Yeah, my first tournament was in the fall of 2014 in a Kessel Run event. I drove two hours to get to it. Everything I saw was Phantoms. Phantoms everywhere! But did I have fun with my 2B2Y Ion Cannon shenanigans? Yes, yes I did. Did I make every Phantom work like the devil to kill me? Yes I did. It actually forced me and a few buddies to try to create a play scene in my town. A year and 4 months later, my town has 3 store championships, have run 4 tournaments, and are currently running a league. I have travelled with friends to Atlanta, Nashville, and Murfreesboro to play. If the snow doesn't crush us, I am heading to North Carolina to play.

Basically, hop in. The more you play the more fun you will have. I know a guy who cannot get away that often to play, so tournaments are god-sends because he can play many games in a single day. New guy to the tournament scene won our last one in Knoxville with a great list. He had to borrow some components from me as he didn't have them all, but he was new and a had a blast and won!

Basically repeating what others have said, as long as your having fun is not dependent on winning the majority of games you should have a blast.

I played in a few tournaments when I was starting out and learnt a huge amount, in my experience the xwing community is great especially if you are a newbie. If you mention to your opponents that you are starting out most will be happy to chat with you after the game and give you some pointers and tips on things to remember or ways to improve your game.

There are only a small number of combinations in this game in comparison to say Magic the Gathering. Magic has hundred of thousands of options and a 60 card deck to put them into.

X-wing's options are not nearly so large so the ideal combinations are much easier to spot for most people. You likely won't be able to run a list that hasn't shown up at least once somewhere else. In that mindset even you, are "net-decking". Soontir kinda builds himself. Poe kinda builds himself. Vader has been around so long that he's been build and rebuilt to the point where there's nothing new under the sun.

Piloting those ships however can't be learned on the internet. A great player running even a semi-compitent list will, more likely than not beat the newbie with the most powerful list out there.

Go to the championship. Fly some ships and have fun. Don't worry about those who you feel have net decked they may have, they may have not.

Short version: Yes, anyone can have fun at a tournament.

My first tournament was a regional last year, I'd been playing about 6 months and had never played anyone outside my family, and a couple work friends who had never played before. I went 2-4, and one of the 'wins' was a no show who dropped to late. I had a blast anyway.

I will say while I don't usually prefer 'netlisting' myself, I really don't like when other people look down on 'netlisters'. Some ships just love certain pilot/upgrade combos, are we supposed to avoid flying a ship or squad list just because someone else has flown it? That's just dumb. Personally, I like coming up with squads, heck I do that more than actually playing the game unfortunately, but not everyone enjoys that part of the game as much as I do, so if they want to copy and paste part/all of a list I'm totally fine with that. Besides, even if you copied Paul Heaver's worlds winning list for example, you still need skill to actually win a tournament with it, nothing in this game is 'auto-win'.

I've given someone who's only been playing a week their first win at a Store Championship (albeit a pretty large one, so everyone does get broken down into tiers after a couple of games). So yeah, go for it.

Some of my favourite games have been on the receiving end of netlists played well - as long as the person you're playing is cool then it can be fun to see what all the fuss is about.

Went to my first tournament recently and the Swiss format really helps you play people more your speed.

Many others have said it: Go, have fun, learn lots. Don't worry about the list you take!

Yes, flying and target prioritization is crucial in this game, probably more than the list you take. However, you can also learn a LOT by playing "netlists". You'll see how the interactions of the list make it "better", and learn how to fly it. As time goes on, you will at some point have a different list, and be facing a "netlist". You'll have the knowledge of what makes that list so powerful, and a little bit of insight as to where its weaknesses are. Exploit them by flying your list better, and you will do MUCH better!

If its your first tournament, I would recommend what I did for mine: take something easy to fly. Don't take something complicated like Palp/Vader/Fel. Take something like 4BZ. Or 4 Advanced sensor Bwings. Or 4x, or 2x, 2t70, etc. Something that doesn't take a lot of mental power to run. If you don't, you'll find out after 2 rounds of flying a tie swarm you will be drained!

But most of all, take what you like to fly and go have fun.

Won my first tournament after having played my first game 2 weeks earlier. Played in about 4 tournaments since then and am below 500 go figure. But had fun and learned something every time. Focus is important.

Dude, I am a new player. I cannot wait for the store championships! Why not, play your best, meet some new people and have fun!

It's a game where you push little Star Wars ships around pew pewing under your nose. You'd have to play against a real douchbag to not have fun.

... Yes, and you might meet a celebrity.

My second tournament ever was Regionals. Had a blast!

If you can laugh at yourself once in a while, you'll have a great time.

Have fun, tell people you're new, and just fly.

You'd have to play against a real douchbag to not have fun.

Which sadly can happen. At regionals I did have a game that was not fun. Was a fairly even match and at that point I was 3-2 so no matter what I was going to go home happy at .500, but a win could in theory put me in the top 16.

After the 2nd or 3rd turn the guy started going on and on and on about his dice and how X-Wing is nothing but luck, and that if it was based just on skill he'd be at the top table, ect...

Well I went on to win the game, and luck did play a small role, but I wasn't rolling super well and we were both flying B's and Y's so it's not like we were throwing a ton of evade dice. But when it became clear I was going to win... My undamaged Y vs his 2 hull left Y, he started offering to sell his collection to anyone who wanted it.

So while it's rare, it does happen.

To reiterate what everyone else is saying.... X wing is a surprisingly fun game even if you lose! I played my first tournament with a friends ships before even buying into the game and had LOADS of fun. One of the best things about a tournament is that you get to see so many other lists and ships and can really get an idea of what ships move/act like. Then you can see which ships you like the best for future purchases! X wing (counter to war-hammer or some other table top games) has a surprisingly diverse amount of competitive builds. So you can have fun and be competitive with almost any mix of ships.

A good reference would be this post which shows the huge amount of diversity even among the top world champion lists. https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/198506-the-ships-that-make-the-cut/

It is possible to fly the ships you liked in the movies/shows and still win.

Best place to have fun, frankly!

Just go in with the expectation to do as well as you can, but not 'to win' - if you get your ass kicked in every game you play, no harm, no foul, just a lot of lessons, you know? While if you win a couple, lose a couple, that's a great day out too. And if you win, we'll phone Paul Heaver and warn him you're coming.

Just remember to show up having showered (a lot of these places end up hot and potentially sweaty, best to start off fresh), and check the planning in case you need to bring snacks, and definitely make sure there's water with you - something a lot of new players don't realise is just how tiring multiple games in a row can be; don't try to do it while thirsty and low on blood sugars to boot!

If you want help assembling a list, feel free to ask, too. You might not have everything to make a Gold Standard Compeditive List if you're just getting into things... but we'll see if we can't help you out a little with showing up with something you should be able to enjoy the day with.

Now where did I leave that 'have a plan for X' post...

I just played my first tournament this past weekend and had a great time. The nice thing about swiss rounds is eventually you get matched up with players of your skill level.

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but if there's one thing I hate is just to internet-deck, to just "copy" "lists"
[...]
I almost would like to say "want to play x wing, but if you just copy internet lists, not interested"...

Like others have already said; unlike some games where there are thousands of good build that's just not the case here. There are several and maybe even more than several good build. Some are really really good and people like to take them. Or even take them and tweak them.

With the combinations and near 'auto-includes' (some people on this forum hate that phrase as much or more than net-decking) it is good to see other builds to know what goes on what pilot. Me I can't seem to keep the combos straight in my head and if net-decking is something you 'hate' then... oh well I'm not that good of a player anyway.

With that there are two other things I'll share:

A) I don't get to play very often so even though I've shy'd away from tournaments I'm having second thoughts. Very likely I'll try a few of my own lists and a few off the internet.

B) X-Wing is just down right fun. It may not be tournament level stuff but it is fun to just play ships in different combinations. Having ships with different abilities add a lot of flavor and depth to the game. The down side is when I play against someone who knows the 'includes' better than I, then I tend to get beat up severely.

Absolutely! Don't be shy, go and have fun! See what other people are playing with, what they're using, what tricks and tactics they use.

+1 to all the encouragement. You might lose a lot of games (but that's true even when your seasoned ), but it's an invaluable experience. Most players will be willing to discuss the ins and outs of the game with you in between rounds. It's a terrific venue to build valuable relationships and to expand your horizons.

Go play and have fun.

I've been collecting these off and on for a while now. I fell away from the hobby after Wave 5, but I'm back now. There just didn't seem to be much of an X-wing community in my area until recently.

So even though I've been buying these minis like crazy, I haven't actually played that much. Maybe like 8 games ever, and 6 of those were against my girlfriend or my brother.

So yeah, I consider myself a newbie still... But I'm going to a tournament in a few weeks.

And even though I can almost guarantee I'll get chewed up and spit out... I'm really looking forward to it.

I just started really playing this month. I signed up for my first ever store championship taking place next month. I don't plan on winning a lot. I do plan on having a lot of fun. It also happens to be the comic shop I frequent regularly.

My first real dive into the game was in the middle of last years store championships

I got to meet people who were even more enthusiastic about the game than I am and that is always great.

I almost would like to say "want to play x wing, but if you just copy internet lists, not interested"...

As a man who, all by myself, came up with Omega Leader with Juke and Comms Relay, only to come on here and discover that it's pretty much the standard for her.

Some combinations work in this game, others don't - I suck, so I lose a lot, but it's not squad building that's at fault, it's my inability to avoid crashing into asteroids, debris, and my own god-dammned Decimator.