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.
The NOVA Invitational and Open have come and gone once again and it was another great year from Mike Brandt, Phil Rodokanakis and their crew. A lot of news came out of GW over the weekend at NOVA, the GW Stream was alive and kicking with Reece and Frankie shout casting the Open all weekend. First place was taken by Tau! If I am not mistaken this is the first Major of over 150 players won by Tau this season. The NOVA format was definitely a bonus for a list like Richard’s but even then it wasn’t the format or the list that won, as always, it’s the player who wins the games and won the title. Congratulations Richard. Here is a look at The top 20 from NOVA and Richard’s current ITC Scores as winning NOVA catapulted him into the number 2 spot overall, right behind Jim Vesal!
A lot of top players in Warhammer 40k are represented there in the top 20 of the NOVA Open. It is good to see a variety of armies represented and a different META represented than existed even just a few months ago at the Bay Area Open or even just in the month of July at events across the United States, Europe, and beyond. What’s missing from this list of factios though are Space Marines. I would not be surprised to see Space Marine pure factions listed in the top spots at the remaining GTs and Majors this season. You’ll note my lack of asterisk next to “pure” this time as GW confirmed that Space Marine lists that take Assassins with the CP buy pre-battle don’t get doctrines, so I think we’ll see actual pure Space Marine lists in the future.
I wanted to revisit the Hobby Track in the ITC really quick.
I have featured Jim Vesal’s army in past articles in this series as well as Colin Shermans. However if you are one of the people in the top 10 list above, or friends with them, get in contact with me! I would love to put up a showcase of your army in the last articles of the season for this series.
Tournament players sometimes get the reputation of being like the memes above, which is really unfair. While the Ard Boyz tournament of the days of yore may have helped create this stigma that tournament players are all WAAC players who don’t want to paint that really was never the case, nor is it a fair assessment. There are beautiful armies at tournaments and some of the greatest players are also some of the greatest painters! Jim Vesal is a great example but the ultimate example might just be Sean Nayden. Sean seems to win the Renaissance Man award at LVO every year. That award is greatly coveted as it is for the person who performs the best but also has as superbly painted army. Sean not only makes the top 8 almost every year but he wins this award almost every year. You cannot deny his ability on the table top, or the sitting in the painting chair. So, let’s show off some more of these top Hobby Track armies each week! Please get in touch with me if you’re on the list or if your friends are. You can contact me easily though the SaltyJohn Facebook Page or my personal page if you know it.
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