Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 24: New Year, New Conquest!
113 Plays1 month ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba and Nick Sperry discuss the recently announced 312 CONQUEST SERIES and the path ahead for X-Wing after Worlds!
312 Conquest Series:
Announcement Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JZpohWBP4cOnN00kQ2Vk1zsEU1fQzmQ4sXtbliTQtc0/edit?usp=sharing
Video Announcement: https://youtu.be/XGdpsR3DEnE
Tickets: https://www.ticketleap.events/events/312-squadron
Link to The Blues Brothers Bonanza: https://rollbetter.gg/tournaments/1877
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
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
Support our partner StrataStrike by using this link and checking out with code “312Squadron” for 15% off store-wide! https://www.etsy.com/shop/stratastrike/?etsrc=sdt
Hey, join the conversation, hop into our Discord! https://discord.gg/xknEegJw67
You can follow us live for weekly content on our Twitch channel: http://twitch.tv/312_Squadron
Like our page on Facebook for updates on future and current things: https://www.facebook.com/Squadron312/
Catch replays and edited content on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@312squadronChicago
Recommended
Transcript
Welcome & Episode Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
Hey everybody, and happy new year. You are listening to the 312 Squadron podcast. My name is Andrew Kuba. And my name is Nick Sperry. And welcome to episode 24. We are going to be kicking off 2025 in a really cool way. We're going to be talking a bit about the conquest series that 312 is doing in partnership with the XWA.
New Year's Reflections
00:00:22
Speaker
But before we get into that, Nick, how was your new year?
00:00:25
Speaker
Oh, it was good. It was a lot. Andrew, you had the pleasure and displeasure of spending New Year's with me last year and I didn't get sick. It was very chill. That's great. No, I mean, I had a lot of fun with you. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was just unfortunate that I think mixed alcohol over the course of six hours and then when the countdown hit is when my body purged the most.
00:00:48
Speaker
You know, it's graphic with everyone. It's all good. I mean, you're you're leaving everything bad, you know, behind in 2023. That's like, you know, you're you're looking forward to a better 24 bottom and go up from there. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my God. Yeah. No, 2024 to, you know, looking back on 2024, I think it was a good year for 312. I think personally, I think it was challenging in some ways. I learned a lot about myself and Um, I, you know, challenge myself and, uh, you know, definitely feel like I'm, you know, on the right track of like where I want to be in my life, just to be more existential and broad. So that's great hopefully is, uh, brings, uh, new and exciting things. and And on the three, one, two front, it certainly is. And we'll get into that, but yeah, it was good. It was dead though, Andrew. I don't know about you, man, but in the city, like Manny and I went to like Lakeview East and, uh, Andersonville, we ended, we started in Andersonville and ended in Andersonville.
00:01:43
Speaker
at Hopleaf and like nobody, except for at Hopleaf, nobody was really out. The bars were pretty dead and weekday, middle of the week. I guess it just wasn't like an opportune time for most people to like go out in the city. I was just surprised by that, but yeah it was it was a chill vibe. but Yeah, that that's fair. This this felt like a bigger holiday season overall. like I noticed personally for me, I was booked basically from Christmas Eve like through to New Year's. I just did a lot of house parties though for for New Year's and for like the holidays and stuff. So it was a lot less going out for me.
00:02:20
Speaker
To be fair, you know, I have been unemployed for a little while too, so the idea of doing a house party is like much more affordable than you know going out and spending money on that too.
00:02:33
Speaker
yeah yeah i Yeah. I got a thimble sized, literally a thimble sized green tea shot for Manny and I at this bar in Lakeview East and it was like $20. Oh my God. like is it like really genuine ice cream of so it It was a terrible bar too. it was like ah It was like a Wrigleyville bar in the middle of Lakeview East. It's called a f Friar Tuck.
00:02:55
Speaker
but oh i don' throw i know for i know yeah so wait really they they yeah is because it was usually It was honestly I could spill like it was like three drops like I was it was so outrageous and I Typically know what to expect going to a bar like that. I'm like I'm gonna get charged more than like other places like it's fine.
00:03:14
Speaker
But I was, we were both shocked. It wasn't even really like, you could, you know how traditional shot glasses? Pretty big, right? Like, yeah you know, like healthy size of like alcohol, not to say that alcohol is ever healthy, but ah it maybe you could probably normal quadruple the amount and it would fill the ah shock a proper shot glass. We're talking about the one that's on like Broadway and Milt Wellington, right? Right by the Marianas. Yeah.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah. Really? Yeah, it was really weird. I was shocked. I mean, it's been a while since I've been there, but I used to live right by there. And usually they have really affordable beer prices, bucket prices. That's shocking. Maybe they do that. No, that's just funny. Maybe they do.
00:03:54
Speaker
green tea shots are like the ah college kid shot of choice. And they're just like, let's just charge up the ass for it. like I could just be the New Year's premium too. But yeah, that could be. Yeah, it could be. um But it was no, it was honestly the chill vibes like you talking about doing house parties. I think that's the way to go. I i like going out to put myself out there and like be out. But at the same time, like I wasn't I was wasn't upset with it not being you know super loud and crowded and disorienting and and everything. and For sure. overboard I can't be upset about that. It was kind of nice. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say a couple of years ago, we ended up going out to like a a New Year's buffet deal at like in a nightclub.
00:04:40
Speaker
And that also turned out to be like not a lot of people there, um which was kind of funny. But we had like a dance floor like just to myself and my partner's friends like yeah the entire time.
00:04:53
Speaker
So, yeah, i'm I'm a fan of like those like low key. Yeah, exactly. Like those low key ones. I got invited to one of those like $50 plus like cover includes drink thing. And I was like, I hear like very bad things about these. um I if it's really busy, it just sounds like a nightmare. Like I said, Yeah, I've only done one of those and it's just been house parties to differ since. Yeah. Yeah.
AMG Support Ends & Community's Role
00:05:18
Speaker
So that's all you need to know. Right. For sure. But in the world of X-Wing,
00:05:23
Speaker
2024 was a year of a lot of change, though we did find closure towards the end of it. And I think that 2025 is going to bring so much better things for X-Wing moving forward. We've gotten a preview of that in 2024 and it's going to be interesting going to Worlds in a couple months and officially saying goodbye to X-Wing from the AMG era. There's an exciting year ahead planned for a supposedly dead game and the XWA has been cooking up some stuff and some of it we're partnering with. We'd love to talk with you here today.
00:06:03
Speaker
Yeah, so that we had that big announcement um that we all kind of like it was like it's like the you know when you're your ex like when you're still dating she says like hey we need to talk like you kind of know where it's going kind of thing like I feel like we all kind of could see the writing on the wall or at least feel some sense of like I think we're winding down I think AMG might make an announcement that you know, they're no longer supporting X-wing. And when it finally happened, and i um i was I was kind of relieved. and I was so relieved about this before, but it was just nice to like finally like you get the closure and like the words in front of you to see it, read it. And like that's from the horse's mouth like this is it.
00:06:41
Speaker
um Obviously, I'm not celebrate wouldn't be celebrating like the end of official support, but just know being able to not be strung along anymore. It just that felt good. That's I mean, that's exactly what it is, is that it's not being strung along and it's giving the community a chance to take over from there and make the game that they want. That it's something that we would not have been able to do had they kept stringing us along, basically.
00:07:06
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I don't even want to imagine what that would would would feel like. I mean, we we know, I think, what that's like. And you know just talk to your nearest friend who plays Armada, and they'll tell you all about it.
00:07:17
Speaker
Right. Yeah. At least they included Armada in that, but it felt kind of back and still still felt a little backhanded. But, you know, we don't have to dwell on that. No, exactly. Because we got better things coming up. Yeah.
312 Team League & Global Online Circuit
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah. So last year, we at the beginning of last year, we started the team league, the three one two team league, which is like an online series um league style with teams of originally just three.
00:07:43
Speaker
And then that was really popular and people had a lot of fun um making their own teams. So we did season two. with 75 people, um five people on each team. And we had independent players come together and be assembled on the teams randomly. And then you had other people assemble their own teams. Super fun. And I was starting to get a good taste of like online organized x-wing and like, just kind of crafting it and and making it my own, but making it an inclusive and fun and competitive yet competitive environments. and
00:08:14
Speaker
um Once the XWA beta points came out, it's like, well, you know, there are no consistent online tournaments anymore. um We used to get those. We'll talk. I'll talk a little bit about that in um you know in a bit. But like I was like, well, we let's just do a couple of like, you know, kind of casual online tournaments with these beta points. And we did two of them, the Revenge of the Deep Dish and the Blues Brothers Bonanza, which the names are super fun in Chicago. and those Those were really successful and we had a blast streaming it and the people who played in it had such a great time. I was like, well.
00:08:50
Speaker
In 2025, it's going to be the biggest year for X-Wing, because whereas in COVID, we didn't know what the future of X-Wing was going to be like because of the pandemic. Now we know what the future of X... like that That X-Wing is done from an OP, from an officially supported perspective. And so was it was really a dire need for us to kind of come together and unify if we want the game to be sustained.
00:09:13
Speaker
long term. Yeah. So I was thinking, well, let's start let's do a global online circuit. that includes people from, you know, there's so many X-wing players in Poland, there's X-wing players in New Zealand, there's X-wing players in Chile, there's X-wing players in Canada, obviously here in the States, yeah um you know, all across the world. um And unfortunately, our events have always just been pretty restrictive to the US. So I was thinking, just like galaxies with GSP, why don't we start an online circuit, one a month, with a invite at Invitational at the end of the year?
00:09:51
Speaker
And this the conquest series was born. And I'm super excited about it. Yeah, that's such a cool idea. I mean, one thing that I loved during the ca- the good thing that came out of the pandemic era was the global tournaments that were happening. And especially for me going to couple worlds and Adepticons and seeing a lot of my international friends who play X-Wing, that's like one of the only events that I really get to like engage with them and, and play X-Wing with them that isn't just, you know, talking online or in Discord. So opening like something like this up to the world again,
00:10:25
Speaker
after we saw how fun and cool that was in 2020, I think this is such a great idea. Thank you. yeah it' Honestly, just going historically speaking, you know what Dion and GoldSquadron did, kind of heating the call in 2020 during COVID to kind of unify X-Wing players globally, um really prolonged the the game's lifespan. We can't say definitively what would have happened if none of those events did happen, but we know that it was really vital and important for getting people interested in in staying interested in a game that we physically only ever played really in person. Right. Yeah. Online playing is more limited um for a lot of people. And now it's like pretty standard. People play almost, you know, people almost exclusively play ah both in person format and and online because of the accessibility and where TTS is is gone.
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah. And so, um yeah, this series is really, it's just such a huge opportunity for so many reasons, kind of extending beyond the fact that this is the biggest thing that 312 has ever done. But it's an opportunity to see kind of where where we're at. Like, you know, where' where's the player base at? um How are people feeling? Can we get people together and rally them together? You know, that's the goal.
00:11:45
Speaker
And it's going to inform XWA's OP calendar and how we structure events in the future as well, you know being able to partner with XWA in this series. um that's it's There's a lot of opportunities here and a lot of question marks. Turnout so far is already pretty good with our ticket sales. We've only been had tickets available for a day. And already people, the interest is pretty good. And so I'm i'm eager to see over the next three months before the series officially kicks off after Worlds in April.
00:12:15
Speaker
i What, you know, can we sell out? I really think we can and I hope you do. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, can we can we try to get we just need to reinvigorate people in twenty twenty five is the biggest test for sure yeah for X-Wing. Yeah, I definitely believe that as well.
00:12:33
Speaker
Um, so just to give some information just like on how this event works, I'm sure a lot of people are are going to be curious, you know, what, um, is, is different this time around and you know, how, how does the event work if you want to sign up?
00:12:48
Speaker
Sure. So I think the easiest comparison to make that I'll be making for this is to galaxies because it was like a world type online format um that GSP put together was widely successful and deservedly so. um So I was definitely inspired by the global approach, you know, obviously, including different time zones. So your boys are going to be up at two a.m., you know, starting streaming at nine, 10 p.m., like all these different times. So it's going to be really interesting for me. And I'm excited also like a little nervous about my sleep schedule. I've done it before when I worked with Dion with galaxies. I think I could do it again. But um essentially, instead of two events, yeah, it's going to say it's going to go at that practice.
00:13:32
Speaker
yeah just Yeah, seriously, it was it was really enlightening for sure. um So instead of two day events, uh, GSP, it was a day a day of Swiss and then a day of top cut. Uh, these are just going to be single day tournaments. Um, I'm a big fan of single day, like store champ style events with like a ah top two cut. Um, just because it, it gives people an opportunity to keep a part of their weekends. Um, them holding on Saturdays is going to be nice because even if you're playing, if you want to play in one of these, that's state side, but you're overseas, you can make it work because you don't have to work the next day.
00:14:07
Speaker
Right. You can stay up late on a Saturday night. Right. Yeah. Having to stay up till 3 a.m. or start at 3 a.m. both times, if you're out of your time zone, that's a big ask. Yeah. Yeah. And it gives us all a crash pad for those that are not going to be in that time zone. um The other thing I was waffling on was, you know, depending on the the turnout for each of these conquests, these qualifying events, I was thinking, you know,
00:14:33
Speaker
It's going to be ah either a top four or top eight that receive invites for each of these qualifiers to play in the global conquest in December, that like championship series to determine who is the the top conquest or, you know, the top conquistador. um And I was thinking, like, what do we do a Swiss with a top cut?
00:14:52
Speaker
Or do we do single elimination? um And of all the invite players just play as if they're in a top cut. And that's what we landed on was just and I think that works really well for people's schedules as well, is that you don't have to play in four or five rounds of Swiss and drop after two or three rounds. Like you you win, you keep going, you lose, you're done and you can enjoy the rest of your day.
00:15:13
Speaker
And I think that's time to mope. Yeah. Or you said time to mope it. Yeah, exactly. But I really do like single elimination. Like in the past, like my big baseball guy, the wild card series used to just be one game. I love like everything riding or dying on one game. I know that that could be tough with a big soccer football guy. So I'm a big fan of the single elimination. Yeah, like that. That's how the World Cup is to me that, you know, that makes sense.
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, um so I'll just go through the the schedule super quickly. um So April 19th is the debut of the conquest series. It's going to be the Windy City conquest to start us off. Of course, you know, Chicago based Central Time. um But then every month after that to December, we have a conquest. So in May, we have the Crumpet conquest, which is ah London ah GMT.
00:16:03
Speaker
ah time. We have the Gotham City conquest back in the States. That's New York City Eastern time. Very fun things. Then we have the Pierogi conquest, which is Warsaw, Poland in July. ah The date will be determined soon. We it just can't really pick a date like six months out. you know it's Well, when we get there with a couple of months, we'll announce it. Then we have the Bay Area conquest. It's going from all the way from Poland. Next month in August, we'll go but to Oakland, California and do a Pacific Coast or a Pacific time zone event. And then we're going all the way over to New Zealand in the Middle Earth conquest in September. The Empanada conquest in Santiago, the Santiago Chile ah local time zone there in October.
00:16:51
Speaker
We have the Alamo conquest, which is going to be um Texas, Houston. i That is going to be in November. And then lastly, local to Chicago back to Central Time, the global conquest.
00:17:04
Speaker
I know the the folks in in Europe, they make it not going to be happy about that, but i we got to just pick the the bed the only time zone that I think really makes sense. It goes to going back to ah Central Time. Yeah. I can't really please everyone with that, unfortunately. I was going to say, no matter where you put it for the finals, it's going to be, you know, it's going to be tricky like that, though you can do stuff like midday here wouldn't be so bad for some people that, you know, in in Europe.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah. And again, it's being single elimination and almost overwhelmingly likely to be on a Saturday, I think. Yeah. And stomach it. Yeah, for sure. but Yeah. So it makes the one day way easier to deal with. Absolutely.
00:17:48
Speaker
yeah We'll see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 qualifiers. And then the ninth event is the Invitational, is the
Conquest Series Details
00:17:56
Speaker
global conquest. So a lot of opportunities for people to play X-Wing. And what's great is the folks in Europe have multiple opportunities to play in a time zone that really works a lot better for them, which I'm really excited about. For sure. Getting more ah more involved overseas in a virtual manner.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. The tickets? Yeah. And I say tickets like, oh, yeah, you want to sign up. The first three tickets are available. So the Windy City in April, that's April 19th, the Crumpet conquest in on May 3rd, and then the Gotham City conquest on June 21st. Those three series as conquests are tickets are available now.
00:18:38
Speaker
um And they're going pretty quickly so far. I'm really impressed with how the the pace of of tickets. So yeah I'm going to I'm going to try to get this episode edited as quickly as possible and posted so that the links will be here at the bottom. Then you you'll still be able to sign up for these events.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and what's nice is being online, we can increase players, the player limit but as needed. Right now, they're at a cap of 48, which I think is is pretty sizable. I personally don't expect us to have um more than that, but I would love to be proven wrong there. Be awesome.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah um so then the the future events, we will update everyone and make sure it's very easy for people to to find out and know when um the the future events when tickets go on sale. Again, it's just it's just several months in advance that we want to be able to to to pick a date where I know I'll be here. Sometimes I travel for work.
00:19:33
Speaker
and or go home. So when I know that I can actually be here to to stream and host the event and we'll give people ample time to be able to to fit it into their schedule and won't be a last minute thing. Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. yeah So I guess the question, too, that's also on everybody's mind. If you're signing up, it's cool to play. It's cool to have the clout. But are there also going to be prizes as well? Yeah. So typically, what we're used to is you we we we pay an entry fee to events and we get ah participation price get participation prizes.
00:20:08
Speaker
um The tickets for this of these events are $5 each, pretty low relative to maybe what folks are used to paying for either in-person or online X-Wing tournaments. Yeah, absolutely. And what we're deciding to do is instead of making it a $20 to $30 entry,
00:20:29
Speaker
um We are keeping it very low and raffling off prizes to participants in every single event. um There will be a lot of opportunities to win prizes, but not every per player is guaranteed to get a prize. And there's a reason for that. A few actually. One is ah the manpower. and you know I don't like to say, oh, I can't do this. i I cannot do that on my own. I cannot send prizes across the world in you know hundreds of droves.
00:20:57
Speaker
um it's just not feasible and um we want to keep the entry fee so low so that people can play and and so that um Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to actually Do prizes if we if we made it free we couldn't possibly do it So with that said, well, then why is there a fee in general? It's online Why can't it be free? And that's a good and that's an important question to answer very openly um This is an opportunity for ah 312 and x the X-Wing Alliance. I'm going to kind of frame this more about XWA. If we want to do...
00:21:34
Speaker
the type of competitive and awesome, high-quality prize kits from a store level to convention level, like at PAX Unplugged or Las Vegas Open or Adepticon, for example. We need to raise some money. It's as simple as that. So we we we believe that we can ah raffle off really awesome prizes to a lot of players in these conquests, while also being able to raise a little bit of money for the XWA to be able to start their OP season off with with something.
00:22:04
Speaker
um Unfortunately, for creating prizes and and commissioning artists and maybe creating new dice in the future, it just costs money. So we just we really want to be able to to raise money for XWA in a way that allows people to still win prizes and be able to play for a very cheap entry fee. Yeah, for sure. That's really cool. I didn't know that part. That's really cool.
00:22:26
Speaker
yeah
Event Fundraising & Community Efforts
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah. So essentially, any operating costs, anything, we we we know we want to make sure we break even there. That but that that will not be difficult. i' not I'm not worried about that. But then anything else, any he proceeds. um it's not it's you know We don't have to view it as like a donation. um It's really just, it is, ah in a way, a fundraiser for the XWA. And it's really, really important to me that we seize this opportunity because you've got to strike while the iron is hot. And with the TEPTICON being just a couple months out,
00:22:55
Speaker
ah we This is a really important time for us to start a series like this ah because, you know, 2026 is really going to be the first full year under XWA and we got to be able to have resources to be to really put ah our best foot forward. Yeah, for sure. So since this is part a fundraising effort for the XWA, I'm guessing that it's going to be XWA rules then that this tournament structure is going to be. AMG points. Yeah, XWA.
00:23:27
Speaker
um XWA points, rules, any components. There's a lot of exciting stuff that's going to be announced pretty soon and teased. Anything new can be played in these events as long as they come out at the right time. um So again, going back to that word, opportunity, there's so much that we get to do with this series.
00:23:48
Speaker
and get to observe and and and really um we get to this series basically raises the tide for all the content creators for the organization for ourselves of course to be able to promote ourselves and put ourselves out there and try to to keep the game going in a really great community collaborative community effort.
00:24:09
Speaker
All right, so yeah, and then there's going to be a lot of time between now and April, so it's going to be exciting to see what that's going to look like then by the time the first tournament rolls around. Yeah, it's just really quick. I didn't mention, but it's important to note we're working on these really awesome acrylic plaques for every conquest winner. So they'll also win a really cool XWA with my say, x w I mean, like the artwork from XWA will be on the plaque, a cool like conquest trophy.
00:24:36
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. Yeah. No, that's, that's very fun. Yeah. I'll be adding that to the doc once I get the mockup done in the prove. So keep an eye on the Google doc. We'll link that in the description as well, where we announce and break down everything about this conquest series. Yeah. And so, and then also because there's a series of tournaments too, I, are you able to sign up for multiple tournaments?
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You can sign up for as many as you want. um It doesn't matter what time zone you're in. If you're if you're in the UK and you want to play in the Bay Area conquest, you absolutely can. Each each ah series has does have its own entry, its own ticket fee. So if you want to play in three of them, it's $15. If you want to play in one, it's $5.
00:25:20
Speaker
However, um just because we love and appreciate our patrons, they get up to three events entry for free. So just any if you're a patron or want to become one, you get some awesome perks for the series ah being a Patreon ah supporter. Yeah, oh that is a pretty big perk. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah.
00:25:38
Speaker
Well, cool. And then i i I know some people probably can like look at the the fact if they want to, but is there any like sort of like cancellation or if they can't like make a tournament that they register registered for or something like that? Or they accidentally miss, they oversleep and you miss it.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah, that happens. you know For whatever reason, you know ah no one really needs to care or probe. um Life happens. um they're They are transferable. They are not refundable. So we can always get you into another event um very easily. But just when it comes to to to the raw numbers and keeping track of everything, it's going to be a lot easier and cleaner for us if we just kind of you get the ticket. And then that ticket is valid for any other ticket if you can't make the the series that you got a ticket for.
00:26:22
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah. No, that's definite it's good to know. Yeah. um Let's see. Is there anything else? We have so a lot of these questions just to for you all how the sausage is made. We're reading from the FAQ. There is an FAQ I definitely strongly recommend going through on our announcement doc for this series that just kind of talks about ah you know the the what, the why, um especially when it comes to pricing. Invites will roll down for people who already have one.
00:26:50
Speaker
um you know most Most of these series or qualifiers will be ah four to five rounds of Swiss and no more. And with a cut to top two to determine the champion who wins that trophy. And ah yeah, we'll be using all the XWA rules, components, all that stuff structure like Andrew mentioned earlier. Yeah. And if anyone had like additional questions, we thought, you know, here would just be a good time to like talk about it and discuss it.
00:27:17
Speaker
sometimes yeah helps to to. Yeah. And we got a discord channel for the for the series. Please ask as many questions as you want. um ah You can also email us at three one two squadron at Gmail dot com. If you want to send us an email, you can. That's awesome. So you're going to be streaming all of these events as well.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's it's great for it's great content. like that There's something about streaming like high level or just like tournament X-wing that think gets everybody just amped, including myself. And so I will be streaming all of these. I've also already reached out to different um content creators and community organizers in these different time zones about partnering with them.
00:27:56
Speaker
including Harry Nick, who's in Australia. He talked about doing some commentary together, talking to the Sith Takers. I'll be on their podcast talking about the series ah next week. So ah it's going to be a really good opportunity for not just me and us to be so covering this, but for other ah partnerships.
00:28:15
Speaker
creators to get involved no that's even better i mean and also for the rest of twenty twenty five going to that series like watching the the meta unfold in real time just having like all of the the commentary and the viewers for those games like that's just that's going to be so great for x-wing in general especially you know, working with partners across the seas, too. Yeah. I mean, and as I put it in the announcement video on YouTube, for some people, they're going to think that, you know, they're going to look at worlds as they're as a door closing, as they their journey and X-Wing ending. And it doesn't have to be. And I think people seeing that immediately after
00:28:50
Speaker
all of these you know these events with dozens and dozens of players, with dozens and dozens of viewers ah coming together and still playing X-Wing. It's never... so were The goal is to just not feel like X-Wing ever ended because it's not ending. It's officially not being supported anymore. And you could never truly replace a public corporate entity supporting a game with this IP. like We got to... you know We acknowledge that. But we can certainly make an effort to ah continue the aspects of this game that people really love the most. Like I said before, you know, I think there's a lot of other people who think like me that, you know, X-wing is still fun. You can't take that away. So I'm still going to keep playing as long as it's still fun. Yeah. And, you know, I there's a little bit of tough love, but for people who are sometimes you can it's an easy
00:29:43
Speaker
ah when you're looking for an out or you're done or you're just ready to to to move on, which is totally fair. I understand. People will use like Adepticon being the last world as a an excuse to do so. um You don't have to stop playing. yeah If you're not feeling it anymore, you know you have an excuse. But I encourage you to, especially those who are skeptical about XWA, to you know just give give us a shot. ah Put some faith in us. And you know there's a lot of people putting in a lot of effort and passion.
00:30:13
Speaker
and care and time into this game and and keeping it going. And I think the most respectful thing to do is to you know give them give them a shot. You know, I will, I will say if you are a scum or CIS player, X wing or XWA is for you. Definitely. yeah especially yeah Well, I'd say both definitely come back and give it a shot. Cause the changes they've been made are nice. I am taking scum to a tournament this weekend that I would have never said that in the, uh, AMG.
00:30:46
Speaker
passed oh yeah yeah There's a lot of really cool reasons to take out XWA. Yeah, absolutely. there' It's exciting and it's intimidating on being on the inside, just with with really the task at hand. But we're ready for it. you know We've been planning. and We've weve spent had a lot of time to be able to get in a position to be ready. and I really think that um the best thing that we can do, just going back to this the the conquest series, is to to keep playing. So if you have the opportunity and you're able to spare the five bucks, um you know of course we never take anyone's hard earned money for granted. But if you are able to, we definitely encourage you to sign up and play. I think you'll have a blast. And keep keep looking out for more events from other streamers and content creators, and especially from the X-Wing Alliance.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So is there anything else that you'd like to mention before moving on? um Honestly, just want to echo one more time just how big of a deal ah this year is going to be for the game of X-wing. It's hard to put into the right words. just you know, the kind of magnitude that i've met it really carries. But um this is probably the most important time ever for this game. And, um you know, if you really do truly care and love the game, as I believe all, if not, you know, most of you overwhelmingly do, um you know, we got to we got to band together. So, ah yeah, i I'm excited to try to play my part in and helping that happen and and hope to have you guys.
00:32:15
Speaker
Yeah, I was just going to say just from my own you know personal experience, like I've been lurking in the XWA discord in and ours as well. um I'm very hopeful for the future of X-wing more so than I was last year at this time.
00:32:33
Speaker
um And I've just been really heartened by how easily at our local store, we've been able to see people shift into XWA and have fun building lists and working in that. I mean, it was the easiest thing on the world, I think, for our for our store from just my own personal heuristics. But then seeing people online i talk about XWA and all of the work that A lot of people I know and my friends are like have have put into it. um You can really tell that the community is putting their their passion i into this project and and putting everything they have on the line to make this as successful as possible. And it's really cool to see. Yeah, well said. I really appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, it's not that, you know,
00:33:25
Speaker
Ultimately, folks chose to volunteer their time, but it's just volunteer work. you know no one's No one's expecting to get paid, but just the amount of effort and attention to detail, it's yeah it's it's definitely worth with meant worth mentioning um that full-hearted good intention behind this.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah, we have such talented people who like play X-Wing and they're using their own personal expertise and like years ah of spent with this game, some judges, you know, people who run tournaments, things like that. um Getting together with people all over the world to yeah keep this going is just so freaking cool to yeah set asideing differences or any little rivalries or anything just to work together. It's been really cool to see. Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:11
Speaker
Are we shits and gears?
Blues Brothers Bonanza Recap
00:34:12
Speaker
We can. So speaking of the online tournament scene, kind of we you had you've been having a lot of practice with that already with the XWA points because we recently just had the Blues Brothers Bonanza. um And while I unfortunately didn't get to play in that, I i i was paying attention to it ah pretty closely. And we can talk about how how that went, how that experience was.
00:34:39
Speaker
i running that and then the tournament itself. Yeah. Yeah. the So the Blues Brothers Bonanza was on December 14th of twenty twenty four. It was so last year, um but it also was just not that long ago. It was ah but less than a month ago, three weeks ago, which is really wild. That's so much time. All the holidays, all that's passed in between. But it was a free ah tournament. It was kind of, ah ah you know, another XWA beta points practice. what's What's nice for the points team and just for data purposes is to get folks to play with a competitive edge with these beta points to really see, okay, what are people riding or dying on list wise, what factions when yeah it's time to try to win an event. And um it's been fascinating to see the faction disparities, the archetypes, a lot more variety, which is really exciting. Yeah, I mean, that's a good sign off the bat, I would say.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, you know, the turnout was great. We had we had 30 initially signed up. We had probably ah I had six people no show, which is the most I've ever had in my experience being a CEO, but we still had 24 game day play. um And we did four rounds of Swiss and a cut to top two.
00:35:56
Speaker
And um yeah, I was just looking through the list right now and roll better. yeah There is a lot. I think every faction is represented. Yeah, every faction is represented. ah And the top eight have i almost every faction in them. um Shockingly, Rebels is, I think, one of the only factions that are missing. ah and ah Republic.
00:36:22
Speaker
are the only two that are missing like in that, even in that like top eight, there was a lot of scum that showed up to this one. There was a lot of sky. yeah I wonder, there's not a ton, but I was wondering if I lowering like Fenrao to five points had anything to do with that, but I'm not really even seeing too many Fenrao lists. There's been a lot of scum without it.
00:36:45
Speaker
So yeah, I think that is kind of an interesting thing to see, too. I mean, the the top four scum list was just cast scarlet and seven mining guild ties, i which, wow, that's a high variance list if you can get it. But when it works, it my oh, my gosh, it works. Yeah. Shout out to Tony. He's he's he had initially put in like a ah list with like seven rogue squadron.
00:37:09
Speaker
or or the rogue star fighters rather. Yeah. And then switched it to seven mining guilds in Cath. And that was ah we had that on stream. Definitely recommend if you look up that Blues Brothers Bonanza or just go to our channel. so Imagine googling that. You will find that game. It was very entertaining. um He did really well. He went three and one.
00:37:28
Speaker
And just the fact that you could bring a list like that, I, you know, honestly, even a 2.0, I don't think you could ever run an eight ship list with a fire spray in it, you know, but here we are. Like this was a thing you could do. Yeah, that's a lot of a lot of bodies to go through a lot of high agility. And yes, but he didn't win the whole thing. He did very well, but he didn't win the whole thing.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I just that that was like the wackiest list that stood out to me. Oh, for sure. Yeah. yeah and And having it do so well is kind of cool just to see in this this Wild West that we have going on with the XWE opinions points right now. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, you can just do just talk about that, that final game, that list. that Yeah. Top two.
00:38:10
Speaker
where we have resistance versus separatist. Yeah, that was a really, that was um a one point game. But at the end, it was, it was so close. And there was like a couple of shots that could have gone CIS his way to win. But Andrew Oler, um aka And Ross, a really good good buddy of mine, one of the sweetest guys and he's really good at X-wing. Been playing it for a long time. ah Andrew, have you ever played that? You did. That Heretani list with, with Garvin, yeah um Kyle, like he created that list. He is the guy that like made that list a thing.
00:38:44
Speaker
The yeah, that's that's awesome. one of my One of my favorite lists. Yeah. and Yeah. what Yeah. Favorite to play not against. It's not really fun to play against. Oh, how many times when I when I first started playing that I I'm sure he must have had the same experience when you when you do the trick for the first time of passing evades to people and your opponent goes, Oh, and yeah, I know. Yeah. Right. yeah That's so good.
00:39:11
Speaker
ah chefs kiss Yeah, so yeah he brought a four ship list with two resistance bombers. um Those bombers didn't have any bombs. Instead, they had like a combination of veteran turret gunner. ah Yeah, one of them had like page, page Tycho and they both had perceptive copilot. So yeah, um it was a four ship list. You have those two bombers Finch and Kat to be specific.
00:39:34
Speaker
And then you had a logistics division pilot. I won generic. i What is the ah it's the resistance transport with R3 Astromech, M9G8, novice tech and ion cannon at five at four points. I haven't seen the couch since yeah late. And I know gouch it's the couch and that he had Poe Dameron, the ah commander, Poe, ah the five point version of Poe and XWA beta points with R4 Astromech predator and heroic.
00:40:05
Speaker
So the trick essentially is these bombers have you know the three dice primary and they have a rotatable turret that they can double tap with. And M9G8, you double lock with R3, both transports. And every time they shoot four times, if they're double tapping, they get to reroll an attack die and they have to focus tokens. Yeah, that's yeah. Just that that poor man's double mod.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah. um And and also just so much health to chew through three shields and nine whole just got. it He had 12 hit points on both of them for a pretty cheap price, you know, six and five respectively. um But what Page Tycho lets you do on Finch is after you shoot your primary, you can rotate your arc. So if somebody like touches you, you can be like, great, I'll just rotate my arc and get a double modded shot into whoever else I want to shoot at now. Yeah, essentially turning a ah for a for ship list into a pseudo sick five or six ship list. Yeah.
00:41:08
Speaker
Yeah. And so it's really good. Really, really good ah pattern analyzer on Finch. She could just park there and double focus, um you know, with pattern analyzer. And yeah, just really a really cool list. um Something I expect to get maybe a soft nerf, ah especially because logistics division pilot is kind of randomly able to do way too much in this list. Like, ah you know, the R3 M9G8 efficiency plus an ion cannon plus coordinating ability and jamming. It's just a lot.
00:41:38
Speaker
for four points. Oh, for sure. Even just adding a three dice gun to that, yeah. Yeah. 100%. But it was ah honestly just really a breath of fresh air to see ah two two bombers, not just one, two, ah play all the way to the top of of this event. And um you know to see ah Sam, our 3-1-2 crew teammate, he's been playing this list as well and having a blast. I played against it and barely won. But it was kind of a weird game, dice-wise. So I got lucky there. But it was really nasty. yeah It does happen. Yeah.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, potential's there. Do you want to talk about um the CIS list? Yeah, with JP Gonzales. um So we do know that there was two bombardment drones with proximity mines. The Geonosian prototype with energy shell charges, Kraken, repulsor-lit stabilizers. ah And then there's another Geonosian prototype, but with energy shell charges and synced laser cannons instead.
00:42:44
Speaker
with repulsor of stabilizers, uh, general Grievous making to come back. He kind of went away for a little bit, but good to see general Grievous again with impervium plating and solace one. Uh, and then CAD Bain with proton cannons, contraband cybernetics, Zandu blood, and the DRK probe droids. Um, and that one, yeah, in the rogue class star fighter.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah, this list can do so kraken kraken and the drk one pro droids are the two like x factors that make this list unfairly. efficient. um You also got the proximine carriers that you got to be careful with because they can launch them out the front with the bombardment drones. But to come into an engagement with a calculate and a target lock and multiple locks because the HMPs get to basically reroll per friendly lock. So they get to like share locks. It is a lot of cheap efficiency, really dangerous guns. Yeah.
00:43:40
Speaker
One of the highlights of that game was in the end game, Poe was on like one or two hole and he and Andross like destroyed a ship to like take the lead and Cad Bane was like didn't have a shot. But he used his ability to like barrel roll into range one.
00:44:02
Speaker
of Poe. Oh, my God. To get like a kill shot. Yeah. And it we like it was incredible. It was like it's such a strong recommend you guys watch that game because it was awesome. um And unfortunately, like he biffed the shot like the he had three shots in a bow and he couldn't finish them off. And that was why he lost. But it was a really you know spoiler alert. But you'll you'll forget this but time you watch the game. Yeah. an Epic game. Yeah. I mean, but I was going to say like, you know, the I mean, a good final game where, you know, both players are are playing at the top of their ability. You know, sometimes it does come down to dice like that is just the the nature of that RNG. Yeah. Yeah. It is ah but one of those things you you everybody's like on the edge of their seat, you know, for sure. Yeah. And then sometimes Poe has blood armor. Yeah. Right. Yeah. it's Commander Poe, after all. Exactly. Yeah. So good.
00:44:57
Speaker
Um, but yeah, though this, this event, uh, like honestly, it was a really good practice, uh, to, to put on, uh, it's not my first online, uh, event, but you know, i've I've been wearing the TO hat for a long time for in-person X-wing and just getting to know role better, better, and offering people opportunities to play what just feels like a little bit more meaningful X-wing than the casual pickup game. It was really fun. and Yeah, for sure. Very, very successful.
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's always good. Like, I think it's just going to be good training for a lot of people too. If you want to get into larger tournaments, like if you want to go to LVOs or Adepticon, like things like that, playing in these online tournaments is a great way to to get your foot to the door. If you're like ever like nervous about going to like a tournament that has like this level of players and like this level of competition as well. So that's like another important.
00:45:51
Speaker
aspect for these online tournaments. And I highly suggest that people you know sign up for them. Plus, it's nice to get familiar with Tabletop Simulator if you want to play with people outside of like a local game store.
Online Tournament Benefits
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah. And try to try maybe lists or ships that you don't have the means to play, whether it's like you just don't have the ships or yes it's not a faction to usually play or whatever it is like. Or if you're thinking of buying stuff. Exactly. ah Yeah, you can try before you buy here in in an actual you know competitive environment.
00:46:19
Speaker
and You don't have to worry about forgetting your you don't have to worry about forgetting your range ruler in the hotel room or your cards at home. That's true. Yeah, you can just respond. That's like an imagine being able to do stuff like that. You'd be a magician. People would look at you funny if you could do that in person. That's right. That being i do that is huge. And if you have a very rough game and your opponent's cool with it, you can flip the table, which is always fun. yeah Exactly. Yeah, that's always.
00:46:48
Speaker
That's ah actually I had to play Andros ah for Nickel City X-wing semi finals playoffs. And he steamrolled me in many ways and ah like a jokingly like it was on my stream to a stream to my own game. um And I just flipped the table at the end. It was really funny. I understand that wholeheartedly. Yeah, we had a good laugh. It was it was a good time. Yeah. But yeah, so lots of. ah Just lots of things to look forward to. I like to keep myself busy and boy am I going to be doing that. you know Monthly tournaments is definitely the thing that people have talked about doing and us doing and and and finally doing that on ah on a global scale is is going to be it's going to be pretty epic. I might be tired sometimes, but it'll be worth it. No, absolutely. let's Was there anything else, Andrew, before we ah wrap up this special
00:47:39
Speaker
Episode 24. No, that is it for me. All right, everyone. So make sure you guys continue to show your support for the game. We love Star Wars X-Wing by showing up to play, continuing to play, fill out those feedback forms for the XWA beta points. And we hope to have you in the 312 conquest series.
Community Appreciation & Future Plans
00:47:58
Speaker
Again, all the pertinent links will be in the description so you guys can get on the virtual board and playing with us starting in April. We'd love to have you.
00:48:07
Speaker
um Also, we wouldn't be able to do things like this if it wasn't for the amazing and generous support of our patrons. You get some awesome benefits like cool swag in the mail every few months, like commission cards and tokens and dial covers and all that jazz, as well as up to three free entries in this 312 conquest series. So if you want to support us and go the extra mile, we'd love to have you and really do appreciate you.
00:48:31
Speaker
You can sign up link in the description. Check out our YouTube channel. Make sure you guys watch our replays there. You can catch up on things in our Discord if you join our Discord and be a part of the conversation. And you can like our Facebook page if you want more updates on what we're up to. Thank you all so much for all the support you have given us since 2019, end of 2019, when we first started streaming games without a name to now and heading into 2025. We hope you have I had a good 2024 and we look forward to sharing awesome moments with you all in 2025 and beyond. My name is Nick Sperry. I'm Andrew Kubar. We'll catch you soon. And have a happy rest of your year.