Echo24 wrote:TheHutts wrote:And I guess the other thing that's somewhat confusing is that the three most successful squad types in Regionals this year have arguably been:
- Mando the Vindicated + Kelborn + Scouts
- Imperial Stealth + Blue (often with Morrigan Corde)
- Sith squads based around new Caedus
All three did well at Regionals, and made the top 6 at NZ Championships, so it was weird to see them all shut out of the Top 8 at GenCon. Did they get run at all?
All 3 were present and run by at least one solid player. Lou was the most skilled of the 3 I'm thinking of, and he played Caedus/Malgus. The thing is, most of the top 8 has answers to these squads to some degree. Even if it isn't a great matchup for a squad, it will always be at least a game. None of those three squads blow out anything in the top 8, meaning that it comes down to more player skill and luck.
I do think there are more good matchups for the top 8 against those three squads than bad, though. I think this shows that regionals inform GenCon, but that just means that people play things that can beat the big regional squads as opposed to just playing those squads. It's about analyzing the meta and staying one step ahead.
Agree with Daniel here.
I purposefully ran squads that were less than top tier all year a regionals (except when I ran Kyle/Luke GH/Jan Ors in Kokomo because I didn't believe it was as good as it is at the time).
I had my squad for the champs picked in January, and only tweaked it by adding a Klatooinian Assassin and dropping a few drones about a month before.
I never used it because I didn't want to show my hand. I (apparently correctly) predicted the way the meta would shift, and had an answer for not only the rock squads that we'd been seeing so much of, as well as the Imp swap squads, but also the higher act squads that I was sure would appear to counter the other aforementioned ones.
Ricky's squad came out of left field for me, (and for many other players too). It is brilliantly constructed and impressively run.
I am really confused about why there is so much negativity.
Regardless of how you see it - this is the most diverse top 8 in the history of the game. It really cannot be argued without looking really foolish.
I think this is a win for the game overall. 7 factions, 8 completely different squads.
This was something we couldn't have even DREAMED of 2-3 years ago. Even last year.
Nice work v-set designers. I hope we continue the trend