Welcome to the FIFTH episode of SWU OVER/UNDER, where the GarbageRollers crew tackles various topics related to the game and decides whether they’re OVERRATED, UNDERRATED, or PROPERLY RATED. This format lets us yap about almost anything, and today, we’re gonna throw in our takes to all the various talks of the town. The game is buzzing out there, but how are people expected to form intelligent opinions without hearing from US? They’re NOT, that’s how!

As with any internet opinion, we encourage you to take these…takes (??) with a grain of salt. Let us know in the comments how off-base you think we are…but keep it professional. You know we at the GarbageRollers always do. 

We’re down a member today as Jayson recently welcomed his second child into the world and could use some rest! We’ll see if Just and Tyler can satisfy his desire of spice…

With the looming Store Showdowns and Cash events around the corner for lots of people, we’ll have a clear focus for this episode. But first, let’s talk about the elephant in the room..

FFG Communication

Justin – I think most reasonable people are giving FFG the credit they deserve here for the spectacular communication we’ve gotten all around. PROPERLY RATED. From the planned and focused spoiler seasons, to dev interviews, regular streams from the designers, and emergency communication about re-prints, it still blows my mind that I’m describing this of FFG! The one thing I’ll note is that I’d love to see a LOT more communication from OP.

Tyler – The community’s perception of FFG this go-around is that: A) Communication is much improved from the Destiny days. B) FFG couldn’t really tell us any more without setting unreasonable expectations or sparking unfounded rumors. Since both of those things are true, FFGs comms are PROPERLY RATED.

The K.T.O.D. Patreon

Justin – The good ole boys from KTOD have put together a vastly UNDERRATED resource here. With a paywall for a competitive focused discord, you get people who want to be there and want to get better. Good discussions, testing, and strategies are being developed daily there, and I can’t recommend it enough if you want to get better at Star Wars Unlimited.

Tyler – My perception is that KTOD, much like the Hyperloops before it, is the premiere competitive Discord for SWU. Since Justin (who knows everything before us) corroborates this, I’ll go with PROPERLY RATED. Now, if I can just get Justin to pony up some of our YouTube earnings for my membership…

Tournament Prep

Justin – This is probably the topic with the highest variance, but I feel like most people have this UNDERRATED. Getting some good testing in leading up to the event, getting a good night’s rest, and packing snacks puts you in the best position to do well and have a good time at a tournament! Unless you’re fortunate enough to live in an area with dozens of tournaments, you got to make the most of the few you can attend!

Tyler – Yeah, knowing how to prep and then actually doing the prep are always UNDERRATED aspects of tournament play. I’d contrast this with building and choosing a deck which are generally OVERRATED. It pays to cut the decision phase of the process short and start grinding games early.

Store Showdown Prizing

Justin – Coming from old FFG, I actually have this first set of store showdown prizing at OVERRATED. I’m used to the old Store Champ seasons that would have a playmat, tokens, and sick promo cards. This first store showdown kit only has a promo Takedown and Mace Windu for Top 8. A bit lackluster, but boy did Khaled nail the Mace art! FFG did nail getting 1 of each Mace version if you hit multiple tiers though, so props!

Tyler – OVERRATED. A couple promo cards does not a good store champ season make. When you combine the relatively low level of prizing from FFG with the product shortage, we’re looking at a season where the competitors at store champs aren’t going to walk away with much swag.

Tournament Streams

Justin – Absolutely without a doubt the most UNDERRATED part of the community! As someone with kids, a job, and plenty of other stuff that gets in the way of attending tournaments, having a stream or two to tune in on the weekends and watch competitive Star Wars Unlimited is the greatest! I hope as the game continues to grow, we’ll see more and more streams popping up to enjoy! Speaking of which, we will be streaming our local 72 player 1k on May 11th starting at Noon CST on our YouTube channel!

Tyler – PROPERLY RATED. Everybody likes the ability to see what’s going on with tournaments in far-flung places, but is it an essential part of the SWU experience? Not necessarily. Being on the recording end of the process now, though, mad respect for everyone putting the streams together! It’s not easy work!

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That’s all folks! We’ll see you next time for another riveting episode of OVER/UNDER!