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Episode 39: Off-Topic: Wayne’s Worlds
96 Plays9 days ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba Nick Sperry, and Samuel Graebner discuss the Milwaukee World Championship Experience and yap about the event
Check out Samuel’s fantasy writing collective at: https://www.crookedtrees.com/
View the worlds Rollbetter page here: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/2638
View the events on Listfortress: https://listfortress.com/tournaments/10570
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron Podcast, Just Chatting Edition. My name is Samuel Graibner. I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Nick Sperry. And we are delighted to be joined by me, friend of the podcast, and one half of the Doobler Dudes doubles team at Worlds.
00:00:18
Speaker
As well as...
Origin of 'Doobler Dudes'
00:00:20
Speaker
Is that what you guys called yourselves? Yes, the Doobler Dudes. Gosh, I miss out on so much fun with all of these side events. Because you you went to because I played well, but also because I had to stream worlds this last time. fine No, I mean, here's the unfortunate thing is I said that I kind of teed myself up for that. And so yeah caught on what I said, because I'm like, well, do I am I honest with ourselves?
Streaming Challenges at Worlds
00:00:44
Speaker
It was because I made it to a cut or day two, but.
00:00:48
Speaker
Man, continue. Yeah, you was going to say you missed the Dubler dudes or that where where that name came from because you went to Chili's instead of the... i Cafe, cafe Hollander. That's what it was. A Hollander. Also, we have to, we have a correction that we need to say. I did call it the, the new Holland cafe in our previous episode. it is cafe Hollander.
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah. a hollander i I do want to admit it. And I want to give our audience a disclaimer. This is another quote unquote off topic episode. So we will be talking a lot about X wing related, you know, worlds is our main focus for this. Just chatting, just yapping off topic episode. But as always, I want to remind people that we are going to be talking about things that will feel off topic from our standard episodes. And, you know, our opinions are our own. And we respect yours and ask that if you don't want to hear it, you don't have to. And maybe
Chili's Story and Worlds Championships
00:01:42
Speaker
you shouldn't.
00:01:42
Speaker
But we're happy you're here. Thanks for listening. And continue, gentlemen. um Yeah, we got the name Dubler dudes because I meant to order a double, which is a type of beer, and I kept calling it a dubler on accident. ah called Yes, I got to say the.
00:02:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah, the the Chili's thing. um It was a it was a long running gag with with Matt Carey, my good friend and co and co star of the stream and our channel and Greg from Nickel City X-Wing.
00:02:18
Speaker
And so I kind of tagged along to be a part of that, like inside joke running gag of them getting Chili's together. yeah But I generally enjoy Chili's, but that was one of the worst experiences to Chili's that I think I will ever have. Really? was ah There was about 400 people's birthdays in there, I swear. Every moment, um the the entire staff at Chili's was like screaming and hollering and singing their little happy birthday song.
00:02:43
Speaker
We waited an hour to be seated, which is fine because we had a big table, a party, but they were super understaffed and like slammed. And the food was like poorly prepared and just tasted really bad. And I was like, man, I am missing out on the Dubler brothers, the Dubler bros.
00:02:58
Speaker
And they're they're Holland. Is it Hollander Club? Is that what you call it? Cafe Hollander. Cafe Hollander. you know Close enough. Yeah, we're going to get that name wrong a lot. Yeah. Our friends in Milwaukee are going to be so upset.
00:03:12
Speaker
Oh, man. That sounded like a good time. Well, were yeah we're talking about all things, you know, Worlds. um Yeah. How do we feel about Worlds, guys? Just the first XWA Worlds tournament. It was pretty big deal for the organization. Obviously, I'm a part of it. And I'm actually running for council as of tonight, as of this recording. Voting is taking place. So we'll see if your boy...
00:03:35
Speaker
um Wow. what a Part of the council for XWA. Exciting. Congratulations. yeah Exciting. Good luck. I'll give you an update. to Everyone an update on that later. Thank you. How did it feel? um Did it feel like even though the game isn't, quote unquote, like, you know, supported officially anymore, did it feel different
Event Comparisons and Inclusivity Discussion
00:03:52
Speaker
from past worlds and adapt to cons?
00:03:56
Speaker
I'll go. um i this felt and This is a compliment. It felt like a real world. um The prize support was insane. The amount of things that were given out was absurd in ah in a great way. like I came home with a bag full of things that... um I never would have expected to to achieve and attain. that was It was great. um The side event was amazing. um ah The tournament was well run.
00:04:28
Speaker
we were We moved at a good clip. we the The world's, just the the actual like logistics of the tournament were well run. Having been to two previous worlds that were AMG worlds, um I came away from those worlds, the AMG worlds, excited to play more, but but ah drained. Like, they were they were they were a bit more of a grind. This one felt very just fun front to back. I would definitely echo that sentiment, too.
00:04:57
Speaker
I know that some people were saying that maybe they thought that this was a little more friendly of a worlds or a little more casual. i was actually kind of surprised at, like, how little a difference I felt that there was between, like, the XWA and the AMG one. Honestly, the biggest difference is, like,
00:05:15
Speaker
The price support was amazing. I don't know how we're you know we're able to like top that. But i mean to me, it still felt like world. It still had that same gravitas. It still had that same... yeah like i wanted to to do as well and perform as well in this worlds as well. Yeah, I was honestly kind of shocked at at how seamless the transition from AMG to XWA was. You know, elephant in the room, obviously, because of the geopolitical stuff, a lot of people didn't feel and also because of the cost of everything traveling didn't feel comfortable, whether it was finances or mainly because of immigration issues in the United States coming to world. So we only have like a small amount of people from outside of the US at this world. So, yeah i you know, I felt a little self-conscious about calling it like a world championship because it didn't feel like.
00:06:07
Speaker
Like not because of XWA or because of the nature of the tournament itself, but just kind of circumstances. it didn't feel like
Venue Experience and X-Wing Event Management
00:06:13
Speaker
it was an inclusive, openly inclusive ah world championship like it kind of had been in the past. And hey i were a lot of people from out of out of the country visiting and playing. We still had a few. And that was really awesome. I mean, Renee is from Denmark.
00:06:30
Speaker
We had one who's from Amsterdam. He played in the final table, March. And he he was ah he lived he's from Poland, but lives in amster Amsterdam. couple Canadian players. But I think that's the only thing is it it it always has felt funny to me to tell someone, oh, like I'm streaming the world championship and I'm i'm not going to Amsterdam. I'm not going to to Poland. i'm It's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And it's a great venue. And it' it was a really great event. It has been a great event since it moved to to Milwaukee.
00:06:58
Speaker
But it just kind of that is always kind of felt a little funny to me. But then this circumstance, I can definitely understand why people would, I think, at least assume that it wasn't going to feel as um high level. But it did feel high level. It felt yeah like any other major X-Wing tournament. I think if the if for semantics sake, if it was called like...
00:07:19
Speaker
the XWA Continental Championship or something. I mean, I think that, you know, not that it needed to be called that, but I think that would have maybe worked better in terms of people's commentary on like who is, you know, people coming from outside of the US s to play.
00:07:32
Speaker
and That's just my take. It's my spin on it. No, i would I would definitely agree with that. There were a lot less people from outside of the US, s outside of North America that that were here. And that presence definitely was missed. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
00:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think the only other thing for me is that the room that they put us in was really nice and spacious, but I really do miss that. Like, I feel like we had really good base space and lighting our light. Lighting was tough. Lighting was was it was a little dim dim, a little dim. Wasn't as bad as like LVO.
00:08:05
Speaker
Last year, the one of the last AMG GTs where they put us in a small room and it was really dark, like some of the mats people had use a flashlight to like navigate. um It was that was rough. But yeah, this was it wasn't bad. It was just darker. LVO is just dim in general. like though Yeah, but Andrew, you didn't see the room that they put us in. oh yeah, no, I know. Oh, my God, it was so bad. it was like it was sad.
00:08:32
Speaker
she I'm saying that the regular room at LDO was probably half as dim as Worlds was. i can't imagine it being like a darker room. And yeah, that you would need a flashlight to properly play. Yeah, it felt like we were relegated. Yeah, we definitely were.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, we were right. I mean, but that was when the game was still, you know, the whole thing like with this year is like, oh, well, why wouldn't AMG want X-Wing to be anywhere near X-Wing? their games and it's because well x-wing isn't something that they can market and sell product for because they decided that they don't want to go that route anymore so it they don't want that to conflict with the other titles that they're running and supporting at adepticon and other conventions and so that's why you know naturally you're in a different space it was nice to have as much room as we did even though we were kind of sharing some space with armada it didn't feel that cramped at least it didn't feel that to me and i was sharing literally sharing room and you know power with the armada stream Yeah, in terms of differences otherwise, it it ah it felt like Adepticon took good care of us. I think we could have gotten the LVO treatment and big big time be kind of shoehorned into like a random offshoot room.
00:09:43
Speaker
It didn't feel like we were, we were it they treated us like we mattered. And I know that Hank at Adepticon really loves X-Wing. And as soon as AMG's announcement came out, Adepticon had an announcement. they're like, hey, there's always a place at Adepticon for X-Wing.
00:09:57
Speaker
yeah They definitely delivered on that promise for sure. I 100%. Agreed. Yeah, and I'm definitely looking forward to more X-Wing tournaments at Adepticon.
Tournament Structure and Fun Experiences
00:10:06
Speaker
Was there anything that was like different for either of you than what you had expected? ah the I really appreciated the structure of the tournament, the the lack of a play-in, the previous worlds just having so many more people. like required a last chance qualifier, having having to qualify for the tournament. So I frankly, I i expected to play a lot less X-Wing than I did that that weekend. Yeah. Over the course of Worlds, we we played because I played the Thursday Swiss side event, Friday main event and then doubles Saturday. And that was a lot of X-Wing.
00:10:43
Speaker
So i I got to play more than I expected to, which is which is positive. Yeah, I mean, that's ah is always a good expectation to to be. I don't know. How about you, Nick? I know you you were maybe you had a lot going on that weekend. but yeah the man Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. um It's going to sound a little conceited, but I mean this in the best possible way. I was expecting people to bother me more. Huh?
00:11:07
Speaker
with like coming up to me, not like, oh, I love your stuff, like, which I always appreciate, by the way, it's never that. I just mean like in terms of like me being busy with something and someone being like, hey, like, can you give me that base plate? Or like, hey, I want you to meet someone that's on the other side of the convention hall. Or like, hey, like, have you, you know, somebody asked me if I had a Ziploc, like a bag, like while I was in the middle of streaming. was like, no, I don't have a Ziploc bag. Like, why are you asking me that? I expected because we I also was one of the judges, technically, like the stream had its own, like I was a judge and when I wasn't streaming, like Andrew, when you and Matt would fill in and stuff, I would help judge yeah and like walk around. um I felt like it was gonna feel like we were gonna be more strapped
00:11:53
Speaker
for personnel and like, you know, having to kind of juggle juggle a lot of things is really what I'm getting at. So when I say people bothering me, it's like I need to be pulled in a lot of different directions. And I wasn't honestly, felt like I had the freedom to be able to let the tournament happen and just like look at matchups, pick something. And I didn't have to didn't have to like plead with too many players to play. It seemed like most people I always appreciate this. So shout to everybody played on the stream. the people who are just willing to play on stream i'm really proud of our setup and the setup we had was really nice it was kind of luxurious you had your own big area to yourself but it still can be intimidating and i know lot of people feel like oh well as soon as i'm on stream i'm going to lose because i'm on stream it's just your i think people when they're nervous or overthinking are more prone to make mistakes when they uh are nervous and overthinking so yeah um it's just the way it happens when you kind of have the light sonya and stuff and people are watching um But yeah, no, honestly, will say in summary, TLDR, things were a lot easier and went a lot more smooth than I thought they would have. Definitely agreed. And I think probably the thing that kept you sitting in a professional manner was the banner. Yeah. I don't think anybody... Yeah, the banner pretty sweet. I think were intimidated by the banner and didn't want to... i didn't want to walk up yeah it's the polos sam the it's 312 polos you're right you're so right oh yeah the polos were like we are like just like gsp we have polos now i think the banner was a great call like honestly that did make it feel a little more official definitely yeah definitely you had a decent amount of people playing in the background but it would have
00:13:39
Speaker
with the dim lighting and stuff like I think you needed some sort of visual alternative interest to be there behind the players and yeah that I agree with that for sure that's why we wanted the banner to be made I want I hope that we can use it again for something else soon and I mean we better our sponsorships gonna stick around obviously that's I'm super excited to continue that and but at the same time I've looked into how much it would be to fly with three checked bags and it's like I think it's like the three hundred dollars for like to check your bags each way So it's like we're i'm trying to work with Jim Bob to find a way to get it to Denver um to do that. You know what? ben
00:14:16
Speaker
Amtrak. Amtrak goes Chicago to Denver. You can take four check. I already booked my flights. All right. Well, next. do You guys want to be my mule? when i when i was taking the train back from my friends like wedding in aspen yeah i was uh able to take like i took their bag back like two because it was it it was free wowll get you get you get you get four free checked bags yeah that's awesome yeah i mean i i would have probably had to take an extra couple a day a day or two off maybe a day off to do that it could have been possible but I usually, when I fly Southwest, I get the free checked bag. Yeah, with this banner, it's it's still in the back of my car. i don't really have like the greatest place to just put it in my in my condo right now. yeah um I'll hopefully find a
Streaming Logistics and Event Atmosphere
00:14:58
Speaker
place. and it's It's safe in the car, but the only thing is in a perfect world, if we had like a steamer or like an iron, yeah those creases out but there's no way to transport that thing without getting these fat big creases in it because dude it's an eight by ten foot freaking banner oh my god shout out to mark moriarty it's just amazing wedge until he's art oh we've used that for our sl a couple years ago but
00:15:20
Speaker
You know, I actually, looks wedge just looks so good. I have a cordless iron that I can bring with us next time. Next time. Yeah, I do plan on using it at some point. um You know, I don't think it would, it wouldn't be at like a store champ, but we'll we'll figure it out. And at at the very least, we can definitely bring it back for the next Worlds. I was very careful not to put any Worlds 25 type mentions on there because I'm I want this to be like a thing we can continue to use outside of Worlds 2025. Sorry, 26. 26, yeah.
00:15:47
Speaker
sorry twenty six twenty six yeah Yeah, I still still think it's 2025. Well, and not to harp too much on the banner, but i think it really ah it gave the X-Wing area a definitely a sense of like, oh, we're we're we're for real. Like we are. Yeah, we we are not just another anonymous game with that's here at Adepticon. Like we are we we mean business. Yeah. Yeah. It's ah you know, I I've.
00:16:15
Speaker
obviously dreamt of of getting to that point with this channel and yeah i i feel like we have inter we've we are the highest quality x-wing stream around i can like and i don't think it's like blowing higher up my own ass to say something like that i think we've definitely hear you hear that nickel city great greg you know greg i can hear greg's voice in my head he's like high quality That's why you paused. Yeah. Well, I'd say high quality. I didn't say we're the best instead of the highest quality. Because Greg does. Greg's talking about Diet Snapple for the entire game. but he loves that yeah is it
00:16:51
Speaker
He's talking about Chili's. like He's all about the vibes and the experience. And he puts a ton of effort into his stream. but in terms of in-person streaming and ncx doesn't really do that so i could definitely when it comes to x-wing streams that span the different mediums i can yeah confidently say that i want to you know hear that sith taker tim that tim has been amazing too his streams look really good too yeah right continuing quote-unquote beef greg is also running for council so there's a possible that we're both oh ah council members yeah all right
00:17:23
Speaker
I voted for you, Greg. I don't think he listens to our podcast, but I did. I did cast a a vote for him. I did not vote for myself. It felt very like presidential doing something like that. Yeah. Vote for your enemies. Wait.
00:17:34
Speaker
wait oh yeah. Don't do that. Don't do that. Hey, you know, speaking of super unrelated, good for Virginia, by the way. Anyways, back to yeah worlds. Yeah. So highlights from the weekend, we we alluded to at the beginning, but definitely pairing up with Andrew to, for me, pairing up with Andrew to ah play the doubles tournament was yeah an extreme highlight. Had had a the time in my life doing that. No, that I...
00:18:00
Speaker
that doubles tournament was absolutely a highlight. I'm so happy that I was able to play in that. I kind of felt bad because there were a lot of people who made day two that really wanted to play in the doubles tournament as well. Yeah, it was the talk of the town. Well, we'll talk about that in in a later part.
00:18:19
Speaker
But I was going to say another like highlight for me was being able to stream the games. I thought that that was really cool. We had a ton of people that that tuned in to watch.
00:18:32
Speaker
And um I thought it was really cool that not only did the Canyon run come back, but they had a new side game, which was the i resistance versus F.O.
00:18:45
Speaker
The scene from The Last Jedi of ah Poe Dameron's run on the Star Destroyer with the bombers the bombing run. Yeah, bombing run was very fun. So cool. So looking forward to like more creative games
Creative Side Events and Community Contributions
00:18:59
Speaker
like that. Yeah.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah, Doug. Yeah, so Doug Kinney's... He was the first world champion for X-Wing. a Fun fact. And I got paired up with him last year, round one of Swiss, and had an awesome game with him.
00:19:10
Speaker
And then he went on GSP and said, like, the nicest... not not saying Saying he said the nicest things about me is an understatement. Like, he... Basically was like selling. He was pitching my X-Wing expertise and skill to the crowd as if he was like pole. He was like a canvassing for me. Like I was some sort of politician and I was like, now I was like so flattered. Well, maybe. Yeah. Right. Perhaps a good politician. No, you know, um I did not go to any island. i have not been to God before.
00:19:43
Speaker
Moving on. wait Wait a minute. This off topic episode mentioned politics and I'm angry and I am upset. But yeah. So um anyways, Doug is I so I met him last year.
00:19:58
Speaker
He was said those super nice things about me with GSB. He had a great game with him. And then I find out about this this like Beggar's Canyon Lego, and I realize that he's like a master builder type fanatic.
00:20:10
Speaker
And that he was showing me how he so he brought every... like the The way that he transported this transports this thing is incredible. um And the detail is amazing. And I just... I shudder. like I just moved, right? And had to pack all my Lego and wrap everything. And I shudder at the thought of that. And it usually works, but like how he's able to do it with these giant with these bins. And it's just like, i think it's just one giant bin.
00:20:33
Speaker
ah Truly a man of many talents. so Shout out to Doug. And he also brought his own prizes too, which was incredible. Yeah, we love the X-Wing community. I think Doug is like a great example as to another reason why we love the X-Wing community, you know.
00:20:48
Speaker
100%. Yeah, the Dion heroic card was really popular. We had brought some goodies for people. We had the wedge and Jendon base plate, which is like, it felt like such a cool exclusive thing to give people. And the Dion heroic just felt just felt right to do something like that. And he really loved the card. I want to try to meet up with him to get him to sign a few.
00:21:07
Speaker
That would be cool. Is there anything anything that you wanted to check out in Milwaukee next year?
Exploring Milwaukee and Dining Experiences
00:21:13
Speaker
Um, I can go, ah you know, it's just crazy for a Cubs fan to say, but I really would like to go to a baseball game at, um, it used to be Miller park. I think it's like am fam field. Now I just love baseball and it's, it's a nice park.
00:21:27
Speaker
It's right there, right? Like it's, it's, it's like right there yeah and you're crossing into downtown, it's right next to, it's like one of the main exits, right? When you get into the city and that just feels like something that would be fun to do.
00:21:41
Speaker
there's Alex, our local Alex is from that area and he knows a lot of good like breweries and and places to eat. feel like we've only started picking his brain on stuff. What sucks is when you're like, you you want to do this thing, like we're going to go explore Milwaukee, right? And then we're all done at 9pm. We're dead. We don't know what's open. We don't know what's open. And then we go to this place that just, if it always feels like you're settling a little bit um when you're at conventions and you're staying out, busy, playing games, whatever, late, and then you need to eat versus like when you roll into the convention, you're like, we're going to do this. We're going to have this like little side itinerary when we're not busy. It's just difficult to make that happen. So, you know, if anything, having like half a day or a full day,
00:22:24
Speaker
before, like on a Wednesday or something, rolling in in the morning or early afternoon. You know, if maps directs you without going taking you to the wrong state, maybe that's possible.
00:22:35
Speaker
But yeah, I think that's what I would like to do next time is maybe have an extra day or, you know, half day to explore. so I feel like we couldn't really do that. It's hard to explore. in your Yeah.
00:22:46
Speaker
Also, whatever whenever we go up for worlds, it is the weather hasn't been the best. The time of year is tough. Yeah, I mean, we I think each day i remember last year we had a day where it was really nice and warm. The sun came out for like, I don't know, like 30 minutes or an hour. It was literally an hour. And I think we had something like that, maybe a little less time this year. It was a lot better this year. like Last year was cold. It was really cold last year. Yeah. Oh, dude, the the year that my car broke down, remember that being real bad. So.
00:23:17
Speaker
Oh, hell. but Absolute hell. What about what about um did did all of us answer that question? I feel like somebody didn't answer that. I didn't answer the question. answer Sam, my my answer is the year previous.
00:23:31
Speaker
We went to the Milwaukee Brat House for dinner and tried to go again this year. And their upstairs was closed. And I i was very disappointed because I liked it quite a bit. So that's I was devastating. But we did end up going there later. the a few days.
00:23:46
Speaker
It was the same. I missed that. It's a different location. No, you came. but you You came late? Oh, I did come late. That's right. You came late. Yeah. You missed dinner. I missed dinner. and met with a friend for dinner.
00:23:58
Speaker
we Yeah, meeting up with friends. must be nice to have friends yeah to meet up with. No, shout out to my friend Ashish. He came up from Chicago to see me.
00:24:09
Speaker
Very fun. we We had a very lovely Italian dinner. Yeah, no, it was great. You are a good friend if they drive to Milwaukee free. I mean, it's not that close, but it's not that far either. I mean, it's just yeah long, far enough that it shows how much they wanted to see you. yes Yes, it was it was very lovely. And we had a very nice Italian dinner at...
00:24:27
Speaker
I'm going to blank on the name. That sucks. I know. It's Olive Garden. we're goingnna Yes. ah Mama mia, we went to Olive Garden. We're your family. Yeah, yeah exactly.
00:24:41
Speaker
um We're all family here. Any company that claims that you are a part of a family is a big green flag. Never an issue. Yeah, right. That's never been toxic once. It's never been toxic.
00:24:52
Speaker
I think that I want to get like a group together to go to the Lakefront Brewing Company. I think that and a lot of our friends would enjoy that. And it's such a huge area too, that it would be able to accommodate everybody.
Snacks, Strategies, and Doubles Tournament Insights
00:25:08
Speaker
get your we We got a lot of calories from beer. this Yeah. Yeah. it works Yeah. I ate probably the most Rice Krispie treats anyone has ever eaten in the history of the world. Stream 2. I was, yeah, I got Costco came in close. Shout out to Costco. We're not sponsored by Costco, but if, if they want to throw me a chicken bake or a hot dog for free, it's only a dollar 50, but still, you know, um I'll take it.
00:25:37
Speaker
But yeah, we got Miss Vicky's assorted chips. Very good chips. Love their jalapenos, jalapeno chips. Very tasty. Rice Krispie treats and, fruit snacks. And that was it was just nice to have some stream munchies. That was certainly we were certainly diving into our stream munchies.
00:25:53
Speaker
And if I liked to you enough, I offered you some if you're playing or if you're a nearby. You know, if you didn't get offered it, you were absolutely dead to me. We talked a little bit about the doubles tournament.
00:26:03
Speaker
Samuel and I had a great time at that. We did a little bit of preparation work before we went to the into the doubles tournament and kind of just came up with lists that we thought were fun. But I was saying it was really cool to see some of the concepts and lists that other people came up with.
00:26:23
Speaker
And it really made us think every game on how we were going to tackle like each of the lists. So Samuel, like what was your impression of like the doubles tournament? And what were some, what were some lists that like stood out to you?
00:26:37
Speaker
Well, my impression of the doubles tournament was that it was, ah like I said, my highlight of the weekend and probably some of the best X-Wing I've ever played. getting Getting to have have a second input from from you, and as i I mentioned this several times throughout the course of the tournament, but like we complemented each other really well. like I'm yeah a very aggressive pilot. You youre you you had more some more conservative lines that like kept us out of danger and and kept us in the game. the But they also just... like the So for context, the the tournament was run as a each person brought a 22 point ah half of a list. So you see you it wasn't a full 50 list. So the the power level was was different than a normal x game, um which was a very interesting list building constraint.
00:27:26
Speaker
and led to a very a fascinating metagame. So Andrew and I brought um Commander Poe, Teza, Biggs in the T65, and Boudica, which was, I thought, a very like ah a well-rounded mid-range kind of list. Yeah, we had we had a little bit of offense, some action economy with Commander Poe passing out coordinates and then a a pretty punishing combo of like, who do you shoot at? Because if you shoot at Biggs, then Bodeca shoots you. If you shoot a Bodeca base can absorb the damage.
00:27:58
Speaker
But we we barely scratched the surface of the synergy that was capable or possible in these lists. So we played against um my favorite list was that we played against was commandant Goron. with a TIE fighter and Wampa and then Manoroo and Kanan as the other half of that list. And that was nasty.
00:28:22
Speaker
yeah we We really had to like maneuver very carefully to crack that that defensive shell. Yeah, for for us, I feel that like our we had to get right with our like setups in turn zero and being able to bounce like ideas off of each other on how we were tackling this like really made our turn zeros probably some of the best turn zeros I've done like like as far as our setups go.
00:28:50
Speaker
I felt that we were on point and like having someone there to help you identify or you have to like talk about like who the threats are having someone else's perspective really just helps you think of things that you didn't think of and It made, I think, both of us like better players. It was also some of the best X-Wing that I felt that I played in my history of the game. like yeah ah Yeah, agreed. like i I firmly feel like I leveled up just from playing those same you know four rounds of the tournament. like
00:29:21
Speaker
I feel like i'm I'm a better X-Wing pilot having come come out of that tournament than yeah I was going into it. Yeah, it was cool when we when we showed up because we we came up with this list that we thought was like it was good. And it I mean, it was good. We ended up by going three in one.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah. On final table, losing it not only a final table and final dice roll. Yeah, it was that close. Yeah. um And i so, I mean, yeah, it was it was like we played really well, I think the entire way through.
00:29:52
Speaker
It was interesting to show up and then see see that there was a meta that had actually formed with this format. There were lots of people who were taking it like very seriously and were play testing it and had found that like this Kanan Yoda combination.
00:30:09
Speaker
allows Kanan's ability which he can spend a force have your opponent one roll one less die and Yoda just recharges that over and over and over again. So you can create this really defensive list and then we ended up playing against like that version of it.
00:30:24
Speaker
But Kanan plus Gorin Kanan in a lot of these lists like became like kind of this like meta warping piece for ah doubles which I thought was really interesting. It definitely was the sort of thing where you had to have either a very proactive plan to beat it, or you had to be doing the same thing and, and getting into a effectively like a pillow fight with Kanan on Kanan violence. Right.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah. And just outpacing it, you know, using the damage. Yeah. I, here's my contribution to this conversation. When did they, um, start doing doubles? Was that 23? twenty three it was It was definitely there last year, and I don't think it was there previously. So probably 24 was the first.
00:31:09
Speaker
I think we have to thank for adding that to the side because you remember it was just side events or just play games and get tickets like you yeah play more games, which is like fine because you can still screw around your friends. But I don't know. It felt like it's like little, little low effort from a planning perspective. I mean, well, Ace is high.
00:31:28
Speaker
Ace is high was always just the side event game. well and there was yeah the year that they did the like league play where you had the yeah the... Yeah, that's the bullshit. Just play games with friends.
00:31:39
Speaker
Claim that you played. Don't actually play, but say that you did kind of thing. That's what a lot of people did That never happened. That wasn't us. That wasn't us. That wasn't us. I will say the League, like when they had come out with like those cards that your pilots leveled up as you played more games.
00:31:59
Speaker
I did think that was that was pretty fun. There was some cool design space there. It's true. Yeah, I counterpoint to that. The game was already so broken that I like refused to use that stuff because i'm like, listen, this is already out of control. Your your thing could do like 19 different things at once. And my thing is one ability. i was like, but yes, in terms of the the concept of like instituting something like that, I think it's really cool. I just it was at a time when you were you had like the the battle of Endor, like B-Wings and all that stuff. Yeah, that was the end of the chaos. Yeah.
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah. So it's like, oh, I don't know if your suit here should be able to just add evade results or like trick shot or whatever. Right. It's like, I don't think that's fair. When you bear a roll, you get to use the two, a two. Yeah. Instead of. a one Yeah. I remember, i think my pipe I played one game and I was that was the year again where I think. um It was the was yeah it? Yeah, was it the car? trouble It was the car year. Yeah, it was. It was the car year. And I played ah just like a pickup league game with somebody and they had a ghost and they wanted to use like an ability that allowed them to like juke me. And I was like, we're not going to do that. We will not be doing that. We will be playing a regular game of X-Wing. I felt bad because he was just like wanted to play a casual game. but I was just not in the headspace to be dealing with some bullshit juking ghosts like I'm Yeah, not the Juke Coast.
00:33:23
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's... ah And I was just of like, oh, and I read them and i'm like, oh, these are like... These could break the already maybe broken game. was like, we could just like fool around playing a normal game of X-Wing because I'm a buzzkill. I'm not fun. i am an unfun person. just Just a hater through and through. yeah i'm just Yeah, exactly. A professional hater through and through.
00:33:47
Speaker
i will say, I feel that I mean, next year, my suggestion would be to have a doubles tournament be opposite the heats so that if people do like the Thursday heat, they can play doubles on Friday. and if they do, yeah, like vice versa. That is a very good idea. I think the having it having to be the primary side event was was interesting from a logistical standpoint, but ah it definitely gated a lot of people that wanted to play the event from. Yeah, so.
00:34:19
Speaker
Samuel and I were also on the team last year to play doubles and that was one of the reasons I had such a great time at that time where this was one of the events I was like looking forward to period talking with other players there to like I feel that doubles kind of has the juice to be its own X wing format.
00:34:35
Speaker
I don't know if you're able to play it like at your local game store because it's something that I typically do with like newer players. But I think that it would be kind of fun to have like a dedicated doubles tournament. And I know after playing this one, I was like bugging Nick the entire ride home, being like, we got to do this at at the good game shop. Like I played a game of doubles like seven years ago. um i just I didn't.
00:35:00
Speaker
and was It wasn't like a format I looked up. was just like, we're going to play X-Wing Co-op. ah So i can I can claim to be the architect to the one that and that no one knows about and that didn't share his designs with anybody of of doubles, at least apartment wing doubles. That's what all my claim to fame.
00:35:17
Speaker
What's the that was line from Mad
Tournament Challenges and Improvement Suggestions
00:35:19
Speaker
Men? I arrived at it independently. Turned out it existed, but I arrived at it independently. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Mad Men, but my favorite Mad Men quote is not great, Bob. It's definitely my favorite Mad Men quote.
00:35:34
Speaker
How are you? Not great, Bob. It's just so good. That's one of the the ever redeems in your Twitch chat. It is. It's very popular. Redeem Bob. The i was talking with Dwight about the the doubles tournament too and it. It sounded like talking to him that they did put a lot of thought and effort into it because they were really concerned. The reason why 22 points was the limit was because Vader is 23 and they had a rule that between both of you, you had to have a minimum of three ships because they were really worried about like double fire spray, double Vader. um coming back in and and doing something that could like warp the the format. yeah Some people just want to watch the world burn. You know, it's that's they're like, i i I thank you for the opportunity to ruin your life is what if people were able to do that, they would have done that. Oh, as should you would pay I want to make sure that you do not have any fun while we play this game. Yeah, let me let me tell you, watching watching Kanan charges re up to be reused again in the same turn was was was tough. It was a tough one fun level for anybody that calls me out. Yes, I did bring three ship Empire, including Vader Defender to a system open. So I will call out my hypocrisy there. But still, a fire spray Vader Defender doubles. That is too far, even for my low standards.
00:36:58
Speaker
I feel like there's always going to be people who will find the unfun list in any meta. Oh, I'm that person. I'm that person. I will always try to have the most competitive list, even in the casual tournament. Yeah, well, and then Sam and I rolled those so-called meta lists. Yeah, we did.
00:37:18
Speaker
That was fun. We had we had some I would say we did have that combination of like I do. I do think that our setups like we had a plan and it kind of worked out well in most of the game, like in most the games that we had played.
00:37:31
Speaker
yes There were some there were some variants on our side. But yeah, yeah we had some hot, hot dice. Biggs was a shadow ace. I felt like in a lot of the yeah the shots. Can you imagine a world championship where it's just doubles and like the final tables for people? And they're honestly, yeah, I can. I can. Yeah, I super can't imagine that.
00:37:52
Speaker
And I think it would be pretty interesting. The the one thing that I am curious, because i feel like with doubles, because you have someone that you're deliberating with, there is a time consideration to to keep in like mind with that, too.
00:38:03
Speaker
There were some there were some short round games. Yeah, played we played at least one game that went four rounds, which was which was pretty tough. You might as well have flying a gauntlet at seven TIE fighters.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah, pretty, pretty much. I was saying while y'all were having fun, I was I was getting worried that i we were going to have a gauntlet and seven TIE fighters go up against a gauntlet, seven TIE fighters and a final table. but The final table mirror of the swarms. Yeah, it was close. ah The bracket laid out that way. Yeah, it I don't think it would have been as bad as I think that you were like, oh, it would have been really hard. The ah to the top four game.
00:38:39
Speaker
I say this with all due respect to the players playing that game. I like five or 10 minutes into the game, like before they're even really going, I turned to Matt. I'm like, I'm not I can't do this. Like I just said, there's something prohibiting me from having the will to manifest the energy to do this game. And so I just like got up and I said, Chris and I waved Chris over. Shout out to Chris from NCX. Date times with Chris. Check him out on that Nickel City X-Wing. And I said, Chris, come on stream. And I just like walked around for a while.
00:39:08
Speaker
chatted with Greg. And eventually I came back. eventually came back. You just no-served the goth-mix. I, you know, and here's the thing. I don't even, like, hate that list that much, but it was just the... It was the... the the the games started to grind to a halt like in terms of pacing for the just like in in the importance of the games
Competitive Nature and Relaxation Methods
00:39:32
Speaker
increases so you have to be more methodical and i i just couldn't get on that wavelength um at that point and i needed like ah a mental reset to get ready for it for final table because again it's like a lot of ships and again this isn't me calling anyone a slow player just think this things were just moving really really really slowly and i just wasn't there yet so i just got up and know It was nice to have Chris be able to hop on. like you know I think that meant a lot to him. and it meant a lot to me to get him on there. But yeah, I did know sir for a bit. I was like, I'm good. and ah well I'll be back.
00:40:04
Speaker
I think that's ah that's like a perfect segue. is As the game started grating on you, and and it was a long weekend, is there anything that you did like afterwards as like a palate cleanser as a way to kind of relax and decompress after Worlds?
00:40:22
Speaker
I'll go. Yeah. i Yeah. i so I am your listeners may not know this much about me, but I am a creative writer. I have several novels in progress. And so i when I came back from Worlds, I, of course, play online X-Wing and play in NCX. And so that's been fun. i Excited for the 312 Team League.
00:40:44
Speaker
Shout out there. Yeah, but ah so I've been writing. That's been my palate cleanser from from worlds is just taking a hard pivot away from competitive scenes and and focusing on my creative side. i shout out to my writers group, the cro crooked trees. um We are working on a collaborative fantasy short story collection.
00:41:07
Speaker
So I've been writing that and we're working on my novels. that's cool have you do you have anything like published uh at the moment or any place that we could like check out some of your stuff as a matter of fact i do um give me a moment and i will find that uh while sam does that i can i can jump in yeah it is really cool he's we've talked about that before and it honestly makes me feel like i'm not doing enough with my five billion what feels like a lot of hobbies but that's like a really cool I don't i don't even to be insulting when I call it a hobby, by the way. Like, you know what i mean by that? No, it's it's. Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:39
Speaker
I'm not. I think people take the word hobby is like a derogatory thing. I never intended to be that way. I don't know when we started thinking of hobbies is like illegitimate things im like ah let people do what makes them happy and something good can come of it.
00:41:52
Speaker
That's literally this channel. So I my parents were in got got into town a couple of days before. um Adepticon ended, so I got the chance to show my parents this place that they helped me secure and they helped, you know, they were there really happy with the way it was looking and really proud of me and i got to work with them on setting stuff up and unpacking things and it was just like it was good family time so i spent a lot of time with my family um saw them almost every day for about a week and then we went to uh my birthday was on the ninth we went to bavette's um which is super hard to get into apparently um but yeah it was a good that was that was obviously like
00:42:34
Speaker
the week after that but still it was a lot of family time for me so i was a good palate cleanser for sure because i've been really stressed with like living in a new space and having a lot of things to do and uh revolving around that and obviously this getting ready for the team league we had conquest the next we uh two weeks after um yeah that was old i had a conflict yeah so i had to like i had to get i got home and was like now i have to set up my desk into all my computer stuff because it was in a box so i was able to get that done but yeah kind of a skeleton crew sort of vibe when it came to you know getting everything at the minimum set up to do that so yeah so yeah so your palate cleanser was work you just went right back to work was doing labor labor but labor with love with my family yeah that's yes labor yeah
00:43:23
Speaker
yeah Well, I have ah started running as a hobby, joined a run club.
Personal Hobbies and Creative Endeavors
00:43:31
Speaker
I'm going to be doing a 5k and on Sunday and i probably haven't done a 5k in like 10 years.
00:43:37
Speaker
Yeah. Amazing. When I first joined the run club in February, i couldn't run the full 5k. I had to like stop and walk. And so I've been training like every other day since then. And this past weekend, I went out for went out for a practice run for the upcoming 5K with the Run Club. And I was not only able to, like, keep up with the pack like I was able to keep up with the head of the pack and had a nine minute and 15 mile pace.
00:44:10
Speaker
And so I'm super excited yeah for this for this weekend. That's awesome. I certainly can't can't do that anymore. So um' that's that's awesome, Andrew.
00:44:21
Speaker
I know I'm basically making 2026 my year of fitness and I'm happy that I've actually been sticking to it. And I bought these expensive running shoes, so I have to use them. Yeah, there you go. yeah I need i need my my running shoes are so beat up. i need to I need to get new ones and I need to start running again.
00:44:39
Speaker
I will say, i this as somebody who has allergy-induced asthma, it is running I love to run, and it blows when you have to start battling with that. When you can't breathe, and you want to run.
00:44:52
Speaker
i'd be I'd be hitting all the puffs. I got my daily inhaler. It's supposed to help. You can also run in the winter, because when I started in February, I'm of the opinion now that 20 degrees is the perfect running temperature.
00:45:05
Speaker
Interesting. Because you don't overeat. Like i was running in basically a hoodie that I wanted to take off by the time I was done. I'm so jealous. I tried to do that. And I think my my lungs got so inflamed because asthma.
00:45:22
Speaker
Like I run with a neck gaiter like over my face and that helps like keep the air warm. So you're not breathing in like the really harsh cold air. Yeah, that's smart.
00:45:33
Speaker
um So yeah, you're going to want to do something like that. However, for your body's temperature control, it is nice. I'm going to have to start getting used to running in the heat in this next summer because we had one day like we always do in Chicago where it's 90 degrees out of nowhere.
00:45:50
Speaker
And I was writing in that and I was like, oh, this is different. Yeah, that's a different task. Way worse. So for our viewers, if you if you if you don't mind me shouting out a website for my writers group.
00:46:05
Speaker
Not at all. We can post we can post it in the show notes to crooked trees dot com. And that has our debut publication, which was a Migration of Monsters. So that's ah a short story anthology based around the idea of ah monsters are migrating somewhere.
00:46:25
Speaker
What does that look like? We all wrote different stories, all different different settings, different genres. I wrote a horror story, bunch of some several fantasy stories get written. it's it's ah It's a fun read, short read. They're they're pretty quick.
00:46:39
Speaker
quick little short stories. And then we up the ante for our for our second publication, which we're we're working on right now called Silk and Decay, which is a shared fantasy world. And we're we're writing much longer short stories in that in that shared world. We did all the world building ourselves. We've we made a map.
00:46:58
Speaker
We we drew a map together, which was super fun. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. So shout out Crooked Trees. Yeah, I'm on the website now and it's like just 90 pages for the first PDF. That's so cool.
X-Wing Releases and Community Involvement
00:47:12
Speaker
Yep. All right. Well, is there anything else that has been interesting people like this week before we close out the show? We've got upcoming new releases.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, those are exciting. Very exciting for points a stage. XWA stage, I believe leading that is on Sunday, this Sunday. Not sure when this is coming out, but that that is the 26th, I believe.
00:47:37
Speaker
Yes, the 26th is the stage and pretty good guess that that will be when points in content drop simultaneously on that day.
00:47:48
Speaker
And also, yeah, when do we find out the results of your election? All right. So they decide to make it a little complicated. The process. Let me read through. Hmm. There's a two-stage runoff. Committee members who are people already a part of the XWA, whether in PR, design, tech, whatever, rules, points, et cetera, can vote. And you can vote for three preferred candidates and then three backups who would be take over if your preferred candidates don't advance to the next stage.
00:48:20
Speaker
And then there's one more stage of voting based on those results. So there are 12 candidates. I am one of the 12.
00:48:30
Speaker
Greg is in there. JJ Guiron from Planning Faith Syndicate, Brian Lindamood, amongst many others. um A few I know personally, a few I don't. And basically what we've been doing is pitching our vision and What we're hoping to do and what we would like to see XWA do, as a reminder for folks listening, the council is basically kind of in charge of just continuing, you know, be being responsible for process, but not they're not we're not puppet masters. We're not kind of imposing any sort of specific will upon the group. We're really just trying to help lead or like project managers.
00:49:12
Speaker
in a way. So, um yeah, my my vision is to try to continue to keep players around and then we can look at how we can grow the game. That's very boring, just, you know, kind of summary. But that's what's really important to me is being a little bit more organized. And yeah, so we'll we'll see. I feel pretty good.
00:49:31
Speaker
um People have reached out to me and said that they're voting for me, which, ah you know, i'm like, okay, I don't know. messages like that but um yeah i i've ah I feel like I definitely feel like I could belong in a place like that and do a lot of good because I don't really have any sort of super strong opinions about the way the game should be. And because of my...
00:49:51
Speaker
balanced sort of situation with how I play versus stream. I don't feel too too tied to the playing aspect of the game as I could be, which I think is beneficial in these sorts of situations. So we will see. I think i think we'll know the results. I didn't really answer that part of the question at all. um In a few days. Yeah. Exciting. Yeah.
00:50:11
Speaker
You'll have to call me almighty supreme leader spirit. I don't know. is this that yeah Is that what happens when you get a Senate seat? as like i think you're Exactly. There'll be an immediate no-kings protest as soon as I'm elected.
00:50:29
Speaker
You're putting the Palpatine before the Senate there. We'll do a Zoom meeting, a no-kings Zoom, so that people can all join and you know shout no-kings at the top of their lungs.
00:50:41
Speaker
Oh, the Mandalorian and Grogu is coming out at some point like now? What is it out? Sorry, that's so unrelated, but that's a great question. When does that come out? Rogu release date is 30. Oh, May 22nd. It's in a month. OK, OK, but they did start advertising it pretty far in advance. I was going to say, I feel like I've been hearing about this movie for a long time. Yeah, it's just such a bad name for a movie. The Mandalorian and Grogu. I don't know. That doesn't that doesn't roll off the tongue for you. didn't No, it should be called like Pretty Wizard or something like I would see a movie called Pretty Wizard.
00:51:15
Speaker
yeah That feels like ah like a Sandra Bullock ah Dimension 20 crossover. Yes. Yeah. Maybe Sandra Bullock will be in the movie. That'd be fun. ah be That'd be a twist. And you'd be like hey just for the the the FCC, right? That's that's the FCC is the one that does all the censoring these days. Is that correct? Or is that FEC? I get the two.
00:51:38
Speaker
ah the The FCC, yeah, the Federal Communications Commission. Yeah. The FCC has mandated that Nicki Minaj also be in the movie, so we'll see her as well. So the movie's not too
Media Discussions and Personal Habits
00:51:50
Speaker
woke. Yeah.
00:51:50
Speaker
ah incident of Yeah, the movie can't possibly be too woke. That's well, I will say I did get a little upset when I heard that they were making The Devil Wears Prada 2 because I'm like, wasn't the whole point of the first Devil Wears Prada movie that you only succeed in the fashion industry if you get out like. Like that was the whole point of the movie was that she was like, oh, this is a toxic industry. I'm leaving. yeah We need an electric boogaloo. as Right. he So why is she coming back? Like there should never be devil's product just like there should never be a squid games to wonderfully put it because money.
00:52:26
Speaker
Oh, yeah. A thousand percent. Yeah. But it's like it can't be good. Yeah. No, it will be. I don't think it was under the ah assumption that it will be good. It's going to be good. Exactly. It's like, yeah, listen, the only only movie that has a number two in it that is worth a damn is Paddington 2. OK, wow. Shots fired at Toy Story 2, man. And Ghostbusters 2.
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah. well, that's that's a good dive. well yeah yeah or yeah spider-man 2 or listen toy story 2 as a kid i didn't like toys the only thing i liked about toy story 2 was when he goes they're at the airport and they're like going through the baggage thing that that was wild you didn't appreciate the existential dread inherent in immortal beings uh discovering that i you know you know when i think of toy story 2 i think of Yeah, no, I didn't. And i think when I think of that movie, I think of fat guy eating cheese, like cheese puffs and getting it all over his fingers.
00:53:25
Speaker
I have this visceral connection to like, when I think of that movie, that is the thing that I think of is like the the gross, like caked fingers. that you get when you eat cheese balls or cheetos because there's like a whole thing with him being really gross and i i don't know i just i think that movie grossed me out a little bit it also probably made me feel uncomfortable because like you said sam it's it was too too big and bold for my little brain to really just touch about death huh yeah no it's like no one dies right that was like my my my young so like nobody could die also cheetos are gross ah
00:54:00
Speaker
They are. Yeah. and And those cheese balls that you get in those big containers, they've always freaked me out. just like, oh, I don't even eat like super healthy, but it's a step too far. OK, I will say I am with you. I do not like the Cheeto dust on my fingers. That is. oh yeah yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is it. It irks me out. Yeah. Yeah. i I do not eat a lot of Cheetos because of that. You know how people like to do these things called like mukbangs? You know what those are? When people just eat a lot of food on camera and chew really loudly. It's like it's really it's like ASMR is really popular. Yes. And there are some creators that I see pop up that do them all the time. And sometimes it's like food I'm actually like...
00:54:39
Speaker
Like I'm like, oh, like I've heard of that place where that looks really good. But like whenever I eat something so gross like that, like has like grease or sauce or whatever, like leaking out the sides, like ah a smash burger or something. I like have to put the food down and wipe my fingers every time. And I don't know how these people can just eat with a straight face and have this just nastiness all over their hands and then just continue to eat. i'm like, ah ah, could never do something like that.
00:55:03
Speaker
i I will not be doing a 312 mukbang is what i' am I'm spoiled for now. the 312 food podcast is uh yeah we're gonna expand we're gonna do like every sort of thing like we're gonna do like 312 tech hour 312 food podcast you know sell my soul for an extra five dollars from the twitch audience what is it yeah we're gonna be uh doing a collaboration with like uh feastables we'll do the the 312 snack packs like Well, here's the thing. We have to find at some point we have to start a crypto sort of scheme.
00:55:39
Speaker
I mean, i don't know if we've lived as an organization if we haven't tried to scam people out of their
Gambling in Gaming and Ethical Concerns
00:55:45
Speaker
money. 312 coin. Yeah. Listen, if if the XWA elections aren't on Kalshi already, like, what are we doing now? my God. Oh, you are hilarious. That's what we got to do. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:56
Speaker
when will When will points be released on Cal? Yeah. Over, under on points released. What day Oh, my God. That would absolutely, absolutely absolutely absolutely be on Polymarket or Cal. Yeah.
00:56:09
Speaker
I want FanDuel odds for the next Worlds winner. That's what I want. That would be so funny. I listen and watch a podcast too. My favorite Cubs fan is called Locked on Cubs. and It's like a network of podcasts for like every sports team for every sport. and It's just like fans like doing a podcast about their favorite team. but It's a part of this network. and They do so many sponsor reads. and it's like this It's like, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel. They go on for like five minutes. I'm like... Oh my God. I just want to hear about my favorite team losing again. or in this case, winning. They've won seven in a row. So yeah, I'm i'm honestly ready for gambling just to be banned again, just so i don't have to sit through like FanDuel at any every ads and stake. think your bonus bets.
00:56:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just I you put it really well and I'm to be able to paraphrase it ah very well, Andrew, but when we did our first off topic and we were talking about all these sorts of things, you said something about I'm going to butcher it about how.
00:57:12
Speaker
the idea of being able to make money legitimately is so far gone from like the public and from like the everyday person that the only way that you could possibly pitch people on like improving their lives is by being irresponsible with their money and gambling and like doing like get rich quick schemes type stuff. I think it was basically that's me paraphrasing. Yeah. But you said it much better. That's definitely the gist. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm just like tired of like being like, I'm like, stop talking at me like I'm one of these people that's so willing to just like throw all my money away. I threw my money away on Lego. Okay, like let me deal with that. Yeah, we've all got our thing.
00:57:50
Speaker
We've got our vices for sure. I'm not a male in the 18 24, 18 to 35 demographic anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Hey, we should I guess we should just stick to sports. Am I right, gentlemen? We're getting way too into into the weeds on. yeah Stick to X-Wing.
00:58:08
Speaker
people I i had told you guys that people like actually thought I was going to openly talk about politics to worlds. I'm like, where did you get that idea from? Yeah. like why Because I've like on my like casual list chaos games with 20 people watching like mentioned like Trump, they're like, oh, no. Oh, no. I think we scared people because we did do a politics we launched an episode right before Worlds. Oh, okay.
00:58:33
Speaker
We got some pretty good feedback on it, though. We did, though. Even one person who said they disagreed with everything, absolutely everything that we said, but really really appreciated the conversation. was like... And I'm just thinking about like that Drew scheme. He was like, what do you mean by that? like What did you disagree with? What exactly? the Thank you. But what do you mean by that? That was that was ah and he's probably listening. And I do jokingly joking aside. I do appreciate feedback like that because I don't think I'm absolutely so self self righteous about us being right about everything. But if you can disagree with us and still get through the episode, that means that we did something right. How we did that episode for sure. And like at the end of the day, too, I love everybody in this community.
00:59:10
Speaker
I haven't met anybody that I've like really, you know, would would have a disagreement so bad that I wouldn't like play X-Wing or yeah. Like everyone still is hoping for the best for all of us.
00:59:22
Speaker
having Having come from other competitive games, yeah this community is is astounding. Seriously, a breath of fresh air, yes. Because i Sam and I are both in that Magic of the Gathering community. yeah oh i Which you can find you can find pockets of good people and and bring people fun yeah fun communities, but you know you sometimes... You won't find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Yeah, exactly. It's just like if a game or anything just gets that big, you're just going to find like a minority that is just very loud and yeah toxic. What we should do is the next X-Wing like Worlds that happens, we should just offer a Bitcoin to the winner and see what happens. Just just crank those stakes up. Is that your official position? Is the next WA Council candidate? No, the answer is no, it's not.
01:00:13
Speaker
yeah yeah it's Yeah, the stakes went from like fun, cool prizes to like everyone kill each other. Yeah. yeah yeah Hunger games, like literal Hunger Games. Well, so I wonder, though, there was something like that happened. And what happened was everybody just agreed to split the money. Well, and and that's peeking behind the curtain into competitive magic scenes. Like, you see a lot more of splits in top eight if they're allowed yeah for just splitting up the prize pool, redistributing prizes from the breakdowns of first place, second place, et cetera. Yeah, like that. Like, because it was like, once you got top 16, the prize pool was just so big that everybody was just like, hey, no matter what, we're just going to split it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, and it wasn't it wasn't that. There was some, I forgot, there's another game too where there was some controversy where like four of the players were, um basically hedging to get one of them into the top four spot.
01:01:13
Speaker
So, so that they could then split like the prize money. That's some collusion right there. Yeah, exactly. It just always, illusion yeah, it can open the the door for something like that.
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah. The second you put, you put money attached to that, like people, people start. Yeah. Not that saying that it was things of value. Yeah. Yeah. Like if we did have like cat, like cash prizes, if X-Wing, you know, was at a point where it could do that. I think that there is some good for that. It definitely makes more sense at an event like Worlds where people from other countries can come here. It makes the cost of flying out a lot more manageable.
01:01:51
Speaker
So like i get a little personal here for a second. Having been a a magic grinder for a good chunk of time in my twenty s um i I really damaged my ability to have fun with games ah by seeing everything as like a value-oriented
Competitive Gaming and Community Gratitude
01:02:09
Speaker
perspective. like yeah i was I was calculating EV on like video games. like and like Not in the like oh, I want to be budget conscious and and like not spend a bunch of money on video games, but like if I wasn't getting eking out value from my time, it was in my hobby space. couldn't have fun.
01:02:27
Speaker
i couldn't i couldn't have fun Yeah, it definitely changes the the incentive for it. Yeah. Because then it becomes a job if you're if you're actually playing for money. Yes. Where you're like, I need this money. Yeah, yes. Yeah, it was tough. It was a tough scene. Yeah.
01:02:44
Speaker
and And also for a game like X-Wing where there are things like bumps and little mistakes and it's easy to like oversee triggers. While you can't do that in like a world's level play, we're going to get like a lot more judge calls, a lot more benefits.
01:02:58
Speaker
there's a benefit of the doubt that gets taken away from your opponents. You know, if they're if they're just doing this to, you know, because they forgot something or they're just maliciously cheating. Yeah. The second the second you incentivize something and then you miss a trigger like I I don't have a reason to let you take it back. And that sucks. That makes for a worse game.
01:03:19
Speaker
I'm, I'm in X-Wing. I'm very much about, especially even in competitive spaces, I'm very much about letting the, the optimal result play out. Like, okay. If, if you were, if you should have taken a focus here and you, ah you know, like missed, missed your action or, or whatever, like, or like Mr. Trigger on a, on a ability, then that would have like changed the way the game played out. Then,
01:03:43
Speaker
i i'm I'm happy to do take backs and stuff like that, even at the world's level. year But that's that's coming from a place of I'm there to i'm there to enjoy myself and and to play a good game rather than like try and win it all. I respect that for sure. absolutely Well, gents, it's been a really good episode.
01:04:03
Speaker
yeah Yeah, this is fun. Sam, thanks for joining. Hopefully we can have you back a little bit more regularly. You know, we're not doing these all the time, but i definitely a valued member of the team.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah. Listen, you might live in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, my friend, but you're still a 312 crew member at heart and you're on the team league team. It's true. And back again, coming back, signed you to a 10 year, $10 trillion dollar deal.
01:04:28
Speaker
Oh, wow. no Yeah, know yeah i don't I'm going to have to ask the patrons for a little bit more money to make that deal happen. Salary cap really went up. Yeah, it really did. Yeah, it's all deferred. I'm passing it on to my kids. They'll they'll deal with the debt. so they're all They're all void years in my contract.
01:04:47
Speaker
they're It's going to be paid out in 312 bucks. you gotta make like We got to make one of those graphics, the like John Boy type graphics or like Fox Sports like injured and like put like a picture of you and be like 312 crew has placed Sam Gravener on on on the injured list.
01:05:06
Speaker
retroactive to april 20th with eye soreness yeah or carpal tunnel yeah carpal tunnel yeah yeah exactly all right who's doing our outro andrew you want to take us away here Yeah, can do. I wanted to say thank you to everyone for listening to this episode and continuing to support us here at 312.
01:05:30
Speaker
If you aren't already following us on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook, you should. Our links are in the description. And 312 is excited to be producing exclusive alt art cards featuring XWA pilots and upgrades for their patrons.
01:05:46
Speaker
Consider supporting us on Patreon and get rewarded with some awesome swag. My name is Andrew Kuba. I'm Samuel Gravner. And I'm Nick Sperry. We are signing off.
01:05:56
Speaker
Goodbye.