TFT Legion 2023 World Championship Preview Series – Asia Pacific 

Asia Pacific is the region which I am personally least familiar with. While this region covers all of Asia, the Australians are the main community active in Legion. This preview will focus on our friends “from down unda”. Despite being spatially isolated from much of the rest of the world, Australia has a growing Legion community. Just last month they had their largest tournament yet at Cancon 2023 with 54 players. While Asia Pacific is the smallest community out of the three (NA, EU, AP) the group has a slew of competitive players who have proven the regions skill in international events like Invader League. I am looking forward to having the Auzzies at Adepticon and wish them luck at their World Championship debut!

If this is your first TFT World Championship Preview article you are reading you can find our introduction article and the other regions at the links below! I used the current ELO system and contacted the top 3 players in each region who are attending Adepticon 2023 for an interview (ELO rankings are as of the Jan 9^th 2023 update). This is in no way an exhaustive list, so if you think there is someone missing in this list, comment with your favorite players from your region who you think could win it all!

Worlds Preview Series Links

• Introduction and Current Champion interview & bio – Feb 7^th 2023
• Asia Pacific player interviews and bios – Feb 8^th 2023
• Europe player interviews and bios – Feb 9^th 2023
• North America player interviews and bios – Feb 10^th 2023
• Adepticon 2023 Meta Guide – Mar 10^th 2023
• Adepticon 2023 Streaming – Mar 23-26^th 2023

Asia Pacific

Mitch Kazmierczak

Why did you start playing Legion?

I was at Cancon 2020 (our biggest gaming convention in Australia) playing Bolt Action (Bolt Action will make you never complain about balance in SWL again) and on my way to the secondhand store I saw some bright pink B1s. I asked one of the players at the table what it was, I was told it’s called Star Wars: Legion and I carried on my way. Fast forward six months: while watching “Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West” fairly intoxicated I remembered those bright pink B1s and proceeded to buy an outrageous amount of minis (or so said the delivery driver carrying the box).

How would you describe your playstyle?

Intuitively chaotic but numerically driven.

What do you expect the meta to be?

Yeah nah, the blend of each region’s ‘meta’ is going to create the wild west. The closest to this we will see is an overrepresentation of Blizzard Force and Boba Fett.

What do you think about the new rule changes?

Excluding the things that the community has been broadly accepting of (e.g. pass mechanic) some of the other changes are very disappointing. The largest part of what kept me playing this game was the decision tree around positioning and shot selection. Now with the cover changes (particularly the center-to-center changes – and before you say it was taxing, laser line measurements are still there just in a different form) the game feels considerably more bland. With many of the other surviving core mechanics of the game easily found in many other systems, it is just the IP and organized play community keeping me in. Also, the panic changes are amazing, you won’t change my mind.

What do you love about the game of Legion?

Easy, the Auzzie community. Generally, everyone is far more interested in having a good time rather than just winning every game. Winning is nice but it’s not what brings us back again and again. If you’ve ever tried to look at the Australian ‘meta’ you’ll always see that half of our top 4-8 lists don’t make any sense.

If you could have anything from the SW IP added to Legion what would it be?

After checking google for obscure Star Wars characters, let’s go with the Max Rebo band.

Do you have anything you want to say to the Legion community before Adepticon 2023?

1) Help champion organized play to AMG so we can keep these high-level events coming in the future (and those cool looking alt-art cards). A shout out for the Australian Organized Play would also be much appreciated. Our single world qualifier event last year (yeah, we only had one) didn’t even have an organized play kit.

2) Don’t be scared of chess clocks. It makes things easier knowing you have your own resource, and it gets everyone to the pub on time. Almost all Australian major events use them now and all experience levels of players have been broadly positive to them. A 6-turn game should go to turn 6 (planning a strategy around not making it to turn 6 is very unhealthy).

3) Please use MOV. SOS is a terrible tiebreaker, MOV is still not great but at least its better (no, saying just win and that’s your control over your placing is not an argument).

Steven Gibb

Why did you start playing Legion?

I transitioned from Star Wars Armada to Legion when the game first dropped, and never really stopped playing. I like the scale and the core mechanics. I’ve always enjoyed a well-rounded strategic game with lots of different angles and interactions. Legion is complex enough to be a challenging competitive game without needing a full-time commitment like many systems.

How would you describe your playstyle?

Winning is nice but failing gloriously is usually more entertaining.

What do you expect the meta to be?

I’d expect Blizzard dominance unless something changes between time of writing and the event itself!

What do you think about the new rule changes?

We played a 60-player event here in Australia 5 days after the rules dropped and it went surprisingly well. Toe rockets are a little silly but overall, I think the system is easier to pick up for a new player and there’s less feel bad moments like heavy sniping that the old rules could create. Hopefully refinements continue to roll out over time but overall, I think they’re great!

What do you love about the game of Legion?

The gameplay is easy to learn, hard to master. The meta is about as balanced as any system I’ve ever played (Blizzard excluded) and the community of players I’ve engaged with is the best I’ve ever encountered. The competitive scene is challenging, and every game is tense but engaging. It’s easily one of the best systems that I’ve come across and I’ve been gaming for longer than I’d care to admit.

If you could have anything from the SW IP added to Legion what would it be?

I can’t wait for little furry murder bears to arrive, and I’d love to see more of the iconic mercenary units dropping down the track. 

Do you have anything you want to say to the Legion community before Adepticon 2023?

I’ve spent many years chatting and playing against some of the awesome players from the USA and Europe. I can’t wait to come along and check out a convention the size of Adepticon and meet so many awesome people face to face. Hopefully we get some great matches and an opportunity to drink some truly awful American beers.

Peter Lyons

Why did you start playing Legion?

I pre-ordered the game the minute it went up. I have been playing competitively since IL S3. Since GW blew up 8th edition, I was a tabletop nomad buying the starter boxes for about 20 different systems. Legion came out I was sold. I live very remotely with my closest store around 700km away so the early days of TTS and IL really hooked me in the game and its competitive scene. It’s Star Wars, it’s tabletop and it’s my favorite scale! What’s not to love.

How would you describe your playstyle?

MTG blue deck – love to control the board and manipulate my opponents movements.

What do you expect the meta to be?

Game is in a great state I don’t think there will be a single dominate faction. Potentially slightly higher than average Imp and slightly less than average GAR 30/25/25/20 faction %. There’s a lot of talk about Blizzard Force but I am yet to see its magic. I think a horrible Echo Base Defender based list could surface or some AA5 bus delivery lists that with the right table will shine.

What do you think about the new rule changes?

Cover for everyone all the time. Cleaned up a lot and made for a much smoother game. A few minor things they need to iron out.

What do you love about the game of Legion?

I have made a heap of internet friends through YBTL / IL / TLD who I will be meeting for the first time at worlds. I also only get to play IRL at big events due to the travel commitments so traveling over with other Ozzie’s will be a blast. Mechanically, I love the command card system and the turn 0 determination of objectives/ deployment/ conditions.

If you could have anything from the SW IP added to Legion what would it be?

I have been following the high republic so the Nihl would be super interesting. I’ve also been watching “Resistance” with my daughter so gotta request Kaz. Also that computer game with Cal Kestus …… The list is endless! Other than that, I would love to see factions receive operatives around the 55-90 point range.

Do you have anything you want to say to the Legion community before Adepticon 2023?

Australia is here to make worlds worlds! Look out!