This Week in the ITC 7-18-19: The ATC Hits the Standings and Sisters and Marines Factions Focus

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 I am going to review the standings after ATC and the Adeptus Sororitas and Adeptus Astartes top 3.

Well the ATC has come and gone, and the Chaos Knights have yet to make their presence felt. We are approaching the home stretch of the season rapidly, we are roughly halfway through the ITC season and this is about when the top 10 begins to solidify and the top teams also begin to become more or less etched in stone. Their position(s) within the top 10 teams and top 20 people may switch up a bit from here on out but the names in the places are more or less the names we are likely to see at the end of the season. If the paradigm holds true. Should the changes to the ITC formula that were instituted create a genuine paradigm shift in the season leaders we will know fairly soon I would suspect. With NOVA and So Cal Open fast approaching as well those may be the true test of the new formula as they are late-season, big points possible, events. Here are the top 10players and top 5 teams post ATC.

Those are all very familiar names in the top 10. From the consummate front runner this year Jim Vesal to year in, year out, favorite Geoff Robinson none of those names should be unknown to people who pay attention to the comings and goings of competitive 40k.

Beast Coast seems to be on track for yet another Team Title in the ITC but TBB, CanHam, BroHam, and TZC are all well within striking distance of taking them off their pedestal and ripping another year’s trophy out of their hands. This may be the are where we see the largest paradigm shift in terms of the scoring system.

Adeptas Sororitas, of Sisters of Battle, are an interesting faction. They have some hyper devoted players who loved the beginning of 8th ed with the various FW rules that gave them some major help. But also they have other people devoted to playing them just because. Their BETA rules have proven to be fine but a full-fledged codex, along with a desperately needed update to their model range could prove to be a major late-season shake-up for this faction in terms of leaders, participants, and winners.

The three Sisters players in the top spots all have a few decent showings with them. None of them have taken them to a GT/Major and won first place, or even top 5, which is a little telling about how the BETA rules stack up. With any luck, we will get a full-fledged and competitive book soon for their ever-loyal players.

The Adeptus Astartes are in an odd place as a faction. With the changes made to how we qualify a person’s army as counting for faction scores, some factions have become much more difficult to play for large numbers of points at events. Adeptus Astartes, or Space Marines, have but a few options. Stay pure, plus maybe an assassin, and go for best in faction but be more than likely unable to win a GT/Major or go for soup and play something great like Centurion Star with Knights and try to win events. It is an odd conundrum.

The three players currently duking it out for best Adeptus Astartes have Ultramarines in common! If you’re going to run Space Marines as a detachment that’s part of a larger Imperial Soup whole then there are other Chapters that become viable. When running an army that’s pure for Space Marines there really is but one decent option. A “pure” Space Marine army that wants to do well, in a competitive environment, almost certainly needs to have Guilliman in it, or at the very least Tigurius. Really though, Guilliman is the guy you want right now in all your lists if you’re trying to win best Adeptus Astarted player in our new world order for ITC faction awards. If you’re interested in any of the lists and exact scores associated with what was discussed today head over to Best Coast Pairings or download the App and get the account that isn’t free so you can view lists and results from all the events held, not just the ones you are registered for or that are currently ongoing. Investing in a paid BCP account is one of the best things you can do to gain access to relevant 40k information and lists.

As always let me know what you thought in the comments.

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