i remember trying to I was so bad trying to play good advanced sensors gurry. But Dan Peterson from the Midwest Scrubs, he doesn't play X-Wing anymore, but he was the absolute fiend mastermind playing advanced sensors gurry. And I remember for a while they took away that, that slot was the sensor slot from Gurry and he was not happy about it. That was, that was years ago. And now it's back.
00:29:46
Speaker
Maybe we can taunt him to come back now that the sensor slots back on. I was gonna say, this is a really cool list. And also don't, I don't think I've really seen a tyranny on the field ever.
00:29:59
Speaker
So that's exciting. Yeah. When you get that ability off, especially something like snapshot where you're getting it off multiple times, it's like, lose lose your token take a damage lose your you're you're forcing eight and you're a medium base right so you're you know you have a little bit of yeah but like area ownership so you are forcing aces to maybe double reposition or reposition out of the way and not take tokens his list was something crazy like i remember after the event uh like a lot of the discords blew up it's like
00:30:30
Speaker
People thought like ah Canada had a bunch of crappy players. It's like, how did this list win? I don't understand how this list wins. And then some people have been like breaking it down on, you know, how you fly it and that, which was yeah pretty nice. It's like, it's just something totally unexpected, but only a guy like Reese could pull off. No, this is extremely cool. I was going to say the way the snapshot works too, is you take the shot after the maneuvering. So they might not even have a token yet. Like that could just be free damage.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yeah. ah Let's talk about e so Evan Cameron is the runner up here and cut. um He had a four ship Empire list. ah Yeah. Yeah. yeah uh whisper this is custom whisper after playing the sl whisper it's hard for me to imagine playing the more fair adequate and still really good whisper which yeah it feels so clunky yeah it's yeah i mean it's just the other one's just so busted just like so mean i you know it's funny though amount of games i play with it which has been like a relatively small sample i never got to throw away target lock and I thought I'd be able to do that a few times, but people just don't bother to lock you anymore. It's like, well, that's nice too. It's just a deterrent. yeah um But yeah, with ah this Whisperer with FCS, Fifth Brother, and targeting computer, the fire control system, that is something that for the longest time you could not put on Whisperer, but to be able to have access to that
00:31:53
Speaker
Wow. I mean, still very good. Soontir Fel, that's Battle Over Endor Soontir. Another example of, ah you know, the other one is really good, but like why when you can play the one that gives you everything and anything and everything and is harder to kill.
00:32:10
Speaker
And then the Obsidian Squadron pilot, of course, the GOAT with precision ion engines. That is ah Evan's list, the runner up at this system open. You know, four ship, three ship, four ship empire really holding its own.
00:32:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was just going to say there, Evan there, he's one of the top players in Canada, too. He's not well-known outside of Canada. Some people do. It's just, you know, family life and that kind of prevents them from traveling. But he plays online. He's been part of Team Canada a few times in xdc and XTC. And for us locals there, he's kind of like he's the guy you between him and Camry. They're the ones that you you want to beat for prestige at our event.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I mean, he had a a super impressive run, too. And then also had the highest strength of schedule on the day as well. So to to go through that gauntlet and and get second. What a run.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yeah, like extremely impressive run. Dwight, how is... ah um You did two three systembo two system opens last year? or and And this year combined? Three?
00:33:15
Speaker
Traveling-wise, I went to Nova, LVO, uh where else did i go i went to the calgary system open think there was one more but uh it's been a couple of months now so at least three anyway yeah it's been uh it's been good uh seeing like their different numbers you know it's been interesting trying to make it to as many events in north america as i can seeing how the events attendance have been we've seen some really good numbers you know, what I call good numbers for us is like, you know, over 30, know, you can do five rounds of Swiss with like a three round cut, you know, it's that's kind of like the nice feels good tournament bracket.
00:33:54
Speaker
The only one where I think we really had the low attendance was LVO, unfortunately. And there was a variety of issues with that, with the you know venue date change and things like that, where we kind of saw a dip in the numbers. But other than that overall, like I've been happy with it. I've been happy with the fact that we haven't seen like the same meta at every SO. There's been a lot of interesting lists. I think that one that you went to in San Fran, was it there? That one had like some of the most interesting list compositions we've seen that I don't think anybody was expecting. Great tournament until the very end when I got script stranded in Oakland, but i it was that was a really fun time, though. so San Francisco is just a cool place, and like ah where ah Michael, my host, where he lived um in the hills overlooking the city, I mean, it was just like the most awesome like San Francisco immersion, so... Yeah, that was that was a great time in terms of experience from streaming. Really great games. Yeah. Like you had set the list like we had full tie swarms with how runner back. We had like resistance set stuff that just reminded me a lot of 2.0 in terms of variety and like that. That's always good in terms of like the variety that we got from 2.0.
00:35:08
Speaker
two point zero If there's anything that an accolade that I would give that version of the game, it would be variety of list building.
X-Wing Alliance's OP Season Reflection
00:35:14
Speaker
And and it's nice to see that that's important for. I mean, from a content creator perspective, but also just from the health of the game, no one can really argue that. If you're arguing against it, I don't really think you're trolling me or rage baiting me, honestly. I don't yeah think so Yeah, it's it's just, it's important to have that and have make sure people feel like they can build to what they want to build and not build to what they have to build. And that was really the difference between now versus maybe some of the, towards the end of the AMG, where it's like, well, you can choose from like three factions. The others you're probably not going to do well with. And it's like, well, now choose what you want.
00:35:47
Speaker
What do you like to play? You could probably build something competitive out of it. Yeah. Well, I mean, like if you look at the comparison, right, to AMG days right up until the end, right? Three months after a point change, people were bored.
00:36:02
Speaker
Like it was just like, that's it. Like the peak efficiency was found. You're starting to see the same list after three months in every event where, Once XWA took the lead, even with the 20 point system, it was still taking longer for stuff to flush out. And now we've gone a pretty long time with just minor changes and we're still seeing random stuff pop up winning events.
00:36:26
Speaker
It's like, yes, it's a big thing. Yeah, I agree. I mean, the looking at these tournaments, like that's the one takeaway is barely any two lists are the same. You just have so much diversity in list building and list building that's also performing.
00:36:41
Speaker
Now, know, Dwight, you mentioned a little bit about, just want to go back to talking about turnout because I think it's important to talk about. I've i've had a lot of conversations with TOs, you know, who've reached out to me.
00:36:51
Speaker
be like, Hey, can you promote the event? i'm really worried about the turnout. Um, you know, we've got, you know, a system open, we've got 18 people registered. We've got 20 people, we've got 12, whatever, you know, across the board.
00:37:03
Speaker
Um, and so i think tempering expectations right after the game has been, you know, kind of officially sun sunset from AMG's hands and handed over to XWA.
00:37:17
Speaker
Um, I think, there is a little bit of a a realization that a lot of people have stopped playing X-Wing right now, at least. And um and so i do think that Everybody probably had, i mean, we should always have high expectations, but I think like what's realistic given kind of the environments um that we're in right now and in the kind of a really a bridge year last year was a big bridge year to kind of trying to get back on track. You know, I I'm curious, you know, if, if you've evaluated the OP season over, you know, overall as, as a success, which i think you should, and I believe you do, but um you know, you, you might look at,
00:37:59
Speaker
America, United States, and be like, well, how could it be a success? you're not you know You don't have really big turnout. you know The biggest turnout is in the mid-30s or so. Walk me through it a little bit. You're the OP planning lead now. um you know I have my thoughts, but I think you should feel good about you know this first bridge year.
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. So when we initially planned this OP season, we tried to set our expectations perfectly. back a bit but i think we still set them kind of hard you know we started off with like squad championships coming out and we we're like we want 16 people to make these like you know certifiable for the buy and then we got instant feedback from the community saying uh i can get eight people like in a lot of communities for saying that so we're like okay let's temper back our expectation it's like we'll make the kit for 16 people but you only need eight to make it like as a
00:38:54
Speaker
a certified XWA squad championship. And it was the same thing with system opens. We were like, oh, 32, like let's, let's go with 32. And then we realized, you know, let's drop that down to the twenties just because it was, uh, we were getting feedback from the community right away. And we took that feedback and we ran with it. We updated our documents. We just tried to be more in line with what the players wanted because as much as we wanted, uh, as much as we were hoping for big numbers, you know,
00:39:22
Speaker
We had to you know set back our expectations a bit, but it was good. it was it was humbling for me. you know it's It's always good to know like and listen to the what the people want. And I do think it was a this OP season was a success because just going to all these events, I think I've been to over 20 tournaments, if you count system opens and squad champs and regular events, and all I've gotten really is positive feedback, people just happy that the XWA is there, keeping events alive.
00:39:52
Speaker
And I get contacted from people all the time too. So I've been trying to, you know, look at things like numbers and, you know, I think there's information I could take from there and use to help improve our OP system going forward.
00:40:08
Speaker
So looking at next year's OP after Worlds, we're going to take that feedback and we're going to make some adjustments. You know, we noticed some things like squad championships with over 20 people.
00:40:20
Speaker
system opens with like in the high teens. So we're going to readjust, maybe introduce a new level of organized play in there just to, you know, have a tournament, a sanctioned tournament that fits the numbers people have in their communities where people can have, you know, an event that they want basically and not like, oh, I need to buy extras for this kid or I need to buy this kid and like downgrade it. So we're going to come up with a, ah basically a multi-tier system for people. So a TO can be like, I think I'm going to have this number. It's like, perfect. We got the right kit for you. Here's where you sit in our organized play thing. We'll like our our circuit. And, you know, we're so going to continue on with things like that. and we're going you know, keep our buy system in place where, you know, when, no matter what tier that you play in, you're going to be able to win a buy for the next tier above you. And,
00:41:19
Speaker
All of this is going to cascade leading into hopefully and another Worlds next year. I think this is me putting a little pressure on you. And okay I think that splitting them into adding an additional tier, it makes sense based on turnout, but I'm, I'm, I'm skeptical. I think it's like in terms of if it was necessary. So I, I do support this, but I also am was not, I didn't, my mind didn't go there when thinking about like, how can we, I was over here like, well, we should just focus more on store champs and then do some, some small, you know, a few,
00:41:55
Speaker
big tournaments but you've you're you guys you know you've decided to add another tier um or think about adding another tier of tournament play right so yeah now the thing to keep in mind with these tiers uh when we and it's going to be released soon if we're only out i think a month or so away from our press release on this so you guys are anybody who's listening is getting early spoilers but uh when you think of the tiers that we're gonna have ah you got to think that we're going to have a different number requirements for what you see now. So, you know, system open, I think was, we said anywhere from 22 to 32 players. Well, now we may want our system opens to be more of a higher tier event. So that you might see less of them. And then another tier come in that's bridges the gap in between system opens and squad championships with a much broader number. So when you think system open, you might be thinking and going forward, we'll be of a more prestigious, higher caliber of event.
00:42:58
Speaker
It's more, sounds like more work for the prize team. yeah Well, that's why we got you. That's right. Yeah. Well, I'm trying. I pitched, I pitched my idea. Yeah. We're just going to go through the red tape.
00:43:11
Speaker
In reality, as a result, there could be less of those higher tier events than what we saw this year. And just more of the middle tier events that we're thinking about introducing. Yeah.
00:43:22
Speaker
I mean, even even with the conquest series, it was pretty humbling. Like I call that a success as well. But like when we did the European or like Oceana time zone stuff, it was like that nobody showed up for those in those areas. It was still a lot of American players, which I really appreciate. But I know i i had to to switch away from offering those time zones because it's like when you have six people from the UK and Europe playing in a tournament and you know I'm up at 1 a.m. but not getting any sleep, I'm like, well, is it worth it?
00:43:54
Speaker
So it's been it's been a really good litmus test, I think, with, you know, online from that perspective, but then with what XWA has done with organized play to really see where people are at. It's almost like a really big, like, you know, immersive focus group where people are still playing the game and playing in
Managing Player Burnout
00:44:11
Speaker
tournaments. But there's a lot of valuable data that we need that we we're gathering and figuring out, okay, where do we pivot? Where do we, you know, where do we move from here? That makes sense.
00:44:22
Speaker
um And so, Yeah, I mean, we'll talk more about this, you know, but worlds could look potentially could look different. I think that there were open to that's the best the best thing about being a part of this group is that we're all very receptive and open to general and overwhelming feedback on where, know, on, on making changes. We're willing to make those changes. I think sometimes it can be really frustrating with anything, uh, with when everyone says we don't like this or we want this instead, or this should be different and then they don't do it. And it's just like, well, what's the point, you know, like listen to the people, but that's what X-Wing Alliance is, you you know, by the people for the people. Right. So that's, that's the beauty of it. And that's, that's what I, uh, I think is, is going in our favor when it comes to, to running the game. Yeah, yeah I agree. And it's also trying to deal with like the biggest thing I notice with OP2 is such the the difference in attendance and the amount events between North America and Europe. Like it's trying to come up with a system that caters to both is is. Yeah, I mean, is it Dwight? Is it fair to say that Europe is just so much better at in-person play right now than North America?
00:45:29
Speaker
and That's my take. They are, but they're a lot more organized. Like, they they have their community reps, I'll call them. they They really work hard. They organize, like, even during the AMG area, they, like, you look at places like Poland, they organize their whole organized play structure on their own. Like, they had their own internal system for playing with, like, squad champ system opens. Like, they were ahead of the game before anyone. So, I think... yeah you know And I know we're going to talk about Worlds here in a bit, but it's it's kind of like what we need to do the XWA going forward within Worlds this year at Adepticon, is we need a lot of you know external focus, but I think we really have to focus internal too and use the player base that's at our disposal and try and reel them in hard to support the event.
00:46:22
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah, I agreed. And, you know, I think what North America has going for it and and i you're, you know, just a plenty of European players playing online, but the online play for North America is is tremendous.
00:46:34
Speaker
um Yeah. The amount of people who play and it's easier to do so, but, The in-person play commitment in terms of commitment level and ah total turnout numbers. Yeah, Europe has got it down. and i And I mean, you revealing that information about how their system being so organized, it makes it make even more sense. But, you know, SIT Taker Open sells out immediately, right? Like an event that size, if I try to run an event that size here, it certainly wouldn't sell out in like two days or 24 hours.
00:47:01
Speaker
It would take a while and it would be hard to sell out right now anyways. But, you know, I'm excited to be a part of that. I'm going to be there. oh night um and yeah i've got a trip plans a trip to london and then a going over to sit taker open at the end of my trip and hanging out and streaming with with tim king and crashing at his house so yeah it's it's gonna be it's gonna be a good time i'm really actually really excited to see just exactly what that looks like in person that meta that that that community you know yeah the english folks that they're known for their x-wing their love and passion for x-wing
00:47:36
Speaker
I was going to say one final note on that, though, too. I do think a lot of it does come down to geography where, you know, there's a lot of players that I talk to online who, you know, their big complaint is that their closest game store is two hours away from them. And you just don't have that issue in your like in some of these European communities.
00:47:58
Speaker
Yeah. Cop on the train. You're there in an hour. You're good. Mm hmm. Yeah, and and our tournaments, we've we've never we've always sold out of our tournaments. I mean... like granted we can't fit 40 people in a space we can fit 22 but like you know there are a lot of communities where they steadily for their tournaments they get like 10 to 12 and i still think that's pretty decent that you can do enough 100 for sure but we've been very fortunate that we're being in chicago we pull from michigan we pull from ah indiana we we pull from the suburbs and there's a lot of x-wing players still in the illinois suburbs um and so you know people are are definitely willing to travel a few hours. Joel Springle is a great example of someone who will drive like eight hours for an X-Wing tournament. I mean, he's, he's, he's, he's just, he's, ah yeah, he's committed. And so, you know, I think we're gonna, there's not as many of those people ah like ah around yeah anymore. I think but burnout is a very real thing. I,
00:48:55
Speaker
I struggle with burnout, um you know, and I don't stream every day. And I purposely do that to be able to manage it and to be able to to keep coming back with the right attitude and and put in the kind of work that you guys deserve and that I, but you know, that meet my own standards. But, you know, with with being a part of XWA and being like the being a prize lead, being an OP lead, um, being a PR lead, a council, everything, it's a lot of involved work and it's really hard not to burn out. So it's, you know, I, I definitely, what I recommend to people, uh, is like, you know, show up when you can, but if you are, if you want to take a break, um,
00:49:34
Speaker
you know, pick a couple of tournaments, plan it out, you know, don't like just map it out for yourself. I always feel a lot better when I can kind of schedule things in advance and have something to look forward to. Then if I have to decide three days in advance, am I going to this? You know, can I go to this? Like, like,
00:49:50
Speaker
it's so that's I think one way to kind of compartmentalize it um and I'm not advocating for people not playing by any means but I just it's important for the longevity of the game that people feel like hey like man I've I don't know if I can keep up with playing in three or four leagues or playing in you know every tournament that's within a two or three hour drive of me and like that's okay just you know balance things out so that you can keep coming back and and when you do that you want to and that you feel like it because it's a it's a game so oh yeah um No, that's so true.
X-Wing Community Resilience
00:50:20
Speaker
Like I know in our area here, cause in Southern Ontario, we got several little cities that all have their own groups. And I try and work with all the TOs ahead of time to like come up with like a community calendar, just so people can, you know, like see the events out in our Ontario calendar. We got events going up to June right now. It's not like full rate pack, but it's at least enough around there where we have some charity events, some team events where, people can plan around them and then other game stores can see like, Oh, maybe I'll fit in like a squad champion here or that. And then, you know, at least people can plan around it, know, vacation if they need to. and Yeah. Yeah. If you can plan for an event, it's a lot easier than just like, Oh, which one's popped up this weekend.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. i have to say this is and this is going to sound I don't want to come off um too complaining when I say this, but I don't think we've realized just how bad it's gotten with oh i purchasing airfare.
00:51:19
Speaker
and And so when people like, hey, I have a tournament in three weeks. you know, four states away. Can you go? like, no, because you have to, we got to plan these things out. I mean, ah just the airfare, just, it's shocking nowadays. And if yeah you want to if you want to know where you're sitting and checking bags, it's you add another 20% to your fare It's just it's ah it's a lot to manage. But that's another thing, too, is like like it comes to your advantage when you can plan things out, especially if you have to hop on a plane to go there.
00:51:51
Speaker
um You have to if you want to be able to actually purchase airfare that doesn't make you scream out loud and and internally as you're pressing proceed to check out. You know, um that's just that's just kind of where the world is these days. And so, yeah, just I think just be ah my recommendation to everyone is to be honest with yourself.
00:52:11
Speaker
um about about you know just where you're at. X-Wing is supposed to be good for your mental health. It's supposed to be ah therapeutic, it's a you know competitive, fun, whatever you make of it. If you only play casually, then it's just it's just a fun time, right? But even when you play competitively, the the competitive drive is thrilling and it it's fun you know like andrew i saw you catch that bug you got locked in you played in the first conquest like i'm back i'm coming back for the while i'll be up at 1 a.m m like i'm coming back like you're like i love this right it's just like you get that taste yeah and um and that's what it's all and you just want to be in mentally in the position where you can get that bug and you can get that taste and you want to keep coming back because that's it takes you on a really fun ride and um
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's just it's challenging right now. And and I think we, you know, me going on this long winded conversation about this, it ties back to why I think we saw some of the turnout take a hit with the events, especially in North America. It's just because I think a lot of people, they're not ready to get to quit on X-Wing, but they really want to take a break. And so I'm hopeful that we can establish a system um for the next OP season where people have kind of, they've taken that break. They've, you know, if hopefully they go to worlds, I definitely encourage you to do that. There's nothing like it. Every time you end up being setting foot of worlds, you're like at that adepticon, you're ah, I'm so glad I'm here, you know? yeah,
00:53:30
Speaker
I think that we'll see that pendulum swing back a little bit, but that's a big reason. One of the the many reasons, the biggest that I think we saw turn out take a hit. It's just that people are just feeling a little burnt out. ah You know, this is the first time I've experienced a game that I love being, you know, not officially supported anymore. And we're very grateful that X-Wing has the resources that it has to keep it going as as smoothly as it has been. But it's it's so it's hard. I mean, it's it's nothing feels the same anymore because we've never been here before as an X-Wing community. This is all new to us. And X-Wing had been around since 2012. That's a long time.
00:54:13
Speaker
That's 14 years ago, almost, since the game came out. I was going to say any game lasting more than 20 years is incredible like that. I think that just shows the the staying power of this game in this community like that what it has.
00:54:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I think if any game can can survive, it's this game. There's nothing like this game. There's just no replacement for it. I mean, like our Armada and X-Wing are companion games. They're very different in so many key ways, but they both got similar treatment. And and if anything, Armada got much worse treatment, but they ended up in the same position at the end, right? Neither deserved, but you know, there's nothing like X-Wing. And I think I would challenge people who say this game will never be, will will never be officially supported again. i just think that there's just some, it's, it's always possible a game like this because it's so irreplaceable that maybe someday it's you know we've seen it happen with other games it gets picked up but the X-Wing Alliance you guys are in good hands it's just it's it's a challenge it's you know you're basically filling the shoes of ah of ah of a company when it comes to running a game without being a company and not getting paid for it either right like it's all volunteer work for the goodness of our hearts um and I'm not saying that anyone should get paid but a perfect world everybody gets a little something right
00:55:34
Speaker
for their hard work everybody players everybody everybody yeah but anyways i digress let's let's move into worlds though let's talk about worlds so we've we've name dropped it several times i think it's time that we just freaking talk about it dwight you have been one of the key people in contact with adepticon uh you know we've officially launched uh our ticket sales for the event can you remind us and walk us through the the events and what you can do and expect for x-wing and adepticon I know it's been kind of said through chatter on the main discord and that, but for all of you who don't know and listening, I am the event organizer for worlds this year.
Worlds at Adepticon Plans
00:56:13
Speaker
been very, very nerve wracking, trying to fill the shoes of Mr. Chris Allen, who I respect so much and who basically he's one of the key guys who taught me how to be a tournament organizer, tournament structures, and just how people talk about worlds. It,
00:56:31
Speaker
it It hit hard on me, so I've been working around the clock to basically try and make this an event that every X-Wing lover will appreciate. So basically, tickets are on sale.
00:56:44
Speaker
a ah Our first event is going to be on Thursday the 26th, so we're going have heat one of the main event. So it will ah be four or five rounds depending on attendance. And based on that attendance, we'll have a certain record that you need to hit, whether it's four and one, three and two. We'll make sure people know ahead of time what it is.
00:57:05
Speaker
SOS will not come into play. We in XWA like clean cut records. We don't want any feel bad moments where, you know, 10 people with the same record, but only two of them get to go on. so Whatever we decide on, we'll make sure it's clean and fair to the players. As well as on that same day, we're going to have like a Swiss side event pod.
00:57:25
Speaker
Four rounds. That way people can just play their games and still enjoy the rest of the con. Go out and chum with people. Because that was one of the main feedbacks I always got. And I experienced myself at Worlds was never felt like you had a lot of time to do other stuff. Because Sometimes you're starting at like nine zero in the morning and you were there till nine at night playing X-Wing, which is good and all, but you want some time to, you know, break and enjoy. Like brutal being a Gen Con. It's like a gauntlet. Like, it's, it's, it's a gauntlet, but it's also just such an incredibly large place, like event. And you can't experience any of that it. It's like, ah, I know.
00:58:03
Speaker
so we, we want, we realize that and we just want to make a better experience for the players. And, uh, You know, whether you're in a heat or side event, it will be different prizing for whatever you're going in. I mean, like heat one and heat two people will be going for the same prizes because that's just like a different day. But if you go into a pod, it will be different events than the heats. And basically, we're going to have Friday, iah heat two and Swiss pod two. So the same format is Thursday.
00:58:33
Speaker
then Saturday will be basically you know the first day of cut. So the top players from Thursday and Friday are going to go on to play on Saturday. And depending on attendance, you know we'll have a certain record you need to achieve there to go to Sunday. A lot of it, I know I wish I had more concrete answers, but it's really based on attendance. That's why you know we're pushing hard to get people to buy their tickets now, because it is the players that will set the tone of the event.
00:58:59
Speaker
The more players it is, the more competitive of an event it will be, and we will adjust the numbers for that. Yeah, so fire tickets. Also on Saturday, if we're going to have a doubles event.
00:59:11
Speaker
We're still... Ollie's been working with me on this to try and find the most fair, unbroken way of doing it, because we don't want like double Boba, double Defender Vader in there.
00:59:24
Speaker
So nothing's been confirmed yet, but we are looking at... ah maybe a three ship minimum between you and your partner kind of thing.
00:59:35
Speaker
it might be somewhere floating around the 46 point marker for your team. We'll have all this in the player packet, hopefully ironed out soon. So we just figured if we didn't have some kind of guidelines in there, half the list will be double Boba. Half the list will be double Vader defenders. We wanted a little bit of variety in that, but we're hoping to, uh, firm that up soon and get that out to the players so people could have fun doing some list building ahead of time.
01:00:02
Speaker
And then that will just lead us up to Sunday where we have our final cut for it. Ideally, in my mind, the three round cut on Sunday is what I would like to see, but numbers will dictate that.
01:00:14
Speaker
And ah yeah, and we will have some other side things going on, non-ticket things. Like I believe Doug's coming back with that trench run. Yeah, I another person who's asking me about setting up a side thing with Lego. So I'm just checking with Adepticon. It's my first year working with them. And some people are like, oh, I can bring this, this and this. And I'm like, well, i got to check with Adepticon because we've already had some tables cut back because we're in a ah room with Armada. And apparently Armada is doing quite well on ticket sales. So Adepticon has reached out and said, okay, you know, we'll give you like,
01:00:56
Speaker
we're just going take one roll ah tables off. Now, i was I was quite generous when I told them ah the numbers that we'd need. It was much higher than what I actually expected. But yeah still, eventually that's going to come into play because at Worlds, people had casual games. I always see Epic every Worlds. People just bust out Epic and start playing. So I want that free space in there for players to do what they want as well.
01:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, so that's it in a nutshell. ah As for prizing, well, I think that's better left to Nick than me. Well, we're working on a lot of prizes. I'm actually kind of added a couple more to an already you know exciting spread. ah Dylan Jones is the prize lead, and I've been working with him closely, and I've been grateful to be able to be looped in on this. A lot of stuff has already been decided. We're really kind of in the weeds now on on getting final deliveries, final prints, final productions on on everything. um I think the big question people are going to ask is,
01:01:58
Speaker
you know Will there be dice? ah i I will say that we have been looking into that. It's been something that we know is important for X-Wing players. It's just such such a valuable piece of participation prize that you know it will always be used and and treasured and and you know will excite players. So um i could say that we're we're seeing what we can do, but I wouldn't expect participation prize dice. That's not something I would expect. um it's just based on volume and the time that we have uh however we are looking into you know bigger options moving forward in the next op season as well so just look out for announcements and all of that um
01:02:44
Speaker
you know we're where i'm i'm personally i'm speaking for 312 squadron when i say this working on manufacturing more of our stream dice um which are up to spec down to the polish and weight and facing that uh the official ffg amg dice have looked like so um i'm working on that there's you know figuring out exactly what's possible there and i'm also pleading with xwa to be like maybe guys if we can you know get a larger order we can consider making these available for players at some point but again none of that is set in stone or guaranteed but i'm trying so we are putting in the effort that we're in the places we need to to make you guys happy yeah there's there's a lot like like dwight said he decided to make it harder on us and have another round of prizes for another tier of tournaments but um know that's
01:03:33
Speaker
we're We're figuring out, I think ah base plates, like custom base plates are going to be a thing that we can look into doing more often. We've got those with the Mandalorian. We with Patreon have made amazing base plates. We've done Stomorani, we've done Theta 3, Zeta 5, the Mandalorian. Echo just recently. So that's another thing that I think is would be valuable for players, and especially for those who don't have the base plates, period. ah Just where can we give people something new with utility that is cool all at the same time? and That's what we're focusing on.
01:04:08
Speaker
I think that was ah just enough information to provide without tipping the boat too much, Dwight. Yeah. Oh, and one thing I will add is Adepticon does have a storage locker full of old AMG FFG prizing basically think of every worlds there's ever been and think of leftover prizing has been given to a depth icon. So a depth icon has told me personally, they're going sort through some of the stuff, put it in a box and give it to us to kind of, you know, give out the players as prizing or whatever.
Global X-Wing Event Considerations
01:04:42
Speaker
So I don't know how much all a depth icon said was that they want to make sure that X-Wing is supported for the future at their events. So, but we will have some stuff that we can, you can win or we'll give out there from events past. I want to make sure for those listening that they don't get too excited in the sense that if you just said every worlds it's ever been, remember Adepticon has only hosted worlds for a couple of years. So, okay, that's okay. I just, I just start to think about like the silver dice and the clear marble dice. Like, yeah, I just like temper. Thank you for that correction. That is true.
01:05:16
Speaker
That is true. so yeah it used to be in saint paul was where it was separately of adepticon so just yeah just wanted to clarify it maybe maybe that was the way it was but just in case it was not actually that way um yeah no problem dwight let's talk about well i i i do need i think i'm gonna address the elephant in the room in the sense that you know this is the third world is it the third world championship now at adepticon i'm trying to think fourth third right 23 24 25 6 21 uh yeah that wasn't world 22 21 22 to uh to 25 so three we've had three so far okay yeah so this will be the fourth um worlds you know has been held at adepticon for you know a few years now right
01:06:02
Speaker
And I understand that moving from Schaumburg, which is near Chicago O'Hare, easy to fly into, to Milwaukee is challenging for those who don't, you know, even challenging for those who live domestically, but especially who live abroad. ah Flying into Milwaukee, you probably have to connect, it's harder.
01:06:20
Speaker
um And then there's also just, it's just not the best time right now for people to feel comfortable traveling. And so we just, we recognize that without getting too political. It's I 100% understand why somebody would not feel comfortable with ah having to ah you know show disclose a lot of private information to get into the country or anything like that, or just they just don't want to.
01:06:41
Speaker
Expensive or because of that. So this isn't us saying, you know it being at Adepticon is just a continuation of what we've done, what X-Wing has done in the last few years, Worlds being at Adepticon.
01:06:53
Speaker
And so you know we're not making any sort of statement being like, oh, it's just going to be, you know, it's all about America. You come here, that's where Worlds is. We're we're certainly, you know, re-evaluating what what Worlds looks like, if it's maybe split up into continentals or if it's, if the location moves outside of the United States. People have been asking for that and asking about it. And Dwight and I have both been listening to that feedback and taking it seriously. We haven't made any decisions yet. And there's a lot more to to talk about later on. But um we hear you. We understand. Adepticon has has all of the resources and the attitude towards us and the love for X-Wing to have made this decision really easy to have it at Adepticon, we would have been really, really, really far down the ladder when it comes to getting things to where it needs to be if we didn't have Hank at Adepticon.
01:07:48
Speaker
being a bro and helping us out and getting us set up for success. So that's another key reason why this is, if you're wondering why is it in Milwaukee again, bla bla blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just all, all of those things. So Dwight, I'll throw it to you, but I just wanted to mention that like, we understand we can't do anything about the current world's climate, you know, the, the way politics are, it's not great for anybody right now. Yeah.
01:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. Politics aside, as we kind of talked about earlier, the in-person X-wing, uh, population, a good chunk of it's in Europe.
01:08:24
Speaker
So in all fairness with a, you know, a world organization in charge of this game, it would only make sense to recognize that and, uh, you know, come up with a way of appreciating and showing our appreciation of that. So like you said, whether, uh,
01:08:45
Speaker
It's a change of venue one year or just even, you know, continental championships, intercontinental championships. Who knows? Like maybe maybe there's like a hybrid you can do where, you know, you have these continental championships and like, let's just say for the sake of argument, you have the winners from those events in an online tournament if possible.
01:09:07
Speaker
But everything's on the table. like We want to make sure that the X-Wing players are happy no matter where you live in the world. And we want the highest event, highest tier event to be accessible for everyone is our goal. So that's what we really want to see achieved. And that's what we're going to be talking about for the next little next few months after Adepticon and seeing what that looks like and how we can manage that. the The key thing for me is what I've expressed to everyone is Worlds, to me, is not a single event. You're not going to, even if it did move, you wouldn't bring it to some event. you Okay, we're going to do like you know Friday, Saturday, Sunday, main event, that's it. It should be multiple heats over a few days. There should be side events. like It's an experience more than an event.
01:09:57
Speaker
And that that's the key thing I just want to make sure is maintained no matter what decision is made about it. To paraphrase the Prime Minister of Canada, ah Mark Carney, you know, it's a new world order and it's time for the X-Wing community and all of the ways that it's played and enjoyed to to come together. You're awesome, buddy.
01:10:20
Speaker
i I think you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for that, my friend. Or a or a FIFA Peace Prize, whichever one I can get my hands on sooner. Right, yeah. Yeah,
312 Squadron's Streaming Preparations
01:10:30
Speaker
well said. um i'm I'm really excited. you know, I just 312. We're obviously, we talked about, we're streaming worlds. I'm doing a lot of preparation. um The banner, the eight, the,
01:10:40
Speaker
but the 10 foot by eight foot banner arrived. um When I was leaving my apartment, there was this really, really massive tube. like It looked like it was like a piece of construction, like like like that you would like ah a like, oh, this is for the building, like a piece of infrastructure. yeah oh that was my That was my poster. So when I came back, I was like, oh, so I could barely fit it. i couldn't fit it my car.
01:11:02
Speaker
um i couldn't i could barely fit in the elevator. And I took it out and I unwrapped it and I was like, wow, this looks really good. But my apartment's not that big without any furniture in the way. I couldn't like fully unwrap it. So I looked at a part of it and like, ah, this looks awesome. Rolled it back up and then realized, well, I can't pin it put it put it back in this tube. I can't take this with me to Milwaukee. So I had to fold it like four ways. I'm like, well...
01:11:26
Speaker
you know, the, hopefully the pulleys when we, when we set up the banner on the actual, you know, stand pulls the creases out, but I'm like, I got to fold the thing. And then I bought a massive duffel bag to be able to put the banner in And it's just, it's, it's, it's just, it's getting real now, you know, I'm like, now I have, you know,
01:11:47
Speaker
i i have some more equipment i want to buy an extra capture card some new cords just make you know really make sure that we have everything that we need to to run four days of of seamless knock on wood you know x-wing coverage it's going to be a huge opportunity for us and it's going to i'm very honored to be able to i'm really proud of the way our stream looks and just where we've come so i think you guys are in for a really high quality experience especially visually with all of the 4k sony's that i have uh taken out 12 mortgages on just kidding but just ah over the time bought for for this stream i'm using a new camera right now streaming on twitch as well And so just super hyped. um
01:12:33
Speaker
You know, there's some extra prizing I'm working on bringing like 312 specific, like for, you know, ah first come first serve prizing for four attendees.
01:12:43
Speaker
um So yeah, we want to incentivize people to go. i know I've talked to a few people have not yet gotten their tickets. I think so far, Dwight, the early immediate numbers are promising, but you always worry about kind of like that, the trickle period where it's just you only get a little bit at a time. We still have some time, but really, yes, get your tickets, register, plan out your your your weekends, lots of hotel and Airbnb options. I will say Airbnbs get swooped up the closer you get.
01:13:12
Speaker
So if you can, you know, stay crash with five, six other people, you can spend way less than you would in a hotel. I will also want to add into that too. If you are coming over from other countries, if you do fly into O'Hare, I know that last year there are trains that you can take from Chicago to Milwaukee. And there's also buses as well. And I know a lot of players who attended last year said that that was a pretty, it was fairly easy to get to where they needed to go in Milwaukee through ah the the trains and buses.
01:13:44
Speaker
It's only like an hour and 15 to an hour and a half away. Right. and Generally. Yes. Not too far. Not that bad of a, of a followup trip. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good note. Andrew. Appreciate you mentioning that. Yeah. So we're excited to see you guys there.
01:13:58
Speaker
um Dwight. You're, i assume, I mean, I have to assume we're going to be there. You'll see. ah Yeah. You'll see Andrew there. you will see all of us there. Yeah. i mean You always travel. It's just like it would it would have to be something catastrophic if you were not able to make it. but I have to figure out who else from XWA is planning to attend. I know there's several people. I think Tim King is one of them from Sith Takers who will be joining. So.
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be great to see everybody. And I'm going to be tired after the end of it. You're like time to nap. Time is go to say, yeah, you just need a spa day or something, you know, afterwards. yeah Yeah. and and And X-Wing, you know, a purge. Yeah. for I almost made the conquest, the first conquest the next week. And I'm like, I am. Oh, my God. I absolutely not. Yeah, that's I get a I get a week off. I get a week off. Yeah, yeah that's because I'm right there. Well, Andrew, I'll throw it over to you to do our outro.
01:14:50
Speaker
Well, thank you everyone for listening to this episode and continuing to support us here at 312. We are thrilled to bring you world's coverage this year at Adepticon.
Upcoming Announcements and Sponsorships
01:15:00
Speaker
Also, be on the lookout for announcements regarding our next team league and sign up for the Conquest series. We have links in the description. And if you're not already following us on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, you should. We have links in the description as well.
01:15:16
Speaker
And 312 is excited to be producing exclusive alt art cards of featured new XWA pilots for their patrons. And they also have very cool base plates and other stuff you can get too. So consider supporting us on Patreon and get rewarded with some awesome swag.
01:15:33
Speaker
And then lastly, we are proud to be sponsored by Infinite Arenas. Head to infinite Infinite Arenas to get your fix of X-Wing compatible components, including accessible card printing, physical game assets, and much more.
01:15:47
Speaker
Once again, that link also in the description. My name is Andrew Kuba. My name is Nick Sperry. And I'm Dwight Lindsey. And thank you so much for being here.