Is so what is the link?

It is.

Even the Nova group doesn't post here anymore

So what's the top cut look like?

Ha, ha. Who and what lists are in the finals today?

Check Stele TV YouTube channel. I think it starts at 11am?

What time zone is that?

12 minutes ago, Reaver027 said:

What time zone is that?

East coast

Did they lose the stream? One round wrapped before 1200 ... then nothing.

Looks like it just started up again.

Man. Luck snatched Jeremy from the jaws of defeat. The only meaningless crit possible on Fenn, the only advantageous crit possible on manaroo, APLs and two huge dice swings to keep him in the game!

That crit killed it. Manaroo as a blocked gave me no good options. The rest of it was mercifully ending it quickly. Still, a great match.

So BB ARCgressive about to take it

GO ARCS!!!

List breakdown before every elimination round:

Top 32 = 19 Scum, 7 Rebel, 6 Imperial

Top 16 = 13 Scum, 2 Rebel, 1 Imperial

Top 8 = 6 Scum, 2 Rebel

Top 4 = 3 Scum, 1 Rebel

Finals = Scum vs. Rebel

Rebels take the win while Scum dominated the cut in numbers. Imperials are still in the dumpster.

While the trend of Imps not placing well unfortunately continues, I must say I am happily surprised at the winning team.

27 minutes ago, defkhan1 said:

Rebels take the win while Scum dominated the cut in numbers. Imperials are still in the dumpster.

I expect this trend to continue for some time considering releases like the C-ROC, Auzituck, and Scurrg have a ton of "Rebels and Scum Only" cards. Yay.... Nothing like blatant faction favoritism to enhance the game! Why even have Imps at this point?

Watching the video w kind of funny. Paul and Chris were punch drunk. (Really drunk?)

Go Rebels! That Norra pain train build is super sweet.

I don't get why people think imperials are so bad right now. Other than the punisher, every ship they have has at least one viable pilot right now, most have multiple.

They have tons of great aces, many of whom are very cheap as well. Hence why you see a lot of triple imp ace lists that can be wildly different.

I think the nerfs just scared a lot of people off. Reminds me when they nerfed the phantom and lots of people stopped flying them even though they were still super good. X7 defenders are still really good for the points, and palp is still very usable if you like him in a list.

"Just scared people off" is simply not true at this point. Look at what cards got nerfs in the last FAQ: two Imperial cards and two Scum cards. What does the meta look like now? Scum domination and virtually no Imperials. Scum presence in the meta has been unaffected by the recent changes because they have so many other good cards and ships. Imperials have far more limited options and the two cards that took hits were the strongest ones. I completely agree that x7 and Palp are FAR from unplayable, but their power has weakened. Imperial lists are definitely below the power curve compared to the other two factions and the tournament results show that. If you think traditional aces are still good, I urge you to try playing such a list against any K-wing bomber list and see how you fare. Low health aces were already exiting the meta pre-nerf because of bombs, increasing stress control effects, and the efficiency of x7. The nerf just sealed the deal by making Palp weaker. x7s and TIE/sfs are the only consistently decent Imperial ships right now.

6 minutes ago, markcsoul said:

I don't get why people think imperials are so bad right now. Other than the punisher, every ship they have has at least one viable pilot right now, most have multiple.

They have tons of great aces, many of whom are very cheap as well. Hence why you see a lot of triple imp ace lists that can be wildly different.

I think the nerfs just scared a lot of people off. Reminds me when they nerfed the phantom and lots of people stopped flying them even though they were still super good. X7 defenders are still really good for the points, and palp is still very usable if you like him in a list.

So, while I will not discount the possibility of part of the lack of Imperial lists being because people are scared off, recent system open results suggest other things. If it were simply people scared, you would also see dips in Scum lists too, but you don't. Heck, I saw a Fangaroo lists in the top 16 of Stele. Someone was confident enough in the Nerfed Manny to try to take Fangaroo. I've been hearing stories that Parattanni is still out and about. But Imperial lists are still low. That says to me that players who have had over a month to figure something out with Imperial lists are still steering clear. That is highly suggestive of a poor ability to preform in the current meta.

As for them having great pilots (which they do), the problem comes that few have a chance to shine because the meta is currently chalk full of their predators. SLAMing bombers with Sabine and other autodamage tricks make low health aces too risky to fly. While x7 is still solid, their new vulnerability in stress has sparked a revival of stress control. As stress control is on the rise, you will see less Defenders, cause we all know how a non-x7 defender can fold.

Once a Palp list places reasonably high in a big tournament, then I will accept he is still good.

To sum up, people think Imperials are doing bad right not because the data says they are. I'm not saying it is hopeless or that they can't rally what they have to recapture their glory, but because they haven't even started yet is very worrying.

Sorry I didn't post here directly everyone! I typically would, but was completely swamped. Hope it wasn't too hard to find and you enjoyed Paul's always excellent commentary!

Loved the commentary as always! It's one of my favorite things about your streams.

7 hours ago, SabineKey said:

While the trend of Imps not placing well unfortunately continues, I must say I am happily surprised at the winning team.

He played two grassholes and 1 Parattani in his way to the finals. None of them came to a close a match.

I love the winning double arc list. I'm also surprised that the list did not contain biggs. Both jess and biggs are the same number of points (25). Different choice in droids of course and different play style. Jess does have a much stronger offense compared to biggs, and better survivability with the rerolls. Do you think more rebel lists will start using her over their beloved biggs?