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Episode 38: The 2026 Champion
69 Plays1 day ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Andrew Kouba and Nick Sperry are joined by the 2026 WORLD CHAMPION Tony Marchand, as they discuss Adepticon 2026 and a monumental success for both 312, XWA, and Tony!
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Transcript
Tony's Championship Reflection
00:00:00
Speaker
All right, Tony. Hey, dude. Congratulations on your World's 2026 win. Show the camera that trophy. It's pretty awesome. How are you feeling, man? Pretty exhausted. Yeah. You feel good felt good about the list? I know you had been posting pictures, flaunting your cool paint jobs of the bombers for for a while. You're like, this is what I'm bringing. This is the progress here, the paint jobs we've been working on.
00:00:18
Speaker
How'd you feel going into this? Did you feel like four FO bombers in ah in a Zai shuttle was going to beat the aces, beat all of that scum that was out there and take down you know a really nasty eight-ship b list this gauntlet and seven ties? Yeah, so I think the first off I want to say how I got introduced to the list and that was i was flying Boba before Boba went up to 21 points with three key Megillah's. I'd probably be sitting in the stands at this point watching this instead. Let's have wall Murdered me. so se does that sometimes yes So he introduced me to the list.
00:00:54
Speaker
I kind of ah tweaked it a little bit and then just tried to, you know, learn it. I haven't really found a lot of things except for Kylo René, René, one of my Airbnb roommates from Denmark. But yeah, the mirror match was the hardest thing. But mostly i think...
00:01:12
Speaker
There's a lot of my streams out there, but people still, I think, really do underestimate
Community and Prize Support
00:01:16
Speaker
the list. um So great showing. I'm super happy that you know that the community has picked up the you know the game.
00:01:25
Speaker
ah really like the game. i like the guy the you know everybody that's in here. It gives me my passion for something other than you know my family. um So that's what I like to do.
00:01:39
Speaker
like this i like this um you know the game and you know what it brings you know joy to me when i play. The price support here was amazing. AMG gave out basically everything that they had and Dwight and the OP team was just giving stuff away. So much stuff that my bag's really heavy as I come back and keep going to the airport this afternoon. So, but it's pretty, it's pretty amazing. I look forward to next year. You know, it's- Defend your title, man. Defend my title.
00:02:12
Speaker
Who knows if the points will adjust accordingly. So the bombers have to be retired. Who knows? But yeah a lot of gauntlet lists out here today making up into the top four.
00:02:23
Speaker
i had to play my last two rounds were gauntlets.
Practice Makes Perfect?
00:02:26
Speaker
um So I think I think my list was not meant for it, but is a very hard counter to the gauntlet lists just because of the bombs. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, how much practice did you get with this with this list?
00:02:42
Speaker
so much um and i've had people go you know hey i tried your list it's so confusing uh i can't i can't get all the triggers down and every single day when i go walk my dogs for the last like three months i i recited the list my dogs are probably little sad hearing me talk all like out loud to them but um but yeah no that's what i would do every morning and you know try to just I don't really have a community in Flagstaff, Arizona, where I live. um My closest ones are in Kingman and in and in Phoenix. but um
00:03:13
Speaker
So the online community is where i know I practice. And I want to say a great thanks to everybody that that did play a game with me. you know it it It really did help. And, um yeah, so...
00:03:26
Speaker
but Yeah, it's a but's a lot. This was 18 games ago. I had never put this on the table for real. Wow. I mean, it's, it's, uh, I want to say that when you play enough X-Wing, you have a lot of intuition that takes over and, um, practice I think is really valuable and excellent. but I think people over
Strategy and Adaptation
00:03:41
Speaker
practice a lot. And if you practice a thousand times, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to have success or the kind of success you expect.
00:03:47
Speaker
Uh, it's really comes down to, uh, your experience playing the game itself, your experience playing against other people and their lists and how they play. and your own intuition your own instincts your own decision making skills and the risks you're willing to take right and uh sorry about the hiccup there but hey do congratulations world champion 2026 tony marchand thank you right thanks for everything you do too thanks man safe travels dude thank you
00:04:10
Speaker
you are listening to the 312 squadron podcast the podcast that just streamed worlds my name is nick sberry and i'm andrew kuba i'm tony We are delighted to be joined by Tony, the new world champion, 2026 and the first of the X-Wing Alliance era.
00:04:29
Speaker
Tony, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations. I'm sure you're still processing, right? I would be. No, absolutely. Lots of lots of messages and from people and still can't believe it all happened. So yes, still processing. Well, guys, it's been yeah it's been chaotic. um but ah So we had our trip to Milwaukee at four days of X-Wing just this past weekend. And now back here, I've got Patreon stuff to handle and I've got a new place to move and unpack into. I've got my office space to set up and I have a deadline for that because the
00:05:03
Speaker
conquest series starts next weekend so it's been action-packed but uh i'm sure we're all kind of processing uh this past weekend for different reasons especially for the guy who won the whole thing it was yeah had a great experience though uh tony how are you feeling well we'll talk about how we're all feeling but we'll start with tony Yeah, ah recovering. um still can't you know Still missing a few things at work just because ah you know my brain's still a little bit of a mush, I'll be honest with you. But yeah, no, it's it's great. Great to be home. But yeah, real excited to to be the inaugural XWA world
Sensor Buoy Tactics
00:05:43
Speaker
champion.
00:05:43
Speaker
Now, this was a world championship where everyone going in was talking about the Empire Swarm list or Fen Rao and Boba Fett in the scum lists. And those were kind of the two factions that everyone thought were the strongest going in. But you came in with a very unique FO bomber list.
00:06:07
Speaker
How did you prepare for this world and what went into making that decision? So unfortunately, i don't have a local community to you know, to to play X-Wing with.
00:06:21
Speaker
I live in ariz Northern Arizona, so I can go to Phoenix, which is two and a half hours. I can go to Kingman, which is two hours, but i don't have anybody to just go for a game night.
00:06:33
Speaker
So my game nights are all online. So the community is everyone that I play with online. And I appreciate everybody that saw me post and go, oh, I got to play that list again. why not?
00:06:46
Speaker
And how did I get to the list? I was playing Boba, custom Boba and Three Key Magillas. I'd probably be not doing a whole lot at this point with you guys if maybe I didn't get my butt handed to me by Sevlaw. And he'll say that he you know he he got the list from Jammin'.
00:07:04
Speaker
And I tweaked it to more of my play style. And that's, you know, less, maybe a little bit less munitions than they those two carry. And I like the more bombs. I don't mind the high aces at all. The bombs, hate the I think, I really think it's a ah very good counter to the gauntlet lists and those high ac kind of ships because they don't want to be behind my bomber list where they want to flank. It makes them have to really think about, you know, how to approach my type of list.
00:07:35
Speaker
I've watched people take five to 10 minutes of to set up versus me, even though like I can have my entire list down or just my iTunes and they'll still sit there and hymn and haw over Do I put them right in front of the buoys? Do I put it right over on the side and avoid the buoys? Do I go all in on the buoys?
00:07:53
Speaker
It's a very mental gymnastics for the opponent to try to figure out what to do. Yeah. Yeah. I have some thoughts on the sensor buoys in terms of what I saw from the matchups we had on stream, which we had a couple. And then I'm i'm curious how it related to your experience off stream, right? Most of the event you didn't play on stream. Mm-hmm.
00:08:12
Speaker
I saw your opponents set up in a way where they couldn't actually get shots on them. Like it was an afterthought or they just didn't care. And I think that was a mistake. You know, whatever the buoys are free, right? For you, you know, they shoot them down. You don't lose any points. They don't gain any points.
00:08:29
Speaker
But with feedback ping and what you can do with his eye shuttle, it's ah the jamming that we saw you jam with it. with them, it's incredibly powerful. And it's gives you it's almost like what an E wing can do, right? That turn one or turn to that that really far extended lock that you could get.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. Can you tell me walk me through how often your opponents actually recognize the value of the buoys and tried to do something about them before they became like an actual like factor of the game to help you win? Sure. So out of the 10 rounds that I played, I'd probably say four times, at least once, the opponent didn't understand the buoys. I mean, I explained it, but still one straighted in front of them, right? Most people usually, they i mean, you either shoot them, you avoid them, or you you know, try to fly right by them, right? I mean, there's not a whole lot you can do. It really messes with people's setup because they have, you in the world, you've pretty much prepared, you've tried your You know, you've played online, you've played in person, you kind of have your your standards set up. And it really messes with people.
00:09:37
Speaker
I've seen people like go all in on the buoys and be range one of the buoys staring at a rock. I'm like, great, you killed it. Congratulations. Now what do you do? You're just going to fly over the rock?
00:09:49
Speaker
So it really does mess with people. 40% of the time, I probably use lose one. 50% of the time, I probably lose two. I mean, I've seen people, you know, Fenral, Hard Ones,
00:10:01
Speaker
from the backboard edge, right? And is out of range and then focus boosts in or just boosts in the feedback pin can't go off of the the boost action because it's an action, not a maneuver.
00:10:13
Speaker
So they're shooting range one. Again, no fearless because there's no front arc and things like that, but you're going to lose the
Matchup Challenges
00:10:20
Speaker
buoys. It's okay. Usually messes with people so much. You might get your target lock. Absolutely. And that's kind of the goal. I know when I play Joel on stream, i think this is one you're talking about. I was pretty, I was, my my brain was mush, but I was super happy to make day two already going into that one. I made some, some mistakes looking back and I watched the game again to try to learn from it. But Boba kept flying just kind of around it.
00:10:43
Speaker
And I kept jamming Boba with biohacks encryption codes and taking that lock with the sensor buoy the next round. So he just, he kept kind of chuckling too, as I kept doing it from a distance. And that's another thing too, is like, if for some reason you don't kill that buoy or you don't get your arcs on that buoy and it can take that,
00:11:00
Speaker
that target lock with the buoy's ability. i mean, the next round, the Psy shuttle is so far away, it can take that turn to jam that ship from across the board.
00:11:12
Speaker
You're just rolling into a whole bunch of shots, most likely, without a defensive token. That's like one of the powerful things about that bomber list, even with the added sensor buoy, is its ability to control space, even when you're not directly threatening anything.
00:11:28
Speaker
who And by the time round two goes around, normally I have grudge in the middle of the board and he's so they're so fast. I think people underestimate me how fast the bombers are with a boost for straight. And then, you know, if nobody was around sometimes, a lot of times I use that first action at target lock from the side shuttle on a grudge to give him that barrel roll also with a focus.
00:11:50
Speaker
So just kind of gives him a lot of flexibility to, to move and move around the board, especially when, the other guys might be getting objectives or, you know, kind of getting in position while he's blocking.
00:12:00
Speaker
I think something that people also forget about with them is that they are three agility in two hall. So it, you might not even be able to destroy them with the chance that you have early in the game, unless you have multiple shots going into it. So that's another thing that I think strategically really is advantageous for you is that you can put them on a rock so they get the obstruction.
00:12:23
Speaker
And then, you you can move quick enough and threaten enough with your list that your opponent only really has one good opening or window to try to destroy them before it's like, what's the point? you know I feel like Dark One probe droids also benefit from that kind of situation as well.
00:12:39
Speaker
No, totally. the um yeah they They get one round and I mean, it's four dice, five if it's range three, but normally just four dice and no mods, of course.
00:12:50
Speaker
um So, I mean, if you have one shot, it can usually handle one shot normally, um but two shots, it gets a little tricky, just statistically.
00:13:04
Speaker
you know Tony, I'll be honest. When Andrew and I were driving to the convention Sunday morning, I told him that I didn't think that your list would be able to deal with the scum, high initiative stuff that I'm seeing so much of.
00:13:20
Speaker
And it wasn't because I didn't believe in you. it was really just because I thought that with just the way the the composition of the bombers that it would be difficult to deal with like a Boba, a Fenrau, a Dengar, etc. But clearly that wasn't, it was definitely a challenge for you, but it was it was something you could overcome, right? So walk me through probably what was the thing you really didn't want to see and what was something that you thought was a really good matchup for you? So what I didn't want to see was Renee's list, Kylo Renee, which was my mirror match.
00:13:48
Speaker
So you look at the top 16 going into Sunday, five of the 16 were in my Airbnb, including myself, right? Tremendous skills at that point of those of all top 16.
00:13:59
Speaker
When I saw that I was third and Renee was 14, was just like, my I mean, I stayed up so late that night and I was watching, i watched his stream game at like two in the morning. i was so nervous.
00:14:13
Speaker
Probably not the best thing to do to try to get prepared for, you know, get some sleep and get some rest, but... His buoys are out there. his his It's a mirror match, right? That's all it is. he's I mean, he had dread. i had grudge.
00:14:26
Speaker
He's got ions, which is horrible for my list, right? And which was really funny. And I know, you know, we're on a podcast and try not to get too into detail, but I was trying to figure out how to how to bomb the his buoys.
00:14:40
Speaker
Round one, I imagined what I was trying to imagine was three-slooping Grudge and dropping a bomb. you know my You know, the thermals on him. And I'm like, well, then Grudge is out of the game the entire time, right? He's stressed. It's just not going to be good. So ah he put one in the far left 2-2 corner. He put the other one kind of like the center objective, but on my side and a little to the left. That's where his buoys ended up. Mine were in the two corners, just like normal.
00:15:06
Speaker
So Grudge... Bank boosted and then hard twoed. Oh, well, now I'm facing my board edge, right? And I skilled bombardier two and a three, the thermals, right in the middle of both of them.
00:15:19
Speaker
I mean, it worked out for me. I got a damage in and then later next round, Scorch killed a buoy and that really opened up my lanes. But that was one of my hardest ones. And then I really find that the Joel Sprinkles list, a Boba and a Dengar, something that has a lot of bulk.
00:15:38
Speaker
If there's multiples of that ship or a lot of bulky ships, it's very difficult for my list. You know, I can handle the Fenraus because of the cluster mines. the Not saying he's predictable, but I mean, you know, if he's stressed, he's doing a two earth, you know, two bank probably or two hard. So you know where to be if you need to bump him and then you just boost past and drop the cluster mine on him he's sad.
00:16:01
Speaker
And when it came to the the gauntlet lists, I don't have a problem with them that much because of the bombs. you know And I have the initiative, but dice are dice and they can always make it. So, you know, you'd be sad, really.
Final Match Strategy
00:16:14
Speaker
But I played Merchan.
00:16:17
Speaker
I played him in on Thursday in the fun Swiss pod. I got to play him. I also played him ah a couple week a week before that in the Top Gun League. So both of he he and I knew each other's lists and kind of how we played and that kind of stuff. But I did face a total of three gauntlet lists, the two in the the top four and then the final. But I also faced one the day prior.
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah, so you had some practice. Yeah, the bombs in. of course, did all the work. mean, did a lot of work. Yeah. Well, I mean, even we watched that final match too on stream and it does force those swarm pilots to fly strangely against your list in a way that they normally wouldn't. Yeah.
00:17:00
Speaker
I mean, on the final, when I had grudge, with his rear end facing his big squirm and everything and dropped two thermals. If those thermals aren't there, I mean, he hards, I really do believe he just hards two and everybody's face in the middle starting to shoot my list. Really deterred that from happening.
00:17:17
Speaker
I also want to thank you for sparing us from the gauntlet versus gauntlet swarm mirror match on stream. feel like with how great everything was going that whole weekend, um for the final game to be those two lists going against each other would have just been, i think everybody, including the players would have been a little miserable trying to experience that.
00:17:40
Speaker
it's It's a cool list to see on stream. Yeah. Especially because it has a gauntlet in it, but to to see... that going up against itself would have been probably a little bit of a downer i i have no problem saying that i think i think the players would have found it difficult to to keep track of everything as well especially if they they all have the same the ships are painted the same and everything like that it's just that's hard your matchup was exciting for for that reason as well sure uh each of the three gauntlet lists that I did face were slightly different. You know, one of them, one of them was more of, one of them had the, the, the boost in it, the, I can't remember. And then one one had the, the commando is, I mean, they all had Tarkin, but yeah. So i think it was Moff Gerard. One of them had Moff Gerard and. yep Yeah. Jared Gerard gives you the boost. He gives you the locks. Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:33
Speaker
So they're all just slightly
Luck and Skill Balance
00:18:35
Speaker
different. But again, it just, I think it really does show the power of that list. All well flown by all of those, those guys. Yeah. I mean, one of them didn't make it. It was at, you know, one was at 17 and could almost had three in the top 16 of the same list. Yeah. I was, I was talking, I can't remember his name. Super nice guy who made top 16, who claims he was the architect of the list. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:19:00
Speaker
uh brad brad super super super cool dude yeah that was and that one wasn't on stream but uh in that game round two first round of combat but round two i removed the gauntlet um it was a series saw that yeah top four that was your top four game yeah it top four game yeah with three shots it was like everything went right for me and unfortunately brad nothing went right for him including a hull breach from the concussion missile that was hit. It was just crits of galore. Yeah. I gave him a little pat on the back, and I said, it's like inventing the stomachache. He was so proud to tell me how he created this list. It's like inventing the stomachache. He laughed really hard about that.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's just... I think he understood why I said that at that stage. Cause again, we knew what was on the line with, with who could play who, but yeah, he was, Brad was a really impressive run for him. And we'll talk a little bit about the top cut breakdown in terms of what stands out with those, with the list. Sure. But Tony, I want to, I want to ask you like, when did it feel real? Like when, at one point did you feel like, you know what, I could win this whole thing.
00:20:09
Speaker
Obviously you may top cut your goals to go as far as possible. But that was that a thing that was running through your mind are you trying to just lock in and just just play your game and just, you know, each game is a game of X-Wing, right? I mean, i need to just take back to the the top 16 with Rene. think either one of us could have done a really great job in the run. and it wasn't on stream. there We had a good good crowd of people around at the end. And that game came down to literally the, he landed in a bomblet.
00:20:41
Speaker
with breach who had two shields down and he rolls a hit or a crit. I win. if he doesn't, then he wins on the tiebreaker. That's how close it was. Wow. And he rolled a crit and a blank.
00:20:52
Speaker
And i just probably right about there. i think that was probably cause I had to get past him and it was so hard. Uh, that one was probably about the time where i said, maybe this might be there. And i didn't, wasn't trying to pay too much attention to the score and anything like that in the final game, but, you got the peanut gallery staring over at you and everything like that. And there's some, you always kind of glance around and stuff like that. And I kind of could feel it happening towards the middle of the game with the possibility.
00:21:22
Speaker
Again, anything can happen still in one game, even halfway through it So, and I think at that point, a lot of people were like, you know, The smiles on the face and things like that. I know i turned around and looked at the camera because had my family watching. That was a great moment. the The screenshots that we got. I'm glad we turned back into the player cam to just let that happen. yeah You did an awesome job just locking up the camera and doing that. That was that was amazing.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah, and my my daughter decided to take screenshots and send them to me, of course. Oh, that's awesome. Of those, me waving at the camera and everything. so It was... incredible and super excited, of course, of how it all turned out. But, you know, kind of in in preparation for for doing all this stuff. I know i played a lot of games online. Yeah. My first game was on Thursday, putting it on the table. I moved them around on the kitchen table a little bit, right? You know, of course, we all do that, but never actually played a game. Went 4-0 on Thursday. So at that point, I thought, you know, I might be able to make day two. And then,
00:22:23
Speaker
I had to play Renee in the middle, ah round three on two on Friday, I played Renee and he beat me. So I was two and one. So four and one on the full day, which is great. But you get two and oh and you're feeling you're all there and you're like, oh, this is really gonna happen.
00:22:41
Speaker
face your hard counter which is yourself uh your list who's who knows what they're doing you know and Renee does and yeah and you lose and you're like that it was so hard right it was a great game but yeah I was gonna bring that up it's kind of wild that you had to face Renee twice like in this tournament too it felt like a movie moment I had to face Isaiah Dinjarin faced him twice too and I only beat him in Swiss on a on a one thermal to get half points on Fen it's the only reason I won that game
00:23:11
Speaker
Wow. Last round. And then I played him again in the top eight on stream. Yeah. It's like very mighty ducks. Yeah. Well, it was like he, his, his game before that he was playing Obi-Wan, which they played in the, in Swiss also.
00:23:25
Speaker
And Obi-Wan, uh, juan got the win there, but the redemption, you know, in top cut, of course, you know, and I was like, so nervous. Like he knows every we've played online. We know everything that about, we've played each other in Swiss. Now we have to play each other in the top eight. Yeah. I mean, it's like redemption, right? I mean, you play somebody twice, they know what you're doing. It's not a secret.
00:23:44
Speaker
So, but you can watch that game again. you guys streamed that one and that was very lopsided with the dice. And, know, I think when you- You're rolling like a T-70 defensively. yeah honestly they're like crappy t70s right i mean unless they have turga hawk we were giving him some crap because i know that he he didn't um he didn't roll very well but he also rocked himself and took half the two damage from that he took a bunch of bomb damage and and you had and then he got jammed when he took a really good shot uh with the without a focus token rolled all paint just yeah that was that was so key like i mean i was yeah
00:24:22
Speaker
I mean, heat that that that shuttle doesn't live much longer if he takes five from Fenn. Instead of, want like, two right with fear didn't think i took anything or took one maybe no i think he had i think he had two with fearless yeah yeah yeah that fin is so good oh yeah for sure very good value i think without being controversial one way or the other you can't argue with the value you get that fen route yeah uh dejarin was also rocking our uh fen route base plate so i was able to give it to him which was cool yeah see that you know Just going to quickly segue, we're going to tie you back into this, Tony. with On the stream side of things, this is you know from when we started just streaming on a countertop at my ex-girlfriend's place, which now is actually just around the corner from where I live now, kind of full circle in a weird
Streaming Experience
00:25:11
Speaker
way. Welcome back. Yeah. Right? a Question mark. um To, you know, to doing that casually to streaming the biggest event we could ever stream for this channel is really a big deal for us. And I've been working up to it for as long as I can remember now and hoping that one day I'd have the chance to to stream something like Worlds. always looked up to Dion and GSP.
00:25:32
Speaker
and what they were able to do at all their events worldwide, but Worlds was theirs. It was you know and they they it belonged to them, and and they deserved those opportunities to stream it. But with Dion announcing that GSP was going to wrap up, I couldn't think of anybody else that would be able to do what our channel was able to to do. and I know that sounds a little cocky to say, but we had everything we needed to be able to put on the right kind of show.
00:25:58
Speaker
And I felt really excited about the opportunity. A lot of people asked me if I was nervous about it. And if it wasn't for this move, I probably would have been way more nervous about it. And it didn't really kick in until final table.
00:26:09
Speaker
And I just started to think about, well, what if the dice cam just stops working here in the last round? And like, what if, you know, and ah obviously at the end of the interview there, that camera gave out, which sucked, but wasn't like...
00:26:21
Speaker
the end of the world. oh god it waited It wasn't until then that I think about, oh my gosh, like I've been able to stave off all this anxiety until now. You know, I want to give a shout out to to Matt. um Matt has become one of my best friends, especially in X-Wing. um Andrew right there with him, both of them streaming with me and together doing commentary. Jason Grimm was incredible. He helped do scorekeeping and commentary for us. Catherine jumped on, Greg jumped on from ncx Jorge was able to join and Tyler was able to join. So it was cool to have like a full team because this is a team effort. This is not my channel. This is our channel. And it really belongs to the whole community, whether, you know, they decide to throw throw a few dollars at Patreon or not. It ultimately doesn't matter. It all belongs to to all of us. And that's the kind of stream I wanted to deliver. So I wanted to just give ah a real big shout out to my team and to everybody that really was way too generous in in giving their time.
00:27:21
Speaker
and their money to the channel to to support us and to continue what we've been ah you know really building up to. So thank you to all of you. It's it's really been humbling and it's been exciting. so I'm still processing just how successful this stream was.
00:27:35
Speaker
Tony, what was it like as a player from you know Swiss to the highest level playing on our stream? I'd just love to hear. You could be give me positive or constructive feedback or whatever you want to
Event Atmosphere and Support
00:27:45
Speaker
say. How did it feel to to play on our stream? yeah No, ah playing on the stream was great. You know, I'm not somebody who likes to roll in the dice box. That's me.
00:27:56
Speaker
I like my dice, you know, superstitious, whatever you want to call it. I mean, your dice turned out to be awesome, by the way. They're so hot. Right. good um you know I needed to stay on. I looked felt a little sad at the final table when I had to go back and switch sides. I didn't know if the other dice were going to be as hot. i don't know. But yeah, no, it was very well run. One of the things that from like last year to this year that I enjoyed differently was i didn't have to turn my score sheet in.
00:28:26
Speaker
I like to keep in that personally, just to kind of do some statistics on how many rounds I played and yeah know that kinds of stuff. I mean, we just use roll better and put our scores in like a normal, yeah.
00:28:39
Speaker
So I enjoyed not having to like have to go like one of us go and turn in a turn in a score sheet somewhere and somebody was checking things out. Yeah. I wrote notes on the back of mine. Yeah. That's helpful from the game. Yeah. well And the other thing that I saw, maybe it was a little more relaxed because we were, you know, down on the first floor again, my, my list of course, right. has a lot of boosting actions. It has a lot of bumping eventually when we all get together in that joust kind of a thing, but,
00:29:06
Speaker
I didn't have one person call at me and ask me, you know, in Swiss to call for a judge and say, need him to move your chips. It's worlds. Everyone's excited to be there. Everyone wants to play at the highest level possible, but we're all just playing.
00:29:20
Speaker
Um, yeah, I really enjoyed that versus the year before where I brought and two years before that I had Jorge's list, you know, the three arcs, two torrents and a Z. Um,
00:29:31
Speaker
In Swiss, I kind of continued to get better and better and better. And I got up to that first row of tables. And i'm I think I had an eight-judge call that day because on that one game. Because he kept saying, can you move the judge move your ship, not you. And again, it's competitive and I totally get it. But it felt a little more relaxed even though it was rules. Yeah, I'm not a fan of tilt-wing. Tilt-wing is dumb. Yeah, I...
00:29:52
Speaker
Other than that, I mean, I think, the you know, the judges were awesome. You know, they didn't ever have to wait long for some of the judges to show up. I even had one sit at the side table and not say be my personal judge, but he knew that Renee and I were going to have one heck of a game. And it was the game in Swiss when I lost. And he was just there to help us remind things. And if we needed him, he ran away to go do other things when he needed to, but always always sat there and watched our game.
00:30:18
Speaker
So yeah, it was, it was good. yeah I mean, I think that's a good segue into asking you both about just how how the first XWA Worlds was for for both of you, from from turnout, which was just short of 120 people, to prizes, and the way Dwight, Lindsey, shout out to Dwight, ran the event. I have nothing but great things to say about him and Greg. Greg was his... ah His judge, head judge.
00:30:42
Speaker
How was the event for you guys? The event was absolutely incredible. Like I said, it was kind of nice being in that first floor where it was a little quieter, kind of had some mood lighting to go with our X-Wing games.
00:30:55
Speaker
But it was so fun just... reconnecting with everybody who I haven't seen since last Worlds. And while we were still playing at a professional level and at a very high level, did have a more friendly feel to them, I feel, than in Worlds past.
00:31:12
Speaker
I also thought it was kind of cool this time around being able to use all the art alt art cards and tokens and stuff that the material that the community has made and has spent so much time lovingly put together.
00:31:24
Speaker
And being able to see all of that creativity on the board as we play at such a high level was also extremely cool for me. Yeah. With the cards, right? I mean, I printed four you know five infinite arena, giant standard loadout looking cards, right, for my list and laminated them. I brought all my normal cards in case anybody needed to see them. But it just makes moving from table to table so much easier. So much easier. Yeah. yeah And, you know. That's our sponsor right there, baby. I know. Absolutely. And, you know, the. Wow. We didn't even tell Tony to to do that. He just did it. Check check it check out Infinite and Arena for all your best things.
00:32:05
Speaker
um But the the price support that AMG came forward with, I mean, Dwight said it while we were there. I mean, they kind of emptied their storehouse. I mean, we had dice from the last two years, worlds. We had cardboard. We had, you know, he had so many ships to give away and we know how much all those ships cost these days.
00:32:26
Speaker
So, I mean, it was, he was just raffling off, walking around, handing stuff off. If you were playing Swiss or doubles, I mean, there was so much stuff. I mean, besides the stuff that was, you know, we were all looking for with those, you know, brand new glass dice. I mean,
00:32:42
Speaker
the Not a lot of people know knew, but he had printed a few XWA exclusive damage decks for Worlds. Those are pretty awesome.
00:32:52
Speaker
you know So there was so much good prize support, and there's ah there was a lot left over too. So I don't know if that will just hang around for next year. I don't know if that will be what our System Open ah store championship regionals get. So some of these, but those...
00:33:07
Speaker
holocron metal holocron things were awesome like super cool so excited to you know get those out in the community for sure when i came back home i was showered with so much prizes that i put them all on my kitchen table it filled the entire kitchen table uh and i called my fiancee over i felt like james franco and spring breakers being like look at all my stuff i have it sitting right over here and could have just showered you you could have showered with them like you said you were showered it with you could have just taken a shower with all your Oh, I was making it rain with the Altar cards that we had gotten in the the packs of the 2019 Worlds generic
Top 16 Insights
00:33:48
Speaker
cards. Yeah.
00:33:49
Speaker
you For sure. what do you think of those dice? Yeah. yeah ah the they're They're gorgeous. They're heavy. Like I was surprised of how heavy they were. They're a little bigger.
00:34:00
Speaker
um i can't like percentage wise. I don't know how much bigger they are like 15-20% larger. i don't know. But they're They're heavy they're really heavy. comparatively to normal bites and they're fragile too you guys at psa to those who won them you know they will uh you will want to be careful about how you roll them and and how hard you can throw them around um what i recommend is the tyranny and one agility if you're rolling a one agility ship ah you know a die for that you just pick one of those bad boys up and you roll and then for console fire or anything like that you know oh yeah
00:34:33
Speaker
That's a trophy. So it's it's a tough one between a trophy and playing with, right? that's the you know I talked to a few folks about it. It's like, well, they're kind of like trophy kinds of stuff. you know Bring them with, show people, maybe do exactly what you're saying. What do you think of this the stream dice, Tony? Because they were hot for you, but how did had they feel rolling those? Yeah, nice. i mean i i' but I mean, I've seen you use them on streams before. I've never used them.
00:34:59
Speaker
World Champion is a great title. I mean, i good teammate for and NCX is a great title too. But I, I've never made it that far in a tournament before.
00:35:10
Speaker
i mean, and making it far in a tournament is is, as many people will tell you as, is match your matchups, right? I take a hard counter. If I take that, I really think a hard counter for me, besides Renee might be the, that Torkel list.
00:35:26
Speaker
That could melt me quick, I think. yeah And, and then a lot of dice lock, right? I mean, At least two or three games came down to the last roll and they all went my way. And that's why I'm here.
00:35:39
Speaker
So, yeah. Andrew and I agree. I think everyone does. when To win a tournament, um you have to have to have some luck. like that You have to. It's not just yeah you played you made the perfect decisions and flew perfectly with with your maneuvering and everything. No. Yeah. The times when your opponent has a range one shot and rolls three blanks, the times where you have no mods and need natties and you roll natties, those are the moments that really move the needle enough for someone declare it a winner of a tournament. you know yeah and yeah We've all been there on those so many games coming out of that last dice roll. yeah and I know everyone looks for perfection, and I still go back to look at
00:36:19
Speaker
that top 10 on your stream with against Joel and how I thought I had it well in hand and just couldn't finish it out. But if I beat Joel, I probably end up in first in the seating and I play merson in merchant Merchant in the top 16 instead.
00:36:36
Speaker
um So again, SOSs and things could have changed if I win and don't win, lose and things like that. But I mean, yeah, it kind of all just fell into place for me.
00:36:47
Speaker
Here's a spicy question for you, Tony. And this is there's no implications when I ask this, but it just curious. How'd you feel about going when you went up against lists that had six plus ships? Or I mean, when you up went up against this gauntlet list or Brad's list, how'd you feel about the pace of player? then Were you happy with the number of rounds that you got in? Because I know that um the top are top four game on stream.
00:37:11
Speaker
I think we got four rounds in. yeah It was a really long game. I'm not going to say that they were slow playing. it just It was a long game and not a lot of rounds. It's challenging when you have that many ships and you're playing at such a high level. You don't want to rush anything. sure How did you feel about the pace of play just through from you know Swiss on to the end? I actually have all of my cards. and I can tell you that I had two games that went eight rounds.
00:37:39
Speaker
I had... five games that went seven, four games that went six, and seven games that went five.
00:37:50
Speaker
So when you look at all those statistics, it's like 6.1 rounds per game for me. And like eight of them went to, because again, I'm counting the four that I did on the Thursday.
00:38:04
Speaker
um four Eight of them went to points, like I scored 50 points or more by the end of the time, or and then 10 of them went to time. I don't think a lot of times it was me taking the time, taking longer than my opponent.
00:38:18
Speaker
And again, that can be that, of course, I know my list and i know what I want to do quickly. um Again, I had to think about some things. It's a brain mush of a list. If you, you know, with a boost, where it's still hard to figure out where that boost lands you. If you go four straight after a boost, you're going land on a rock.
00:38:35
Speaker
But a lot of times the opponent takes a lot longer than I do. So, um and a lot of times, you know, that does kind of play into my favor um because the the list will take, you know, usually one or two rounds to get into combat. I do take a ah good um Alpha strike, if you'll call it that, or first round strike. Again, I-4 is right, not really alpha, but, you know, rolling in with double mods.
00:39:02
Speaker
And then the next round, there's bombs, you know, that kinds of stuff or the round after that. So they I was pretty surprised at least, you know, i got five, seven seven of the, you know, games went to seven or eight rounds of mine.
00:39:15
Speaker
which is pretty impressive for the amount of times I have to move my ships in or my opponent move in theirs. Yeah, I think i was it Andrew i think it was andrew's talking on the way back um from Milwaukee. drove We were driving back home.
00:39:29
Speaker
And I'm a big fan of games that feel complete or feel like you've kind
Strategic Influence on Game Outcomes
00:39:34
Speaker
of hit that. Like by the time time is called, you're like, yeah, like that was like that felt like a like a ah pretty full game of X-Wing, even with not if every ship is destroyed. That almost never happens. Right.
00:39:45
Speaker
So actually not in competitive play. um What can feel weird is like when time is called and there's like two ships have been destroyed or like one ship's been destroyed, like two of them have. Yeah. And, you know, we definitely saw some of that. ah especially I think in top cut because you have to take longer to to make decisions because you want to like win the whole tournament. like So it's not me faulting anyone from like taking their time.
00:40:09
Speaker
um But when I like even I think even with your game, I'm trying to remember you had destroyed the guy by the end. I believe you had destroyed three or four ships. It was like I think it was at least three.
00:40:20
Speaker
um You will remember better than I Yeah, and I know I half the gauntlet. It lived on one, I think. um yeah Yeah, right. So the gauntlet wasn't destroyed. You got a couple ties, and I think you halved another one or two of them.
00:40:32
Speaker
And then he didn't he destroyed... None of your ships? Scorch at the end. Scorch at the very end. Yeah, that's right. At the very end, the last couple of shots. yeah um And that was i thought that was a really unique game because he couldn't come in and engage with you because of the bombs. So he just kept going straight for a while. So about 35, 40 minutes of the game, he was kind of trying to carve into the middle of the board, but kept going straight because of where you were putting bombs. yeah um And then by the end, when he was finally able to take something off the board,
00:41:04
Speaker
uh time was called right you guys just ran out of that time and i thought you played that game incredibly well you had a really nice flank setup um and you put so much pressure on him that he wasn't really able to shoot for half the game yeah um and i think that was really fascinating and i think that also comes to to play marching um I mean, I played him i mean twice and you know he knows my list.
00:41:29
Speaker
I beat him both times, not hand not hand over fist or anything like that. I mean, it was 35-29 or something along those lines, right? It was close. you know, and when you can drop bombs and they just delay fuse them. And then those ties don't have a choice, right? They either hard one and bump themselves or hard one and not shoot anything, or they're going into bombs.
00:41:49
Speaker
So I think he was just trying to do something maybe a little different than I had seen before. And with grudge getting so far into the middle of the board or the corner of the board if you would you know those thermals were just going to prevent that because i mean grudge with re-rolls and two thermals on a whole bunch of tie fighters you you could half the entire list maybe not but you know some of them are going to get halved quickly definitely um i do want to give um some honorable mentions to some of the top 16 lists i'm not going to go through every single one of them um
00:42:25
Speaker
We typically don't do like full rundowns and there was a lot of scum. It's not surprising scum is really made a really good name for itself, which has been refreshing considering a couple years ago everyone was making fun of how bad scum was and how like if you brought scum to a tournament you were just playing for fun because you know you couldn't win. Not the case anymore.
00:42:43
Speaker
um In Tony's case, great to see First Order have another victory. Historically, First Order hasn't won much in terms of the highest level events. Like we dig 2023 Worlds, I believe. ah Nicholas got one with a FO list and to see you, Tony, pull it out with an FO list without really any ace play involved was really cool.
00:43:02
Speaker
But I want to give a shout out to a couple of players here. Obi-Wan, Bring your Republic, which has been more recently not not faring as well as you would think.
00:43:13
Speaker
Had a Contra, Rick Ali, Obi-Wan, and Anakin Skywalker. Those are two 7Bs in there. We also saw Joel with the three ship scum, which was pretty fun. Boba, Fen, and Dengar. Joel made top eight.
00:43:27
Speaker
He did an amazing job. Dr. Djarin had the Mandalorian and the Razorcrest with the Child and Gamma Key. as Joined by Dallin, Overos, Kanan Jarrus, and Fen Rao.
00:43:37
Speaker
And Eelmail had another scum list, but this one had Ketsu, Kanan, Sarasu, and Fen Rao. Those are the armed and dangerous Fen Raos, by the way. I want to give a big shout out to my boy, Kris Jenner. Daytimes with Kris over at NCX. Definitely tune in NCX during the daytimes. Kris will be streaming two to three times a week at the old kind of Hexile time slots, but he brought a four ship Empire list and played incredibly well.
00:44:00
Speaker
ah He also made top eight. He had a Soontir, Rack, Lieutenant Psy, and Wampa list. Really simple on paper, but really powerful, especially because you have Soontir and Rack ra and Sai, side by side, giving each other all the things.
00:44:18
Speaker
um And lastly, R. Sather, I'm not exactly sure who that is. Rob. But he had a Major Von Rigg. Quickdraw, TN3465, Epsilon Squadron, Cadet, and Agent Tarek's list. It's cool to see Von Rigg playing well.
00:44:33
Speaker
And I don't you guys got that one on stream, I think at least one of his, I think I didn't get a chance to go back. and I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. But he he was wrecking like ah was a four and one, I think on the first day. i mean, he threw Tina at people and just sacrifice Tina to kill people.
00:44:49
Speaker
It was great. Yeah. Yeah. we We used to play a local who would do that. It was real unfun. Tina's a great sacrifice. Yeah. For you. Yeah. It was real, real unfun to play against for all of us. I have bad memories. i Actually, that's ah that's a pilot that I feel like had just has not been played, has been shelved for so, so
Meta Reflection and Future Plans
00:45:07
Speaker
long. yeah um So that was neat to see things come back at the highest level.
00:45:12
Speaker
And then Ted, Torkoal Mux, Zuckus, an Outer Rim Hunter. That's the Rogue-class Starfighter with Proton Cannons. And four mining guild centuries with precision ion engines.
00:45:25
Speaker
And of course, Brad and Marson bring in their gauntlet and seven Obsidian Squadron pilots. I don't know how they can play an entire event with those things. Kudos to them. I would be just i just wouldn't be able to do it. I would just stop. I can't do it.
00:45:43
Speaker
Just generically looking at the you know overall at the top 16, there are three players that went 5-0 on day two on Saturday to get there. I mean, I know Xander and Obi-Wan were three and two going into Saturday.
00:45:58
Speaker
They had a tremendous run the second day. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. J. Cruz, two of the guys from the team league, J. Cruz. Always up to no good, but it was cool to meet Xander in person. um Xander is Juan's brother um brother-in-law.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah, it was cool to meet him in person. yeah And then the slouch innkeeper 1-6 at the top here. I never heard of him. Breach, Scorch, Jewel, Jerjerod, Grudge, and First Order. Interesting.
00:46:27
Speaker
I wonder how he did. seemed to me He won the whole damn thing. Spoiler. um Guys, let's say let's before we wrap up here in a little bit, let's talk about some speculation on what we might see with the points change, especially since we've seen you know meta really brought out at Adepticon. It's kind the height of the meta, right, is is a world's event.
00:46:49
Speaker
what What are a couple of things that you guys might expect to see changed? What bothers you, if anything? I mean, I think looking at the entire event, Possibly the armed and dangerous Fenn is a little under-costed.
00:47:01
Speaker
But I think we all kind of think that. Because he's great value five haul and all his tools. Maybe that one, a little a little adjustment. I can see how the gauntlet lists do so well. Again, bombs aside, right? If I didn't bring a bomb list, it's a scary thing to face.
00:47:20
Speaker
So I don't know what the right call is. I mean, we we pip, you know, that... You know, XWA has pipped a lot of the X-wings. I don't know that will happen. I don't know if there's a loadout change, you know, that could possibly tweak it enough that it's not as powerful.
00:47:35
Speaker
But probably I could see the committees looking at, you know, those types of results and, you know, maybe seeing what could be done. Not a lot of representation. Yes, there's one cis one one Republic list. I mean, you know maybe some adjustments in those factions to to give them a little a little more.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah, i would I would echo that sentiment as well. I'd like my bombers to stay, little biased, of course. Yeah, I mean, I know have a great hand on the pulse of the meta right now. I've gotten more of it after Worlds, of course. um It does seem like, based on where Soontir is, in terms you know this is the battle over Endor Soontir and the cost of Armed and Dangerous Fenrau. i i'm a little I'm a little puzzled by that.
00:48:22
Speaker
Definitely think Armed a Dangerous Fenrau is under-costed. gets the extra hull as well, which I think is just like just so filthy. Allows him to be even more aggressive. With Beskar, yeah. Yeah, Beskar's got that adaptable power systems to to swap out his stress for depletes, vice versa, right? So really strong, and he's got fearless still.
00:48:44
Speaker
But otherwise, you know I think there's probably some work that needs to be done for for Rebels and Republic, minor tweaks there. I think win rate, ultimately, I know Draft League has just started.
00:48:56
Speaker
Tony, or capped one of the captains, that's a great data entry, a data point to that whole season, and seeing win rates and how people are doing with their factions. there are some so There is some you know some skew in there with certain player skill in what faction they're playing, but...
00:49:12
Speaker
Ultimately, you kind of want everything to be with you know within a couple points of 50% win rate because that means that there's a ah good balance across each faction compared to each faction, right? And so um I'm really curious to see. i have all the intel in in front of me that I can look at for what they're changing, but i don't I choose not to look at it all because I like to be as surprised as everyone else once these changes are made. And I'm not a part of the points team, so I don't like to to spend too much time digging into the areas I'm not responsible for or not working with either.
00:49:42
Speaker
But that's going to be happening soon. It's going to be in the next couple of weeks, folks. um I do not believe it will be before Conquest or by Conquest, um but it will be within a few days of that for sure. It could happen before, but i'm not I wouldn't expect it to happen.
00:49:58
Speaker
So the bombers might make it into the into that into the play there. I think you have a good chance of being able to bring that. Yeah, for sure. Just got to ask the wife if I have enough wife points saved up still.
00:50:10
Speaker
ah Well, you won the whole damn thing, man. you' you know She's married to a champion now. So you have a title to defend. King of the nerds. That's what she said. I'm going to jump to our second to last segment. There's a couple we've already talked about, but we had some questions from the audience. Shout out to Andrew for asking our podcast audience about what they wanted to hear about.
Community Engagement and Growth
00:50:29
Speaker
um So here's a couple that I'm going to pick from from our list. Some of these we've already done. um what was cool or interesting at the convention? I'm going to ask these three questions. We'll start with Tony and then Andrew, you'll answer as well. So anything cool or interesting at the convention? You you guys were busy playing, but if yeah if you notice anything.
00:50:46
Speaker
Two, was there any cool places that you went to eat for breakfast, dinner, et cetera? And lastly, how was doubles? Andrew, you'll be able to answer that one, the side events. We'll start with Tony. Yeah, ah I'll say I got in the hall at 8.30 in the morning and didn't leave it to go to the other than the bathroom until seven o'clock at night But afterwards, the best part is going out, right? I mean, going, eating pizza or going to a pub, um you know, just hanging out with the guys and, you know, everybody that's there.
00:51:17
Speaker
ah play a lot of these folks online, but I don't know them. And it felt like that was a great, great experience. You know, everybody's, of course, you know, you're doing great. You got this, you know, that kinds of stuff as you go through Swiss or even the second day, day two, but reaching out to people,
00:51:34
Speaker
Again, I know that some people, you know they' I know their discords, but I don't know them. So getting to hang out and that was great. And then, um yeah, like I wish I, I will also say that I didn't get a chance to say this before, but we've kind of moved from the, if you if you were there last year, you were we were up on the third floor with all the AMG stuff, right? And then the vendor hall.
00:51:55
Speaker
which is nice because you could just go and walk around the vendor hall, you know, if you have a break or, you know, a few minutes before lunch is over or anything like that. But I dropped a ship last year and it broke. I dropped a ship this year and it was carpet.
00:52:08
Speaker
It didn't break. That was very nice. So that was exciting for me to not break my shit. Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point.
00:52:18
Speaker
Andrew, most interesting thing at the convention. um Interesting are the best places that you experience food at dinner breakfast. We actually made a breakfast at the Airbnb together as a group. That was really fun. That was very fun. And then how was doubles?
00:52:31
Speaker
I think much like Tony, this year I spent most of my time at the convention in X-Wing. If I wasn't playing a game, then I was trying to jump in and do commentary, or I was trying to play any of like the other side events. They had a really cool canyon run this year, and they also had a First Order Resistance assault on the Star Destroyer game, which was very cool too. So the X-Wing stuff was really great. yeah This is the first year I didn't get to like check out the really the rest of the convention, but it was so cool meeting people that I've developed these yeah relationships with online, like in person and from all over the world. That's always like the coolest part of it.
00:53:16
Speaker
Now, I will say tony and i had a great meal at a place called the Holland Club. And that was some of the best fried fish I've ever had. So shout out to the Holland Club. That's pretty good. Shout out to the Holland Club. I like i thought a Broadhouse once again, second time I've been to Broadhouse. And I love that place. Build your own sausage. Yes, please. I'll put all the toppings on there and pay way too much for a sausage. But it's very tasty.
00:53:39
Speaker
When you get a beer, you get one free. My arteries are are so starting to unclog after Milwaukee. It's a process. you know These trips, you're not going to eat the healthiest.
00:53:50
Speaker
In the streams, we survived off of Rice Krispie Treats, fruit snacks, and Miss Vicky's chips as well when we couldn't leave to get food. so that That helped, but not real good for you. Yeah.
00:54:01
Speaker
and To me, the most interesting thing is shout out to Doug Kenny once again for bringing the Lego Beggars Canyon back. Yeah. Having people do a whole run through there with the pod racing game and then the other. The pod racing game. Yes. That he was doing with people just flying their ships through and attacking each other. It's like racing from one point to the other. So him and I might, i we're talking about maybe streaming something like that in the future. We'll see what that's like, but that would be cool.
00:54:29
Speaker
So I think that was probably still the most interesting thing. and That wasn't what the convention provided. it was something he brought. um Doug is the first ever world champion for X-Wing as well, which is super cool. That's what I got for for that. And I want to thank our audience once again for for chiming in there. And we appreciate being able to include you guys in these podcasts because we do them for you. They're not for ourselves. Maybe the off-topic ones might sound for ourselves. We still do this for you as well. But yeah, is there anything else you guys want to say about Adepticon before I just do some ah final stuff on the Team League and the Conquest series? I did get to see, i mean, I don't know personally Chris Allen, but I did get to see him. And it sounded like they came down, him and some of the other judges that we've known throughout the years who kind of work for adepticon now and came played down and played doubles for a little bit that was pretty pretty neat to see in and in doubles isn't you know if you're if you're in the in the area and you you know you can't do a full three-day or whatever um x-wing you know giant tournament you know you're one day there with your kids and you're just passing through it's okay to sign up for like doubles
00:55:30
Speaker
yeah fun It's a fun event, those side events. Oh yeah, Andrew, how how was doubles? I don't think I got that one from you. Yeah, I mean, I will say that it is my favorite way to play X-Wing. Honestly, I think we can probably do a whole nother episode where we just talk about the side events and on the lists. Oh my God. Honestly, we could just do a whole episode on doubles because there were some crazy lists. Did you see the Yoda with Kanan?
00:55:57
Speaker
I played against it. Yeah. And I and and we won. oh So yeah, they had the Kanan Yoda list, which is just every shot. You're only rolling like one less die. We played against a version of that that was Kanan Gorin.
00:56:13
Speaker
Yeah, in Manaru, which was bananas. There were some really creative doubles lists going on. Yeah, that's hilarious. That's that's so funny. And I was going to say, I played against ah Tony and Jorge last year's double tournament.
00:56:28
Speaker
Honestly, that game against both of you... taught me so much about X-Wing. Like that was one of a pivotal moment where I felt like I took a lot away from that game. And then also Jorge, after our game, ended up breaking down all of the mistakes that we had made.
00:56:47
Speaker
and what his thoughts were and how he capitalized on that, which was one of the coolest X-Wing experiences I've had. So I just want to, you know, thank you and Jorge for, for doing that. Yeah. I mean, of course we all would have preferred to be playing in the actual tournament there, you know, last year, but, um, you know, just to play with somebody that, you know, it's a great skilled player and learn from that and have that conversation. i mean, it's a great thing to do even on your, you know, your ah Friday night at your game store, um pair people up with, you know, a great skilled player, maybe and ah in a, in a, in a newer player to help them out.
00:57:22
Speaker
Definitely be good team building kind of events for, for local communities. Yeah, honestly, whenever we have new players at our store that or someone who is just like, oh, that like looks cool. um That's the first thing that I do with them is I'll just hand them two of my ship's dials and say, hey, you you plan these. We're going to just do this doubles.
00:57:44
Speaker
and It's casual. It's a I think a great way to introduce people to the game. But I also think that next year, they should have that opposite the heats so that everyone has a chance to play because I think it has enough juice to be its own tournament. Yeah. And i know I know there's a slight transition and maybe steal a little in Nick's thunder here, but um just a a shout out for team events.
00:58:08
Speaker
ah NCX 312, a captain in the NCX side, Outer Rim Heroes, but a team member for the 312 league. If you haven't been on a team before, i really recommend giving it a shot. It's great to be somewhere where you're playing with, I mean, I've had i've been on teams with Ali Pakna. I've been on teams with you know with other players that are just tremendous skill. And you sit there and you can have a conversation or chat with them and not feel like they're out to get you. They're out there to team build, you know make you better.
00:58:42
Speaker
And you're there to help them too. you know If it's a practice game because they got a big match coming up You know, and it's okay to lose those games because you're trying to make your team member better. You can go and get absolutely destroyed, but feel great because your team won for the week.
00:58:57
Speaker
It's a great format. It's a great way to build a community. And we get new players all the time that, you know, I've gone in and on the XWA discord and shown people how to use TTS, spend an hour or two with them. They're always welcome to reach out again and I can always help again, but it's, it's how we build the community keep the community strong. Yeah, very, very much so. That could be a good segue though, Tony. i appreciate that shout out because we are running our own team league. This is the fifth season. It starts on May 11th. Ticket sales are going to end on May the 4th.
00:59:27
Speaker
So how does there's two different leagues. There's a casual competitive. Casual is really fun because there's a bounty requirement and a bounty system. So ah victory points at the end of a week. don't necessarily determine if your team won that week. There's also bounty points you have to factor in as well.
00:59:43
Speaker
So if you want to have some fun list building challenges and have a good time, you can join the casual side. But we also have an awesome competitive side of the team league as well. So there's still time to sign up. There will be links in the description on our rules doc and info on the league and how you can get your ticket.
00:59:57
Speaker
The $5 entry helps 312 with our operating costs, like traveling to worlds and other events that we have planned in the future, give you guys good X-Wing content. We really appreciate that. And if there's any reason where you really want to play but that $5 isn't doable, please reach out to me. We'll make sure you get to play because I want to make sure you can play.
01:00:14
Speaker
That's the most important thing to me and to us and to keeping X-Wing going. And then on the Conquest Series side, we have four qualifiers throughout the year, but the first one is next weekend on April 11th.
01:00:25
Speaker
So make sure you sign up and play in that one. We're selling prize tickets as well. The entry fee for these Conquests go towards fundraising for XWA and for our channel as well. But we ah we donated over $1,200 XWA.
01:00:39
Speaker
with our raffle and conquest entries last year. So super excited to be able to help the organization again with that. And it's ah a great way for you guys to get in and get some awesome ah TTS swag and just play some structured online X-Swing for a day with us. Really fun.
01:00:55
Speaker
Roy, what do I do if I don't have a teammate? Can I still sign up for the team league? Yeah, so if you don't have a if you don't have a teammate, you can sign up as an independent player and we'll get placed on a team randomly. Or you can look for a team if you want to join one that other people um are looking to form a team or if they're trying to fill a gap in their existing team, you can ask to join directly as well.
01:01:16
Speaker
So you can sign up individually or as an independent player if you don't have a team. It's up to you. There's also team bundles as well. If you're a captain and you want to sign up your whole team, Usually it's $5 a player, but the whole team of five, it's only $15 if you sign up for the bundle. So a good way to to get some good value there.
01:01:34
Speaker
o Lots of options. Thanks, Tony, for asking that. i Appreciate it. yeah was like question Yeah, thank you, Tony. He's ah he's a natural. Seriously, yeah. He's the champ.
01:01:45
Speaker
ah All right, Andrew, you want to take us away with our outro? Yeah. So thank you everyone for listening to this episode and continuing to support us here at 312. It was an honor to be able to be the channel to bring you world's coverage and to capture the moment Tony won it all.
01:02:03
Speaker
We look forward to a bright and action-packed year ahead. And if you aren't already following us on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, you should. Links are in the description. And 312 is excited to be producing exclusive alt art cards featuring new XWA pilots and upgrades for their patrons.
01:02:21
Speaker
Consider supporting us on Patreon and get rewarded with some awesome swag. Lastly, we're proud to be sponsored by Infinite Arenas. Head to Infinite Arenas to get your fix of X-Wing compatible components, including accessible card printing, physical game assets, and much more.
01:02:39
Speaker
And that link also in the description. I'm Andrew Kuba. I'm Nick Sperry. I'm Tony. sign And signing off.