Heroclix Worlds 2024

Here we go on another Heroclix Worlds adventure. Wednesday is a travel and socialize day. Jay, Devin and I booked and then found out that we’d chosen the same flight as Jocelyn and Rob! I am so glad that I found good times for flights that means we don’t need to be at the airport at a stupid early time, we have an acceptable layover time that will allow for delays and we arrive after check-in time, but early enough that we can go to the store, have dinner and hang out with others who are also arriving on Wednesday. After last years grocery store run, I knew I wanted to do that again. Just having breakfast foods and snacks in the room made for a much easier food experience. Starting the day off with oatmeal, greek yogurt and fruit helped to keep me going. The evening was spent socializing after getting back from dinner of a group of like 16 of us.

Thursday I decided to not set an alarm and have a relaxing morning with no pressure. We had debated doing the breakfast buffet for this morning but ultimately decided against it. I was planning to go over to the convention hall early to line up and get a good spot to get in early to grab purchasable and get my name on the KEVIN list and then get some battle royals in. Wizkids decided to do a brilliant and opened registration at 11 instead of 2 and that made for a much smoother day, with events starting at 2:30. Even with starting that early, the lines were crazy long and you had to get in 5 different lines. We easily spent 2.5 hours in lines and by the time I got to the front of the registration line, 2 of the Thursday events I wanted to participate in were sold out so I had to shift from doing 2 battle royals and then a super sealed to the earlier super sealed and then decided last minute to do the last battle royal. This meant having 2 hours between events and I was able to go for dinner with friends in the middle. I know it was something I had mentioned last year to the organizers, and mentioned again this year, but fingers crossed for next year that they can figure out online registration and payment in advance for both events and con LEs. That will only speed stuff up, I’m sure, as well as help break up the costs by paying for events in advance. I also wish we could get the TCB packages earlier, for those arriving before Thursday. That downtime would be the perfect time to do the Graceland tour if desired and not have to cut into event time. The events were a really fun way to start the event. My Super Sealed I ended up with Chase Prince Kal El and Poseidon. Did terrible at 0-3, but had a blast playing (it was my first time playing a Super Sealed and I really enjoyed it and would play in it again) and made SO MUCH water with Poseidon. In my battle royal I ended up with a Shado. She’s so fun to play and I’m glad I got to draft her at the end, along with the SR shifty Batman. I didn’t already own any of these SR’s or the Chase, so that was a definite bonus!

Friday is teams! Always the most fun event. Love that both my Canadian ladies came again this year so we could keep going with Calm Your Clix, new with team shirts and pogs! We each gave all of our opponents a nice to meet you/fun to play you pog with our logo on it. I was really hoping to pull a Darkseid in our brick because I very much wanted to pilot it. Unfortunately we didn’t, but we did pull the pieces for the perfect Darkseid killing team. Aja and Jocelyn let me pilot it while Jocelyn made a Posiedon team and Aja made a Zala Jor El with shifty Batmen team. My team ended up being prime Reverse Flash, Caveman Wally West, Black Beetle, Zatanna, Detective Chimp and Mister Mind. I went 3-1 personally in Swiss and loved that in round 4 I actually got to face a Darkseid and was able to KO it, even with it coming back on click 2. Jocelyn and Aja won the rounds that mattered to make it that we had 3-1 also as a team and we made it into the top 16 cut! Unfortunately we had to face our friends and my roommates, Devin/Jackson/Adam and only I was able to beat Jackson, so they knocked us out. This was our best ever placement for team worlds and I am so proud of how we did! 

Saturday is the main event, Singles World Championship! The morning started with the awesome Jeremiah coming up to me asking if I had my tray with me. I pulled it out and he surprised me with an amazing updated insert to highlight the 2nd Nats win. Thank you again, my friend! With the watchlist results changing some things from my winning Canadian Nats team, I needed to figure out what I wanted to play for Worlds. I was still really enjoying a lot of the parts of my team so I decided to just tweak it instead of starting from scratch. I did this for a few reasons. First, the core pieces are still really good. Second, I’m practiced with it, so I’ll feel more comfortable and confident running it. I really enjoyed how I piloted it with the more defensive shell over the super aggressive way I had play tested and decided to lean into that. I tweaked it to even more body blocking with more Daredevils. Because I never used the Trick Arrows that were assigned to one of the Daredevils, I took those off and turned it into a 3rd Daredevil. With less Ivy’s being seen, I wasn’t quite as concerned with penetrating damage across the map, so I decided to drop Kong in favor of having MOE swap. Without Kong there, I decided to move the Khonshu onto a Daredevil instead, to have a more central prob. I’m starting the MOE with Black Skull on the map for 2 reasons. 1st to try and get a War Machine bystander on turn 1 with the Leadership roll and 2nd to drop the Black Symbiote to Wonder Woman, who is Butterflying in, and making it harder to Outwit her Super Senses if I’m facing a heavy range team like Carnage Silver Surfers. My MOE on the sideline are Killmonger for when heavily equipped teams alpha strike and Iron Inquisitor for range Murn teams. If they have Murn, the only people they will be able to see on my team with the improved targeting will be the Daredevils and white shirt Porter. Everyone else won’t share a keyword. And with the Daredevils body blocking, it’ll take some work for them to make it in to the rest of the team. Now that Ammuts Tomb is banned, I’m not scared of making Butterfly Swarm bystanders that I can throw across the map to try and get some points while they’re trying to make their way in. I can get 2 of them across the map to the opposing starting area on turn 2, so long as they aren’t completely barriered in. Keeping Super Senses on the bike for Colossus for that extra roll out there too. I have a feeling most people won’t be playing a version of the team so defensive, so I hope it’ll be a little different from other things being played – even though it has a lot of the same types of pieces. 

So the full team ends up being: 
Colossus with Motorcycle (picking Charge/Super Senses) 
Butterfly with swap in options of Death Metal Wonder Woman and Cosmo
MOE swap starting with Black Skull with Black Symbiote with King Killmonger and Iron Inquisitor
White Shirt Scott Porter with Yellow Ring
Black Shirt Porter 
Legacy Daredevil with Billy Clubs
Legacy Daredevil with Chthon
Legacy Daredevil with Khonshu
Terrain: Traffic Barrel, 1×2 Blocking, 1×3 Blocking (both taking 4 damage to KO)
Maps: Bloodstone Maze, Daily Bugle Press Room and Terra Verde

Similar to my Canadian Nats team, my set up every game was putting 1 Daredevil (Billy Clubs) on Hypersonic so it could easily get the Black Symbiote to Wonder Woman while it moved into position, 1 Daredevil (Chthon) on Charge in case I needed the Quake to break walls and also picking up the Traffic Barrel (and will have higher defense from Chthon as well as giving me the extra Perplex from the Chthon damage) and 1 Daredevil (Khonshu) on Sidestep for repositioning the prob if needed. They formed a wall of figures, 2 squares away from each other so they couldn’t be multi-attacked and opposing figures would have to stop if they based them because of the Traffic Barrel. 

We had 196 players this year and they announced that it would be 5 rounds and cut to top 32. There was quite a bit of uproar about it being only 5 rounds because there would be x-1’s that would not make the cut. This means that overall wins were even more important because you may not make the cut if you lose even 1 game and don’t have a lot of points. My team isn’t known for wiping teams and taking a lot of points, but it’s really good at not giving up a lot of points though. After round 1, they made an announcement that they were going to add a round by making the cut to top 64 instead. I do wish it was adding another round of Swiss and not making a bigger top cut, but at least now x-1’s would definitely make it and even a bunch of x-2’s. 

Round 1 I had a bye for my Canadian Nats win and they gave us all the full 300 points for the bye. I hung out with some of the others who also had a bye and we just talked some strategy and joked that we may all end up having to face each other in the second round. I was feeling very grateful for getting 300 points on this bye, knowing how tight making the cut was going to be. Thanks Denny for snapping the pic of all of us!

Round 2 I got to face Antonio who played Ghost Rider with Bucky’s Arm, Iron Inquisitor, legacy Black Knight, Arachknight and black shirt Porter. I believe I won initiative and chose to go 1st and he put us on Harley’s Rooftop. I did my turn of setting up the Daredevils and came right out with his crew and immediately got 20 points from 2 of the Daredevils, but they thankfully rolled their immune so he was stuck by them. I got butterflies in to try and mind control and also sent in Colossus to mind control and successfully hit his Arachknight, who I had hit his Black Knight. The after resolution damage puts him past his stop click and I just need to do it 1 more time. From here, he got the Khonshu Daredevil off the map, bringing him up to 30 points and then sent his Black Knight back to black shirt to support him up. I tried again to mind control his Arachknight but he ended up getting every super sense roll and I just wasn’t able to finish him off. Time got called and Antonio won, 0-30. So now I’m 1-1. Antonio recorded our game and it’s up on his YouTube if you want to check it out. 

Round 3 I played Tony who had a Phoenix Wolverine team with a motorcycle, Daredevil and Absorbing Man on the side. I had a whole plan of how I was going to deal with this kind of a team if I faced it, but never actually tried it on a map. I won initiative and chose to go first and he put us on Monster Island. This game I put my motorcycle on the free move 1 and reflexes click. I put my Daredevils into position so they were the only target. He came in with Wolverine and got 10 points off a Daredevil. I started with a mind control from Colossus and moved him in to a map edge by some blocking I had and then dealt the after resolution mind control damage. He did the after resolution damage from passing a stop click to Black Shirt and did 3 to him. Then I charged in with Black Skull to giant reach him, so he wouldn’t have any bonuses to his rollouts with no one adjacent. I made a stop sign with White Shirt and barriered him in and then had Cosmo bark away his poison, so he couldn’t get out of it. He came in with Daredevil to help move an Absorbing Man marker closer. My next turn I barked away super senses and finished him off with Colossus. He was able to then get his Absorbing Man out and took another 10 points off a Daredevil. I got the 10 points off his Daredevil. He took out my Khonshu Daredevil for those 10 points. I couldn’t get his Absorbing Man out when time was called and won 285-30, putting me at 2-1. 

Round 4 was with Joe who played a team I hadn’t thought about or planned for of Spider-Man (MV23-012) with Muramasa, Major Logan with motorcycle, Major Logan with Bucky’s Arm, Pixie, both Porters, white shirt with yellow ring, Ten pog and Lucas Pj Scott pog. I won initiative and chose to go first and he put us on Avengers Tower. I realized very quickly that I had made the wrong Butterfly choice and should have gone into Cosmo. I’d never faced that Spider-Man or Pixie and missed when reading the whole giving them all senses and just saw the Pixie passenger 3 and thought he was going to quickly be in my starting area. But that wasn’t what he did. He stayed back, defensive, only coming up initially with the pogs and just get points off Daredevils that had moved up. I sent Butterfly pogs his way and he got all his senses on all the attacks. I used Daredevils to take out his pogs and wasn’t able to get anything else. In retrospect, I should have brought in Cosmo and chosen passenger 1 on the motorcycle. Then I could have used Cosmo to bark away senses and had Colossus carry him in with his charge. I lost 15-20 and I’m now at 2-2.

Round 5 was against Martin who’s team was Colossus prime, Butterfly, Black Skull with black symbiote, Doctor Doom from Hellfire Gala with trick arrows and both Porters, white shirt with yellow ring. I won initiative and chose to go first. He put us on Injustice Gang and Butterflied into Cosmo. Between my terrain and Daredevils, I was pretty protected and made it difficult for him to get in. He ended up using his Colossus to pick up a piece of terrain and move back a bit, as he couldn’t reach any of my figures and got a shot off with Ghost Goblin to take 10 points off a Daredevil. I used my next turn to reposition a little so I could easier get in, while still being protected. He also did a repositioning turn while feeling frustrated from the Heirophant being up, moving up a bunch of his pieces onto the elevation and barked away Charge. I sent a Butterfly pog up to mind control his Colossus to take out his Cosmo. With Cosmo gone, I was now able to charge in to mind control with my Colossus to take out his Ghost Goblin and not long after that time got called and I won 110-10 and 3-2.

Fingers were crossed tight to see if I had enough points to make the top 64. I was hoping those 300 points from the Bye as well as almost full points from the Wolverine match were going to be enough – as well as not giving up many points in the games I lost to keep others lower. As I stood in line to get my KEVIN, Devin passed me and let me know that he was in a 63 and I was there at 58. After checking the list for who I was going to be paired against, we discovered that it would be against my friend, but nemesis Kaleb. Every top cut that I’ve been in at events that Kaleb is at, when we’ve been paired in top cut, he’s always defeated me and knocked me out. 

Top 64, Kaleb was playing Phoenix Sentinel, Butterfly, Kid Thanos, Carnage Silver Surfer with Khonshu, both Porters, white shirt with yellow ring and Weasel pog. I won initiative and put us on Daily Bugle (at the end of our game, he said he was surprised I chose map and I said I needed to be indoors against his team and he let me know that Daily Bugle is what he’s been choosing for his matches anyways and I would have been on that map regardless). I had a set-up plan for facing Phoenix Sentinel and I’m glad it was one of the things that Devin and I theory crafted in our playtesting. White Shirt Scott went into a far corner, all by himself. Everyone else who wasn’t Murnable went in the other far corner. Daredevils in the middle as they would be moving up. I messed up my initial placement of my terrain though and didn’t use a piece of my blocking to protect my traffic barrel and Kaleb capitalized on it and blew it up on his turn 1, putting him up 5 points. I sent my Daredevils out as far as they could move and made sure to have them 4 away from each other so they wouldn’t take feedback damage. I also made sure that the one I’d put on charge was closest to the corner he was bunkering down in. He shot 2 Daredevils to move them further away and did some great positioning with his Butterfly pogs, making it really difficult for me to get in. I had to waste an attack with a Daredevil to take one out so I could get my own Butterfly pogs in. I found a way to get 1 adjacent to his Phoenix Sentinel and was able to successfully mind control it and unfortunately ended up missing on my attack with the Phoenix Sentinel. He did even more defensive positioning and added some barrier markers. I came in with my charge Daredevil to quake and destroy a bunch of the permanent terrain to make less places that he could place barrier. I decided to finally move up Colossus, but still behind walls that he couldn’t shoot me without coming out. He took out the charge Daredevil so I couldn’t break anymore walls with him. I found a way to get in with Colossus for a mind control on Phoenix Sentinel and hit, but he Killmonger’d out of it. Time got called and I lost 0-25 ending my run for Worlds. 

Overall I’m proud of how I played and the decisions I made. The fact that I gave up no more than 30 points in any round was fantastic. Sure there were minor things I could have done better, but I’m happy with how I played. I was honestly surprised at how often I stayed on Black Skull. I didn’t anticipate that he would be the correct play in more of my matches. Seeing the player cards that were made for the top 16, I couldn’t stop laughing when I read Kaleb’s and one of his keywords was Roet Hunter. I’ll get you one of these days, Kaleb! 

Sunday was now just for side events. I went over early as it was opening so I could sign up for some events and to sell some things to Troll and Toad. Unfortunately, Troll had already packed up and left for the day so I had to go home with things I had hoped to offload and unfortunately also had to carry them around all day. Thankfully, I was able to get in to the last 2 battle royals though. We had terrible pulls in the 1st one, only rares for all of us, but I managed to come in 1st and got a Steppenwolf. My 2nd game was amazing. I pulled chase Green Man and there was also a Darkseid and Rip Hunter pulled. I ended up in 2nd and the 1st place player knew I really wanted Green Man so he graciously passed on taking it and took something else so I could draft it. They dropped so much extra stuff in that last battle royal that we all walked away with a bunch of stuff. I also ended up getting to draft the Kalibak that I didn’t have yet either, the rare flash and some generic soldiers. 

Monday travel home day. Once again, happy for the flight times I found for the same reasons as the flight down. Not getting home at some terrible hour and being able to get some rest before having to work Tuesdsay morning. It just sucks that it turns into a 12 hour travel day. I wish the travel aspect of it wasn’t as long and we could have direct flights again like we used to have. 

A blast of a time as always. I have never regretted using my vacay time on clix trips where I get to spend many hours playing a game I enjoy and getting to spend so many days hanging out with so many friends. I do wish the hotel lobby/outside was a little more busy this time as it feels like I missed out on some social time, but it felt like people were just keeping away a little more than in previous years. I’ll be the non-stop rain had something to do with that. Lots of thanks to the judge staff, tournament organizers and content creators. There is a TON of content of coverage from both Dial H and Alpha Strike on their socials. 

Next big planned event is the Champion Clix Open in March. Hope to see you all there! 

Until next time, xoxo