Hello, fellow Warhammer 40,000 aficionados! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio, and Las Vegas Open Head Judge, here to bring you a wrap up of this week in the ITC!
This article is supposed to be the first in a weekly series from me, the goal is to highlight the changes in the 40k ITC standings weekly. Reece and I thought it would be a really cool idea to call out the people climbing the main ITC ladder and the sub ladders, like the regional and faction standings; giving people the recognition they deserve for unique lists and winning tournaments along the way! Each article will also appear as an episode of TFG Radio in podcast form and that episode will always be linked into the article for easy access! So if you like listening to articles and podcasts rather than reading here is your chance.
Overall ITC Week in review: March 14th, 2018
Normally I would only be discussing big changes in the leaderboard here but seeing as how this is the first article let’s just take a quick peek at the overall top 10 for 40k in the ITC. It is early in the season still but we have some big names at the top of the overall leaderboard already. Currently in first place is Josh Death and in second Matt Root who was ITC Champion two seasons ago!
For me, the most interesting thing about this top 10 early in the season is the spread of armies.
- Joshua Death- Death Guard (mostly)
- Matt Root- Tyranids (In second place with only RTTs in the books two wins one 3rd place)
- Alexander Fennel- Imperium
- Patrick McAneeny- Ultramarines
- Anthony Bellm- Tau (Pre-codex!?)
- Shawn Prosser- Tyranids
- Gary Frank- Tyranids
- Patrick McNeill- Imperial Knights
- Chris Taylor- Tyranids
- Kristopher Boss- Death Guard
4 Tyranids players in the top 10, an Imperial Knights player, and a pre-codex TAU!? Inconceivable! Really any Tau besides Paul McKelvey being in the top 10 pre-codex is astonishing, let’s not kid ourselves here. Anthony Bellm is running a very interesting list that is drone spam and a few Yvhara in 3 outrider detachments! 93 Drones but only 2 Commanders! Whatever will a list like this do when you can’t take more than 1 Commander in the new codex? Oh, wait, nevermind.
Well done Anthony Bellm. For a book that is supposedly so lackluster, at least according to the internet, Tyranids are doing quite well with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place spots overall early in the ITC season. If the Nid codex can stand the test of time with Tau, Dhrukari, and Necrons coming down the pipe is yet to be seen. If Matt Root is playing it though, can the codex really be that bad?
Another stand out is internet good guy Alexander Fennel killing it with his Imperium list. Way to go, Alex, hope to see you doing well this season once again and going deep into the field at the next Las Vegas Open. Patrick McAneeny is doing well with his Ultramarines thus far 2 first place finishes at RTTs cements his spot thus far in 4th overall and best Adeptus Astartes with 314.2 points to only 190.46 points to the second place Astartes player Erik Lathouras. Unfortunately, Patrick’s list isn’t available via the BCP app but I am sure people are wondering what exactly is in it, Guilliman or no Guilliman? Who knows!
The later we go into the season the more the leaderboards will change, remember though if you want to really be discussed in this series on the weekly ITC the best way to do that is to upload your list in the BCP app! The guys at Best Coast Pairings are constantly improving their already great app and Paul McKelvey and I have spoken about a number of great improvements coming to the App and Website in the near future.
Regional Leaders Review
The Regional Leader Boards were recently overhauled on the FLG page by BCP so if you noticed them not quite functioning a week or so ago they are now fully operational. So let’s jump right in with the United States and its regional leaders.
Overall the US leaders are Matt Root, Alex Fennel, and Patrick McAneeny. Aren’t you dying to know what’s in Patrick’s list even more now? In the Northeast, the leader is…
Alex Fennel! Keep up the good work, fighting the good fight for the Emperor. Keep those Necrons at home ok? In the Midwest, we’ve got Matt Root in the lead followed by Gary Frank.
Matt is one of the 3 Tyranid players currently in the top 10 overall for ITC. Matt is a great all-around player who won the entire ITC with his performance at the 2017 LVO. At that event, Matt was playing Admech using Ork Models. I heard a rumor he is currently playing Tyranids with AdMech models. Can anyone confirm this salacious and wholly fabricated rumor?
The South has Chris Taylor in the lead by a hair with 280.02 points to Mark Perry’s 276.98 points.
The South produces some great Warhammer 40k players. From a lot of the guys at Bell of Lost Souls like Thomas “Goatboy” Reidy to 40k elders with “gravitas” like John Cook, you can expect the fight for the South to be real barn burner, knock down, drag out fight for the soul of 40k with Chess Clocks and Dice Apps on the line. Chris Taylor has also played Tyranids this season thus far and racked up a 1st, 4th, and 5th place finish, also add him to the no list uploaded club. Come on Nid players, we are all curious what you’re having success with.
The Southwest of the US has been dominated so far by the Index Xenos 2 Tau list of Anthony Bellm which I discussed briefly earlier. With a new codex releasing this weekend Anthony is set to go on a run in the Southwest of Tau domination. A new codex put into the hands of a player already doing so well with just the Index options could be a truly terrifying thing for the Southwest. Anthony is clearly a competent Tau player and with the increased potency of the new codex, don’t believe what you read in the very whiney 40k Tau forums and Facebook groups, he may be a lock to win the region with just a GT or Major win. It’s conceivable that were he to play in a GT or Major soon after the Tau release he could catch enough people by surprise with his clear grasp of the army and new rules and get a win. I personally despise Tau, but I would really like to see what Anthony can do in the Southwest and overall standings with a shiny new codex in hand.
The West of the United States is currently being dominated by 40k power couple Jessica and Paul Bowman. Jessica and Paul have been staples of the tournament scene for a long while now, particularly in the West. I saw them both at the Bay Area Open and Las Vegas Open last season and I didn’t go to the So Cal Open but I wouldn’t be surprised if they played in that as well. Jessica was the highest ranked female player in the ITC last season if my memory serves. This season she is a solid 30+ points ahead of her husband Paul who is in second and she is playing Necrons! Index Necrons. Much like with Anthony in the Southwest region it will be really interesting to see what Jessica can do with a new codex. Perhaps we can see our second female BAO champ or our first female ITC champion among many other events she could break the ceiling in.
The South Pacific is getting going with Erik Lathouras sitting ontop the pile with two events and 190.46 points to his name followed by Rory Argent in second and Simon Gojkovic in third. Erik is playing Ultramarines and Rory is fielding Imperium, neither had a list up unfortunately in the events they played.
Canada is currently led by Rupert Campbell, Josh Death, and Nicholas Froese. Rupert is currently in the lead with only one event under his belt but it was a win at a Major! He won the Wet Coast Major held in British Colombia. He ran Ynnari to a win and 139.29 points in the ITC. A major win is a big deal in ITC standings and with a few more smaller wins and another good placing at a GT or Major could catapult Rupert into contention for the overall ITC by the end of the year. Good luck to him, and just look at that model!
With a Ynnari Battalion, Saim-Hann Outrider Detachment, and an Alaitoc Battalion Rupert’s list is a fast and nasty list. Not too spam heavy and not too reaper heavy with a good mix of quality units and Psychic prowess it isn’t difficult to see the list doing well with a capable player behind it. 10 CPs and only 15 Drops is pretty good as well and you can’t really go wrong taking Yvraine right now in 40k.
Europe is currently getting dominated by the Scandinavian contingent in the ITC. If you’re listening out there in Europe you need to get more of your events to report to the ITC! I know that there have been plenty of events so far but not a lot reported to the ITC. It would be great to see a player form the European Region of ITC win it all one year. Just don’t go all Ryder cup on us Americans.
Faction Leaders!
So for this part of the article, I plan to focus primarily on factions where some big changes have occurred or where an unknown player or odd list has performed well. For the first week of this article I am going to briefly cover the most interesting factions so far with a plan to go more in-depth on factions at a later date.
- Adepta Sororitas- Most notable is the absence of #REKT member, Adrien Jeanniard the far and away best Sisters player last year in ITC. Jeremy Applebaum is currently sitting on top with 252.25 points.
- Adeptus Astartes- The top 3 all have at least 2 events apiece I suspect by the end of April the top spots will belong to people with 4 events each. The current top spot is Patrick McAneeny.
- Adeptus Custodes- The new kids on the block in their shiny gold armor seem set to make some waves in the competitive scene. Granted a lot of those waves appear to be coming in the forming of small detachments of Custodes rather than lists made up of majority Custodes units and detachments. Currently in first with the boys in Gold is Shane Watts.
- Chaos Space Marines- This faction currently has a dominant leader in Mark Perry with 276.98 points, over 80 points ahead of Jared Friedman in second.
- Death Guard- The DG has one of the most hotly contested Faction top spots in the ITC currently with Kristopher Boss only 7 points ahead of Josh Death. Both players are close to 300 points already to boot!
- Genestealer Cults- while a maligned faction ITC notable, and new Idahoan, Michael Snider currently sits in first.
- Imperium- Currently dominated by Alexander Fennel, who is 119 points ahead of Tyler Devries.
- Necrons- with a new book on the horizon this faction will be a fun one to watch. Can Jessica Bowman continue her dominance with a new book or will Ian Thornton who’s only a few points back over take her?
- Tau- which, as mentioned earlier are in the same spot as Necrons with a new book coming, are currently dominated by Anthony Bellm who is well over 100 points ahead of Dale Oser in second place.
- Tyranids- Who would have predicted that the Tyranid Faction would have two players with over 300 ITC points apiece? After LVO this year they were a much maligned faction online, just goes to show that sometimes a book needs time to sit and stew in the meta before it’s true potential can come out. Or perhaps it’s just dumb luck. Time will tell, but Matt Root and Shawn Prosser should feel good about having over 300 points each and 3rd place Gary Frank is hot on their heels with 297.5. Did I mention all three of these Tyranid players are currently in the top 10 overall and have been for two weeks in a row now?
Well, I hope you enjoyed “This Week in the ITC for 40k” with me SaltyJohn. I will try to mix things up each week with the format and what info I will present to you, but always with a focus on the changes to the standings and interesting lists, factions, and regions. Let me know in the comments what you liked, didn’t like, or would like me to cover in the future!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
I keep saying that hive guard and flyrants are totally broken. But people are too busy criying about poor reapers.
When eldars are outside top 10 on oficial games. And now even on ITC…… I only hope GW dont do a knee jerk reaction to all eldars haters cryers and nerf them on faq when numbers shoes they are ok despite people hates them
I’m not sure Nids are broken but they are quite an anti-meta powerhouse which I think accounts for how well they’ve been doing in ITC.
Love the format. Great to see 4 Nid players in the top 10. Especially since we kind of took a beating at LVO. Thanks for the shout out. Frag_Panda
Yeah, of course! It is cool to see Nids represented so strongly.
Loved this! Keep this going!
Agreed. News on those succeeding in the meta is always a positive message.
That’s the plan Geoff, thanks!
Eldar are very good. Reapers, ynnari psychic powers, and spears are probably in need of a rules change or two, but Eldar are a solvable part of the meta game. So is 7 flyrants or 180 brims or 5 flyers or etc. We need to give people more time to let the meta shift in response to all the new information. Because in 40K this takes waaay more time than say Magic or Star Wars, as people have to buy, build and paint models instead of just buying them.
People are definitely too quick to define the meta in 40k. It is a longer process to have a meta solidify in 40k than in a lot of other games.
Chapter approved should not only nerf the armies/units that are over represented in the top tens in tournaments but take a big effing look at the armies/units NEVER seen in the upper result strata.
Or, instead of nerfing everything, they should focus on making the underperformers better.
We have such a shit idea of how the actual game is, meta wise, because everyone and every event uses their own rules, point values, mission packs, etc.
GW doesn’t balance for ITC Missions, or for Nova Missions, they balance for their game. We gotta give it time and stop nerfing everything, and try to homogenize how WE insist on warping the game, so we can have actual data worth looking at.
Hmmm. I don’t know. Nerf should probably be saved for things that have proven to be problematic over the course of many months, but I do agree figuring out how to boost underutilized units would be beneficial.
Really? Whatever will Tau do now that we can’t spam commanders? You do realize with the codex Anthony’s list went up nearly 300 points but that’s fine.
As you can see with that top 10 tau are obviously just dominating in the meta right now. They really needed to have their best units nerfed into oblivion while having negligible changes elsewhere.
Walk a mile in someone elses shoes. Come up with your own Tau list and play it vs someone’s tournament army. See how it feels. (Hint: it doesn’t feel good when you’re severely limited on passable units because everything else is grossly overcosted or comes with weird penalties)
Seems like a bit of an overreaction to a joking comment on my part and to a codex that isn’t out yet, nor been vetted by the meta. But ok.
What?…. Too soon?
Anthony here.
While the list I’ve been running is going up substantially in points, it’s also going to see some massive buffs Im looking forward to.
I don’t really think you’re right at all about our new codex. When you say our best unit was needed into oblivion, you’re either talking about commanders or drones. Commanders are limited to one per detachment but they received a massive buff in the form of cold stars being able to take more weapon options. Drone may have went up in points but they also have deep strike now which is massive.
As for “negligible changes everywhere else” you must be referring to the massive points drops on broadsides, riptides, storm surges, ghostkeels(their shield gens), fire warriors and kroot. Or maybe you’re talking about how riptides are going to go back to ripping holes in your openents army with their newly buffed weapons, or maybe you’re talking about quad fusion cold stars.
Maybe you should try “walking a mile in” a good players shoes before you talk shit.
Thanks for popping in and taking a look at the article Anthony. Good luck with figuring out how you want to tweak your list with the new codex incoming.
Haha. Oh man what a righteous slap down. everyone loves to complain. good on you man. keep kicking ass and staying positive.
Tau are getting deep strike drones quit complaining
Man I wish they would finally update the LVO RTT. Then I would be king of Canada. for a very short time.
Yeah, sorry for the delays! The BCP guys are working on it though, I promise. They’ve just been slammed.
oh I know. they do a great job and I feel way to few people are actually giving them money for it
I agree! They work super hard to make all the machinery in the background function.
Tony Bellm and played in the 2v2 on Sunday at LVO. Waiting on those scores too. It will get input in the system eventually. The BCP guys are swamped right now.
Awesome article, John! Love seeing the breakdown.
Thanks and you’re welcome! It takes a bit to write it, but as you said and I reinforced, the BCP guys are constantly working to update things and hopefully, with their updates, it will get easier to write.
Yeah, I can bet. But it is super fun to read the various regional rankings and such! Thanks for your hard work on it, buddy.
Tony Bellm plays on my team, Frag_Out Gaming, and routinely does well here in Texas. He is a young player with a ton of potential. The fact that he can play such a great index list makes him even scarier. He is already looking at the leaked changes for the upcoming codex and adjusting. Look for him to finish high in the overall ITC for the season. I fully expect him to get to the top tables at LVO this year.
Frag_Panda
Awesome, I don’t think I have ever met him but his current score with Index Tau is impressive.
“and a pre-codex TAU!? Inconceivable! Really any Tau besides Paul McKelvey being in the top 10 pre-codex is astonishing”
Such a poor choice of words….
As if people who don’t participate in the “pay to win (have to attend the big events to have a chance)circuit” can’t also play the game well..
Not only that but the ITC top 10 standings really mean nothing until about 6 months in because of the structure of it. I could round up 3 buddies and play 3 round robin events and have about 312 points and be “top 5″…
Cool, you should go ahead and skip the rest of the articles until August.
Frag_Out Gaming set up an aggressive schedule to hit all the majors and GTs around Texas. We plan on getting as much gaming in as we can leading up to LVO.
It isn’t so much “pay to play” as it is setting up a plan. None of us are rich (I have to pay for my son who us on the team) but we figure it out logistically. Love of the game and all that.
That sounds awesome! I love it when our team is super motivated and we all go to events. It’s a blast.
Hey ther salty John love the article and am looking forward to see this on a regular basis. Happy my team is doing well right out the gate for the year and hope the trend continues as we progress and see more majiors and gt lvl events put into the system. As for this being a pay to play system that’s just funny to hear some one complain about if you don’t like it get out of the game and go play checkers with your friends I’m sure you can make a fair scoring system or use a current one for that game just fine. As for updates a nerfs for armies it’s hard to keep a balance for a game system that now changes month to month with releases unlike that of the old system of every 3-5 years wait for releases. As is said before look forward to this article on a regular basis. And good luck to all the itc players this year most of all my team mates from Frag_Out Gaming.
Hey Salty John,
Great article. I look foward to these in future. I really enjoy the part where you got Kris Boss’s name wrong by saying Ross ( True statement not trolling). We have now changed his name to Big Ross and would appreciate if you continued to do the same. (He is not a fan). Also Tony “MuthaF’n” Tau is what Anthony goes by in the Southwest. His ego was already big enough we didn’t need you to inflate it ;).
Love
Deno
Well, a lot of that was unintentional, but I am happy to help. I think? 😀
yes but… what those tyr lists played, flyrant spam? i dont think a codex can be considered good if u have just couple of competitive choices (flyrants, hive guards) imho.