Congrats to Nathan Coda on consistency. That's a top 4 finish in each of the past 3 years. And I do like that Classic Rieekan MC80 list. That's the kind of thing we haven't seen since the early days of wave-4, but the load-out really does make sense in the current meta. You're either seeing stuff that wants to alpha the crap out of you with volume, or stuff that is very light on squadrons. In the former, you tank the alpha with Jan and the YT1300s, do some pitiance of damage in countering back, and then aim to pick up Ten Numb's splash damage, plus whatever your flak might do, and then you're generally free to out-ship the opponent's ships. In the case of the later, you've got solid Yavaris double taps, probably some decent objectives, and a sturdy ship that can hold up against key shots.

That's exactly the kind of thing I might have to give a try or build my own variants thereof.

30 minutes ago, BMcDonald7 said:

Do we have yet another all Rebel final???

Yawn

Well this is the top tourney with the best players. Its a showcase of everyone throwing down their best list based on the current state of the game. We are watching that interaction of meta, list building and on table flying at the top level. Id hardly call that 'yawn'!!

2 minutes ago, Ophion said:

Well this is the top tourney with the best players. Its a showcase of everyone throwing down their best list based on the current state of the game. We are watching that interaction of meta, list building and on table flying at the top level. Id hardly call that 'yawn'!!

I'm still waiting to hear if the 4th top 4 finisher is rebel or imperial but I wouldn't be surprised if it was rebel. My point is not knocking the players or their lists just merely stating that if we have 3 world championship finals in a row with the top 4 all being rebels I'm disappointed.

Now what conclusions you want to draw from that is another story and I'm still thinking what it means myself. With the best players in the world attending playing both rebel and imperials I was hoping to finally see an imperial player break into the top 4. Why it's so hard for some of the best in the world to do that...I don't fully know.

1 minute ago, BMcDonald7 said:

I'm still waiting to hear if the 4th top 4 finisher is rebel or imperial but I wouldn't be surprised if it was rebel. My point is not knocking the players or their lists just merely stating that if we have 3 world championship finals in a row with the top 4 all being rebels I'm disappointed.

Now what conclusions you want to draw from that is another story and I'm still thinking what it means myself. With the best players in the world attending playing both rebel and imperials I was hoping to finally see an imperial player break into the top 4. Why it's so hard for some of the best in the world to do that...I don't fully know.

I think he got in by 9-2ing my friend, in which case, from the pictures, he's got a Pelta, Yavaris, HH, 2 Flotillas, and squads. My friend was playing Imperial, and the report was that he'd won the squad game, but "did the stupid" causing his ISD to go down before he could table.

I think part of the game is that players tend to settle into a faction, for whatever faction. Although some people jump back and forth, and some might jump a bit based on what they see as stronger, most people seem to be pretty static.

I still think the recent Errata/FAQ/Wave helped Imperials more than Rebels, but it still might not shake out entirely well until next year's worlds. Most local metas have 1-3 really good players, and what they tend to play determines what "good builds" everyone in a community gets to see. And sometimes even if you're good, you don't exactly play the same ideas as we're seeing on the world stage. We knew Raddus would be good, and JJ probably represents the biggest improvement in Raddus building that we've seen, but chances are, we haven't quite cracked that level of improvement. The Rieekan Ace lists look like a return to Wave-2 in many ways to me, which means there really ought to be Imperial counters out there. If you're Rebels, you really have to build to tank an alpha, and it turns out, there are several ways to do that.

I think there's a lot of waves in which each final 4 build responds well with a fairly strong trick toward much of what appears in the meta right now, and if you're not finetuned down to the last squadron, then you can end up with just enough of an off-set that you lose the game.

Just confirmed, top 4 is 3 Rieekan, 1 Raddus.

8 hours ago, BiggsIRL said:

He rolled that naturally.

8 hours ago, SgtDurandal said:

I had Leading Shots but they were uncessary.

Brutal.

16 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

Just confirmed, top 4 is 3 Rieekan, 1 Raddus.

AKA, Things that survive Raddus, and Raddus. Soooo, about what I was expecting. Curious to see how the final plays.

Sorry I lagged off on updates from my end for what they were worth. Evenings are busy with soccer practice etc. Apparently I have to be a grown up sometimes....

We ended up with a disappointing finish but fun was had by all!

1 minute ago, ForceSensitive said:

AKA, Things that survive Raddus, and Raddus. Soooo, about what I was expecting. Curious to see how the final plays.

An MSU with Slicers in the meta played by a competent and skilled player would have a field day with those squad lists. I think the Errata/FAQ was given so close to worlds that a good portion of the community couldn't adjust in a timely fashion, and it will take until next year's worlds before we get the full effect of both the most recent wave and the errata.

1 minute ago, Vergilius said:

An MSU with Slicers in the meta played by a competent and skilled player would have a field day with those squad lists. I think the Errata/FAQ was given so close to worlds that a good portion of the community couldn't adjust in a timely fashion, and it will take until next year's worlds before we get the full effect of both the most recent wave and the errata.

@Snipafist did nearly exactly that, he was top table final round and was 1 hull point on the MC80 away from tabling him.

Just now, Captain Weather said:

@Snipafist did nearly exactly that, he was top table final round and was 1 hull point on the MC80 away from tabling him.

Great minds think alike. I'm sure it is posted above, but I might have to take a look at his list.

After playing countless games against the #11 finisher today, who was also a couple of decisions away from putting an Imperial in the top 4, I really got to the point where a Tycho/Shara or Cienna/Valen+Slicers was the best MSU squadron defense. But the Slicers had to be there. Otherwise, you really had to go full 120+ point squadrons. It is a very tight match-up with little room for error to play against a squadron heavy list with light squadrons, and though the nerf definitely helped these lists.

I see no pryce or vader boarding teams in the imperial lists so far as well.

Its easy for me to say from this stand point (ie not being there and not having to fight players of this level) - so this isnt meant as a criticism or a claim that i could do better - but i cant understand how all the imperials are still getting trapped and destroyed by yavaris. Imps have so many powerful options and a lot of tech options that could apply here.

Its like when Hux says what is the point off all this if we cant destroy 4 tiny frigates!

22 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

An MSU with Slicers in the meta played by a competent and skilled player would have a field day with those squad lists. I think the Errata/FAQ was given so close to worlds that a good portion of the community couldn't adjust in a timely fashion, and it will take until next year's worlds before we get the full effect of both the most recent wave and the errata.

But not Raddus. Raddus eats the msu with psychic drop and alpha strike and then runs away. That's why we didn't see many of them. Because even before the FAQ/regs changes Raddus farmed fish in Canada.

14 minutes ago, ForceSensitive said:

But not Raddus. Raddus eats the msu with psychic drop and alpha strike and then runs away. That's why we didn't see many of them. Because even before the FAQ/regs changes Raddus farmed fish in Canada.

That's the wild card there. A well played MSU should have only one ship in "threat" at any time, and since the bomb cannot activate first, you activate the one ship and run away. Raddus is one gigantic big trick, and an enormous one. What you can't do is give him a double arc on two separate ships, ensuring the destruction of one of them. But then, I think Raddus is the hard one to get a handle on. He's clearly good, and I won with him earlier in the week when we were playing casually, but I'm not sure he's the end-all be all. Some of the problem might be margin, which is why only JJ made the cut with one. The drop is big for preventing a huge margin, but does it create enough of a forcing move to consistently generate huge margin against the top lists. To me, that's an open question.

Almost all lists have weaknesses, including those winning here.

Brits in 2nd 3rd and 4th. Germany in 5th.

They came, they saw, they conquered.

Well done guys. Youve done us proud.

6 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Brits in 2nd 3rd and 4th. Germany in 5th.

They came, they saw, they conquered.

Well done guys. Youve done us proud.

Really stoked for the Comms Noise guys - Rikki and Ben in 2nd and 4th. Look forward to their next podcast!

Now all eyes are on Rikki from the UK to bring home the trophy.

James in 3rd is a regular attendee at all the Regionals in the UK. Great to see him place so well!

So the Commonwealth countries are two of the top four?

Hurrah for the (British) Empire!

5 hours ago, themightyhedgehog said:

While I approve of this type of operation, I am still dying for info!

So is his liver!

4 hours ago, LTD said:

“Hmmm... better nerf Rieekan again...”

- FFG

- @Blail Blerg

wow, 3 out of 4 are reeikan squad lists again.

So close, but really pleased at 3rd today, 5th or 6th overall if you put both days scored together. Had a great day and met (and beat) so friendly, fun and welcoming players. Good to put faces to the names here. Want to come back next year.

PS @Ginkapo those are Lancaster Bombers shown in 633 Squadron Theme. They should be Mosquitoes

2 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

- @Blail Blerg

ahhh squadrons!

1 hour ago, ripper998 said:

wow, 3 out of 4 are reeikan squad lists again.

bump

Rieekan and squadrons never needed nerfing, its only normal for them to populate over 50% of the last two worlds. totally normal and statistically average.

4 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

ahhh squadrons!

bump

Rieekan and squadrons never needed nerfing, its only normal for them to populate over 50% of the last two worlds. totally normal and statistically average.

I'm going to wait to see what actually shakes out. I recommend you do the same.

1 minute ago, thecactusman17 said:

I'm going to wait to see what actually shakes out. I recommend you do the same.

Nah, he's just going to continue substituting whining on the forums for getting good at the game.

To each his own!