Rediscovered Country

Hello people,

I tap this via the App whilst sat in a concrete room vaguely full of geeks in Liverpool.

Yes, that's correct I've found myself attending Fantastic Flight Games' UK National Championships!

It's been a more interesting event than you may think as it was this event last year that marked my decent into X-Wing burnout and 6 to 9 months of general X-Wing  discontent. The upside if that was getting into Armada.

For Friday the choice was between Armada and Destiny. I went for Destiny for extra laid back funsies. I really enjoyed Destiny at the European Champs. My 3-7 record quite simply wasn't an issue because I was having a ball all day long. As much as anything it was a decision to play just the one full on event plus extra lols.

With a notionally more focused deck, I went 0-5 plus a bye before dropping the final game. It was a positive decision to avoid any salt issues and to switch decks for some side events.

Yesterday I pheonixed from 0-3 to my standard 3-3 for almost every major X-Wing event I ever played in. The difference from last year was that there were no easy games / match ups, even on table 130, and that I enjoyed myself throughout. Maintaining X-Wing respectability was a bonus ;)

Meanwhile there's been another five of us up here from the club plus dozens of other gaming mates enhancing reaquainiting myself with a swarm of X-Wing. As always it's the community that makes so much of the game, especially now that I've accepted and embraced my more casual gaming status.

State of mind people, it makes a huge difference :)

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