...or can you take it as well as you dish it out?

Premise: Two adversaries each design a squad for the opposition to fly against them. The traditional tournament 100 point total must be held. As expected, the quality of the squadron offered to the opposition will dive tremendously.

Perhaps it is one of your first builds before you knew any better, or perhaps a gem of your cruel and vengeful side. Either way, 100 points is (insert mocking laughter here) 100 points.

Now, of course, you must prove that you can make it work where you opposition could not. After the first game, the asteroids are left in place and players switch sides, starting with ship placement. To claim superiority, one must win back-to-back, managing to more successfully fly the pathetic mess they created and were given. This is the ultimate in "rag tag defense".

This idea actually came out of a party scenario idea where players must start off with much less "in terms of quality, not quantity" that they would like. (They are put in charge of a mess and must make it work.) Think of it as proving you have the resourcefulness to survive beyond the miniatures-game equivalent of an RPG character's "first level, first day, first fight."

RogueMorgan

Another way of looking at this is like the "Island of Miss-Fit Toys" from the Rudpolh the Red-Nose Reindeer holidays special. All of those ships/pilots or cards you thought were over-priced will have a home. Y-Wing's without turrets, 2PS TIE-Advanced, perhaps even "Fel's Wrath" will make an appearance!

Interesting.
I see two tactics for squad building.

The first is to create a strong fleet with a secret weakness, so that you alone can always win against it.

The second is to create a difficult fleet with a secret greatness, so that you alone can always win with it.

Are there time-limits to this tourney style?

I would leave time-limit to the players, but whatever goes for "Round 1" would have to be held for "Round 2." To your point, it may be worth agreeing on that before you "mis-design" your mess. People should report the time limit used, in case someone else wishes to try their hand at such hopelessness with the same constraints.

One (1) hour would be my default of choice, since people are trying to plan on playing two games.

RogueMorgan