This Week in the ITC: 4-25-19 the Jim Vesal Era

Hello, fellow Warhammer 40k fans! SaltyJohn from TFG Radio, and one of the Las Vegas Open Head Judges, here to bring you another article reviewing the ITC Standings for the 2019 season with the new scoring method in place.

This week marks the first week where I feel like all the changes made to the ITC have finally settled in. Between new secondaries and deployments to the new way factions are scored, this past weekend felt settled. It also saw another big win for our current number one Jim Vesal, and Beast Coast dropped from first to third in the team rankings. The early season is always quite exciting to watch.

Mr. Vesal is quite simply on a tear. Annihilating fields of players from two GT number one finishes to 2 Major number ones back to back. The guy is a madman right now, nigh unstoppable, on the circuit. I might have to try to get him to do one of my interviews for this series sooner rather than later! Jim won the Wet Coast Major over the weekend and was up against some very stiff competition. Here is a look at that events top 5 and Jim’s list. With two Chaos Daemon Battalions, one Nurgle one undivided, and a 1k Sons Supreme Command he has plenty of CP in his list. Two 30 man squads of Plaguebearers can be really difficult to peel off an objective, and can get stuck into combat and tie up units effectively. His list also features other large troop units with a squad of 25 Pink Horrors and 15 Bloodletters. It would seem, when it comes to the troops choices in his lists, Jim has a quantity has a quality all it’s own approach. Which appears to be working. With the punch of 3 Daemon Princes, one Khorne of course, the list has an answer for Knights and Flyers. Ahriman is basically an auto include for Chaos armies still, so no surprise we find him in the list. The one item that did surprise me is the Contemptor with C-Beam. I am really interested in hearing about how that is utilized and how well it meshes with the rest of the list, as it seems to be his only real shooting based unit, I wonder if it is bait or if it gets ignored. The use of Sorcerer with Terminator armor is also curious to me as a choice over one with more mobility like on a disc. Obviously Jim knows what he is doing, these aren’t criticisms, I am just honestly curious about it. Great work Jim!

 

Well done so far Jim, keep it up! Southern California heavy weights Richard Cozart and Ray Ahumada also continue their climb in the top 10, setting them both up for big seasons.

The team rankings have been a lot of fun to watch so far. It will more than likely settle out after the ATC, unless there’s a change to how team events are scored, so stay tuned for that.

Ray Ahumada got best Asuryani last season and it looks like his winning ways with the pointy eared xenos aren’t stopping anytime soon.

Colin McDade has been doing well in the South West taking a mixture of armies, but performing best with Knights at a few RTTs.

Daniel Hesters is destroying the competition in the South. Just through sheer volume of events attended, let alone a few stellar finishes. With a healthy mix of Factions represented under his banner Daniel is poised to do well in his Region this season.

Scott Horras has a healthy lead in the North East with some great finishes using Astra Militarum, particularly Cadians, to great effect. With a 1st place finish at a GT Scott still needs a decent Major placement to keep the steam going into the later end of the season.

Last, but not least, the Mid West region has some fierce competition. Currently Dan Sammons is just ahead of Ryan Beaver. With a smattering of decent to good placements so far this season the most impressive thing about Dan to me is the plethora of factions he is playing, and placing with, well. Ynnari, Orks, and Deathwatch. Well done!

Next week I will be in DC with my 8th grade students so no article. Maybe that gap will allow me to get some questions out to a few more of these top ranked players! As always let me know what you think in comments.

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