LVO 2019 Top 6 lists and (brief) Recap

Unless you have been wallowing in a Sarlaac pit, you probably know that the Las Vegas Open Maximum Firepower Legion tournament was this weekend.  62 players showed up to take part in the Galactic Civil War.  There were many heroic moments, some tight games, some gorgeous tables, and lots of awesome people.

The experience was a blast.  I had the privilege of helping out; setting up terrain, doing some judging, and generally performing whatever else my overlords required of me.  I got to meet tons of people I’ve never met in person but have interacted with on a near daily basis over the interwebs.  I was constantly impressed by the classiness and demeanor of my fellow Legion players.

I got to hang out with and root on my fellows from Notorious Scoundrels and Fifth Trooper, Mike, David, Jay and Jeremy.  As much as I talk with these guys I’ve only ever met Mike in person.  It was worth the trip just to hang with the lads for a couple days.

Despite the ongoing Galactic Civil War, some bridges were built too.  Who would have thought a Rebel and Imperial Officer could find common ground in the midst of such conflict?  I lamented over my white die save, Brendon bemoaned his lack of pockets.  Getting your armor from Duluth Trading Company has some perks, I suppose.*

Myself (right) and Brendon Franz, the LVO Marshal.

Brendon and I didn’t have to make too many judge calls.  There were a handful of rules clarifications, but FFG has really been on top of the FAQs lately, and it made our calls a lot easier.  As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time with Brendon.  Brendon worked tirelessly throughout this whole thing and it was a privilege to get to know him.  Also, hot damn, it takes a long ass time to set up 32 tables.

Table pics

The event was well organized by the illustrious LJ Pena (Talkpolite), who needs no introduction.  LJ kept us on track and threw lots of swag at the players.  His wife, Emily, was snapping pictures all day (hopefully you saw many of them on the interwebs).  Dave from Imperial Terrain was on hand and provided 10 fantastic tables worth of terrain.  Lastly, we had a guest appearance (by appearance I mean, he was there the entire time) by Legion developer Luke Eddy, who was around to mingle, observe, and let us rub his elbows.  I used that expression correctly, right?

I also want to give a special shout out to Brendon’s fellow Arizona crew, especially Nathan and Jon, who helped a ton in general getting things from point A to point B.  As you can imagine there was a bevy of terrain and other stuff to transport.

Alright Ork, enough shout outs.  Are we going to see some lists, or what?

I’m going to present these with minimal commentary, because I know all of these folks are going to talk about these on other mediums, and Nick is probably going to do a deeper dive on Impact X at some point.

I know I also promised a ginormous data article with all the match data some kind of summary of all 62 lists.  Don’t worry, that will be coming sometime during this week, along with all 12 of the top cut lists (instead of just the 6 winners).  Hopefully this is enough to whet your appetite.

The below guys all earned invites with their final cut wins.  Congrats gents.  The top 6 was a perfect 3-3 Rebel/Empire split, although the 3 Empire players were all undefeated (Kingsley was the only 5-0 Rebel player).

Interestingly, the top 12 contained a lot of mirrors; there was only one cross faction match in the top 12.

My one take away from this might be an unfortunate one… there is a meta, or at least one is developing.  I don’t think we’ve really had one, maybe until just now.  Veers/Boba, Luke/Leia, corps, and snipers.  Joe had the outlier; he was one of only a few players to bring Palpatine at all.  We will have to see if any of the new toys coming out over the next few months break this up a bit.

1^st – John Griffin (5-0)

Hey, look, Veers/Boba, Comms Relay, DLTs, and snipers.  This template has been a top tier list for a while now.  I like the addition of the IRG as some extra meat up front and a potential Luke tarpit.  John is going to regale us with his matches and some thoughts on his list on the podcast on Monday.

2^nd – Joe DePinto (5-0)

All bow before Emperor Palpatine.  I was a little surprised Palpatine was so uncommon; he’s good shit.  Two medics to follow him around make it quite the dilemma when deciding whether to target him.

3^rd – Davis Kingsley (5-0)

Hey, there he is.  Is anyone really surprised?  Turns out the dude is pretty good on a real table, too.  Kingsley was the only undefeated Rebel player.  This list is a Wonder Twins efficiency machine.  I like the addition of an FD turret.  I prefer Fleets for those points myself, but FDs are definitely good at locking down areas.  There were actually two top 6 lists with an FD in them.

4^th – Douglas Kropp (5-0)

Veers, Boba, corps, snipers.  The three snows is kind of interesting.  I definitely wouldn’t be able to pull off that many close assault units, but obviously Douglas had it working.

5^th – Daniel Casslasy (4-1)

More Wonder Twins, corps, and snipers.  This is almost a carbon copy of Kingsley’s list, except he cut a sniper, stims, and improv, and took an extra Z-6 instead.

6^th – David Zelenka (Endless) (4-1)

Hey, I know this guy!  You think we’ll have any trouble booking him for the podcast?

Alright folks, that’s all for now.  Be prepared for a ginormous data article and the rest of the top cut lists sometime this week.

*Yes, my Rebel Officer pants are, in fact, from Duluth Trading Company.