The UK System Open is now in it’s fourth year. Last year it was the biggest X-Wing tournament in the world at 500 players, the following days hyperspace was the second biggest at 400. This event has just over 600 tickets sold and is likely to be the biggest miniatures tournament in the world.

Ever.

Even with the inevitable no shows it ended up being 565 players strong. A titanic job done by Alec Thorne and the team. They even ran a little destiny tournament at the same time, just 140 people playing there.

This is where you want to be!

American Football has the Superbowl, music has Glastonbury, we in X-Wing have The UK System Open. In my mind this is the greatest annual celebration of the game we all love. There are going to be National Champions, World Champions, European Champions, System Open Champions and hundreds of other players in attendance. Worlds this year might top it, but so far nothing I have experienced in X-Wing comes close to this event, and that is no disrespect to an other events out there, this one is just… special. The UK X-Wing internet has been full of excitement and trepidation over the last week or so. Doubts on lists, excitement for seeing friends, it brings out the best in us, the anticipation of a weekend and playing games.

Don’t fight it, it’s coming at ya running at ya!

I’m going something a bit different this weekend to the last few, I’m only going to have a three point bid…. I had planned on bringing Guri Fenn, but a start reminder of what extended has to offer on Wednesday night from Firestorm Squadrons’ Phill Pond made me think again. Somehow my weeks of playing hyperspace had made me forget about Palob, which in turn opened the flood gates of memories that reminded me just why I love Hyperspace so much!

So I had to have a rethink. If all I had to worry about was Phantoms and Hyperspace lists with a couple of extras in there I’d have totally taken Guri Fenn, but there is a world of ships available that I haven’t flown against for ages so I need something a bit more forgiving to mistakes.

As such I have reverted to the Trip-70 format that did me so well when the HS season kicked off. But with a couple of changes.

Jamming beams are free and now HS legal, but adding them is a no brainer. Sure, it’s a massively circumstantial piece of kit but it’s free. Nien is taking Static Discharge Vanes because the passing an ion token trick is monstrous and means he’s even better against I6 aces. With Poe able to double action, Nien able to double action I had a look at Ello and decided to give him a break this weekend, instead I have drafted in Temmin “Snap” Wexley, the only ship where Composure is genuinely useful. He’s cheaper than Ello and gives me more options for movement and and blocking. An I4 that can double re-position or if I get it right lock and focus, is not to be sniffed at.

I don’t care about moving first or second with this list, my play style preference says second but having a list with the versatility to not really care helps. Snap at I4 (which in my mind is the worst initiative value) can be a blocker or an arc dodge of things he moves after quite happily. Nien genuinely couldn’t care less about moving first or second and Poe, while he likes to move second is more than capable of taking the fight on to his opponents and shooting first. And whilst Mr Asty’s white talon roll will be missed I really like the dynamics of this list and think that Snap genuinely adds something to the mix that Ello didn’t. It’s still HS legal but offers a greater tool box for answering the larger array of questions that Extended asks than any of the lists I’ve been running in the last few weeks.

The only thing I really want to bring home with me is a frosted Guri card. Anything else would be just a bonus. I’m categorically not playing in the Hyperspace on Sunday if I crash out of the main event because I don’t want to potentially beat someone who might have a chance at winning a worlds ticket at all.

I’m not going to go into all of the games, I am however grateful all my opponents for their sportsmanship and for handing me my ass! I had a terrible day in the main event, like the worst of ages. I’ve had such a good run lately a bad day was on the cards, but 1-5 was a little worse than I had anticipated. If it hadn’t been for the generosity of Alex Birt I wouldn’t even have got the tokens to get the Guri card.

Just as you need the perfect storm to win a big event like this you can get caught up in the perfect storm that goes the other way. I edged a win in my first game against Clive Paget, then lost to Ben Saunders, Michael Giblin, Barry Campbell, Jon Bamford and Matt Jowitt. I wasn’t at my best, and picking apart my games I think lots of things being slightly off here and there just lead to a bad day of it, talon roll when I should have 4k’d, a one bank when a one forward was a better option, trusting to my green dice when I should have trusted to a barrel roll, just lots of small decisions that had big impacts over the course of the day. However, I still had some great games against some great people, and by the end of the day, when all hope was lost, my last two games were particularly fun.

I finished up 526, needless to say I’m hoping to do a bit better when I go to the French and Italian opens later this year. But I’m taking it as a lesson. I changed my plans cause I got scared of thing. Phill Pond wrecking me in practice put me in a place of self doubt. I got more worried about losing than I did about enjoying what I was flying. The trip 70s was super fun, but let’s face facts, it’s never going to stir my soul like the flying Guri Fenn or an equivalent. Those lists engage me and make me come alive, they’re where I “belong” in X-Wing. I’m 100% convinced that if I’d stuck with my fat aces I’d have done considerably better, not one of the match ups I had would they have been scared of. That doesn’t mean I’d have won those games, just that I wouldn’t have looked at them as unwinnable.

IT’S EVERYTHING YOU’LL EVER WANT, EVERYTHING YOU’LL EVER NEED.

Seeing THE Jack Mooney win the event with Jake and Han, the list he loved in 1.0, the ship he did so well with at worlds a few years ago, just re-enforced this perception. While Jack was winning game after game on the Sunday I was playing around with Fenn Guri (Thanks to Ed Gold of Firestorm for the lend) and enjoyed a hyperspace pod and then the greatest game of X-Wing I think I’ve ever played.

Some chap name Simeon Dellapina (he won something last year with a list he really loved I think) and I played a casual game, the most intense casual game ever. Guri Fenn vs Soontir Vader. I had the bid so Fenn moved last, he had 2 6s so Guri moved first, it felt perfectly balanced. It was played at an incredible pace and, with 4 aces weaving and dodging and jostling for position. We must have played about 30 turns in about 45 minutes, and at the last a Hail Mary lone wolf from Soontir killed Guri before Guri could get the kill on Soontir. If every game of X-Wing could be like that then, well, I love it even more.

But every game of X-Wing can be like that. Every game can be that fun, and this is a lesson I’m learning at the moment. How I look at the match up affects not only my perception of the amount of fun I have, but also my opponents. It’s been brought up lately by the Birmingham Barons, it’s been discussed at length int he 186th chat, the only true Negative Play Experience in X-Wing is brought about by players attitude.

I’m a recovering “dice complainer” and I’m learning to reason that out and get better at looking at the factors I can control, I’ve worked hard on it and will continue to do so. Now I need to learn how not to look at lists and sigh, whether it be internally or externally. If I do that then I am the Negative Play Experience, I don’t want to be that. So as part of my journey towards being better all around at this game I’m going to be working hard on that too.

I just want to throw it out there that it’s probably better to blame your dice for a loss than to blame your opponent for flying something that they find fun. If their kind of fun ruins my kind of fun then so be it, that doesn’t mean their kind of fun is the wrong kind of fun. I need to not only know that, but to embrace it. I can’t let that affect what I want to fly, how I want to play. Maybe no amount of “Git Gud” can overcome some obstacles, well, that’s fine. I like good results at events, but I’d rather my attitude results in good events for my opponents. So #workinprogress and #forgivemewhenIfail … I’m trying to be betterer.

The weekend also saw much celebration as many more friends won their worlds invites! Team Europe is simply going to be full of great people this autumn when we go to Minnesota. Just like the film I stole things from this week is abounding in it’s feel good factor I’ve come away with a 1-5 loss and still have that feel good factor. I’m learning some valuable lessons and am going to do my best to make sure that going forward I not only get better at X-Wing, but realise that if I let it X-Wing can help make me better.

But anyway, that is enough for this week from me. I hope you all had a great weekend too, I hope you enjoyed the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, for those watching Game of Throne – may it surpass your expectations. (Mine too hopefully)

Next Time: EASTER PEW PEW!

If you’re looking for X-Wing events then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar.