FFG has been doing fill-and-fire 3-round Swiss tourneys as soon as they get 7 or 8 people. So far, only one has run each day, at 3:00.
I didn't pay attention to Friday's entrants except to note that it was quite casual and eclectic. (The only list I recall was four TIE Bombers.)
Saturday was split down the middle between proven tourney lists and quite casual players.
On the one side were:
the Jumpmaster/Jumpmaster/YV-666 list (or close variant) that won Russia and one other big tournament in the last month
[P.S. and just took 1st AND 2nd in Italy]
Ryad + PTL, /x7, TIE Mk.II
Fel + PTL, title, Autothrusters, Stealth Device
Palp shuttle
(a strong list played well by a good player who's never entered a tournament before)
2x TIE Defender (Ryad and Steele) + /x7, TIE Mk.II
2x TIE Fighter (Wampa, Obsidian)
2x TIE Defender (not sure which)
Palp shuttle
Defenders. Defenders everywhere.
In the other category were squads like:
Chewbacca + Rage, Nien Nunb, Falcon title
Gold Y-wing + TLT
Dutch Vander + TLT
Wedge + two T-70 X-wings (not sure which)
3x B-wings (not sure which)
(played by someone a year out of practice)
Due to A) only owning one Jumpmaster and B) wanting to meta against TIE Defenders, I ran a variant of the Scout/Scout/Slaver list that replaced one Scout with
Kavil + Autoblaster Turret, Engine Upgrade, Bomb Loadout, Ion Bomb, Genius, Attanni Mindlink
and upgraded the other Contracted Scout to Manaroo, also with Attanni Mindlink.
Game 1 I faced the Palp/Ryad/Fel list. It was a disaster. My list didn't gel, I played like garbage, and my opponent positioned expertly. I lost the slaver and half points on Manaroo while only managing to kill his shuttle. I don't think I had a single round where all three of my ships could shoot, and Kavil never had a target in Autoblaster range. Not even the shuttle.
(Boosting, it turns out, is lousy at positioning yourself into turret Range 1 vs. something that can barrel roll, even if you activate second. The opponent can see where you are and either fly right at you to block or veer off and BR away. (Giving Kavil a Barrel Roll means either waiting for Vectored Thrusters or swapping Mindlink for Expert Handling. It also means losing either Genius or the bomb, probably. I flew two ships off the board in my last tournament with it, so I'd like to keep it, but I also admit this ship has too many non-complementary upgrades right now.))
Game 2 I got stuck with the bye for sucking so hard. Game 3 I had to bail on to avoid being late to another engagement. Bah.
Edited by Quarrel