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This Week in the ITC for 40k

SaltyJohn

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.

Click the image to go to the audio version.

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.

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.

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!

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