Mickey wrote:
I bet they still finish in the top tier.
Not without removing those "superior" options from the entire tournament. Let's say for example, you took the top 8 players from this year, and forced them to use a slightly less powerful faction next year, but you still allowed everyone else to play the best of the best. You wouldn't see more than 1 top 8 repeat most likely, maybe 2. As it is, the competitiveness of the Gencon tourney is like nothing else anyone sees in this game. Any of the top 30 are very very strong players and could easily make the top 8. There aren't many repeats from year to year either.
Plus, what would be the point? To win some moral battle about proving Rebels aren't as good as advertised? That's like the guy who told me I shouldn't play Gencon using GOWK because I should challenge myself. The tournament is about playing your absolute best, and that includes squad construction, strategies, counter meta preparation and tactics, and so many other things, that choosing to play a subpar squad to prove a point isn't a realistic option. There are people who like to do this in general, that already do it. This year, they didn't finish so well. Did you even read the list of names of people who didn't run Rebels and how they finished? All of those are top level players.
The second tier players at Gencon are people that are good enough to make the top 8. They just tend to be missing something. Sometimes its practice, sometimes is nerves, sometimes its just experience. But even still, every year, a couple of surprises make it through. You are honestly telling me that the top 8 are so much better than everyone else that we could give everyone else Rebels and still win it? Lol. You need to be there and see what the games look like in the final 3 rounds to really understand I think, but they are nothing but easy, even when you have what in reality is a very minor squad advantage (bigger advantage if you won the map roll in this particular case.)