Hello, fellow Warhammer 40k fans! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio, and one of the Las Vegas Open Head Judges, here to bring you a wrap up of this week in the ITC!
We are about 2/3 of the way through this season, and the Las Vegas Open, the end of the ITC season, is coming up! There are still a few tickets left, by the way, thanks to FLG expanding the event this year! With the season entering its final stages I thought this would be a good time to look back at the evolution of the top ten in the ITC, for how long I have been doing these articles and maybe add few a predictions for how it all could shake out!
A little while back someone commented on one of these articles that they would love to see me post up the different top tens throughout my time writing these articles so we can see how the top 10 has ebbed and flowed. I began writing these articles for Reece and Frankie in March, a month after we had put LVO in the books and the season was just getting underway. If you’ve been reading these you’ll know I have done a lot of different versions, one was close to 4000 words I think because of the interviews. Some have been light on commentary and heavy on the charts. Below you’re going to find the different top 10s in picture form.
Looking through those standings from the past 5 and half months or so it’s an impressive gathering of 40k heavyweights. Many of the big names have been on almost the whole time, notable Matt Root, Josh Death, and Geoff Robinson. Other big names have come and gone, then some have come back again! At one point both the Bowmans were in the top 10, Don Hooson has been on and off the list, Nick Rose, Daniel Olivas, Daniel Sansone, Anthony Bellm, Mitch Pelham, Nick Gower, TJ Lanigan, John Lennon, Bruce Merker, Jared Friedman, and many more players. There’s even been a healthy spread of armies in the top 10, played with great success by several players. At one point there was even Index Tau being played in the top 10! Custodes, Chaos Marines, Chaos Daemons, Death Guard, Astramilitarum, Imperium, Aeldari of all stripes, Dhrukhari, Tyranids, Index Necrons, the list goes on in this regard too.
Looking at all these standings I can’t help but feel like the big picture, and long-term view, of the Competitive 40k meta, gets lost a lot. Particularly on the echo chamber susceptible corners of the internet. If you look at several of the faction specific Facebook Groups you might be led to believe, after spending a bit of time in their particular echo chamber, that they’re faction is much maligned and simply not good competitively. That their codex is an untenable mess, handed down by poor playtesters, or fallen to the whims of the capricious gods of the independent tournament missions. That simply isn’t true for the most part when you look at the ITC as a whole. It’s a massive amount of information to look at, but if you judge the health of the game by the variety of armies played by the best players in the world each season then I must say the diversity in the top 10 consistently throughout the season thus far indicates the game, and it’s competitive meta, is quite healthy. We see fluctuations in the meta from event to event, and some armies might run hot and cold for a month or so at a time, but no single army has been able to completely dominate the top 10 in the ITC.
The last top 10 posted above is the most current. There have been some big shifts lately. Most notably Nick Nanavati shooting into the top spot with a hefty 755.16 points on the back of a strong NOVA showing, and a number one at Wargames Con. Mike Porter and Trent Northington continue to have a stronghold in the top 5 along with Matt Root. All of whom are either over 700 points or within 9 points of that feat. The remainder of the top ten is now players of fame within the Competitive 40k community. As the season begins to wrap up and the final push is coming from the best of the best to get the title we now have Archon Skari (not his real name), Josh Death, Nick Rose, Geoff Robinson, Nick Gower, and Don Hooson finishing the top 10. Going forward it will be interesting to follow the top 10 into LVO. I don’t know how many of the top 10 have big events left on their calendars this season nor which of these players will make the Las Vegas Open. The scores are close enough right now that if any one of them were to play in the Las Vegas Open and win it, they would also take home the ITC 2018 Season Champion title. It’s going to be exciting the next few months!
As usual let me know what you though, and if you have any ideas of what you’d like to see me write up about the ITC season I welcome the advice! This article is a direct result of feedback I got in the comments of one of these articles!
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