On last Wednesday’s stream (and social media), we got the biggest news in a tiny package. Fantasy Flight Games announced that the first Galactic Championship will be held at the Venetian® Resort in Las Vegas from July 25th-27th! This event is going to be an absolute party, and the annual capstone to every Star Wars Unlimited season. It’s an ‘everyone will be there’, ‘can’t miss event!’

We asked the Lead Designer of Star Wars Unlimited, Danny Schaefer, what the Galactic Championship means to him.

“The Galactic Championship represents the pinnacle of competitive play, and it’s also a celebration of our game’s first year and the incredible community that has formed around the game. We’ll have a variety of side events for casual and competitive players, panels, and plenty of other activities we can’t wait to share with you all soon!”

Even with Danny’s quote, you may be thinking to yourself “Well I’m not really a competitive player, why would I pay to travel to this event?” Good news! I have 5 reasons specifically this event will be a fantastic experience for everyone!

Open to all

This is the one year in which the Galactic Championship will be open to all players! Everyone has the chance to attend and participate in as much or as little of the events they desire. After the inaugural Championship, you will have to do well at Planetary Qualifiers, Regionals, or Sector Events in order to earn enough points to qualify you.

Space permitting, you will likely always be allowed to register for side events, but this is the only year you will have guaranteed full access to every part of the Galactic Championship! All aboard!

Community

In case you haven’t met me, this is what I am most passionate about and the main reason I play games like Star Wars Unlimited. There is nothing better than the friendships you form, memories you make, and fun you get to have engaging with the community. If you’re shy, introverted, or have any other qualms with just engaging with strangers, I encourage you to work past that. Everyone at the Galactic Championship will have at least one of three things in common, we love Star Wars, we love Trading Card Games, or we just love Star Wars Unlimited! Don’t be scared to chat it up, learn how other people enjoy playing the game, and diving in to those aspects together!

My foundest memories of Star Wars Destiny are the 2019 World Championships, where we grinded pods with friends to earn prize tickets for new promos, we got meals together, and partied into the night together. When you’re playing the game you love with other people who love it, its easy to move past the awkwardness and create awesome experiences together!

Side Events

Competitive play not your thing? Get bounced out of the main event early Day 1? Fear not, there will be countless additional ways to experience SWU over the course of the weekend! Draft, sealed, Twin Suns and Premier Constructed pods are a no-brainer that FFG basically offers at any and all events. Beyond that, in past FFG games they’ve done a lot of different rules tournaments that have been a big hit as side events at worlds. The Star Wars Destiny Team 3v3 event was always great fun, and I suspect we’ll see even more fun ideas like that!

It also seems like a safe bet that we will see more ways to interact with the designers! Duel a Designer has been a popular treat at conventions thus far, battling in Premier Construcuted against a Designer and often to win cool prizes (like the SWU Aspect enamel pins)! If you somehow get sick of playing SWU over the course of the weekend or just want to take a break, we’ll likely have the chance to attend designer panels where they give us insights about the design process! Have a question about Star Wars Unlimited you always wanted to ask one of the designers? I suspect you’ll find an easy time to get that question answered at the event, whether through random interactions with the designers or they may potentially host a Q&A event.

Promos and Prizing

One of my favorite parts of Star Wars Destiny world championships in previous years was the cool exclusive promos you could collect over the weekend. From alternate art cards, playmats, and even super cool clone tokens, there was plenty of goodies that everybody was able to work towards collecting what they desired.

Goodies aren’t your thing? Well not everyone will make it to worlds, so you can always use this as an opportunity to recoup your travel costs by collecting prizes to then resell after the event.

It’s a Celebration

You will never attend a bigger party for Star Wars Unlimited than the Galactic Championship! Everyone will be there that loves the game, and it will be a fantastic weekend to celebrate all things SWU! Whether you spend your time playing SWU, watching SWU, or enjoying the atmosphere (and everything else that Vegas has to offer), it will be FUN!

Bonus: Qualify for the 2026 Galactic Championship

Competitive play is your thing, but you have the unfortunate luck of being one of the people that burned out Day 1? Fear not, you still are able to scratch that competitive itch on Day 2 and 3 by signing up for the Regional tournament which will be the first qualifier for the 2026 Galactic Championship! You may not leave the weekend Galactic Champion, but being one of the first people in the world to qualify for next year is still pretty sweet bragging rights, not to mention a lot of pressure off of having to spend the next year earning points to qualify!

Bonus: All the Designers, FFG Employees, and Content Creators will be there!

This is less of a bonus for you and more a bonus for us… WE WANT TO MEET YOU! Designers and Content Creators alike look forward to just getting to not only interact all weekend with people that play and love the same game as us, but getting to actually meet the people that watch livestreams, listen to podcasts, and read our articles! It’s a lot of fun to meet people who are passionate about the same things, but its even more exciting when you get to meet someone you already have somewhat of a connection with through content. Please please please if you see a designer, content creator, or anyone you recognize stop them and introduce yourself! Share a little about what you enjoy (their card design, podcast, etc)!

The 2025 Galactic Championship is going to be an absolute blast so PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE THERE!

The Galactic Championship is the top of the line for C3OP, and you can count on it being the best spot to Collect, Connect, and Compete!

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Are you planning on attending the GC? What’s stopping you if you aren’t? If you are, what are you most excited about?