Before I get started on the long thought process of Regionals, I want to give a big thank you and shout out to Atomic Empire staff. Unlike what you may have seen on the Stream, these guys busted some major tail to get 120 players (4 no-shows) Organized into a 1 day tournament.(technically 2 because the final match is going to be on twitch well after midnight, but I digress.) Atomic Empire, you guys rock!
So after the 3 hour drive, I arrived with enough time to finalize my list and check in. Never again am I going to finalize a list AT a regional! I had mulled over some list the night prior, but settled on a final one because it was 20 minutes before the start and I needed to get my paperwork in so I could play, and I had only brought what I needed with me instead of lugging the whole collection (this crippled my list greatly in hindsight). What I ended up running was(instead of what I wanted to run, Crack A-wings, and ships I actually had I could run, such as Imp aces):
Jake Farrell: Veteran Instincts, Chardaan refit, Auto thrusters
Nera Dantells: Deadeye, Flechette Torpedoes, Extra munitions, Guidance Chimps (ooo Ah ah!)
Blue Squadron pilot X2
Total: 100
Not the best list, because no PTL on jake, no and No Proton torps or FCS on nera, Things I needed in hindsight, but alright enough I told myself. We started the tournament by having everyone get seated at a table for the players meeting. I met on of the sling paint guys(sorry can't remember your name) and did my best not to fanboy out as I have recently in the past month discovered their channel and all the awesomeness it holds. Round 1 pairings were posted shortly after, I wished them all luck and the flying commenced!
Round 1:
Result: Win
Opponents list:
Talonbane Cobra
VI
Homing missiles?
Guidance chimps
Glitterstim
Black sun ace x2
Predator??
Concussion missiles
Guidance chimps
Glitterstim
My first opponent of the Day was Joel, with Triple K fighters.
I set up in the middle of the field, the two blues stacked behind each other single file, Nera on the left, Jake on the right. BSAs set up staggered in the corner, and TC set up between them and the table edge. The K fighters decided to fly around the asteroids instead of through them, and I was all to happy to navigate through them to have Jake come out the other side of the field to range 1 shot Talonbane. A lucky damaged engine crit followed by Nera's first salvo of Flechettes left talon bane with no where to go, and jake finished him off in the following two rounds(surviving only at one health I might add.) Nera Fell to Black sun aces Glitterstim+Concussion missiles+ GC combo, and the blues picked them off in short order in the following rounds. I felt kind of bad, because 1st round losses can affect your entire day if you let them, so I took this first one with a grain of salt. It's also a note that the only reason Jake lived was because Talonbane had VI instead of Crackshot in the first pass.
Round 2:
Result: Loss
Opponents list:
Whisper
VI
FCS
ACD
Oiccun
Palp
Issard
Engine upgrade
Predator
Preston, one of the Stele reps, and the first loss of the day. Ironically the only Palp ace I flew against. I made the mistake of focusing Whisper, and by the time I realized it, I had only 2 B-wings left. I was tabled soon after. I made 3 mistakes in this match. The first, is that I forgot about Flechettes applying stress even if they miss. The Second, was focusing whisper. The Third, was poorly anticipating whisper's decloaking moves. To his credit, Preston did have a nicely painted Banana boat Decimator and Phantom. He went on place 2nd. Nice job!
Round 3
Result: Loss
Opponents list:
Miranda Doni
Conner net
Extra Munitions
Sesmic Charges
TLT
Sabine Wren
Advanced Slam
Dash Rendar
Outrider
HLC
Recon specialist
Lone wolf
After a sweeping victory and a crushing loss, I wasn't sure how to feel going into this next match until I saw the list. A bit of an uphill battle maybe, but not impossible. I lost the climb though and It really came down to dice roles. I had miranda dead to right's at least 3 times and I either whiffed only rolled 1 attack which was evaded. I got both down to under half health before a bad turn from me ran Jake right into the conner net. Overall I had fun that match, and my opponents name eludes me, but he was a great sport, and player.
So at this point we break for Half hour lunch and Standings are posted. At 1-2 I end up at 87/112 with 195 MOV. since pizza was offered during round 2 so my lunch was pretty much taken care of, I decided to get breathe of fresh air and mull over my list in my head. I felt that I was definitely not making top 16 at this point, But I could still place top 64 (I was having fun, but I did want to win something). I return from the half hour break with enough time to grab another water from the counter and then Round 4 listings go up.
Round 4
Result: Win
Opponent's list:
Zuckuss
PTL??
FCS
4 lom
Mist hunter
Tractor beam
Dengar
Deadeye
Proton torpedoes
Extra munitions
Punishing one
R4 agromech
My opponent this time was a guy by the name of Kenneth, or as most people there would call him "the guy with the lightsaber on his belt". He also had one of those "Easy" buttons that made Pew Pew laser noises when you pressed it. (there was only 1 press though, although I was told I could press it as many times as I liked, but out of respect and timing, I limited myself.) His list looked part scary, part fun, 100% cool. I decided to focus the mist hunter, and I died in a big ball of fire, but not before reducing jake to 1 health not unlike back in round one. Both Nera and jake fell soon after as I slowly chipped dengar's hull away with the blues. I pressed the button for the killing shot and Dengar went up in a big fireball. I enjoyed this match as well, not because I won, but because Kenneth kept me on my toes since I had never flown against a Jump master before so I was caught off guard by some moves. A great match overall!!!
Round 5
Result: Loss
Opponents list:
Palob
Ion cannon
Moldy crow
Manaroo
Extra munitions
Plasma torps
Guidance chips
Recon spec
R4 agromech
Trandoshan slaver
4 lom
Dengar
Zuckuss
A nasty list imo, with a sword, shield, dagger approach. Manaroo being the sword, Palob being the shield, and the Trandoshan being the dagger. I focused (buh dum tis) not only in trying to kill Palob first, but also gave him more focus than I should have. This list was a perfect counter to what I was running, not only because of Jake, but nera as well with Deadeye. I did use target locks and got my missiles off before Nera died. I killed Palob at the cost's of jake, and Manaroo had a field day with Plasma torping the B-wings until they died, while having back up from the slaver. I forgot that Palob borrowed one of my focus tokens, so when I went into round 6 I was missing a token. So Palob Literally stole my focus! 
Considering the amount of tokens I have, I'm not upset about 1 focus token, and it does make for a nice joke about the whole thing. when my last B exploded I was only a few shots away from half healthing either large ship.
So at this point standings come out again and I have moved up to 75th overall. I decided that since I came to play X-wing, I would finish my 6th round, no drops, no ID's for me(not that there should be any ID's when your that far back in the pack, but...). I can at least say I finished the tournament.
What a mistake. If I had known what I was about to face, I would have dropped and been home early. Still even this next list I learned what not to do, so I guess it was worth it after all.
Round 6
Result: Crippling loss
Proto type pilot x2
Chardaan refit
Ezra
Phantom title
Chopper
Auto blaster turret
Accuracy corrector
Zeb
Kanan
Ghost
I have no love for this list, but in an effort to be civil, I will say that autoblaster turret paired with Accuracy corrector on the ghost with the phantom title is the stupidest wombo combo I have seen. Worse than Guidance chips Plasma torps. At least the Jumpmaster is some what constrained by it's dial. But the ghost is a big fast ship, and no agility dice says get into range 1. But when range 1 is a 4 Guarenteed hit kill box of death, and when you stay away from it, It soviet russias and comes to you. Jake obviously fell, Nera tried stressing the A wing flankers, and then one of the blues ended up in range 1 and whiffed a 4 dice attack, which would have but the ghost under half health. Both blues got out flanked and died, and I flew Nera onto a debirs field, taking a stress and a shield (rolled a crit), to let the A-wings mercy kill me just to end it.
With my 6 rounds complete, I thanked the staff and left for home. (forgot to buy Poe Dameron number 1 before I left... oh well, gives me a reason to go back right?)
Tournament wise, Josh Curry won with Palp aces by beating out Preston. Congrats!
I saw allot of neat paints jobs throughout the day besides the Banana boat Deci. A red and black shuttle, a half cloaked A-wing, a blue themed K-wing next to a faithful rendition of a green squad E-wing, a Pink and silver ghost just to name a few. Also someone from Roanoke was there because I saw the Kobra Kai dojo main villian taped to the top fin of the shuttle, which I got a good laugh out of. I got allot of positive comments on my Grey squadron B-wing repaint (one of the Blue squadron ships) as well.
Overall I have no idea how I did, probably not good enough for an alt art card even, but I did have allot of fun, and got to me some cool people. I am definitely going next year, and now that I can find Atomic Empire, I have a place to stop by and visit when I'm passing through Durham. I also learned allot about competitive X-wing, because most of the local tournaments I have in my area don't follow the standard 6 rock shoot'em up fest (because there homebrew tournaments).
I will definitely be better prepared for next year.
TL;DR: Palob stole a focus in round 5. Didn't give it back. Bounty Hunters! We don't need their scum.... ;D
Edited by FlyingAnchors