Bay Area Open 2012 Pregame

We’re smack-dab in the middle of crunch time for the Bay Area Open 2012, and the entire team is in hyper-overdrive getting everything ready to rock. In the midst of this chaos, we’ve been talking about the current meta, all of the top notch players who are coming, and the armies they will be playing.

The defending champion, James, won last year with a fairly typical IG army. However, this year he’s bringing the Grey Knight army he won from the year before. He’s obviously a serious contender again this year, but we’ve got a host of other top notch players en route to try and take his title from him.

BoLS’ own Goatboy (#3 in the country) will be in attendance with his Space Wolves, as will Caldera and Bushido Red Panda, all seeking to show the West Coasters what’s what.

Representing the West Coast though, we have our very own Team Zero Comp teammate ChristianA (#6, top IG player) gunning for the top spot with an absolutely vicious Hydra Spam IG list. He was narrowly defeated by James, the champ last year. Dugg (#9, top Ork player), one of the owner’s of TableWar, will also be a contender and he’s hot off of his recent Broadside Bash GT win with his Battlewagon Orks.

Blackmoor (#14) will be back this year to try and take another shot at the gold with his signature Draigowing, as will Yakface (#15) with his Kanwall Orks. John Johnston (#17) with his awesome Mecha-Godzilla themed, balanced Orks will be a strong contender as well. Janthkin (#21, top Nid player) is always at the top tables with his signature mixed Nid list, and he has the experience to take on Grey Knights, only struggling with IG, which are not as heavily represented this year as last.

Mike Oade, and Mike Bass, both locals and friends, (#30 and 31 respectively) were both in the hunt to win last year with their Blood Angels and Dark Eldar, although Mike Oade has switched to Grey Knights this year with a vicious list. Mike Bass uses a crazy DE list, loaded with Grotesques, a Razorwing, and Void Raven Bomber.

Russell Jacobsen (#37, took the top Wolf spot from me!) will be back this year representing Team Tablewar with Dugg. He is both a nice opponent, and very good, definitely a contender with a balanced, mechanized Wolf list.

Doc Dragon (#39) was in the hunt last year with his beautiful, all female Pirate themed Power Blob IG army, and I am sure he will be at the top tables again this year.

Another Team Zero Comp teammate, Fuegan17 (#40) will be a strong contender this year with his Purifier Spam list, as will Gordy (#43, top Grey Knight player) with his mixed Grey Knight list.

Jeremy Ecklin (#50) is another tough contender and while he had a tough break early in the tournament last year with his Vanilla Marines, he is highly skilled and I expect him to perform well this year.

In addition to these great players, we also have Dave Fay with his Black Templars, Warboss Russ and Grimgob with their Orks, half of Team Zero Comp, and a host of other very, very good local players, all of who have a puncher’s chance at becoming Tournament Champion and winning the fully painted army with Tablewar Display Tower and ETC wildcard spot that is our first prize!

So why, you may be asking yourself, the long winded run down of who’s coming?

Two reasons.

1.) This was a big shout out to the talented West Coast players that until now have not had any local events like the BAO to show their stuff. We’ve got some great players here, and we as TO’s are really proud to see what the BAO has grown into: a platform from which to showcase the talent of our gaming community both in playing, celebration of the awesome background, and modeling aspect of the hobby.

2.) Most of these players play lists that the internet calls “bad.” I love seeing that silly truism proven to be the hogwash that it is. There are an inordinate amount of Grey Knight players, I will concede that, but that book is a tad ridiculous. That outlier aside, all of these players play lists that they themselves have carefully crafted through experience and that have units, or are from books that are widely considered sub-par. Yet, despite the internet hype, these are a huge chunk of the country’s top players. And the most represented army after Grey Knights? Orks. Chew on that internet.

We are super excited to see all of the beautifully painted armies this year in all of the events: 40K singles, 40K Team, 40K Narrative event, Fantasy Singles, Warmachine/Hordes and Flames of War. If you are in the area, come on by and join us for a great weekend of gaming and fun!