I won my first tournament, which was a local one. Since then I've played one Store Championship, for which I came third, and several local tournaments, of which I've lost one game in each. Still chasing the elusive second win to prove to myself that it wasn't a fluke!

I'd love to see how I fare at a Regional or National event, but I just don't have the time to devote an entire weekend to playing X-Wing. One day (and not encroaching past dinner time) is the sweet spot for tournament length for me.

Yavin I'll be chuffed if I make the cut, but in a way, I'm kind of hoping not to, as the Hangar Bay format sounds interesting.

See you there! Yavin's going to be huge - 400+ players with a cut to top 8. The schedule looks pretty punishing as well - I'm hoping to get across to FFG's booth at the NEC during the lunch break on Saturday with a bit of luck.

I mean the second day cut, not the final top cut

E: or did the format change whilst I wasn't looking? I'm getting a little confused by it right now.

Yeah, the schedule's changed a couple of times now, there's been a couple of email updates.

There's six games on day one - round one and two, then a 1 1/2 hour lunch, then rounds 3-6 due to end at 9pm.

Rounds 7-9 Sunday morning, followed by the cut to top 8 in the afternoon which will run alongside the Hangar Bay event (there's only going to be one HB).

Also - in case you haven't seen it - they're asking for players to submit their tournament lists in advance using Voidstate's Squadron Builder. Otherwise they're going to be really rushed to register everyone on the Saturday morning.

Event passes need to be picked up from the NEC Arena itself, but the tournament is being held at the NEC Hilton. So NEC Arena to pick up the passes, then across to the hotel for the event Saturday morning.

EDIT: to save cluttering up this topic, I'm going to post one for the Yavin event in the Organised Play forum with the latest email updates I've received form the UKGE, just in case anyone hasn't seen them.

Yeah, I saw the updates, but I don't think I quite understood them. Top 8 cut is a tight one for a 400-odd player tourney.

I'm not expecting to make top 8. I'll be happy with top half, ecstatic with top quarter.

I've submitted my lists though (well, list, I'm running the same thing for the Regional as well).

Gonna be tight getting there on Friday, but I'm doing the Regional as well so I'll be in plenty of time on the Saturday (I hope), my hotel is nearby.

My first two tournaments were during Store Championship season last year, where my aim was just not to finish last as I'd never played anyone else other than my friend. I finished 24th (out of 30) and then 7th (of 26) which made the cut but was eliminated in the first round (so close to acrylic focus tokens!). And then I won my 3rd tournament, without losing a ship all day - had some real close games though! After that I've regularly finished towards the top, but it took another 6 months between winning my first and second - got into a mega disappointing run of something like 7 tournaments where I either made the final of the elimination rounds, or played on the top table in the last round of swiss when there was no cut, only to lose every single time. Picked up win #3 a month or so ago, so less time to wait this time!

So far i played 4 Tournaments:

6th/40 (first game i just wasnt really there and had estimated the first turn of shooting wrong by 1cm, after that everything went pretty well, cut was only top4 if i remember correctly)

7th/25 (couldve placed higher but made in two games vs IGs the same stupid mistake)

2nd/52 (Regional, just too the games one by one and it worked out, some were close, the half-fnal the most thrilling game and in the final i had a stupid black out and threw the game with a barrel roll)

33rd/46 (Regional, mixed games and two with very bad dice)

Overall there are a lot of factors going into a tournament placement. Skill with your list, matchup luck (lists), dice. The most important thing i feel is not to expect a good placement. Just play every game as if you didnt know anything about your current placement and try the best, sometimes its enough and sometimes it jsut wont work out.

A couple of months.

I've come from playing Magic on the Pro Tour in the past, though, so there's some elements of competitive play that I'm very familiar with and prepared for. Once I got my head around maneuver dials instead of tapping lands I already had the critical decision-making skills well practiced. I'm far from perfect in my flying because I'm still an L-plated pilot, but I'm picking the right targets and shots etc, building the right lists, so that side of the game is in place which as helped me progress rapidly.

I've been playing since Christmas and so far I've played 3 tournaments (spring Kit) placed 6th of 8 on one, 8th of 8 on the second and won the last one (12 attendees) hoping to do well in a few weeks when they have a top gun tournament with up to 50pt small based ships only. I'm tempted with Corran or a B or K wing.

Hopefully my Rebels will see me in good stead in the future.

I've only participated in 3 local tournaments so far.

First Tournament was before Wave 7, and I ran Wedge, Luke, and Corran Horn. I managed to pull First place.

Second Tournament I decided to switch it up and run Scum, as Wave 7 just dropped and people didn't know what Latts Razzi did. So, her with a Weapons Engineer and K4 droid, backed up by 2 Kihraxz fighters (one of which was Talonbane). Won 3/4 matches, but ended in 4th place because of points.

Third Tournament I decided to do the trifecta, and went with Imperials. Palp Decimator with Turr Phennir. This was after people jumped on the TLT hype. I didn't even play the 4th game, as I already did terrible.

My consensus is that, since the meta has gone TLT/Palp/Scout/ext, Tournaments are now not as fun as they were. So many builds have been effectively neutered, while the same lists show up, all the time. Also, I suck with Imperials apparently.

I started back when the tournament scene first started in Wave 1. I won my first tournament and always place in the Top 4. Well, I didn't at last year's Regionals, but I was so close to making the top 16. It was a good match up for me, but my dice were so so bad.

I've just given up on them, though. Not as much fun as they used to be. I'm a dedicated Casual player now.

I find that success can be meta dependant for some people. I noticed this most when Dash / Decimator / Han became the "in thing" and people whom I would normally see around the mid cards suddenly started taking top slots. This was through a combination of the meta shifting into their play style and them taking advantage of it.

Now that wave has passed, some have gone back to mid cards (or worse) whilst the truly good players have remained at the competitive scene and still threatening top positions.

So whilst you play and have fun, just remember that the game may shift to your play style soon. Whilst everyone else is trying to adapt to the shift in meta, you will be one of the fore runners, blazing a new glorious trail through the competitive scene until the meta shifts once more.

This has been my first year back in the game since around wave 3. I performed really well during the SC season and made 1x Top 4, 1x Top 8, and just missed the cut on another store championship out of 5 attempts this year. I thought I was a pretty **** goods player at that point...and then regionals happened. I have finished nearly last at both events I have been to.

I think the change occurred due to wave 8. I was a rebel regen guy with Poe/Miranda and since missiles/torps have really put a number on those guys, I have been in a slump and struggled to really find my footing at the regionals competition. Searching for answers and playing my backside off ahead of GenCon to regain a little bit of SC form but the competition only gets better!

I started flying August of 2014.

I got off to a good start, placing 3rd in my first tournament. 9 months later I won the FL Regional in 2015, and one of the larger (if not largest) Store Champs in FL in 2016.

I fell short at the FL Regional this year by making 2 critical mistakes during swiss that cost me the cut. Still, I went 5-1.

This past weekend I drove 9 hours to attend the NC Regional. I lost in the Top 8 to an excellent pilot, but I was overall very satisfied with my performance.

Though I did not win a Regional this year, I have improved significantly. My record with tourney lists (practice+tourney results) was 82-33 in 2015, this year 98-23.

I attribute my improvement to putting more effort into my obstacle placement and squad deployment, developing better spacial awareness in the planning phase, and recording outcomes of games, specifically when something went wrong, to prevent it from happening again.

Also I stopped blaming the dice. Try it, you'll start to notice what you did wrong more often and improve as well.

For the first year or two in this game I played mostly casual and didn't participate in any tournaments, except the occasional 6-8 player event at my local gaming club. My first store championship was in march this year and I placed 2nd (out of 35). My first regionals was two weeks ago and I placed 3rd (out of 58). Can't complain.

Right now I am doing some playtesting to find out what to bring to the Naboo Open in Copenhagen. I always aim to try a new list for each tournament, mainly because I get bored if I play the same ships over and over.

Could it be that I beat you in the SC final (GothCon)?

I started playing in November. I went to 10 (?) store championships and 4 regionals, finished 32-30. Highest was a 5th place finish at Store champs and a 23rd place at regionals. It seems I have gotten good enough to beat not so great players but when I play good players I just get beaten down.

I started flying August of 2014.

I got off to a good start, placing 3rd in my first tournament. 9 months later I won the FL Regional in 2015, and one of the larger (if not largest) Store Champs in FL in 2016.

I fell short at the FL Regional this year by making 2 critical mistakes during swiss that cost me the cut. Still, I went 5-1.

This past weekend I drove 9 hours to attend the NC Regional. I lost in the Top 8 to an excellent pilot, but I was overall very satisfied with my performance.

Though I did not win a Regional this year, I have improved significantly. My record with tourney lists (practice+tourney results) was 82-33 in 2015, this year 98-23.

I attribute my improvement to putting more effort into my obstacle placement and squad deployment, developing better spacial awareness in the planning phase, and recording outcomes of games, specifically when something went wrong, to prevent it from happening again.

Also I stopped blaming the dice. Try it, you'll start to notice what you did wrong more often and improve as well.

While luck does play a significant role in the outcome of games occasionally, what you said last is important. You can't rely on unmodified dice, player that do tend to be the ones complaining about dice.

Also, if you roll 2 hits out of 4 unmodified attack dice, don't sigh lol.

I had been playing with friends for a few months but I was able to win a store championship (around 50 people) on my first tourney!

I started flying August of 2014.

I got off to a good start, placing 3rd in my first tournament. 9 months later I won the FL Regional in 2015, and one of the larger (if not largest) Store Champs in FL in 2016.

I fell short at the FL Regional this year by making 2 critical mistakes during swiss that cost me the cut. Still, I went 5-1.

This past weekend I drove 9 hours to attend the NC Regional. I lost in the Top 8 to an excellent pilot, but I was overall very satisfied with my performance.

Though I did not win a Regional this year, I have improved significantly. My record with tourney lists (practice+tourney results) was 82-33 in 2015, this year 98-23.

I attribute my improvement to putting more effort into my obstacle placement and squad deployment, developing better spacial awareness in the planning phase, and recording outcomes of games, specifically when something went wrong, to prevent it from happening again.

Also I stopped blaming the dice. Try it, you'll start to notice what you did wrong more often and improve as well.

Yes, putting Carnor Jax in range 1 of Dengar cost you making the cut. I'm just glad I could give you a challenging game. Beware, I also learn from my losses. Hope we get a game again soon.

I've been playing since April. I usually aim for a top half - at least a winning record. So far the best I've done is 4th at a SC. I tend to make the top half at least - had one bad tourney, but nothing too bad. Quite surprised actually. We have a lot of very good players at my local store, so you learn quickly.

I didn't start playing competitively until I judged my skills were above average.

Once I dipped my toes in, I was playing at -- you guessed it -- above average. I improved from there pretty quickly.

Like a lot of activities I get involved with, I plateaued pretty quickly, too, because I'm simply not that interested in working as hard at being a kick-ass tournament player as are some of the folks in the very strong SF Bay Area meta. I know many people that play 15 practice games a week, tourney lists in tourney format, whereas I play HotAC, League, and occasional small tourneys, and probably average two games a week.

But I plateaued at a place I'm happy with -- say around 90th percentile -- and I do pretty well, even at large tournaments. I'm very good at on-the-fly assessments of probability, which helps a lot.

That said, I don't play higher than Regionals. In addition to the above reasons, and that I don't particularly like to travel, I'm also overly competitive as the stakes increase, and I get annoyed at my own mistakes and the vagaries of the dice. While I've improved at that, and I try to make it very clear it's not directed at my opponents, I just don't really enjoy being less than easy-going. So i avoid situations where I know it's likely to happen.

I started playing around March 2014. I played in the last store championship before I had any ships and it was my very first game. I did lots of studying and I managed to put it together to table my first opponent. After that ran into turning the wrong way 2 right instead of 2 left. I bumped the crap out of my own ships and think I finished 2 and 2.

Once I got my own ships I played SOOOO many games with myself. I'd net deck good builds and have them face my own creations. I'd fix my 'opponents' bad dials but never my own.

My next tournament was Imdaar Alpha and I took a bomber list sure I could make it work with a way to get off a TL, Focus assault missiles opening joust. My very first one didn't even roll a hit or a focus... My next game was against a falcon which in play testing was the only thing I couldn't beat. Everything went perfectly for me, both my assault missiles hit, both my seismic charges but my 2 dice couldn't punch through the rest of the way on the falcon.

The next day I brought a new list with R3A2 on Hobbie and we had a 3 way tie for 1sts but my round 1 opponent ended up with 0 wins and my Strength of Scheduled dropped me to 3rd.

The next tournament after that was a disaster. I killed Whisper in the first exchange before she could even fire but I only did like 1-2 damage the rest of the day. I faced 3 agility ships that just wouldn't let me get any damage through.

After that I almost always place top 4 locally.

2015 Store Champ top 4, and a first place finish

2015 Regional runner up (Boise Idaho)

2015 Utah Aces League I went 10 and 2 to win that and each game I had a different list with no duplication

2016 Store Champ Runner up and first place

Vassal tournaments I'm usually top 16 or better (runner up, top 4, etc), currently in Deep Core in the league but only went 3 and 7. I started experimenting with some new formations and had a new monitor/computer. Flew some ships off the board, lol.

I always have a crap tournament every 2-3 or so tournaments. During 2016 store champs I set my dial the wrong way and flew off the map but I don't think I've ever finished worse then 0.500 in the last 2 years.

The biggest help was playing against myself. I learned all the dials pretty quickly and what good builds looked like. I would fix the net list and sometimes change their maneuver completely to give them a much better position over me. It allowed me to learn the spacing of the game in addition to studying all the guides online I could find.

Like many I'm pretty new, started playing before Xmas 2015.

I played my first SC a few weeks after starting play and placed last - which is not surprising.

The second tournament I played I won 4-2 which I was really happy against.

So I've been playing about 6 months and happy with my progress. Still loose plenty of times, but I mostly play casual which I'm happy with. Can't get games every week which can limit my practice time.

First tournament, I came second at Stele Open 2016. #BornWithIt

Started playing late February this year. Couple weeks later played in my first tourny. A 28 person SC. Ended up me and one of the guys who top 8 Roanoke regional this year in the finals and won that, and just played in my second tourny the NC regional and made top 16 there