Hey! I won a thing! This is not a Battle Report, but my overall thoughts on the event and the health of the current extended meta as I look at each faction in the top 32.
MY LIST
Before the event I was playing a ton of Extreme Maneuvers Kylo, trying a dozen different lists trying to find the wingmen I wanted to take but I could never settle on anything that gave me confidence.
A week before the tournament and a local player asked what should I fly? And he being a republic player, I just say “Take 3 delta 7Bs and CLT Obi”. We then started discussing what else fits in place of Obi and began building every 53pt ship we could think of, and Luminara with CLT and Chopper droid fit. I was stunned, because about 18months ago, a local player tore me up constantly with this exact ship paired with regen Anakin and Plo. I remember Lumi just being a pain in the ass jamming my locks then neutering my attacks. In the 3 or 4 games I faced her, she never died and annoyed the you-know-what out of me. My list for the alpha qualifier was set.
THE EVENT
GoldSquadronPodcast has a fantastic series on it’s hands. With four qualifiers, and three championship series, every single player in the qualifiers (yes, even the 0,1,2 wins) has a chance at becoming a champion.
Depending on your wins during the qualifier swiss rounds, you will be placed into a championship event. Players with 0-2 wins are placed in the RECRUIT CHAMPIONSHIP, players with 3-4 wins are placed in the VETERAN CHAMPIONSHIP, and players with 5-6 wins are placed in the ACE CHAMPIONSHIP. The genius of this is there are no real losers in the qualifiers. Think of them more as a placement test, like you would do in school. A newer player can sign up for qualifiers, have fun playing games, and earn a spot at a chance to be a champion at their respected skill level.
The entire event ran smooth as butter with 164 total players. Dion and his crew have this online tourney thing down. When time in round begins, you get 85 minutes (10 minutes to create a room on Tabletop Simulator and setup the game, and 75 minutes for game time). You just setup, and if you and your opponent setup in 5 minutes, you start your own 75 minute timer, no waiting for a begin round. It works, and works well.
THE META (SWISS ROUNDS)
Wow, this game is in a fantastic place right now. So many different and unique lists! Lets take a look at the overall faction breakdown from the event.
This is a good balance of factions. The most popular (rebels) was only 21% of the field. So 1/5th of the field out of a possible 7 factions. That is a decent proportion for such a large event.
For comparison, at last years GSP SPACE JAM “Los Angeles” event with 148 players. Scum was most represented with 37 lists (25%) and Galactic Republic was least represented with 12 lists (8.1%).
So as the player count of the GSP Alpha Qualifier grew by 16, the most represented faction count dropped, evening out factions a bit more, always a good sign. Lowest represented factions (resistance and first order) were 9.5% of field. A perfect faction balance would be around 14% (100/7 factions). If we can get the lowest represented faction to be above 10%, I think that is ideal and realistic.
THE TOP CUT
Pretty much every archetype was well represented: Swarms, two-ship, ace+support, and 4-5 ship jousters. Alpha Strikes may be the one archetype missing, although one could sort of be an alpha strike. Not only that, but every faction made cut with multiple entries and multiple archetypes. Lets take a look at faction breakdown for top 32:
I don’t want to go into detail about each list, but instead discuss each faction.
REBELS
Rebels are known for their jousters, as they dont have hardly any double reposition ships, so the faction needs to rely mostly on it’s jousting efficiency. Rebels were well represented in the top 32 with three out of five lists being of a Joust archetype. A key support piece is Jake Farrell who has found himself in three of the five top rebel lists as well. He provides focus actions to other friendlies as well as one for himself. A good sign of a solid support piece (one for you, one for me). Han and Jake combo has been a staple in Rebels for awhile now in different variations. This a good trio of Ace (Han), Jouster (Norra), Support/Arc-Dodger (Jake) and is not a surprise to see make cuts when a solid pilot is behind the list. Thread tracers are bringing Z95s back into the meta. We see it here and in the top scum lists as well. It’s good to see more than just Blount representing the classic Z95.
IMPERIALS
The imperials are known for two things: Aces and Swarms, and that is exactly what we see in the top cut. Sloane with her price increase from 9pts to 12pts still found room in solid squads and both made it to top 8 proving its still a force to be reckoned with and you should have a plan against Sloane. A twist on the swarm is from Florent Menu flying the Tie HEAVY Lytann Dree that can give ships re-rolls if he is in the enemies side arc. And flying with him are Tie Adv x1 generics with proton rockets for some 5 dice smash followed by a couple TIE/ln for blocking. A swarm with 5 dice attacks is definitely scary and this is one of my favorite lists from the weekend. Then we have an Imperial Ace list finishing off the Imperials top lists. Vader and GI have carried over from the Worlds 2019 winning list, and it seems Echo has filled the shoes for Whisper. Not a bad sub, but you lose an ace for a solid Fighter, maybe the best initiative 4 Fighter in the game.
SCUM
Scum are known for their tricks did not disappoint here. Seems like the popular crew is Zam Wesell which can provide free locks as well as double attacks when played correctly. Zam appears to be the new hotness and at just 4 points will be a staple in just about every scum list with a crew slot.
Whether you like two-ship builds, three ship, four ship, or swarms, Scum faction appears to have something for you. They are like snowflakes, no two lists are the same. The top two performing Scum lists both had Torani and Jostero, so those appear to be a powerful duo, and cheap enough to leave room for a couple more high quality ships as we see in Niklas’ list of Torani, Torkhil, Black Sun Enforcer, and Jostero. Bossk made a couple appearances as well in out top 32, as did the Scum Falcon. And when you prepare for a tournament, you are gonna have to prepare for a Scyk swarm, as there were three in this cut, and one that was 18th after Swiss, but dropped from the cut, and the Scyks are only gaining in popularity. What makes them different from other swarms is the control element. They are bringing tractor beams and ion cannons to trap a ship and erase it. Scum is looking like it’s in a great place in the meta, and it’s a good time to be a Scum player.
Resistance
The resistance meta seems to shift drastically every points change. Rey was doing very well within the last 6-8 months and now she is not being seen, and instead we are getting a lot of generics in resistance. Two of the top three brought 3 generic t70s, which are 3 dice guns behind 2 agility and 7 health. Beefy and punchy. The other list is Marcel running four A-Wings, three are initiative 5 with proton rockets. It has the spike damage to hurt something early, and its going to be hard punching through 3 agility awings after you lose a ship or two from prockets, so those big 5 dice prockets actually keep those awings alive by erasing an enemies gun quickly. There is no Poe, no Rey, no Cora. Resistance is embracing their generics it seems.
First Order
When you think first order, you think Kylo, and two lists made the cut with Kylo, still showing that double reposition with force and 6 health is still damn good. Kylo has some new tricks with Extreme Maneuvers, which works really well on Kylo. I have been doing tons of practice with Extreme Maneuvers Kylo and he is definately a “force” to be reckoned with. Kylo with Supernatural Reflexes is something we have not seen for awhile, mostly because initiative 5 and initiative 6 aces were very prevalent since Worlds 2019. But he makes an appearance here and brings his best bud Tavson who can give him even more actions, and can even let Kylo attack a ship on the very first round.
Speaking of Silencers, we have a total of six Silencers making cut across three lists. What’s shocking is there are zero FO’s and zero TIE S/Fs that made cut. However there was a Kylo, Malarus, and three FO squad that made 34th in swiss. The Holo trip Silencers list is very strong and Im surprised not more people fly this. Its definately a top first order list.
Galactic Republic
The republic was well represented by Aethersprites with six total across three lists (and a top 32 after swiss that dropped from cut had another two). Whats surprising is there are no swarm republic lists. With Sinker and the LAAT, you would think a republic swarm is imminent. Sinker and 3 agility Vwings could be something, I would think.
I discussed my list above and will go deeper in my eventual battle report, so lets move on to the other two that both had regening Jedi, proving once again, regen is pretty good. Kyle’s list looks like a list from about 18 months ago, and its still strong. Steve brought regening hull ETA’s. With Ahsoka jamming enemies, and ETAs having 3 agility with evade action and force, I can see how this list is tough to kill. And if you do manage to plink there the defenses, they can just regen back. Ahsoka can even use her ability to give them an action which can be used to regen, so that they can still take an evade on their turn. Very cool list.
I do want to mention the #1 list through swiss that went 6-0, but dropped from playing in cut, and that is the 5 republic Ywings.
Who knows how this would have done in cut, but I think it was the surprise of the tournament for sure. Going 6-0 with a ship that most people wrote off (other then Broadside) is quite impressive. Well done Samuel. Well done.
Separatists Alliance aka CIS
Separatist faction was once only known for their swarms, and now it appears, with the release of Jango’s Slave I expansion, that they are becoming a dominant two-ship faction. One swarm still made it into top 32, showing its still got legs, but maybe CIS players are getting burned out of swarms. Instead we see two double firesprays in the top 32 and both are Jango and Zam. They are both loaded out with all the tools and are both aces at initiative 5 and 6 so they move last and can make correct decisions. Zam is even like having a third ship on the field with her double tap ability. What makes this version different than the scum version, is these fireprays dont need to push for range 1 like Boba had too. That makes them alot less predictable and they can literally fly in any direction.
The final CIS squad to make the cut is a four HMP Gunship list. This is quite surprising to see it do well, but it does bring the toys. Probe droids to setup pre-engage locks. Kraken to setup pre-engage calculates, and you have a beefy, full modded attack on opening engage, followed by shifting slide-slips and this can catch an opponent off guard. Excellent flying and very good list building.
Pilot Skill Zero 