Also, with lower PS falcons and no gunner, it would be very hard to land any hits on whisper.

Some initial first person observations concerning the Mesa, AZ inaugural Wave 4 integration:

Rebel Swarm - My friend has the pleasure of losing to the first officially tournament legal rebel swam with his 6 ship TIE swarm (Round one of Swiss). The z95s all had assault missiles or the like which doomed the swarm ultimately, but the game went to time and was not a table, interestingly enough.

I don't remember seeing any Y wings, A wings, or HWKs, and very few TIE Advanced, Bombers, Defenders (one three defender build), or surprisingly enough, E wings (I think there was one in the whole tournament).

From what I saw there were lots of X wings, B wings, Falcons (lots of Wookiees flying around if you catch my drift) with Z95s to round out lists for the rebels. A decent mix of sprays, shuttles, squints, TIE swarms, and the phantom! I saw one list of two phantom and one TIE build, braver man than I going 6 rounds considering every angle for decloaks... That man must have slept well that night!

An observation I had was there might have been a revisit to the Falcon as a staple phantom tank when people were list prepping. That seemed to be the Wave 4 unknown and I drew a correlation in my mind between that and flying a falcon. Now, I personally doubt that will be a permanent change to the meta, but an initial reaction to quell an unknown threat with a proven tank. One the dust from the wave 4 in boxing settles, I foresee a move back to a more balanced use of the ships, with the change of an emphasis of higher pilot skill throughout (also useful to prevent predator EPT from ripping your squad apart).

I was sad that I didn't get to face off against a Phantom yesterday, I diligently play-tested them the night prior in a scrambling attempt to understand how they worked once I got my hands on a ship finally. Kudos to the champion, who obviously flew Whisper quite well all day.

ManOnAWire will probably be releasing MUCH more quantitative based data once it's assimilated, I just thought I would offer my humble observation for hungry readers.

Oh, I forgot to post the lists I flew against if anyone is interested:

1) XXX, Wes, Wedge and Luke (VI and opportunist)

2) XXBB Biggs walks the Daggs (played twice, once again in finals 1-1 on that)

3) BBBB Blue Squadron with Ion Cannon x4

4) YT-1300 x2 Han and Lando with lots of upgrades (my only loss in Swiss)

5) XXXZ Luke DTF R2D2 Shield, Biggs, Tarn R7, Tala

6) Firespray x2 Shuttle Bounty recon specialist x2 seismic on one, OGP APL Saboteur.

So out of all of that the only new ship I went against was a Tala Squadron... Huh.. Just realized that.

Regional Frankfurt Germany - i'am not concerned with all the results - but as far as i know: a list with 4 Royal Guards + Push the Limit won the tournament (32 attendance)!

That does seem like a fun list to fly. Sadly, it tempts me to get 4 Aces packs for the Red Interceptor...

A few things about the Mesa AZ event before I post the top sixteen results:

1.) Video was taken of all games at the top table (nine in total). As it becomes available for public viewing after editing, we'll post the links on the FFG Forums.

2.) We're going to take all of the information about which squads met up against which (for all fifty players) in each round and which squads won or loss, and will post any interesting findings we gather from that. If anyone would like that file once I have it together for your own analysis, let me know and would be happy to share.

With that - the top 16 results:

Mesa, Arizona

June 28 ^th

Empire Games

Attendance: 50

Final Cut: Top 8

Info: https://www.facebook.com/empiregamesaz

Winner: Whisper + Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device + Fire Control Systems + Intelligence Agent; Howlrunner + Hull Upgrade; 3x Academy Pilot

2 ^nd Place: Lando + Expert Handling; Chewbacca; Bandit Sq. Pilot

Top 4: Biggs; 2x Dagger Sq. Pilot + Advanced Sensors; Rookie Pilot

Top 4: Biggs; 2x Blue Sq. Pilot + Heavy Laser Cannon + Fire Control Systems; Bandit Sq. Pilot

Top 8: Biggs; 3x Blue Sq. Pilot + Advanced Sensors

Top 8: Chewbacca + C-3PO + Gunner + Expert Handling; 2x Blue Sq. Pilot + Fire Control Systems

Top 8: Soontir Fel + Push the Limits + Hull Upgrade; 2x Bounty Hunter

Top 8: Han Solo + C-3PO + Millennium Falcon + Determination + Recon Specialist; Lando + Draw Their Fire + Nien Nunb

Top 16: Luke + R2-D2 + Shield Upgrade + Draw Their Fire; Biggs; Tala Sq. Pilot; Tarn Mison + R7 Astromech

Top 16: Lando + Push the Limits + Nien Nunb + C-3PO; Chewbacca + Veteran Instincts + Weapons Engineer + Tactician + Millennium Falcon

Top 16: Luke + R2-D2 + Draw Their Fire; Biggs; 2x Rookie Pilot

Top 16: Han Solo + Millennium Falcon; Lando + Veteran Instincts; Mercenary Copilot + Gunner

Top 16: Echo + Tactician + Fire Control Systems + Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device; 2x Royal Guard Pilot + Push the Limits + Royal Guard Title + Targeting Computer + Hull Upgrade

Top 16: Chewbacca + Predator + Gunner + Millennium Falcon; Tarn Mison + R7 Astromech; Blue Sq. Pilot + Fire Control Systems

Top 16: Lando + Gunner + Veteran Instincts; Han Solo + C-3PO

Top 16: Luke + Draw Their Fire + R2-D2; Biggs; 2x Rookie Pilot

Some initial first person observations concerning the Mesa, AZ inaugural Wave 4 integration:

Rebel Swarm - My friend has the pleasure of losing to the first officially tournament legal rebel swam with his 6 ship TIE swarm (Round one of Swiss). The z95s all had assault missiles or the like which doomed the swarm ultimately, but the game went to time and was not a table, interestingly enough.

I don't remember seeing any Y wings, A wings, or HWKs, and very few TIE Advanced, Bombers, Defenders (one three defender build), or surprisingly enough, E wings (I think there was one in the whole tournament).

From what I saw there were lots of X wings, B wings, Falcons (lots of Wookiees flying around if you catch my drift) with Z95s to round out lists for the rebels. A decent mix of sprays, shuttles, squints, TIE swarms, and the phantom! I saw one list of two phantom and one TIE build, braver man than I going 6 rounds considering every angle for decloaks... That man must have slept well that night!

An observation I had was there might have been a revisit to the Falcon as a staple phantom tank when people were list prepping. That seemed to be the Wave 4 unknown and I drew a correlation in my mind between that and flying a falcon. Now, I personally doubt that will be a permanent change to the meta, but an initial reaction to quell an unknown threat with a proven tank. One the dust from the wave 4 in boxing settles, I foresee a move back to a more balanced use of the ships, with the change of an emphasis of higher pilot skill throughout (also useful to prevent predator EPT from ripping your squad apart).

I was sad that I didn't get to face off against a Phantom yesterday, I diligently play-tested them the night prior in a scrambling attempt to understand how they worked once I got my hands on a ship finally. Kudos to the champion, who obviously flew Whisper quite well all day.

ManOnAWire will probably be releasing MUCH more quantitative based data once it's assimilated, I just thought I would offer my humble observation for hungry readers.

Oh, I forgot to post the lists I flew against if anyone is interested:

1) XXX, Wes, Wedge and Luke (VI and opportunist)

2) XXBB Biggs walks the Daggs (played twice, once again in finals 1-1 on that)

3) BBBB Blue Squadron with Ion Cannon x4

4) YT-1300 x2 Han and Lando with lots of upgrades (my only loss in Swiss)

5) XXXZ Luke DTF R2D2 Shield, Biggs, Tarn R7, Tala

6) Firespray x2 Shuttle Bounty recon specialist x2 seismic on one, OGP APL Saboteur.

So out of all of that the only new ship I went against was a Tala Squadron... Huh.. Just realized that.

What squad did you fly?

Soontir PTL, Hull

Bounty Hunter x2

There were several Phantoms but I think even more squads designed to deal with them at least partially in mind. Z-95s were abundant. There were three Defenders and they were all in the same squad. One E-Wing, a Knave, made the event.

Thanks all for the updates, this is all very exciting!

1)

Bydgoszcz, Poland 28.06.2014

Players: 26
Rounds: 5x swiss +top 8

WAVE 4 ILLEAGAL! Polish release was announced for 30th of June, local distributor switched that date for 26th but Players decided that there were not prepeared for playing on Wave 4 and there is not enough Time to practice in 2 Days.


1st-Mauler Mitchel +VI, Night Beast, Howl+stealth+swarm tactic, Backstabber, Dark Curse, Academy Pilot
2nd- wedge +r2d2, Biggs, 2x Rookie
3rd- Luke + opportunist, Wedge+opportunist, Wes+VI+opportunist
4th- Soontir+targeting computer+guard+PTL+hull upgrade, Howl+ swarm tactic, Mauler, Dark Curse, Academy Pilot

5-8th
- Biggs, 3x B+ advance sensors
- Falcon, 2x Rookie
- Turr+VI, 2x Guard+ PtL, Lambda+Vader
- Alpha Pilot+stealth, 2x Bomber+ homing missile, Colonel+ST-321+weapons engineer+APL

Thanks - there are a few holes in here, could you follow up on these? See bolded items below.

2) Arizona results have been pulled into the original post. I'll hold off on posting consolidated statistics for week 9 until we have the rest of the results in.

3) Can anyone inquire about the Frankfurt Germany results?

4) I completely forgot about the Singapore Regional! They just finished up on Sunday (local time). I just posted on their facebook page to see if we can get results. https://www.facebook.com/GamersaurusRex

A few things about the Mesa AZ event before I post the top sixteen results:

1.) Video was taken of all games at the top table (nine in total). As it becomes available for public viewing after editing, we'll post the links on the FFG Forums.

2.) We're going to take all of the information about which squads met up against which (for all fifty players) in each round and which squads won or loss, and will post any interesting findings we gather from that. If anyone would like that file once I have it together for your own analysis, let me know and would be happy to share.

With that - the top 16 results:

Mesa, Arizona

June 28 ^th

Empire Games

Attendance: 50

Final Cut: Top 8

Info: https://www.facebook.com/empiregamesaz

Winner: Whisper + Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device + Fire Control Systems + Intelligence Agent; Howlrunner + Hull Upgrade; 3x Academy Pilot

2 ^nd Place: Lando + Expert Handling; Chewbacca; Bandit Sq. Pilot

Top 4: Biggs; 2x Dagger Sq. Pilot + Advanced Sensors; Rookie Pilot

Top 4: Biggs; 2x Blue Sq. Pilot + Heavy Laser Cannon + Fire Control Systems; Bandit Sq. Pilot

Top 8: Biggs; 3x Blue Sq. Pilot + Advanced Sensors

Top 8: Chewbacca + C-3PO + Gunner + Expert Handling; 2x Blue Sq. Pilot + Fire Control Systems

Top 8: Soontir Fel + Push the Limits + Hull Upgrade; 2x Bounty Hunter

Top 8: Han Solo + C-3PO + Millennium Falcon + Determination + Recon Specialist; Lando + Draw Their Fire + Nien Nunb

Top 16: Luke + R2-D2 + Shield Upgrade + Draw Their Fire; Biggs; Tala Sq. Pilot; Tarn Mison + R7 Astromech

Top 16: Lando + Push the Limits + Nien Nunb + C-3PO; Chewbacca + Veteran Instincts + Weapons Engineer + Tactician + Millennium Falcon

Top 16: Luke + R2-D2 + Draw Their Fire; Biggs; 2x Rookie Pilot

Top 16: Han Solo + Millennium Falcon; Lando + Veteran Instincts; Mercenary Copilot + Gunner

Top 16: Echo + Tactician + Fire Control Systems + Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device; 2x Royal Guard Pilot + Push the Limits + Royal Guard Title + Targeting Computer + Hull Upgrade

Top 16: Chewbacca + Predator + Gunner + Millennium Falcon; Tarn Mison + R7 Astromech; Blue Sq. Pilot + Fire Control Systems

Top 16: Lando + Gunner + Veteran Instincts; Han Solo + C-3PO

Top 16: Luke + Draw Their Fire + R2-D2; Biggs; 2x Rookie Pilot

No swarms at all. I guess the mini swarm may count, but the swarm seemed dead at this event.

The most interesting part is that there are 3 imperials out of 16 players in the top spots. What was the player distribution between factions at that tournament ?

Distribution was 23 Imperial squads and 27 Rebel Squads. There were five swarms of six ships - no seven or eight ship squads.

There were several Phantoms but I think even more squads designed to deal with them at least partially in mind. Z-95s were abundant. There were three Defenders and they were all in the same squad. One E-Wing, a Knave, made the event.

I wonder if it had to do with more people making the choice to fly what they were comfortable with? Or even expecting the meta to be anti-Wave 4?

Distribution was 23 Imperial squads and 27 Rebel Squads. There were five swarms of six ships - no seven or eight ship squads.

Thank you, is this usual in your zone ?

Just some data.

Top 16 out of 50 means that only 32% of the players would get into it.

13 (48,41%) rebel players got through into that 32%

3 (13,04%) imperials players got through into that 32%

Almost half the rebel players got into that 32% and around 1/7 imperials did too. The advancedment rate was quite unbalanced that tourney (not blaming balance or anything, it could be many things, quality of imp players there, meta heavy switch favoring those experienced with their current builds, etc...), but i find it interesting because of the lack of tie swarms.

I just think everyone was scared if the phantom (I was) so they ran YTs which means rebels. I would bet the YT (per point value) was the most popular ship there.

I just think everyone was scared if the phantom (I was) so they ran YTs which means rebels. I would bet the YT (per point value) was the most popular ship there.

Rebs and imps were almost evenly distributed ( posted by ManOnWire, 23vs27), if that's what you meant.

I just think everyone was scared if the phantom (I was) so they ran YTs which means rebels. I would bet the YT (per point value) was the most popular ship there.

It certainly was in the Top 16. I'll at least post the overall weighted ship usage.

Ship Usage: Arizona Regional only, Weighted Average

Phoenix area players tend to lean Imperial normally. If my count is right, seven of the Rebel squads in top sixteen were flown by players who traveled from So Cal or elsewhere.

Hi Guys,

I practically went downhill after my first game of swiss at the Singapore Regionals, but I stayed all the way to the end.

We played 6 rounds of swiss, with a total of 35 players.

The guys will eventually post the full lists (I think), but the finals came down to two players using a Chewbacca with Z-95 Swarm.

Based on memory:

Winner:

Chewbacca with VI, Gunner, C-3PO, MF

Bandits x 4

Runner up:

Chewbacca with Engine Upgrade, Gunner, C-3PO, Predator

Tala x 3

This is only from what I remembered (it was a 1am game).

A phantom/interceptor/shuttle list made it to the Top 4, but I'll let Duraham spoil that for you. A Firespray with HLC, Howlrunner with 3 Academies also ranked in the top 4.

Consensus is that some people prepared too much for wave 4 (e.g Phantom and Defender Defence), and became very weak against pre-wave 4 builds.

Hi Guys,

I practically went downhill after my first game of swiss at the Singapore Regionals, but I stayed all the way to the end.

We played 6 rounds of swiss, with a total of 35 players.

The guys will eventually post the full lists (I think), but the finals came down to two players using a Chewbacca with Z-95 Swarm.

Based on memory:

Winner:

Chewbacca with VI, Gunner, C-3PO, MF

Bandits x 4

Runner up:

Chewbacca with Engine Upgrade, Gunner, C-3PO, Predator

Tala x 3

This is only from what I remembered (it was a 1am game).

A phantom/interceptor/shuttle list made it to the Top 4, but I'll let Duraham spoil that for you. A Firespray with HLC, Howlrunner with 3 Academies also ranked in the top 4.

Consensus is that some people prepared too much for wave 4 (e.g Phantom and Defender Defence), and became very weak against pre-wave 4 builds.

Thanks. We're all certainly looking forward to getting the correct lists. The #2 there is only 96 points, so it's probably missing some upgrades. Luke + MF, or Chewie --> Lando + MF? Don't know, guess we'll find out.

Hi Major Juggler. I'm the Runner-up for the Singapore Regionals.

My exact list was:-

Chewie w/ Pred + Luke + C3PO + Engine + MF Title (60)

Tala Sqd Pilot x 3 (39)

Total: 99 points

Ok, I've got all missing data from Bydgoszcz, Poland

1st- little mistake, Howlrunner had Hull Upgrade instead it Stealth Device

Top4- Wes+ VI, Luke+opportunist+r2d2, wedge+opportunist+ r2

Top8- Alpha Pilot +stealth, scimitar+ homing missile, scimitar+ howling missile+seismic charges, Jenson+ST-321+Weapons Engineer+Anti Pursuit Laser

Top8- 2x Rookie, Han Solo + Gunner+MF title+Recon specialist+ PTL

Sorry for that holes, I was typing all od that from memory yesterday. Thank's for your great work Major!

Hi Guys,

I practically went downhill after my first game of swiss at the Singapore Regionals, but I stayed all the way to the end.

We played 6 rounds of swiss, with a total of 35 players.

The guys will eventually post the full lists (I think), but the finals came down to two players using a Chewbacca with Z-95 Swarm.

Based on memory:

Winner:

Chewbacca with VI, Gunner, C-3PO, MF

Bandits x 4

Runner up:

Chewbacca with Engine Upgrade, Gunner, C-3PO, Predator

Tala x 3

This is only from what I remembered (it was a 1am game).

A phantom/interceptor/shuttle list made it to the Top 4, but I'll let Duraham spoil that for you. A Firespray with HLC, Howlrunner with 3 Academies also ranked in the top 4.

Consensus is that some people prepared too much for wave 4 (e.g Phantom and Defender Defence), and became very weak against pre-wave 4 builds.

Thanks. We're all certainly looking forward to getting the correct lists. The #2 there is only 96 points, so it's probably missing some upgrades. Luke + MF, or Chewie --> Lando + MF? Don't know, guess we'll find out.

Runner up had Luke Crew.

I'm fairly surprised he's the runner up - I played against it in 3rd round Swiss, and his manuevers are very solid.

I was bottom of top 8:

5 AP

Echo + VI + ACD + FCS + Rebel Captive

Another guy had:

2x Dagger + Adv Sens

Biggs

Gold + R3-A2

I faced 2 Phantoms in Swiss and 1 in Elimination.

Phantoms are deadly, sure, but I realize it takes an enormous amount of concentration and planning to play. That said, any well-constructed list with the right planning and thinking gets away very well as evidenced by the fact only 2 lists had Phantoms in the Top 8. I'd say the level of play in the Singapore Regionals is very, very high.

The guy running the Daggers list above didn't run into any Phantoms the whole day except for the final round of Swiss.

Great game day - the longest I've played X-wing ever.

Might need a bit of detox after this...

I got some additional lists, but don't know exactly about the rating.

Top 16: Biggs, Tarn Mison, 2x Dagger + FCS

Top 16: Howlrunner + PtL, 6x Obsidian

Top 16: Roark Garnett + Ioncanon, 2x A-Wing Prototype Pilot, 2x X-Wing

- 8x Academies

- Carnor Jax + PTL, Kath Scarlet + ?, Omicron Shuttle + Vader

- Captain Jonas + ?, Mayor Rhymer + ?, Bounty Hunter + HLC + ?

- Biggs Darklighter, 2x Blue + Advanced Sensors, Gold + Ion Canon + R3-A2

- Dutch Vander + R2 + Flechette, Roark Garnet + Blastergeschütz, Tarn Mison + R2-D6 + Schwarmtaktik, Blue + Ionencannon

- Biggs + R5-P9, Garven Dreis, Tarn Mison, Red-Squadron