Finally, my first store championship! I started playing just under a year ago and I had missed out on all the store champs for 2015.

I brought a list that I've always had fun and success at casual nights, but I knew it was not likely to be a top contender list.

21 registered players. A very good number (except if you're the odd man out)

This was my list:

Boba - VI + Navigator + Autoblaster + Inertial Damp.

Kath - PTL + K4 + EU + Inertial Damp.

I came in with the objective of reaching top 10, with lots of luck, top 8. So I was aiming for a .500 average with a margin that at least one ship surviving with more than half it's hull each time - just to get better MOV.

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Swiss Round 1 (vs Eric): Ibtisam(Elusivness, E2 mod + C-3PO), Poe(PTL, BB-8, Autothr.), Jake(PTL, A-Wing test, Wired) - I am going on memory, but it seems right)

This player is very new to the community. He's only been playing for 2-3 weeks. His final ranking was 13th place.

I gave him initiative so he would deploy and move Jake before Kath.

As he was new, I gave him a lot of slack and helped him out on maximizing his list. This almost proved costly in the early game, giving him tips when to use BB-8's free barrel roll, when to boost with Jake to gain . My green dice were not just cold, they were frozen on eyes and blanks for the first 2 rounds of shooting. Boba was down to hull and Kath was down to 1 shield. I had only take out Jake's shields and a couple on Poe.

On round 3, things started to go my way a little, green dice were un-thawed and Kath's rear arc shots were on fire. Wise boosts and the awesome ability that navigator gives Boba really paid off. I was able to finish off Jake and Poe on rounds 4 and 5. All he was able to do is remove on shield on Kath.

Round 6 was Kath with 1 shield and Boba with no shields against Ibtisam with 4 sheilds and 3 hull. This joust lasted for 3 or 4 more rounds, I always made sure he never had a shot on Boba and if he did, I would have an evade token and be range 3. The duo finished him off while keeping Boba's hull intact.

Win : 100 - 0

Off to a good start. Half way to my 2 win goal!

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Swiss Round 2 (vs James): Fat Han (Predator, C-3PO, R2D2 + Falcon title+EU), Miranda (TLT, Chewie)

James is also fairly new to the community. You couldn't tell by the way he was flying. Then again you couldn't tell I have a year under my belt on the way I was flying.

He finished 9th

I opted that Miranda was my biggest threat and easiest to take down to start. So I concentrated on her, but she was able to slam a couple of times to get out of Arc. She was able to pick off shield and a few hull on Boba (whom I did not fly well at all this game). I return Kath and Boba shedded her shields and got a crit throught, so she popped Chewie's ability. This was trouble for me. I was not able to take her down (she was also using her regen ability) before Boba was first to go down. Kath was faced with Han on her 6 (which isn't a bad thing, but he was full health) and Miranda was luckily all the way across the board. So I had 3 full rounds of Han in her rear arc and range 1 most of the time. Well she had 1 good round of perfect attack (3 hits \ 2 crits) which dwindled his shields down to 1, Han was landing 1 or 2 hits per round. Mean while Miranda was starting to make her way back, crashed into a rock, twice and in a debris field which also hit. She was down to 1 shield and 2 hull, Han was at 1 shield, full hull and Kath was out of shield and had just received a crit reducing her primary attack by 1 dice. I knew time was ticking, I had opted to keep trying to get half of Han's value rather than kill Miranda, since he was range one, I was attacking him from the read with 4 dice - if I go for Miranda, I would likely be range 2 from the front, so 2 dice. Well, I wasn't able to even get to Han's hull, I got his last shield and Kath was then TLT'd to oblivion.

In this game, my green dice were very good. I for sure had above average evades, but still managed to not capitalize on this and lost terribly.

Loss: 0 - 100

Undoing my success of round 1. Well, at least my up-coming opponents would be easier to beat, right?

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Swiss Round 3 (vs Jeff): Poe (VI, R5-P9, Autothrusters), Ten Numb(VI, Mangler), Gold Sq Stresshog (BTL, TLT and R3-A2) - 99 points

Finally! My 2 point initiative and PS10 Boba will pay off! I give him initiative for obvious reasons.

Jeff is a pretty experienced player. This isn't his first rodeo. He made his list specifically to face a Soontir list, unfortunately I did not see a single list with Fel (there may have been one somewhere in the room). He finished in 12th.

He deploys his Ywing just left of the center of the map with an angle. I place Kath closer to the left edge of the map. He deploys Ten and Poe directly across Kath and I put Boba about 8 inches from the right edge of the map.

Everything was proceeding like clock work for the first 3-4 rounds in this game. The one mistake I did was bringing Kath too close to Boba, I should have kept them a little more seperated. After 4 rounds, both my Firesprays were double stressed, but that's not a big deal, Kath has K4 and Boba has PS10 with Navigator - it's all you need most of the time. As time went by, I was dealing lots of damage to Poe, but he always seemed to be able to swing out and go regenerate a couple of sheilds - I had him down to 1 hull, but couldn't get that last attack in. Ten Numb was being picked at slowly, down a few shields. Boba was his focus of attack, luckily his green dice were tremendous! But he still got a crit from Ten numb\Mangler, which happened to be the damned Damaged Cockpit (reduce pilot ability to '0'). Probably the worst one I could get at this point. Boba became a potential blocker at best and predictable one at that. The one good thing was the stressbot was full of stress and facing the wrong way, so I did have 3 turns for Kath to shed the stress, Poe, now back to full shields was also coming back into the fray. Ten was chasing Boba and picking him off slowly. There was a round that I popped Boba's Inertial dampeners hoping for a bump and to get a parting shot on something. But my opponent still had the Ywing and Ten Numb able to shoot at a Boba that had 2 hull left... Boba being the evasion king he was that game (the Ywing was also flashing a lot of attacks), managed to survive and get his PS 0 shot off on the Ywing (only one in arc) and landed 3 hits, shedding all of its shields. I was very satisfied with Boba this game... Kath was barely scratched and now only had 1 stress, Boba was taking it for the team. The following turn, only the Ywing chased Boba to finish him off, Poe and Ten were coming after Kath. 2 rounds later, Boba was gone and Kath was able to take down Ten Numb with her rear arc 4 dice attack (2 hits and 2 crits). But she was now down one shield facing a 5 hull Ywing and 1 hull 3 shield Poe. The last round, Poe landed 2 hits, digging in her hull - just enough to give him 1/2 value. Unfortunately time was up... it was unfortunately one of those time calls that were made just as combat phase was wrapping up. Due to positioning, one more round and I am sure I would have had at least Poe down... but such is the way things go.

Loss: 36 to 74

This loss was a little less disappointing.

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Final Swiss Game - Round 4: My scheduled opponent left without telling the TO, so we thought he was either out for a smoke or on the can or something. So I waited almost 10 minutes before figuring out he left the event. So the TO told me I would get an auto win. yay! My 2 - 2 record was achieved, albeit it didn't feel like it was deserved. So I grabbed the player with the bye and we rack 'em up and play what we both thought was a casual game.

(vs Steve) Palpmobile, Omega Leader (Juke\Comm relay), Wampa, Turr Phenir (PTL, Auto Thrus. Stealth) ... I didn't really pay attention to details in this game as it was a casual game. I was just happy to get a 4th game in on my day and that I will finally not be facing a rebel opponent. Steve finished in 17th.

He deploys Palpy far left, and his TIEs spread out on the right hand side of the map. I had Kath on my left and Boba just right of center, lined up to go between 2 big rocks.

First rounds I only recall Wampa giving out a card, Kath boosting out of arc of the Interceptor, Boba doing the Navigator thing to over shoot and get out of arc. Landing one crit and 1 hit on the Interceptor, a couple on the Shuttle and Wampa. Boba landed 2 hits on Omega leader one turn since he was locked on Kath. Boba was down shields and Kath down a couple of shields. Wampa ran away for about 3 turns and Kath was stuck out of the fray for 3 turns as well. Boba started to take some hull, but he was working the arcs pretty good and landed some hits on the shuttle

It's at about this time, in round 5 or 6 of play that the TO informed us that he simply put us as opponents instead of just giving me the default win. I was all for it, my oponent seemed ok with that. At this point in the game there was no clear winner.

The following turn, Wampa bit the dust to Kath's guns and the turn after Boba took an arse kicking from Omega leader with Palpatine's help and the Emperor himself finished him off if I recall.

Shortly after Kath finished off Turr. Leaving an Omega with 3 hull, Palpy with 5 hull and 1 shield and Kath with 3 shield and 5 hull (she got wampa'd once earlier). I had the superior ship on the board by far... I should be able to put this away. Unfortunately, I was the pilot of that ship. While still stressed from PTLing last turn, I come in on a hard 3 turn around a rock, mis judged it and clip the rock with the back of my base - roll for damage take a shield. I would have had a range 1 shot on Palpy. Lucky for me, Omega bumps into Kath. Palpy shoots and lands 3 hits after I flash my green dice. Just like that, from 3 shields and 5 hull down to just 4 hull left. This was when time for other games were called, the TO said we would have an extra 10 minutes due to the delayed start... well once again I was not paying full attention to the game and completely forgot that Kath was on a rock, my plan was to just edge forward a little with a 1 green, get a target lock and bump Palpy to get a rear arc shot on Omega that had no where to fly but behind Kath. Yea, well, ends up Kath didn't move at all because Omega was still in the way, so she still was on the rock - roll damage again, hit again. Down to 3 hull with open season for Palpy and Omega with a 4K. All I had to do was a 4 straight and I would have had a range 1 rear arc on Palpy and he would have had no shots at all, overall this was my one single big mistake all day. So, what happened was Omega lands 2 hits, Palpy finishes the job, boom goes Kath.

Loss: 45 - 100

Final record: 1 - 3 with an abysmal 16th place finish.

However, I cannot get enough of this game had loads of fun. I stayed and played another couple of casual games while the top 4 were playing.

Notes from the day:

Only 2 Scum lists were there out of 21 players. One made it to the final table (he had a TLT based list - finished with a 763 MOV) the other was me... representing the Scum in the bottom of the standings.

Since we were only 2 scums, no one had the YV or IG-88.

I didn't see anyone fly Soontir or any Phantoms. Then again I mostly played Rebel players.

Poe and Han were the most used pilots I would say.

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What I learned:

Autoblaster is cool on Boba, and it is scary... but I think with my style of flying Engine Upgrade on his would have been more useful. I got to shoot it maybe 3 times during the 4 games combined.

I used to put Rec. Spec. on Boba, but now I will always fly him with Navigator. Once again, this is due to my flying style.

Glitterstim over inertial dampeners on Boba for sure. I did use In. Damp. a few times... but I think popping that Glitterstim when you are in a bad place would pay off a little more (especially on defense).

If you need to leave the tourney for any reason, just mention it to your TO. People have lives outside X-wing, we all understand that.

I am addicted to this game and am very grateful to have an active local meta!

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TL;DR: Went 1 - 3 with Dual scum firespray. Ended 16th/21. Piloting mistake cost me my goal of reaching top 10.