I ran a Spring tourney a couple weeks ago. Consequently I have been asked to put together a summer league. I wasn't to keen on the idea at first. Playing the same list over an extended period doesn't sound fun to me. I ran some ideas by the group, such as escalation and epic. Nobody seemed excited about escalation, and none of them are interested in epic (until the Raider hits the store shelves). So I decided to get creative, but I wanted to see what others that run leagues think, and tell me if my plan is doomed to fail !

I am calling it a "Challenge League". If its been done before, I didn't know it, so please don't think I swiped your idea. Simply put, over a series of a few weeks we will do matches of standard 75 minute dogfights. The twist is the loser of a match gets to change up his list. But not the entire list. Just the amount of points he lost. For example: Joe and Bob play a match. Joe wins, but he does not entirely wipe Bob. Bob lost 24 points. Before the next match up Bob can, if he chooses change 24 points worth of items in his list. The winner must stick with what he has. My belief here is it will allow newer less experienced players to tweak their lists as they go, while slowly increasing the challenge on the veteran players. I have quite a few more details down, but before I bore everyone to death I wanted to see how the court of public opinion feels about the idea.

Different is scary and therefore evil!

Sounds interesting though. We had a fun twist where you choose a faction and then have PERMA DEEAAATH. If you lost a named pilot on your squad then you can't use them again (due to being dead and all). It was interesting watching TIE swarms get shot right in the Howlrunner! Of if Han died Chewy used the life insurance to buy another old crummy ship apparently and took over the mantle! 50 points of your squad had to be named pilots to force the issue. Unique cards counted as dying as well (so long C-3PO). We kept it going for a while and even saw Winged Gundark on a table once.

I agree different is scary. But after Regionals I will need a change of pace. We have roughly half of our group being very rookie players and I am hoping this will help them in their list building thought process.

Its a good idea for sure. I encourage new players to fly new ships all the time. You could argue for getting used to one list and getting comfortable but I like the idea of having them fly different ships and become well-rounded players first. Once they are comfortable flying multiple ships they can choose their favorite and specialize if they so choose.

I've never done a league for X-Wing. I do TO a monthly event for X-Wing at our local hobby store. For the most part we play the standard 100pts but to keep things interesting we mix it up. We have done escalation and epic, epic was a big flop as it was our lowest turnout ever. One deviation we do is what we call Elite Pilots.

Elite Pilots is played on a 2x2 play area and each player brings 2 obstacles. Players may use up to 35points on one small base ship. The rounds are played in 30min with the obstacles placed no closer to range 1 of the edge or each other. This has become our most popular variation out side the standard 100pts.

I thought most leagues were about an accumulation of points over a given time period. I didn't think you had to keep the same list for the entire duration.

Hardcore league. If you lose, your opponent gets your list.

I heard of a league where they had 'rank cards' basically index cards with a number on them, and they could throw them down when they wanted it to be an 'official league match' winner takes the better of the two cards. perhaps you could incorporate something like that along with your original idea.

base seedings off of the 'start of the league tournament' results. Lists would be set at that tournament, give people a chance to see what modifications they would want to make to their lists. From there the league would officially start off, after the seeding cards were given out.

Helps make the number 1 a skilled player from the get go, and forces players to increase their on and off table skills (flying and list-building) if they want to challenge for that number 1 spot. Opposed to W/L rankings where you could just play scrubs all the time and end up with a 97-3 record (exaggeration but you get the idea). If new members want to join just make them up a new card with the next number and tell them to look for those with other cards.

Hardcore league. If you lose, your opponent gets your list.

Better yet all destroyed ships have their models smashed and their cards burned.

Out FLGS is going to have a league tourney starting in June.

Each participant will be paired up for one game each week. Each week will have a different theme. One week will require a list with no large-based ships. One week will require no small based ships. One week will require a minimum of five ships and one will have a maximum of three. And so on.

The idea is to avoid flying the same list for eight weeks, and force players out of their comfort zone and try different things. So far people seem pretty psyched about it.

All interesting ideas. Especially the hardcore crushing models and burning cards, very productive. Jokes aside, I think I am going to sit down and draft the rule variations for this Challenge League idea. The more I think on it the more I like the direction it can go. Obviously some bugs to work out, but if anyone is interested in the final draft PM me and I will shoot you a copy when done (after region 8 regionals)