Welcome back, dear readers! Today I’m emulating my comrade, Travis – I am going to make a summary of my passage through the world championships, a path full of lights and shadows, but before that let’s talk a little about the event:
The Event
First of all the main event area was a very large room surrounded by flags from every participating company, with wall-to-wall tables and the streaming set-ups for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40k. It was just an awesome vibe by the room itself. We started to lend a hand as soon as we could to Jon Sao and his own stream.
Already on the first day I could see the open layouts and the truth is that I don’t really like them; they have a lot of heavy coverage and were very different from the ones we played at home. On these maps melee-centric teams like Chaos Cults or Kommandos with their forward deployments were going to shine enormously.
Day 1
I started Day 1 with the worst pairing imaginable: Loot in the Open against Kommandos. After the deployment I knew that unless my opponent made a mistake or had miserable dice on his side it was going to be very difficult to take the game. And obviously Dawson Araujo was too great a player to make those mistakes. Despite this, I fought tooth and nail, and although I could not win I am quite satisfied with how I fought that game. Unfortunately the game lasted almost 4 hours, which combined with the jet lag drained me completely.
The problem came in round 2 – after having lost in round 1 I was hoping to find an easier match… only to be paired into the great Aleksa and his cult of chaos. That’s right – My round 2 pairing the eventual tournament champion. In all honesty I didn’t play a good game despite having a plan in my head and a solid turn 1. I couldn’t punish anything because the maps offered extraordinary protection to the melee-heavy teams. In turn 2 I made several mistakes, the most serious was not seeing a cultist as he slipped into my back lines. There is no excuse and Aleksa, being a great player, made me pay for it.
After a demoralizing start to the WCW, I was starting to feel like I’d wasted a 16-hour flight. Luckily the world is smaller than events. Between Whatsapp, teammates, and some determination, I realized that while top 8 was out of reach without an insane day 2 there were still stakes on the line. The WCW format meant that all 6 remaining games could still push Spain’s country ranking, and my teammates could still use my experience and my support! I still had 6 games to score the most VP, win the best faction, and fight for my country.
Day 2
With renewed strength and despite being out of the top 8 I entered day 2 with all the motivation I could muster. It was time to start the comeback and playing in ITD for all of day 2, the Spaniards felt at home.
The first game was against Blayne Severson and his hunter clade. Blayne took an extremely aggressive opening position, and my response saw me exchange his opening operative for 2 of his own. From that point on, I was able to use my activation advantage to truly close the problem space Blayne could proffer. At the end of the day this delta and some good dice put his Hunter Clade into an impossible situation, that he couldn’t escape, he was an excellent player and I really enjoy the puzzles and the situation he throw to me.
In the next game I played against the great Pablo Micolini and his corsairs, my Argentine comrade gave me a very interesting game, however being able to Absolute Authority his Deadly Ambush I was able to sneak a grenade into several operatives which gave me a decisive advantage. It was an awesome game and I know I take a friend away from it (We both get some time in stream and have some jokes about our game!).
My last game of the day was against Christopher Scott-Blore, one of the Notts who qualified for the world championships in the same event as me. We had an incredible game that was about to be decided in a complete fluff of my grenadier dice (I threw 9 dice with a Re-roll to 2 legionaries making only 6 wounds in total!!!). It was the game I enjoyed the most of the event. Christopher was an incredible opponent and I would go on to enjoy several pints that same night discussing our game probably the funniest game of all.
At the end of day 2, I had come back from an 0-2 start to end 3-2. Best of all I had supported my teammates (with beer, advice and encouragement). All 3 managed to qualify, Java undefeated, Qiqems with 1 loss and Wallace with 1 loss and 1 draw beating Shane by only 1 VP! Compared to last year, where only me and Carlos could attend. This year 4 Spainards attended, and 3 qualified! I could not be prouder of my countrymen’s achievements, and while it may be bittersweet it remains a highlight for me.
Day 3
The beginning of day 3 looked good for the Spanish team. Unfortunately we soon learned that Java and Wallace (winning the first one) had been matched into each other, and that Qiqems lost against Aleksa.
On my side I had to face Julio and his intercessors. Thanks to the Navy Endurant (MVP!!) who withstood 3 rounds of shooting I was able to win in a heart-stopping final, winning by 1 point, Julio does an amazing job advancing his pieces and scoring his points one by one, denying me the chance to shoot him on TP1 (and this is really difficult being an elite), he make all the correct calls on the game and that was a game that was decided on the last 2-3 decisions which is always awesome.
In my second game I faced Ratman and his blooded, it was a very funny game where my grenadier was able to land a grenade on 3 of his operatives, tipping the balance in my favor. He make some aggresive plays with the Ogryn and the leader, but dice where not on his side that day and I could take the win. As always, it is a pleasure to play in Spanish with my latam partners.
At the end of day 3 Qiqems and Wallace had lost their chances of winning the tournament and only Java remained in the running. He has already lost against Aleksa and would face Adrian Bonvento in the first final the next day.
As my comrades were a bit down and the first final of the “redemption” path who face Orion vs Adrian decided to play it out of stream, and as we owe it to the public, Qiqems and I between beers decided to play a game of Kill-Bowl, a game that mixed Kill Team miniatures with the rules of blood bowl and that we expect GW will adopt soon. We have to thank Mike Brandt for the mat to play and Games Workshop you are welcome for the idea!
The Kommandos Black Orks vs the Human Inquisition
Day 4
Coming into the final day, the Spanish team was deep in thought. Attempting to craft strategies and tactics for Java’s matches against Adrian and the possible second (and third maybe!) matchup against Alexa. Qiqems, Wallace and myself were there to support our champ. And he managed to win the first match, with an amazing performance, Java took the first win, but he needed 2 more if he wanted to become the first champion.
I on the other hand had to play against the fearsome demons of Sawyr. There are a lot of memes in my community as I take the compendium as a bit of a joke (Not anymore though!!). I had to win this game, or I couldn’t go home. The more I discovered about the demons the more they scared me (4/5 Ceaseless bolters wtf!), I was able to play a good game blocking the entrances and taking advantage of my activation superiority I was able to win. Sawyr was a magnificent opponent and it is incredible that he has done such a spectacular role with compendium demons, all our support for him, and hopefully GW would make you happy with a demon bespoke team at some point.
When I finished my game I could approach Jon’s stream and sit with him as second commentator, Qiqems and Wallace had won their games (which placed them as 7th and 5th respectively) and Java had managed to win in ITD, the last open game was left…and unfortunately we lost it.
The Spanish Kill Team Expedition
The Final Results:
Aleksa was a worthy winner of the tournament and became the first world champion of kill team, he beat all of us Spaniards and other great rivals, so Hatts off to the new champion and congratulations on his massive victory. On the other hand, thanks to the efforts of the whole team as a country, we were able to get enough points for Spain to get the best country performance of the Kill Team event, and thanks to that we can achieve a fifth position on the Overall score of all the games systems.
Java managed to win the Best Overall, and Wallace the best painted, Qiqems positioned as 2nd best Kommando and I was able to contribute with the victory points.
The Final Standings
On my side I was able to finish my comeback with a 6-2 final that placed me as 12th of the tournament and tied with Mateusz as the best Inquisition player of the tournament, I was so happy to at least be able to help my team and my country and I left the tournament eager for the next year event.
To wrap up:
The tournament was wonderful. The atmosphere, the healthy competition, and seeing well-known figures in the scene such as the Garrett, Orion, Shane, Cyrac, my partner at Goonhammer, Travis, and all the wonderful community was fantastic. Also, having two great referees in Ben and Elliot made the tournament run without any incident.
As a criticism I would like to see next year the objectives and deployments marks as well as center lines, are placed on the tables and we are not the players who must place them as this makes the game unnecessarily long. I also think that for the health of the game, the maps should either be random without anyone knowing how they are, or part of a package to which we all have access for months. Nevertheless I am eager to try to win a golden ticket for next year although I know it will be more difficult than ever… However I am locked ‘n’ load and start training right now to achieve it. See you next year (Hopefully!)
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