Well, I'm back from the tournament in my area and I'm doing this because some of you requested this. First off, I kinda didn't want to talk about it but you guys can take what you want from this.

Only me and three other people showed up and it was me and one other running Rebels and the other two were running Imperial. I regret to say that I didn't even come close to winning any of the matches. I literally scored zero points in the ranking because you only get points if you win and the overall winner was determined by who had the most. I lost every game.

My fleet was;

Jake Farrell (24)

Outmaneuver (3)

A-Wing Test Pilot (0)

Push the Limit (3)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

Dagger Squadron Pilot (24)

Fire-Control System (2)

Corran Horn (35)

R2-D2 (4)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Fire-Control System (2)

and my first opponent's fleet was;

Kath Scarlet (38)

Marksmanship (3)

Gunner (5)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Seismic Charges (2)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Seismic Charges (2)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Seismic Charges (2)

It took a couple of turns for our fleets to get in range and Kath put 2 stress tokens on Jake after I did Push the Limit, then moved on to destroy Corran fast, following that after I got all my stress off Jake the Dagger fell, after that it was only a matter of time. The only thing that worked in my favor was every round he crashed his bombers into each other and he dropped one SC and only did damage to himself. I lost all my ships and barely had a scratch (Kath had only one shield left and one bomber had two hull left). My dice roll was mediocre at best.

My second opponent's fleet was;

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Ion Cannon (3)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)

Ion Cannon (3)

Red Squadron Pilot (23)

R2-D6 (1)

Squad Leader (2)

Rookie Pilot (21)

R5-D8 (3)

I had done 4 successful shots on 2 B-Wings taking 3 shields off one and one of the other, then Jake fell from a Direct Hit. I tried to change my strategy to "cut bait and run" but Corran was hit by an Ion cannon twice. Time ran out and he won with all his ships.

My final opponent's fleet was;

Whisper (32)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

At this point I was I felt like I was fighting a lost cause and where I make probably one of the biggest mistakes of all, I only got Whisper in my sights once and it wasn't Corran it was Jake. After that turn I never caught Whisper in my sights again because I shot one shield off. The Tie Swarm swallowed me up, but I destroyed 2 APs, but out of 14 ships altogether that isn't much to brag about. In the end I had to concede defeat with only one hull on my Dagger and two minutes until the match was over.

I can't really say what I learned except that I have a LONG way to go. It feels like the more I play, the worse I do.

I have felt losses but never did I feel like I was such a failure until today and I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I know that something is still holding me back. it could be I'm not as good maneuvering as I thought or that I don't have enough ships but I only have one win under my belt and I feel like this game just isn't for me anymore.

Don't take it so hard. I lose far more than I win.

I'd encourage you to think about where you struggled most, and work to strengthen yourself in that area.

The learning curve in this game has some bumps and I often find when I think I'm improving, I take a few extra lumps. Just keep playing, and make sure you're having fun.

Don't take it so hard. I lose far more than I win.

I'd encourage you to think about where you struggled most, and work to strengthen yourself in that area.

The learning curve in this game has some bumps and I often find when I think I'm improving, I take a few extra lumps. Just keep playing, and make sure you're having fun.

I think it's I don't have enough copies of ships, the most amount of one ship I have is three Tie Fighters, and as one of my friends said, my play-style seems to be charge forward and try and kill as much as I can before it's their turn, so I would need some more "grunts". On the flip side of that coin, if they come with a phantom I'm screwed.

But I would like to try that Kath build with some of my other ships.

I think you might have just had a big fish - small pond experience. In that you are good against the current people you normally play with, but aren't yet at the level of the tournament players mostly because you haven't yet experienced a lot of play at that level.

I've never played in any kind of tournament but I had a very similar eye-opening experience a few years ago riding alpine snowboards. If you know anything about alpine snowboards it's a pretty niche sport so there aren't many people riding these. I'd been riding on my local bumps for a number of years and was consistently getting compliments. Basically I thought I was the bomb. Then I went to an "Expression Session" where there were about 20 people riding this type of carving snowboard. Every single rider was carving on faces I couldn't even hold an edge on. It was like I wasn't even on the same planet as the rest of these riders. This abrupt realization of exactly how my skill level compared to these other riders was ego shattering. As I left the expression session I was trying to decide if I was going to walk away from this type of riding or dedicate myself to getting better. I stuck with it. I modified my equipment and my more importantly my technique. Because snowboarding is a physical skill I had a lot of bad habits to unlearn and a lot of technique to refine. But two seasons later at another expression session I was cranking the same turns they were. The top riders, who are world class racers, are still way out of my league, but I'm in the top half of the riders at the session.

I guess the end state is that you have to ask yourself if competing against players of that skill level is something you ultimately want to do? If it is then you need to make the changes that will allow you to play at that level.

Currently I just play against my family and friends but I'd like to go play in some local tournaments myself someday. I fully expect that I'll have an experience much like you had today and end up asking myself much the same questions about X-wing that I once asked myself about alpine snowboarding.

Dave

Yep, eye opening experiences like this are pretty common. Don't feel too bad about it. The best thing you can do to get better is to play against highly skilled opponents. Take note of the types of builds they use, the strategies they employ during the games, and you will learn from them. Take a couple of days off and you will be itching to play again.