Petey Pab on the Beat: BAO Update Round 5

Petey Pab’s got your BAO coverage needs!

Pablo here with your day 2 update.

Five  minutes into round 4 all the games being played on the top 8 tables heated up faster then Reece and Frankie arguing about which my little pony character is the coolest. All the tables had complex rules disputes and more then a few salty moments, but that’s the nature of the top tables of any tournament and like true professionals all of them shook hands and walked into their new respective matches like men. Our top 8 is full of great players and face-melting competitve lists.

1. Alan Bajramovic: Alan’s deamon list is a testament to solid, fundamental 40k players everywhere. His list is probably something you have seen before at your FLGS, however the tools the codex provides for any game placed in the right hands of a good player puts it solidly in my opinion as the best faction in 40k right now.

2. Brett Perkins: Brett crushed a hard counter to his TauDar list in round 4 with a combination of good luck and solid deployment. He has Alan for round 5 at the top table and is in a perfect position to give Eldar their first major tournament win. For the greater good of course.

3. Steve Sisk: As predicted the reigning champ is in a good position to repeat last years results with his kitted out space marine Battle company. Steve’s battle company list is how I believe the battle company should be played competitively. It is only one source, and the battle company already provides marine players with all the tools they need to win.

4. Geoff Robinson: Geoff is the last of the players in the top 8 with a legitimate statistical chance to win the entire tournament, and although his list might be commonplace in a lot of people’s metas War Convocation with pods and a Callexus can not be found anywhere else in the BAO.

On the outside looking in,

5. Israel Sanchez: Izzy survived a very close game against Carlos Kaiser’s innovative renegade armor/tau list and it doesn’t get any easier. He gets to face the other battle company in the top 8, luckily he has the list with the firepower to do it. Between all his crisis suits, firebase cadre, and riptides Izzy has the tools to hand his opponent a loss and take the entire tournament, with some help of course.

The best of the rest,

6. Karl Payne: Karl’s Imperial fist battle company was certainly fun to watch with his two mini-deathstars, and tons of MSU bolter bodies. I hope to see him again in a future event with the same list and more experience.

7. Mark Arambula: Mark is the last man standing from ITC’s number one group the New World Order. He bested the guy who created his list and won in an epic close mirror match between two comrades from the same gaming group. Apparently NWO know how to make solid Eldar/Dark eldar lists.

8. Justin Takemoto: Justin is the last Ork player standing and his green tide list is a tried and true ork list that proves to any players who want to make it big in a tournament with orks, it is possible. Oh and his 4th round opponent? Another wacky ork player with a fun, fluffy, meganobs list and a gargant squiggoth.

 

Thats our top 8 after round 4. I can’t wait to see how this last round shakes out and I will finish the evening with an update of the top 8 lists and my final thoughts on the event.