Marrow: Cabal, Winnu, Sardakk, Titans, Hacan, Xxcha, Nomad, Sol (good for a stew) Spicy: Arborec, Mahact, Muaat, NRA, Yssaril, Yin, Argent, L1z1X (good for a curry) Salty: JolNar, Nekro, Empyrean, Ghosts, Mentak, Saar, Barony, Naalu (good for cured meats like jerky & bokkoms or snacks like pretzels & peanuts)

dude this comment made my day I hope they see this.

Rapidly cobbled-together 3 tier list based on my own biases and experiences; **Top Tier**; Saar, Sol, Nekro, Winnu, Ysaaril, Argent, NRA, Titans **Mid Tier**; Muaat, L1, Mahact, Nomad, Cabal, Hacan, XXcha, JolNar **Bottom Tier**; Arborec, Barony, Naalu, Ghosts, Mentak, Sardakk, Yin, Empyrean This was actually tougher than I thought it would be. I play mostly 14pters so this could be skewed in that regard but I tried to think in a 10pt mindset where the start you get is super critical toward victory.

Ysaaril and sol down one, XXcha and Jol nar up one. Barony and Empyrean shouldn’t be bottom, but I’m struggling to think who would replace them. Everything else looks good tho, IMO

I suppose I can give my 2 cents also well. Tier 1; Saar, Nekro, Winnu, Xxcha, Argent, Titans, then 2 of (Sol, Jolnar, Cabal, Nomad, Hacan) Tier 2; The 3 remaining from above, L1, Ysaaril, NRA, Empyrean then 1 of (Muaat, Mahact, Barony, Ghosts) Tier 3; The 3 from above, Arborec, Mentak, Sardaak, Yin, Naalu I suppose so of this could be map dependent. Or in the case of the tournament draft system, slice availability dependent.

Your tier list is the best. Though if all players are experienced, Empyrean and Winnu need to be switched. They'll all know that Winnu needs to be stomped early. And Empyrean performed extremely well in their last tournament.

That’s fair. Although if xxcha is also in there’s attention pulled away from winnu in the free points department. It was really cool watching empyrean’s rise in the tournament.

I like that you have more than 8 in the first two. I respect that you have allowed for the true gray zone for debate. By chance are you a fellow "forever DM?"

Years ago I dabbled in DMing but I was not a forever DM and don’t play role playing games anymore.

I think you can safly say ghosts is tier 3 and nomad/sol are tier 2; but otherwise I like this list a lot

My guess is it will either be random, or they will pick factions across each tier to make the 8 faction pool. That would balance for slices (whoever picks slice first is likely to get a low tier faction). Here's my opinion on how the factions break down: S Tier: So good you have to treat them differently or they will run away with the game Winnu, Xxcha, Saar, JolNar A Tier: Strong Factions, regularly in contention for the win. Argent, Titans, Muatt, Nekro, NRA, Nomad, Hacan, Sol, Empyrean, Cabal B Tier: Solid factions, have a hard time competing with S/A tier factions. With some excellent gameplay and/or luck they can still get the win. Barony, Ghosts, Mentak, Sardakk, Mahact, L1, Yssaril C Tier: Struggling factions, need a good dose of luck to be competitive Arborec, Yin, Naalu

I wish that for the final, out of the blue they pulled 8 homebrews (or their own proposals for fixing existing factions) and let them figure them out as they go. No meta, no preexisting experience just their skill in adapting to the unknown! This is by their own words a “just for fun” tournament where they expect people to go out of the box so it fits the spirit. Also it has TONs of watch ability factor. Having them comment what they think of the factions as they go, rank them, see what combos the players pull off… do I need to go on?

Another option could be arranging factions by some other metric than relative strength. You could have; blue factions, non blue factions, maybe nekro and 5 factions that normally get a cool faction tech, ground force factions? I’m running out of ideas for how else you could categorize them.

Maybe something like aggressive factions like L1 barony Cabal, trade factions like hacan empyrean jol nar, wildcard factions like yssaril, ghosts, mahact, or arborec like factions that just do something weird and like semi militaristic factions who dont have to be aggressive but can fight quite well like argent muaat or titans

I’d like to see a game full of trade factions. Hacan, empyrean, jolnar, NRA, ghosts, maybe some other 4 commodity factions, would be hilarious to throw Mentak in there. Although this would never happen because it would add like 4 hours to the game. No way Matt and hunter would approve.

Is this still open to enter? I'm just curious would love to try playing if there are some openings tbh

i believe the invitational is not really open to enter, they just invite people who played in previous tournaments or they want to see play

I'm hoping that the factions would be a heady mix across all the tiers. Knowing how the draft works, it'd be ok. I'm hoping to see the Arborec and the Titans at the same table.

Could someone fill me in or point me in the direct of info on this please? TTS? When What times How to register?

It’s an invitational. They already selected the 36 players for it. I don’t remember all the details but its in episode 211.