ASH: Preview… uh?

The leak and full release of the Ashes of the Empire card list was announced at the beginning of the FFG stream yesterday. The announcement is at the 4:40 mark of the video, there are some highlights quoted just below, and we’ve got a full transcript of the section of the video at the bottom of this post.

“We are aware that “we are aware that an unauthorized information regarding the upcoming set, Ashes of the Empire, is currently circulating online. So we want to address that situation”

“When information is released outside of the official channels, it creates an uneven access to that knowledge and it undermines the competitive integrity for players”

“We want everybody to feel like they are ready. We don’t want select individuals to have an advantage.”

“We are working towards making sure this doesn’t continually happen.”

Fun

Seeing new cards is basically always fun. Will they be good, meta impacting staples? Are they fun and interesting card designs? Has my favorite character gotten a card? (#WheresR2Leader?)

Preview season therefore is fun. Eventually we would have seen all of the cards from the upcoming set. Now we just saw them a little faster than expected.

Miserable

The sudden drop of an entire set is bad on multiple fronts.

When the previews trickle out a little bit at a time players throughout the community can take time to react to each one individually. Every card gets broken down and analyzed following its preview to the world. So, for starters it can be overwhelming to look at hundreds of cards all at once.

Another terrible component of this is the ruined work that is put into the card previews themselves. Jack and the FFG team take their time to work out which leaders to release in what order plus the support cards that should be shown along with them. The weekly Wednesday video streams are coordinated to highlight specific cards and play mechanics to dovetail with the cards most recently revealed. When the set all sudden is revealed it blows all those plans and hard work out of the water.

The content creators are also impacted. Porg Depot did not have any upcoming previews for Ashes of the Empire. However, having put together written preview posts in the past we can tell you that it is both fun and exciting to have a couple of cards to think about before the vast majority of the SWU community, in order to prepare to put them forward to everyone else. We feel absolutely shattered on behalf of creators that spent time to work on videos, written content, or other media in preparation for their reveals only to have that all be ruined.

Impacts and Doing What is Right

Kudos to FFG for doing what is likely the best thing in this type of situation.

Going into the Galactic Championship shortly after the release of the mid-year set makes the event exciting. The players competing at the top level of the game only have a short time to digest and work with the cards. The meta for the newest set has not been solved at that point and there are still combos and synergies waiting to be discovered.

Finding out there has been a leak really stinks overall. By revealing the entire set to the entire SWU community, FFG has eliminated any advantage that a player or team could have had by having detailed information much sooner than everyone else. This levels the playing field and makes for a better competitive environment with no advantages for people just having additional information.

What Now?

We are unlikely to get any official details on where the leak came from. It could have been from an external to FFG play tester that had the full set details way in advance of even preview season for the purpose of giving feedback on the cards. Another possibility is that an external source could have had a full list for something like approval from papa Disney. It could also have been a disgruntled FFG employee that wanted to stick it to the company on the way out the door. There are probably a bunch of other potential leak avenues as well.

Regardless of the ultimate source, hopefully the leak will be found and plugged for the next time. Preview seasons are fun and ideally they can continue unhindered in the future.

Again good on FFG for doing the right thing here. Stinks that they had to even deal with this situation.

Full Transcript of Announcement

*Tried to capture the video speaking as accurately as possible for this. There could be minor mistakes.

We just have an update in regards to Ashes of the Empire. And so we are aware that an unauthorized information regarding the upcoming set, Ashes of the Empire, is currently circulating online. So we want to address that situation with you first.

For this situation, it’s incredibly disappointing because we put time and effort and work and we cultivated this card reveal season and we feel like that players deserve the opportunity to see our cards and our content in the way that we had planned for it to go, and so we just want to thank those who brought this forward to us and let us be aware of that situation. Your actions help protect a fair and balanced experience for the entire community through the card reveal season, but also as we approach the Galactic Championships. When information is released outside of the official channels, it creates an uneven access to that knowledge and it undermines the competitive integrity for players that all of you have come to expect. From us and come to expect in our organized play environment.

So, because our highest priority is maintaining that level playing field, we have decided to reveal the full Ashes of the Empire. Today at 2 p.m. Central, which is about 50 minutes from now. And this is going to ensure that all players have the same information about the Galactic Championship as we go, because we know that it’s such an important event for us. We want everybody to feel like they are ready. We don’t want select individuals to have an advantage. And so we just want to thank all of you for your passion and your commitment to keeping the game as amazing as it is. I mean, even just Danny and I have shared how incredible it was to go meet people at these events. And you are what makes this game so special. Danny, Tyler, and Jeremy designed an amazing game. But to take it to the next level, it is because of the community that we have. So we just always appreciate people willing to share that information with us so we can do the best we can to create and cultivate that level of playing experience.

Yeah, it’s incredibly disappointing. As Jack said, ‘Spoiler season is a whole lot of fun.’ I hope you guys have enjoyed it so far. But it is 100% the right call to make sure it’s a level playing field going forward to Galactic, especially with this set specifically. Yeah, and we feel like we’re in a good spot moving forward.

And just a little transparency— this is the first opportunity that we had to really respond to this on live streams. And so we took this information. We moved with a quick. Danny and I got back from UK and we’re like, ‘We’re going.’ I was on the airplane answering and talking about it as well.

And so this was extremely important to us and we wanted to make sure that you all felt that same level of importance that we felt with it as well. So we appreciate all your patience through that. We are working towards making sure this doesn’t continually happen. We know back-to-back years can feel a little frustrating, but we feel that too. We were excited about it, like Ryan said. Tyler and Ryan sat down and helped me map out the card reveal season, and you know, to go through the work of the cards that they even created going back to the initial visions and excitement. I can’t wait for people to see this kind of takes away from that, but we also understand how important it is for the Galactic Championship to be a good playing field.