Please tell us the interesting, humorous, or remarkable stories that you have seen while judging an event; Rules decisions that you had to make, player tantrums you had to call the cops on, sportsmanship play that left you in awe.

to celebrate the release of Imperial Aces, I held a tournament where the grand prize was the Imperial Aces. The top 2 players and the next 5 ranked players after that would take part in a rather unusual scenario to win the prize.

The Contest of Aces

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some fluff:

A Rebel scouting group has been discovered on a star system, too close to the heart of the Imperial Navy, and must be eliminated. The 181st Squadron is the first to respond, and is on their way to despatch the intruders. At the same time, the Emperor has sensed the presence of the Rebels, and have also sent out his personal Royal Guards to scrub away the scum. When both squadrons arrive at the battlefield at the exact same time (purely by coincidence), the Rebels find themselves caught in a contest between the 2 elite squadrons, where whoever wins, they lose.

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How it is going to work:

To celebrate the arrival of the new Imperial Aces, all participants will get to experience, first-hand, the fearsome skills of the new elite pilots.

After 3 rounds, the 1st and 2nd ranked players will set aside their 100pt squads, and select one of the 2 preset squad to use. (higher ranked player gets to choose, or audience will choose, or coin toss, depending on what happens that day XD)

The preset squads are:

Royal Guardians (75):
oxx[===> Carnor Jax + Expert Handling + Royal Guard TIE (28)
oxx[===> Kir Kanos + Royal Guard TIE (24)
oxx[===> Royal Guard Pilot + Veteran Instincts + Royal Guard TIE (23)

181st Sabers (75):
oxx[===> Turr Phennr + Elusiveness (27)
oxx[===> Tetran Cowall + Adrenaline Rush (25)
oxx[===> Lt. Lorrir (23)

Afterwards, each other participant in the tournament will field 1 Rookie Pilot Xwing, up to a total of 5 Xwings on the Rebel side. (If there are more than 5 Xwing pilots, the players ranked 3-7 will participate. If less, TO will make up the remaining numbers)

The 2 Imperial Aces players will setup the asteroid as per normal rules. Afterwards, the Rebel players will setup their Xwings on the Rebel side of the table, at least range 1 away from each other. The Imperial Aces will then setup their squadrons on the Imperial side of the table, within range 3 from the left side and right side respectively.

The player controlling the squadron that manages to get the most Xwing kills will be the winner of the contest / tournament, and will walk away with the Imperial Aces. (if something funny happens, eg. Rebels manage to wipe the Imperials, or a draw occurs, or etcetc, the 1st ranked player of the 1st 3 rounds will get the prize). Kills are awarded on a Last Hit basis.

The Rebel pilot flying the last Xwing to be eliminated will be awarded the Rebel Medal. (again, if anything funny happens, the player that was ranked the highest amongst the Rebel group wins the medal)

What happened instead was all 5 Xwing pilots ganging up on the 181st squadron, while the Royal squadron hung back and advanced extremely slowly, waiting to Kill Steal shots. Thankfully none of the interceptors died, and the interceptors won (as planned), but with all the 181st hanging on at 1 hp each

That sounds surprisingly fitting for both the Galactic Empire and for Table Top Miniature players.