So I did two store championships this year, after running two last year, as well as an imdaar alpha event last summer and a store kit tourney a few months ago.

In the previous 4 tourneys I'd done, I had never finished worse than 5th, and made the final rounds for 3 of the 4 including winning the store kit tourney in December.

So I had pretty high expectations for this year's Store Championships, even more so for the one I did today since scum was legal and I was able to bring a squad I had practiced 50 games with on vassal the past few months with a 43-7 record.

However for reasons I'm still not sure on, I went a mediocre 2-2 at both events, and finished 10th both times as well (first had 21 people, second had 26).

Both were eerily similar. Besides the fact I went 2-2 in both and got 10th place in both, the way the games went were nearly identical.

Three of my four wins I lost no ships, and the fourth I would have if not for a crazy last attack by my opponent before I finished him off.

For my four losses, two I had a pretty decent early lead, only for things to fall apart and end up losing a "reasonably" close game. The other two were major blowouts where pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong, including very bad dice for me and great for my opponent.

For what it's worth, 3 of my 4 losses were to people to made the top 8 cuts. In terms of squad matchups, I had pretty good ones I thought, even though the results didn't pan out that way.

I had a MOV of 425 for the first tourney, and 486 for the second. I really thought the 486 would get me in, but apparently not.

To add insult to injury, I was so eager to do this squad, that I bought two most wanted when I only needed one before realizing they would allow other dials to be used. Also theat fact that everyone else flying scum today had little to no practice with it, and still some of them made top 8 really hurt after all the practice I had already with mine.

Not really sure where to go from here. I'll maybe do my first regional this year if I'm free, but I'm not sure if I should run the squad I did today or not. Kinda stinks that I have to wait a whole year to compete again.

It'll get better. I was in a similar situation last year. What I did is picked 1 area of the game where I thought I needed to improve for every 3rd or so game I played. That helped a lot. But a few things I've come to realize. 1. It's a dice game. You can have the best squad and fly it perfect, but your dice can hurt you. 2. If I loose a match but I feel I didn't make any mistakes I'm fine with that. Just Stay On Target and don't loose focus.

It'll get better, don't let that discourage you. I've played for 7 months before finally winning a small store tournament, and finishing always in the top 4 but never the winner before that. Finally broke through and got my SC win plus top 2 and top 4 finishes in my recent SCs. You can do it!

what did you run? sometimes good lists don't do well in the current meta

I ran a dual scum firespray list. Like I said I've been practicing for months on vassal with it, so I've gone up against all types of lists, including some practice against other scum lists. I was prepared for anything, things just didn't go my way.

I was so excited that scum would be legal today, so doing mediocre was just such a let down.

Vassal and the table are also oddly different scenarios.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it dude. Some times that's how the cookie crumbles.

Did you have fun flying your list?

I ran a dual scum firespray list. Like I said I've been practicing for months on vassal with it, so I've gone up against all types of lists, including some practice against other scum lists. I was prepared for anything, things just didn't go my way.

I was so excited that scum would be legal today, so doing mediocre was just such a let down.

i'm happy you can make a 2 ship build work for you that doesn't use turrets; that actually requires a lot of skill to achieve!

but i must say you have bigger balls than i do; i'm not brave enough to run 2 firesprays to a tournament. I might run only Kath scarlet in a scum list myself but that's because her pilot ability is really strong! but never a secondary firespray as i find them to be detrimental to my play style in pairs and hinder myself without the proper support to back up such an expensive ship

pick yourself up and try, try again! i'm sure that one tournament won't stop you from attempting to win it next time

If it's any consolation, they should have been running 5 swiss with a cut to top 8 for 17+ players. At which point, a strong MoV and a 3-2 record should get you into the cut.

If it's any consolation, they should have been running 5 swiss with a cut to top 8 for 17+ players. At which point, a strong MoV and a 3-2 record should get you into the cut.

Actually, the newly emailed out (in January to store owners) Store Championship rules state 4 swiss rounds for 17-32 players and cut to top 8.