Welcome to another X-Wing article, this time all about why you should spend the day pushing plastic space ships around a table. I’ve seen a lot of talk on the interwebs about how tournaments and competitive play suck the fun out of the game. It saddens me to see people having a bad time playing this awesome game and it got me thinking, as a person who plays a LOT of competitive X-Wing: what makes it so much fun for me? It may surprise you to hear the the answer is definitely not winning.

Community fun!

What’s the point? Lots of games!

One of the best things about a tournament is that you get to play four or five games over the course of a day (or even more if it’s a large one). The reason I play this hobby is because It’s fun. So what better excuse to do something that you love for an extended period of time?

There’s something special about playing games back to back. Normally at a games night you will only get one or two games in. Whereas at a tournament you can really get into the list that you’re using. Allowing you to test different things between games or try to improve on a mistake instead of having it nagging you for a couple of days.

Fly Even Better

Playing games in quick succession is a great way to work out how you might improve. As well as that, I will often pick up ideas from my opponents as I’m playing. Quite often you can see your flying improving over the course of a day and it’s immensely satisfying to take on something in your last game that would have stomped you flat at the start of the day.

Climbing to the giddy heights of the streaming table

I think it’s time for us to see other people …

Many of us started playing X-Wing with a friend or family member and probably still do the majority of our gaming with that same person or group. Tournaments are a great opportunity to expand the people you play against and be presented with new and exciting lists.

Playing new people can breathe fresh life into the game and also teach you that you’re not as good at the game as you thought you were. What can happen quite often is people end up tailoring the ships they fly to their opponent. He loves taking a swarm, play Dash and fly around him. Your dad loves using a Star Wars: Rebels themed squad with the Ghost and two A-Wings? Time to get out the TLT Y-Wings and laugh maniacally as his ships go down under massed laser fire!

Coming up against a brand new player means you have a blank slate. Neither of you know how the other likes to fly. You have no idea of what half of his ships do and it’s a new experience where both of you end up learning something new. That’s the kind of game where both people walk away from having a laugh and a good time (even if one of you is thirsty for revenge).

Lanyards — doing it right!

Comrades in arms

X-Wing is, at it’s core, a very friendly game. There is a lot of interaction with the person on the other side of the table. After having gone to few tournaments, you find that you start to bump into the same people and quickly get to know them quite well. For myself it ended up in my joining the 186th Squadron and making some really close friends.

The community spirit and old friends that I meet at each tournament I go to are what makes it worthwhile. Whether it is the friendly rivalry with the Weekend Warlords or catching up with the king of the Y-Wing himself, Seb Brady. Every tournament is a good opportunity to meet friendly players from all around the UK.

Great guys! Even the one on the left

Parting shots: A real community

As I round up, I feel that it’s important to acknowledge that tournaments aren’t for everyone. Although it saddens me to think that people don’t give them a chance, everyone plays the game how they want to and that’s important.

Tourneys in X-Wing aren’t all about being the very best, like no-one ever was. On the whole they are incredibly friendly occasions where everyone can have a good time. Every now and then someone can be a stick in the mud but it’s a very rare occasion.

This guy never even beat the elite four…

It’s been stated on many other occasions but the community that plays this game is both incredible and inclusive. Fly casual is at the core of everything that it does and it’s great to see how it welcomes new players to any event.

So if you haven’t given the tournament scene a go then I recommend you try it. Sure you might not do that well in your first tournament, but the only way is up!

My second tournament. Just missed the wooden spoon! Curses…

If you do decide to give it a try then the best thing to do is check out our tournament tracker. We collate all of the information on tournaments in the UK so if you want to find out what’s going on in your area then hop on and take a look!

Fly casual all

Oli