Greetings, pilots. I came here to make a public complaint about the current state of product distribution and organized play of X-wing in Brazil.
Galapagos Jogos is responsible for the distribution of X-wing products in Brazil. It brought waves 1 and 2 in January 2015 and the game looked like a complete success as in less than 3 months we couldn't find any Millenium Falcon to buy in any store across the country. With time the game hooked more players, that bought whatever was left on the stores. Now, 10 months after release, we can only find Slave I and TIE Fighters for sale. I'm not sure if Galapagos actually tried to replenish the stores, but I'm pretty sure that no Falcons were replenished, despite the fact that it was one of the two ships most used in the Worlds 2014 and that it is certainly the most iconic ship in the franchise.
We started organizing our own store championships early this year, since Galápagos didn't show any support for that. At first we limited our tourneys only to waves 1 and 2, since those were the only 8 ships available on local stores. After a few months Galápagos began sending store tournament packs, which refreshed our idea that they would support organized play. But months passed, local stores were not receiving any ships from Galápagos and lacked ships to sell. So they began buying from international distributors. This practice was refreshing as most of us were again able to buy ships and, even better, I was able to get all ships wave 1 to 7 through these retailers that decided to import products in English. Now, somehow, they said that they are forbid to buy from international distributors. This, again, crippled our tourneys because many players just can't find a K-wing to use TLTs, a Raider and a TIE Advance to fly Darth Vader or a Star Viper and a TIE Interceptor to fly Soontir Fel. So our meta is heavily based on who was able to get a good opportunity to actually buy their ships and fly the best upgrades on their favourite ships.
Last week Galápagos anounced that "X-wing core set is back". Indeed, it is (
https://loja.galapagosjogos.com.br/t/franquia/star-wars
). But that and the Rebel Transport are all that is available right now. So after months without local supply, what they brought was the basic core set (yes, the one which only R2-D2 and Obsidian Pilots are being used now). At least now people can buy R3-A2, but that's going to be a pain to use since Y-wings are out of stock and K-wings and Most Wanted never came to Brazil.
So this is the current state of Brazil's organized play: Some of us were able to import ships directly from international websites. We are the lucky ones, even though we paid a lot on international shipping. At least we have our ships. Very few (like 4 on the entire country) stores found a way around the distribution blockade that Galápagos issued and are still able to sell ships in English. Galápagos only sells core sets and rebel transports. We still organize our store championships ourselves, because we love the game. We still play it regularly and invite new players, too. But when someone asks "What should I buy to start" I have to take a deep breath and say "Ok, this is not going to be easy, but the game is fun. Let me show you a few web sites.". And them I have to explain how each online store replenishes it's stock and how Galápagos forbid that we could buy ships from local stores. If the aspiring pilot still wants to go through that problem to actually have a Han Solo or a Darth Vader in their collection, he is regarded as a valiant soul and is heartily invited to join our group of X-wing players.
And finally, most of us have lost any hope of having any kind of national championship with Galápagos support. Maybe, if people stop selling their collections due to frustration with all these problems, we can organize one ourselves next year. It's a big country, so it's going to be hard to actually get people together to play on an event.
X-wing is on an amazing part of it's history right now. It's kinda embarrassing that it's being treated as a casual board game in Brazil. But that's Galápagos' expertise. Casual board games. I'm worried that X-wing is a little bit too much for them. We are not interested only in the core set. We want the entire collection. And not being able to buy it feels like an incomplete collection and many players are starting to lose interest because of this. Let's hope for a brighter future in which Brazilian pilots will finally be able to buy the products that FFG genially create.
Edit: Galápagos announced the new core set is coming in December, with more new stuff. Let's wait and see, but it looks like they are slowly trying to bring products but are facing a lot of logistic issues. I hope that they solve those issues.
