It's a fun tournament gimmick

I'd go for:

Rebels - HWK

Imps - tie bomber

Scum - starviper ... Or Scyk... But only if they have to take two of them

I like the idea, and many good ideas were suggested so far. I'm a fan of this being a challenge for the players, they're supposed to be the best, the constraints should test that.

I'm a big fan of voting for the Rebel HWK, it's not useless, but it certainly isn't easy to fly well. The reasons for selecting it are well presented by other posters. I'm not a fan of voting for the X-wing personally. It may not be perfect, but there's quite a few worthy pilots that are not that hard to use. Seeing as everyone has the same limits, it's likely only a few pilots would be chosen. Now, if we were asked to vote for specific pilots, that would be an entirely different story!

For Scum, having never flown (or faced) a YV-666 at this point, I'm not sure how challenging or original that would force players to be. I think it would be more interesting to force players to use one of the new ships, so either the Mist Hunter or Punishing One.

While I've not flown (or faced) a Firespray, I've always liked the look of the ship and it seems, judging from comments here, that the imperial version is a challenge. So Imperial Firespray it is.

I want to see new things being done, my voting will go that way.

I prefer ships that have few pilot choices associated with them so no X-wing or TIEs

Rebel: Attack Shuttle - Just because, would people actually play it with out the GHOST?

Imperial: Punisher - It's a good ship but I don't see many lists that choose it enough.

Scum: Jumpmaster 5000 - I believe the odd maneuvering dial would keep it out of most top lists.

Yeesss, give me Bombers.

*dons his Bomber Captain hat*

Defo up for making things an interesting challenge, so:

Rebel: HWK

Imperial: Firespray

Scum: Syck

One of the neat features of the X-Wing System Open is that they'll be opening it up for players to vote for ships that the final eight must use. I'm curious which ships people are wanting to see, and why? I'm assuming that the voting will just be for a base model, and not specific pilots.

Here are my picks, and the reasoning for it.

Rebels: HWK-290

A very tough dial and pilots who are all good in specific ways, but still a lot of ways to build it out and no one build is overpowering (though KO's Juking Kyle build may test that).

Imperials: Firespray

I'll admit that I can see a case for the TIE Punisher and TIE Bomber here. In all three cases, the ships are potential point traps without any particularly dominating pilots, but the Firespray seems like it sees the least amount of use on the Imperial side.

Scum: YV-666

A lot of people may point to the Scyk, and I'll admit that it's tempting. But the YV-666 has a tricky dial, interesting firing arcs, and can be a potential trap if you load too many points into it, so it'll be interesting to see how players approach it when building their list.

I WAS thinking Scyk, but you know, I think your argument is valid. Still, would be fun to see the top players in the world try to make the Scyk work, so I'm still on the fence .

Fels wrath

Jan ors

A named syck

I understand why people want the Scyk, but I agree, the cost doesn't force a radical shift in squad design.

B-wing, Tie Phantom and Starviper, because those are my favorites...

...and I'm totally gonna win this thing!!

As others have said on the syck i'm worried players would just take the cheapest one as a throw away, and that's not much for for them or us. For scum I'd like to see the viper, despite being a little over costed there's ways to use the generics and nameds. Rebels I'd actually like to see the b wing after they got hit by the tlt meteor. Imps I initially thought bomber but I had the same worry as they syck, so I'll join on firespray.

Do good players really pick throw aways, though? I tend to think that all ships in their lists tend to have a purpose.

I'm caught between wanting to pick either the Scyk or the Starviper. Both would be good. I'm kind of leaning towards Starviper b/c I want to see good players practice with it and show people what can be done with them.

For Imperials, I think the Tie Bomber would be best. There are still a lot of uses for them and I want to see people get creative. You can do the Bomber Shuttle, named guy, generic w/ stuff, or just empty. I would really like to see some skilled players use the Tie Bomber and figure out the best way for them. I would think there would be a lot of variety there. I know they are pretty effective in a skilled player's hands.

For the Rebels, I don't really care, to be honest. I'd like to pick T-65, but then it would be Biggs all the time. I guess the HWK.

it really IS weird to see the innate need to make people play unplayable things.

maybe the whole thread is a troll-tastic poll "what ships are only FUNplay?" by the devs?

that would be a cunning way indeed!

Imperial: Firespray, good luck

Rebel: HWK, its the no brainer here

Scum: StarViper, the Syck is a close second, but I never see either of these two.

it really IS weird to see the innate need to make people play unplayable things.

maybe the whole thread is a troll-tastic poll "what ships are only FUNplay?" by the devs?

that would be a cunning way indeed!

I don't know. I still think there are reasons to take unpopular ships that some people haven't really thought about as much. Getting the best players in the world to HAVE to use unpopular ships forces them to find ways to make them viable. We could see some of them pop up in more lists of people who find a use for them in their own lists.

Stranger things have happened...

Imperial - Tie bomber - with imp vets coming out I think we can hopefully see a lot of interesting ways to run the ship, unless Tomax it turns out is super powerful of course. Tie defender is a 2nd for similar reasons, tho I think it might be better because it would take up more points

Scum - starviper - starviper is a super cool ship, just a bunch of people (myself included) don't really know where it fits or how to build with/around it. Would be cool to see what comes from that

Rebels - T65 X wing - it's a big tournament where star wars fans from everywhere are going, of course there should be a bunch of X wings on the tables. With IA they aren't super bad anymore at least and who knows, maybe the big fix will be out by then. We might just see a bunch of Biggs exploding everywhere but I think there could be some interesting lists that pop up as well

I'm glad so many other people have similar thoughts; I laid in bed last night thinking about the ways to make people have to really switch their squad design from the current meta.

Imperial - Firespray​. There's no obvious contender for best pilot here. And it's a large enough ship that it'll force new and different squad design. Although we might see a bunch of VI Boba.

Scum & Villainy - YV-666. It seems like there are a bunch of different ways to run these, but they haven't made top tables currently. Let's see what the pros can create.

Rebellion - YT-1300. Troll pick! Han-fest. Let me try again.

Rebellion - Eaden Vrill. If I could pick a pilot. But just a ship? That's harder; the Rebels have so many decent options.

Rebellion - B-Wing. Because it's different enough from the fast T-70s that are holding the top ranks; you'll have to fly differently to get this into action. Close second is the HWK-290, but I feel like those pilots are already deadly in the right squads.

Imperial - Firespray​. There's no obvious contender for best pilot here. And it's a large enough ship that it'll force new and different squad design. Although we might see a bunch of VI Boba.

No kidding, Kat with Captive and a mini-swarm is fierce.

Now that I caught up on the news:

Scum: YV-666. I love mine and I want it in the spotlight.

Rebels: HWK.290 or A-Wing, more in favour of the HWK.

Empire: Punisher or Bomber. The Bomber is beautiful and underused, but the Punisher makes for more interesting builds.