I have my first tournament coming up in 2 weeks and I started practicing the list I'm taking (brobots) a week ago.

Just wondering what all of you more experienced competitive players do to get good with a list to take to a tournament time/game wise.

I usually make sure I have played it at least once before the tournament. The one list I didnt do that for was my Deci-Whisper list last tourny. I just got the Deci the week of. I did well anyway because I'm very experienced flying Whisper. As long as you know how to fly the ships you will be ok.

The amount of prep you do is obviously contingent on how competitive the tournament will be, what you want to get out of it and how familiar you are with your list to begin with.

In terms of things to do, the first real step is assessing the meta. Take a look at the Hoth Open results thread - those lists went against 250+ people and ended up on top. Players will be looking at these lists and either 1) stealing ideas 2) building counters to these threats 3) ignoring them completely and doing their own thing. You need to have answers to all 3 types of list, whether by tweaking your list (upgrades, pilots, obstacles) or simply having a plan (obstacle placement, opening, general strategy). Try to get together with the best opponents you can find and practice against or with these archetypes. Even if you are flying one of these meta lists yourself, you are learning how it succeeds and how it fails. An important thing to keep in mind throughout this is that your local meta isn't the meta you see discussed online. The only thing that matters is what actually shows up on the day of the tournament. So if you have an idea of what the locals fly, make sure you build and practice with that in mind. Who are the strongest players? What do they fly? How can you give yourself an edge against these people and their lists?

a final thought:
I think more so than flying a list, *losing* with a list is probably the best prep you can do

Go to vassal and play a bunch of games! Or grab an experienced mate and play a bunch with him/her!
Get a feel of what your ships of choice can do, and how they fare against certain lists (e.g. what are your ship's weaknesses/strengths).
How do they work against swarms/aces/turrets and so on..

Then go on to the specifics: What is popular in your current meta? Is it stress/ordiance/regen? Can your list handle these things, or do you have a certain tactic that CAN handle them if your ships cannot?

All of this, I feel, comes with experience with the list/ship.

None. I make up a list on the way there.

I started honing in a store championship list in December. Made a few cuts but didn't get my Bye until late February.

Zero. I play what I want. Whatever I'm in the mood for. I usually try for something that is NOT META because...

1. Who wants to play the same thing over and over again. I know I don't, so I will afford my opponent the same break from the monotony.

2. ... I play what I want. As in, I play for fun... and for a good game. I like to win, but that is not WHY I play.

Zero. I play what I want. Whatever I'm in the mood for. I usually try for something that is NOT META because...

1. Who wants to play the same thing over and over again. I know I don't, so I will afford my opponent the same break from the monotony.

2. ... I play what I want. As in, I play for fun... and for a good game. I like to win, but that is not WHY I play.

Plus as long as you play against different opponents I feel it doesn't get stale.

Of course at a certain point the list gets boring, but playing a list repeatedly until you get bored is still enjoyable for me.

I played 3 lists over 5 store championships. One list I'd only played once or twice with ships I almost never fly, and I made one cut and missed one. The other two lists were different combinations of ships that I fly more or less regularly but had only flown them in those configurations during the tournaments themselves, and in these I made three out of three cuts and managed to snag a bye from one. So according to my anecdotal evidence, you need to be very familiar with the ships and pilots you're flying, and you'll need to go up against the most common lists at least once each with the exact configuration you're flying so that you can have a plan if/when you face them in a tournament. Unfortunately you can't practice against lists out of left field (you'll have to think on your feet against those) but that's just another aspect of going to tournaments.

I generally decide my list on the way or at the site. I don't counter list what I see, I'm just weighing pros and cons until I have to fill out he paper. But ALWAYS know how to fly your list ahead of time! Understand your maneuvers and SPACING. The "Earning Your Wings" thread (I believe that's the one), has some amazing assistance for understanding how spacing on maneuvers works.

Practice???

Every game you play is practice. Maybe not specifically for what you might take but most importantly learning maneuvers and judging ranges and arcs.

I do almost no preparation for a tournament. It's partially a matter of not having the time, and (if I'm being honest) I'm enthusiastic about the tournaments I play because I don't otherwise play a whole lot. And, continuing to be honest ... going to the lengths some folks go to just feels like work to me.

I played my Asymmetrical Brobots build quite a bit, tweaking it to perfection (for me, at least), up until Store Champ season, but "quite a bit" for me means one to three games a week. (The top players here in the Bay Area meta play ten, maybe more, games a week!) I finished Top 8 with it in SC #1, then won SC #2.

Then I switched lists for the next four Store Champs I attended, playing a different list at each event, and made Top Eight or better at three of them ... all of them without playing that event's list before-hand at all. I did repeat my SC #6 list -- with very minor tweaks -- at SC #7, and did well, but (full disclosure) I also discovered that my lack of familiarity had led to me playing an upgrade wrong. (Not in any catastrophic game-changing way, but bad enough that I felt bad about it.)

So ... I don't really practice, in the sense that I specifically seek out games, using a particular list or against particular lists, leading up to a tournament. If I do play, I may play a list to see if I want to play it at the upcoming event, I may play a list I intend to play, or I may play something completely off the wall.

That said, I'm pretty good at "jazz" X-Wing, recognizing developing situations and improvising good actions and responses to them, and that lets me hang in fairly well with the more dedicated and practiced players in the local scene.

(As an unrelated aside, we played the introductory mission for Heroes of the Aturi Cluster, "Local Trouble," today, and it was awesome. Just ridiculous amounts of fun.)

IMO above analyzing the meta, flying well with the list (avoiding obstacles/good blocking/avoiding blockades) should do you just fine. I've tried following a meta list for the sake of winning, giving up the list I'm most comfortable with, only to perform horribly due to my unfamiliarity.

Also, no amount of practice is comparable to experiencing hard lessons on the basics during the tournament:

1. Setting dials the opposite direction

2. Forgetting abilities/critical hits to resolve

3. Bumping to allied ships due to bad planning in order of activation

4. relenting to dodgy ability interactions claimed by your opponent

Ok, the fourth one should never happen to you. I admit I'm rather bitter on this one but don't mind to call the TO if you are unsure about certain proceedings. If it does happen, never harbor ill feelings against your opponent. It could be that he/she just don't know the right way either. Fly casual. I love X-Wing largely for the warm community in comparison to some other games

With My work/Family schedule its usualy none

The only tournament I've ever won in X-wing was with a list I'd never flown before.

The last tournament I went to with a practiced list (played 10 or so times), I went 2-3.

Take from that what you will.

It depends what I'm taking.

If it's a new list, I'll try and practice about a month out and get as many games in as I can. So there's time to swap cards about and find flaws and rectify them.

If it's a well-practiced list, just maybe a few games to get myself back into that list. Mainly it's the flying of the list as a whole and getting used to the formation again.

I practice with one specific list for months on end, getting in about a game a day with it, and then change my list on the drive to the tournament.

Seems to be a common strategy among top players I hear.

Depends on how well I want to do.

Let's be honest: most of us X-Wingers like to self-handicap, myself included. If I take a list I've hardly practiced with, then I have two outcomes -- either I don't do well (which is fine, because I didn't really get any games in beforehand) or I do do well (which is even more impressive, because I didn't really get any games in beforehand). See what I mean?

Thing is, there are very few folks out there who can legitimately do as well with little practice as they could have with more practice. After last year's Regionals, I've decided to get as much practice in as I can -- the reason I lost in the finals last year was that I didn't have experience against the type of list I was facing. If I had actually got as many games in as possible, I would've had a better chance at winning.

So if I want to do well, I'm going to practice as much as I can. My goal is 2-3 games against the common meta lists (Palp Aces, Imperial A-Holes, U-Boats, Crackswarms, Brobots, etc) and at least five games against everything else. My schedule might make that difficult, but I ought to be able to manage it with Vassal and whatnot.

On the other hand, there are a few rare times when I just don't care how I finish. In that case . . . meh. I'll try to get in two or three games beforehand just so I have a feeling for how the list operates.

Zero. I play what I want. Whatever I'm in the mood for. I usually try for something that is NOT META because...

1. Who wants to play the same thing over and over again. I know I don't, so I will afford my opponent the same break from the monotony.

2. ... I play what I want. As in, I play for fun... and for a good game. I like to win, but that is not WHY I play.

I find playing the same thing repeatedly fun because I enjoy getting more skilled with the list. Yes taking a new list every time is different, but you don't get to learn the intricacies of each ship, pilot, and upgrade card.

Plus as long as you play against different opponents I feel it doesn't get stale.

Of course at a certain point the list gets boring, but playing a list repeatedly until you get bored is still enjoyable for me.

Few problems I've experienced:

I have so many ships and list ideas that I want to try a bunch of different lists out.

When I do find a fun list, running it all the time is great. Running it all the time when you face things that counter it isn't. I used to fly a Vader and 60 point Boba squad that did very well aainsr aces and was super fun to fly, and just autodied to TLT's and fat turrets. So consistently running it meant you'd consistently face the things it had problems with.

It's fun playing something like 5x Autothruster Alpha constantly but 2-3 hard counter matchups in a row can really put you off something like that. Imagine flying Palp Aces against 5x Autoblaster Y-Wing or 4x Autoblaster Warden, I wouldn't stick with Palp Aces if I had to face that often. It can happen with any list, but the staple meta ones are less prone to it.