Endor, day 2: at least 3-4 more Paratanni made the cut. I played them 3 times.

nice job making the cut man. that was a lot of parattani!

10 minutes ago, sozin said:

nice job making the cut man. that was a lot of parattani!

Thanks. Blair still kicked everyone's butt.

12 minutes ago, balindamood said:

Thanks. Blair still kicked everyone's butt.

I took today as a rest day, but I'm going to have to come back tomorrow to see this thing in action.

(And to hanger bay)

How the heck is blair doing that? All the paratinni and he's doing damage, and 7-0 at that?

Null is a pretty popular faction.

35 minutes ago, MegaSilver said:

How the heck is blair doing that? All the paratinni and he's doing damage, and 7-0 at that?

The stresshog probably makes Paratanni uncomfortable, and limits Fenn's repositioning or Asajj's ability to adjust her turret.

Plus, it's Blair.

4 hours ago, PhantomFO said:

The stresshog probably makes Paratanni uncomfortable, and limits Fenn's repositioning or Asajj's ability to adjust her turret.

Plus, it's Blair.

Someone must have forgotten to tell him that Z95s and B wings aren't good enough to be in the meta

There is strength in numbers and focus fire, for sure. Having played (and lost) against Blair's rebel convoy a few times, I'm not surprised he is wrecking face with it. There are a lot of red dice, hit points, and he has practiced it for years.

Are there any vids up on his list, wih him playing it, to see what on earth he does, to do so well with the list , Cudos to him for it

I have watched a lot of his rebel swarm play, and my observations are:

- approach : Blair has excellent grasp of range control, and flies his swarm in a loose bunch to make sure that can get get his target locks at range 3 and then converge on range 1

- self blocking: he is really good at self blocking his own ships after he had target locks to make sure that his range one engagement features optimal focus fire on a target

- opponent blocking: because he is such low ps, he can get some good blocks in, which he does

- unusual moves: after the first engagement his moves are often inscrutable to me. This is the hardest one to explain, but he has a knack for being able to do this surprising moves whose purpose isn't clear until several moves later. This is probably the toughest thing to replicate in his play and what seperates him from the pack.

- odds control: Blair plays a lot of poker and treats xwing with the same analytic mindset. He makes decisions based on statistical risk reward and this allows him to cut through the grey fog of decision making that flummoxes most players.

1 hour ago, sozin said:

I have watched a lot of his rebel swarm play, and my observations are:

- approach : Blair has excellent grasp of range control, and flies his swarm in a loose bunch to make sure that can get get his target locks at range 3 and then converge on range 1

- self blocking: he is really good at self blocking his own ships after he had target locks to make sure that his range one engagement features optimal focus fire on a target

- opponent blocking: because he is such low ps, he can get some good blocks in, which he does

- unusual moves: after the first engagement his moves are often inscrutable to me. This is the hardest one to explain, but he has a knack for being able to do this surprising moves whose purpose isn't clear until several moves later. This is probably the toughest thing to replicate in his play and what seperates him from the pack.

- odds control: Blair plays a lot of poker and treats xwing with the same analytic mindset. He makes decisions based on statistical risk reward and this allows him to cut through the grey fog of decision making that flummoxes most players.

I'm guessing the poker play also helps keep him train against the types of mental fatigue that develops during these long tourneys, especially when flying a list with a lot of moving parts.

In the grand scheme of a lot of other competitive games even the toughest x-wing schedule is pretty gentle. I think the longer tournaments are infrequent enough that players don't really learn the tools to manage their energy levels properly.

2 hours ago, sozin said:

- unusual moves: after the first engagement his moves are often inscrutable to me. This is the hardest one to explain, but he has a knack for being able to do this surprising moves whose purpose isn't clear until several moves later. This is probably the toughest thing to replicate in his play and what seperates him from the pack.

I've played him a single time on Vassal, and while that's a small sample size, he had an uncanny ability to predict where I was going. Prediction/blocking is a facet of the game that I consider myself very good at, but he was 100% all the way.

Blair is now 9-0 after a tasty snack of Paratanni and Karen's pride.

Looks like Tarn Mison is in the top 8.

Congrats Brian!

where are you guys getting this info?

Belinda mood is onsite and made the top 8

18 minutes ago, Celez said:

where are you guys getting this info?

Balindamood made top 8, so he has the inside info top cut and scores were also posted on facebook

hes the one with Tarn in a t65

1 minute ago, VanderLegion said:

Balindamood made top 8, so he has the inside info top cut and scores were also posted on facebook

hes the one with Tarn in a t65

Don't think I'm part of that x-wing group.

Link? Or relay information here?

9 minutes ago, Tlfj200 said:

Don't think I'm part of that x-wing group.

Link? Or relay information here?

Realized the one I saw was our local group since we had 3 people in day 2 so dunno if it's on any others

his there any stream?

11 minutes ago, pflrocha said:

his there any stream?

sadly no. not sure why FFG doesn't mandate streaming for these things - there is a giant ethernet port just waiting for a casting rig right there on site.

1 hour ago, balindamood said:

Blair is now 9-0 after a tasty snack of Paratanni and Karen's pride.

Looks like Tarn Mison is in the top 8.

Good to see Blair buck (Bunke?) the meta with good play.

I'm gonna have to watch his matches when I'm over at Uncles' Games.

Top 8 was Blairs rebel hoard versus Dengar/Bossk (Blair won)

I played Paratanni versus Tarn/Braylenn/WSP and lost.

Paratanni beat some version of Kalen's pride in two games.

So. Blair is in his own special he[l. Someone needs to tell him Wave 8 is out.

4 minutes ago, balindamood said:

Top 8 was Blairs rebel hoard versus Dengar/Bossk (Blair won)

I played Paratanni versus Tarn/Braylenn/WSP and lost.

Paratanni beat some version of Kalen's pride in two games.

So. Blair is in his own special he[l. Someone needs to tell him Wave 8 is out.

What is Kalen's pride?