Team USA 40K - Episode 2 - Calm before the Storm

[music] Hello everyone and welcome to an episode of the Team USA 40K podcast. I'm joined by Anthony Vanilla as we are hanging out at the twilight of 10th edition. Hello everybody, welcome to the end of this edition. Finally, a free. Yeah, we're not even at the beginning of the end. We're at the end of the end. We're at the light. Everybody knows. That's true. It's it's over. Yeah, it's finally stopping. I can stop staring at satan. Oh, don't worry. There's a crab waiting for you. That's great. I get to be in the crab, John. I guess I got to be in the satan. I don't know where I'm going with this analogy. I've kind of lost the thread. We are here talking about our experiences as a leadership for Team USA 40K as we kind of go through the summer preparing for the WTC, the World Swim Championships, and so we are one step closer, one big step closer actually in that we have chosen our roster for Team USA for this next year. And we're really, really close to 11th edition coming out. Just right there, man. Just right there. It's like the 11th edition rules are online if you speak French. The 11th edition rules are like 70% online if you use a chat GPT. There's a couple of words that it got wrong, but we need to don't need to worry about that. You don't think that that one that you've seen all over the place is really the rules. I, you know what? I don't think people have seen the scene, the, the slot keyword yet. Yeah, you know what? No promises for the future. We'll see what they snuck into the first code access. Maybe, maybe it's still there. But the lawyer is taking a really sharp turn at 11th edition. The third book, dude. Absolutely. I mean, you can even see games of 11th edition like being played online. Like it's, it's the end of May, the edition comes in June like we're basically there other than the part where you get to play it. Yeah, you can, you can slowly get drip fed rules to get mad about that's their current marketing strategy. It happens every time. Yeah, so we're kind of at the calm before the storm is defeat and how we deal with it and how we're preparing is going to be the theme for today's episode. Yes, sir, the little bit in between we've been pretty bad, honestly, historically about actually taking a break at this point. This will be one of the, you know, only times really in my memory of our time on the team that we're like actually taking a break. Yeah, I look, we're trying something new, right? We've tried going full sprint from how do we say this from October through August before? Yeah. And I think that worked really well for like six months. It works well for nine months though. I think the, if you started it three months in, I don't know, it's hard. It's hard when you have to deselection, man. Yeah, so you know, this is, this is about the journey and you know, we're going to, we're going to talk about team selection because we just complete that quite recently earlier this month. But it's really hard to like justify taking a break because it's one of those things where you kind of have to ask the team to put an equal effort, right? You can't say some people try hard, some people don't try that's, that's not really good in any team building environment. And so, you know, ideally you have, you have everyone working hard. If anyone's working hard, I think that's right just for like team cohesion. That's what you have. Everyone takes a break at the same time. So it's not retail. I don't need someone covering the floor. If we're not at an event, I don't need anyone to work hard. Yeah, please in fact, optimally don't work at all. But, but now we're because we're in that there's, you know, your practice games don't matter. We have selected a team. We have a pretty, pretty laid back may as far as the actual war hammer park goes, although that doesn't stop people from going about beyond. You want to talk about you want to talk about the the sprint or the selection or the break. Um, let's, let's, let's do them in order, man. Why don't we do it that way? The sprint. So we had a really, we talked about home nations last episode, an episode one. And we very much have had a really good team this year, a really hard working team that's kind of been just going to add it from like a team selection, which was in November, December. I think end of November, right? Yeah. And I think I think end of November, early December through April, because, uh, end of April was when we had home nations. And so we were practicing, we were scrambling and everyone's trying really hard, we were, we were 10th editioning as good as we could. And once we were done. Or is this kind of like, well, there's nothing to do, because we all know 11 editions coming and we all know that WC's not to be 10th edition. And so there is this kind of this calm of like, like an anxious calm. Of we all know that there's nothing else we can do. But if we select later, then we were all going to be really anxious before that point, because, you know, we, we had the dates of selecting our final eight roster a little bit nebulous as in I would choose later. So we could have gone as late as like the second week of jude, which would theoretically be after most, like some most, maybe all of the edition was dropped, but we're not really sure on the timeline. And then we're just like sitting on it for a month or we haven't selected. And so, you know, I talked to the extent roster and we pretty much all were in agreement that we would actually rather select sooner rather than have this nebulous month where everyone wanted to do more to kind of earn their spot because it really couldn't. But you really couldn't yeah, like everyone wants to do everything they can. Everyone wants to start and everyone wants to, and you know, and understandably, you know, it's a room full of competitive players, everyone wants to compete. And so this idea of like not taking the time off before the decision, no one really wanted to. So we move the decision up so we can actually take some time off. So we ended up having our team selection middle of May, instead of early June pushing it up about three weeks forward from where it realistically could have been. I think it's totally fine. It means that we weren't making the choice in the context of who's army got better and 11th, but I think that idea works better and a not addition change here anyway, because it's a lot easier to be like, ah yes, a June balance update. The repulsar executioner has gone down 20 points. Ultramarines are good. They are now probably better. That's a little easier than and now the hidden mechanic. Yeah, do that 26 times and also we don't know what the points are yet great. Awesome. Yeah, it's a it's hard to work in these conditions. You know, it's hard to live laugh love in these times. So we had team selection, bumped up a little bit early and you know, we went off everyone's body of work through 10th edition, which, you know, it's honestly, it's, it's both my favorite and least favorite part of the year personally. As I didn't love selection as a player, even when I was pretty confident, I was going to make it and I've been fortunate that every year I've been a member of team USA have been selected to play. So I've been very lucky in that perspective, but I always hate that you feel like going into selection that there's more than eight people who think they either could or should start. And there's just the practical logistics of weekend only do eight. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, it's, you know, it's nerve wracking every time. Even with, you know, a similar situation right like I've started all five of the years that I've been like a member of the team. But every time it's like, oh, maybe not. You know, you kind of keep it together, you show a strong game face, but you're going to know there's always a little bit of like, oh, maybe dude. What if this is the year that the TTS grinders finally have slipped ahead? Yeah, it will happen at some point, four and a half thousand hours on TTS. Yeah, so, yeah, you know, I definitely feel this year was probably the hardest selection has been since we've been on the team. Yeah, this was the hardest time I've personally had voting and, you know, that's, I think we have a really, really good roster this year. I think this is also a real downside of being such a large country with such a large population as your team USA, where I feel like there's, there's plenty of good players that aren't competing for the starting spot in the country because we have such a large player base. But also just like in the room, we just have enough good players that I could, I could, I can make two rosters that I think are like just legit WTC teams. Right. Right. - Yeah, for sure. - So on the one hand, this is like my least favorite, 'cause I hate being at this time of year making, I'll make the decisions, I'll cast the votes, and this is a vote we'll be talking about, but I don't like making hard decisions, I like making easy decisions. - Sure. - But I do love what selection means, which is that almost every decision I make post selection is about Warhammer, and we are getting dangerously close to the part of the season where the only thing I'm responsible for as Captain is the Warhammer Parts. - That is my favorite time of the year. - Look, it's a good time, you know? (laughing) - Look, I play to my strengths. Do you know this, Emily? - Yeah, that's fair, man. - I like the Warhammer part of this. - Yeah, that's fair. I mean, it's an ever challenging thing for me to stay as enthusiastic as you are about the Warhammer Parts. So. (laughing) - The grind continues. But yeah, but we made it through selection and the Team USA selection process was a little bit different this year than what we've done in the past. And so I don't think last episode would be really like specifically outlined how we do it, did we? - I don't honestly remember. That's totally fine because it doesn't take that long to summarize, right? So you might as well do it. - Yeah, that's pretty quick. - So what we did this year was, we cut our roster of last year starters and our 16th person academy. We cut that down to a roster of 12. Back in, I wanna say March. And that we called the extended roster. And so this year, what we did was we had the extended roster plus some coaches. Do a ranked choice vote and from that we pulled the first four starters. And what that uniquely meant was that we could actually lead to a position where first year members of the team were eligible to cast votes for who was starter. Which obviously, which they did. And so in the past, it has very much been a last, the veterans know best, the people who have been to WTC know best. And that's not something you can ever like prove. We just have been operating under that. But this year, we opened it up. And so there were members who are first year on the team able to cast votes. And once that, the roster of 12 picks a four, the four plus the head coach, Mr. Andrew Gagneau, the godfather of Team USA. Those five people select a fifth starter. Adam to the chat, select a sixth starter. Adam the chat, add a seventh starter. Adam the chat, eight starter done. That's a roster. And so we have followed that process and we have produced an eight player roster for who's gonna start for WTCs here. - Yes sir. - All right, so in no particular order, the three new members of the team who have not started for Team USA in the past are Brian Dottry, Wesley St. Heinz, Gagneem of the fish, and Zach Poin. Really excited for all of them. First time starting at WTC is always like a really special thing. So I'm really excited for all of them to be there and to compete. Each and every one of them had impressive runs throughout the year, has had some impressive tournament results. I mean, we saw Wesley win LDO, we saw Brian Dottry playing at the top tables of Adepticon, Nova. You know, I've seen Zach Poin basically hit the podium or top eight of about half of the Super majors. I've seen in the US. It's always like, oh, hey, you know, that's how I'm there. Look at how the meta's there. I'm like, oh, hey, Zach was there. Oh, Zach did pretty good. And so it's really, really exciting to see the new performers and the new faces on the team. And then they'll be joining some veterans of the team, which will be myself, Anthony, we'll both be starting this year, as well as Fodre Piles, the last year's champion, Sam Pope and Brian Sight. And that forms an eight, which is, I think a really, really good squad. I don't think we had bad options, but I'm really excited just to see how this version of the team's gonna do, right? 'Cause that's always the like, you know, every version is the same, right? We've always had a couple of new members every year, so it's always a different feel to each team year and year out, which since this is both of our fifth time, right? We've done it four, this is number five. Ooh, buddy. (laughing) - And up there, dude, long in the tooth. - I know, at a certain point, we stopped being the new kids on the block, and now we're the two longest-running members of the team, can you say clearly? - Yes, someone called me the old guard when her couple months back, and I like almost fell over. (laughing) - Yeah, that cuts deep, doesn't it? - It didn't feel good. (laughing) - Back in my day, I was the up-and-comer. - Yeah, shakes fist. - Yeah, up came. - Yeah, I'm still working on it, you know? (laughing) - True, true, it's still still a lot to achieve. So, really, really excited. And, you know, it's, again, it's tough, 'cause I think we had a lot of people who worked really, really hard this year, and so, it's one of those things that were Iron Sharp, or not, Sharp is Iron. We had so many people on another level this year that I think it made the team stronger as a whole. And so, I'm really hoping that that'll have an impact on the results we produce, but, you know, kind of got to wait till August to find out, right? - Yeah, I mean, we'll know soon enough. - Yeah, true. - Yeah, but first we'll have a level, right? - That is, oh, that is true. (laughing) - I, I, I know that you and I are two sides of the same coin on this. I'm really excited for the 11th stuff that we've seen. - I am sort of, (laughing) I broadly view it positively in for the folks that were already on GW boards, you know? - True, yeah. It is gonna be a really big change for the people who only played WTC. - Yeah. (laughing) - Yeah. (laughing) - So much, yes. - Yeah, funny, funny you mentioned that actually. - Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot different, dude. I don't really have another way to say it, other than just, you know, good luck. - Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, that, I think that's gonna be one of the interesting things here. So, we've seen so far, the 11th edition is actually quite a lot. Again, I'm not gonna say anything that hasn't already been on war comms, so if you're listening attentively, don't worry, I'm, I'm pretty good at this. We've seen a lot of the rules changes on 11th edition, and we know that they're not doing an indexing of the game. And what I've kind of observed, based on everything they're previewing from 10th to 11th, as opposed to 9th to 10th for people who have done the transition, is that 9th to 10th felt like a lot of the core parts of the game were the same, and all of the changes revolved around the units. - Okay. - Because I think what we had in 9th to 10th, was that like characters could join units again, right? I'm pretty sure in 9th characters, just like didn't join units. - Yeah, they're just loaded, dude, it was, I mean, that was when I was, you know, doing most of my like, actually playing competitive. Yeah, they were just a thing. - And you, and like OC characteristics didn't exist, and obviously we're using different train formats and different secondaries and things, but like, the main changes from 9th to 10th felt like it was for the units and for the missions. - Yeah. - And from 10th to 11th, the, um, the secondaries feel from what they've previewed, like it's the same thing, like it's different, but the difference between 10th to 11th and secondaries is like the same difference as what was between the three different secondary decks we worked with in 10th edition, right? - Right. - Which is just like a fourth one, it's the same thing. - Yep. - Uh, the primary super different, but it feels like the core rules have actually changed a lot more. We're seeing a lot of more different changes to the core rules with the same units, whereas before it felt like the core was the same, but the units were different. - Yeah, I mean, it didn't, it didn't, right? There was like some mechanics that they added with like the bones of 10th that were big shakeups, right? - I'm sure there's some massive changes that I've completely forgotten about. - Well, just like dev wounds used to not exist. - Oh yeah. Sorry, I forgot because I couldn't hear you where my cows can fire their hot shot weapons like, yeah, I mean, you know? - Yeah, I mean, even that though, wasn't really dev wounds, right? Like that was like, there was like a mortals in addition, that was like kind of capped. They could only really do so much. - That's true. - Like, I don't even think we would blink at the amount. Like if you were just like, yeah, that was a dev-winged activation and that was like the old Caspian activation that made us beep. - That is true. The old Caspian activation that made people just like cry for their mothers eventually got capped at six mortals wins. - Yeah. - Before that, it was averaging like eight or nine. - But even that's like, you know? - I did take 15 mortal wounds from a pair of auto cannons off of the Filer earlier today. - Yeah, and Overwatch no less. - Yeah, well, you know, now that you mentioned that. (laughing) That was a plan. - That was a plan. - Yeah, no, that's fair. I think that the transition from 10th to 11th is actually gonna be bigger than the transition from 9th to 10th for players. - I can see that being true. I mean, so. I mean, because I feel like me into a lesser extent, you at that point from going from 9th to 10th, we're kind of in our like transitioning into team's land anyway, we were kind of playing like our own game by playing on WTC board, so that transition didn't feel too crazy. Like, you know, imagine if WTC had been on GW terrain at the start of 10th, and there was like release rate night over waters and shit, right? Oh, yeah. Just completely untannable on a GW board, but playable on a WTC board at the time for the Armies that could do it. I don't really like thinking about that time of your actually. Yeah, well, you know, I don't think anybody did, man, that was a rough couple of months. Yeah, it really was, but um, yeah, it, I guess, I think you're right. I was certainly transitioning from competing seriously at singles to, I will travel to one or two singles events a year. Right. I don't, I don't think I've traveled to three. I don't think I've like traveled outside of like a drive. I don't think I've flown to three singles events in a year in 10th edition. No, I was looking at the other day, dude. Do you know how many GTs I've done in 10th edition? I would guess that you've done six. Wow. Hit it in one. What a banger, dude. Oh, yeah. That's pretty impressive. I've been tracking. Yeah. You had two Cali cups. You had one WCW. You had a, uh, uh, the Alpha Legion one. I did have the Alpha Legion one. Correct. Um, I know that you had one other world leader one. I just couldn't remember it. Um, then I added one just in case. You added one just in case that's fair. Yeah. And there I was. At sex bang on in the first try. I've done more than six. Yeah, I would bet. Like, I, yeah. If we're going to get at GT level, I doubt I've done more than 15 in 10th edition, which is really low. Again, I had, I had seasons where I would do 15. Um, but, you know, a lot of teammates nowadays. I mean, the team events just take up time, right? They take up time in prep. And, you know, that you would otherwise be using all the singles events. Uh, Trinity does take up money that I would otherwise be using on single events. True. So does getting married, but that's been worth it. I mean, you know. It all comes with a cost. Indeed, dude. I'm now understanding how the old, the old card slowed down back when I was an up and coming. Yeah, you're like, uh, they ever stop. Yeah, it's like, uh, this is why I got it. I do like spending time with my wife. Um, so, yeah, but I think this transition is going to actually be a little bit less natural for, uh, for people. I think this is going to take a little bit more time to get used to. Yeah, it seems a bit clunky. Like it's just a bit, you know, at least if you're expecting like a 10th edition experience, you were certainly not getting that. Yeah, um, I think, I think getting it on the table is going to be like the real test. Some of it like looks clunky. And then I started like doing it. I'm like looking at it and like what it would mean. I was like, Oh, okay. Like I thought of the new wound allocation, which again, they've, they showed off at the, um, the kind of the preview, preview games. I thought that was like super clunky. I'm like, man, that's awful. And I started like rolling it. I was like, Oh, this is actually like a little bit. This is actually faster. I think it'll be faster once people let go of the like hard and fast rules they have in their head, right? Yeah. I think the transition is going to be a little bit rough for a lot of people. But I like, I think I like what they've shown so far to the point where I'm, I'm actually pretty confident. Every addition changes always like everyone's like, oh, I missed the last one. These brimstone horrors are two points each. Man, the game was so much better. You know, three months ago and I didn't have to pay any points for them. That's like, all right. Like sure. I think, I think I do think that, um, I think after like three months, I think I do think a lot of this is actually going to be pretty sweet. I'm actually really looking forward to it to the point and it's easy to say now where I'm considering going back on the single circuit for a year. Oh shit. Yeah, I really want. I really want to go just like hit a couple super majors. That's fair. It's been a while. I want to go see if I want to go see what happens. It's been a minute. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, it's a really interesting. Um, it's a really interesting thing, but when we're kind of facing all of these changes that we can't necessarily act on yet. It's a really interesting thing for a team that has for so long been a we are grinding and working hard the entire time. Yeah, we are explicitly trying not to do that this year. Even in the gaps between events that's usually us working on the next one right and for especially for the like people like you and I that went to both of our prep events. Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, you and I were at both nominations and pirate. So we had to prepare for both. We didn't really have a break for either of those. Um, I just staring down the barrel of 11th edition, the, um, especially once, you know, we had locked in a date for, um, for selection. What I told people was just to stop preparing even before selection. It was like, hey, it's early May. We're going to pick in mid May. Um, stop, stop. Just, just relax. You know, you know, like there's no games you can play in the next week or two that are going to like matter that are going to move this needle. Yeah. Yeah, like at this point, your practice games, that addition, it's fine. I don't care. Um, go buy a video game, go spend time with your spouse and like, right, that's been the focus. Right. Um, I have played one game of 10th edition in the past month. Yep. I need to, I would have to go double check to make sure that street that I might have been guy. And I, I, no, I think it's, it might be two. I have not played any, I have not played 10th since home nations. Yeah, so you, you've had over a month of having played a game of Warhammer. Yep. Um, I, I, I'm like, actually curious if I've done two. Um, I think it was. Uh, yeah, no, I think, um, very tight. I'm playing a Warhammer game, but it's been dark tied. Um, fair, uh, confirmed singular game, one game, nice. That's pretty good. Um, so very much taking less spending less time on it. Obviously, you know, for work, I'm still doing Warhammer stuff. So I'm, I'm certainly staying in touch because I have to do a live video on YouTube for every time. I've got a preview article and more common bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. But, um, a lot less than my personal time to go to the playing Warhammer. Um, right. And so, and I know that's the same for a lot of guys. I don't think, I don't think Folger has played a game of Warhammer in the last month. No, it's been, um, quite a while. A couple have been, have been kind of pursuing the events anyways. Um, I know Zach went to, um, the Warhammer up in Dallas. A couple of members of the team did, uh, shout out to Ben Jericho, made it all the way to the finals. Um, we're up at the team. We're up at the young stream as a, as the, the last game against the big tall man. Um, but, uh, yeah, it was, um, it's been really interesting having a down, having a down period for Team USA, because we haven't tried that ever. And I, I think getting everyone into what we expect to be an 11th edition grind and new edition. All right, all hands on deck. We have to play a bunch of games now. Having people come into that relatively fresh. I think it's going to be more of a benefit than the actual momentum. I think that's true, team. Yeah, that's certainly the hope, right? Maybe, maybe we'll find out that everyone became bad at Warhammer when they stopped playing for one month, but I'm really optimistic that's not going to be the truth. That'd be really tragic though if it was true. I, I would be despondent. I would, I don't know what I would do if I just like took a month off came back, it was actively bad at Warhammer. Yeah, just didn't, just couldn't get it together. Look, if I lose too many practice games, I will step down and just be an online captain, but fair warning. It's going to have to be a lot, a lot of losses. A lot of games. Yeah, that's fair. If you just can't figure it out, dude. If I can't figure it out, I can't figure it out. Your bill on play 10th will be as bad as your initial takes on an elder could access. Not still there, please. My initial take on 11th was that it looks pretty cool. Oh, no, no. Yeah, I'm certainly famous for how accurate my first takes are. John, you're not even allowed to listen to John's first takes honestly. Like you can listen to his second takes maybe. I just need like one game. Yeah, he's just got to see it move around. Yeah, did I, did I say that I wasn't sure if I would actually take it to file or 250? Yep, you also said that the words of ultra marward terrible. I remember you talking them up down in sideways. You know, that actually sounds kind of familiar now that you mentioned that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did say that. Well, the tricks you were like, they might be okay. And that's when I knew we were fucked. It's so good though. They are. Pretty solid man. That is how I would describe them. Yeah. Yeah, they're pretty good. I love me Subdictrics now. That's that part's good. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's some pretty fair to take. So So don't trust me on first takes just look just give him a set of one game. Just give him a little a little dry run. Yeah, I just just just one game for me to make sure that I'm I'm not completely Uh, yeah, so um, so we're as we're staring down the barrel on this one um What have you been doing instead just just dark tide spending time with Anna? I played a bunch of dark tide. I spent some time with Anna I went to a concert. I did a bunch of adulting stuff that I would normally expect 30s year old first that have together that but it's done now um Yeah, I uh, I don't know. I did got a new role at work. I have an employee now, which is a trip You know Yeah, I mean like that's been pretty much it I've been playing a little bit of wow. I've been playing a little bit of Baldur's Gate. I got D&D a bit like I don't know. I'm just kind of reaching around trying to find stuff to do while I you know wait to get into 11th um and see if world leaders can play the game Yeah, I am um I am firmly determined to continue my What I've been doing for the last two years, which is not stepping outside of my list of armies Yeah I've been very happy not doing that for a while and some really really looking to keep it up because I have uh, have an I think the let so like what I can sort of be like my main armies are tier-in-ed space marines and for children and then I I'm forced to acknowledge that um That astronautariums on the list as well. Yeah, and The last time I took an army besides those to a tournament were coming up on three years ago Yep, because it was it was the the first WTC of 10th edition custodies custodies and you know Fair enough, but but in 10th edition. I've completely resisted the lure of oh, I'll just play the broken thing Yep And I've been happier for that And so we're gonna try to keep it up for for love edition So spoiler alert for anyone who's trying to get the the good intel on what I'm doing for WTC Probably one of those four factions because they really don't want to do it in the house I mean, yeah, I have what in my in my wheelhouse these days is really just like world leaders CSM EC is like really the only things that I play and Necrons I'd be is my is my version of your guard, I suppose Yeah Forced to admit that it's there not happy about it not thrilled, but you know I've said tans are bad that I'm not even really a Necron player, so I kind of skate it right. I'm like half a Necron player Fair enough. I'll play exactly one side of this faction The c'tan side. Yeah, I mean, I have a similar relationship with jacarior and if cuffins are good I'm super excited about it if it's basically anything else in my house and elves Yeah, so what I've been doing for the um for the past bit is um focused on uh just like Trying to keep everything else in order, you know So I've been doing a lot of uh Uh, just like spending time with my wife mcayla um, we've been playing a bunch of slay this fire uh, I have been painting a lot just like Accepting that the only army that I only armies that I'm like actively trying to get to be well-painted armies Are my space marines and members children and so I've just been like alternating like painting units for those just to kind of keep a fresh Or just like Just getting like one of everything that I don't have even if I'm like not sure that I want it uh like it's like All right paint the paint the one defiler pretty because you know, I'm probably gonna need one of those for a while apparently Um Apparently those are actually worth taking uh, and then also like painting some flawless blades I don't really want but like I don't know if any painted flawless blades So what are the odds that at some point john needs to have some flawless blades painted Yeah, pretty high At some point I'm gonna need those Um into this codex over the next I will need a flawless blade eventually Yeah, I mean look we try and avoid them for so long But if game's workshops gonna choose to keep upping them then there's you know, what's a man to do? Yeah, I mean, there literally just has to be a points cost where I'm willing to take them I mean you know 80 There just has to be a points cost where I'm willing to take them. I think 80s it gw. Please yeah But uh Prevericate for a moment. I'm gonna get up for a second. Of course Um, it's it's it's been fun Trying to spend a my free time doing other things purely for the sake of doing other things Uh, that's been uh, that's been really nice just to get to spend the time on um, and I'm I'm trying to have a nice fresh approach to actually the competing at WTC side of things Uh, because that Is always the struggle because um, you know last year there was a there's a little bit of a Of burnout I think going on for a lot of people on TV to say or when we were getting By the time we were getting to the finish line a lot of people were A little bit tired of it and everyone is still excited, but uh But you know, it's understandable to if you do something for too long to get a little bit tired of it I ever turned oh welcome back going back uh talking about last year's burnout how uh, uh, yes You know, uh, dread it run from it uh, it arrives. Yep If you're not careful about managing it boy, it's this tough. Yeah Yeah, that's the I mean that that really is just like the trick of it right is That you you need to stop it from happening and find a way to get excited again. Yep Uh, which we we do our best on I mean the break seems to be helping more than anything I'm like, you know looking forward to the games to come rather than being like Yeah, I'm I'm I'm really excited for the break to end now. It's I'm sure it's one of those things where like Uh You know you you're you're excited for it Beforehand always then you get there and you're you're always gonna be a little bit less excited But like I'm pretty excited about it. That's the moment. Yeah Yeah, I mean from everything I hear from everything I've seen it seems Like there'll be options at least, you know Ah, thank god for options. Yeah, wherever you want to thank really. Yeah up to you um Yeah, I mean, I'm excited about you know, I'm excited for the way things look so far for my armies that can play And mind arm so EC and CSM Um, I'm less excited for mono melee, but I'm gonna be honest as much as I don't think Gumball like mono gun line should work probably that has to be true in the other direction and therefore, you know Please give us some flavors in world leader's GW Maybe you'll uh You'll get that as uh as the special unit one day. Yeah. Yeah, do you get the uh, you know Fire of corn's forges or some shit Get like a jump pack, you know, maybe like a jump pack flavor that right. That's all you want Yeah, my my vitricks guard is three wound Jump pack guys with flavors on a chain ax Mm-hmm. Yeah, it is weird that you don't have a chosen equivalent. You only have the It's so weird man There's so many rate from berserker to large. Yeah, it is uh There's nothing there's not even like a specialist right like all the other ones get like some form of like guy with a purpose, you know Um, you know like your noise marine your you know the two different types of blightlord versus death shroud um I don't know. It's yeah, it's very odd with eaters that it's kind of just like berserker by the way only comes in ten man question mark Yeah, that's That was weird Never had a cultist so it wasn't like as big of a deal, but I was always a little weird. I mean we had we have jackals so like not we don't need to they don't have to be ten man's you know At least give us the option fuck Yeah, maybe but Also consider maybe not yeah, they went with not I I suppose you know Look as a as a fellow I don't have any cultist enjoyer um yeah Yeah, it's um you would you would think that at some point they would uh It was just give that to us. Yeah, I mean look you can take cultists and you see you just only can take them in carnival Oh, yeah, if that's what we're calling demonets. Yeah, it's fair enough right they're pretty similar They are they're not as cheap right 90 points versus 50, but that's true And the cultists will probably do about as many mortal wounds if you're like to spend a command point on them That does actually feel like you're the old explosives dude. Just drop the dropper grenade on them. It's fine Oh, man I miss having grenades Yeah, you need to know grenades recently Plants of tyrannes. Oh that's tough dude. I love those come on. I love this in tyrannes But like they're they're 10th design is just so yucky, you know, yeah But like they're cool. That's true objectively correct. They just don't They don't do the stuff the way I wish they did the stuff, you know. Yeah, that's fair. Um, yeah. I mean, so far, though, it's just like, I don't know, just looking for the future. I'm really itchy for it at this point. It's been fun. I am now ready, kind of vibes. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think the throw a lot of us are at it. Certainly where I'm at. Um, and we do have our really exciting practice we got this year, which will be fun. Do we do have a really exciting practice? We're doing for practice we can this year is, uh, uh, I think, uh, it could be really different from how we've done. Team USA practice weekends ever before. I don't think we've ever quite done it this way. We've definitely not done it as an event. Yeah. So what we're doing for practice, we can this year is, um, we're doing it at a different timing from last year first of all. Um, in the past, we've done two practice weekends for team USA. And we found that gathering people from around the, the country and making it a case of like, you have to go to two practice weekends. It meant that a bunch of people would say I could only do one. And as soon as you say, I can only do one, then no one is doing the same one. Yep. Right. And then you would end up like not having the whole team together for anything. And that was really not good. Yeah. Um, and so where we have, uh, kind of ended up now is that we're going to do one practice event. Same as we did last year. And we will have that practice event before list lock, whereas last year we had it after list lock. Just because list lock is going to be a little bit later this year that it was last year, we didn't think it was practical to be able to do both. Right. Like it just like, it's one of those things where like if we do it after the weekend, after list lock, it's like great. Spend one weekend traveling for team USA, get back and then four days later fly to Europe. And that was just like, this is a little too much to ask. It's too close. It is, it is entirely too close. So what we have done instead is we're doing a, uh, really fun, uh, little like team USA retreat up in the Northeast, where, um, we actually found a really sweet wedding venue at a very good price, uh, thanks to, um, thanks to Alec and, uh, who I think is a friend of yours. Yep. Great. So we're going out to the Poconos in Northeast Pennsylvania. And we're going to have a, like, a rented out, like, think of like a classic, like really like nice, like farmhouse barn wedding, uh, beautiful view of the, you know, of the trees, the rolling hills of green grass, not another house nearby. And we're going to take this wonderful rustic venue and we're going to shove about eight tables of alum tradition into it. Yep. Yeah. I'll get after it. Yeah. Also, we need to do it on the 4th of July weekend, which is like a fun little like, like, oh, cool. We get to do the America holiday. Yeah. We weren't planning it this way, but we, but we will do it this way. Yeah, it's fun this way. Um, so I think that, I think that'll also be, uh, we're really fun. So we're going to do a, uh, 4th July, we're just doing it as a learn 11th edition together. Just like, all right. None of us actually know how this works yet. And so we just need to figure it out together. Yep. And that's like actually all that matters. So it gets to be a very different type of practice we've done in the past. So I, I'm really excited for that. We're going to have, though, we're going to have 16 people there. We're going to have the whole starting roster a couple more people. Uh, we're going to have some coaches there as well. Uh, we're going to have a bunch of armies, a bunch of train bunch of tables and have just, you know, 72 uninterrupted hours of, okay, let's actually learn how 11th edition works after it runs out a couple of weeks to kind of do it independently. Right. Um, and that, uh, I think it's going to be a really, really fun little adventure for all of us. Yeah. I mean, just a couple days, you know, locked in kind of like, you, we don't normally do our practice weekends as for list design. We use them for opposition testing, um, which normally I would say is the better way to do it. But the timeline this year was just like he said, not, uh, not so accommodating for that, you know? Yeah. I, um, I think I, I think I, I would probably prefer it that way. We haven't done it this way. So like, all right, like we'll learn and we'll find out what I generally speaking, I would say that I would probably prefer to do it, um, such that we do the practice we can afterlister live. But it is kind of fun to do it a different way, I think. Yeah. Yeah, it should be fun. I think it'll be really enjoyable, either way. It's just, you know, something we got to, uh, we got to go extra hard on when we can is trying to like prep those, uh, prep those opposition armies. Yeah. Well, that's, yeah, that'll be, uh, that'll be a bunch of TTS grind and is what that's going to be for sure. You know, that is why we, um, that is like why we, we are taking this time off. So that when the time comes to grind, we're just ready to grind. Right. Right. So yeah, that's, um, and that's about where we are, right? We're just, we're just making it ready. It's the calm before the storm. Uh, you know, hold your loved ones close, uh, because, right? Because it's coming in. Yeah, it's, it's, it's coming. So we just have to be ready. So, uh, probably by the, the next time we put out an episode, we'll probably be, we'll probably wait until a lot of the edition is out and that'll be about a good time to do it. It's how I'm feeling. Yeah. I think that's fair. So that means we'll, uh, we'll see you next time. So, uh, for now, um, if you are looking for a nice wedding, wedding venue in, uh, Northeast Pennsylvania, uh, check out a Sylvan Ridge farm. It is, uh, beautiful and, uh, we'll, we'll probably find some, uh, some pictures to take while with there. Uh, I'm really looking forward to being there. It looks absolutely wonderful. And also, I really liked the idea of spending, uh, weekend in July, not in Florida, not in Florida. I love me some Florida. Don't get me wrong. But there is, you know, there's a, there's, there is a season where it starts to get pretty warm and we're, uh, we're, we're about there. So, uh, I am, I am personally prepared for, uh, I'm personally quite, quite prepared to have a little bit of, uh, cooler weather out of the way. Right. Alrighty. Well, that wraps it up for now. Uh, check out the Team USA Patreon. Uh, if you want to support Team USA, if you, uh, just want to support the teams we get ready for our, our build up to WTC, that is the absolute best way to do it. And stay tuned because we'll be, uh, putting another episode in about two weeks. Anthony, thanks for coming out today. Thank you, sir. Have a good one, guys. Bye-bye.