Expect the Unexpected

Hello people,

So last weekend was the first couple of events of the New Gaming Year with X-Wing down at Warboar followed by Netrunner at Dark Sphere.

Saturday I was running a Scum Kath, twin TLT Y-Wing list that I'd been wanting to try out for a while. Going 3-2 I pulled 9th of 35 which is my benchmark these days. Of my losses one was stolen from me at the last while I flew particularly poorly for the other.

Sunday I had far lower expectations amongst a field of 90 for 6 rounds of Netrunner. My nominal target was 4 wins, from a possible 12, at which point the 1 I came away with was far less disappointing than you might have thought.

After any event it's always post analysis on the way home and last weekend it was no different. What was a tangent was a discussion about expectation.

As I've previously mentioned, without trying to boast, I've played an awful lot of X-Wing with a lot of very good players which has in turn helped me to become a very good player. I expect to be able to take an untested list to any event and win the majority of my games.

The point discussed was does a higher level of expectation negatively impact your enjoyment of a day's gaming? If you don't live up to your own expectations then there is that possibility. Is that also the slippery slope into the Win At All Costs brigade?

As I've blogged before I'm very anti WAAC but at the same time I want to be competitive and play competitive games. As bad as it might be to say I don't enjoy easy wins as much as hard fought wins. These days with X-Wing there are plenty of lists I won't run because I feel that I won't be competitive. I'm often looking for something a bit left field that can still hold its own and with decent flying capitalise on its left field nature to do better than maybe it should. That's my thing!

Thinking it through I also think that expectation comes from an informed point of view. With Netrunner I've still got an awful lot to learn about pretty much everything. My gameplay is coming on nicely but my knowledge of the meta and how certain decks, cards, archetypes etc interact needs a lot of polishing. As my level of knowledge / experience is  relatively low does it follow that my expectations follow suit?

Wandering home on Saturday I was looking at little tweaks in tactics rather than list. Wandering home on Sunday I was looking at a lot more. I was looking at where and why my decks had struggled. My NBN didn't win because I never had the kill option and couldn't keep Runners out for long enough. Kitt struggled once multiple ICE went up on R&D and scoring servers. As a result I'm looking to run some different archetypes and really looking forward to doing so.

At the end of the weekend I'm really enjoying being at different ends of the spectrum for each game and isn't that what really matters? ;)

Meta Matters

This is something that had been brewing for a while and is a matter that's very close to my geeky heart. The following is a bit of rant, one born of frustration, but, hopefully, a positive one.

I'm a gamer, I enjoy playing games. I like to win but don't mind if I loose as long as I was able to compete....nicely. Journey not destination. I find it difficult to enjoy playing a game where I've beaten by rules or list. Dice are a different matter. I find it even harder to enjoy a game without any social interaction. 

I want to put out a decent list that works but I'm fluff over cheese. Cheese sticks in my craw and power gaming goads me. I avoid it where I can and deal with it when I can't. It's my / our choice where, when and to a lesser extent who I / we play.

I play for fun, mine and my opponent's, and have been lucky enough to meet many similarly minded geeks. I've enjoyed the vast majority of tournaments but prefer "events". I don't feel the need to explain the difference. Those who this is for already understand, those that don't.....won't.

OP play has been ruining STAW for me along with many others. The virtual cyber knashing, whinging, moaning and posturing has reach a crescendo of the lazy minority on both sides of the debate.

As previously mentioned Dave T has had a positive reaction to his similar experience and I'm very grateful to him. I'll be attending his STAW events at Lost Ark HERE, HERE and HERE. Others have also taken control of this issue for themselves and good on you all. In my view it's the positive response to a negative situation not allowing the minority to overpower the majority.

Following his example I'm putting together a low level STAW escalation campaign. There's already a like minded core ready to play and plenty more out there. I've put it on a tab for your, hopefully positive, feedback.

To steal a tag-line; this is for the players.

I don't tweet but; #MetaMatters #MyMeta