Torrent of Fire Article:

My most recent Torrent of Fire article is up, and I look at the stats from this and last year's NOVA and evaluate my predictions for the top bracket.

The Imperium represented about as predicted, and did much better than I thought they would. Check out the full article.

Torrent of Fire Article: 6th Edition Codices in 7th

My newest Torrent of Fire Article is up. This time I took a look at the six remaining 6th Edition Codices and looked at how they've been faring in terms of popularity and win rates.

I found the results actually a bit surprising. Check out the full article and keep your eyes peeled for my NOVA predictions in the next week or so.

Torrent of Fire Article: 7th Edition Codices

My newest Torrent of Fire Article is up. For this article, I used the new Since Date function in the Torrent of Fire Ultimate Weapon and compared army results for before and after their codex was released. I looked at army popularity and performance.

Check out the full article and let me know what you think. Next time I'm going to look at how armies holding out with 6th edition codices have fared with each new release.

Torrent of Fire Article: 7th Edition - 1 Year In

My most recent Torrent of Fire article has been posted. This time, I take a look at the year plus of results for 7th edition and see who comes out on top.

The bit of analysis I found the most interesting was looking at the best and worst alliances to take. Check out the results here.

Torrent of Fire Article: Adepticon Army Breakdown

My most recent Torrent of Fire article is up and this time I'm looking at Adepticon army breakdowns. In particular I was checking on how the number of detachments influenced standings.

Also took a look at army performance by primary faction and saw some surprises, namely with Orks doing way better than they have been. Could it be people are finally unlocking the codex, or is it a result of the format? We shall see. Anyway, check out the article.

Torrent of Fire Article: LVO by the Numbers

Hey guys. My most recent Torrent of Fire article is up. This time I take a look at the numbers coming out of LVO. A good portion of the article looks at army composition, such as whether or not everyone really did take 3 Flyrants and 3 Mucolids as an ally.

Check out the full article and see how your favorite army was fielded, how many people used it, and how it did overall.

First Torrent of Fire Article of 2015

It's been a while, but my most recent Torrent of Fire Article is up. This time I took a look at the overall statistics after a bit of a data refresh and then the recent domination of Imperial Knights.

Check out the full article for the juicy data details.

Torrent of Fire Article: Post NOVA Meta

My newest Torrent of Fire article is up and this time I took a quick look at the games in the last month since before NOVA. Thanks to NOVA, the number of games recorded in Torrent of Fire just about doubled. I also decided to compare popularity of armies between NOVA 2013 and 2014.

With the number of games, we now had enough 7th edition games to look at some quick matchup data. Check out the full article on Torrent of Fire.

Torrent of Fire Article: NOVA By the Numbers

My most recent article is up on Torrent of Fire. I took a look at the numbers from the NOVA Open GT and how they compare to 7th Edition data leading up to it.

I also took a look at how my predictions leading up to NOVA as far as the top bracket panned out. I'm fairly comfortable with the results. I had 11 of the 16 armies more or less correct. The surprise to me was no Space Marine primaries making the top bracket, though a Grey Knight list with Marine allies is close.

Anyway, check out the full article for more details and analysis.

ToF Article: 7th Edition Meta So Far

My newest article on Torrent of Fire is up for my fellow stats enthusiasts. I took a look at the first three months of data and what that could mean for the future of the Meta. Eldar are still holding their own, and Space Marines are extremely popular.

Check out the full article, and see if you agree with my bold predictions for the makeup of the top bracket at NOVA.

BAO Results and Meta Moving Forward

My most recent Torrent of Fire article is up. This time I took a look at the BAO results and what that could mean for the 7th Edition Tournament Meta going forward.

Using that data, I made some predictions about where the Meta is going and what we're likely to see coming out of NOVA, Feast of Blades, and other big upcoming tournaments. Check out the article and let me know what you think

7th Edition Matchup Shifts on Torrent of Fire

Just wanted to let you know my most recent article for Torrent of Fire is up. July has had less than half as many games as June, so I tried to look at June and July combined and how matchups now seem to be comparing to matchups through the end of 6th. 

I also looked at the overall change in Win Percentage for armies, and finally popularity. It seems like Eldar, Tau, and Daemons have seen less playtime than previously so far in 7th. Check out the full article. Hope you enjoy it.

7th Edition Stats Courtesy of Torrent of Fire

In my most recent post on Torrent of Fire, I look at the first month of results from 7th edition and do a bit of quick analysis. The biggest surprise for me was that Tyranids topped the win percentage rankings.

Check out the full article and let me know what you think. Obviously the sample size is small, and people are still adjusting to 7th edition, but it's a nice sign of hope for my favorite army.

What is the Meta, Part II: Matchup Heat Maps

Following my first Meta post, +Brad Voorhees raised the question of how each army performed against other armies. I toyed with the Torrent of Fire database a little and came up with a series of Heat Maps that plot stats on a Allies Matrix style grid and show whether a particular matchup is hot or cold.

For these charts, Red represents a high percentage, while Blue represents a cold or low percentage. For matchup stats such as Win%, the columns are the army being played, while the rows are the army being played against. Specific examples will be discussed for each chart.

What is the Meta?

When I first started getting into the online and tournament communities, I had to wrap my head around the concept of Meta. It is intended to describe the gaming environment that is prevalent at a particular time, and can be general and wide ranging (aka, Meta, Tournament Meta) or fairly specific (local Meta).  It's also used as a scapegoat for explaining why a list or unit is good or bad. To some degree Meta is a strawman.

That said, the perceived definition of Meta is simply defining what is popular and powerful in a particular area. The wide ranging meta for 40k used to be fairly glacial in terms of change, and so, was fairly well defined and understood. However, with the rapid release schedules of 6th edition, that's been turned upside-down a bit.