Was meant to get this written last Sunday, then meant to get it written during the week, but unfortunately there was lots going on so I didn’t have the opportunity to just sit back with my laptop/iPad and just get on with it. A real plus has been that this has given me ample opportunity to reflect on the games, where I got it right and where I got it wrong. Last weekend was a Hyperspace Trial hosted by the fantastic Games Den in Basingstoke. 40+ players putting us on 6 rounds and a top 8 cut. This will turn out to be my last event before Worlds so I wanted to get some good games in, hopefully play against the new bad boy of X-Wing, Sun Fac and keep the confidence high after what has been a healthy few weeks of gaming.

To make day 2 of Worlds is X-2. So if that’s 6 rounds 4-2 or more likely 7, you’ll need 5-2. 67% win ratio or 71% depending. Both numbers I am currently over with flying Guri Fenn. Obviously that doesn’t mean I expect to make day 2, but it means my practice over the last few months has been helpful and got me feeling prepared.

It’ll come as no surprise that at this event I would take the list I love above all others.

For those that don’t know it yet

Guri. Outmanoeuvre, Adsense, Virago, Shield, Burners

Fenn. Outmanoeuvre

It’s 178 points of joy to fly. It wriggles, worms and shoots. Very rarely goes to time and has been with me now for 20 tournaments over the last few months.

Game 1 was against Sketch Drayton flying Soontir, 2 Super Inquisitors and one with Sense. I was able to remove the Sense Tie pretty quickly, then turn my attention to Soontir, who Fenn promptly one shotted… one Inquisitor died hard then Sketch called it and I took the 200-0 win to start the day. This was one of those games where thing went right. As we reflected on the game Sketch was able to highlight choices he had made early on which had allowed me to get the result I did. It was little things like the boost he debated long and hard that WOULD have got a block on Fenn but he elected to evade instead. X-Wing is a game where these 50/50 calls really matter and the difference in the outcome of a game is more often decided by which player gets more of those right than anything else.

We can talk about how often dice screw us (which they do) or how a rough match up gives a loss (which it can do) but I really think that those 50/50 calls where neither option is bad, but one will end up being incorrect is what determines whether you win or lose a game. I’m not talking about those crazy moments where you dial in an outlandish move to try and achieve a feat of cinematic bravado, but those choices of “do I take the focus or boost here.” Things that seem they probably won’t impact the game that much, but in reality turn into game shaping moments.

My second opponent was my good friend Julian Hood. Since he picked up Jedi I haven’t been able to beat him… he has knocked me out at top 8 and top 4 stages of previous Hyperspace events and at the moment I genuinely think he has to be considered one of the best players in the world due to his remarkable consistency of making cut after cut after cut. Dice don’t need to swing hard to change a game, they just need a little bit here and there. If one person rolls decidedly average, but their opponent rolls just below it can feel very one sided. A lack of sleep on Julian’s part contributed to my 200-37 win here. He made a couple of poor choices, like forgetting to regen on Anakin at a key moment, which allowed Fenn to come in guns blazing. I was really happy with how I played this one, and felt it a really good tracker of how flying this list has come along, but I am not so foolish as to think that on another day Julian wouldn’t just smash me off the table… he’s done it before but lots of little things added up to me winning this one.

So 2-0 with a cracking MoV… feeling good about how I’m playing…. time for it all to come crashing down.

Hello Gav Kirby, you lovely man with your horrid list. My turn to engage terribly, get the 50/50s wrong and roll decidedly below average… and give Gav massive credit for calling everything right: Engaging brilliantly, controlling the board and using Leia more astutely than any player I have ever played against with her. I committed too hard in a bad area of the board, Fenn got blocked and died cause I called Gav’s moves wrong. Leia is SO good but the threat of Leia is probably better. I got my ass handed to me 200-0 in virtually no time at all. Gav would deservedly go on to make it to the top 4 and I was left to reflect on a mountain of mistakes that left my aces impotent in their attempts to win the game. Lots of things to bear in mind for the next time I face 4 U-Wings or equivalent. No I’m not going to go into my game plan for future match ups here… it’s the world championships in 12 days time and someone is gonna be running this kind of list….

2-1 and paired into Lee Robbins with Republic Aces. It started very well, with Fenn one shotting CLT Obi-Wan with an opportunistic 5 dice attack, the solitary crit almost inevitably being a direct hit. Anakin and Ric did their best to recover, but loosing a ship so quickly had Lee on the back foot and once they are ahead there are few ships as able to deliver punishing damage as quickly as Guri and Fenn. Guri got halved but at this point the result was academic. 200-54 win and 3-1.

So having had a fairly strong start and 4-2 being the minimum target for the cut it was onto the CIS, 7 ships. Shells everywhere. I feinted with Fenn, then got Guri in the Swarm. She loves a focus rich environment but still needs to not get shot. Low health, low agility ships are generally not a fan of Guri, and my opponent, Adam Rose did everything he could to catch her, but with the droids so fragile to outmanoeuvre there was little he could do. Fenn came in to help and droids started dropping, Adam did get Guri eventually, dodging that many arcs is nigh on impossible if you want to contribute to the fight (and when it’s 2 vs 7 both my ships need to be doing something) but when she dropped it was a full health Fenn vs 2 droids. There’s only really one outcome from that match up. 200-104 win.

So 4-1, and aside from the catastrophic loss to Gav hints were looking ok. A win, or at least a not shambolic loss should see me in the top 8 and another cut. But my opponent Adam Elleston was in the same boat.

Another poor engage from me, another good engage from my opponent. I lost Guri, he lost Poe, against Cova, Finn and an A2 I wasn’t too unhappy with that… except Fenn had a damaged sensor array. I should have flown away, cleared it and then come back in, not turned and hoped…. Jam did me here, and a plucky A-Wing rolling 2 hits into 4 blanks. Had Fenn survived this turn I am convinced I would have gone on to win the game, Adams ships had brilliantly corralled me into poor position but at the cost of meaning they would then be out of position for the next few turns, which would have let Fenn get in and start rolling dice unchallenged for a bit. But it was not to be and Adam took a deserved win for his excellent Poe play early on. 92 to 200 loss.

All of which meant I missed he cut by 15 MoV…

However, my adventures were not over, after some not inconsiderable travel, 6 games of X-Wing and the prospect of work the following day Janus Avivson elected to drop, which bumped me into the top 8 cut with everything to play for.

Calum Brown had topped Swiss with the all together silly Sear Swarm. So many ships. So much calculate and “crackshot”… tired me forgot that buzzdoids were a thing so basically gave Calum Fenn on a damaged engine plate… leaving Guri vs 8. She did not manage it. She got shot to hell. I needed 2 or 3 ships gone before Fenn dropped to have a chance of pulling the game back. Calum just methodically built 2 kill boxes a turn and challenged Guri to get out of them. She did not and I was out.

Simran Pone would go on to win the event, beating Calum in the final with his Imp Aces and adding a Season 2 trophy to the Season 1 trophy he won at Harlequins in the first trial of the year, what feels like a life time ago. Asserting once again just how good a player he really is.

Conor McNama would walk away from the event with a precious Worlds invite meaning he was able to transfer his last chance qualifier ticket to a full Worlds ticket.

And I went home and slept….

This time next week I will be at Heathrow airport preparing to board a plane and go to the USA for the first time in my life. I am thrilled that some of my very best friends in the world will be coming with me, and proud that there will be over a dozen of my 186th squadmates with me at Worlds. The UK is sending a super strong contingent, cannot wait to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. It’s going to be epic.

Next Time: Worlds

If you’re looking for events head over to the 186th tournament tracker.