A repeat performance for Hosh and Ob at Sheffield District
But BCP Azmari and Ken steal the top spot
Sheffield District Championship
22nd March 2025
EMEA / UK
31 Players
7 rounds SSS, Single Elim Cut to Top-4
Swiftly following up on the nearby Nottingham District, players headed to the beloved Patriot Games—host of many nationals past and Megacity of the future—to devour generous slices of delicious cake, and to compete for a Megacity bye and a woolly mammoth play mat.
Of similar importance to anyone that played at both Sheffield and Nottingham were the titles of Sheriff of Sheffingham—awarded to the player with the most Corp wins in Swiss across both events—and Robin Hood of Sheffingham—awarded to the player with the most Runner wins.
Would the Nottingham District Champion be able to maintain his hot streak? Would Ob and Hoshiko continue to rule the meta? And who would win in a match between the Sheriff of Sheffingham and Robin Hood?
Hoshiko still unpopular (and still the protagonist)
It was yet another tournament where the large number of Criminal attendees could not agree on which ID they should be playing. Sable (3) was just as popular as Zahya (3) and Mercury (3), but this time it was Ken (3 players, 10 games, 60% win rate, 2.58x conversion) who came out on top. The other IDs struggled to maintain a positive win rate.
Anarch performed considerably better as a faction (60% vs 46% win rate), but ID choice was also fragmented. In terms of ID performance, we see a very similar story to what we saw at Nottingham. Again, very few players chose to bring Hoshiko (4) and, again, she performed incredibly well for those few (12 games, 75% win rate, 1.94x conversion).
Again, Esâ struggled to find many wins (9 games, 33% win rate)—losing to everything from AgInfusion to Nuvem. A favoured matchup into Ob is of no help to the eco-insurrectionist if xi continues to lose to everything else.
lif3line continues to rock their own personal brand of pirate crew Quetzal, winning 6 out of 7 games across Nottingham and Sheffield events and earning them the title of Robin Hood of Sheffingham.
Shaper was the least popular faction, and had a very middling day, with only Lat (8 games, 63% win rate, 3.88x conversion) showing much particular promise.
Azmari rushes into top position
At first blush, Sheffield looks like the continuation of a trend, with Ob (27 games, 52% win rate, 2.21x cut conversion) growing in popularity whilst maintaining a high performance, and AgInfusion (6 games, 67% win rate) losing popularity but still performing well enough. However, what we also saw at Sheffield that we didn’t really see at Nottingham was a BCP rush Azmari strategy that Cobalt (1st) and Dracon_Ian (6th) deployed with great effect—particularly in their games against Hoshiko.
These were the only two NBN players at the event, and between them they managed an impressive 71% win rate (out of 7 games), propelling Cobalt into the Top Cut, and, ultimately into first place—and earning her the title of Sheriff of Sheffingham to boot.
It was another bad day for HB, with neither PD (12 games, 33% win rate, 1.94x cut conversion) nor Asa (9 games, 33% win rate) managed to achieve a positive win rate. MirrorMorph performed better (7 games, 57% win rate), but didn’t quite manage to put Strongoose (5th) into the Top Cut.
The overall Corp win rate was 50%, and recent tournament results suggest that Corp win rates in general may be on a downward trend—although the meta average for 24.12 is still 53% in Swiss, and 57% in the Top Cut.
Player Interview: Cobalt
Sheffield District Champion 2025 + Sheriff of Sheffingham
Despite owning the original core set for a number of years, Cobalt only started playing netrunner for real a couple of weeks before UK Nationals 2022—having happened across the design for Hoshiko and seeing that NSG were clearly doing something very cool with their ID design. She’s been a regular attendee at tournaments in the North of the UK ever since, including making the Top Cut at Nottingham Regionals 2024.
I asked her about the secret to her success.
First, having a reasonable familiarity with the meta and what kinds of game plans different decks have. It helps a great deal to know roughly what you're up against as early as possible. For example, when I paired into MirrorMorph—and figured out that it wasn't Cold Site Server prison—I'd played enough with that ID to know that it both needs to score an Ikawah Project to win and that it cannot effectively do so without a fully charged MCA Austerity Policy. This meant that I knew I needed to trash every two-counter MCAAP—no matter the cost.
Second, putting in the practice time, not only to figure out potential card changes but to find the rhythm of play with a deck. When it's late in the day, and you're maybe not thinking as clearly, having that 'vibesrunner' instinct is a great fall-back.
Third, and maybe most importantly, is the Netrunner community. It's knowing that at every tournament, and across many different Discord servers— love you QtM!—there is a group of friends who I love spending time with. That’s what keeps me attending event after event, and what keeps me invested enough in the game to keep practicing and to keep improving!
Deck Choices: BCP Azmari and Ken
Criminal has always been my favourite faction. I really like cards that provide simple, consistent value, so Ken has been my favourite runner for pretty much the entire time I’ve been seriously playing the game.
I'd been having great success online with a Swift / Deep Dive build put together by Ezbior a couple of weeks ago. I played that list at Nottingham and, while it did okay, it was a couple of card tweaks suggested by Aruzan afterwards that fully refined it. It's amazing how only a couple of card changes can really up the consistency of a deck! It just feels really good to play.
As for Azmari—it just wins games. My friend Mezzie has been the absolute champion of the Better Citizen Program strategy, and Self-Growth Program in particular, and it was her that persuaded me to give it another go.
As she pointed out to me, it's really difficult to turn damage into a flatline at the moment because everyone is teched for kill—even Sables and Zahyas are including copies of Steelskin Scarring just to be more resilient. However, a lot of current Runner strategies rely on some key resources—Bankhar, Lago, Aesop's Pawnshop. If you just trash these resources using the basic action card, this can buy you a lot of tempo as the runner is forced to dig for their second or third copy. Making the Runner clear tags, and reinstall bounced cards, complements this strategy perfectly.
Final Standings
Cobalt (QtM) - Azmari (BCP) [3-0-0] / Ken [4-0-0]
l0velace (QEH, QtM) - Ob (Eminent) [4-0-0] / Hoshiko (Crew + Conduit) [2-1-0]
RotomAppliance (Snare Bears) - PD (Skunk + Void) [2-1-0] / Lat (Aniccam) [3-1-0]
life3line (Steel City Grid) - Ob (Fast-advance) [3-1-0] / Quetzal (Crew) [2-1-0]
The UK district season continues in Cambridge on Saturday 5th April. Come and join us the evening before the event for pizza and beer! (Details to be found in the UK discord).
Anyone who was at the London district championship, in particular, will want to be there—in order to compete for the title of the Mayor of Londwich!
