Hi everyone, this is Andrew Pattison of the 186th Squadron, based in London, UK. Several of our players were at Worlds this last weekend, and those that were not, have been following the coverage obsessively over the weekend, from both official and unofficial sources.

The overwhelming message is one of diversity. List diversity of course, but also true diversity in player origins. This year has been amazing for European X-wing, with the System Open series and several massive national events. The number of people playing has increased, and the standard of play has matched that increase. For the first time, i feel that the popularity of the game over here at a high level, is such that players are prepared to spend time and a lot of money to make that trip to Worlds.

At the highest levels of play this made one heck of a difference. Lets take a quick look at the top 16. 8 of them were American, and 8 were from Europe. Of the top 8, 5 were from Europe, and in the top 4, 2 were from Europe. In the final, an American played a Belgian.

Make no mistake everyone, this is absolutely fantastic.

Above all, I wanted to ask people to be nice to each other. For possibly the first time, we are living in a truly global X-wing environment. Pay attention to the results of foreign events, and instead of writing off the results, learn from them. The best part about the whole thing is a huge melting pot of ideas and tactics that has come about as a result of so many different national/local metas coming together. I would bet that every single one of us saw at least one list that has made us re-evaluate how we think about this game. I'm certainly more inspired than I've been in a while, and I'll be making the trip out next May if I can get a ticket. Maybe I'll even try and take the Jesper Hills #HwkMeta to the next level.

Finally, I wanted to thank the Internet as a whole for the amazing level of coverage across all platforms. Even those of us who were not there felt part of this event, and that is another great thing that the community should be proud of.

thanks for reading, and remember, fly casual extends beyond the gaming table

Word.

It was great to watch.. Only match I missed from the FFG stream was the final (If that's up on youtube or anything can someone send me the link)

Couldn't agree more. Great post.

The Australian community is pretty strong, too, I hope they will get some representatives over to Worlds next time. And at least one System Open for the SEA/Aus region!

At the highest levels of play this made one heck of a difference. Lets take a quick look at the top 16. 8 of them were American, and 8 were from Europe. Of the top 8, 5 were from Europe, and in the top 4, 2 were from Europe. In the final, an American played a Belgian.

Your thread title is a "A true World Championship". And yet, the top 16 had no one from Africa; South America; North East Asia; South East Asia; the Middle East; or Oceania.

Now, I've no issue with the top 16 being nothing but Yanks & Euros; all obviously deserved to be there through their skill. But at least do the rest of us the favour of recognising a 50/50 split between the USA & Western Europe is not "a true World Championship".

The Australian community is pretty strong, too, I hope they will get some representatives over to Worlds next time. And at least one System Open for the SEA/Aus region!

quite right. my point was more that its the first time it's really extended beyond another US Nationals with a few random overseas players invited along.

At the highest levels of play this made one heck of a difference. Lets take a quick look at the top 16. 8 of them were American, and 8 were from Europe. Of the top 8, 5 were from Europe, and in the top 4, 2 were from Europe. In the final, an American played a Belgian.

Your thread title is a "A true World Championship". And yet, the top 16 had no one from Africa; South America; North East Asia; South East Asia; the Middle East; or Oceania.

Now, I've no issue with the top 16 being nothing but Yanks & Euros; all obviously deserved to be there through their skill. But at least do the rest of us the favour of recognising a 50/50 split between the USA & Western Europe is not "a true World Championship".

you can look at it that way, but its a major step in the right direction, and that is something to be celebrated, not denigrated.

At the highest levels of play this made one heck of a difference. Lets take a quick look at the top 16. 8 of them were American, and 8 were from Europe. Of the top 8, 5 were from Europe, and in the top 4, 2 were from Europe. In the final, an American played a Belgian.

Your thread title is a "A true World Championship". And yet, the top 16 had no one from Africa; South America; North East Asia; South East Asia; the Middle East; or Oceania.

Now, I've no issue with the top 16 being nothing but Yanks & Euros; all obviously deserved to be there through their skill. But at least do the rest of us the favour of recognising a 50/50 split between the USA & Western Europe is not "a true World Championship".

Well, it is to be expected to some point. Cricket, for example, is mostly played in former UK colonies. I have yet to hear of meaningful baseball outside the US.

I'm not denigrating it. I'm asking for accuracy in posting. A top 16 made up of people from either the United States or Western Europe is not - repeat - not "the World".

Well, it is to be expected to some point. Cricket, for example, is mostly played in former UK colonies. I have yet to hear of meaningful baseball outside the US.

It's massive in Japan.

Your thread title is a "A true World Championship". And yet, the top 16 had no one from Africa; South America; North East Asia; South East Asia; the Middle East; or Oceania.

Now, I've no issue with the top 16 being nothing but Yanks & Euros; all obviously deserved to be there through their skill. But at least do the rest of us the favour of recognising a 50/50 split between the USA & Western Europe is not "a true World Championship".

My mate from China was denied a visa. No one knows why, but it's common for lots of Chinese to have the same surname so his name probably matches someone else they don't like. Blame the US immigration. :-)

Your thread title is a "A true World Championship". And yet, the top 16 had no one from Africa; South America; North East Asia; South East Asia; the Middle East; or Oceania.

Now, I've no issue with the top 16 being nothing but Yanks & Euros; all obviously deserved to be there through their skill. But at least do the rest of us the favour of recognising a 50/50 split between the USA & Western Europe is not "a true World Championship".

My mate from China was denied a visa. No one knows why, but it's common for lots of Chinese to have the same surname so his name probably matches someone else they don't like. Blame the US immigration. :-)

I'd say traveling on a whole is the largest issue with getting more nationalities represented. Getting to America from Europe is already exhausting and not cheap, it only gets worse for countries with less infrastructure or those who have to travel across half the world.

I'd say traveling on a whole is the largest issue with getting more nationalities represented. Getting to America from Europe is already exhausting and not cheap, it only gets worse for countries with less infrastructure or those who have to travel across half the world.

Does FFG pay for national winners to travel to worlds?

I'd say traveling on a whole is the largest issue with getting more nationalities represented. Getting to America from Europe is already exhausting and not cheap, it only gets worse for countries with less infrastructure or those who have to travel across half the world.

Does FFG pay for national winners to travel to worlds?

No. If such an arrangement exists that is on the local distributor for that country. Sadly that is only really common in Europe at the moment as far as I know.

I think we had as close to a true world championship as you can have for a board game. South America was indeed represented, Andre Ripoll aka Ripamaster, from Brazil, qualified for the second day with his Kenkirk Soontir build. Also, FFG livestreamed a game between Dawei Chua, of Singapore, and "the Kid". I think there was a player from Kuwait as well, flying a 7 TIE Swarm.

I am currently living in China, and I must say that Asia has very few organized play opportunities. Plus, it is a super expensive (and exhausting) trip from China to Minnesota. I think with all of those things considered, it is pretty safe to say that this was, indeed, a true world championship.

I'm not denigrating it. I'm asking for accuracy in posting. A top 16 made up of people from either the United States or Western Europe is not - repeat - not "the World".

Well, it is to be expected to some point. Cricket, for example, is mostly played in former UK colonies. I have yet to hear of meaningful baseball outside the US.

It's massive in Japan.

And a lot of the Caribbean.

Ok where is the biggest event in the Caribbean? Because that sounds a lot better as a destination X-Wing event location than Minnesota!

So we got non USA World Champion (Belgian player) and non USA System Open Series Champion (Polish player). Biggest tournament ever was in UK. So yea, X-wing went International big time.

I know there is some complains about quality of matches in TOP4, but cmon - try to get there not being good player and not being tried.

So we got non USA World Champion (Belgian player) and non USA System Open Series Champion (Polish player). Biggest tournament ever was in UK. So yea, X-wing went International big time.

I know there is some complains about quality of matches in TOP4, but cmon - try to get there not being good player and not being tried.

it's interesting isn't it, that finals are so rarely good games? it's extremely common for them to be a total whitewash, usually resulting from a major error of judgement.

Might not be true World Championship yet, but North Atlantic Championship is one hell of a lot better than second US Nationals.

That said, if juggler is any indication, the only places with a large X-wing community that were underrepresented would be Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Australia. Hard to complain that Africa and Asia were not there if X-wing (or perhaps tabletop games in general) is not popular there. No disrespect to players from those regions of course.

it's interesting isn't it, that finals are so rarely good games? it's extremely common for them to be a total whitewash, usually resulting from a major error of judgement.

I think the combination of fatigue and stress is the reason. By the time they get to the finals, the players will have spent many hours playing the game, many of them very challenging and taxing. They're tired and the pressure is greater than ever. No wonder they make mistakes.

I traveled over from Ireland to take part in Nationals in the UK (since we don't have a Nationals in Ireland), and had the good fortune to play against several of the 186th crew, including Benjamin Lee. They're fantastic ambassadors of the scene in the UK, and it was genuinely a thrill to see them representing on the stream, be it in support or in play.

As for it not being "true world" championship, it's a 50/50 split between NA and EU in Top 16, but the field is ever more diverse as you expand beyond that to Top 32 and 64. Couple that with places where the game is played in any significant numbers, and you've pretty much got a statistical representation of the competitive world scene.

Don't forget, too, that it's simply not feasible for most people to travel for such an event. I was lucky to be able to make Nationals in the UK, and that's only an hour's plane hop from here. A transatlantic flight and a week off work to participate just isn't going to happen for me, or for pretty much anyone I know. The price is just too steep.

I wouldn't go dismissing calling it a world championship just because there wasn't a flag from every nation being flown. To do so would be dismissing those that made such strides so far away from home, in a series that was dominated by NA just a year ago.

Does anybody have a link to the system open finals

At the highest levels of play this made one heck of a difference. Lets take a quick look at the top 16. 8 of them were American, and 8 were from Europe. Of the top 8, 5 were from Europe, and in the top 4, 2 were from Europe. In the final, an American played a Belgian.

Your thread title is a "A true World Championship". And yet, the top 16 had no one from Africa; South America; North East Asia; South East Asia; the Middle East; or Oceania.

Now, I've no issue with the top 16 being nothing but Yanks & Euros; all obviously deserved to be there through their skill. But at least do the rest of us the favour of recognising a 50/50 split between the USA & Western Europe is not "a true World Championship".

I know that Andre was a fan favorite for pretty much everyone, and he crowd sourced his plane ticket from Brazil, Its too bad that he didnt make it into the top 16, but he made it to Day 2 which is amazing in itself (considering Brazil doesn't have all the waves for xwing).

A brit goes undefeated in Swiss.

A guy from Singapore flies tie defenders so well on the twitch feed they bring him back twice

An American dresses up in a Kobra Kai outfit and gets into top 4.

A Belgian wins the world championship.

The aussies didn't have an amazing showing, but we all know their names (Morgan, Travis, etc)

Im not sure how much more global you want.

it's interesting isn't it, that finals are so rarely good games? it's extremely common for them to be a total whitewash, usually resulting from a major error of judgement.

I think the combination of fatigue and stress is the reason. By the time they get to the finals, the players will have spent many hours playing the game, many of them very challenging and taxing. They're tired and the pressure is greater than ever. No wonder they make mistakes.

I've noticed -less- mistakes in MTG pro tour finals (of course, there still are some). Perhaps it's a scheduling difference, or perhaps it's a difference in player training regarding the physical aspect of the game. When I was playing MTG this was a big issue that I spent quite some time learning to deal with. This issue is big in eSport as well: many pro teams have scheduled gym or meditation sessions as part of their training.

Does anybody have a link to the system open finals

It wasn't recorded due to issues with the venue. Nor was there much fanfare, despite the hype around the event. Did you just want the results?

Most of us from South East Asia can't go because we couldn't secure the entry tickets due to the fantastic online booking system. Plus it costs more for us to go. Oh, and add to the fact that the game is facing some licensing dispute in this part of the world so for us, we didn't get the official national kits.

I still love watching the Worlds and seeing all the players getting together. It would be a dream to finally meet or talk with the "famous names" there. We were all supporting the players from South East Asia especially from Singapore (since they had the biggest contingent from this part of the World).

That said, I wonder if FFG would be bold enough to hold Worlds in other parts of the world in the future. Perhaps in London, or Tokyo, or even in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. Until that happens, it's not really, a world's "World"