How NOT to play in your first Store Championship

The Store Championship Situation as I left it at the cut... (I'm the 10th place dude)

   So,  a little over a month ago, I eagerly signed up for the local store championship... knowing full well that there was some solid local talent and that I would have an uphill battle making even the top 8 (my goal).  Now I know some of you are probably thinking "pfft... top 8... lol", and sure, but for 1, I fly Imperial. 2, Did I mention we have some good local players, and 3... I'm a rookie.  For X-Wing this is my third real event of any kind and my second FFG sanctioned thingy. My aspiration: a range ruler... not because I need it, but that's a goal that on a good day, having never actually played in a store championship, that seemed doable.   

  But time and life conspired, and I did not get in a single practice match from the end of April to June 10th.  For some of you that's not a big deal... for me, that's very worrisome.  I can keep 1 or 2 games at most in my head at a competitive level... and 8E 40k just leaked and Pathfinder will never clear out.  I thought I could at least get some Benchmark games in here and there... but that didn't help either.

So here we are: how not to play, step #1... Don't practice at all for a month... hrumph 

  Then enter a little bit more making sure I'm not ready.  On the day before we had just drove all the way back from Florida with 3 kids under 8 years of age... yuck.  So I just took a nice perk of a local store event (being roughly 30 minutes from my house) and made it like I had traveled cross country, driving 20 hours across state.  I was not ready for the 7:25 am alarm and scowled at the household that I'd have to be up on a Saturday... never mind that I'm up an hour before that every day usually, but we pulled in at something something am that morning and 4 ish hours of sleep before a day of going "pew-pew" isn't smart.  That being said, plenty of players there were equally exhausted and traveled, so not so much playing with a disadvantage, as I missed out on a helpful advantage

step #2... Go to the tourney dead dog tired

 So I get there, a little late, but not last guy there, and get registered and wait for the pairings while sipping coffee (thank the maker for coffee).

 So I get my first opponent, Mark Tippett.  I like Mark.  Very good Y-Wing pilot (I'm sure he flies other things well too, but I've only seen him fly the Y-Wings my short time in the local meta), great story teller, all and all fun guy to be around.  He did some serious damage at Hoth on the final day and has been really helpful the past year or less that I've been learning X-Wing.. coming over and talking to us newbs as we play at the other store (though its mostly been telling me how much he hates whatever ship I have and that he'd kill it first.. which he does ;) )... but seriously good guy, good player... and son of a.. he has the 4 TLT Y-Wings ready to go... against my 3 Imperial aces.

 Truthfully I'm glad I got him first round.  It's not a match I'm going to win anyway.  He's gonna fly better, he knows the game better, he has to be in better practice and rest than me, and his list is much better against mine, than mine is against him.

(here's my list, btw)

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Smart Ryad:  100 points

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Countess Ryad (35)

TIE Defender (34), Ruthlessness (3), TIE/x7 (-2)

“Quickdraw” (35)

Special Forces TIE (29), Wired (1), Fire-Control System (2), Primed Thrusters (1), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

The Inquisitor (30)

TIE Advanced Prototype (25), Juke (2), TIE/v1 (1), Autothrusters (2)

 Now here's another problem with my list... its not the one I wanted to bring.  I'd been practicing all April with an Inquisitor, Zeta Leader, Omega Leader, Epsilon Leader build (I call it "Bring me to your leader")... but I'd rebuilt the above list (an old one for me) for a younger player to borrow and never undid it.  What I should have done is taken the time to swap out all the sleeves and get it all ready.  But I really did like the Smart Ryad list and figured, whatever, and took it (that's dumb).  Though I doubt the list would have fared much better, looking at my match ups, still a bush league move.

step #3... Don't play what you know best and make last minute changes 

 Now I do actually have decent (I think) plans for dealing with common builds.  4 Y-Wings?, either close to range 1 or try to nibble at the formation corners.  But I'm tired, Mark's better than me, and he knows the aforementioned and more too... not only does he beat me, he goes 100-0 on me.  I don't think I got past shields and it was ugly.  Self bumps, hesitant flying, all around how not to fly against a seasoned player.  It was bad.  And he beat me so quickly that I'm just mad and tired too.  I had wanted to catch a Y-Wing on a range 3 corner, messed it up, and never got my head around it. Upside, we get to sit and talk while everyone else plays... which was good... but not as good as getting some sort of points before getting tabled (which I'd like to think I could have done)

step #4... Fly timid

 Okay, okay... time for round two... my next opponent is Allie, she's got 2 Falcons.  Han and Chewie with solid upgrades.  She seems pretty tired too... so its a game of errors for both of us.  She had Luke Skywalker on her Falcon (Chewie?) and when it could have been used, it wasn't.  I felt bad when her boyfriend came over and pointed it out.  That could have changed the game.  I had got a range one shot on her last Falcon when it had 2 hull points from my last ship with 2 (or 1?) hull itself.  An extra hit or even that reroll could have changed the game... I was frustrated with myself too.  Kinda felt like I'd robbed someone of a win.  But as I was putting my cards away I saw Ryad's Ruthlessness upgrade.  I know it could have been used at least twice (once when both of our ships closed range at first and her ships were within 1 of each other, and once when I could have triggered an extra target locked Quickdraw shot at range 1 of one of the two YTs), but no more (she erased Quickdraw early)... I hope that evened out the lack of ever how many extra shots one of the Falcons would have had.

 She flew her Falcons well, never hit obstacles while weaving between them, and killed ships in the right order... so Allie, on the off hand you read this, my apologies and I hope that didn't sour your day.  I thought about telling her later that I'd forgot a potentially significant card too, but thought that sounded like excuse making... not sure if that was the right call, that's why I'm posting it here.  I'd hate to be thought of as the guy who let a player not get second shots in... much rather be the guy who played an opponent in a game where they both didn't utilize their cards to the fullest

From Wired Magazine, great read, I recommend

step #5... Don't pay attention to the cards on the table... especially your own

  Lunch break... and I needed it.  Came back feeling better, awake, assuring myself the Luke/Ruthlessness cards broke even.  And time for round 3.  This time I'm going against a Lancer and a Firespray.  While in competition I play only Imperials, I've got a fair amount of practice flying Rebel and Scum big ships.  I've got two games under my belt and I feel like I'm back in good shape: I'll remember rule interactions (using Ruthlessness to get Quickdraw's double tap), I hope, I'll gauge distances and moves properly, and both of these ships I'm facing have weapons that can't fire into every arc... finally.  

 It actually goes well.  I take a couple passing range 3 shots at the Slave I, but then poured everything into the Lancer, set up a few range 1 shots, and got Quickdraws extra shots activated twice... but by now I saw a problem... my Ryad.  She just can't manage stress well.  Yeah, she's got green K-Turns, but evades from the title don't help damage out put, and in the meta at this event, it was big ships that ruled and they could spread out pretty easy... neutralizing Ruthlessness, except when intentionally putting the hit on Quickdraw.  The Inquisitor does well, as there's not much that hands out stress at range 3 (where he lives, plus his dial clears stress well) and Quickdraw is just as good stressed or not, to a point.  Ryad just flies awkward in my list... why I'd cut her in the first place.  K-Turns and such are awesome in my FLGS club ace, arc dodging/jousting heavy meta, but that's not the competitive meta at all.

step #6... Play a list that ignores the nature of the meta

 I think I lost one ship, but had two fresh ships on the table at the end.  Good win.  Now I'm 2-1.

 Now I get to play Zach Matthews.  Zachs a great member of the podcast community (which locals like Tyler Tippett of Scum and Villainy fame plug us into) and had already given me a Carolina Krayts Inquisitor range ruler (its normal range 1-3 length but only has a "1" in the middle of it... lol, awesome!) and some good rules interaction pointers and answers to questions (that stupid flowchart).

 So much goes wrong here.  I didn't pay attention to his cards (again), I didn't take my time and think through target priority... and his list just punished that.  And I flew poorly.  I learned two more things... setting up an awesome pass is awesome, but you have to think out the turn after that.  He did (or it at least seemed he did), and I didn't.  I had a real good set up on an early pass, but it didn't generate a kill... and it all fell apart after that.  He had this really clever Biggs/Rex interaction where I was suppressed if I didn't fire at Rex, but had to fire at Biggs... and I had to wait for it to happen before it dawned on me how well set up that interaction was.  I downed an ARC and took Biggs down to a roasted droid... but he killed me good and I was simply out flown... fly better, right?

 Zach (who I believe won the whole thing) was also super gracious with some mistakes I made and I have no doubt that if he played me again he'd win, I just should have made a better showing.  Ryad, again, felt like dead weight... I kept her alive until the end... but she didn't punch at her weight when I needed it.  Zach also pointed out that the Inquisitor wasn't getting much from Juke and that PTL would be better.  I've heard it before, but the Inquisitor has done well using Juke against Aces (which is my club meta... but again, not my club meta here).  So I'm taking that point to heart... if I'm flying my beady eyed ex-Jedi Miyagi, I really should build him better, and as Zach's range rulers said... I need to "Git Gud". 

step #7... Don't plan a move(s) ahead

step #8... Be intimidated by a superior opponent

step #9... Don't establish target priority

step #10.. Run inferior builds of your ships

Last round for me... 

  I play against Glen, who's running a Miranda/Dash build using Sabine/TLT/bombs and HLC Outrider.  While I don't like turrets, this is a good match for me.  I have a friend who runs so much Miranda and Sabine that it hurts, and I used to use HLC Outrider in my pick up game list of choice.  I time it right, get all three of my Aces at range 1 of Dash when we first close, and IIRC, took him off the table before he could fire a shot.  I used Ryad to trigger a second shot from Quickdraw for the Outrider kill shot and left Miranda only long shots across obstacles. 

 After that, he flew Miranda really well... but I hung back, took long range 3 shots (or range 1... Inquisitor) until I had him against the table edge and then rushed in for close shots.  3 Aces versus Miranda just wasn't fair.  So I ended 3-2... I was hoping somehow for a top 8.  I was on the top half of the tables and had won... but I needed to jump above several players that had been ranked above me entering the round... a little mental math... and I realized that was not going to happen.  I did better than I thought, 10th, and all in all considering how less than ideal my prep for this one had been... I felt good.

Reflections:

 Looking at all the things I did wrong... if I'd not made 10 glaring errors and had been well rested, practiced, and ready to go, how do I think I would have done?  Probably 10th. A better showing while still losing against Mark and Zach is realistically all I could have done.  Maybe I could have saved a ship somewhere too... but looking at the numbers, pretty sure that still lands me 10th.  

 One of the things I feel lucky about, is that I made a ton of rookie mistakes and the cost really was minimal.  I was (mostly) well focused for my wins and not much would have helped me in my loses anyways.  Largely had a good time with all the players involved and will most likely get more pickup games with many of them... discussed when would work best to meet at a couple FLGS to diversify our small play groups a bit.

  Players like Zach, Mark, Kevin (a leader of the local X-Wing facebook community who I got to watch play a bit and learned a lot from), Tyler (who played his last two games the tables next to mine, and if you don't know he took an Imperial list into the top 16 at Worlds... thank you Tyler) and more, do a great job of building community while also playing their games well.  I look forward to future local events and while I didn't achieve my goal of a top 8 finish, I had fun and moved my game forwards... 

Time to scratch Ryad and bring in a Ruthless Backfire, I think... I know I'll stay Inquisitor and I know I'll stay Aces... its what gives me enjoyment in this game.  I wish Interceptors were more viable, and I don't want to run Y-Wings by a different name (Aggressors), but maybe doubling down on the SFs is the best way to fly what I want but be more competitive.... I'll catch you guys again soon..