Hello fellow 40K enthusiasts! Another weekend has gone by with 40K players battling it out on tabletops worldwide. As I've made it my wont, I've compiled the data of the Top Three results from those events so I can share it with you. I figure it's good for everyone to know what they can expect to face in the competitive scene. Sometimes it's fun too!
Unfortunately, in what may be the last weekend of 10th edition, the fun is not to be had. This is because the Defiler meta continues to be an unwanted cancer across the competitive scene. Our Top Faction is once again Chaos Space Marines, with the result and detachment breakdown as follows. I'm just going to trust you can make sense of my abbreviations.
| Detachment | PBZ | Bile | Hu Ma | Re Ra |
| 1st | 2 | | 1 | 1 |
| 2nd | 3 | 2 | | |
| 3rd | 2 | | | |
As you can see, the majority of top three results were Pactbound Zealots, and all of those lists had at least 1 Defiler, with 6 out of the 7 having at least 2. In addition to that, the Renegade Raiders list had 2 Cancer Crabs, and the Huron's Marauders had 1. Only the Creations of Bile list lacked any.
The spread of the Cancer Crabs doesn't stop there, unfortunately. Across the four cult legion armies there were 9 lists that made the top three of their events, and 8 of those lists had Defilers in them. The only list that lacked a Cancer Crab was the World Eaters Berzerker Warband list. A little simple math shows that Defilers were in one quarter of the top three placing lists of the weekend. Fucksake. I hope those things take a large price hike in the first 11th edition Munitorum Field Manual.
Moving on, Ultramarines return to the Top Three, earning the Number Two slot with the following results.
| Detachment | BoU | Glad | Iron | Ce Se |
| 1st | 3 | | 1 | |
| 2nd | | 1 | | |
| 3rd | 1 | | | 1 |
The Blade of Ultramar and Gladius lists (practically the same detachment) all read like they're based on the same template: Calgar, Ventris, Ballistus Dreadnoughts, Repulsor Executioners, Victrix Honor Guards, and Wardens of Ultramar. Occasionally some other units pop up, but all of those appear consistently.
The Ironstorm is a wacky off-meta list that I think was just in the right place at the right time to capture lightning in a bottle. It has 60 Tactical Marines, 2 Devastator Squads, 3 Rhinos, 2 Razorbacks, and a few assorted other units. Check it out on BCP, it's nuts!
Finally, the Ceramite Sentinels list is this weird hybrid with Guilliman, Calgar, a Desolation Squad, a Gladiator Lancer, a couple Vindicators, and a squad each of Victrix and Wardens of Ultramar. I think it's meant to exploit the detachment rule and some good stratagems.
Barely edging out T'au for the Number Three faction, we have Necrons, scoring 2 lists each in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place results.
| Detachment | Aw Dy | Hype | Star |
| 1st | 1 | 1 | |
| 2nd | 2 | | |
| 3rd | | 1 | 1 |
I don't know if this is a big enough sample size to draw much in the way of useful conclusions, but in all of the Awakened Dynasty lists, characters seem to be the heavy lifters, with any non-character units seeming to be in there to either support the characters or to act as utility units - screening, scoring Secondaries, and so on. When you have access to C'tan, I suppose that makes sense. All three of the lists did also include a 20-man Warrior brick - probably to make shifting them off the center objective a nightmare.
The Hypercrypt lists seem to be built to have vehicles share in the heavy lifting, with one having 2 C'tan, a pair of Doomsday Arks, and a Tesseract Vault; and the other with one C'tan, the Silent King, and a pair of Monoliths eating up the majority of the points. The Starshatter list should surprise no one with its one C'tan, the Silent King, a Wraith brick and a trio of Doomsday Arks.
Here's a table showing the events by players, from most to least, with the top three armies at each event.
| Event | # Players | Rounds | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
| V GT Andorra & Open Ordino | 210 | 5 | EC / CoC | CSM / PBZ | TSons / GC |
| Mountain West Classic Grand Tournament '26 - Warhammer 40K | 133 | 6 | CSM / Re Ra | CSM / PBZ | Aeldari / Seer |
| Warhammer 40,000 GT: Warhammer Open UK Games Expo, Birmingham | 115 | 8 | CSM / PBZ | CSM / PBZ | T'au / Mont'ka |
| BAF 40K GT 26 | 62 | 5 | Necrons / Hype | SoB / CoF | Ultras / BoU |
| ÖK-spelen IV | 50 | 5 | Ultras / BoU | DG / VV | WE / Berz |
| PSSN Presents: Dark Sphere May GT | 48 | 5 | Nids / Sub | Grizzletarum | Nids / Inv Fl |
| The Brawl 2026 | 43 | 5 | Vot / Hearth | DG / VV | Necrons / Star |
| The Great Game - Gongaii GT Spring 2026 | 43 | 5 | CSM / PBZ | T'au / Mont'ka | Orks / Wa Ho |
| Huzzah Hobbies Road to NOVA 40K Event | 41 | 5 | T'au / Mont'ka | Necrons / Aw Dy | Ultras / Ce Se |
| ATWN Open 2026 | 41 | 5 | DG / VV | AdMech / Co Cy | TSons / GC |
| WARPFlame 40k Grand Tournament | 32 | 5 | Ultras / Iron | Necrons / Aw Dy | CK / Inf La |
| IceBreaker2026 - 40K GT | 30 | 5 | Ultras / BoU | T'au / Mont'ka | Necrons / Hype |
| Adeptus Five-0: Jail Break Hosted by Away Games | 30 | 5 | AdMech / Halo | Druk / SoS | Cust / Lions |
| SouthCon 2026 | 29 | 5 | Nids / Inv Fl | Nids/ Sub | Druk / SoS |
| Get To Da Big Choppa! | 26 | 5 | IK / Free | BT / Bast | Nids / Inv Fl |
| Courage & Honour 12 | 24 | 5 | Druk / Re Wa | DW / BSTF | Grizzletarum |
| Torneo -Matanza dijo la changa v4- Golden Ticket | 24 | 5 | DW / BSTF | Druk / Re Wa | CSM / PBZ |
| Game Universe - Warhammer 40k GT 2026 | 23 | 5 | T'au / Mont'ka | CSM / Bile | Vot / Hearth |
| WAAGH-A-PALOOZA! 40K Tournament | 23 | 5 | Ultras / BoU | CSM / Bile | Cust / Lions |
| 北京NCTC×棋玩单人 | 21 | 5 | CSM / Hu Ma | Ultras / Glad | CSM / PBZ |
| Spring Slam GT Hosted by Fourcorners Hanover | 20 | 5 | Necrons / Aw Dy | EC / CoC | Cust / Lions |
| Oil City Showdown GT | 20 | 5 | EC / CoC | Mili / Co Arm | Vot / Hearth |
That, fellow 40K enthusiasts, is what I have for you. With the release of 11th edition upon us, I'm hoping for a shakeup in the meta. I'm sure the majority of you are as tired of the Cancer Crab meta as I am. We'll just have to see what the future brings. May all your games be fun ones!
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