Shaper winning spree at Worlds 2024

Asa the only Corp to give Lat any problems at the most important netrunner event of the year

2024 Null Signal Games World Championship
19th-20th Oct 2024
San Francisco, CA
203 Players
14 rounds SSS, Cut to top-16

Top Cut decklists are here

You can watch all of the swiss and top cut streams on the official NSG youtube channel*

*and you should because they are incredible

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At the biggest and most prestigious netrunner event of the year, 200 players from around the world sat across from each other, each of them ready to play a solid two days of netrunner and vie for the title of World Champion.

Would Sokka do the impossible, and claim the crown for the third year in a row? Or would one of his rivals take revenge for being knocked out of the top cut in 2023?

Would one specific testing team dominate the field with a meta busting list? Or would a plucky outsider defy the odds and take the tournament with a homebrew pet deck and hours upon hours of practice?

With an absolute feast of live data to gorge on—and a world-class produced live stream—I have never been so excited not to be at a netrunner tournament.

Day 1

There were no massive surprises to be found in the Corp ID breakdown at the beginning of day-1, although the amount of R+ and PE was enough to raise an eyebrow. PD was the most popular pick, but not by a huge margin.

On the Runner side of things, there were more Hoshiko (29) and Esâ (19) than we’ve seen at any recent event. Esâ is a favourite runner of QtM and can be a comfort deck for some players, and the increase in Hoshiko could perhaps be explained by a recent increase in hype for Arruaceiras Crew lists.

There were a decent number of Sable (19) and 419 (11), but it was no surprise at all to see Lat (36) as the most popular runner choice.

There was very little homogeneity within and between testing teams in terms of Identity preference. From the outset, it didn’t seem like any one team felt they had “solved” the meta.

• The Future Perfect played BtL + Lat

• QtM were mostly on PE + Freedom / Esâ

• Muntal Bost also favoured Freedom, but were completely split on what to play as Corp

• Snare Bears were mostly on R+ / AgInfusion + Lat / Sable

• TAI Breakers were mostly on AgInfusion / Asa + Lat

• The unnamed west coast testing group were mostly on Asa + a complete mix of different runners

Day 2

11 rounds of Swiss later and 51 (out of 203) players graduated to day-2 of the tournament.

After a very promising start, Sable hit a wall in the later rounds of day-1, and only a handful of violinists were able to limp into day-2. She finished day-1 with a 52% win rate and a 0.8x day-2 conversion. 419 did even worse (47%, 0.72x).

The opposite was true for Azmari. After a very rocky first few rounds, the murderous yellow identity stabilised—managing to achieve a 60% win rate and 1.09x conversion.

Ultimately, the faction make-up of day-2 was roughly the same as day-1, with NBN slightly squeezing out Weyland and Shaper starting to squeeze out Criminal.

It was pretty clear at the start of day-2 that the best decks of the tournament would most likely be Lat—as the only runner ID to be getting good results in general—and Asa—as the only Corp ID to be getting good results against Lat. Although, the R+ numbers were also looking pretty solid.

In terms of team performance, we see that a little over half of day-2 were affiliated with one testing team or another. TAI Breakers, Snare Bears and QtM each had a chunk of players in the mix, and, as the day progressed, word of a new west coast testing group—to be named by the highest placing team member—spread throughout the tournament.

At the beginning of day-2, The Surveyor incorrectly reported that House Hippos would be playing side events—an error that is particularly embarrassing given the final result!

The Top Cut

Three more rounds of Swiss later, we saw Jinteki and HB squeeze Weyland almost completely out of the Top Cut. Azmari and PD fell flat, while AgInfusion and Asa soared, and PE and R+ held strong.

Runner-wise, Shaper was completely dominant—with Lat securing a full half of the Top Cut placements. For a while, it looked like Lat (62%, 1.66x) would be the only Runner ID worth talking about, but then Arissana (59%, 1.99x) went on a huge winning spree and secured 2 places in the Top Cut. Which is impressive, considering that there were only 3 in day-2, and only 6 in the entire event.

The Unnamed West Coast Testing Group had an amazing day, with four of their five graduating members making it into the Top Cut. TAI Breakers also managed to put four of their own players through. And then, of course, there was the lone House Hippo who was completely undefeated on day-2, and who went on to take the title.

Overall Performance

Expect a deep dive into the high performing IDs from Worlds soon*, but, for now, here are a few charts that hopefully paint a picture of the meta.

*it’s already written and will probably come out tomorrow, but if you really can’t wait then here’s a link to a spreadsheet

HB performed the best of the Corp factions, but NBN and Weyland both did better than most people probably expected. The difference is that NBN performed well at the top tables, while—as a rule—Weyland didn’t.

Criminal did incredibly well in the early rounds, but lost steam in the latter part of day-1, and ultimately collapsed in day-2. Anarch had a pretty consistently miserable time all through the weekend.

It continues to be a Corp meta, but a 52% Corp win rate is lower than the 53% we saw in 24.05, and significantly lower than the 57% we saw at the beginning of 24.09. It seems that the more that people decide to play Lat, the lower that this number is going to get.

The Finals

There were about 30 minutes in the finals where the game seemed to swing back and forth, and then 60 minutes of both players being on match point—and both threatening to win at any moment. It was a complete nail-biter that will have you on the edge of your seat, and a fitting climax to two days of some of the best netrunner in the world.

Congratulations to aruzan, the new world champion!

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Final Standings

1. aruzan (House Hippos) - R+ [7-1-1] / Arissana [8-1-1]

2. DeeR (Snare Bears / QtM) - PE [4-3-3] / Lat [9-0-1]

3. Sokka (The Future Perfect) - BtL [8-3-0] / Lat [7-3-0]

4. The King (TAI Breakers) - AgInfusion [8-2-0] / Hoshiko [6-4-0]

5. Santa (Muntal Bost) - AgInfusion [7-2-0] / Freedom [5-3-1]

6. jan tuno (QtM) - PE [6-3-0] / Esâ [6-3-0]

7. Jai (TAI Breakers) - Asa [6-2-2] / Lat [6-0-2]

8. tzeentchling (unnamed west coast testing group) - Asa [7-1-1] / Lat [6-0-2]

9. Nykride (unnamed west coast testing group) - Asa [6-2-0] / Sable [5-3-1]

10. Tak (unnamed west coast testing group) - Asa [7-1-0] / Lat [4-4-1]

11. Timmy Wong (unnamed west coast testing group) - AgInfusion [5-3-0] / Ayla [5-3-0]

12. rubenpieters (TAI Breakers) - AgInfusion [4-4-0] / Lat [7-2-0]

13. RotomAppliance (Snare Bears) - PD [5-2-1] / Lat [6-2-0]

14. SebK (TAI Breakers) - Asa [4-2-1] / Arissana [6-3-0]

15. passive_mult - R+ [4-4-0] / Lat [6-2-0]

16. ctz (Muntal Bost) - R+ [4-4-0] / Lat [6-2-0]

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Thanks to everyone that followed The Surveyor on mastodon—hopefully you all enjoyed the live coverage. If you did, and if you want to see more of this kind of coverage in the future, then you can support me by buying me a coffee, by showing up to your local tournament, by travelling for larger events when you can, and by just saying “hi” the next time that you see me. #alwaysberunning

The Surveyor 24.09 meta analysis spreadsheet is available here