Now that the SF Bay Area Store Championship season has concluded I’d like to thank all of the tournament organizers, host stores, and community members for providing a really awesome experience.

We were fortunate enough to have a series of 8 X-Wing Store Championships all located within an hour-and-a-half drive of one another. What’s more? We had extremely cool people who wanted to organize these Store Championships into an experience that promoted healthy competition, dramatic moments, and a sense of community. The organizers even reached out to our State’s capital and the Sacramento Crew got connected to our events. Really awesome people and incredible pilots over there!

To be commended for creating this experience are Bernie Lin, Darryl McMillon, and Jeff Wilder. These guys were tip of the spear and really got this thing organized. They created this idea of an Elite 8, where the top eight performers over the course of eight Store Championships would be invited to compete in another tournament before Regional’s. As an added piece of drama Bernie got the idea that only a pilot’s two best finishes would be considered in the end-of-season rankings. This was pretty cool and ended up creating a lot of fun stress towards the last few Store Championships. Also, the data collection from these tournaments was thorough and top notch. I am very interested to see if any conclusions can be made.

Personally, I’d like to thank the TO from the Endgame Oakland Store Championship, Brian Francis. That SC went over time and we couldn’t finish the final match of elimination at the store, even with 65 minutes rounds! It was a re-occurring theme at the Bay Area Store Championships. However, Brian was kind enough to host the final match at his house a few nights after the tournament so that we could conclude it. It was an extremely awesome gesture and very much appreciated by both participants! There are other extreme examples of awesomeness at other events as well.

To the host stores, thanks for your hospitality! D20 Games, Black Diamond Games, Game Kastle Fremont, Randy’s House of Games (Sacramento!), Endgame, Gamescape North, 316 Collectibles, Games of Berkley, and Gamescape SF (host of Elite 8 final tournament).

To the TO’s, you guys were the best and thank you for your service! Darryl McMillon, Jeff Wilder, Bernie Lin, Sam Cromwell, DK, Brian Francis, Andre & Darren, Noel & BJ, Jamie Kennedy.

To the community, you make this what it is! Special shout-out to the Sacramento Crew (feel silly for calling you guys that, because we are all apart of the Northern Californian Crew, now!) for representing at a grip of our tournaments. Eric, Jimmy, Andrew, and JP (as well as others!) came to a lot of our events and really added something different to our Pacific Coast meta. Very cool.

I’ve put all these guys on blast enough. They’re all awesome and completely righteous! Thanks to everyone for such a fun Store Championship season and see you all at Regional’s!

Not much I can add to this. It's great to see the Norcal community grow so much. Thanks for a great Store Championship season!

Fly Hella Casual

I miss the heck out of Endgame and Games of Berkey. I'm sad that I'm not even sure I've heard of the other stores. Next time I'm back home, I might be able to check those places out.