I very much respect the work that you did compiling all the results, however I cannot help but wonder if you started a chicken and the egg situation.

He's not responsible for people who misinterpret or misuse that data, though. And while it's hard to support a counterfactual in a situation like this, I imagine there would still be a lot of netdeckers and metagame watchers even if MJ wasn't aggregating tournament results--they'd just be less well-informed about metagames outside their own.

And so enter the meta tracker that was the regionals results thread. I know there are a lot of casual players that did not read that thread. I know every competitive player has that thread on follow. After every regional, casual Xwing night at my LGS would see at least one person running a clone of the first place or runner up of the most recent regional tournament.

It's worth noting--again, because I say this a lot--that these people are Doing It Wrong. The aggregate tourney results are not a menu from which to choose your next build, but rather a set of things you should make sure your build (whatever it is, and wherever it comes from) can address.

So the question remains, does the meta exist because its real, or is the meta in and of itself meta? Does telling people what the meta is make them take a meta list, or do they take a meta list because of the actual meta? And is there a distinction?...

Granted there are some ships that are more powerful than others, but the regional meta thread demonstrates cycles of group think and circular reasoning.

So I agree that it's an interesting question, and I think aggregating tournament results as MJ does here is absolutely having an effect on the metagame.

But shift your perspective a bit, and it becomes a much less meaningful question. Instead of a metagame, maybe we should be talking about an ecology of X-wing, or (to be somewhat more esoteric about it) a fitness landscape. In any case, however, that landscape exists regardless of whether and how well players are informed about the landscape; that knowledge affects its shape, but not its fabric.

Some ships really are more powerful than others, or at least better suited to a particular role or niche, and players are going to make decisions on some basis about which ships are likely to perform best. If that basis is less heterogeneous by geographical location that it would be without MJ's threads, or if it has become informed by knowledge that's broader in scope than it would otherwise be... that's something of a moot question, I think, because not only is that counterfactual difficult to establish but it's not the universe we're living in now.

That said, Boba is way overpriced. If you want to houserule him back into usefulness, price him at 35.

Adding an EPT and +5 pilot skill compared to the Bounty Hunter is worth a total of two points?

Furthermore, if "EPTs are everything in this game", please explain why it took three or four waves to pull cheap generics run en masse from their pedestal as the strongest and most consistent lists.

Fett is one ship that can outfly a phantom. Fettigator+VI lets him move last and shoot first. He is also still flying the most balanced ship. I like running him.

The problem is, you are dramatically being outvoted by the competitive community across the entire planet, since Boba Fett didn't make Top Third or Final Cut even once at any of the 18 wave 4 Regionals events that I have data for. So replies along the lines of "Boba Fett is fine in this meta" are questionable at best.

I don't think the phantom has lived up to the hysterical terror everyone had when it was announced therefore the need for a "phantom killer" has not been too pronounced. If it does become a dominant ship the I think Fettigator is a reliable counter to the phantom.

At Nationals I chased a Fett with VI and EU around the board for a good 7 rounds with Whisper. At that point you can only expose yourself to try to get some damage in or go for the draw, provided your opponent knows how to avoid the asteroids. I wouldnt say it's a phantom killer, it was frustrating at best, but I guess some people are appealed by that part of the game. I'd love to try Scum Fett in an Imperial list though, maybe they can just scratch the old Fett completely and make the new one available for both factions.

What's a "BSP"?

Since everyone else is ignoring you: BSP stands for, I believe, Black Squadron Pilot.

At Nationals I chased a Fett with VI and EU around the board for a good 7 rounds with Whisper. At that point you can only expose yourself to try to get some damage in or go for the draw, provided your opponent knows how to avoid the asteroids. I wouldnt say it's a phantom killer, it was frustrating at best, but I guess some people are appealed by that part of the game. I'd love to try Scum Fett in an Imperial list though, maybe they can just scratch the old Fett completely and make the new one available for both factions.

There was one Boba Fett that made it into the Saturday tournament. It wasn't that one though. The one that made it to Saturday incidentally had zero wins Saturday.

Edit: Boba showed up in Nordic Nationals, 31st out of 37.

So, even through Nationals, there is still no good Boba Fett sightings.

In Holland he took 11th out of 36 i think.

Boba Fet's ability is very useful especially with his high pilot skill. If someone is trying to block you bank you can switch it around and with the auxiliary firing arc it is rare you do not have a shot. The trick is to keep your options open. If you are near an edge it is obvious that you won't be using his ability, same if asteroids get in the way. I see many firesprays do that turn dance where they keep turning but always have a ship inside one of its two firing arcs.

I would imagine his ability would be better if it let me change it to any arbitrary movement. As it is, it's just not good enough to make me need to build squads around him.

If I were to give a new ability to the Empire version of Boba Fett, it would go like this:

''At the start of the game, choose an enemy ship. When attacking that ship with Boba Fett, you can change all your focus results into hit results.''

Basically, the Empire has paid him to get rid of this particular pilot and when Boba has his eye on a target, there is nothing to make him lose his focus.

This. Thematic, useful, and really fun way to make Fett a truly feared opponent.

On a local tournament, a player with SuperFett and FatKath killed those Phantoms lists - but sucked against the SuperHanZZZ lists - as well as I did with my Whisper, Vessery and Yorr list.

SuperHanZZZ is almost unstoppable by imperial lists. Next time it will be swarm time again for me