The inevitable topic that always crops up on forum boards for games like this, I thought I'd start it if only to help me gauge expectations seeing as how I am relatively new to the boards here.
First off, I hate calling it a 'world championship', granted not everyone (including some of the better players) can make it to gencon. Then again, it is well advertised enough, and you'd suppose that anyone with the gumption and ability to win this title would find a way to take a weekend off to showcase his/her own skills and play other bests...
So what am I wanting you to predict in this topic?
1. What faction (board played) will win the World Championship Event? Why and how if you are the type to elaborate?
2. How many players will the World Championship Event see participate? The Gencon event calendar shows a max of 42, personally I haven't signed up yet (I've done that at the con the last couple years and never ran into problems with similar games) so maybe part of me is hoping it doesn't break that number and leave me stranded... I'm not too worried.
2a. How many out of state/country/continent will play? From where will the winner hail?
3. What will the prizes be like? FFG, in my experience is pretty good about getty nifty (not overly expensive/valuable but sometimes limited-quantity things) prizes to the upper percentile of the playerbase. Will there be a participation prize, a grand prize, just bragging rights, does it even matter?
4. Will a clear meta dominating tech or playstyle come to light (if it hasn't already) and see rampant/majority play in the event? More importantly, if so will there be a possible errata, rule-change, or ban after the first world championship event to tone down or address it?
That's all I can think of asking at the moment, but if any of you have other questions on top of mind pertaining to Gencon that you want the community to weigh in on please don't hesitate to add one asking for answers/predictions in this thread 
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I guess I can start by answering, to the best of my ability, my own questions. My predictions are...
1. Rush or antirush seem to be mandatory to an extent, not that this is surprising... If you can't win 'as fast' you have to win by slowing down your opponent. I'd say Orc but I'm just not sure. Corruption can be really powerful, and well timed control/defense from Order factions can be game changing... I'll toss my hat on Dwarf, having not played a whole lot myself I'll just choose my favorite fantasy group of the bunch ^^
2. I've seen aGoT played at Gencon run by FFG the past few years, and it seems to have 10-25 depending on the event. I'd like to say WHInvasion would see at least 15 players in its innaugural Gencon event, and I think if 25 or more were playing it would be a strong sucess in my eyes.
2a. I'm coming from Canada... So at least 1 out of country player eh? I wouldn't be surprised if a group of international travellers played the game, but I wouldn't predict it as of yet.
3. I'm sure everyone will get a little something, and the winner or top 4 or whatever will get a special something. And yeah, at the very least bragging rights or the knowledge that they beat some other talented players that they normally don't get a chance to play against (not that there aren't talented players where they play locally, just usual ones is all).
4. There will probably be something that is clearly staple to most decks, and there will probably be a playstyle that is more consistent than the rest that rises to the top. I wouldn't predict any bans though, although I have limtied knowledge of the competitive meta. Maybe an errata? Tossing limited on a card that is devastating in multiple drops/uses in a single turn, wouldn't be too surprised about that type of change to the competitive environment.
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Long post I know, thanks in advance for anyone that reads and/or replies.
- dut