Hello all, and welcome again to our tournament recap articles! This time, we are covering the 59-man World Open Qualifier held this past weekend at the NOVA convention in Washington, D.C.
The structure of this tournament was a little different from most convention tournaments that we have seen - 6 rounds of swiss over the course of 2 days with a top 8 cut AFTER that, meaning the winner of the tournament would have to play 9 games, losing no more than 2 (the top two 4-2 players were able to make the Sunday cut with the number of players in attendance). This is likely the most Legion someone can play outside of the World Tournament at Adepticon.
The whole tournament was streamed by Yavin Base on Youtube, and was actually accompanied by our very own Joe Hicks (TLD: Kass#6126) as a co-commentator. I highly encourage you to check out these streams, as you will see everything from incredibly fun lists and electric games to some of the best high-quality Legion I have seen.
Here is a breakdown of the faction numbers:
Empire - 21
Republic - 20
Rebel - 10
Separatists - 6
Shadow Collective - 2
Is anyone else surprised? Empire and GAR make up nearly 70% of the faction pool. Granted, Empire is usually the most played faction at every tournament because of its general popularity, so that number is to be expected. This is also a large inditement on the meta at this moment in time. Empire has soooo many good list options that are very good, and arguably have the two best Battleforces in the game (not counting Shadow Collective, it's basically a faction) with Tempest and Blizzard Force.
GAR is not nearly as packed with variety as Empire, but the lists that are good are VERY good. Anakin has emerged as the absolute backbone of the faction, with FIFTEEN (yes, that number is correct) of the 20 GAR players having him in their lists. That number is a terrible sign for internal faction balance. While I haven't been able to compile a total list of units taken, I can confidently say he is by far the most taken hero of the weekend. I would also bet he would double up the next hero on the list. I really hope that this is not the trend for the foreseeable future for the faction, as that just makes GAR flavorless and boring, frankly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8 from the weekend:
Top 8
Michael "Dashz" Barry
Notorious for his heroic run at LVO 2023 with the 501st Battleforce (amongst other things), Mike Barry brought along a variant of his Arc-centric Clone ball that was not a 501st list. The 2 squads of Phase 2 clones, along with Echo and Anakin, leave this list with a plethora of surge tokens at the beginning of every round.
While I really like what Mike is doing, the one downside to this list I noticed is the lack of another Commander unit. The Commander slot for GAR is soooo competitive at the moment. It feels as if you're leaving things at home by not going ahead and taking 2 Commanders. However, unlike most clone balls, this list can fight very competently at range 4+. Most clone lists struggle at the range 3+ game, so he took things into his own hands by taking 2 DC-15 Phase 1 clones. This list did its best to make another heroic run for Mike, but a spot in Top 8 ain't so bad.
Kyle "Kyle182" Crosser
Kyle made quite the run this past weekend, and he brought everyone's favorite list! While Blizzard Force was on the receiving end of a number of nerfs, they haven't seemed to lose a beat. This list is every bit as potent as it was pre-nerf, simply losing the generic imperial commander activation. The flavor Kyle brought was ion guns on his snows, which gives the list even more threats for your opponent to worry about. Pure efficiency at its finest.
Kyle "Orkimedes" Dornbos
Speaking of Kyle, Kyle Dornbos was unfortunately unable to pull off the Nova Hat Trick - by winning the tournament 3 consecutive years. Considering this convention takes place essentially in his back yard, he was on a mission to defend home turf. I like his list a lot. The Pykes are absolute machines when backed by Independent and Anakin Exemplar tokens and the clones do clone things. The inclusion of 1 full ARC team is nice and flavorful and add a layer of offensive punch. The medic is a nice hedge to mitigate unexpected wounds, and the Boil P1 allows for the distribution of wounds across the army.
The defensive tech is layered all on top of each other, and makes the units feel impossible to kill. The biggest downside to this list, and clone balls in general, is the lack of objective play. While this list plays into Key Positions and Intercept the Transmissions extremely well, every other setup can be somewhat questionable.
Kyle learned this the hard way, as his loss in Top 8 came to Commander Vader on Hostage Exchange. Nevertheless, in all sports repeat champions are very rare, and Kyle has his previous two trophies to hang his hat on.
Joseph “Joe Joe Binks” Lohmolder
Joe Binks brought along the only non-Anakin GAR list to crack the Top 8. Yoda is an absolutely nutty unit, and combining him with power pieces like full ARC teams can lead to some sweet combos. The Boil-P2-Protector combo is pretty cute and allows for better damage mitigation by Boil, though that unit gets rather expensive for what it does. However, Yoda is one out of a couple units in the game where he simply can put a game on his back and carry you throughout games, and he carried Joe into the Top 8.
Top 4
Nick Bodnar
Known for his voice on the Legion 99 podcast and for supplying terrain for tournaments around the country, Nick Bodnar made quite the run at NOVA 2023. Sporting Rebels, which many are not very fond of, Nick brought one of the best gunlines Rebels can muster. The FD Turrets put out consistent fire that your opponent has to respect.
The snipers and Cassian allow for some good High Velocity counters into lists like an Anakin clone ball, nullifying their pile of tokens. Ahsoka is an absolute powerhouse piece, and her 2 pip "Swift Protector" combos extremely well with a gunline. Nick's semifinals game against Josh was streamed on Yavin Base, and it was an incredibly close game. I highly encourage y'all to go give it a watch.
Kentucky Dan
KY Dan has notably been playing Pyke spam at the highest level for some time now. It seems that most tournaments he attends, he is always somewhere near the top of the leaderboards. Dan brought a version of Pykes that most people would scoff at: he doesn't have a single Pyke Capo upgrade in any of his units. While the Foot Soldier upgrade is significantly cheaper, the surge token for offense and courage 2 the Capo provides is incredible valuable in an army that is reliant on hanging onto some suppression.
Dan also went for Bossk over Maul, which makes this list an absolute powerhouse at range 3 and 4. The threat of bounty allows for another avenue of a win condition for Dan as well. Overall, a super well rounded and unique list. You can tell he has played a lot of games and fine-tuned it to his liking.
Runner-Up
Sam McHenry
Sam McHenry brought a list that looks an awful lot like what Kyle Dornbos brought, this time with Padmé and some captains. Padmé takes the list's objective weaknesses and helps mitigate it. Her Exemplar tokens in conjunction with Anakin and the Capo unit also help pump tons of tokens into the Pyke units, making them incredible potent for their points.
It isn't pictured, but Sam has a rather interesting command hand and battle deck. The omission of Padmé's 3 pip seems to feel bad, as the threat of Secret Mission can be a big one. I understand though, as Anakin wants to play his command cards as fast as possible and Padmé's 3 pip is required to play early to get good value. I also was baffled to see Padmé's 1 pip over "Ploy," considering Ploy would navigate around Anakin's flaw card. Nevertheless, Sam's only loss throughout the entire weekend came in the finals by the hands of...
Winner
Josh "Fluffysaurus"
As we look in our rearview mirror and see Summer, we then look ahead to a Blizzard brewing. Josh, known as "Fluffysaurus" on TLD, is a decorated top-tier Legion player. His iteration of Blizzard Force is by far one of the most flavorful. Most notably, the HRU with a T-21 and a HH-12 is one of the weirdest combos I have ever seen. Although, that unit can hit HARD into armor at range 3, with Impact 3 and Critical 2.
The other flavor part, which isn't quite as weird, is the 2 medical bots. This makes Vader nearly invincible, allowing Josh to be as aggressive as he wants with him. The 12 point bid means that this list is almost always deciding between red or blue, and with a battle deck this advantageous, he is picking blue nearly every time. The bikes and the HRUs put out a ridiculous amount of firepower, and with a 12 health Vader strolling down the middle of the battlefield, I can see why this list was able to climb its way to the top. The finals match is a total display of why Vader is as good as he is. Congrats to Josh for his win!
Recap
Nova 2023 was successful and was given a lot of attention because of its size (59) and the notoriety of some of its players. Taking a set back and looking at the results, we see that red save armies are in a very commanding spot. Now, I don't think they are the end all be all, but they will undoubtedly be present in numbers for the future. Though we saw an Anakin vs. Vader final, we were inches away from seeing a Pyke spam vs. Cassian/Ahsoka final, as both semifinal games were razor close. I think there are a number of lists outside of Empire and GAR that are EXTREMELY competitive at this point in time, it simply matters about what their representation will be.
Since 70% of the faction pool was 2 factions, seeing those 2 factions square off in the finals should surprise no one. No one should be discouraged that their faction may not have been represented well (looking at you, CiS). Legion is at a really good point where all factions have lists that can easily compete with each other. The next step AMG needs to make is to take the units that cannot compete and fine tune them in order to create even more competitive options for every faction.
Except you, Empire. You're perfect just the way you are :)
I hope everyone enjoyed this article! Feel free to check out any of our other content and until next time, may the Force be with you.
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