My musings and reflections on a less than optimal performance at my first and (IMO) stacked Store Championship

I like your blog, Lobo. Especially your article on the X-Wing meta and how apparantly FFG and GW have traded spaces. We live in bizzaro world where GW is the 'in-touch' publisher concerned with balance. Unbelievable.

Thanks!

Just got to see if GW can pull through and live up to expectations. I wish they'd kept their partnership with FFG... both companies can learn quite a bit from each other, IMO.

Hoping the next wave shakes up the meta, but I doubt it. Imperial TLT YWings exacerbates an existing problem (why fly well when arcs don't matter?)... hopefully something lets arc dodgers compete again.

Just now, Lobokai said:

Thanks!

Just got to see if GW can pull through and live up to expectations. I wish they'd kept their partnership with FFG... both companies can learn quite a bit from each other, IMO.

Hoping the next wave shakes up the meta, but I doubt it. Imperial TLT YWings exacerbates an existing problem (why fly well when arcs don't matter?)... hopefully something lets arc dodgers compete again.

I hope so too, but at this point I've lost all faith. This game has gone down the lou in 2017. All we have to look forward to is a series of nerfs that are just going to tick people off and polarize the community- and it all started with the Nerfageddon. God I wish they'd just revert the FAQ.

Concerning a specific point in your article Luke is an optional upgrade so forgetting it is just 'whoops' and the person should remember their cards, their loss. Ruthlessness is NOT optional so forgetting it is pretty bad since it isn't always beneficial (can force damage on your own ships when you don't want it to). It's also one that both players should be aware of and keep track of since again it's mandatory.

36 minutes ago, nigeltastic said:

Concerning a specific point in your article Luke is an optional upgrade so forgetting it is just 'whoops' and the person should remember their cards, their loss. Ruthlessness is NOT optional so forgetting it is pretty bad since it isn't always beneficial (can force damage on your own ships when you don't want it to). It's also one that both players should be aware of and keep track of since again it's mandatory.

No arguments here. But in this case Ruthlessness would have most likely benefited me significantly, and while I'm not "experienced" in X-Wing, I'm a very experienced table top gamer and certainly our local meta and store championship meta is one that often sees veteran opponents give those across the table reasonable help and breaks.

I certainly received that. I should have been with it enough to be passing it on.

So you got to play 5 games of xwing. You went 3-2. Your only two losses were to seasoned vets. Seems like you did excellent. Not sure why you are so negative.

9 minutes ago, TBot said:

So you got to play 5 games of xwing. You went 3-2. Your only two losses were to seasoned vets. Seems like you did excellent. Not sure why you are so negative.

I completely agree. I think you did pretty well. Game 1 is almost an auto-loss based on lists and Zach is a good player.

1 hour ago, Johen Dood said:

I hope so too, but at this point I've lost all faith. This game has gone down the lou in 2017. All we have to look forward to is a series of nerfs that are just going to tick people off and polarize the community- and it all started with the Nerfageddon. God I wish they'd just revert the FAQ.

Go take a look at store championship results. The game is healthy, especially for imperials who no longer have the x7 or Palp crutch and are now very open in listbuilding while still performing well at events.

25 minutes ago, TBot said:

So you got to play 5 games of xwing. You went 3-2. Your only two losses were to seasoned vets. Seems like you did excellent. Not sure why you are so negative.

Well like I said at the end, it was a positive experience and I had fun... but after any gaming event, I want to see what I learned and how I could have done better. IMO I made 10 mistakes. Many easily preventable.

I'm not down on myself or the event... just sharing

5 minutes ago, Lobokai said:

Well like I said at the end, it was a positive experience and I had fun... but after any gaming event, I want to see what I learned and how I could have done better. IMO I made 10 mistakes. Many easily preventable.

I'm not down on myself or the event... just sharing

Great writeup and thanks for sharing

you did better than I!

Quite possibly the only store champs I could attend this season and I got spanked.

0-100

0-100

54-100

46-100

worst showing I've ever done!

considering last one was top tables, and the two before that top 8

1 hour ago, TBot said:

So you got to play 5 games of xwing. You went 3-2. Your only two losses were to seasoned vets. Seems like you did excellent. Not sure why you are so negative.

I would love if i do this on my first SC.

2 hours ago, Lobokai said:

Thanks!

Just got to see if GW can pull through and live up to expectations. I wish they'd kept their partnership with FFG... both companies can learn quite a bit from each other, IMO.

Hoping the next wave shakes up the meta, but I doubt it. Imperial TLT YWings exacerbates an existing problem (why fly well when arcs don't matter?)... hopefully something lets arc dodgers compete again.

TLT still has restrictions. Autothrusters still work well against them, and you can abuse the donut hole. As much as the Auzituck creates problems for 2-die attackers, the TIE Aggressor and increased usage of the SF only creates opportunities. They don't care about Lightweight Frame, and a Crackswarm should be able to mulch one or two Aggressors down before they even get to shoot.

I agree with TBot, excellent showing for a store champs early on for you. Clean up the mistakes and you'll do better I'm sure.

Side note: Get the TO to update their Cryodex... we haven't had 5-tournament-point-for-wins and modified wins in quite awhile!

Something I noticed from the picture, they are using an old version of Cryodex. Scores are a 1/0 thing, not the old 5/3/0 thing as shown on the screen there with players having 20, 16, 15, 10 points and so on.

I really hope I can make another local store championship this season, but I doubt it'll work out. Fun time.

On 6/12/2017 at 4:30 PM, CJKeys said:

Something I noticed from the picture, they are using an old version of Cryodex. Scores are a 1/0 thing, not the old 5/3/0 thing as shown on the screen there with players having 20, 16, 15, 10 points and so on.

I think they just kept the old data up because the vets like it. Not sure though.

On 12.06.2017 at 5:18 PM, Lobokai said:

Thanks!

Just got to see if GW can pull through and live up to expectations. I wish they'd kept their partnership with FFG... both companies can learn quite a bit from each other, IMO.

Hoping the next wave shakes up the meta, but I doubt it. Imperial TLT YWings exacerbates an existing problem (why fly well when arcs don't matter?)... hopefully something lets arc dodgers compete again.

1. Just because you fly a turret ship it does NOT mean you can fly poorly. Anyone who's ever flown Dash, Falcon or Decimator can attest that those ships can be deadly in the hands of an experienced player but if you're not on top of your game they will easily go down to any random jouster list. If anything, it takes a seasoned player to fully understand all the movement options those ships have at any given time.

2. FFG have been trying to make firing arcs matter more for quite some time now, even on turret ships. Jumpmaster and the new Falcon are both the result of this approach and both are technically sound even if JM5K is severely underpriced.

3. Complaining about meta is particularly silly if you haven't been playing for months and are largely out of touch with it. It's funny that it's often the least active players that are the most vocal about how the game is in a terrible state right now. So far Store Championships in my area showed a very healthy mix of different archetypes. Jumpmasters were present but hardly dominant. Meta seems to be in a state of a flux. Estabilished lists such as DengarTel, Dashing Miranda or Paratanni are present and reasonably successful but some new interesting lists have been invented, especially on the imperial side, that seem to do very well against the estabilished archetypes. And yes, some of them do include arc-dodgers.

5 hours ago, Lightrock said:

Just because you fly a turret ship it does NOT mean you can fly poorly.

Well yeah, is kinda does. If I make a poor move in a single arc ship, I have no shot. If I make a poor move in the Ghost, with TLT Ys, Falcon, with my Wardens, etc, I get a less than optimal shot... but still a ton of 3 dice, probably modified shots or rerolls. You can try to feel better by saying turrets still require skill (and a Lancer, avoiding your range 1 no shot with a TLT or HLC dash, trying to avoid rolling in minimal green dice turrets have, does require skill), but it's simply true that the game is much more forgiving if you can fire in all 4 directions, multiple times, instead of 1 direction and 1 shot.

5 hours ago, Lightrock said:

FFG have been trying to make firing arcs matter more for quite some time now, even on turret ships. Jumpmaster and the new Falcon are both the result of this approach and both are technically sound even if JM5K is severely underpriced.

As is the Lancer, but until something is done about existing TLTs and PWTs, too many ships are completely unviable in the current meta. Over half a collection sitting on a shelf is stupid in a TTG, and I don't have many other than X-Wing that put so many out of play

5 hours ago, Lightrock said:

Complaining about meta is particularly silly if you haven't been playing for months and are largely out of touch with it.

I agree. Who on earth does this apply to, pray tell?

9 hours ago, Lobokai said:

Well yeah, is kinda does. If I make a poor move in a single arc ship, I have no shot. If I make a poor move in the Ghost, with TLT Ys, Falcon, with my Wardens, etc, I get a less than optimal shot... but still a ton of 3 dice, probably modified shots or rerolls. You can try to feel better by saying turrets still require skill (and a Lancer, avoiding your range 1 no shot with a TLT or HLC dash, trying to avoid rolling in minimal green dice turrets have, does require skill), but it's simply true that the game is much more forgiving if you can fire in all 4 directions, multiple times, instead of 1 direction and 1 shot.

Completely untrue. Turret lists pay for their ability to shoot at 360 degrees by being incapable of winning any direct exchange of fire with a well built non-turret list. A newbie Dash is the easiest thing ever to win against. He's got the durability of 2 X-wings (pre-IA) and costs 55-60% of the opponent's list. You point your guns at him and he just dies. An expert Dash is a nightmare. He predicts your moves and uses his ship's maneuverability to never let you get a shot. Lists such as Dash+Miranda are therefore extremely powerful but also have very high skill requirement. If you're not 100% on top of your game you're gonna lose your pricey toys in no time at all. That is in sharp contrast with many jouster lists which for the most part only require the ability to fly in formation and concentrate fire.

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I agree. Who on earth does this apply to, pray tell?

Dunno. Maybe the guy who wrote a blog entry about how he was unprepared for the tournament because he didn't play much in the last few months?

:-) As one of the Firespray players at that event, it was pretty fun... Think I was on the table next to you a few times....

3 hours ago, Lightrock said:

Dunno. Maybe the guy who wrote a blog entry about how he was unprepared for the tournament because he didn't play much in the last few months?

As the guy who wrote it, it was barely over a month, and I very much followed the wild and crazy changes to the meta from the end of April to the end of May (double firesprays, who knew)?... read up on and followed the lists from Worlds (pretty sure I mentioned that in the blog too). Not sure how you thought I was out of touch, I brought a wrong list from a club meta instead of a competitive meta list... that was silly... I kinda based a blog post about it... you read that post. I don't care if you don't read the blog well or at all, but if you think its just a coincidence that at Worlds, 9 of the top 10 lists had strong turret ships and well more than half had multiple turrets and that PWT or TLTs show up in 19 of 33 ships and of those remaining 14, 9 were Protectorates and 2 were Biggs. In fact, if you got top 16, 15 had strong turrets... in fact, in the top 32, only 5 lists weren't built around turrets

Probably because turrets are hard and jousters are better? I'm not saying there's no skill in turrets... but if you're saying its not better to fire in all directions, with rerolls, at 3 dice or more from super durable platforms... I just can't discuss anything with you further.

1 hour ago, pchappel said:

:-) As one of the Firespray players at that event, it was pretty fun... Think I was on the table next to you a few times....

So glad Firesprays are seeing more play. One of my favorite ships Hope to keep running into you at future events!

Titan Champaign the 25th and Bloomington late July for sure, going to try to hit Springfield as well...