An awesome weekend of competitive 40K was held. We even managed to get enough guys together to effect the meta so Israel is officially on the map. The top tables were all hard fought battles but we were kept well oiled with coffee from Yoel who setup a table with some lovely black gold. I believe it was even more appreicated on morning number 2 as we all stumbled in.
Niko’s tournament started in classic Death Guard style: slow, tough, and with a hint of early trouble. In Round 1, he lost 2-18 to Andrei’s Space Wolves. That isn’t the way anyone hopes to start a winning streak. After that setback, Niko became very hard to remove from the table, which fits his army perfectly. He beat Shir’s Adepta Sororitas 16-4, crushed Michael’s Astra Militarum 20-0, and scored a solid 14-6 against Ben’s Necrons. In the final round, he won the Death Guard mirror against Kirill with a dominant 20-0. This last win showed that sometimes Nurgle’s gifts come with a podium finish.
Guy’s Chaos Space Marines arrived from the Eye of Terror ready for action. They brought a big stick, several Defilers, and no intention of holding back. The Defilers made their presence known all tournament. They stomped across tables like angry crabs. He started with a perfect 20-0 against Vladimir’s Chaos Space Marines. He followed that up with another 20-0 against Kirill’s Death Guard. In Round 3, he faced Dima’s T’au in a tense 10-10 draw. Guy then beat Dor’s Aeldari 15-5 and finished with a close 11-9 win over Sagi’s Thousand Sons. The only thing keeping him off the top step was a single battle point which just shows how fine the margins were,
Dima’s T’au campaign was the cleanest example of disciplined escalation: start strong and then finish with even stronger with a irresponsible amount of Kroot. He opened by defeating Mattia’s Space Marines 18-2, then took down Michael’s Astra Militarum 19-1. Round 3 was the major checkpoint: a 10-10 draw against Guy’s Chaos Space Marines, keeping Dima undefeated. Across the event, Dima was piling up a shit ton of Kroot all over the board, less like a battleline and more like someone had spilled a whole bucket of Xenos across the board. He edged Andrei’s Space Wolves 11-9 in Round 4, then ended the event with a huge 19-1 win over Aleksei’s Necrons. That final result mattered: Dima finished just ahead of Guy on total VP, 77 to 76, taking 1st place by the slimmest of margins. Very efficient.
ELO
The biggest upward surge belongs to Niko, who gained +49 ELO. That is a serious leap, and it matches the story: after losing Round 1, he went on a four-game rampage and finished 3rd. Death Guard may be slow, but apparently their ranking climbs stairs two at a time.
Aleksei also made a strong move with +26 ELO. His Necrons finished 7th overall at 3-0-2, including a massive 20-0 over Yoash. Even after taking a heavy final-round loss to Dima, Aleksei still came out with one of the best ELO gains in the field.
Nikita deserves a mention at +25 ELO despite finishing 16th. His record was only 2-0-3, but the system clearly rewarded the quality and shape of his results, especially the 20-0 win over Vladimir and the 18-2 win over Shahar. That is a classic “not top table, but the cogitators noticed” performance.
Guy gained +24 ELO, which fits his near-championship run and final ELO of 1807, the highest final ELO in the standings. He did not take 1st on tournament ranking, but in long-term Consilium power level, the Warp is very much still whispering his name.
Dima gained +20 ELO while winning the event, which is strong but slightly less explosive than Niko’s leap. That usually tells the tale of a player already operating at a high rating: winning still matters, but the ELO machine demands increasingly heroic paperwork before handing out huge gains.
Other notable positive movers: Andrei +17, Leonid +16, Vlad +15, Vadim +12, and Mattia +10. Solid advances across the battleline — not quite “ascension to daemonhood,” but definitely worth a purity seal or two.
Organization
A huge thanks goes to Dima for hosting the event. It's two days of playing after many months of hard work. Just the custom printed and painted awards by themselves are a full time job but he manages to juggle it all and still keep sane.
Another person we have to highlight is the glue that kept us all moveing forward. Sergei stepped up big time as the main judge and made sure lists were submitted, proxies were validated and rules were followed. He might look stern on the outside but we all know he's just a big softy and this event ran as smooth as it did because of his diligence.