Allen, Texas hosted the Lone Star Open this past weekend, and we are here to take a look at the final results. Unfortunately for the Garrison, we weren't able to have anyone attend, but we will cover everything that we can find!
If you are wanting to see coverage of the LSO, go check out Endless' channel Yavin Base on Twitch to catch the VoDs.
Here is the faction breakdown for the event:
Rebel - 8 (Echo Base Defenders - 2)
Empire - 16 (Blizzard Force - 2)
Separatist - 8 (Invasion Force - 0)
Republic - 14 (501st - 0)
Shadow Collective - 6
This is a really interesting layout for what people took. Red saves seemed to be very popular and rule the day, but the most shocking takeaway from this is the number (or lack thereof) of faction Battle Forces. Over the 46 players that were using a faction, only 4 decided to bring the print-and-play Battle Forces, and all 4 of them were used by the GCW factions. This was the first large tournament that these Battle Forces were legal, and the expectation from me was that the hype alone would have us see 25% of all faction lists be using a Battle Force.
Once you look at the Top 8, you'll find a shocking omission: Rebels. No Rebel player was able to make the top cut and move on to day 2. The closest was Zac Harbula (Floorf) in 10th running the vaunted Echo Base Defenders team with a bunch of FD Laser Canons and Commander Luke Skywalker. I would be one to argue that Rebels seem to be the leader in the conversation for "best faction," so to see no one make the top 8 with them is a little baffling. Though, it is easy to forget that this is a relatively small sample size, especially when you see that there were only 8 Rebels players in the tournament.
Top 8
8) Ryan Volkmor
If you think you're misreading this list, you probably aren't. This thing looks WILD. You have a little bit of everything: some B2s, some BX Saboteurs, Grievous, an AAT and a lone STAP Rider. To me this list seems incredibly unique, and I can see where it could cause some analysis paralysis for the opposition. He did, in fact, go 3-0 on the first day, so something was clearly working.
7) Michael Hollingsworth
Michael Hollingsworth brought some double bounty action to LSO, and I quite like the list. You have a shockingly potent gunline to present to your opponent whilst the 2 brawlers that are Boba Fett and Cad Bane approach and do their thing. I'm curious to see what Michael's command hand looked like and what he left out, but it's safe to assume a large majority of the hand was bounty hunter cards. As a non-empire player, I have personally never been sold on Gideon Hask in a Shoretrooper unit as I feel like that is losing value (since you can't then coordinate to the mortars), granted getting 3 orders onto corps from a bounty hunter's relay would be quite good.
6) Jon "Bushfacts" Bushman
Jon Bushman (core member of The Fifth Trooper) brought one of the nastier matchups to LSO. Chewy and Yoda are an incredible pair and are nearly invincible on Chewbacca's 2 pip Size Matters Sometimes. The BARCs are incredibly efficient and the gunline presents just enough problems to allow this list to be very difficult to deal with. My biggest issue is not having a bigger bid. Yoda/BARCs plays into 3 Objectives insanely well: Bombing Run, Recover the Supplies and Hostage Exchange. Yoda's keyword Guidance means that there are endless combos that can be abused on those objectives, and a larger bid would've secured Jon a much higher chance at running those. Without a bid, I think Yoda loses some steam. Maybe you should just take Anakin for 45 less points? Although, I'm a simpleton and probably have no idea what I'm talking about...
5) Tyler Lytle
...Or AM I???
In all seriousness, Anakin is more of a generic, all-around good choice into most lists where I find that Yoda can sometimes run into some very bad matchups (unless he has the bid). The extra points in this list in comparison to the previous result in an extra activation and more killing power. The generic Clone Commander opens up Fire Support opportunities every single round for either the BARCs or Anakin to take advantage. Anakin with Offensive/Defensive Stance means he can be an incredible support piece before diving and murdering. The flaw card can also be somewhat mitigated with something like Assault or Attack of the Clones, having your army put out 5 orders and watering down your bag a little bit.
4) Colton Evans
Shadow Collective had a very strong showing this tournament, having 2/6 total Shadow Collective players make the top 4 and two others be in the top 16. Both top 4 lists (as you'll see another later) are built more or less the same with some relatively minor tweaks. This list went gunline all of the way and had a staggering 4 copies of Vigilance. Shadow Collective Maul is an absolute powerhouse unit that can carry the game by himself. The Black Sun is in there to be a pest and present a threat of a unit that can legitimately one-shot most units on the other side of the table, all the while being very hard to kill. I am not sure if I like the extra body or the Capos more in Pykes yet, so I'm curious if Colton felt a bit of a struggle dealing with suppression in his games.
3) Alex Gregory
While we only saw 2 people bring Blizzard Force of the 16 Empire players, it was nice to see one of them perform so well. Alex took a mean list that contained 4 speeder bikes (arguably Legion's most underrated unit), some corps smatterings that included 2 of the Heavy Response Stormtrooper teams, an Imperial officer and the Dark Lord himself. This list has lots of burst firepower potential from the speeders, though the defensive viability of this list is up in the air. Bikes are only white surging saves, so there is the chance this list can get out-attritioned if you're not careful. Vader is a massive problem for the opponent to deal with on top of the bikes, and the ranged output of the storms is laughably good as they essentially turn into Spider Droids from range 4.
2) David Hoffman
"Wait, what?" followed by a quick double-take is the correct response. This list is interesting top to bottom. It starts off just like Michael H's list, but then you start seeing things like kitted-out Black Sun Enforcers followed by full Scout Trooper teams with Duck and Cover. All around I love this list. The Black Sun are obviously a huge threat, but with all the focus going to them people will ignore the full scout teams, which still have a massive range 2 dice pool. The shores and mortars are great at capping objectives while the rest of your army dives on top of your opponent. The only true counter to keep all of these units at bay is maybe a heavy firepower gunline and a force user...
1) Matt Bronson "Zeusjus"
...Would ya look at that! I'm on a roll: a potent gunline AND a force user.
The winner of LSO was Matt Bronson (who I played at Adepticon and is an absolutely SPLENDID opponent). The ranged output of this list is kinda crazy if you really look at it. Pykes hit extra hard with a surge and potentially aims from the Capos and Bossk is, well, Bossk. Maul is a powerhouse like we've said, and you have a couple naked Pykes for objective play so that you don't waste more offensive units grabbing boxes or tapping vaporators. The Improvised Orders lets you make sure that you don't pull Bossk or Maul when you don't want to (I don't even wanna know how hard Matt had to think about his command hand). Something that shouldn't be overlooked is that the Pykes have courage 2, allowing Matt to hang onto some suppression for defense and not feel the effects as much as he could. Another thing of note is how he kitted out Maul, and I LOVE his loadout. Most people feel that Saber Throw and Force Choke are the only options for Maul in his second force slot, but that is far from the case. Burst of Speed allows him a threat range of roughly 20 inches, which is just shy of range 3.5. Seize the Initiative allows him an order if he has already gotten into the mix and you need to play a Bossk card.
That covers the brief breakdown from the Lone Star Open. Some more specific tournament stats will be available on Legion Stats (via The Fifth Trooper). Thanks for reading, and may the Force be with you!
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