Sith Taker Open 2025 – Part 1

The intro…

In true Sith Taker fashion I will open with… Hello there!

The correct response

Well, there is a HUGE amount of stuff to talk about from this past weekend in Stockport so I’m planning to break it down into a few posts.

Before I get there though, there’s a couple of things to cover.

First up, a tournament! Following up on the success of his last event (with 22 players!), Richard Greenaway is hosting another tournament, this time at Excelsior Comics in Bristol. It’s going to be 4 rounds of swiss and will be using XWA points and he already has a (hand delivered!) XWA Wave 0 prize kit for it!

You can book tickets via the Facebook event page here.

Speaking of tickets, as I mentioned in last week’s post, tickets for the Welsh Open 2025 are now live! Getting in early and booking things up really helps us (like REALLY helps) in terms of budgeting and prizes. The sooner we know how many are coming, the better prizes we can start arranging!

Speaking of prizes, we are edging ever closer to a MASSIVE announcement for the Welsh Open so keep your eyes peeled – AND BUY YOUR TICKETS!

Righto, let’s move on!

Patreon Update…

Yes, more updates! Now, as of this past weekend Q1 has finished and I managed to give out a good amount of stuff to supporters who were actually at STO. What I didn’t manage to do was make the giveaway draw! I will get that done this week and get it to the winner. What is it? Well, I’ll be posting that on my Patreon for members to see! For those who weren’t at STO I will get the rest of the packages made up this week and aim to have them sent out some time early next week, work permitting!

Thanks again to all my supporters, I really appreciate you!

The main bit…

Ok, so the Sith Taker Open happened.

Now, I am tired, time is limited and there’s an awful lot to say so as I mentioned, I’ll be taking a few posts to cover everything and today’s won’t be including any of the games. Come back next week if that’s what interests you! Don’t stop reading though, it’s still worth it, I promise!

In case you don’t know, the Sith Taker Open (or STO from here on in because I’m a lazy typist) is an annual event run by the Sith Takers at Element Games in Stockport. It has grown over the past few years and in the post FFG Organised Play era has now become one of the largest X-Wing events in the world.

Round 1 – fight!

When ticket went on sale for the 2023 event, they sold out 120 tickets in 1 day. The 2024 event was a matter of hours. The 2025 tickets went up on sale around 11 months before the event, had increased capacity (146 I think?) and sold out in an hour or two. The waiting list was over 20 names long just a few days later.

This is an in demand event.

In many ways it’s reminiscent of the huge System Open Series events of old. People had travelled from France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and even Canada and USA (and those are only the ones I know about!!). In fact, someone from the USA came to judge. Not play, judge.

And in a way I think that tells you all that you need to know about the event. Is it about playing X-Wing? Well, yes, of course it is. An event of this size not only has an incredible amount of swag that you can take away but the calibre of player means that the room is an absolute shark tank, scattered with serial event winners and even the odd world champion here and there!

But it isn’t only about the X-Wing. In the grand scheme of things (compared to other, bigger and more popular game systems) the X-Wing scene is actually a pretty tight-knit community. People banding into local squadrons who travel to other stores for events creates a beautiful cross-pollination of people who know each other from opposite ends of the country or even those from other countries.

It was especially cool to actually have multiple members of the Welsh XTC team in the same room so after a little cajoling and coercion we managed to get a photo all together

Cymru Am Byth!

STO is as much about the social gathering and spending time with others as it is about playing the game, perhaps even more so. I arrived at Element Games along with several squadmates at around 2pm on the Friday. In some respects that seems VERY early for an event that starts on Saturday morning but when I’ve attended in previous years and not arrived until quite late I have actually felt like I’ve been missing out.

This year I’m very glad that I did go this early. I had time to sort out some Patreon things ready to hand out before then having a pick up game with someone who I’d never met before. By the end of the game we’d had a fantastic time and he’d decided to play his list for the main event despite me winning the game. The reason? This list was more fun than the other one that he’d tried. That player was Jonas from Germany who went on to take that list to the top 8 in the main event!

I played 2 more games on the Friday, one of them while stuffing my face with loaded fries from the food place downstairs that delivers directly to your table. We talked, we laughed, we met new people and put faces to names of those I’d only heard of online.

On the Saturday after the main event was done, our group (well, most of us) went for a curry where the place was full of X-Wingers, recounting stories of ships that died when they shouldn’t have, or nailed on attacks that whiffed (JARGON ALERT!!). While some went over to a pub for some drinking I headed back to Element to pick up a bag and joined in two thirds of a game of Coup with a few guys from the 186th (until we got chucked out by Element staff because they were closing!).

Sunday had a similar but slightly different feel as a section of the room got serious with the top cut while the rest of us (spoilers, I didn’t make cut!) played side events with varying levels of intensity.

Dice were rolled, fun was had and prizes were won with some playing in an official AMG GT event while others took part in a doubles event. As rounds wore on more people dropped out, choosing to either watch the cut games or just sit and chat while the opportunity presented itself.

As Sunday drew on we finally packed our things, said our goodbyes and started making our way home.

The conclusion…

What can I say that really sums up what this weekend was? It’s actually a little tricky to articulate with words. In a way it’s something that you probably have to experience in order to fully appreciate.

What I can say is this. Weekends like this are a significant part of what keeps me in the game. Of course the game itself is good and fun. But there are lots of good, fun games I could play. What we have in X-Wing is more than just a game. It’s a social circle, a support network, a band of brothers (and sisters). As with anything, you get out of it as much as you’re willing to put in, as much as you’re willing to open yourself to allow. The STO is, in my opinion, the summit of the social side of the game, bringing together friends who can seldom meet in person, where you might spend 5 minutes or 5 hours with a friend or stranger and feel equally at ease with both.

The outro…

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! If you’d like to support me in continuing my X-Wing blogging adventure there are a few ways you can do that.

You can follow my social media accounts for updates

If you’re looking to buy some gaming ‘stuff’ and don’t have a local gaming store, you can use my affiliate link for Firestorm games. They’re great!

If you would like to directly support the blog then please consider becoming a Patron! I would be forever grateful!

A MASSIVE thank you to my wonderful Patrons for their ongoing support for the blog and enabling me to give away shiny things!

Exile Rookies:
Ben Kennedy, Opi-Wan Kenobi

Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean, Mark Packer-Hughes

Exile Commanders:
Kevin Larsen, David Bryan

Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Jamie Howard, Sean Oakley , Steve Boulton, Kyle Chalpan

You are all amazing humans!

Maybe I’m getting a bit soppy here but this is why I’m here. This is why I think the XWA is an important thing to be a part of and to champion. Why we established the Welsh Open. Why I turn up to play X-Wing in person on a Wednesday. So please forgive me from waxing lyrical about STO. I think it’s pretty important and I think we need more events like it. It certainly won’t be the last time I go.

Official image rreleased!

That’s actually it for today’s post. I’ve got a week now to gather my thoughts, review some photos and check my score sheets and talk about my games! I’ll see you back here next time!

The outro…

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! If you’d like to support me in continuing my X-Wing blogging adventure there are a few ways you can do that.

You can follow my social media accounts for updates

If you’re looking to buy some gaming ‘stuff’ and don’t have a local gaming store, you can use my affiliate link for Firestorm games. They’re great!

If you would like to directly support the blog then please consider becoming a Patron! I would be forever grateful!

A MASSIVE thank you to my wonderful Patrons for their ongoing support for the blog and enabling me to give away shiny things!

Exile Rookies:
Ben Kennedy, Opi-Wan Kenobi

Exile Veterans:
Mark Beor, Daniel Barringer, Michael Bird, Jason Desmarais, Darin Schwarze, Alex Peters-Bean, Mark Packer-Hughes

Exile Commanders:
Kevin Larsen, David Bryan

Exile Legends:
Rebecca Westwood, Admiral_Ackbar47, Phill Blackmore, Chris Fear, Jamie Howard, Sean Oakley , Steve Boulton, Kyle Chalpan

You are all amazing humans!

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