Live coverage of the FFG Star Wars World Championships kicks off later today with a doubleheader. First on the menu is Star Wars: The Card Game, followed by Star Wars Armada.

The live stream is due to start at 14.30 CDT (20.30 BST) with the later stages of the top cut for Star Wars: The Card Game. Then at 18.30 CDT (00.30 BST) is the final of Star Wars: Armada.

Star Wars: The Card Game

Games of Star Wars: The Card Game always pits a light side deck against a dark side deck, so players must bring two decks to tournaments. Victory for the light side is achieved as soon as they destroy three of the dark side objectives. Meanwhile, the Death Star dial ticks the dark side player ever closer to victory. Check out FFG’s tutorial to learn more about the gameplay.

In the Swiss rounds, the players will play two games against their opponent, one with each deck, but the top cut uses a double-elimination system.

This means that only game is played in each round of the cut, but a player must be defeated twice before they’re eliminated. In the final, expect to see one player needing to win back-to-back games to take victory, whilst their opponent need only win once.

Look out for reigning world champion, Brad Emon, who took home the spoils in the final with his Jedi deck. By the time we pick up the stream, all the competitors will be taking home two copies of an alternate art Kanan Jarrus, a set of shield tokens, a top thirty-two playmat, top sixteen medal, top eight custom Death Star dial, and likely a top four uncut sheet of Kanan Jarrus cards.

The main prize up for a grabs is a one-of-a-kind IG-88 playmat, a trophy, and expenses paid trip to defend their title at the 2018 words, and the chance to make their mark on the game by designing a card for it.

Star Wars: Armada

Star Wars: Armada is a miniatures game of space-fleet battles. Unlike in the card game, there is no requirement for games to always be Empire against Rebellion, so don’t be surprised to see some internal strife and civil wars on the gaming table.

Each player brings a 400pt fleet consisting of ships and squadrons. A game plays out over six rounds, and over the course of each the players will give their ships orders for the round (or several rounds ahead for larger ships), take turns activating one ship at a time, and then activating any squadrons at the end at the round who weren’t previously activated by a ship’s order.

At the end of six rounds, the player who destroyed the most points wins. Simple.

Home-town hero Josiah Burkhardsmeier is the reigning world champion, whose Y-Wing heavy Rebel list won the day back in November. The prizes our two finalists will have earned are an alternate art General Dodonna card, silver acrylic deployment zone markers, a set of marbled dice, that top sixteen medal again (and still no medal for Chewbacca #justiceforchewie), a set of acrylic range rulers, and an uncut sheet of General Dodonna cards.

The winner will take home a unique 3x3 playmat, the trophy, an expenses paid trip to the 2018 worlds to defend their title, and the chance to design a card for the game.

Will you be tuning in?