2019 So-Cal Open Kill Team: A Recap
So-Cal Open’s first annual Kill Team tournaments went off with a bang. With 34 players on the field, it was the second biggest Kill Team tournament in history after last year’s LVO! The event was unique compared to similar Kill Team events because there were two different tournaments back-to-back. This was important because it meant players who did well could get double the ITC points than they could get at similarly sized events. Saturday began with a pure Arena tournament. The missions were straight out of the Arena book. The factions present at the event were extremely diverse, with the breakdown being:
- 4 Asuryani
- 4 Drukhari
- 4 Orks
- 3 Adeptus Mechanicus
- 3 Astra Militarum
- 3 Deathwatch
- 3 T’au
- 2 Necrons
- 2 Tyranids
- 1 Genestealer Cults
- 1 Elucidian Starstriders
- 1 Kroot
- 1 Adeptus Astartes
- 1 Grey Knights
- 1 Thousand Sons
4 Rounds were followed by a cut to a top 2 for the final, which ended up with the now infamous Michael T. Holy taking top spot with his Asuryani. In second place was Stephen Pochel’s Drukhari, which was an impressive feat given that Stephen was one of the main volunteers helping set up and tear down the event. Despite being focused on his volunteer responsibilities, he still managed to make it to the Finals. Tied for 3rd place were Luke Scianna’s T’au and Chris Harris’ (Beeranid 40K) Genestealer Cults, followed by Alex Squires’ Adeptus Mechanicus in 5th.
Day 2 the game changed, with the boards turned from Arena boards to open boards, filled with lots of line of sight blocking and multi-level terrain. Day 2 saw 28 players take the stage with another diverse list of factions.
- 4 Drukhari
- 4 Adeptus Mechanicus
- 3 Adeptus Astartes
- 3 Orks
- 2 Astra Militarum
- 2 Deathwatch
- 2 Tyranids
- 2 Asuryani
- 2 T’au
- 1 Necrons
- 1 Kroot
- 1 Grey Knights
- 1 Thousand Sons
Following a similar format to Day 1, 4 rounds were succeeded by a single Final Round between the top two undefeated players. Again Michael T. Holy made it to the final, however this time he had unexpectedly brought Adeptus Astartes. Bested in the end by Emmanuel Mitsinikos’ Orks, which went on to take top spot in the second day event in a dramatic turn of events, Michael was able to get second place; securing his top spot in the ITC until the Las Vegas Open. Third place was Janis Gilham with Asuryani, followed by Luke Scianna’s Tau in 4th and Andrew Wang’s Necrons in 5th place. Andrew and Luke were also volunteers who helped set up and tear down the event.
Both days of competition were streamed live on twitch by Kill Team Stream. Shoutcasting the event were Youtube personalities Glass Half Dead and Kill Team Academy. Recordings of all the games will be uploaded to Youtube so you can relive the action! If you’d like to find out about future major Kill Team events and discuss Kill Team with all the big personalities in the Kill Team community, make sure to join Glass Half Dead’s Discord channel: https://discord.gg/aaYyhpx
Also make sure to check out www.KillTeamStream.com to find out more about our future events and Kill Team content!
If you’d like to check out all our photos from the event, you can see them on our facebook at: https://tinyurl.com/socalopenphotos
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
