Petey Pab’s got your BAO Coverage, and your top 16 are….!
- Alan Bajramovic: He’s got a chaos army with enough warp charges to be able to do whatever he needs to do to win. Fateweaver and friends foresee another ITC win for Alan
- Jim Yeh: JY2 has 5 flyrants, 2 crones, and zero shits given on his way to a second place day one finish. After I watched his list table 4 knights I knew his tyranid list was the one to beat.
- Brett Perkins: Brett has a nasty TauDar list that looks like it was crafted from the very depth of WAAC hell. Are Scatbikes, a wraithknight, and the Firebase cadre enough to get Eldar their first major ITC event win?
- James Carmona: James has a good anti-meta list with a khorne deamonkin CAD, and a mean attitude. Fun Fact: 1 of James’ 4 heldrakes was assembled the night before in 15 minutes. James doesn’t care about prize support, he just wants blood for the blood god, and to make marine players cry.
- Jonathan Ciscon: I don’t know a lot about this guy except that he is running a battle company along with a skyhammer formation. I also know that if he wins the BAO I will certainly look for his crazy set of hair next year at the LVO
- Steve Sisk: Steve won the BAO last year. With a similar style list. The only difference? 550 more points of free objective secured units. Yikes. White scars Battle companies are simply one of the best armies right now.
- Doug Johnson: A renegade artillery list backed by Khorne Daemonkin , and a mini-demon factory is a tough list for any player to pilot. Doug’s list has a steep learning curve, however he did somehow manage to be undefeated after one day.
- Geoff Robinson: According to Geoff his Admec War convocation, plus pods and Calexus assassin list is both “Fun and Competitive”. His opponents might not agree with that entire statement, but it is a fun list to watch from a purely spectator position.
- Carlos Kaiser: I’m still mad that Carlos didn’t pilot the list that got him second place at the BAO last year. Ultramarine Drop Pods w/Calgar. I don’t care if Papasmurf gets you 3 less wins over a Renegade armor + Tau Firebase Cadre list. You don’t ditch the lord of Macragge!
- Israel Sanchez: Israel’s Tau gunline list is perfect… Visually. A stunning paint job won’t win you games though. That’s why you bring A firebase Support cadre, MissileSides, MSU Crisis suit teams, and more tetras then a 5-year old can kill in a day.
- Jesse Morales: 1 of 2 members of NWO in the top 16, I feel like Jesse has the weaker of the two Eldar + DE NWO lists. I mean, both of them have scatbikes, venoms, a wraithknight, and shenanigans. Buuuuuut I’m pretty sure Jesse’s list was printed out in comic sans font… so it is definitely worst.
- Mark Arambula: 1 of 2 members of NWO in the top 16, I feel like Mark has the weaker of the two Eldar + DE NWO lists. I mean, both of them have scatbikes, venoms, a wraithknight, and shenanigans. Buuuuuut I’m pretty sure Mark’s list was printed out in comic sans font… so it is definitely worst.
See what I did there? These two playing each other guarantees NWO a spot in the top 8, so im gonna go ahead and make that a Pablo prediction.
- Alexander Gonzalez: Alex is the only Necron player to come out of day one unscathed. And he did it without a single canoptek harvest unit in his army. Destroyer cult, warriors, Tomb Blades, and Royal Guards all held out a giant “suck it internet!” sign at the end of his 3rd game. Maybe we’ve been playing Necrons wrong this entire time.
- Karl Payne: Apparently Karl thinks the best way to run the battle company is to hide two mini death stars inside of it. Someone hasn’t seen the original Star Wars Trilogy. I mean granted a bike command squad does get a FNP against Luke’s “fuck yo couch” proton torpedo shot. And you can’t exactly throw the emperor into a unit of grav centurions and have them explode. Maybe all Darth Sidious needed was some Imperial Fists on his side.
- Justin Takemoto: Justin has an ork greentide list with a few trucks for obsec shenanigans. Considering the lack of orks in the top tables I imagine Justin is greenskin lovers everywhere’s last hope. If only there was another ork player in the top 16…. Oh yeah! Justin’s opponent
- Michael Fox: Michael Fox’s ork list is hard to describe for me. Simply because every time I take a closer look at it I get dazzled at the level of paint and conversions it has. Really, take the time to look up pictures of it. It’s amazing. (im gonna have Michael post a hyperlink in the comments sometime during day 2). All I see is a Gargantuan Squiggoth in his list, and to be perfectly honest that’s all we need to know. A Gargant Squiggoth made it into the top 16 after one day at a major tournament.
This analysis is meant to be read in conjunction with the pairing list https://frontlinegaming.org/2015/07/11/bao-live-blog-the-bao-is-about-to-go-down/ found on frontline gaming’s website. I didn’t want to get into detail about the match up specifics because I felt like I would be overstepping my boundaries as a judge and spectator to give analysis on matchups that could affect players the same day that those matchups are happening. All I do know, is that each of these players is 3-0 and they all have a very realistic chance at going undefeated and winning best overall.
This Analysis was intended to be both informative and entertaining for players who have an understanding of the tournament meta and environment, however I did try to be as inclusive as I could be. As usual if you have an Question, Comments, or Critiques I would love to read them in the comments below.