Table of Contents

1. 2026/04/04 - Fire & Dice Games

   1. Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. Judging Staff

      2. The Good Stuff

      3. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   2. Some of the Judge Calls

   3. Issues Caught When Spectating

   4. Top Cut Deck Check

   5. Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

2. Conclusion

2026/04/04 - Fire & Dice Games

• With the new featured match table location compared to prior PQs, I was able to keep my 360° camera charged (it used to sit on top of the shelves), so I was able to record a timelapse of the entire Swiss portion.

Format: Bo3, 7 Swiss rounds, 99 players, Top Cut to 8 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/408295

Side Note of the Event Itself

This PQ event experience was overall great and went pretty smoothly. There was a Melee issue that caused a ~10min delay before starting round 2 which got resolved after contacting Melee via their Discord server. We think the error was caused by a late player joining during round 1. There were two more (minor) Melee errors that I’ll go into more detail in a section below.

Judging Staff

• Head Judge (HJ) and one floor judge (me).

  • The store tried to find a third judge, but previous judges at FAD PQs weren’t available. But luckily, it went fine with just two judges.

• The co-store owner helped with some deck checking and other logistics.

There were other FAD employees there who helped with Melee stuff and other logistics.

The Good Stuff:

• Pretty much the same as described last time I judged here for their SEC PQ:
  https://www.lumimouse.com/i/181510645/the-good-stuff

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• None; this is their fourth PQ, so things are pretty smooth at this point.

Some of the Judge Calls

1. Player attacked with Stolen AT-Hauler, but meant to attack with Punch It instead.

Resolution: After confirming with both players, due to no new strategic information, the player can rewind the attack action to play Punch It instead. It helped that the opponent was fine with the rewind.

2. Player played Annihilator against their SEC Padmé opponent. Does Annihilator’s effect trigger SEC Padmé’s effect if it doesn’t discard from the hand?

Resolution: No, because Annihilator’s effect doesn’t cause Padmé player’s hand to be revealed.

3. A JTL Boba player asked if their leader pilot deploy effect of dealing 4 damage is mandatory. Context: their opponent has a Legacy Run.

Resolution: No, it says to “deal up to 4 damage”, which includes 0 damage.

4. A player played Faith in Your Friends. They asked where to put the two cards, the top or bottom of the deck?

Resolution: Per CR 8.26.2, the cards should be returned to the bottom of the deck in a random order.

5. In the same phase after Lawbringer was played, if the opponent plays a unit that matches with the chosen aspect, will it be debuffed?

Resolution: No, because this effect is applied to the existing units at the time of resolution.

6. A player asked if they played The Tree Remembers on their opponent’s Stolen AT-Hauler, can they still play it from the discard pile afterwards?

Resolution: No, The Tree Remembers blanks the unit’s effect.

7. If Blue Leader has been moved to the ground arena, is it considered as a ground unit or space unit?

Resolution: Per CR 4.3.5, it would be considered as a ground unit.

8. If Blue Leader is in the ground arena, would it be defeated if Hyperspace Disaster is played?

Resolution: No.

9. If Blue Leader was on the ground arena and got captured, which arena would it return to when it got freed?

Resolution: It would return to the space arena.

10. When playing LAW 4-LOM, can its effect be applied to itself?

Resolution: Yes.

11. Player A had Queen Amidala and a spy token unit. Player B had an Onyx Squadron Brute. If player B plays Turbolaser Salvo targeting the ground arena, can Player A use Queen Amidala’s effect to prevent damage by defeating the spy token unit?

Resolution: Yes.

12. If a player deploys their JTL Boba leader as a pilot and shows SEC Cinta Kaz from the resource row, can they resolve Cinta Kaz first and then resolve JTL Boba leader’s deploy effect?

Resolution: Yes, the player can choose the order of resolution for their leader deploy effects (if any) and the shown plot cards.

13. If a player has The Daughter and their opponent plays Single Reactor Ignition, can they trigger The Daughter’s effect to heal their base?

Resolution: No, it’d be too late as The Daughter would already be in the discard pile by the time the player takes damage.

14. Player A has The Daughter. Their opponent has JTL Devastator and plays Planetary Bombardment directing the indirect damage to the Player A’s base. Can Player A trigger The Daughter’s effect?

Resolution: Yes. (I’m assuming the confusion is whether indirect damage is the same as damage in this case.)

15. A player asked if the credit token is named for SEC Galen Erso, can Mother Talzin leader’s effect still be used?

Resolution: Yes, because Mother Talzin only cares about the existence of the Force token.

16. Player A has SEC Yularen leader unit and another unit. Their opponent has a ground sentinel. Does the SEC Yularen leader unit need to survive to trigger/resolve its effect so the player can attack with another unit?

Resolution: Yes, it would need to survive.

Context: We both attended the judge call and initially ruled it incorrectly. The HJ looked it up to confirm, and we went back to the table to give the correct ruling. We ended up rewinding a few actions that had occurred in the time since. I think we got a bit too tunnel-visioned with LAW’s new templating system of “Attack ends:” and it specifying whether the unit needs to survive or not that we forgot that the older templating implied the unit surviving. Hopefully, I won’t make this same misruling again in the future >.<.

17. Player A has The Blade Wing and wants to play another The Blade Wing. Can they keep the pre-existing The Blade Wing and still trigger/resolve the new The Blade Wing?

Resolution: Yes. Even if a newly played unit is defeated due to the unique rule, its when played/when defeated effects would still be triggered.

18. Can LAW Rey be damaged by events?

Resolution: Yes

19. A player asked if capture is the same as defeat regarding LAW Rey.

Resolution: No.

20. In a JTL Luke mirror game, a player asked if their Outer Rim Constable can defeat their opponent’s JTL Luke pilot upgrade.

Resolution: No.

20. If a JTL Boba player attacks with their JTL Fett’s Firespray into their opponent’s Victor Leader, can their opponent assign the indirect damage from Fett’s Firespray and JTL Boba leader’s effect onto their Victor Leader and have it deal 2 damage back to JTL Fett’s Firespray?

Resolution: Yes, on-attack occurs before combat damage.

21. Player A’s SEC Galen Erso named Maul. If Player B attacks their LAW Maul into the SEC Galen Erso, would LAW Maul trigger?

Resolution: No, LAW Maul’s effect is blanked during the attack, so when it regained its effect back after SEC Galen Erso is defeated, it would have already missed the timing window to trigger.

22. Random discussion outside of a game: a player, both judges, and another player (who is also an L2 judge) talking about Condemn and how badly it was templated.

Issues Caught When Spectating

1. After resolving Tear This Ship Apart, if a resource card was played, the resource that enters to replace it comes in exhausted.

2. During the regroup phase, a player accidentally knocked off the top few cards of their deck.

Resolution: After confirming there is no known deck information, the player shuffled their deck and offered their opponent to cut afterwards.

3. There is a TIE Fighter token unit with JTL Vader leader pilot. The opponent plays Hold for Questioning on the unit. Both players initially included the green aspect from the JTL Vader leader pilot. I stepped in and we rewound the discarding decision.

4. During the round 2 deck check, one deck was found to have an error with one card mismatching.

Resolution: Game 1 loss issued, decklist revised to match the actual deck.
(The player said they made a last minute change. Please double check your deck and decklist before the event.)

Top Cut Deck Check

1. There was a deck error for one deck:

   1. The decklist says 52 card main deck, but, in reality, it was 51 card main deck.

   2. We think the missing unit card was captured and not returned (they noted that this unit has been captured throughout the Swiss rounds).

   3. HJ issued a judge proxy, so they played Top Cut according to their decklist.

2. For another deck, we found two marked outer sleeves that we attributed to normal wear and tear (one sleeve had a split on the corner, the other sleeve had a marking), so we asked the player to replace them.

Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

• There was an leader alter on the sleeve that only covered the card’s artwork and not the text box. I redirected them to the HJ who ok’d it.

• There were a few proxy 30 HP bases (e.g. Kyber Cup bases), and it was ok’d by the HJ.

• We did deck checks every Swiss round except round 7.

• Three Melee errors that we haven’t seen before:

  • 1. Pairing error as detailed above.

  • 2. From our dashboard, some players’ decklist shows up as “decklist” instead of the usual “<leader> <base>” title. But when clicking into “decklist,” it does show a legal deck. The player’s controller also displays the decklist normally.

  • 3. There was a player whose player controller wasn’t displaying pairing info. From our dashboard, a table is assigned for the player. After their round 1 match results were submitted, their player controller still wasn’t showing any pairing or match details, it was still saying “Waiting on pairing!”.

Conclusion

A new personal record in the most amount of judge questions answered in an event.

Overall, the event went smoothly, considering that we managed with just two judges. Similar to the last PQ I judged (SEC Pasadena), I’ve talked to the HJ about how improper play with plot is still occurring, but not sure how to educate players about it.

As usual, it’s tiring on my feet at the end. I did end up staying until the start of the third round of Top Cut.

About two weeks before the event, the store expressed some concerns with the low pre-registration numbers (it was at ~80 for a while). There are some conflicting PQs on the same day from NorCal and Las Vegas, which meant that players who usually make the trek to play here wouldn’t this time. But I think we still had a good turnout considering the circumstances, matching last Fire & Dice Games’ SEC PQ at 99 players.

Table of Contents

1. 2/07 - Store Showdown at Game Chest Irvine

   1. Deck - SHD Han ECL

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion

2/07 - Store Showdown at Game Chest Irvine

The store’s linktree if you want to join their Discord: https://linktr.ee/thegamechest

Format: 3 or 4 Bo1 pre-sided Swiss rounds (in reality, it was 3 rounds), Top Cut of 4, 12 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/397800

Swiss rounds: Alyssa and I both went 2-1, but Alyssa lost her first round.
Top Cut rounds: I made finals.
My prizing: 5 regular packs + the participation stuff (First Light promo, 1 regular pack, and OP packs). They did give out extra OP packs and raffled out some stuff.

I brought my camera gear, but I didn’t record. I figured that people wouldn’t be that interested in gameplays of this deck again. I actually did prepare to bring a different homebrew deck, but some of the core cards were lent out to a friend and they couldn’t make it to this event at the last minute, so I did a fallback to this deck.

Deck - SHD Han ECL

Basically the same deck from the 1/31 FAD Store Showdown, with a few minor changes:
- 1 SOR R2-D2
- 1 Outflank
+ 1 JTL Poe Dameron
+ 1 Kelleran Beq

Playing into the local meta, I’m further reducing the anti-Cad tech after seeing no Cad decks at the FAD Store Showdown. Though there was a Cad Tarkintown deck at this event, we didn’t get paired up.

My Matchups

Round 1: Vs Thrawn Yellow 1-0

Going into this matchup, I was expecting the deck to be similar to what I’ve seen at Pasadena SEC PQ.

I think I started off with the initiative. Below is what I recall:

• Turn 1: I played LOF Grogu. They played Nightsister Warrior.

• Turn 2: I healed to kill their unit with LOF Grogu. They triggered their Thrawn leader ability to draw two. They passed. I cheated out an K-2SO. They played Unrefusable Offer.

• Turn 3: I attacked with K-2SO. They played Arrest on K-2SO and replayed it onto their side via the bounty. I cheated out Queen Amidala. They attacked into my LOF Grogu with their K-2SO. I healed my Queen Amidala to damage their K-2SO with LOF Grogu. They played JTL Director Krennic. I claimed. K-2SO gets defeated via bounty effect, and they chose for me to discard a card.

• Board state: They had JTL Director Krennic. I had LOF Grogu, Queen Amidala, and two spy tokens.

• Turn 4: I cheated out Crucible, giving an experience to each of my other friendly units. They played Legacy Run. I knew what was going to happen the following turn, but nothing I can do to stop it now. I don’t really remember where their Krennic attacked. I just focused on attacking their base.

• Turn 5: They traded their Legacy Run into my Crucible, double triggering with Thrawn leader effect. It basically wiped my board, leaving only Queen Amidala left.

It seemed as if they were on the verge of stabilizing. But later on, they seemed to have bad draws, as they played JTL Chimaera without any effects to trigger.

In the post-match discussion, I told them that going into this matchup, I was expecting this deck to be similar to the Pasadena PQ list (I told them that they didn’t need to confirm or deny it). They said that it was similar.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 2 General’s Blade
+ 3 Bright Hope

Round 2: Vs SHD Han Blue Force 0-1

I felt that the match wasn’t too close iirc. Chirrut be annoying.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 1 Blue Leader
+ 2 Modded Cohort

Round 3: Vs Qi’ra Data Vault 1-0

They ramped on curve and I actually drew into Cham Syndulla the following turn, but I ended up playing it at like the resource 7 turn just because I had stronger plays beforehand. I wanted to put as much pressure as I could before they can deploy leader into Overwhelming Barrage.

They did the Timely Intervention + LOF Darth Vader combo.

There was one little mishap where they Qi’ra deployed, resolved its effect, and then tried to plot out a SEC Cad Bane to defeat my damaged Queen Amidala. I interjected that they would’ve needed to show their plot card(s) first, because it would’ve change my line of my play of choosing whether to apply Queen Amidala’s effect or not. I retrospectively applied it (sacrificing a spy token to prevent Qi’ra’s damage effect) and their SEC Cad Bane defeated a spy token instead.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 General’s Blade
+ 2 Cham Syndulla

Top Cut of 4

Round 1: Vs Qi’ra Data Vault 1-0 (same player as Round 3)

I think this match played out a little bit better for my opponent compared to our Swiss round match.

They did the Timely Intervention + LOF Darth Vader combo again.

In the post-match discussion, they were telling me how I didn’t play any Fleet Lieutenant during our Swiss match, so they weren’t expecting it. They said that if they knew about it, they would’ve been more diligent about removing my units.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 General’s Blade
- 3 Grogu
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
+ 3 Bright Hope

Round 2: SHD Han Blue Force 0-1 (same player as Round 2)

There were some tough resourcing decisions in this game. During a regroup phase, I was deciding whether to stay at 6 or go up to 7 resources. My ECL was already used, and I had a Timely Intervention in the resource row. My hand was Wrecker, K-2SO, and Karis Nemik. I knew that I really wanted to go up to the 8 resource mark so I can smuggle out Timely Intervention + Wrecker, but if I resourced this turn, I felt that my turn would be a bit lackluster in terms of putting pressure. So I stayed at that resource mark. I’m still not sure if that was a mistake or not in hindsight.

I definitely misplayed where I brainfarted on where to allocate the two damage from Red Five’s “on-attack.” The game got pretty close, they were at around 22 damage by the end of the game.

During the post-match discussion, I told my opponent that I didn’t like this matchup. They told me that they also didn’t like the matchup for them. Internally, I was like “oh lols.”

Tangent: At the start of the game, I told them that I would wait to see if they decide to keep their hand or mulligan before deciding for my hand. They asked why. I responded that they had initiative.

During a regroup phase, I told them I would wait to see if they resource or not before I decide to resource or not. They asked why. I responded that they were the active player.

There is strategic value to be gained knowing if they decide to mulligan or not and if they resource or not as the non-active player. I usually am strict with following the mulligan rules. I’m only strict with the resourcing rules when I feel that they start becoming more relevant, usually later in the game, given that players are almost always going to resourcing in the early game.

Similarly, when I play against known strong players, after sideboarding, I usually would preemptively state my sideboard size. The size of the sideboard is open information. In lower stake events (basically store showdown and below), against other players, I usually specify the exact number of changed cards, such as “I did four in, four out.” Sometimes my opponent responds in kind, sometimes not (I just assume their sideboard size remains unchanged), I don’t really mind for lower stake events.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 1 Blue Leader
+ 2 Modded Cohort

Conclusion

I think I did as expected based on my matchups.

Getting info about the event itself was a bit challenging outside of being part of their Discord. I called the store twice beforehand and they weren’t able to tell me what the format was without the TO (they assumed it would be Bo3, but we learned that it was actually pre-sided Bo1 when we arrived to the event). After talking to the TO, they said they were wanting to improve the communication channel.

Table of Contents

1. 1/31 - Store Showdown at Fire & Dice Games

   1. Deck - SHD Han ECL

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion + Tangent Story Leading Up to the Event

1/31 - Store Showdown at Fire & Dice Games

Format: 5 Bo3 Swiss rounds (in reality, it was 4 rounds; played until there was only one undefeated), Top Cut of 8, 26 players;
http://melee.gg/Tournament/View/398252

Swiss rounds: I went 3-1.
Top Cut rounds: I made finals.
My prizing: 8 regular packs + 3 Carbonite packs + the participation stuff (First Light promo & 2 OP packs).

I brought my camera gear, but I didn’t record. In hindsight, I definitely could’ve set it up, given how much open table space there was. Oh wells.

Also, despite having judged all three PQs that were held at this store, this was my first time playing in an event here. The chairs are too low for me (I’m 5’8”). Normally in these types of situations, I would’ve sat on my backpack for the height boost. However, I had my camera gear so I couldn’t. This practice is nothing new, I’ve done this at previous events with picture proof:

• GC: https://www.lumimouse.com/i/169484887/the-not-so-good-stuff

• Set 2 Vegas PQ: https://www.lumimouse.com/i/150342435/minor-feedback-the-wooden-tables-are-too-tall-for-the-standard-chairs

Deck - SHD Han ECL

Basically the same deck from the 1/24 CBG Store Showdown, with one minor change:
- 1 SOR R2-D2
+ 1 Cham Syndulla

After seeing so few Cad and Tarkintown decks in general from the CBG Store Showdown, I felt that I didn’t need SOR R2-D2 at three copies.

My Matchups

Round 1: Vs JTL Luke Tarkintown 0-2

I knew going into this match that it was going to be rough for me.

I think in both games they had Cinta Kaz for their leader deploy, iirc.

With how many players there were (26), I knew that I couldn’t lose another match to make top cut. I also knew that losing round 1 meant my tiebreakers were going to be 💩, so that was a bit disheartening during the event.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 Grogu
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 3 Wrecker
+ 3 Sundari Peacekeeper
+ 3 Bright Hope

Round 2: Vs Yoda Data Vault 2-0

I knew I was favored going into this matchup, so I wasn’t too worried.

Game 2, they missed their turn 1 play.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 Outer Rim Constable
+ 2 Cham Syndulla

Round 3: Vs Piett Red 2-1

I was really worried going into this matchup as I felt this matchup is basically a 50/50 tossup. With such low interaction in the space arena, I had to hope they draw badly.

Game 3: They whiffed on two The Invisible Hand triggers.

In the post-match discussion, regarding game 3, they said how the first The Invisible Hand trigger sent all of their Overwhelming Barrages to the bottom of the deck.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 Outer Rim Constable
- 3 Grogu
- 3 Red Five?
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
+ 3 Bright Hope
+ 3 Sundari Peacekeeper

Round 4: Vs JTL Boba Data Vault 2-0

One of the games was really close as I had perfect lethal on the last turn.

They played Cinta Kaz; they never played Topple the Summit. They didn’t ramp at all iirc.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 3 Grogu
- 3 Wrecker
- 2 ??
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
+ 3 Bright Hope
+ 3 Sundari Peacekeeper

Top Cut

Round 1: Vs JTL Boba Lake Country 2-0

This player is a subscriber, so that’s pretty cool.

I was quite surprised upon seeing this leader base combo. Them not having the green aspect meant I didn’t have to fear ramp or Overwhelming Barrage.

One thing I realized after this match was that LOF Grogu is actually decent in this matchup. I’m able to allocate so much indirect damage onto it. I didn’t realize this in my Swiss round 4 match (I didn’t have a LOF Grogu start) and had sideboarded it for game 2.

For anyone who is interested, the player posted their decklist on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starwarsunlimited/comments/1qu3mb2/showdown_top_8_boba_lc/

Sideboarding iirc:
- 3 Wrecker
- 5 ??
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
+ 3 Bright Hope
+ 3 Sundari Peacekeeper

Round 2: Qi’ra Red 2-0

This player made a comment how I must be good luck, because they made top cut at this set’s Fire & Dice Games’ PQ when I was judging for it and they made top cut again (at this event) with me there. I was like “oh haha/lols.”

I had spectated this deck prior, so I knew it was a hard control shell (Bounty Hunter Crew + Restock loop).

The main thing I was keeping in mind was that Qi’Ra leader deploy + Topple the Summit would basically clear my board. The only units that would survive would be Queen Amidala (sacrificing an official) and 1 HP units.

They did their leader deploy + Topple the Summit combo both games, but late.

Game 1: I wasn’t able to deal any damage to their base until the resource 5 turn.

Game 2: Being more aware of the combo, I played my Outer Rim Constable for its 1 HP stat. I was also able to get Cham value at least twice when I stopped resourcing, but they kept resourcing. The extra resources from Cham were relevant.

I totally derped in one of the games. I smuggled out my Timely Intervention, thinking that I had a SHD Poe Dameron or Wrecker in my hand to ambush into their leader. I then proceeded to look at my hand and didn’t see either one. So, I just undid it and put Timely Intervention back face down (I didn’t do the smuggle replacement).

Sideboarding iirc:
- 3 Grogu
- 2 General’s Blade
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
+ 3 Bright Hope

Round 3: SHD Han Blue 1-2

Going into this matchup, I felt ok because I knew that I didn’t have to deal with LOF Chirrut. But Village Protectors and SEC Captain Rex were annoying.

In both games where I lost, I didn’t draw into Wrecker. In one of those games, I misresourced a K-2SO, leaving no Aggression aspect for disclosing purposes for the Karis Nemik on board. I got punished for it.

Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Outer Rim Constable
- 1 Cham Syndulla
+ 2 Modded Cohort

Conclusion + Tangent Story Leading Up to the Event

I’m glad I performed as well as I did. Cool to see my friend also making top cut. I was really hoping for them to win their way through top cut so we can play against each other in the finals for the lols.

The tangent story:

So, my friend texted me early in the morning. The event starts at 1PM. I just happened to wake up at ~8AM and saw the message. They were willing to pick up/drop me off.

I was thinking about what deck I could bring, because I lent out several R/L cards out for the Kyber Cup event that was happening at San Diego county that same weekend (3 Karis Nemiks, 2 Queen Amidalas, and 6 K-2SOs).

Kyber Cup was an 80 player community-led event comprising of eight teams, where each of the team captains drafted their players and a heroism/villainy leader aspect (each player on that team must play a leader from those aspects). Kyber Cup Discord: https://discord.gg/H3uwZHgwQE.

At the time, I had SOR Palpatine Colossus, Piett Red, and a slightly gutted SHD Han ECL decks built.

My friend then asked if they can borrow a SOR Palpatine Yellow deck. I told them that I didn’t have any Legacy Runs and they said that they’ll get it from Odyssey Games or Fire & Dice Games. I built the rest of the deck without that card.

I was considering between the already built Piett Red or build a Cad Tarkintown deck. Then I looked at my SHD Han ECL deck again. It turns out I was only missing 1 Karis Nemik in total. I asked my friend to see if Odyssey Games has any of it (they didn’t).

Fire & Dice Games opens at 11AM on Saturdays. At 11:08AM, I called them. They had a regular and prestige foil available. I asked them to hold the regular copy for me. I still brought a Kelleran Beq just in case I couldn’t get my third Karis Nemik.

During the car ride, I asked my friend if they wanted me to sleeve their deck. They said it’s fine. Okie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Our eta was 12:59PM. I messaged Georges (Fire & Dice Games employee / head judge for Fire & Dice Games’ PQs) on Discord to let them know that we may be arriving a bit late just in case. After a while, still no reply, so my friend called the store to let them know that we may be coming late. A familiar voice answered the phone - it was Georges.

• Georges asked: “What’s your friend’s name?”

• My friend replied: “Jerry.”

• Georges asked: “Judge Jerry?”

• My friend replied: “Yeah.”

After the phone call, we both remarked at the “Judge Jerry” part lol.

We basically arrived right at 1PM. Players were already at their seats and shuffling. We were told that we could pay our entries after we finish round 1. The timers had started.

I handed the SOR Palpatine Yellow deck to my friend while I quickly went to go pay for the reserved Karis Nemik. My friend still needed to sleeve their deck. Luckily, they got a round 1 bye, so they be chilling. I swapped Kelleran Beq for the newly bought Karis Nemik and started shuffling for my round 1.

Table of Contents

1. 1/24 - Store Showdown at Cardboard Games

   1. Deck - SHD Han ECL

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion

1/24 - Store Showdown at Cardboard Games

CBGr’s Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/jurassicxbark

Format: 5 Bo3 Swiss rounds, Top Cut of 8, 31 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/398316

Decklists were made public for the top cut rounds.

Swiss rounds: Alyssa went 3-1-1 and I went 4-0-1. We both ID’d our last round.
Top Cut rounds: Alyssa made Top 4 and I made Top 8.

I acted as a sitting judge for this event (allowed for relaxed tier events).
There was only one judge call:

• Can Queen Amidala sacrifice an official unit to prevent indirect damage allocated onto her?

No, indirect damage is unpreventable.

I also did try to pay extra attention to the streamed matches when I had availability.

Deck - SHD Han ECL

Basically the shell of a standard SHD Han ECL deck with more rebel cards. I only playtested vs Sabine ECL and SOR Palpatine Colossus/Blue.

Main thought process on some changes:

• + SOR R2-D2 can serve as an extra body in matchups vs Cad.

• + Outflank, Fleet Lieutenant, and K-2SO may help in the aggro/mirror matchups.

• - Cham Syndulla from main, because I figured the matchup should already be favorable vs decks like Yoda Data Vault.

• - JTL Poe Dameron, Heroic ARC-170, and Guerilla Attack Pod from the deck, because cuts are needed to be made somewhere.

• - SHD Cassian Andor, because I’d rather have the sentinel via LOF Obi-Wan Kenobi. I also wanted the option of Turn 2 General’s Blade.

My Matchups

Round 1: Vs Talzin Yellow Force 2-1

Their debuffing effect caught me a bit off guard when my Queen Amidala was defeated in such manner. I tried to be more aware of it going forward.

Game 2 I made a mistake of not trading my spy token with their Kariss early game. I lowkey forgot about Kariss’s ability until it was too late.

Round 2: Vs JTL Vader Yellow 2-0

I was a bit worried going into this matchup. But I drew well and was able to ECL out a Sabine’s Masterpiece on turn 2 for both games.

I didn’t record this gameplay.

Round 3: Vs SHD Han ECL 2-0

This was a litmus test to see if my changes were better for the mirror or not.

But I had Gungi + General’s Blade start in both games that my opponent couldn’t really overcome, so it’s not really reflective of the typical matchup :/.

Round 4: Vs SHD Han Blue Force 2-0

Game 1 was basically a non-game because my opponent had no answer to my Gungi + General’s Blade iirc.

Round 5: Vs TWI Anakin Data Vault - Intentional Draw

We both were the only 4-0 records. The next best record was 3-1.

We intentionally drew.

Top Cut

Round 1: Vs SHD Han Blue Force (same player from Round 4) 1-2

Similar to my experience at the previous SEC store showdown at Atomic Comics, I only lost to the eventual champion.

Round 2: feat. SHD Han ECL (same player from Round 3) vs SHD Han Blue Force (same player from Round 4) 1-2

Conclusion

With this store showdown over, we now have enough Queen Amidalas.

I think the matchup against SHD Han Blue/Force is a bit rough. Otherwise, I like playing this deck as it does allow me to play with my Queen Amidala and Karis Nemik judge promos.

1. Alliance Outpost Base

2. Multi-Aspect Cards

Alliance Outpost Base

While I don’t think this is a strong base at the moment (I think every base going forward is going to be compared against Data Vault and Colossus), it does open up some interesting deckbuilding creativity with Avar Kriss.

This pairing allows a player to play a 3-drop on turn one, or a 2-drop + experience/shield token.

Here are all of the ≤ 2-drops in this aspect pairing:

Here are all of the 3-drops in this aspect pairing:

Some notable 2 and 3-drops for consideration at the moment imo:

Some turn 1 play examples:

• Jedi Consular with either an experience or shield token can make it resilient for a turn 2 resource cheating.

  • Similar case with GNK Power Droid and Malakili + a token.

• Any 3-drop or a 3/6 via Gungi with an experience token.

• Something like a Loth Wolf + shield token or Lobot + experience token may hinder an aggro deck.

Multi-Aspect Cards

Thought #1: I feel that multi-aspect cards “restrict” deckbuilding creativity. Look at this particular <Aspect 1><Aspect 2><maybe heroism/villainy> card, I wonder what aspect pairing I’m going to go with if I want to play it 🤔?

Thought #2a: I don’t think the common bases alone are enough to support the multi-aspect payoff cards.

Thought #2b: The revealed payoff cards so far are not worth the deckbuilding requirement.

There are two approaches from a deckbuilding perspective:

• Approach #1: The above multi-aspect payoff cards are the ones not in-aspect with the leader/base aspect pairing (e.g. a Red/Blue/Heroism deck playing Ezra Bridger).

  • Pros: It’s much easier to trigger as the player most likely will have abundant conditional units existing on the board.

  • Cons: If there are no conditional units present, the payoff card would be off-aspect if it’s played.

• Approach #2: The above multi-aspect payoff cards are the ones in-aspect to the leader/base aspect pairing (e.g. a Blue/Green/Heroism deck with Ezra Bridger playing few off-aspect red unit(s)).

  • Cons: It’s harder to trigger as it requires drawing and playing the off-aspect conditional unit, and then have it survive to play the payoff card.

  • Pros: Even without the payoff effect, the card can still be played in-aspect.

I’m assuming most decks will be built following Approach #1, just because of how hard it is to get the conditional unit to survive in Approach #2.

We’ve seen decks where players are even willing to hard cast off-aspect cards just for one payoff card, such as LOF Anakin Skywalker with Force Lightning and/or Power of the Dark Side in heroism decks. (LOF Kylo Ren leader doesn’t even need to hard cast heroism cards to enable the payoff).

LOF Anakin Skywalker probably follows more closely to Approach #2 where this payoff card is in-aspect to the deck and the off-aspect conditional card is what needs to be sought out for. However, this unit is very much playable without the additional -3/-3 payoff effect and it also doesn’t have a base “restriction,” unlike these multi-aspect payoff cards so far.

Some deckbuilding questions to ask:

1. How good are these payoff cards without the payoff?

   1. I think Ezra Bridger is playable without its payoff effect, the others seem pretty meh imo.

2. Is it worth going with the 27 HP common base over Data Vault or Colossus?

Conclusion

Like most early impression type content, we’ll see how it turns out when the full set is revealed/released.

Compared to SEC’s 256 card pool, we’ve seen about 19% of LAW so far (excluding common bases).

[Credit to a fellow CBG’r who helped looked over this and gave their input.]

Table of Contents

1. 2026/01/03 - Odyssey Games

   1. Quick Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. Judging Staff

      2. The Good Stuff

      3. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   2. Some of the Judge Calls/Rulings

      1. Simple/Straightforward

      2. More Complicated

   3. Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

2. Conclusion

2026/01/03 - Odyssey Games

Format: Bo3, 7 Swiss rounds, 114 players, Top Cut to 8 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/383341

Alyssa went 4-3, placing 39th.

Side Note of the Event Itself

For context, this is the third PQ that Odyssey Games has hosted. The prior two PQ events went smoothly from the player perspective. So, I had high expectations going into this event.

Judging Staff

• 1 HJ + 4 total floor judges (two of whom came mid-event)

The Good Stuff:

• Prizing structure was known ahead of time.

• Pizza provided for lunch! 🍕

• Three clean restrooms.

• Raffles: Two booster boxes & one Carbonite box.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• Dang, what a bumpy start to the event. Here’s the general timeline:

  • As a judge, I was informed to show up at 9AM (10AM is the scheduled round 1 start). However, the store didn’t open until ~9:45AM, so everyone was just gathering outside beforehand. I’m pretty sure this was the store’s fault, but idk.

  • The tables and chairs weren’t setup. Shortly after the store was open, the HJ and someone else came back with Home Depot’s tables and chairs. People started helping stack the wargaming tables at the back of the room.

    

  • There weren’t enough table numbers, so we (the judges + a volunteer spectator) helped write them on blank paper. There also weren’t enough stands, so I taped the remaining numbers to the table.

    

  • Though considering all of the setbacks, we handled them pretty well and we ended up starting round 1 at 10:30AM.

• There were no round timers. There were several judge calls that were just asking for the remaining time (this is especially relevant in a Data Vault / control meta).

• The participation packs were passed out early in the event, but the PQ participation promo (Galen Erso) wasn’t passed out until later to the point that some dropped players may have missed them.

• It was also very apparent how short-staffed we were for how much was being done. There were delays in between some rounds caused by the HJ handling the payments for selling singles and, later on, handling the payments for side events. There were times where I was waiting for the HJ to be available so I could inform them that we were ready to pair for the next round (after checking that every match has been reported). There were a few times where I reminded the HJ to start the round timer.

  • These were things that I didn’t really have to be aware of when I judged for the Northridge and Redlands PQs.

  • In hindsight, I/another judge could’ve stepped up and handled some of these processes without the HJ. Now I know for future events.

Some of the Judge Calls/Rulings

Simple/straightforward:

1. Scenario: Player A’s SOR Luke Skywalker debuffed Player B’s unit that also had a buff that lasted until the end of phase. What happens?

Answer: Because both debuff and buff expire at the end of the phase, they fall off at the same time regardless of who has the initiative. If the unit still has >0 HP afterwards, it survives.

2. Scenario: Player B’s Unrefusable Offer is on Player A’s Kelleran Beq.

   1. If Player A plays another Kelleran Beq, what happens to the bounty?

      1. Answer: The unique rule would come into effect. If Player A defeats the bountied Kelleran Beq, Player B would be able to claim the bounty.

   2. Player B plays Arrest on the bountied Kelleran Beq, what happens?

      1. Answer: Player B’s base would capture the bountied Kelleran Beq, then Player B has the option to claim the bounty which would allow them to play Kelleran Beq and its “When Played” would trigger.

3. Scenario: Player A has taken control of Player B’s Stolen AT-Hauler. It gets defeated. Does Player A have to choose Player B?

Answer: Yes.

4. Scenario: Does a unit being captured enable Yoda leader’s effect?

Answer: Yes, a unit being captured is treated as leaving play.

5. Scenario: Player A has an existing JTL Devastator. They want to play another JTL Devastator, but wants to keep the existing JTL Devastator.

Answer: Yup, they’re allowed to do that. They can play the second JTL Devastator, defeat the newly played one, and still resolve its “When Played” effect.

6. Scenario: Player A played TWI Cad Bane capturing Player B’s unit and a unit that was stolen by Player B’s SOR Palpatine leader unit’s effect. Player B played No Glory, Only Results on the TWI Cad Bane. What happens to the captured units?

Answer: Captured units return to their respective owner.

7. Scenario: Yoda player overdrew by 1 card during the regroup phase.

Answer: Determine what is known deck info, such as via Yoda leader’s effect of sending cards to the bottom of the deck, set that aside. Yoda player reveals their hand, opponent selects one card to be shuffled back to the deck, then put any set aside cards back, if any.

Warning issued to the player.

8. Scenario: Player A’s Fireball with a JTL Chewbacca pilot was Traitorous’d. Player A wanted to know how the interaction worked if they played Bamboozle on it.

Answer: Bamboozle would first exhaust the unit, then return both the JTL Chewbacca pilot and Traitorous back to their respective owner’s hand. This would mean that Fireball would return to Player A’s side of the field.

Sidenote: A thing players should be aware of is that they can speak to the judge away from the table if they don’t want to reveal any strategic information. When I first approached this call, my opponent was whispering and pointing to a card in their hand. I asked them if they wanted to talk away from the table and we did so.

9. Scenario: SHD Han player asked what the interaction was if they used the leader’s effect when playing Itinerant Warrior.

Answer: The 2 dmg would resolve first, then comes the shield, so it’d be a shielded 4/2 unit.

10. Scenario: Player A deployed their leader and played Tala Durith via plot. Does the leader get hidden as well?

Answer: Yes, the leader also gets the benefit of hidden.

11. Scenario: [There were at least two judge calls relating to this.]

    Player A controls Val and Lurking TIE Phantom. If Val gets defeated, can the bounty’s 3 damage be used to defeat the Lurking TIE Phantom?

Answer: No, because even though the bounty is on a friendly unit to Player A, the bounty is regarded as an enemy ability.

Sidenote: I initially gave the wrong ruling to the first judge call on this situation, but luckily the other judge was there to correct me. I looked it up to verify and I can recall reading about this interaction before, but I had forgotten about it.

12. [This was caught on the recording table.]

    Scenario: I saw a player deploy their leader and showed Sudden Ferocity. They equipped it to one of their units. Then they proceeded to show another plot card.

    1. This is when I stepped in saying how they can’t show and resolve any more plot cards, because they missed the timing window.

Sidenote: Another judge was watching and we talked about it away from the table afterwards. I mentioned how some players don’t seem to know how plot works - specifically that the player must show all plot cards first and then choose whether to resolve them or not. The other judge responded saying how the reason could be that players treat as smuggle, so they trigger/resolve one at a time. But the issue is that I feel that this gameplay error can easily go unreported, but idk how to educate players better about this.
This error also occurred in one of FAD SEC PQ gameplay videos (see the chapters):

More Complicated:

1. [This happened in a game I was spectating when walking by.]

   Scenario: Sabe player has an SOR Millennium Falcon. I saw no exhausted resource and they did an action.

   1. I asked if they paid the Falcon tax. They responded no.

   2. At this point, technically they missed the timing window so it should be returned back to hand. However, I wanted to see if there was any leeway in this situation, so I asked some additional questions:

      1. The Sabe player had initiative and they did the first action of the phase. This means that the opponent hasn’t done any actions yet, so the presence of the SOR Millennium Falcon has no influence on the opponent.

      2. I asked the opponent if their resourcing decision was influenced at all by SOR Millennium Falcon. They responded no.

      3. Then I proposed the resolution of letting the Sabe player to decide to pay the tax or return it back to hand. Both players agreed to it.

I issued a warning to the Sabe player for inaccurate mandatory ability infraction.

2. [This happened during a deck check.]

   A player’s deck had four Snowtrooper Lieutenant (should’ve been three) and missing one Shuttle ST-149 (should’ve been two).

   1. The player was called over and I explained the situation to them.

   2. After removing the extra Snowtrooper Lieutenant, the deck size was 49 cards. To repair this, I had the player roll two D6 dice to randomly select a card from their 10 card side deck (any dice roll above 10 is a reroll). I edited their deck list and the randomly selected card was now part of their main deck going forward for the rest of the event.

I issued them a game one loss.

3. Player A deployed their SEC Cassian leader, didn’t say anything and reached for their resources and showed a Sudden Ferocity. During this timeframe, Player B played LOF Anakin Skywalker.

   1. At some point after the Player B’s unit being played, Player A also showed a Cinta Kaz via plot.

   2. I asked if there was a pause between Player A deploying their leader and Player B playing their unit. Player B said that there wasn’t a “long pause.” But it didn’t seem to me like it was a snap play.

   3. At this point, I felt that this was a “he said, she said” situation, so I called the other floor judge for help. Away from the table, we ended up agreeing to rewind back to the leader deploy action.

   4. I recommended to both players to better communicate next time to prevent these types of situations.

I issued a warning to both players. This was probably the hardest judge call I’ve ever had to deal with due to how fuzzy the situation was.

4. [This happened in a game I was spectating when walking by.]

   During the regroup phase, a Yoda player accidentally picked up three cards, and placed the third card back on top of the deck. They made no mention of it.

   1. I was able see what aspect the third card has, so I was suspicious of the player catching a glimpse of the card as well. So, I was a bit stunned when they made no mention of it and I was just thinking about how to bring it up.

   2. I asked if they saw what the top card was. They responded no.

   3. Now, I was considering whether to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I ended up stepping in again, explained to both players what I saw. I wanted to shuffle the card just to be on the safe side.

   4. We determined the known deck info (bottom four cards were known via Yoda’s leader effect) and set those aside. I had the player shuffle their deck and returned the set aside cards back.

I issued a warning to the player.

Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

• I didn’t see anyone use proxy leaders/bases.

• An early judge call was made. As I approached the table, I saw that it involved Alyssa, so I asked the other floor judge to take the call. I wanted to avoid any perception of bias/conflict of interest.

• We did deck checks every round.

• IIRC there was a round where it had to be re-paired due to Melee dropping a player for some reason.

• Players got to read the Melee listing, all of the info is there 😩:

  • Multiple players asked me if there was going to be a lunch break. I told them that there were no designated lunch break, but feel free to confirm with the HJ.

  • Multiple players asked me what the prizing was. I either referred them to check the Melee page or showed them on my phone.

Conclusion

This is now my 5th PQ that I’ve judged at. Despite the challenges, they were good learning opportunities in that they helped prepare me in case something similar happens in future events.

Basically, a copy paste of my previous PQ judging Substack posts:
Overall, I appreciate being given the privilege of judging a PQ and the store allowing me to record both the gameplays as well as the 360° footage.

It was quite tiring on my feet (as expected).

Answering card ruling questions is easy, but questions regarding policies are a bit harder.

Pretty fun experience seeing familiar and new faces all gathered in one spot, I learned a lot, would do it again.

Doing a plug for someone from CBG who got me these pins, their social https://www.instagram.com/riot_dolls_:

Reran the scraping code early Jan 2026. SEC numbers are lower than TWI across the board so far:
https://github.com/jerrylshen/melee.gg-scraper/tree/main/StarWarsUnlimited

Table of Contents

1. 12/28 - Store Showdown at Atomic Comics

   1. Deck - Piett Red

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion

12/28 - Store Showdown at Atomic Comics

Format: 5 Bo3 Swiss rounds, Top Cut of 8, 17 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/392302

In the Swiss rounds, Alyssa went 2-3. I went 4-0-1. I then got eliminated in the first round of Top Cut.

Deck - Piett Red

I was expecting the Data Vault decks (Yoda and Anakin), so that’s why I brought Piett Red thinking that it’s more favorable. I was also expecting SOR Han and Vader Yellow, so that’s why I was main decking 1 copy of Eager Escort Fighter.

I really like SEC Chancellor Palpatine as a card and wanted to try it. I ended up playing it a total of one time in round 3.

My Matchups

Round 1: Vs SOR Luke Data Vault 2-1

I’ve only playtested my deck vs Alyssa’s Sabine ECL, so this is my first time actually going up these Data Vault decks that I imagined myself to be favorable against. Uhhhh it’s still a lot closer of a matchup than what I was expecting.

I also made an illegal gameplay error in this round, so I’m giving myself the cat in the thumbnail :(.

Round 2: Vs SHD Han ECL 2-1

SHD Han ECL goes brrrrrrr. Tough matchup imo, but that’s pretty typical vs aggro.

Also, cool to see my opponent be cool with the camera and making faces so I can get some interesting thumbnails haha.

Round 3: Vs Piett Red 2-0

Assuming my opponent has the more standard list, I knew that I was already at a slight disadvantage in terms of late game (typical Piett Red lists run 2 SOR Devastators, I was only main decking one). But outside of that difference, I went into this matchup with the mindset that it’s just going to be 50/50 chance of either of us being the victor.

Round 4: Vs Yoda Data Vault 2-1

My opponent had a horrible start for game 1, so I don’t count that as a true win. Tough matchup, they had a lot of removal.

Round 5: Vs SHD Han Blue Force - Intentional Draw

I was the only undefeated going into round 5 and my opponent had the next best record at 3-0-1. We ended up ID’ing. I used the time to get a burrito from across the street.

Alyssa played at the recording table, but she performed meh (lost vs the eventual champion) and she didn’t want me to post her gameplay.

Top Cut

Round 1: Vs SHD Han ECL 1-2 (different player from Round 2)

Now having an idea of how fast this deck can be from my Swiss round 2, I was most worried about this matchup. I drew pretty suboptimally in both games I lost in, where I keep drawing the desired cards a turn too late (e.g. drawing into ramp on turn 3). Oh well, that’s how variance be sometimes. At least I only lost to the eventual champion.

Conclusion

I’m still looking for my playset of Queen Amidalas, so I’m looking to try to perform well at future store showdowns.

Next major event is judging for Pasadena PQ at Odyssey Games, so be on the lookout for the usual judge writeup + gameplay recordings (with hopefully less drama, looking at FAD PQ round 4 gameplay…👀).

Table of Contents

1. 2025/12/13 - Fire & Dice Games

   1. Quick Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. The Good Stuff

      2. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   2. Judging Staff

   3. Some of the Judge Calls

      1. Simple/Straightforward

      2. More Complicated

      3. Games I Was Watching

   4. Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

2. Conclusion

• Thanks to FAD for letting me record gameplays and this timelapse footage.

2025/12/13 - Fire & Dice Games

Format: Bo3, 7 Swiss rounds, 99 players, Top Cut to 8 players;
https://melee.gg/tournament/view/376751

Alyssa went 4-3, placing 37th.

Side Note of the Event Itself

This PQ event experience was overall great and went pretty smoothly.

The Good Stuff:

• The same good stuff as last time.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• [Nitpicky] I know it’s the norm, but a dedicated lunch time may be good. But realistically, no not-so-good stuff at this event. The schedule was known ahead of time via the Melee page.

Judging Staff

• Head Judge (HJ): Georges (the one in the FAD jersey)

• Floor Judge 1 (FJ1): Me (GC shirt)

• Floor Judge 2 (FJ2): Daniel (Francisco from the previous two FAD PQs couldn’t make it)

Some of the Judge Calls

Simple/straightforward:

1. Scenario: Player A’s GNK Power Droid has Player B’s Bounty Hunter’s Quarry. If Player A plays SOR Bright Hope bouncing the GNK Power Droid back to hand, what happens to the bounty?

Answer: The bounty upgrade would fall off and go to the discard zone, and Player B can’t claim the bounty.

2. Player A’s Regional Governor called out Home One. Player B plays Traitorous on Regional Governor. Does Regional Governor still affect Player B?

Answer: Yes, as long the Regional Governor is in play the effect is still active, regardless of who is controlling it.

3. If Player A’s HK-47 were to trade with another unit where both would be defeated, would HK-47’s effect trigger to deal 1 damage?

Answer: Yes.

4. Player A had three units. Player B plays IG-2000 choosing to damage two specific units. Can they do that or does it have to be three units?

Answer: It’s “up to 3 units,” so Player B is allowed to do that.

5. Player A plays Traitorous on the opponent’s Cobb Vanth. Cobb Vanth later gets defeated. Who gets the effect?

Answer: Player A as they were the last one who controlled it.

6. Player A plays Bazine Netal and discards a card. Player B has an empty deck. Do they still “draw” and take 3 damage?

Answer: Yes.

7. Does Open Fire damage JTL Chewbacca?

Answer: Yes.

4. Player A accidentally drew seven cards for their starting hand and saw them.

Answer: Player A does a forced mulligan. Mulligan error, warning issued.

More Complicated:

1. During the regroup phase, Player A accidentally knocked down a few cards to the floor. Player A went to pick them up, but their hand cards also went below the table. Player A claimed to not have seen the dropped cards.

   1. Player B was unable to confirm what hand size Player A had going into the regroup phase.

   2. Player B was unable to confirm how many cards were knocked off the deck onto the floor.

   3. Player B was worried about the possibility that cards may have been swapped when Player A went down to pick up the dropped cards.

Resolution: After confirming how many draw effects have happened to each player, we were able to figure out the expected cards Player A should have in total (field + resource row + discard zone + hand). It was two cards that had fallen. Because the cards between the three cards in hand and the two fallen cards couldn’t be distinguished, all five cards were revealed. Player B selected two of them to be shuffled back into the deck.

Hidden card manipulation error, warning issued to Player A.

2. Player A misheard Player B saying “scoop” when in reality they said “shoot” (in the context of Tarkintown afaik). So, Player A started putting their card hand and discard pile face down ontop of the resource row.

   1. Player B is unable to confirm what cards belonged to the hand, resource row, discard zone.

Resolution:

• After some discussion, both players were able to agree to the contents of the discard pile.

• Both players agreed to the number of resources, because Player A had just played SEC Bo-Katan Kryze using all of their resources (nine).

• Both players agreed that Player A’s hand contained at least one SOR Home One due to it being Waylay’d.

• The only unknown is the distribution between the resources and the card hand. So, all of Player A’s face down cards are revealed. An SOR Home One is set aside designated for the hand. Player B chose nine cards to be the resource row and the remaining cards + the SOR Home One will be Player A’s new hand.

Hidden card manipulation error, warning issued to Player A.

Games I Was Watching:

1. A player’s partner was massaging them during the game. I alerted the HJ about it and they asked the partner to stop the hand contact during game.

2. Owen Lars’ missed trigger.

3. Wrong amount of resources paid for Timely Intervention + LOF Darth Vader (underpaid by one, but the player did still have enough resources available).

4. Missed 1 damage ping from Cad Bane leader’s triggered effect.

5. Missing two experience tokens for Blue Leader’s “When Played” effect.

Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

• A player had a shadow boxed 30HP base. The HJ made an exception.

• A player asked if intentional draws were still allowed. I said yes.

• No players in prior PQs have ever approached me about these issues:

  • Two players came up to me to fix their misreported match records. I wasn’t sure if the employees behind the counter knew how to work Melee, so I just did it for them (I have judge access to the Melee event starting the morning of).

  • One player came up to me to drop. I told them that they can drop themselves via their player controller.

Conclusion

I had the most amount of judge calls (15 judge calls, 4 event-related questions/situations) recorded in my notebook this event compared to any of my prior PQ judging experiences. Just to clarify, this doesn’t mean that I was the one to give the rulings, but I was at least involved in it.

One good thing that I’ve noticed is that players were more consistently keeping their arms raised. There was no judge call where I had trouble finding who called for it.

Basically, a copy paste of my previous PQ judging Substack posts:
Overall, I appreciate given the privilege of judging a PQ and the store allowing me to record both the gameplays as well as the 360° footage.

It was quite tiring on my feet (as expected).

Answering card ruling questions is easy, but questions regarding policies are a bit harder.

Anyways, pretty fun experience, I learned a lot, would do it again.

• GitHub repo: https://github.com/jerrylshen/melee.gg-scraper (go here for the charts, code, and data output)

Some Behind the Scenes Info

Technical:

• I actually thought of this back in 2025/03 in the SWU Community Discord (https://discord.com/channels/1079526508688847078/1202655318019018783/1352391128900436049) in the context of FFG’s slides of their player base and social media presence.

  

• And so, I went off to make this scraper and got my first output in 2025/04. Having made multiple scrapers in prior work experience, this wasn’t too challenging for me.

  

  • However, my initial code was displaying players based on their last active date. I later realized that wasn’t a good way to display the data. I also scraped for Lorcana off Melee.gg to get some numbers for comparison’s sake in 2025/05. The next time I re-ran the scraper for SWU was 2025/07 and I changed the code to display the “Total Plays” and “Unique Players” that we have today.

• In the beginning, I shared this info with a select few. I contemplated whether or not to share this data publicly. I decided not to, because I feared something like this being viewed as a no-no from FFG as I was trying to join their content creator program at the time. But now that I’m officially part of the creator program (I wasn’t given any guidance nor signed any forms, but I did get a SEC package, so…¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and after seeing Veiled Shot’s video, I’ve decided to clean up my code and share it fully. Now I fear Melee changing up their website to deter this.

• At this point, the code should be complete/stable.

• Tangent: I also started making a SWU scanner back in 2024/09 to limited success (video is an early version). But I pretty much gave up on it after thinking there may not be much demand for it. Anyways, later on, someone released HoloScan.

Video:

• This was my first on-screen + screensharing video for my YT channel, so there definitely was some learning experience.

  • Though it’s pretty obvious that I’m just reading off a script, having a thorough script is better than me having several pauses throughout the video. My first take was about ~12min long (though it did contain excess info that I ended up cutting as I didn’t think it was too relevant/interesting).

• I did about 3 complete takes prior the published take. The main issue with the initial takes was that they were too lightly scripted.

• I now have a workflow process for this:

  • Recording software: OBS

  • Teleprompter: https://cueprompter.com on my phone on a stand right in front of my monitor. Though now I just paste the script on Stickies (MacOS app, but it’s basically Notepad) and having that window always be on top.

  • Make sure Fi is visible in the background. If she isn’t already on the couch, bribe her with kibble.

    

• I had thought the 5min video would have pretty good view duration for the short attention span viewer, or at least Fi may keep the viewers engaged, but…ehhh

Reception:

In addition to posting the video onto YouTube, I’ve also shared it to Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/starwarsunlimited/comments/1phxbm0/examining_meleegg_data_star_wars_unlimited_vs/

There were a few comments where people expressed exhaustion from seeing these types of posts, which I understand, but I literally have hard data that no one else is talking about. The few other “Is SWU Dying?” videos/posts that I’ve seen are more localized/anecdotal. So, that was a bit frustrating, but oh wells.

My other financial impact prediction post had a much better reception though: https://www.reddit.com/r/starwarsunlimited/comments/1pl31wt/summary_predicting_the_financial_impact_of_the/

• My TCGPlayer link to support: https://partner.tcgplayer.com/LumiMouse

• I posted on Reddit if you want to read other peoples’ comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/starwarsunlimited/comments/1pl31wt/summary_predicting_the_financial_impact_of_the/

Table of Contents:

• TL;DR of Changes

  • Both Regular and Carbonite Packs

  • Regular Pack Specific

  • Carbonite Pack Specific

• Predicted Impact

2025/12/10 Booster Pack Changes Livestream:

Associated Article: https://starwarsunlimited.com/articles/a-shift-from-what-was

TL;DR of Changes:

Both Regular and Carbonite Packs:

• No more regular foils in packs.

Regular Pack Specific:

• Non-foil Prestige (tier 1) are also in regular packs.

• Increased HS/HSF pull rates for Rares and Legendaries.

Carbonite Pack Specific:

• Some serialized Prestiges will be out of /100 or /50 instead of the usual /250.

• Showcases will be ~2.4x harder to pull in Carbonite.

Another change post-LAW: Rare bases will show up in the base slot.

Predicted Impact:

• With foils effectively being replaced by HS/HSF, this means that players looking to buy the generally cheaper variants of Rares/Legendaries will shift to the regular/HS/HSF market.

  • Regular/HS/HSF card prices of Rares/Legendaries ⬇

• Non-foil Prestige value will be dampened ⬇

• Serialized Prestige (Tier 3) value ⬆

• Showcase value ⬆

Regarding boxes…

• Value of regular boxes ⬆

  • Increased R/L pull rates and chance for non-foil Prestige.

  • Indirectly: Showcase value goes up due to decreased supply.

• Value of Carbonite boxes ⬇

  • The reduced serialized numbering should increase the value of a serialized Prestige, but I don’t think there are enough of collectors in this game for this reduction to be impactful. The serialization population is too high.

    • SEC has 43 Prestige cards, so that’s 43 * 250 = 10,750 serialized cards.

    • Napkin Math: If we assume that ~25% (15) of next set’s 43 (assumption) Prestiges are going to be /100, then that means:

      • 28 * 250 = 7,000 serialized cards

      • 15 * 100 = 1,500 serialized cards

      • Total: 8,500 serialized cards (still too high imo)

  • The reduced showcase pull rate lowers the expected value.

  • Indirectly: Non-foil Prestige value goes down due to increased supply.

Overall, I think this update is good. Regular foils has generally been the least sought after variant, so I commend the bold move to completely remove the regular foils.

Regular boxes should be a priority, not Carbonite boxes, so I like the changes. However, I don’t see how Carbonite boxes can be priced anywhere close to MSRP with their showcase pull rates being reduced. The increased amount of HS and HSF Commons/Uncommons isn’t worth much.

Table of Contents

1. 2025/09/20 - Top Choice Gaming (and Photo Dump)

   1. Quick Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. The Good Stuff

      2. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   2. Judging Staff

   3. Some of the Judge Calls

   4. Games I Was Watching

   5. Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

2. Conclusion

• Thanks to Top Choice Gaming for letting me record gameplays and this timelapse footage.

2025/09/20 - Top Choice Gaming (and Photo Dump)

Format: Bo3, 7 Swiss rounds, 102 players (it says 110, but 8 were dropped prior to the event), Top Cut to 8 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/347374

Alyssa went 4-3, placing 39th.

I really wanted to play given the low $25 entry price and I felt pretty comfortable playing Cad Tarkintown this set, but I also really wanted to judge PQs to meet my L2 judging eligibility. So, I went with the latter.

In addition to the standard PQ prizing, the prizing was:

• 1st-8th: 1 box

• 9th-16th: 12 packs

Fellow SWU content creator, Daniel, from SD played as well. Here’s his PQ perspective post on his Substack (https://ecomodegames.substack.com/p/the-redlands-lotf-pq)":

ecomode games

The Redlands LotF PQ

Hi everyone, welcome back to the blog. I know, I’ll be the first to ask: huh, this isn’t limited content? Indeed! Friend of the Stack Paul reached out to me a week before the PQ and told me there were a few spots that opened up. Having not been able to attend a store showdown the week prior, I thought I’d sign up and play in the PQ this week. So, Huamin…

Read more

7 months ago · 3 comments · Daniel

Side Note of the Event Itself

This PQ event experience was overall not comfortable, but the store did its best given the situation.

The Good Stuff:

• The time in between rounds was pretty minimal. The store owner and head judge were pretty on top of making sure that completed matches had their records reported toward the end of the given round.

• The table play space surface area was good and the seats were cushioned.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• The venue was very warm. One of the AC units wasn’t functioning, so multiple large fans were used, but it was still pretty warm. From the above timelapse video, you can see that players exited the room after they finished their games.
  Not comfy.

  • Water bottles were given out for free. I had one player ask me to get them water.

  • I saw some players wiping their sweat while playing.

    

• The round timer was on one single monitor. Some tables didn’t have a good line of sight to it. There were a few players asking how much time was left.

• Prizing wasn’t announced until during the event itself.

• The change of start time (from 12PM to 10AM) wasn’t communicated well. They posted the change on their Instagram and on their Discord (and this was after being asked about it on their Discord), but not everyone checks their socials. Though the change is reflected on the Melee page itself, players don’t usually check that after registering until submitting the deck list. Not sure what actions the store could’ve taken aside from emailing every player individually via Melee.

• Lighting was inconsistent. You can see from the gameplays (soon™️) how not well lit it is. One of the rounds, I noticed a player had their phone propped against a wall with its flashlight on.

Judging Staff

• Head Judge (HJ): Jeremy (one of the two L2 judges in California!)

• Floor Judge 1 [FJ1]: Me

There was supposed to be another floor judge, but they never showed up, so…¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The store owner, Dio, helped with the Melee stuff and deck checks. Luckily, in terms of the judging experience, this event went pretty smoothly, it went more smoothly than either of my FAD PQs’ experience.

Some of the Judge Calls

1. Player A asked if Yoda (TWI) leader effect is enabled if a unit was captured earlier in the same phase.

Answer: Yes, per CR 1.34.1, “A captured card leaves play when captured…”

2. Player A asked what the interaction was between indirect damage and shields.

Answer: Indirect damage bypasses shields, so if any indirect damage is placed on a shielded unit, the shield would still remain.

3. Player A called judge to confirming that if a Phase-III Dark Trooper was attacking into a unit that the damage it took counts as combat damage, because player B wasn’t sure.

Answer: Yes.

4. Player A called judge and said that a spectator was talking to Player B. No specifics were mentioned, so I just asked the spectator to not disturb the game. After the event, Player A told me how the spectator was looking through Player B’s sideboard and was commentating on the game before they called for a judge.

5. [Not a judge call, but this was a big enough deal that I’m putting it in this section] When doing a deck check, one of the decks had marked outer sleeves. About a fourth or fifth of the sleeves had severe dents, while the remaining sleeves were clean or had very minor dents. When I noticed this, I immediately called the HJ over.

   1. Giving the player the benefit of the doubt, we assumed it was just wear and tear, given that the cards with the marked sleeves seemed random. The player did have some extra outer sleeves and we replaced the severely marked outer sleeves. But we didn’t want to delay their games any further, so the player was told to replace the sleeves before the next round.

   2. This was a mistake/bad assumption on our part, but because the player was using an out-of-print art sleeves, we assumed the player wouldn’t want to play with the art sleeves naked. It turned out that the player didn’t care that much and later just took off all of the outer sleeves.

Games I Was Watching:

1. The player had six (iirc) readied resources, and they smuggled out a Cassian Andor (SHD). Both players were a bit confused about the correct number of resources that should be readied/exhausted.

   1. Because the smuggle card can pay for itself, there should be one resource readied after smuggling it out.

2. Miscellaneous missed stuff:

   1. Mandatory effects: Restores, Guavian Antagonizer’s bounty, and HK-47.

   2. Miscalculations of base damage.

3. An Ackbar Data Vault player resolved Greedo’s effect, even though their opponent’s ground arena is empty and they still had a friendly ground unit. The effect missed, so no damage was dealt.

   1. After the game, I spoke with the player and mentioned how it’s a “may” effect, and if the effect did hit, the damage is mandatory, so it would’ve hit their own unit.

4. Player A played Traitorous on a Player B’s unit. Player B was asking Player A if the upgrade is removed, would the unit return as exhausted or readied. Player A responded saying how if the captured is returned, it comes back exhausted.

   1. When I heard that, I decided to step in to clarify that the card is taking control, not capturing. So, if the upgrade is removed, the unit would be returned in the same readied/exhausted state it was in at the time of the upgrade removal.

5. I saw a proxy leader being used (it’s like one of those custom ones that can be found on Etsy). I brought this up to the HJ, and he came over to see it. To the player’s benefit, they did ask their opponent (who was fine with it) beforehand and they did have a legitimate copy of the leader visible on the table.

   1. The HJ asked the player to use the real copy.

   2. For additional context, the cards that make up a deck have to be legitimate. Tokens are an exception to this rule.

6. This was the last game of a given round, so both the HJ and I (along with other players) were spectating. Player A played Bounty Hunter Crew, returning an event from their discard pile to their hand. However, they said that they didn’t have to reveal it and that the opponent can look through the discard pile to figure out what is missing. The HJ stepped in and explained that the card must be revealed. The player complied.

7. Player A had three units, including a Ki-Adi-Mundi (TWI). Player B played their second card for the phase, Luke Skywalker (SOR), defeating a Player A’s unit. Player A stated that they’re going to resolve Ki-Adi-Mundi’s effect and proceeded to do so. Player B objected. Player A said that’s how it works, and said that they can ask the judge.

   1. At that point, I stepped in agreeing with Player A. Because the moment Luke Skywalker is played, Ki-Adi-Mundi’s effect is triggered, so it’s going to still resolve, regardless if Luke Skywalker defeated one of the three Player A’s units or not.

8. [This is one that I missed at the time of, and only realized/discovered after the fact when talking to Player A] Player B plays Force Lighting, targetting Player A’s Regional Governer, which had called Devastator. Later in the same phase, Player B plays Devastator (JTL).

   1. Player B shouldn’t have been able to play Devastator.

   2. This is because Regional Governor creates a lasting effect that only cares if the unit is still in play or not. As such, Force Lightning “blanking” Regional Governor doesn’t actually blank this lasting effect.

Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

• There were random deck checks that happened throughout the Swiss rounds, I helped in that and gave time extensions accordingly.

• A player asked me about prizing, I redirected them to ask the store.

• There was only one late player and they arrived within 5 minutes of the event’s start time (players who didn’t check in were dropped).

• Starting around round 5, because there were fewer players left in the event, the HJ started spacing out the tables.

Conclusion

Very few judge calls in general. It was a very unfortunate situation with the venue’s cooling situation.

The judging compensation was more generous than Fire & Dice Games’. Lunch and dinner was covered (though I did decline the dinner offer). Gas was also covered depending on distance.

[Basically, a copy paste of my previous PQ judging Substack posts]
Overall, I appreciate given the privilege of judging a PQ and the store allowing me to record both the gameplays as well as the 360° footage. Similar to last two times, I was asked if I was playing or not by others.

It was quite tiring on my feet (as expected).

Answering the card ruling questions is the easy part, but questions regarding policies is a bit harder.

Anyways, pretty fun experience, I would do it again.

This is an incomplete post, but I’m posting it anyways and updating it with the videos as I finish them.

Table of Contents

1. 8/30 - Store Showdown at Kingslayer Games Lake Forest

   1. Deck - Cad Tarkintown

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion

8/30 - Store Showdown at Kingslayer Games Lake Forest

Format: Pre-sided Bo1, 5 Swiss rounds, Top Cut of 8, 22 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/354477

In the Swiss rounds, Alyssa went 3-2, I went 4-1.

• Alyssa got knocked out in the first round of Top Cut.

• I made it to finalist.

• For pack prizing, Alyssa got four packs, I got five packs.

Deck - Cad Tarkintown

The biggest change from the prior week’s store showdown was swapping the Death Star Stormtroopers for Lady Proximas.

My Matchups

Vs LOF Maul Blue Force 1-0

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Lurking TIE Phantom

• Out: 2x IG-2000

Vs Poe Data Vault 1-0

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Aggrieved Parliamentarian, 2x Lurking TIE Phantom, 3x Cham Syndulla

• Out: 2x IG-2000, 1x No Good to Me Dead, 3x Ma Klounkee

Vs Piett Red 1-0

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Cad Bane

• Out: 2x IG-2000

Vs Chancellor Palpatine Blue 1-0

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Cad Bane, 2x Devastator

• Out: 2x IG-2000

Vs Snoke Lake Country 0-1

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Lurking TIE Phantom, 2x Devastator

• Out: 2x IG-2000, 1x Surprise Strike

Top Cut

Vs Chancellor Palpatine Blue 1-0

No video, forgot to record.

Vs Snoke Lake Country 1-0

Side boarding:

• In: ?, ?x Cad Bane

• Out: ?

Vs SHD Han Blue 0-1

Side boarding:

• In: ?

• Out: ?

Conclusion

A bit unfortunate in my last round’s game where I didn’t draw into a double 1-drop hand. I also might have misplayed toward the end of the game.

That Snoke Lake Country deck is definitely a surprise in how much damage it can output.

Very diverse meta in this event.

Stay tuned for my writeup/video gameplays of another store showdown finalist placement at Kingslayer Games Fountain Valley that happened on the following day.

At this point, with my playset of every promo except the champion promo, I’m basically done with store showdowns unless they have cheap entries.

• For people who prefer the video format.

Table of Contents

1. 2025/08/23 - Fire & Dice Games (and Photo Dump)

   1. Quick Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. The Good Stuff

      2. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   2. Judging Staff

   3. Some of the Judge Calls

      1. Simple/Straightforward

      2. More Complicated

      3. Games I Was Watching

   4. Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

2. Conclusion

• Thanks to FAD for letting me record gameplays and this timelapse footage.

2025/08/23 - Fire & Dice Games (and Photo Dump)

Huamin’s perspective PQ post and context with the CBG jersey joke on ecomode games Substack (ecomodegames.substack.com/p/the-los-angeles-lotf-pq):

ecomode games

The Los Angeles LotF PQ

I was originally going to go this tournament under [CBG] Travis Li, but I ended up deciding to go under my actual name because I don’t think the CBG folks know the joke. It was going to be great; I was going to have a forward introducing the …

Read more

8 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Huamin

Format: Bo3, 7 Swiss rounds, 113 players, Top Cut to 8 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/342882

Alyssa went 4-3, placing 25th.

This is the same store as the previous PQ that I judged at:

Side Note of the Event Itself

This PQ event experience was overall great and went pretty smoothly.

The Good Stuff:

• Compared to the last time, the place is a lot more furnished.

• There was a full prizing breakdown in the listing!

• The restroom was pretty clean.

• The table play space surface area was good and the seats were cushioned.

• There were so many monitors for the timer.

• The time in between rounds was very minimal.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• [Minor/Resolved] I got one feedback with confusion over the timer when they were using some of the monitors for the side events. The player and their opponent had referred to the wrong timer when checking the time for their Swiss match. I brought this up with the HJ and a staff and they rectified it.

Judging Staff

• Head Judge (HJ): Georges (the one in the FAD jersey)

• Floor Judge 1 [FJ1]: Me (GC shirt, the SWU Judge shirts has been OOS since it’s been sold out back in October 2024)

• Floor Judge 2 [FJ2]: Francisco (the one in the SWU Judge shirt)

There were other FAD employees there (that can help with the timers and Melee stuff), we were the ones answering the judge calls.

Some of the Judge Calls

Simple/straightforward:

1. Player A asked if they can choose not to ambush when playing 4-LOM off of Sneak Attack, so that it enters ready.

Answer: Yes.

2. Player asked if Krayt Dragon still does 1 damage if opponent plays Force Lightning on it.

Resolution: Yes.

3. Game state: Opponent has a stolen player's Tranquility.
   Player asked if they can Timely Intervention + Tranquility, trigger the ambush first to defeat the opponent's controlled Tranquility and then trigger the when played to return one of two Tranquilitys back to hand.

Resolution: Yes.

4. Start of game: Player passed. Opponent claimed.
   Player thought there has to be two passes before proceeding to the regroup phase.

Resolution: Proceed to the next phase.

5. Player had a damaged unit get Traitorous'd.
   Player asked if the damage counters comes off or not.

Resolution: No.

More Complicated:

1. Player A wanted to buff another unit via Sith Holocron's on-attack by damaging that particular unit, instead of buffing the unit the Sith Holocron is attached to.

   1. Player was adamant and said that this was how it was ruled at GC. A judge asked in the Judge Discord to confirm.

   2. https://discord.com/channels/1265343874105081856/1269053260766117908/1408886129033216212

      

Resolution: Only the unit with the Sith Holocron upgrade gets the buff, regardless where the damage is allocated (this involved all three judges).

2. Player accidentally resourced an extra card.

Resolution: Opponent gets to see the resource row and pick one to return back to hand (this call involved another judge).

3. Double Ma Klounkee usage, but only one was in the discard pile. Player accidentally returned it back to hand after the first usage (two action phases ago) and it wasn't until the start of a new turn when the opponent was checking the player's discard pile where the discrepancy was discovered.

Resolution: Ignore the 2nd usage of the Ma Klounkee (where it was used to kill a Ki-Adi Mundi (LOF) toward the end of the previous turn).

(I answered this call, my initial thought/gut reaction was that it's an irreparable game state after hearing the initial situation, but called for a second opinion).

4. Player A forgot to replace their Cassian Andor (SHD) after smuggling it out. Discovered during the regroup phase, when the player had already drawn two cards and combined it with their hand.

Resolution: Opponent sees entire hand and pick one to replace the smuggled Cassian Andor. Player draws one more card (this call involved another judge).

5. Player forgot to replace their resource after smuggling Entrenched out via Tech. Discovered during the regroup phase, when the player had already drawn two cards and combined it with their hand.

Resolution: Opponent sees entire hand and pick one to replace the smuggled card. Player draws one more card.

Games I Was Watching:

• At least two missed Adi Gallia's triggers.

• Player played No Glory, Only Results on opponent's Yoda (SOR), and the opponent drew a card (it was also the last card in their deck, but luckily it was the action phase, so them knowing what it was didn't really matter). I called it out that it was the player's choice given that it was No Glory, Only Results.

• Player not correctly applying Fennec Shand unit (SHD) on-attack effect. The on-attack damage was enough to defeat the defending unit, so Fennec Shand should take no damage in return, but the player had still put damage counters on it. I confirmed with them and they removed the damage counters.

• Player not having paid the Millenium Falcon (SOR) upkeep cost after an action has already taken place during the action phase, so it got returned back to hand.

• During the first turn: Kylo (LOF) player didn't draw a card after discarding an upgrade via the leader's ability. I noticed their card count (hand + resource + discard) didn't match and confirmed that they still only had an even number of cards during the regroup phase when they should have had an odd number of cards. I had the Kylo player draw an extra card.

Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

• In the second round, we passed out the promo card and an OP pack (LOF).

• There were random deck checks that happened throughout the Swiss rounds, though I didn’t participate in any of those deck checks.

• Mid-match (in between games), a player wanted to use the restroom. I started a timer and gave them a time extension as such.

• A player's deck pod had a signed card (Porg) in the sliding card case. I recommended them to put that away just to be on the safe side in case of a deck check.

• There were at least two players who were using non-SWU Star Wars card (Destiny?), which was fine. One was using it as a Force token, and the other seemed to be using it as a hand placeholder.

• Multiple no-shows/late-shows (Round 1 and Round 7), so I explained the 5 minute (game win) and the 10 minute (match win) increment rules to the players who were waiting.

• The two different timers (PQ and the side events) were confusing. A player brought this up to me and how that they referred to the wrong timer. The player asked if the timers can be different colored or something.

• I helped in deck checking the Top Cut decks. No issues found.

Conclusion

I personally had fewer judge calls vs FAD's JTL PQ (12), but that can come down to if I was closer to the judge call or not than another judge. This is somewhat expected as LOF didn't introduce any game "breaking" mechanics, such as pilots. I also only got one Krayt Dragon related question, as opposed to multiple in the prior PQ.

Basically, a copy paste of my previous PQ judging Substack post:
Overall, I appreciate given the privilege of judging a PQ and the store allowing me to record both the gameplays as well as the 360° footage. Similar to last time, I got asked a few times why I was judging instead of playing and if I already got a PQ win (Lol, I wish haha).

It was quite tiring on my feet (as expected).

Answering the card ruling questions is the easy part, but questions regarding policies is a bit harder.

Anyways, pretty fun experience, I learned a lot, would do it again.

Table of Contents

1. 8/24 - Store Showdown at Krazy Nick’s Games

   1. Deck - Cad Tarkintown

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion

8/24 - Store Showdown at Krazy Nick’s Games

Format: Bo3, 2 rounds (if no undefeated player, then 3 rounds), no Top Cut, 6 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/349320

Alyssa went 1-1, I went 2-0. For pack prizing, Alyssa got two packs, I got six packs.

Deck - Cad Tarkintown

I first became aware of this deck about a week ago on 8/18 when I played against it.

I thought it was good, so I brought it out to a weekly that same week to test it out.

My Matchups

Vs Yoda Red Force 2-0

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Lurking TIE Phantom

• Out: 1x No Good to Me Dead, 1x IG-2000

I was a bit fearful going into this matchup as I heard that it’s not a good matchup. But it seemed that my opponent didn’t draw as well.

Vs LOF Kylo Green Force 2-0

Side boarding:

• In: 2x Aggrieved Parliamentarian, 2x Lurking TIE Phantom, 3x Cham Syndulla

• Out: 2x IG-2000, 1x No Good to Me Dead, 3x Ma Klounkee

I wasn’t too afraid of this matchup, as my deck goes very wide, so Power of the Dark Side is nearly useless against me. This deck can keep the opponent off their Force token for a good while.

Conclusion

Not much of a conclusion, it was a small store showdown event (though the players there were of high skill), so small sample size in terms of the number of matches for how good this deck actually is.

Stay tuned for my 2025/08/23 FAD LOF PQ judging and gameplay coverage :)

1. 2025/07/25-27 - The Venetian (and Photo Dump)

   1. Quick Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. The Good Stuff

      2. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   2. My Deck - SHD Han Blue Force

   3. Day 1 Games

   4. Day 2 Games

   5. Day 3 Games

2. Conclusion

2025/07/25-27 - The Venetian (and Photo Dump)

Day 1 Format: Bo3, 8 Swiss rounds, 1958 players, players with 18+ match points move on to Day 2.
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/334133

Day 2 Format: Bo3, 8 Swiss rounds, 565 players, players with 18+ match points move on to Day 3.
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/334136

Due to a Melee mishap, all deck lists were open going forward on Day 2. This hurt off-meta decks / decks that may contain any spice, and greatly benefitted the more conventional deck lists.

• Day 1: I went 5-0-3 (my first draw was round 4). Alyssa had a Day 1 bye.

• Day 2: We both went 6-2. Alyssa was featured at the livestream table @10:13:20 timestamp:

• Day 3: We both performed quite badly. Alyssa went 0-3 and I went 0-1-2.

Side Note of the Event Itself

There are some very mixed experiences with how the event was run. Just to preface, my play experience is limited to the main event only, and Alyssa’s play experience is similar with the addition that she also grinded for some prize wall tickets in the side events on Day 1.

The Good Stuff:

• The main event was run smoothly.

• The restrooms were pretty clean.

• The table play space surface area was overall good.

• The timers were large and visible.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

• Similar to SHD Vegas PQ, the chairs were a tad too low for me. Starting on Day 2, I started sitting on my backpack.

  

• The prize wall experience wasn’t great. Players who made it to main event Day 3 didn’t get their Day 2 prizing until the end of the main event’s Swiss round of Day 3. This means that even combining Alyssa’s and my tickets, we didn’t have enough to buy the showcase pair until end of Day 3.

  • Main event Day 3 players did get access to their own prize wall, but it was severely limited - the cards were limited to 1/person, the Kylo/Rey promo cards & play mats were unavailable. Luckily, I had bought my two playsets of the Superlaser Blasts on Day 2.

  • For compensation with the lack of play mats, they were giving away a free Darth Revan play mat + the Thursday early badge pickup metal shield token to everyone. But unfortunate for any players that wanted a specific play mat.

My Deck - SHD Han Blue Force

The two major changes right before GC was the inclusion of Chewbacca (after I was talking to a certain JTL LA PQ winner) and the inclusion of Rival’s Fall in the sideboard after talking to a different certain JTL Escondido PQ winner.

I also brought a Cad Data Vault deck to GC as I was deciding between this or that. But I ended up going with SHD Han as I didn’t want to overthink it.

Going into the main event Day 1, I didn’t have high expectations.

Day 1 Games

Round 1: vs Cad Tarkintown 2-1

• Game 1: I saw all three Force Throws early on.

• Game 2: They had too much board control.

The opponent told me afterwards that he was a viewer and that he was initially on SHD Han Blue Force, but my LOF playtesting videos pushed him to Cad Tarkintown.

Round 2: vs SHD Han Blue Force 2-1

I lost game 1, but won the next two with better starts.

Round 3: vs SHD Han Blue Force 1-1 (draw)

I lost first game, but won second game, and we had <2 min left in the round. So we just submitted our scores as-is for a draw.

This wasn’t good, because I was afraid of being matched up against other decks who go into time, which tends to be control.

Round 4: vs Iden Data Vault 2-0

• Game 1: They ramped first game via one Resupply, but I was able to draw from two or three Ki-Adi Mundis. I played three Krayt Dragons back to back.

• Game 2: They saw no ramp and were focused on denying my Force token, killing my Ki-Adi Mundi with their Iden instead of my 6/4 Poe Dameron. I didn't get my Force token until like resource 9 and had to play Ki-Adi Mundi just for the body at one point.

Round 5: vs SHD Han Blue Force 2-0

No comments/I can’t recall.

Round 6: vs Gar ECL 2-1

• Game 1: I thought they were a bit too focused on controlling my board instead of just hitting face. I survived to Krayt Dragon and they had no response.

• Game 3: I had a back to back Krayt Dragon (they killed the first one via Craving Power on their shielded leader + trading it) and they didn't have enough on board to finish me off.

Round 7: Intentional Draw

We had the same record and were at table 1.

Round 8: Intentional Draw

We were at table 1.

Day 2 Games

Round 1: vs SHD Han Blue Force 2-1

• Game 3: I had initiative, had a weak starting hand, so I mulliganed into no turn 1 play, GG. They had an Oggdo Bogdo start.

  • On turn 2, I cheated Chirrut Îmwe to have a 3/3 sentinel, he Force Throw’d a Yoda. I pointed out that his Oggdo Bogdo isn't Force. So, he basically hand ripped himself and the board state is even, because after I claimed initiative, he traded his Oggdo Bogdo into my Chirrut Îmwe.

  • On turn 3: I started out with a cheated out Poe Dameron.

Round 2: vs TWI Anakin Blue (30) 2-0

• Game 1: On the resource 5 turn, I played Grogu and double Force Throw. He was basically top decking ever since.

• Game 2: They double Pillaged me and Force Throw once, so I was basically top decking.

Toward the end of the second game, both bases had a lot of damage and I have a better board state. IIRC, we both had damaged Chewbaccas but I had an additional cheated out Poe Dameron, setting up for lethal in one action. All of our resources were tapped and the only action left was for my opponent to take initiative. Looking at their deck list now, their only out/stall would have been to have a Village Protectors and/or a Redemption.

But a judge came up to us and asked if one of us was <name> - it was my opponent. Apparently, my opponent had an Entrenched mixed up with his previous opponent's deck. I asked if we could just finish our current game as I basically have lethal in the following turn, but the judge issued a game loss due to the deck issue. So my opponent got a game loss, not a match loss.

What my (allegedly) opponent said on this Thorrk’s video:

Round 3: vs Qi'ra Data Vault 1-2

It's a grind.

Round 4: vs JTL Vader Yellow 0-2

Game 2: I lost despite seeing all three Bombing Runs + some misplay/misresourcing on my part. I had no counter play to their Lurking TIE Phantom + Vader leader pilot.

Round 5: vs Piett Red 2-0

Shields stronk (makes me not afraid of Overwhelming Barrage or Turbolaser Salvo). In one of the games, I Force Throw’d them twice.

Round 6: vs SHD Han Blue Force 2-0

• Game 1: They had a Grogu start, I had a Oggdo Bogdo start. I think my opponent made some questionable plays with their Grogu healing my Oggdo Bogdo to stop it. But later on the resource 6 turn, after they cheated out a Luke Skywalker, I played Rebellious Hammerhead, dealing two damage to my own healthy Oggdo Bogdo, and then trading it into their Luke Skywalker.

• Game 2: We both had a Grogu start. Turn 2, they played Cassian Andor, I played my Outer Rim Outlaws. I had better trades.

Round 7: vs SHD Han Green Force 2-0

• Game 1: I was dominating.

• Game 2: They had a Grogu start, I had a Red Five in hand, so I just claimed instead. I still came back from that. After the game, my opponent told me how their Kelleran Beq cycled all of their Krayt Dragons to the bottom of the deck. They also told me how they sided out all of their General’s Blades as they were expecting me to side in my Confiscates.

Round 8: vs Gar ECL 2-1

I felt so bad going into this when I saw the pairings, because this is such a rough matchup for me.

• Game 1: On resource 5, I played Grogu + two Force Throws. They basically scooped in the following turn iirc.

• Game 2: I got wacked by their The Darksaber’d leader.

• Game 3: They had an Inferno Four start, followed up by an Onyx Squadron Brute & Wingman Victor Three pilot on Inferno Four on turn 2.

  • I intentionally killed the Onyx Squadron Brute to deny any Iden Versio piloting via a Force Throw and Grogu.

  • On the next turn (resource 4), they tried to pilot Iden Versio, but I pointed out that their Inferno Four is already piloted, so they played Iden Versio to the ground instead. I ended up Confiscate’ing the shield and crashing my Ki-Adi Mundi into it.

  • On the resource 6 turn, when they played The Darksaber on their leader, I had another Confiscate ready. I went super wide on ground and just overwhelmed them.

Day 3 Games

Round 1: vs TWI Anakin Blue force 0-2

My opponent basically memory dumped a portion of my deck list onto his notes after putting away my deck list.

• Game 1: They played three Force Throws by resource 5. GG.

• Game 2: I had a better start, but they just had more efficient trades.

Unrelated to the games themselves, the table we were originally assigned was bowed out. When my opponent was cutting my deck, a card flipped over. A staff (there’s a reason why I’m not labelling this person as a judge, you’ll see) noticed and came over and asked what’s wrong. We mentioned the table’s issue and they had us relocate to another table to play while they swap out the faulty table.

During the first game, I made multiple passes in one turn. The same staff member asked me what passing means. I thought this was a bit strange as I was explaining it, as they’re basically interrupting our game. Anyways, after we finished our first game and finished sideboarding, they had us relocate back to our original assigned table.

Round 2: vs Yoda Red Force 1-1-0

• Game 1: I got outvalued by LOF Rey’s effect early game.

• Game 2: I basically had three back to back Krayt Dragons, which they managed to get through, but I later built a board, threatening lethal in either arenas in one action.

After finishing Game 2, there was ~8min left in the round, so we just submitted our score as-is for a draw (we confirmed this with a judge who sat down to watch us).

Honestly, game 2 was very back and forth, and probably the funnest game I’ve had. Very interesting deck.

Round 3: vs Iden Data Vault Intentional Draw

I honestly don't really like this matchup and I didn’t feel that motivated to play, so I asked to ID. They accepted. After submitting the ID result, they said that this was a bad matchup for them.

Conclusion

Super proud of Alyssa and I performing as well as we did to make it to Day 3 (basically the “top 73” SWU players, barring other strong players who couldn’t make it, such as Thorrk), even though we totally flopped on Day 3 lol. I didn’t really check, but Alyssa may be the only female player on Day 3? No clue if any other couples made it to Day 3.

Super proud of myself from going from Day 1 to Day 3, it makes me feel as if I peaked in SWU (21 other Day 1 players made it to Day 3). I’m currently thinking of wanting to judge at the next GC.

Currently signed up for one PQ and judging at another for this set.

Table of Contents

1. How much we preordered

2. Our Three Pre-Releases

   1. 7/05 - Psycho Turtle Collectibles

   2. 7/05 - Magic & Monsters

   3. 7/08 - Cardboard Games

   4. 7/10 - Cardboard Games

3. Our Pull Rate Stats

4. Total Breakdown (← feel free to skip to this if you’re only interested in the stats)

5. Conclusion

7/08 - Here’s my playlist for the LOF pre-release gameplays and a deck building video at Cardboard Games:

How much we preordered

tl;dr: We preordered four boxes, three loose packs, and one each of the Spotlight decks. We also had banked packs from Magic & Monsters.

• We finally used up Alyssa’s $200 store credit from her SHD PQ Finalist prizing to preorder two boxes and one each of the Spotlight decks.

• We also used my JTL PQ judging’s $200 store credit for two boxes and three loose packs.

• We also had some banked up LOF packs (31 packs total) from playing at a weekly and a store showdown at Magic and Monsters.

Our Three Pre-Releases

7/05 - Psycho Turtle Collectibles

Format: Bo3, 4 rounds (played until there’s an undefeated player), 19 Players. https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/334800
We both went 2-2. Alyssa squeezed into 8th for prizing, I placed 9th.

Our Two Kits:

• Legendary: 2 regular, 1 HS, 1 foil

• Rare: 10 regular, 1 HSF base

Our Two Packs Prizing:

• Legendary: 0

• Rare: 2 regular, 1 HS

7/05 - Magic & Monsters

Format: Bo3, 4 rounds (idk, there were two undefeated), 20 Players.
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/331532
We both went 3-1. We each got three packs as prizing.

They apparently added more packs to the prize pool (idk how many more) and prized out to all X-1 and better.

Our Two Kits:

• Showcase: Barriss Offee

• Legendary: 3 regular

• Rare: 7 R, 1 foil, 1 HSF, 2 base,

• Special: 1 foil

[Prizing + banked packs details below]

7/08 - Cardboard Games

Format: Bo1, 5 rounds, 28 Players, https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/335328
Alyssa went 3-2, I went 4-1. Prizing is pack-per-win.

Our Two Kits:

• Legendary: 2 regular

• Rare: 9 regular, 2 foil, 1 HS, 1 base

Our Seven Packs Prizing:

• Legendary: 2 regular

• Rare: 5 regular, 1 foil

• Special: 1 foil

7/10 - Cardboard Games

Format: Bo1, 5 rounds, 8 Players. https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/338781
Alyssa went 1-3, I didn’t play.

Her Kit:

• Legendary: 1 regular

• Rare: 3 regular, 2 regular base, 1 foil base

Her One Pack Prizing:

• Rare: 1 regular

Our Preorder Pull Rate Stats

Two Boxes + Three Packs (Fire and Dice)

• Legendary: 10 regular, 1 foil, 1 HS

• Rare: 38 regular, 2 foil, 3 HS, 1 HSF, 3 bases

• Special: 1 Foil

Thirty Nine Packs (Magic & Monsters)

[31 Banked packs + 8 pre-release participation/prizing packs (1+3 each)]

• Showcase: Obi-Wan Kenobi

• Legendary: 8 regular, 1 foil, 1 HS, 2 HSF

• Rare: 28 regular, 1 foil, 4 HS, 3 bases,

• Special: 1 HS, 1 foil

Two Boxes + Two (Spotlight) Packs(Knight and Day Games)

• Didn’t open these yet.

Total Breakdown

Recap on total opened products:

• Two boxes

• Seven pre-release kits + 58 packs (participation/prizing/banked) = 100 packs = ~4.16 boxes

Others:

• 2 Showcases

• 36 Legendaries

• 50 Rares

• 5 Specials

Total cost (pre-releases + preorder): $320 pre-releases + $406.29 ($400 were store credit, and, again, didn’t open two boxes + two Spotlight decks yet)

The Magic & Monsters’ JTL events for banked up packs: +$40

Conclusion

I’ve already traded away the Obi-Wan showcase for my Set 5 wants so far. I’m still looking to sell/trade away the Barriss Showcase and any of my LOF extras.

Onto LOF playtesting for GC!

Table of Contents

1. 6/27 - Store Showdown at Magic & Monsters

   1. Deck - Rey Data Vault

   2. My Matchups

2. Conclusion

6/27 - Store Showdown at Magic & Monsters

Format: (pre-sided) Bo1, 4 rounds, no Top Cut, 16 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/332595

There was a poll on their Discord whether it would be Bo1 or Bo3 (it resulted in a tie). I guess they decided to do the pre-sided Bo1 (I’m not a regular at this store). It was basically a regular weekly (with the pre-sided part) but with the store showdown + binder prizing.

Similar to Krazy Nick’s Games’ Store Showdown, Magic & Monsters also had a messed up store showdown kit where it had more Top 4/Finalist/Champions than Top 8 promo cards.

Alyssa went 3-1, I went 4-0 and we were both #1 and #2 in standings. We each got 1x Champion, 1x Finalist, and 1x Top 4. No clue on the actual packs prizing distribution as the main SWU EO had already left for the day (will need to contact them later).

Deck - Rey Data Vault

This is literally the fellow CBG’r’s Northridge PQ (winner) deck list, with the only change being in the side board, swapping out 1x Arquitens Assault Cruiser for a third copy of Confiscate.

This was also my first time bringing this deck out (my only play testing practice was against Alyssa’s Sabine ECL on the night prior). But I felt comfortable piloting it since I played against it so much. I’ve also played a lot of SOR Luke Skywalker Green back in Set 1, so it’s not like I was that unfamiliar with Green Blue Heroism decks.

My Matchups

Vs Captain Phasma Green 1-0

Pre-siding:

• In: 3x Confiscate, 1x Timely Reinforcement (iirc?)

• Out: 3x Entrenched (iirc?)

This was my first time playing against Captain Phasma, so wasn’t too sure what to expect aside from the general Green Red good stuff (such as SOR Darth Vader, Maul, SOR Devastator, etc).

Turn 1:

• I played Regional Governor, calling out Superlaser Technician.

• They played Allegiant General Pryde. I claimed inititative. They Captain Phasma leader pinged.

Turn 2:

• I played Resupply.

• They played Resupply.

• I claimed initiative. Their Allegiant General Pryde attacked my base.

Turn 3:

• I played Blue Leader, moved it to the ground and ambushed it into their Allegiant General Pryde.

• They deployed their Captain Phasma leader.

• I attacked Regional Governor into their base.

• They played Captain Phasma unit, buffing their leader.

  

• I claimed initiative. Their Captain Phasma leader attacked my base and triggered its on-attack, pinging my Blue Leader and my base.

Turn 4:

• I suicided my Blue Leader into their Captain Phasma leader (in hindsight, maybe I should’ve bumped it into their Captain Phasma unit instead? idk).

• They attacked with Captain Phasma unit, buffing their leader.

• I played Village Protectors.

• They played Precision Fire, attacking their leader into my base, bypassing my Village Protectors.

  

• At this point, I had about 25 damage on my base. I don’t remember what I played afterwards.

At one point, they did play Traitorous on my Village Protectors, but I had a Confiscate ready. Later in the game, they killed one of my Luke Skywalkers via Timely Intervention + Kylo Ren. They later didn’t really have a response for another Luke Skywalker (they did Darth Vader ambush first, but failed to find a TIE Dagger Vanguard).

After the game, my opponent told me how they did had a Superlaser Technician in hand.

Vs Sabine ECL 1-0

Pre-siding:

• In: 3x Confiscate, 1x Rival’s Fall

• Out: 2x Mon Mothma, 1x Timely Reinforcement, 1x Unity of Purpose

  ---

Their turn two was a For A Cause I Believe In, so that’s kind of a rip for them.

Turn 1:

• I played Regional Governor, calling out Phoenix Squadron A-Wing.

• Opponent played JTL Luke Skywalker.

• I claimed initiative, they Sabine leader pinged.

Turn 2:

• I played Village Protectors.

• I don’t remember the turn sequence, but I ended up getting initiative, they hit their JTL Luke Skywalker into my Village Protectors (popping the shield) and played For A Cause I Believe In.

Turn 3:

• I Rey leader experience’d the Regional Governor.

• They played Sundari Peacekeeper.

• I played Entrenched onto my Regional Governor (I intentionally gave it a Rey experience before the upgrade so it’d have 5 attack power).

• They ended up still flipping out their Sabine leader, so I kill it with my Regional Governor.

They later ended up killing my Rey leader with Wrecker, but I think I had too much of a board state and huge base health disparity (I ended the game with 1 damage). After the game, my opponent told me how they did had a Phoenix Squadron A-Wing in hand.

Vs JTL Lando Data Vault 1-0

Pre-siding:

• In: Everything, but the 2x Disruption Burst

• Out: 3x Entrenched (iirc?)

I had a pretty good idea on how their deck operates after having played several games against a CBG’r who played the same deck. I was expecting our game to go into late game.

Turn 1:

• My starting hand contained a SOR Luke Skywalker and SOR Home One. I played Mon Mothma and fetched a Home One (Luke Skywalker was also in there, so it got sent to the bottom). My thinking was that Home One had more flexibility.

• They played Battlefield Marine (iirc). I claimed initiative.

Turn 2:

• I played Fleet Lieutenant, pumping and trading my Mon Mothma with their Battlefield Marine.

• They played Sabine’s Masterpiece. I claimed initiative.

Turn 3:

• I played Eager Escort Fighter, trading it with their Sabine’s Masterpiece.

Anddd I don’t really remember what happened on that turn. But I was pretty focused on 1:1 trading in the first few turns.

• A really cool play they did was Lando leader effect into Redemption, with max healing and only popping the shield. I traded all four of my X-Wing tokens (one of them was buffed from Rey leader) into it.

• At one point, they also played an off-aspect Spark of the Rebellion and sniped a Luke Skwalker (which sucks, because I knew one of them was at the bottom of my deck from Mon Mothma).

• Anyways, I later won via Unity of Purpose. They had 3 damage on their base, I had 0 damage. The end board state was me having five units: Rey leader, Village Protector, Tech, and Clone Deserter (iirc), and Home One; them having one or zero unit?

• The turn started with them suiciding a unit into my unit (so I was somewhat expecting a Luke Skywalker. I played Unity of Purpose, giving every friendly unit +5/+5. They Luke Skywalker’d and killed off my injured Rey leader. But I had 33 damage on board and they had no other responses to stop it.

Vs Sabine ECL (Alyssa) 1-0

Same pre-siding as Round 2.

Her turn two was also a For A Cause I Believe In, so that’s kind of a rip.

I ended up winning, but this match didn’t really matter as one of us was guaranteed to be first place.

Though, in hindsight of the other players’ tie-breakers, I think the losing player would also be guaranteed 2nd place? Alyssa had worse tie-breakers going into this match than me, so she was more at risk of dropping out of the 2nd place than me.

Conclusion

This is our last store showdown of this set fr fr, so pretty cool that “we” won it.

I do appreciate the store allowing the banking of JTL packs for LOF packs since about 2025/05/09. We’ve only been to this store this set once prior for a weekly, because they were giving away JTL marketing materials (think posters, the standees, etc.) and Alyssa really wanted them.

Another cool thing: while we were waiting for the event to start, a SWU player came up to us asking if one of us was LumiMouse. I raised my hand saying that I was. They said how they saw Alyssa filming at the Northridge PQ. It’s pretty neat to get recognized :D.

1. 2025/06/21 - Fire & Dice Games (and Photo Dump)

   1. Side Note on Why We Didn’t Play

   2. Quick Side Note of the Event Itself

      1. The Good Stuff

      2. The Not-So-Good Stuff

   3. Judging Staff

   4. Some of the Judge Calls

   5. Miscellaneous Judge Stuff

2. Conclusion

• Video variant of this post + some additional context for some parts (Direct link: https://youtu.be/oO4cGyJT8RY)

2025/06/21 - Fire & Dice Games (and Photo Dump)

• (All pics/videos were provided by someone else)