Etahn + 2 X-wings? Especially Wedge? What insanity is this?

I have to admit, I love some of the crazy stuff that does well in Europe.

Just a bunch of players who said "not going" so far. Those that went are silent still.

92 players made an effort to say they would not be attending. Whole thing is on video, could not stream live from the venue.

Really sad that is the way things went down. Potential for an 100+ player tournament, but LR had to do things their own way, even when knowing for months in advance that 90% of the community was displeased with said way.

Next year should see improvement. I've been in touch with their management voicing concerns for a while now. And ffg has said they are going to work more closely with them next year.

For those of us not in Canada but curious, can you enlighten us briefly on the issues?

I'm not from Lion Rampart so I cannot confirm this, but to me it seemed as though LR wanted to tie all of FFGs games nationals to a large convention similar to gencon. This happened to be FanExpo, which while gaming does go on there it is not the primary focus like gencon. Players were required to purchase a day-pass or Deluxe pass to the Expo in order to play, on top of the tournament fee. This landed you in the ball park of $90 iirc, just for the day pass (which you wouldn't be able to use to see the Expo anyways since you'd be playing xwing all day.) The majority of the community here was displeased with that and ulimately decided they weren't going to go, myself included.

Quite disappointing to me that it went down this way when last year's nationals was ~60 players and this year's Toronto regional was 60+.

This is how it works in the UK. Many of us hate it.

I have never understood how X-Wing tournaments got tied into conventions. Is the argument for tying a national tournament to a convention that people travelling will have something to do other than fly in, play, and then fly out? If so, that doesn't seem like a compelling justification to me. Why not just have them is city that is reasonably convenient to travel to and has the potential for anyone traveling to it spend time enjoying the area if they wish to do so? Otherwise, I don't see how an X-Wing national tournament is closely enough related to a convention to justify combining them for any purpose other than increasing the number of those in attendance at the convention.

I know that I couldn't be convinced to pay the tournament entry fee with a 100% tax (and it seems like that is on the low end) in the form of a "day pass" that, at best, lets me sit in on a few mildly interesting seminars (which it seems, as far as X-Wing is concerned, people bother with mostly for big release announcements that hit the internet 30 seconds after they occur anyway) and the right to purchase things that are otherwise available at the LGS or Amazon. With how far some people travel for these things, I don't see why they aren't given a choice as to whether or not them want to drop additional cash on getting through the front door.

Just a bunch of players who said "not going" so far. Those that went are silent still.

92 players made an effort to say they would not be attending. Whole thing is on video, could not stream live from the venue.

Really sad that is the way things went down. Potential for an 100+ player tournament, but LR had to do things their own way, even when knowing for months in advance that 90% of the community was displeased with said way.

Next year should see improvement. I've been in touch with their management voicing concerns for a while now. And ffg has said they are going to work more closely with them next year.

For those of us not in Canada but curious, can you enlighten us briefly on the issues?

I'm not from Lion Rampant so I cannot confirm this, but to me it seemed as though LR wanted to tie all of FFGs games nationals to a large convention similar to gencon. This happened to be FanExpo, which while gaming does go on there it is not the primary focus like gencon. Players were required to purchase a day-pass or Deluxe pass to the Expo in order to play, on top of the tournament fee. This landed you in the ball park of $90 iirc, just for the day pass (which you wouldn't be able to use to see the Expo anyways since you'd be playing xwing all day.) The majority of the community here was displeased with that and ulimately decided they weren't going to go, myself included.

Quite disappointing to me that it went down this way when last year's nationals was ~60 players and this year's Toronto regional was 60+.

It was not all Canadian nationals at fan expo. Only four. Rest were a few weeks ago in Vancouver at some anime convention. Five players for Star Wars LCG. All Americans.

I have never understood how X-Wing tournaments got tied into conventions. Is the argument for tying a national tournament to a convention that people travelling will have something to do other than fly in, play, and then fly out? If so, that doesn't seem like a compelling justification to me. Why not just have them is city that is reasonably convenient to travel to and has the potential for anyone traveling to it spend time enjoying the area if they wish to do so? Otherwise, I don't see how an X-Wing national tournament is closely enough related to a convention to justify combining them for any purpose other than increasing the number of those in attendance at the convention.

I know that I couldn't be convinced to pay the tournament entry fee with a 100% tax (and it seems like that is on the low end) in the form of a "day pass" that, at best, lets me sit in on a few mildly interesting seminars (which it seems, as far as X-Wing is concerned, people bother with mostly for big release announcements that hit the internet 30 seconds after they occur anyway) and the right to purchase things that are otherwise available at the LGS or Amazon. With how far some people travel for these things, I don't see why they aren't given a choice as to whether or not them want to drop additional cash on getting through the front door.

Rapture, the theory behind tying big events like this to major conventions is actually pretty solid. People who walk by see the player interest and may become players/buyers in the future upon seeing the level of support and player base.

Where this falls down is poor choices. FanExpo was once a good gaming con, many years ago. It struggles now. I don't think Hobby Star who runs FanExpo care either as they are dragging in loads of other groups into this wide interest convention. It's not well run and entrance costs more than Gencon. We've run gaming events there and had to start late or admit players late who could not slip in past the endless entrance line.

There were K-wings and at least 1 Punisher at FanExpo in Toronto. Though I did see that punisher get dusted by Scum HWKs with TLTs.

Wave 7 was legal at Canadian Nationals but new core was not as it is not available in Canada yet. The tournament I won last week had 26 players and Canadian Nationals had 24. I also chose not to go due to the venue.

I have never understood how X-Wing tournaments got tied into conventions. Is the argument for tying a national tournament to a convention that people travelling will have something to do other than fly in, play, and then fly out? If so, that doesn't seem like a compelling justification to me. Why not just have them is city that is reasonably convenient to travel to and has the potential for anyone traveling to it spend time enjoying the area if they wish to do so? Otherwise, I don't see how an X-Wing national tournament is closely enough related to a convention to justify combining them for any purpose other than increasing the number of those in attendance at the convention.

I know that I couldn't be convinced to pay the tournament entry fee with a 100% tax (and it seems like that is on the low end) in the form of a "day pass" that, at best, lets me sit in on a few mildly interesting seminars (which it seems, as far as X-Wing is concerned, people bother with mostly for big release announcements that hit the internet 30 seconds after they occur anyway) and the right to purchase things that are otherwise available at the LGS or Amazon. With how far some people travel for these things, I don't see why they aren't given a choice as to whether or not them want to drop additional cash on getting through the front door.

Rapture, the theory behind tying big events like this to major conventions is actually pretty solid. People who walk by see the player interest and may become players/buyers in the future upon seeing the level of support and player base.

Where this falls down is poor choices. FanExpo was once a good gaming con, many years ago. It struggles now. I don't think Hobby Star who runs FanExpo care either as they are dragging in loads of other groups into this wide interest convention. It's not well run and entrance costs more than Gencon . We've run gaming events there and had to start late or admit players late who could not slip in past the endless entrance line .

This makes little sense.

This is how it works in the UK. Many of us hate it.

To be fair the twelve notes to cover entry to UK Games Expo is a bit different to $90.

I have never understood how X-Wing tournaments got tied into conventions. Is the argument for tying a national tournament to a convention that people travelling will have something to do other than fly in, play, and then fly out? If so, that doesn't seem like a compelling justification to me. Why not just have them is city that is reasonably convenient to travel to and has the potential for anyone traveling to it spend time enjoying the area if they wish to do so? Otherwise, I don't see how an X-Wing national tournament is closely enough related to a convention to justify combining them for any purpose other than increasing the number of those in attendance at the convention.

I know that I couldn't be convinced to pay the tournament entry fee with a 100% tax (and it seems like that is on the low end) in the form of a "day pass" that, at best, lets me sit in on a few mildly interesting seminars (which it seems, as far as X-Wing is concerned, people bother with mostly for big release announcements that hit the internet 30 seconds after they occur anyway) and the right to purchase things that are otherwise available at the LGS or Amazon. With how far some people travel for these things, I don't see why they aren't given a choice as to whether or not them want to drop additional cash on getting through the front door.

Rapture, the theory behind tying big events like this to major conventions is actually pretty solid. People who walk by see the player interest and may become players/buyers in the future upon seeing the level of support and player base.

Where this falls down is poor choices. FanExpo was once a good gaming con, many years ago. It struggles now. I don't think Hobby Star who runs FanExpo care either as they are dragging in loads of other groups into this wide interest convention. It's not well run and entrance costs more than Gencon . We've run gaming events there and had to start late or admit players late who could not slip in past the endless entrance line .

This makes little sense.

There's plenty of booth space for horror, anime, movie, WWE stuff. It certainly is profitable for HobbyStar.

I live 90 minutes from where the Cdn Nationals were, and I have extended family in Toronto so I didn't need to worry about a hotel room. But... but.. having to pay close to $100 just to get in the door and to the table, and never mind the wicked food & drink prices there, would have easily made it a $120+ day. I'd rather spend the money on more plastic space ships, than to pay for an event like FanExpo and not actually be able to see anything that I was paying for.

Only 24 at Canadian nationals. If I had known I had a chance to get in I would have gone.

Wave 7 was legal at Canadian Nationals but new core was not as it is not available in Canada yet. The tournament I won last week had 26 players and Canadian Nationals had 24. I also chose not to go due to the venue.

Only 24, but the competition was very high. There was 6 regional winners plus a few that placed well at the Gencon National. Wave 7 was legal but unfortunately the TLT meta did not show up in any significant numbers.

Only 24, but the competition was very high. There was 6 regional winners plus a few that placed well at the Gencon National. Wave 7 was legal but unfortunately the TLT meta did not show up in any significant numbers.

Well I think you would expect the competition to be very high when the entry fee is $100, only players who genuinely believed they had a chance of winning would enter for those sort of cost, then factor in that judging from the 92 players whom expressly didn't go due to cost, it tells me that what could have been a great event turned out to be poorly executed event from an organizational standpoint.

Congrats to the guy who won the event, I'm sure hes a great player but its hard to really have a National championship event when over 75% of the countries top players don't attend due to a cost boycott.

I can only hope it goes better next year.

Congrats to the guy who won the event, I'm sure hes a great player but its hard to really have a National championship event when over 75% of the countries top players don't attend due to a cost boycott.

Including last year's champ skipped out.

Shall we allow the thread to go back on topic? I'm obviously not a fan of FanExpo, HobbyStar, or Lions Rampart, but I have to admit complaining about it isn't really what this thread is about.

Rapture, the theory behind tying big events like this to major conventions is actually pretty solid. People who walk by see the player interest and may become players/buyers in the future upon seeing the level of support and player base.

Where this falls down is poor choices. FanExpo was once a good gaming con, many years ago. It struggles now. I don't think Hobby Star who runs FanExpo care either as they are dragging in loads of other groups into this wide interest convention. It's not well run and entrance costs more than Gencon. We've run gaming events there and had to start late or admit players late who could not slip in past the endless entrance line.

Fair enough. But, having players, at a minimum, double the cost of their daily participation so that they can act as free advertising for a product might be solid from the perspective of the seller, but it seem like a pretty raw deal for the participants.

Heh, I won't dispute that.

On the plus side of there were only 24 people at the Canadian nationals it's unlikely that the ffg software crashed causing a multi hour delay

Rumor is an 8 TIE Swarm (4x Academy, 4x Obsidian) has won the French National against Chiraneau-Soontir. Yep, that.The lovely Carnor-Double Sigma list was on the Top4. I know the top 16 lists, but not the details of most of them:

-4x Academy TIE; 4x Obsidian TIE

-4 Chiraneau; Soontir lists

-Han Solo; Jake Farrell

-Dash + Mangler; BB

-Dash; Corran

-Dash + Predator + R2D2 Crew + Outrider + Mangler; 4x Bandits

-3 Brobots lists

-Etahn A'baht + Advanced Sensors + Veteran Instincts; Wedge Antilles + Adrenaline Rush + R2; Luke Skywalker + Veteran Instincts + R2D2

-Chiraneau; Carnor

-Carnor; 2x Sigma

-A Falcon (no idea which one); 3 Z-95

As for the other lists, the Chiraneau-Soontir that lost in the final had a targeting computer on Soontir and no stealth device. I was surprised to see that the match went to time, because the decimator dropped in the turn they called time on (to a direct hit no less) while there were 5 TIEs on the table with 2 at 1 hull. Soontir probably would have picked them all off had it not gone to time as they were quite spread out.

As for the other lists I don't know much but the Han in the Han+3 bandit list had predator, Luke, 3PO, MF and EU. One double IG had AS, PtL, AT, C with HLC and B with mangler.

Italian National, which I believe was the first big tournament with Wave 7 legal considering all the issue the canadian's one had, was won by Marco Turchiano flying a Lone Wolf Dash with HLC, title, APL, R2D2 coupled by Miranda with TLT, C3PO and Homing Missile.

He beated my teammate Daniele Citro, who was playing 4 Ys with TLT and unhinged astromech, and ended the tournament undefeated, with an overall astonishing record of 11-0 (I was one of those losing against him...).

The tournament was great, the players were funny and likeable and the organization on point.

Despite the fact that Wave 7 hit Italy way earlier than the rest of the world, summer holydays had left most of the people very little time to prepare and test the new ships, so the meta was very refreshing from the regionals season which, at least here, saw the CiriFell as the biggest meta threat

Dash and Miranda were very popular: Miranda is a great wingmate and provide reliable damage over time while still having the option of nice range 1 big strikes and C3PO with her shield regeneration ability makes her a nasty opponent in the late game.

TLT Ys are absolutly crazy and if you don't have faced them, their first barrage is scary as hell. They can melt almost all the big ship in 2 turns if their opponent doesn't know how to counter them and even so, a good player will still manage to find room to shoot and chew throw your hull.

TIE Advanced, especially Vader, are very reliable. The other new ships didn't see much play, but as I said, there wasn't much time to master them before the national (Miranda on other hand is a ship quite easy to fly)

Carnor+double sigma pilot reporting in. That 8 TIE list was indeed the winner and Jean-Christophe is now the French national champ two years in a row. I royally screwed up the semifinal against him and he rightly punished me for it.

As for the other lists, the Chiraneau-Soontir that lost in the final had a targeting computer on Soontir and no stealth device. I was surprised to see that the match went to time, because the decimator dropped in the turn they called time on (to a direct hit no less) while there were 5 TIEs on the table with 2 at 1 hull. Soontir probably would have picked them all off had it not gone to time as they were quite spread out.

As for the other lists I don't know much but the Han in the Han+3 bandit list had predator, Luke, 3PO, MF and EU. One double IG had AS, PtL, AT, C with HLC and B with mangler.

@darthlurker : I'd love to get a rematch if you ever come to Paris!

Dash Corran was the classic, 58 dash, 42 Corran

Sadly the final was timed at 75 minutes due to venue constraints (I would have prefered untimed, which would have changed a lot), but I'm not so sure Soontir could have finished the game as he was already down to 1 hull.I did play pretty badly in the mid game though and the last 3 turns were a mad scramble to take down chiraneau before time which left my remaining Ties stressed and badly positionned to finish Soontir. Both Pelayo and I made plenty of mistakes in that final game.

This was easily the most intense tournament I've ever won with 9 out of 10 games against Top 16 players. Really a great experience!

I faced :

-BBBBZ

-Dash mangler + 2 blues

-4 times Chiraneau Soontir

-Brobots (B&C PTL, AdS, Mangler, HLC, Autothrusters)

-Fat Han + 3 bandits (luke crew)

-Fat Dash + VI Corran

-Carnor + double sigma

Wave 7 was legal and readily available for the Canadian National. New core set was not legal. There were a couple K-wings, a Punisher, and a few sporadic TLT Y-wing, but most players that went there to win stuck with well tested and developed lists that they knew 100% they would allowed to use well in Advance.

On the plus side of there were only 24 people at the Canadian nationals it's unlikely that the ffg software crashed causing a multi hour delay

TOME works OK for tiny tournaments and I guess that is really what it is designed for. Worst part about it not being on Croydex though is you cannot upload the tournament to List Juggler.