New Blog and Introduction

Hi everyone,

The last few months I've started going to Warhammer 40k tournaments. I've really enjoyed the competition and managed to place top 2 in 3/4 of the tournaments I've gone to. After some good feedback for post-tournament threads on reddit I decided to just make a blog where it'd be easier to keep track of all my contents and posts. So a quick about me:

I play for the Cambridge, MA based Arvard Ard Boyz Club, been in the hobby for about 12 years, and primarily play Ravenwing in tournaments. I have a very large collection of space marines, technically split into 3 different chapters (Star Phantoms, Dark Angels, Iron Hands), along with some Cadians, Inquisition, Elysians and a pile of Orks.

For a quick summary of my view on the current tournament scene:

I think the 40k tournament scene is too much of a "gated community". As a big fan of Esports, any player can watch a pro match, see what loadouts they use in CS:GO or what runes and masteries they use in League of Legends. In 40k it's rare to see a top-tournament player's list posted, and unless you go to the tournament yourself you'll never be able to see how they play it or ask them questions.

In my opinion this hurts everyone. For people not going to the tournaments it means they have no idea what to expect if they go to one, unless they know regular tournament-goers. Also, it means you get a lot of people on forums who don't really understand how things are played or what works well in the competitive scene, even if they know what lists are strong.

For the tournament players, they miss out on the possible help from the "armchair generals" on the forums. People here may have great insight into countering a top-tier army or have a crazy strategy in their heads that they might not be able to share because they have no idea what's actually being played in tournaments. They see the obvious things like "Wraithknights and Decurions are good" and can't offer possibly good advice because they're missing part of the picture.

So here's my attempt to open the gates a little.