bobbywhiskey said:
It looks like you had a mod win against another Imp and that's what kept you outta the finals? Also the 4 LN 1 tie adv build doesnt sound too great, if he lost to one of the top rebs they are inflated a bit. Keep in mind also that many of the rebel builds that "won" kessel runs probably would not have had they had to play one more game. Many people only played 2 rounds because of venue time limits or byes (and byes give 5 victory points and some peopel had one in a tourney WITH only two rounds) and many of the people I read here and at boardgame geek that did do well with 3 rebels or w/e list what games they did play as reb vs reb or against somone playing 3-4 tie advance garbage or someone that they anecdotally mention got ruined by asteroids cause they played hothie's world build but dont know how to avoid that stuff in formation.
I won one event, and placed 3rd in another due to time win and time loss against other imps, the loss being one of my friends that made the trip with me who had the 5 ship build i mentioned with double con missles that i put together for him, because that venue only played 60 min rounds instead of 75 and was timing during ALL of setup cause they were in a mall and pressed for time 
His superior alpha strike held up in what was essentially a 45 min game, and he might have still been slightly ahead after another 30 which is why i mentioned that build.
My build was 7 ties with howlrunner, because i felt that the "hothie build" could drop vader for 7th tie because he didn't typically do THAT much more than the average tie unless you get down towards the end game and he has more room to barrel roll into blind spots, his added survivability could be an issue for ur opponent when they only have 1-2 ships left, etc. The 7 ties was my attempt to get some extra early oomph to allow for the time limit. It ruined rebs cause if they played 3 ships 7v3 was too much regardless of who it was or what they did, and i had teched against 4 ship builds by dropping swarm tactics altogether and playing howlrunner/mauler/5x obsidian. I killed several rookie x-wings between the two events without them getting a shot off.
The main thing was i had practiced ALOT on how to manuever 7 ties together, and didnt hit any asteroids all day, even while fighitng the entirety of one of the games against the rebs in the mid of the table all around them. I also would set up on one corner if need be in order to not get flanked, adjust the speed of my opening moves depending on what my oppnent was doing etc, sometimes spending the first few turns doing nothing but working my way aroudn the outer edge of the table faster than my opponent was expecting to have to spin around and was able to get a full 7 ship volley or close to it whenever i did finally get the inital attack angle i wanted.
Like i said its not un winnable, but if you really read some of the reports of the people that won with those builds and consider that they had to play one less game to "win" it's very telling. I feel like the world champs was a much better measuring stick considering they played (counting the single elim rounds) 6 games instead of 2-3 with their squads and the competition overall was tougher im sure. Fewer games = more statisical anomales so to speak. Many MANY players at the KRTs were picking up the game for the first time as well.
Double check my post. I played Rebels … The rebels that won.
We had even players, so no byes. I won all 4 of my games + the final round using the new models.
Of those 4 games, 3 were Rebel v Imperial and only 1 was a mirror match.
I'm also curious as to why you think the World Champs would have been a tougher competiton (this year). At the time of the champs, the game had been out for only a week or 2, and it was attended by mainly locals to FFG's centre who went through no qualifying process to get there.