TFT Legion 2023 World Championship Preview Series – North America

Last but certainly not least we have our North America worlds preview. North America is home to the current world champion (you can find his interview here) and the largest Legion event to date, the Las Vegas Open (LVO) with 143 players. The first Legion World Championship in 2019 was primarily made up of players from the North American region since there were not international qualifiers at this point. Adepticon 2023 will be the first time where North America will have to defend its title against international players. Outside of the competition I look forward to seeing many of the friends I have made over the years playing Legion at Adepticon 2023. Because the defending world champion Luke Cook is one of the top 3 players in North America and has already been interviewed, this article will contain two interviews of the other two players in the top 3.

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

North America

Kyle Dornbos

Why did you start playing Legion?

I really liked how much positioning mattered in Legion, as well as the alternating activations. Prior to Legion’s release, I played 40k for more than 20 years, and while it scratched the hobby itch it was always a bit too much “shove minis at each other and throw dice” which is unfortunately true of most minis games. Legion was fairly unique in the minis gaming space. It was far more tactical and interesting; it reminded me a lot of Company of Heroes (the RTS) in a way that successfully mimicked directional cover and flanking. Legion just kind of “clicked” in my brain when I first started playing it as to how everything worked.

How would you describe your playstyle?

Historically I’ve leaned towards a more conservative, defensive playstyle, but the various red/blue changes over the years have pushed me into more aggressive styles, particularly with speeders.

What do you expect the meta to be?

I expect to see a lot of Blast, Sharpshooter, and Critical with these cover changes. Those keywords were already very good, and now that it is virtually impossible to deny cover with positioning, they become even more mandatory. B2 HATs in particular benefit in a lot of different ways from the new rules: white saves like cover (especially when you strip an extra one with armor), they have Blast to deny it in return, and they can use the new wound allocation rules to corner peek with just their T-Series and the HA to get maximum dice at Range 3 while only being able to suffer 3 wounds at a time.

I expect to see less vehicles of all kinds except speeders; the fact that you now draw a beam towards your target that is the width of the attacker’s base means larger base units will have a really hard time denying cover, even if you set aside that everyone basically shoots from their feet now.

What do you think about the new rule changes?

There are quite a few “common sense” improvements that seem unambiguously good, like making it so that small base troopers don’t have to move along the tool (and clip things along the way) and explicitly saying that you can do things like subdivide terrain pieces, which players were already doing anyway. I also really like the pass rule, which seems to easily be the most well thought out of the “major” rules changes, as well as the climb changes (though it would be nice to see jump and scale get some love). Beyond that, there are a lot of things that fall into the “was this really necessary” category, like the panic change which I feel just narrows list building for minimal gain (suppression was already extremely good), the Payload change so that it can’t fly anymore (a good way to just delete that objective from competitive play) and the Deflect nerf which has a really uneven impact across force users (devastatingly bad for some, completely neutral to others). Also, shouldn’t a Star Wars game be about force users?

Then there is the cover change. The primary complaint with the old rules was simply that it was difficult to understand what you were supposed to do; once you figured that out, though, it was a quick and easy process that generally resulted in sensible outcomes, and it probably could have just been written more clearly. The new cover and LOS rules take abstraction to the extreme. In my games with the new rules, they have been very immersion breaking and arbitrary feeling. It is faster, sort of, in that you simply don’t actually engage in the process very often, because everything that is remotely in the vicinity of terrain has cover (or if there is terrain remotely in the vicinity of the area between attacker and defender). Weird cover memes aside, however, the worst thing I can say about them simply is that they’re boring. Using flanking and positioning to deny cover is one of the things that really set Legion apart from other minis games, and that just isn’t really a thing anymore. I hope AMG is receptive to feedback on the cover/LOS rules because I think they color what is otherwise a good rules update.

What do you love about the game of Legion?

Besides how tactical and strategic it is, it might be sappy, but I love the people and the community. Legion is not anything like other minis gaming communities I’ve been a part of. Even the competitive community is generally very chill and civil.

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

Saw’s Rebels. I think the concept of guerilla warfare as a Rebel mainstay is a bit unexplored in the current system, and I think Saw and his Partisans would be a great place to do that.

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

Nothing I haven’t said on various media, probably. I think I would probably say to remain civil, constructive and honest in this period of feeling out the new rules.

Matthew Bronson

Serious Matt (Left) and silly Matt (Right). He could not confirm which Matt will be attending Adepticon.

Why did you start playing Legion?

I bought in on release day but barely got a chance to play in the first year. I started playing locally in summer 2019 and was starting to get into the competitive scene right before Covid hit. I was a big Armada guy before Legion. Legion looked really cool, and after painting Armada squadrons and seeing Sorasto’s videos I decided to give Legion a try. For me it overtook Armada during the pandemic because I already knew how to play Legion online and I spent a lot of time painting models and building tables, so it was always front of mind.

How would you describe your playstyle?

I would say I’m a cagey, patient player. I’ll usually win narrowly on objectives and won’t be looking to blow things off the table. I do like big, flashy, dynamic plays so usually Jedi/bounty hunter plus gunline is where I settle list wise. I usually don’t run pure efficiency lists with generics because I want to have exciting command cards.

What do you expect the meta to be?

I expect Empire to show up in big numbers rocking op Vader, Bounty Hunters, and probably Dark Troopers too (of course Blizzard #1 if no hot fix comes). I think GAR is in the second best spot and both Anakin and Yoda have play (but I expect Anakin to have more success because he’s just so efficient, but boring). CIS has B2s which seem good in this new world. Shadow Collective might still have some play, but I’m not sure. Rebels I don’t expect to make a splash, unfortunately.

What do you think about the new rule changes?

I think cover is the big miss. Thoughtful positioning and working angles were an important element of skill expression previously. Other than that, I have some issues with how things like scale, jump, and deflect were handled. A points change would certainly be good in light of those changes (and the standby sharing nerf) so units aren’t overpaying for abilities that got worse. Structure wise I think it’s a better learn to play section, but I actually really liked the RRG structure before with a big, thorough alphabetized index.

What do you love about the game of Legion?

I love the mix of careful, thoughtful engagement and splashy plays. I think the battle card system is really cool, even if sometimes certain skews can be problematic with the objectives we have. I like building small advantages and the chess match of objective play.

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

Number one with a bullet would be a Gungan battle force. It would look awesome, could have really cool mechanics (shield/booma shenanigans anyone?) and I can get opponents on tilt with my Gungan voice. For a single character Kit Fisto would be cool to see.

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

Things are changing with the game and it’s important to discuss those changes critically and voice concerns and feedback. That being said, do so respectfully and in good faith. This is a great community, and I don’t want to see constant negativity and doom-saying poison the well or turn prospective players away.