Complete Your Training and Become a JediRegional Championship Tournaments at Star Wars Game Experience, May 4th
“One thing remains: Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be.”
–Yoda, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
May the 4th be with you! This May 3rd – 5th, come join Star Wars fans of all ages at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center for a three-day celebration of Star Wars-themed games.
This year, the Star Wars Game Experience is the place to be for fans of Star Wars gaming. In addition to RPG events, special guests, and developer presentations, the Star Wars Game Experience features Regional Championship tournaments for two of the year’s hottest games, Star Wars: The Card Game and X-Wing!
Your registration earns you access to the whole weekend, so make your plans to participate in one or both of these tournaments. Register now!
Star Wars: The Card Game Regional Championship Tournament, Friday May 3rd
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”
–Luke Skywalker, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
In the fast-paced games of Star Wars: The Card Game, light and dark side players duel for the fate of the galaxy, and on Friday, May 3rd, the region’s best players will converge upon the FFG Event Center to decide the outcome.
Players in the Star Wars: The Card Game Regional Championship Tournament are destined to encounter a wide array of the game’s potential strategies. You’ll find fleets of Star Destroyers, menacing Sith, and desperate Rebel leaders. You’ll witness the heroics of such characters as Han Solo, Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker, and you’ll experience the tension as they confront such villains as Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine.
Whatever you play, you’ll need to be prepared for the other side’s most cunning tricks and traps. This is the first Regional Championship tournament season for Star Wars: The Card Game, and its metagame is still evolving. The Sith are deadly with their targeted unit destruction, and the Imperial Navy is capable of wiping out Rebel objectives with their Star Destroyers and Superlaser blasts. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance can counter by coordinating quick, devastating strikes with their powerful vehicles. Even the Jedi, once hunted nearly to extinction, have received a large boost from the new objective set in The Desolation of Hoth. In fact, each new Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle is bound to shift the balance of the Force slightly, from side to side and from affiliation to affiliation.
All participants will need to bring two decks, one for each side of the Force, as outlined in the game’s official tournament rules (pdf, 829 KB). Players will compete through six rounds of Swiss play before cutting to the Top 16.
Registration opens on Friday, May 3rd at 4 PM, and the tournament begins at 5 PM. Elimination play between the tournament’s Top 16 players begins Saturday morning at 10:30 AM.
X-Wing Regional Championship Tournament, Saturday May 4th
“Man your ships! And may the Force be with you!”
–General Dodonna, Star Wars: A New Hope
Lock on your target, and fire! The deadly dogfights of the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game have sparked the imaginations of tens of thousands of players worldwide, and on Saturday, May 4th, you can bring your best squad to the FFG Event Center to compete in the Star Wars Game Experience Regional Championship tournament.
X-Wing has been a huge hit since its release at Gen Con Indy 2012, and its tournaments have drawn dedicated players from around the world. Time and again, X-Wing tournaments have highlighted the parity between Rebel and Imperial forces. At Gen Con Indy 2012, in the game’s first-ever tournament, Rory Klawien shot down his competition with three X-wings and a Y-wing. Then, at the World Championship Weekend, the year’s biggest event, Doug Kinney crushed the Rebellion (and everyone else) with a squad of Darth Vader and five TIE fighters.
Now, with the release of the Millennium Falcon™, Slave I™, A-wing™, and TIE interceptor™, the battles of X-Wing are deadlier and more balanced than ever. These new starships and their upgrades have permitted a wide range of new strategies that are certain to shake up the metagame.
World Champion Doug Kinney discusses the impact he believes the new starships will have upon this year’s Regional Championship competitions:
“With the initial wave of releases, the top Rebel squad was a four-ship build, usually with one top pilot (often named Wedge Antilles), and three level-two pilots. There were some very competitive three-ship Rebel squads, too, but the four-ship Rebel squads generally were stronger and had better winning percentages. For the Imperials, the top squads were TIE swarms of six or more ships, and these swarms came in many successful varieties.
“With the introduction of the second wave of ships, players are now finding out that the Millennium Falcon and Slave I are tanks that are tough to take down and can dish out a great deal of punishment. During the upcoming Regional season, I think you'll see many squads with at least one of these ships in them. The success of these squads has a great deal to do with the person flying them; as many people have noted, there is a new learning curve with flying the large-base ships. When you have a board cluttered with asteroids, the rest of your squad, and your opponent's squad (which is also likely to have a large-base ship), you won’t always be able to perform your optimal maneuver for your ship. Those who can learn how to fly their large-base ships and fly against them are the ones who are likely to be successful at this year’s Regional tournaments.”
2012 X-Wing World Champion Doug Kinney selects a maneuver during the final match.
(NOTE: More of Doug Kinney’s insights will appear in a future article, which will look specifically at the evolving X-Wing metagame.)
All participants will need to bring a tournament-legal squad of up to 100-points, as outlined in the game’s official tournament rules (pdf, 258 KB). Players will compete through five rounds of Swiss play before cutting to the Top 8.
Registration opens on Saturday, May 4th at 1:30 PM, and the tournament begins at 3:30 PM. Elimination play between the tournament’s Top 8 players begins Sunday morning at 10:30 AM.
Things You Will See
Our Star Wars: The Card Game and X-Wing Regional Championship tournaments are the big highlights for competitive play at the Star Wars Game Experience, but there’s much more to the event than just these competitions!
Attendees will be able to experience life at the fringes of the galaxy as players in games of Edge of the Empire. We’ll have tables run both by the game’s developers and other select GMs.
You’ll be able to meet special guests Troy Denning and Jay Little, win prizes by proving your Star Wars knowledge in a trivia contest, demo games, and meet other fans of the games you love. You can find a complete schedule of events (pdf, 894 KB), as well as directions and special rates with local hotels, on the Star Wars Game Experience support page.
Register Early for Exclusive Gifts
All attendees will receive a gift bag with event mementos, including an exclusive souvenir booklet. Those who register through our webstore before April 19th, however, will receive even more:
- A Souvenir T-Shirt. Memorialize your Star Wars Game Experience attendance for years to come with this black cotton souvenir T-Shirt. The event’s logo appears on the front of the shirt, while the back displays the date of the event.
A Commemorative Draw-String Dice Bag. Suitable for Star Wars™: The Card Game tokens or the dice from Star Wars®: Edge of the Empire or X-Wing™, this six by seven inch drawstring bag will accent all of your favorite Star Wars games. Made of stylish black felt emblazoned with the event logo, your dice bag will serve as a stylish and practical reminder of the weekend’s events.
- A Custom Name Badge. Shortly after you register, you’ll be asked to select your favorite from six available name badge themes: Rebel Alliance, Smugglers and Spies, Jedi, Imperial Navy, Scum and Villainy, or Sith. We’ll print your custom name badge in advance and have it waiting for you when you arrive!
- Entry into Exclusive Drawings. Throughout the weekend, we’ll hold drawings for fantastic Star Wars-themed prizes and giveaways...but only early registrants will be eligible to win!
Don’t miss out on the excitement. Make your plans to join this celebration of Star Wars-themed games. Register now!
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Complete Your Training and Become a Jedi
