Unfortunately in today's game market no ongoing OP support = a dead game.

Fair enough. But for $900 I'd buy 4 Raiders and 4 Corvettes and have a kickass Epic game.

Even selling my 90+ ships for less then 1/2 of MSRP, I would still come out ahead. My dice alone are worth 900+. The plastic double sided system card was going for like 350 day of release, and that's actual sold listings. So yes, you could make money if you wanted to.

Tier 1 lists are Tier 1 for a reason. If you make changes, all it will achieve is a shift in tier 1, pushing some lists out of it and putting others in their place.That's just the nature of competitive play - people bring a list that gives them the most chances of winning within the current ruleset. Alter the ruleset and the lists change, but there will always be tier 1, 2 and so on. There is nothing that can be done about this.

Of course things will always rise to the top. It's making sure that fun stuff is at the top and not NPE based stuff like regen, TLT, fat turrets, and Palp Aces.

Want to know why I like how the game played before the Phantom dominated despite TIE Swarms being king? Because those lists played like the game originally was meant to play, it's just that TIE Swarms were the most efficient at that. Core gameplay elements were still paramount, your ships didn't have boost and barrel roll in order to ignore maneuver dials, they didn't have turrets to ignore maneuver dials, they couldn't turn 3 blanks into 3 evades.

This is also why I don't mind U-Boats being top tier. They're jousters, they play like 3x Dagger, 3x HLC, 3x FCS if that squad was actually effective, but they're on large bases so it's more interesting. Palp Aces just shuts the game down with ships that can just dodge your arcs reactively, and then just shrug off your attacks if you do manage a shot.

Without a random selection in the beginning, you are biasing the tournament. You really need to be fair in a tournament setting to all.

Yes. But it becomes an opt-in thing. You want a random draw? Don't bring the current meta list.

Without a random selection in the beginning, you are biasing the tournament. You really need to be fair in a tournament setting to all.

Yes. But it becomes an opt-in thing. You want a random draw? Don't bring the current meta list.

That's not opting in, what happens if someone that has no idea about the meta, comes into a tournament and finds out they get punished for playing a list they like? That happens more then you might wanna believe. Hell I had at least 2 people at each year of regionals were that was their first tournament, one at Hoth.

Personally, I'd love to do a tournament (10-20 players) that only allowed one of each unique in the whole event. So, it would take some prep work to have people randomly get sorted for picking order, but no one is allowed to take a unique that someone else has picked. Everyone gets one pick as they go through the lists, and then starts over again. So....only one Soontir Fel and one Emperor....and they are probably not in the same list! It would be really cool to play a game like that where you just don't have duplicates and many meta lists can't actually be fielded.

Want to know why I like how the game played before the Phantom dominated despite TIE Swarms being king? Because those lists played like the game originally was meant to play, it's just that TIE Swarms were the most efficient at that. Core gameplay elements were still paramount, your ships didn't have boost and barrel roll in order to ignore maneuver dials, they didn't have turrets to ignore maneuver dials, they couldn't turn 3 blanks into 3 evades.

Edit: Heck, I ran 4 PtL sabers for the very reasons you listed, to arc dodge. In a time of almost all generic PS1-4 it was like having 4 aces.

Want to know why I like how the game played before the Phantom dominated despite TIE Swarms being king? Because those lists played like the game originally was meant to play, it's just that TIE Swarms were the most efficient at that. Core gameplay elements were still paramount, your ships didn't have boost and barrel roll in order to ignore maneuver dials, they didn't have turrets to ignore maneuver dials, they couldn't turn 3 blanks into 3 evades.

This is why I know you have the reasoning of a 2x4. All those things, excluding palp and auto, have been on this game since wave 1 and 2. So not sure where you are getting all that, except for those two exceptions listed. Hell Fel with stealth and PtL existed since wave 2.

Edit: Heck, I ran 4 PtL sabers for the very reasons you listed, to arc dodge. In a time of almost all generic PS1-4 it was like having 4 aces.

Imperial players and their greed. Soontir Fel without Autothrusters and Palpatine is much easier to kill.

Sabers with PtL are also not comparable to Acewings in the modern game.

This is the kind of **** I'm talking about. Greedy Imperial players that genuinely don't understand the difference between the Inquisitor or 35 point Autothrusters Soontir and PS 4 interceptors with PtL slapped on them.

Well OP, why not go for it? A lot of people like your idea.

FFG has no incentive, nor would it even be feasible for them to give everybody what they want. That doesn't mean you can't have a tournament done your way.

Purchase some epic ships for prizes, have a plaque or trophy made, put in an order with a custom templates or dice company for prizes.

Hotels will rent out ballrooms and/or meeting rooms. Go ahead and book one. Get an idea of how many attendees will show up via a sign up sheet. Make sure you can cover your costs, and hold it.

"Voidstate's Meta Diversity Mixer Champion" may not have the same ring to it as "X-Wing Miniatures World Champion", but it would still be a really cool thing to have. You could make it an annual event.

Of course it would need to be local by necessity, but your premise is good, maybe consider it?

So, everyone plays mirror matches until they're the last man with a given list standing. Sounds to me like it would be boring as hell.

I think that's the point. If you don't want "boring as hell" then think up your own dern squad. (hypothetical "you", not "you" you.)

And only the best of the best palp list and scout list make it to the top, instead of flooding out everything else. If you think you're the best with palp aces, you suddenly get to prove it rather than preying on lists you counter for easy wins.

Every once in a a while Paragoomba Slayer has a valid point. The cut could still be full of Palp Aces if OP's suggestion were implemented. There's enough variation with the ships there that they probably wouldn't end up culling themselves from the cut.

But they would all be PALP Aces. Got Palp and Starfighters? You play vs. Palp and Starfighters, regardless of the individual aces.

That wasn't the suggestion in the OP:

In tournaments, squadrons with the same ship make-up are paired against each other in the first round and whenever the players have the same tournament points.

The suggestion was to match lists up when they had the same ship make up. Using that as the guideline a list with 3 Jumpmasters without a torpedo between them would be matched up with against Triple U-Boats but Two U-Boats and a YV-666 Party Bus wouldn't. Only Palp Aces lists with the same ships in the list would be matches against each other.

Creating some sort of loose definition of what should count as the same list for the purposes of match ups is going to be a very subjective and manual process. It doesn't really seem like something that would be feasible in practice.

I think the suggestion by the OP is clearly an unfair and biased approach. Uniqueness for its own sake is no virtue. Also, it would make tournaments miserable because they would devolve into randomness.

There is nothing stopping anybody from running any kind of tournament they like but I think it's myopic to suggest changing standard tournament structures to bias them in favor of randomness.

I think it would be a great idea for TOs to put some real thought into restrictions for casual tournaments that would help people building collections and familiarizing themself with the game to play against builds on the same power level. That way they can ease into competitive play or just play however they like. You could limit the number, type, and cost per ship to suit developing players.

Competitive play is more about play skill than design skill, though there's surely room for designing outside the box sometimes. Let the competitive players play competitvely but also create events to cater to casual players. I think you do that with construction rules instead of penalties for what you bring.

Additionally, to players always complaining about certain squads, from Palp Aces to fat turrets to triple Jumpmasters, there will always be superior strategies. Whether you think it's fair or not doesn't matter in a competitive sense. It's the goal in competitive play to not be fair, to have the most efficient and effective list. You may just have a problem with the strains competition puts on you, which is perfectly fine. All kinds of players play for different reasons. If that's the case, I would suggest recommending alternative formats to your local TO. I'm sure they would cater to a loyal, consistent playerbase.