The X-Wing World championship will take place on the first weekend in November of 2015. As a result, the following Waves will have been released that will not have been released as of the US Nationals:
The Raider (not technically a Wave, but...) this includes the TIE Advanced fix + new TIE Advanced pilots.
The 4 September Wave: We have zero idea what will be in it, and therefore no idea what impact it might have. We also don't know how _much_ of it will be around- there might not be enough supply to meet demand. There will be roughly 2 months between the first word of what these ships will be and the World Championship.)
(Note that FFG will have the ability to disallow anything in particular from competitive play. They don't- for instance- allow ships first available at GenCon to be played at GenCon tournaments.) If supplies are too small, or not widespread enough, they might avail themselves of this option to keep things fair.
We will also have all of Wave 7 available for the first time. This is the Wave of the long awaited munitions fix- though only time will tell if that's going to accomplish it's mission.
So my first thought: people who play on Vassal- or have other means of proxying unreleased or newly released ships and upgrades- will have a large advantage coming into Worlds. This is always true to some extent, but the presence of 7 new ships and the functional re-release of the TIE Advanced makes this even more glaring. Practice, kids. Practice.
Second thought: Even if your squad is going to be composed of previously released content, you will need to know what you're likely to be facing- and that will probably be impacted by the stuff released between 1 August and 4 November.
Second-point-five thought: the 2014 Worlds was won by a list designed to be _just slightly_ ahead of the curve. At the time, Fat Han was super popular. Paul Heaver's list was designed as a Fat Han _killer_. It was a subtle difference, but an effective one. He designed that list by seeing what was popular and winning a couple weeks before Worlds and counter building appropriately.
Third Thought: even if you show up with 4 Rookies and only the dice from the Core set, you should be in for a good time.
Fourth Thought: will all these changes we're in the midst of, I very much hope that the top 16 at Worlds will look significantly different than the Top 16 at US Nationals. I honestly don't know the breakdown of ships entering the tournament, but I hope to see at least a bit more Scum and Imperials in the top 16.
(I also harbor a secret hope that the Blue and Gold squad takes the whole thing. Because I am a California nationalist and that's our colors. Silly reason, I know.)
So: anyone else have any thoughts? Does anyone know if Team Covenant is going to partner with Redbull? 