It's begun... players are starting to associate their piloting skills in X-wing with their personal identity; gauntlets have been thrown, insults have been traded, and 'your piloting sucks' has become an irascible thorn in the side of any discussion of a tournament build.

I suppose it was... inevitable?

Let the power of hate flow....

^{True test of pilot skill... each person takes the same identical ship, upgrades, list, etc... winner gets the trash talking spoils.}

Obviously this was bound to happen, but I think part of the reason it's become so prevalent lately is because of the number of posts essentially saying "I won a game/local tournament with X list/ship/pilot, so that means it's good."

A good number of posters (myself included) tend to view these posts as boastful, whether that's what the OP intended or not. Speaking only for myself, I tend to have this reaction because I believe that the predictive value of a single game of X-Wing played by an anonymous forum poster is essentially nil. So you won a local tournament with four HWKs? Good for you! That doesn't mean the build is good or viable or that you're the best pilot ever. It doesn't really mean anything at all.

Some people (again, including myself) tend to become annoyed or irritated by these posts, and there are a LOT of them out there. So that's why you have 6+ page threads about some guy winning a local tournament with Darth Vader and a TIE Defender blowing up into giant flame wars.

^{True test of pilot skill... each person takes the same identical ship, upgrades, list, etc... winner gets the trash talking spoils.}

I mean at this point, you might as well take away the dice and use spread sheets to calculate the average damage to take out the "chance" in the equation..right?!

^{True test of pilot skill... each person takes the same identical ship, upgrades, list, etc... winner gets the trash talking spoils.}

I mean at this point, you might as well take away the dice and use spread sheets to calculate the average damage to take out the "chance" in the equation..right?!

Not at all, I was simply saying if you are going for a true measure of ones skill... make the playing field as level as possible and go from there. Again if you are trying to prove who the better pilot is mano y mano. Now better strategist, list builder, etc... tourneys are for that.

If you have to come to an internet forum to brag how good you are... that says something all to itself...

Why don't we all paint over the hits and only play for Crits.

That's hardcore......or maybe just stupid? What was the question

again??

So you won a local tournament with four HWKs? Good for you! That doesn't mean the build is good or viable or that you're the best pilot ever.

The inverse is true as well. It doesn't mean that it is bad. Just because 5 or 10 or 1000 people all claim something to be true, doesn't mean that it is.

It wasn't all that long ago that the best minds in the world said the Earth was flat.

Obviously this was bound to happen, but I think part of the reason it's become so prevalent lately is because of the number of posts essentially saying "I won a game/local tournament with X list/ship/pilot, so that means it's good."

A good number of posters (myself included) tend to view these posts as boastful, whether that's what the OP intended or not. Speaking only for myself, I tend to have this reaction because I believe that the predictive value of a single game of X-Wing played by an anonymous forum poster is essentially nil. So you won a local tournament with four HWKs? Good for you! That doesn't mean the build is good or viable or that you're the best pilot ever. It doesn't really mean anything at all.

I'm not sure how you can consider "I won with X so X is good!" as boastful on the part of the player. Seems to me that if someone is arguing that a build is good, they're actually downplaying their personal skill.

It wasn't all that long ago that the best minds in the world said the Earth was flat.

I actually it was quote a long time ago...the ancient Greeks knew that the earth wasn't flat. Columbus sure as hell knew; he was trying to prove that there was a faster way to India, not that the earth was a sphere...

I dunno... I think in a game with dice, you always have days when you can't lose..or win lol. I've been playing games long enough that for me, if I win, I like to do it humbly, and if I lose, I can always take a lesson away from it. If you read between the lines on the forum, there's a lot of skill here. Fly hard, but have fun..and make sure it's fun for all you play with. I don't think you can go wrong like that!

^{True test of pilot skill... each person takes the same identical ship, upgrades, list, etc... winner gets the trash talking spoils.}

I mean at this point, you might as well take away the dice and use spread sheets to calculate the average damage to take out the "chance" in the equation..right?!

Not at all, I was simply saying if you are going for a true measure of ones skill... make the playing field as level as possible and go from there. Again if you are trying to prove who the better pilot is mano y mano. Now better strategist, list builder, etc... tourneys are for that.

Init could make a fairly big difference in a mirror match though, so not sure this is viable unless it's a best of 3/5/7(?) with alternating initiative per game. It is still a dice game though.

I'm confused by the premise of this post. Is this in reference to some specific event at a tourney, or just people being blowhards on the forum?

It wasn't all that long ago that the best minds in the world said the Earth was flat.

I actually it was quote a long time ago...the ancient Greeks knew that the earth wasn't flat. Columbus sure as hell knew; he was trying to prove that there was a faster way to India, not that the earth was a sphere...

The Greeks actually figured out the diameter of the earth within a couple percent. Humanity has known the earth was round since we've been sailing.

My advice is just forget the brags and trust that the one slinging the challenge is already the weaker player for their bravado and hubris. The internet tries to make heroes from fools; it doesn't mean they aren't still fools.

It wasn't all that long ago that the best minds in the world said the Earth was flat.

I actually it was quote a long time ago...the ancient Greeks knew that the earth wasn't flat. Columbus sure as hell knew; he was trying to prove that there was a faster way to India, not that the earth was a sphere...

The Greeks actually figured out the diameter of the earth within a couple percent. Humanity has known the earth was round since we've been sailing.

Its a shame how few people know that, +1

Obviously this was bound to happen, but I think part of the reason it's become so prevalent lately is because of the number of posts essentially saying "I won a game/local tournament with X list/ship/pilot, so that means it's good."

A good number of posters (myself included) tend to view these posts as boastful, whether that's what the OP intended or not. Speaking only for myself, I tend to have this reaction because I believe that the predictive value of a single game of X-Wing played by an anonymous forum poster is essentially nil. So you won a local tournament with four HWKs? Good for you! That doesn't mean the build is good or viable or that you're the best pilot ever. It doesn't really mean anything at all.

I'm not sure how you can consider "I won with X so X is good!" as boastful on the part of the player. Seems to me that if someone is arguing that a build is good, they're actually downplaying their personal skill.

Well, usually it's more like "X is good if you fly it well." We've seen this a thousand times already with the Defender. Every time someone does something remotely good with the Defender there's a 10 page thread about it.

And I'm not saying that personal experiences aren't necessarily valuable, but there are a LOT of posters on this forum that fall back onto "that one time I won with X" as their evidence that X is good. Given that there are also a number of posters on the forum that don't find that valuable or persuasive...there's where a lot of the tension is coming from.

Just my opinion, of course.

Well then, I apologize for my recent topic post. I was just so surprised I had to share, lol. I think there was far more luck than skill involved though, at least on my side of the table.

It's luck. It's skill. It's guessing the right move at the right time. It's knowing your opponent at your FLGS. It's knowing yourself. It's being predictable. It's being unpredictable. It's the dice. It's the fraction of an inch for your starting position that, after all those moves, you ended up with the right combination of moves and counter moves to have flanked Boba Fett and in your sights at range 1. It's winning humbly. It's losing gracefully. It's for dealing the trash talk out. It's for taking the trash talk. Sometimes I get lucky, and I win. Sometimes my opponent schools me completely and I lose.

Yes, it's all of those things.

I play to have fun. If I win or lose, I really don't care. I just want to play.

Obviously this was bound to happen, but I think part of the reason it's become so prevalent lately is because of the number of posts essentially saying "I won a game/local tournament with X list/ship/pilot, so that means it's good."

I personally see those posts more as trying to defend a ship/build they love than claiming they are better than the others. You won't see these kind of posts with ships that everyone like. They are sharing their personal success with a ship that is generally considered bad or suboptimal, trying to make a case that the ship can be good. But then the naysayer come in and say that it is bull, that they were either lucky or that their opponents were bad. So in that sense, yeah, it does attract that kind of comments.

I think the worst contender is when someone claim that a ship is overpowered. Then some members get offended by that and say that the poster think the ship is overpowered because he don't know how to fly against it, that if you know how to tackle the beast, it is perfectly fine. Again, probably trying to protect their personal favorite ships and their own skills; you might be offended when someone consider your favorite ship/build easy mode with no skill required to use it.

I'mma let you finish,

but I am the greatest A-wing pilot of all time.

I'mma let you finish,

but I am the greatest A-wing pilot of all time.

Only because the A-Wing is soooo easy to fly! No skill needed at all!

You think it's easy expanding into a ball of shrapnel & burning gas?

Son, just point me at your Super Star Destroyer. I've got this.