**Thought of the day**
All hail the martyrs! On their blood is our Imperium founded, in their remembrance do we honour ourselves.
***BONUS THOUGHT OF THE DAY***
You’ve won, and now I’m banishing you to the SHADOW ROUND!
Guest Writer Nathan Henning
So, by special request I’m writing a daily recap as we get through LVO, you’ll see some coverage to the weekly articles but tailored to a daily format. I’m going to cover some big/key matchups and their results as well below. I’ll also just highlight some of the bigger matchups with big names facing off or upset.
My predictions prior to the event were (so let’s see how I do!):
– 60% win-rate for custodes is a thing
– Crusher Stampede crushes the competition, but doesn’t quite take the win
– Anthony V taking the trophy (I also originally thought that John Lennon could win, but you’ll see why he’s not here below)
– Top 10 consisting of Custodes, Drukhari, and a lot of Crusher Stampede or Forces lists.
However, after round 1 and a surprise Siegler appearance I wouldn’t put it past Siegler winning the whole thing.
Predicted Top 5 for the event:
– Anthony V
– Jack Harpster
– Richard Siegler
– Brad Chester
– Mani Cheema
If I extended to a top 10:
– Evans (the guy who beat Lennon)
– Alex M
– Malik
– Sean Nayden
– Jaime Paris
End of day 2 Report on my guesses:
- Nayden, Malik, Jaime, and Evans are not in the top 10
- Brad Chester and Jack Harpster are not in the top 5
Big storylines of Day 2:
- Jack Harpster losing his game to Bizuthor by 1 point
- Sean Nayden missing the cutoff for the Shadow Run by 7 points
Summary of Day 2:
| Place | Player | Faction |
| 1 | David Gaylard | Tyranids |
| 2 | Richard Siegler | Admech |
| 3 | Ben Neal | Grey Knights |
| 4 | Raphaël (Bizuthor) Jaffre | Drukhari |
| 5 | Matt Lorah | Custodes |
| 6 | Evan Tomchin | Custodes |
| 7 | Mani Cheema | Drukhari |
| 8 | Anthony Vanella | Drukhari |
| 9 | Lukas Troller | Orks |
| 10 | Alex Macdougall | Forces of the Hive Mind |
| 11 | Ben Cherwien | Tyranids |
| 12 | Quinton Johnson | Custodes |
Players who placed 5-12 will be playing in the SHADOW ROUND so that we can have a Top 8 to play three rounds tomorrow.
Here are your faction representation numbers:
| Factions | Count |
| Drukhari | 3 |
| Custodes | 3 |
| Tyranids | 2 |
| Grey Knights | 1 |
| Orks | 1 |
| Forces of the Hive Mind | 1 |
| Admech | 1 |
Both of the Tyranids players are playing Crusher Stampede and our friendly neighborhood Forces of the Hive Mind player is playing Twisted Helix/Leviathan soup which I have played into and let me tell you it is exceptionally deadly. For Drukhari two rather different Thicc City lists with Jaffre’s featuring a trio of Ravagers and a succubus as the accessories to your standard Artisan’s of Flesh creatures. The final Drukhari is Mani Cheema’s Thin City (he likes to call it Wrack Attack, but I think Thin city rolls of the tongue better) with ~170 wracks to dominate the board. Orks is a really interesting list featuring a Goffs melee pressure list that contains a pair of Kill Rigs and a squad of Meganobz. Custodes are mostly Emperor’s chosen and one Shadowkeeper list and each have some interesting variations we will have to cover during the full meta articles this week.
Shadow Round Pairings are as follows:
#5 Matt Lorah VS #12 Quinton Johnson
#6 Evan Tomchin VS #11 Ben Cherwien
#7 Mani Cheema VS #10 Alex Macdougall
#8 Anthony Vanella VS #9 Lukas Troller
Our Shadow round winners going into Day 3 is:
Matt Lorah
Evan Tomchin
Anthony Vanella
Alex Macdougall
That means our finalists for day 3 looking at the trophy are:
| Player | Faction | |
| 1 | David Gaylard | Tyranids |
| 2 | Richard Siegler | Admech |
| 3 | Ben Neal | Grey Knights |
| 4 | Raphaël (Bizuthor) Jaffre | Drukhari |
| 5 | Matt Lorah | Custodes |
| 6 | Evan Tomchin | Custodes |
| 7 | Anthony Vanella | Drukhari |
| 8 | Alex Macdougall | Forces of the Hive Mind |
And that leaves us with this as our final faction breakdown:
| Factions | Count |
| Drukhari | 2 |
| Custodes | 2 |
| Tyranids | 1 |
| Grey Knights | 1 |
| Forces of the Hive Mind | 1 |
| Admech | 1 |
Faction representation is very even across 6 factions, with Drukhari and Custodes only have 1 more army represented compared to the other top factions. However, if we count in the Forces then it’s 2 Tyranids as well. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens with a multitude of the top ITC players already eliminated before the final day.
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