First Place Winner of Tour Stop #2
Mason “Locked Out” Tanner: Hi Bombay! Thanks for taking the time after the tournament to talk with us.
Trevor “Bombay” Betts: Yeah no problem!
Locked Out: When you were planning your squad for today’s tournament, what were you expecting to see line up against you?
Bombay: Well, I looked at list juggler from last tournament and I assumed I was going to see the same thing.
Brian “Blue Angel” Bugaj: Did you see the same thing?
Bombay: Pretty much. I know “Locked Out” was going to run his usual list and I knew Michael Deegan was going to run his same list. I wasn’t expecting four TLT’s though and the other list was a pretty creative ghost list with Biggs and tactical jammer. So that was surprising.
Locked Out: Yeah, that was pretty cool. I agree with that. Alright, so when building your list Bombay you obviously have to think what am I going to face today and what kind of counters am I going to come up with? What I want to know is, what was your thought process when building your list? You dirty imperial!
Bombay: Well I wanted triple defenders for sure. I like Vessery’s ability and I don’t want to bring him up to VI (Veteran Instincts) because I feel that’s a waste. I like Juke, so I put that in there. Sometimes Juke goes off all the time and sometimes it doesn’t, but I still feel it is better than VI I think because everyone is going to be at Pilot Skill 9. Then, Ryad has PTL and standard load out for her. She’s really good especially because she has lower pilot skill than Vessery, so her Target Lock will be there for Vessery’s ability.
Locked Out: Very Creative! So that’s what you were flying today, well two of your ships. Were you flying anything else?
Bombay: I was also flying the Delta and he is just a throw in with 28 points and he’s better than Palpatine.
Locked Out: He’s one point cheaper too, so you have more room to play with. Very cool. Another question, when you play Vessery you run him with the Tie X/7 title and there’s a lot of players that run the Tie/D title and take a cannon, so why do you take that title that you chose over the Tie/D title?
Bombay: The X/7 title is a million times better than the Tie/D title. I’d rather survive five more rounds than die in the first round with Tie/D and maybe use his ability maybe one time with the double tap from Tie/D. I don’t like the Tie/D at all. I am more of a defensive player, so I’d rather have the tokens.
Locked Out: Now in the case of Vessery a lot of people fly Vessery specifically with the Tie/D title because he can use that Target Lock ability, so you’d rather have more defensive tokens than offensive?
Bombay: It’s more because I maybe will get Vessery’s ability off half the game and he’ll die with the Tie/D title or he’ll survive the full game with the Tie X/7 title.
Locked Out: Yes, but you also have the chance to make two attacks potentially with two target locks.
Bombay: I’m never going to get those attacks in if he’s dead. It also messes up the points of the list. I just like X/7 way better than Tie/D personally.
Locked Out: Yeah it does make it easier to fit more things in the list. So Mr. Bombay, what was our toughest matchup today?
Bombay: My toughest matchup?
Locked Out: Definitely not me because I sucked.
Bombay: Definitely not [Keyan Farlander]. Keyan sucks all around.
Locked Out: Keyan sucks because Keyan is a dirty Rebel.
Bombay: Probably the Decimator/Inquisitor build.
Locked Out: Really?
Bombay: It was more tough because he had Gunner.
Locked Out: Oh yeah that will do it.
Bombay: I would evade it on purpose and then hope for a bad attack for the Gunner attack and it worked out. I had some nice rolls and I maybe got hurt from it once or twice from it. Then he has the thermal detonators but he didn’t get really good ones of this time. Last time he got some good ones off.
Locked Out: Yeah you’re pretty good at evading with that barrel roll ability.
Blue Angel: Who was flying that list?
Bombay: Michael Deegan.
Blue Angel: So Bombay, how did you handle the Ghost with the double attack list?
Bombay: I pretty much jousted. I was hoping to take out Biggs a round earlier. I didn’t though, but was still able to get Biggs the next turn, K-turn around everyone and just follow the Ghost around. The Ghost was scary though with his Fire Control System and TLT. I tempted him by barrel rolling into range 1 with Ryad when he had a Target Lock on Vessery or the Delta, so he had to make a choice and it worked out very well. Pretty much I jousted though and hoped for the best.
Blue Angel: The key though was that the tempting you put on him and he had to make those decisions.
Bombay: Yeah I was trying to make him make tough decisions the whole game. That was the key.
Blue Angel: Yeah, when you’re making decisions like that which are really tough, eventually you’ll make a mistake.
Bombay: I don’t think he made many mistakes, but it made him split fire a lot of times and that’s what really helped.
Locked Out: Alright, so now that this tournament is over, do you plan on attending any more of the tournaments on the tour?
Bombay: Yeah because I got to get my first place.
Locked Out: Ahh, don’t get cocky kid.
Michael “Firebird” Girardi: What kinds of lists give you the most trouble?
Blue Angel: The double B-Wing and Z-95 list from last one, right? [Blue Angel’s list from RivCo #1]
Bombay: Well, the double B-Wing and Z-95 was just luck that I lost that one. Anyways, any list with Gunner is hard, also the TLT’s gave me a lot more trouble than I thought they would.
Locked Out: Yeah, they strip away a lot of tokens. That’s one of the things about that list.
Bombay: It can survive, but any list with Gunner and TLT’s can be difficult.
Locked Out: Yeah that’s one of the shortcomings of the defender list. If you have a lot of attacks coming in, eventually the tokens will fade away.
Blue Angel: Any commentary you want to say Bombay?
Bombay: Well no, but it was a great tournament. Pretty good turnout, same as last time.
Locked Out: Alright, that will do it for our Post-Tournament interview with Trevor “Bombay” Betts, #1 Mr. Defender.