Friday, June 29, 2012

ATX : Week One predictions


Okay, more like random guesses and shots in the dark. Historically I have averaged a whopping 57.8% accuracy for the first week. So, let's just take these predictions with a grain of salt.

Eve Forums "predictions" thread -> HERE

Qualifying round 1 - Day 1 - 30th June (All times in UTC)

15:00 Agony Empire vs. Exiled Ones - Really a tough choice here, Agony Empire has been stepping up it's game in Nullsec recently, and showing some signs of serious improvement, despite being a training school. A lesser man wouldn't be familiar with Exiled Ones, but they are a smallish wormhole alliance. Unfortunately for them, I think the skill to win this matchup lies in the hands of Agony empire.

15:20 SOLAR FLEET vs. Dead Terrorists - Solar Fleet has made several appearances in previous Alliance tournaments, and made it into the Final day last year, they have always been successful in the qualifying rounds. Dead Terrorists made it deep into AT8, but were not chosen to participate in AT9. Looking at just history of the two teams, it is a fairly even matchup. Both have been here before, but SOLAR has the advantage with experience in the five man setups from AT9. A very different game than AT8. For that and the simple pool of pilots that SOLAR can pull from, compared to the 29 members of Dead Terrorists...

15:40 Lone Star Partners vs. Raiden. - After daring to give me the raspberry, Lone Star has a special place in my heart, and a tingly spot on my stomach. This corp hails from unknown space as well, but has a lot of balls, their killboards reflecting their desire to get in fights no matter where their exits. This is their first AT, so that will play against their chances, as will their rough first matchup vs Raiden. Raiden[dot] was in AT9, making it to the group stages before being defeated and pushed out the last day of group. However their experience and pilot pool will make for a tough matchup against alliance tourney newcomers like Lone Star Partners, and should garner their victory here.

16:00 The Kadeshi vs. The Space P0lice - The Kadeshi, sov holders in and around Catch, Feythabolis, Omist and Tenerifis boast a stronger pvp wing than they are given credit for, currently deployed to Delve. I wonder how much time the offensive has taken away from practicing because they face off against another AT veteran, The Space P0lice. The Space P0lice had a rough time in the AT last year, losing in the qualifying stages twice, and unable to make the group stages. This is a closer match than on paper, and I think though the Space P0lice will make a strong showing, The Kadeshi have a history of making it deep into the the AT.

16:20 Hun Reloaded vs. Perihelion Alliance - Now this is a matchup I am looking forward to. HUN exploded out of obscurity in AT4, winning the whole thing, while Perihelion has been making hell for their opponents in the past two AT's, including a win in the qualifiers that sealed Rote out of the group stages last year. In fact they didn't lose a single match all AT9 until the final day, losing to Darkside. The true runners up to Hydra/Outbreak in AT9. Will we see a resurgent HUN, aiming for their second crown? Or will the story be Perihelion stepping off to another good start?

16:40 Babylon 5.. vs. Nulli Secunda - Babylon squeaked through the qualifiers last year, with one loss and one victory, making it into the group stages before being defeated twice more to lock them out of the final day. Nulli on the other hand has some serious talent on their side, and no I am not talking about singing talent, in fact Nulli is a competent sov holding alliance, also out fighting in the Delve war, with some solid AT9 experience making it to the group stages as well, before facing some rough competition. In a matchup of nearly-there's, whos the winner? Maybe the song has something to do with it.

17:00 Noir Mercenary Group vs. Elysian Empire - Noir did not participate in AT9, but were in AT8, despite not making it through to the finals, their matches were close, but not as decisive as they prefer. Noir makes a living as Mercenaries and now more than ever, is a chance to show their skill in a stand up fight. The Elysian Empire are relative unknowns in comparison. But that's not to say they aren't ready for a challenge. As has been said before, living in a WH is not an easy life. The Empire is a strong force in WH space, and looks to highlight their skills against all comers in ATX. I see a close match here, and find it really tough to call.

17:20 RED.OVERLORD vs. R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. - After RED made it to the finals in AT8, they did not compete in AT9, but get their chance again in ATX. Sov holders out in a huge swath of space in the South. Their competitors are an interesting matchup, small to their large, but as with any matchup never quite certain. R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. are a set of pirates that seem to operate out of the lowsec in Caldari space. As with all pirates in the AT they stand just as good a chance in this match as any one else, as long as they have put the time in. Another good match, but one I think that RED might take in the end.

-- Intermission --

18:20 Fearless. vs. Sleeper Social Club - Neither have been in the AT over the last two years, so they start off with a level playing field in terms of experience. Fearless. is a Merc corp that operates their PvP wing out of lowsec to keep themselves sharp. They face off against the SSC, another Wormhole alliance, who have been looking forward to getting into the Alliance tournament. Both sides appear to be evenly matched and it will come down to the preparation, intel and some parts luck to determine the winner. Since SSC responded to my earlier post, I will go with them.

18:40 Darkside. vs. RAZOR Alliance - A regular pair of Veterans face off here, Darkside operates further south, than RAZOR does, in Sov, but both are strong pvp entities. Darkside has a strong history in the AT, making it to the final round last year, before losing to eventual champions Hydra/Outbreak in a very close match. RAZOR on the other hand fought their way through the qualifying stages of AT9 and made it just as far as Darkside, before being eliminate by the other half of the Hydra/Outbreak team. With Hydra and Outbreak out this year, is this a 6 v 6 of what the final would have looked like last year? I THINK SO!!! Darkside. ftw!

19:00 Get Off My Lawn vs. RvB - Old Syndicate residents, LAWN face off against highsec foreverwar partners Red Vs Blue. Red and Blue have a ton of PvP experience, but I wonder how much of a chance they had to get critical mass from their membership to flood the test server with training fights. LAWN showed some deft moves in AT9, getting into the group rounds before being swept there, going 0-3. Blue and Red (bestfed) participated in AT9, but Blue was eliminated in the qualifiers while Red made it into the group stages, going 1-2 and missing out on the finals by mere points. This is a tough choice for me here, But I will have to go with the corp/alliance I have been in before.

19:20 WHY so Seri0Us vs. Against ALL Authorities - WHY so Seri0Us owns their own small chunk of Sov, close to the massive Sov holdings of -AAA- Both sides are active pvpers, but who will show up with the better setup? They look to be blue to each-other in space, the perfect time to settle some of those nasty blue on blue desires. I will side with the underdog here, at the risk of being wrong.

19:40 Exodus vs. Bruderschaft der Pilger - Exodus is a pvp alliance in the curse region, and are quite active, and good. Rote had the luck to practice some 12v12 setups against these guys and they rocked our world. Bruderschaft is a part wormhole alliance and part nullsec alliance, made up of several corps that band together when they are needed but otherwise operate in either Curse, or WH independently. If there ever was the AT battle for Curse, this would be it.

20:00 Goonswarm Federation vs.  BricK sQuAD. - Goons, well.. Goons, they didnt make it into group stages in AT9, but fought some close matches none the less. In AT8 they showed moment of brilliance, but were unable to capitalize. This year seems to be the year of the Goons, wouldn't it be interesting to see them sweep the table and win the AT as well? BricK sQuAD. on the other hand, favored the triple Tengu setup last year, but it served them well, giving them a solid win in the first round and then a major loss in the second round. If Eve is any indication, I expect Oracles from them. My money is still on BricK after they beat up on test in the opening round last year.

20:20 Out of Sight vs. Pure Madness - OoS looks like everyone will underestimate them, that's going to be costly, they are doing a good job at PvP but I haven't seen them on the test server, while I have seen Pure Madness on there at all hours. Both have fought in Syndicate on and off, so I look forward to this match, though I think it will be close. I am guessing Pure Madness

20:40 The Veyr Collective vs. Northern Coalition. - I wish I knew more about The Veyr collective. It looks like the spend some time flying with Matari Exodus, but who knows how much of that good can rub off. To make matters worse, they get a brutal first round matchup with NC. Northern Coalition[dot] was in AT9 but unable to make it into the group stages despite going 1-1, with a fairly good win over The Space P0lice. Unfortunately, their first matchup didn't yield them enough points to make it into the next round.

End of Day one.

*Whew!* -Look, this is a shitload of work to write all this crap down so now we go to abbreviated version for Day 2 of the qulifiers! Sorry if I get some of my info wrong, or short-change your alliance -

Qualifying round 1 - Day 2 - 1st July (All times in UTC)

15:00 Dark Taboo vs. Alpha Volley Union - Nobody here responded to my questioneer. Bastards. That aside, Dark Taboo operates out of what looks like WH's and somewhere in or close to badsville. Something to the tune of this killmail... Wow that's bad. AVU It doesn't even matter, if you can't beat people that do that to their own members. Go home.

15:20 Manifest Destiny. vs. Verge of Collapse - Manifest Destiny are mostly small gang, lowsec Pvpers it seems like, running gangs in Amarr lowsec and making life hell for people down there. Verge of Collapse is telling anyone who will listen that they are bad. So that usually indicates the opposite. I am going to go out on a limb here and say Verge of Collapse is going to win this matchup.

15:40 Shadow Cartel vs. Tribal Conclave - Shadow Cartel is perhaps best known as one of the larger and more successful pirate alliances in New Eden at the moment. They also provide a home for such notorious villians as Nassh and Helicity Boson. They are a roaming pvp alliance at heart, operating out of the Gallente Militia zones, fighting all takers. Tribal Conclave on the other hand are virtual unknowns, who operate out in Scalding Path with Imperial Legion and friends against Gypsy band (whom I hope they will fight later on). My heart is always with the pirates. Good luck Shadow Cartel.

16:00 Dystopia Alliance vs. Pandemic Legion - Second to top most important match of the first weekend. Dystopia Alliance has all the members of the GHSC, in addition so such noteables as Tyrrax Thorrk and Istavaan S. Pandemic Legion is looking to step back up and claim their fourth AT title giving them the most in AT history to date (they are currently tied with BoB with three. It will be a close match where intel and meta-gaming will be more important than fittings and pilot skill.

16:20 Heretic Nation vs. Romanian Legion - Heretic Nation fly around "mother" ammamake, defending her from all who would rape and pillage her. No seriously. Active PvPers in that region, you can always trust that they are never too far from the first asteroid belt, and always in force. Having said that Romanian Legion are not a force to be forgotten. I think Heretic Nation takes this one in a close match.

16:40 Ev0ke vs. Wormhole Holders - Ev0ke are a powerful and last I looked, competent PvP Alliance who flies out in Geminate and Vale of the Silent, owning a considerable amount of space up there. The Wormhole Holders are a developing WH alliance looking for that elusive good fight and a chance to spread their name and influence, not to mention hopefully attract new pvpers to their ranks by performing well in the AT. Unfortunately for them, it will be an uphill battle vs Ev0ke. But I wish them luck.

17:00 The R0NIN vs. Dirt Nap Squad - The R0NIN are small gang guys who hang out in Syndicate, killing everything that comes in their path. Effective gang fighters, they need to step up their tactics a notch to be able to compete in the Alliance Tournament. I say that mostly tongue in cheek because last year the R0NIN made it all the way to the group stages before facing a gauntlet of skilled opponents, losing 2 of 3 fights and not making it into the finals. DNS, I didn't think you could BOBS bridge into the AT? Dirt Nap Squad is arguably most famous for it's proclivity towards dropping... everything... on everyone. At any chance they get. DNS Hasn't been in the AT in a few years, but I still expect good things. Close match here, but I am going to go with R0NIN.

17:20 Gypsy Band vs. Curatores Veritatis Alliance - Gypsy Band is a Curse based, small gang, vs large alliance PvP alliance. As I have said before and no doubt will say again, Alliances based in NPC space tend to do well vs CVA, I don't know why this is, but it stands pretty true. Okay Okay, CVA did make it to the Final day in AT8 and lost to the exact same people Rote lost to. I'll give them some respect. But not much.

-- Intermission --

18:20 Fatal Ascension vs. Kill it with fire - I think a forum post said it all accurately, Kill FA with fire. FA just completed a stint in Syndicate, bring joyous kills to the masses. Though I do tip my hat to them for taking some of the fights they got in. Kill it with fire on the other hand, is another Wormhole alliance, friends with the SSC, but self sufficient WH pvpers with a strong background in small gangs. This usually lends itself well to the atmosphere of the AT, and it will be interesting to see if FA had the time to practice with all their redeployments.

18:40 Rote Kapelle vs PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY - Refuse to comment on Rote, but PERCUSSIVE also known by their former name Percussive Diplomacy are no laughing matter despite their funny name. I'm not sure if it is a gambit to make people underestimate them or just searching for a laugh, but these Gallente milita pilots do well both in the war and out of it.

19:00 Capital Punishment. Vs. Suddenly Spaceships - I'll be the first to admit that there is some bad blood between Capital Punishment and Rote Kapelle. To be honest though, TEXN and friends are a formidable force even if we didn't get along with them in the long run. They will be facing a tough challenge against eve celebrity led Suddenly Spaceships. Seldarine is one of the premier pilots in eve if you have never heard of him before, and this latest alliance incarnation could be one of the toughest. Stationed out in Curse, Suddenly Spaceships focus on 5-15 man gangs and roaming combat. They are long-time vets of the AT, having participated in the last 8. Will this be the year they step up and deliver a championship?

19:20 Black Legion. vs. Mildly Intoxicated - [MEN.] How I love your ticker, and your work. You do gods work out there, especially in your Muninn fleets. Okay maybe those are a little last-year, but I still lub ya! Black Legion[dot] hold sov in one system in Vale of the Silent, but have been harassing people since inception. Solid pvpers they have been operating Alpha fleets since before it was cool. Never afraid to "punch up" these are a team to watch this year. Mildly Intoxicated is not an alliance I am as familiar with, but I do know of ookke though I am not sure he is good enough to carry the rest of the team past the favorites in this match. In a split decision amongst my personalities, I chose Black Legion as well.

19:40 The Forth District vs. The Gorgon Empire - 4th District is a Providence based alliance, and quite good at what they do from all appearances. That being small to mid sized PvP, and holding a small amount of Sov. They face off against The Gorgon Empire, a Curse based, NPC null alliance interested in showing off their PvP skill and knowledge by racking up some wins in ATX. It will be a tough fight, as both sides are looking to prove themselves. In the end, the Curse region has probably sharpened The Gorgons to a keener edge.

20:00 No Holes Barred vs. Team Liquid - No Holes barred is a WH Alliance, looking to make a name for itself, vs a team that already has a name for itself, in another game. Team Liquid is a Starcraft clan, and a very successful one. I think it was best said that their fits will have been EFTed to death. Now it's just the execution that could mess it all up.

20:20 Choke Point vs. Fluffeh Bunneh Murder Squad - Chokepoint is another successful Northern Alliance, PvPing in and around some of the big entities around Geminate and roaming all across eve at times. They face off against some Fluffeh Bunnies, terrors of WH space, who want to mislead everyone into thinking they are harmless Jita miners in awe of Chribba. Their deception won't work on me!

20:40 The G0dfathers vs. Test Alliance Please Ignore - Oh jesus, nearly done! Fuck it, G0ds pretty much split in half, and this half joined up for some Squid Facwar shooting at them nasty Feds. TEST is well, TEST, and after having done so badly last year, they might be looking for some redemption. TEST is showing signs of improvement in game, but we shall see. I wish them luck but wonder if G0ds have what's needed to take them out.

End of Day Two

Good Lord, no wonder I hated doing these posts, this took forever >.< I will have to start on monday next week so it will be done by Friday!

Enjoy! Streams start tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

ATX : Minmatar rush setup


Ahhh the Minmatar Rush. There is no real origin of this setup, but it's first real use was back in AT8, as the quintessential counter to the stealth bomber based setups that were heavily favored in AT7. The basic idea was to use the changes in Minmatar projectile turrets to be able to reach smaller, faster targets at range, while retaining the high dps of these ships in close range fights. Changes to Tracking Enhancers and Tracking computers made the previously AT-weak Minmatar team setups suddenly quite effective not only close in but at range as well.

To best highlight the point where this setup defeated our previously covered setup, breakdown is here...

I will be reviewing the Hydra vs PL final match of AT8.

Fleet composition
3 Sleipnir, 1 Claymore, 1 Huginn, 1 Scimitar, 3 Sabre, 1 Thrasher, For a total of 100 points.

Initial Evaluation

(Pre-fight, so no idea what the modules were)
1. Field control - Minmatar ships are notoriously fast, and this group is no exception. They further capitalize on the strength by throwing a Huginn and likely skirmish warfare mods on their Sliepnirs, allowing them to effectively dictate range against almost any counter setup.
Score : 9 of 10.

2. EWAR - All these ships are going to be using their mids for tank or ECCM, and have almost no inherent EWAR, unless you count the chance that the Huginn is going to be fielding a target painter or two. In addition to that, EC drones could be effective in a setup like this, but only add minor amounts of jamming over time.
Score : 3 of 10.

3. EWAR resistance - This setup is focused on Minmatar, who while weak to ECM individually, present a more difficult challenge when there is a large group of them, and each one has the mid slots to fit a ECCM to counter ranged ECM. The DPS projection will be limited by damps, but that is easily countered because this setup can close range and  dish our strong punishment from up close. Tracking disruptors would wreak havoc against this team, but would need to be used en masse to remove the majority of the DPS from the field.
Score : 6 of 10.

4. Number of ships and EHP on the field - The EHP of the "core" setup of ships is strong, but the rest of the setup is lacking EHP, but is bolstered by the presence of a Scimitar to be able to mitigate large portions of any damage that survives long enough to make a difference. They are fielding 10 ships, giving a great spread of targets for Ewar separation, and not providing a single or small group of "easy" targets.
Score : 5 of 5 for number of ships and 4 of 5 for total EHP.
Total Score : 9 of 10.

5. Field of Fire - The Sliepnir's combined some built in range bonuses with the extra range they got with tracking enhancers, making them able to project DPS, even if their DPS is weaker at extreme ranges, fairly well. They augment this with a Huginn, slowing their targets to allow them to close or hold range and still deliver DPS. Overall the field of fire put together for this team covers all ranges well and has outstanding overall DPS.
Score : 8 of 10.

6. Fleet Continuity - Sliepnirs with the Huginn is a great combination, but then in addition to that, fielding all shield based tank ships, as well as a scimitar, a fast shield Logi, is just good comp logic. The PL team uses destroyers and interdictors to provide extra tackle and extra DPS to limit drone damage and limit tackle from keeping their ships pinned down.
Score : 7 of 10.
7. Overall - The Minmatar rush is just as impressive visually as it is sexy. Add to that some of the intangibles of the pilots in PL and their great intel, and you have a near unbeatable setup. But wait, looking at these scores, it seems like I have ranked this setup lower than the setup that it beat. One of the beauties of this setup is the relative simplicity. Pilots can just focus on piloting and not lining up jam cycles and damp cycles.
Score : 8 of 10.

Post battle

1. Field control - This fleet performed even better than advertised, easily holding down targets and removing them from the field. This is reflected not only in how fast they removed Hydra from the field but also how well the setup performs under less skilled hands.
Score : 9 of 10.

2. EWAR - I was right on here with the low score in EWAR, but honestly, this is not what is important in this setup. The single recon covers their needs just fine.
Score : 3 of 10.

3. EWAR Resistance - Correct here again, the ships were fielding ECCM and managed to mitigate the majority of the ECM levied against them. In addition their speed and ability to close and do damage mitigated the heavy focused damps from the Hydra team. This would also be the case many times over in AT9.
Score : 6 of 10.

4. Number of ships and EHP - They are at the max ship number, coming in with 10, but their EHP proved to be above average especially under reps from the scimitar. The scores here was right on.
Score : 9 of 10.

5. Field of Fire - While not really forced to use their ranged damage, the setup did highlight the ability to close and deal increased focused damage as a way of mitigating damps and the ability to chase down targets without losing any ships.
Score : 8 of 10.

6. Fleet Continuity - As mentioned in fleet control, this setup was able to fly well together, dictating ranges plus the speed needed to apply the damage quickly to further maximize the DPS when not being Jammed.
Score : 7 of 10.

7. Overall - I'm not sure what level of knowledge the PL team had of this setup, but they countered it well. However the Minmatar rush wasn't simply a one setup beats another setup win, it has evolved from one situation to another to become one of the first thought of and effective setups in both 6 man and 12 man configurations. The ability to simply focus fire and pilot speaks well for this setup and links it back to other world beaters like the 10 man Thorax gang of SF.
Score : 9 of 10.

This setup is still very active in today's tourney environment. The Minmatar rush, specifically the use of a Sleipnir heavy core has been widely imitated and outright copied. The simplicity of the setup makes it a favorite for many who try it but few can manage the finesse of the PL pilots who fly it.

Next up : Predictions for the first week, Recaps from the fights over the weekend, and more introductions as I get replies.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Eve War's are Backwards

We now break the ATX coverage for a flash message:

Wardec costs are completely backwards.


Let me explain: 

The fiction surrounding 'Concord sanctioned wars' aka war-decs is that capsuleers "bribe" officials, to allow a open state of hostilities between two capsuleer Corps. Now traditionally this has been constructed that you pay X amount to dec the corp, up until now. Now you pay X amount per member of the corp you are deccing.

Well wait, this is stupid; as any person 'on the take' knows, it's not about how many people you are trying to screw over, it's about how many people you have to cover for. I honestly can't imagine wanting a bribe based of the number of people you are engaging vs the number of people you have.

In essence, the solution is so simple. Reverse wardec costs. Force the aggressor corp to pay for its membership to engage the defender corp, not pay for each of the defender corp's members! Retain the ally cost increase currently upcoming, but reverse the wardec cost. Actually Anon brings up a good point below, "Rather than it been a set cost per corp increasing exponentially, make it related to the size of Ally joining the war." This makes far more sense. There would have to be some minimum cap per war, to force 1-2 man grief corps from getting off too easily, I would say at least the current base costs would work.

This way large alliances can still engage small ones, but instead of paying the cost of engaging a small target, they still have to pay the cost of putting their Alliance at war, so large alliances would have to pay for their thousands of members each time they took on a war.

Think of what this does for merc wars, Merc corps are forced to stay lean on membership and effective to maximize their profit. This also fixes the big bullies beating up on the little guys essentially for free, since the "bullies" are now forced to pay for their members to enjoy the right of the wardec.

To prevent any war-dec shenanigans, if a new member joins an aggressor corp during the wardec, the corp is forced to pay for that members entrance into the war, alternatively, disable recruitment functionality to the corp from the first 24 hour notice of a war going active, until the war ends.

Now you have a system where the large rich corps can still dec small fish as the Goons want to, but they pay a steep price. Additionally, similar sized corps will still pay the same price, and once again true 1-2 man griefer corps get off relatively lightly... but that's a better state than the current problems...

And now back to your regularly scheduled ATX coverage.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

ATX - Alliance (re)introductions


In an effort to alliviate some of the "Who the hell are THOSE guys?" That always seems to hit me early on in the Alliance scheduling phase, I have sent out a pretty basic set of questions to those Alliances I didn't know much about, or assumed that others would not know much about. This is a rather long post since I got a surprising amount of non-troll level responses. Thank you to everyone who was involved, even the trolls.

In order of valid responses:

Periheion Alliance


where do you live?
what does your alliance primarily do?
As taken from: http://at.eve-ic.net/8/index.php?view=alliances&alliance=43
"Periheion Alliance are a mercenary group currently operating in Pure Blind."

primary motivation for Joining ATX?
More anomaly running in Jove space as per the description of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g_SOWeSYfw

Battlecry?
As per our flagship name for the last two and current alliance tournaments: "Death to AAA!!!" (Make sure you have the right number of exclamation marks).

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
AAA

Suddenly Spaceships.

where do you live?
Curse

what does your alliance primarily do?
Small gang pvp, 5 to 15 man, we also do black ops drops hence the alliance name.

primary motivation for Joining ATX?
Have been in past 8 tournaments do them every year

Battlecry?
TERROZ HUN EVICTED MATE

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
Raiden. Mildly Intoxicated.

Heretic Nation

Where do you live? 
We live in Heimatar space, our home system is Amamake, and our home station is the second planet station expert distribution center.

What does your alliance primarily do?
We are an alliance that prides in the fact that we continually evolve. We still hold onto our core beliefs that eve online is a game that allows people from all around the world to shed pixel spaceship blood, create friends, and enemies. Currently we are a small alliance, and we form our tactics around that fact, basing a lot of our defenses around speed and stealth. We also, when no one is around to fight in glorious battul, we camp gates with orcas.

Primary motivation for Joining ATX?
We have been part of the alliance tournament in many forms, before Heretic nation, BANE alliance, and now Heretic Nation (reformed). We like to prove that low security dwellers are powerful, even if we don’t have the financial backing or a huge pile of pilots to sift through. Our brotherhood sees us through.

Battle cry?
_______♥_♥
____♥♥░░♥♥
__.♥__░░░░♥
_♥__░░░░░♥
__♥♥♥♥♥♥
___♥__░░♥
___♥__░░♥
___♥__.░░♥__.
___♥.____░♥___♥♥
_♥♥♥♥♥____.♥♥___♥
♥_.░░░░ ♥.__.░░░░░♥
_♥___░♥HERITICS♥░░♥
__♥____.♥♥___.░░♥♥
__.♥♥♥♥_♥♥♥♥♥♥

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.

Everyone.

The Kadeshi

Kadeshi lives in the south "feythabolis area".
We are a pvp alliance who like quality over quantity and enjoy killing shit. Our main way of combat is small gang warfare like roams etc, but we also like bigger conflicts, coalition wars, fleetfights etc, which we usually get involved in.
Basicly we like to kill and burn stuff :)

Our Alliance is a mix of nationalities, uk, german, dutch, us, and a big portion of gay swedish people.

Motivation for the tourny is being an "underdog alliance" that the bigger and more well known teams underestimates.

Battlecry: KLADDKAKA (and we have a tendencie to post nasty links in local).

We are hoping on getting to fight really wellknown and skilled teams.
We are lovers not haters

Pure Madness.

where do you live?
We're currently living in the northernmost part of Syndicate.

what does your alliance primarily do?
We're a PvP-Alliance

primary motivation for joining ATX?
some members have already been in helping/training squads for former alliances, but most of us never took part in an actual match, so we decided to try to get a place in this years tournament and luckily managed to get a slot.

Battlecry?

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
STUGH, 'cause we're in the same region, but different timezones and rarely get a fight + they're AT regulars
Agony
FA

Lone Star Partners

where do you live?
A wormhole

what does your alliance primarily do?
stuff

primary motivation for Joining ATX?
why not

Battlecry?
We dare to give you the rasberry

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
Everyone


Team Liquid

Its so nice that someone is taking an interest in us. We currently live in lonetrek, which is close to pure blind. We used to live in Oddeluf, but another pirate corp, Gunpoint Diplomacy and their allies in ANZAC ACADEMY and Delait forced us out. Lonetrek is a great place, with lots of missioners to gank, and the best pvpers in the game that camp the gate in Aunenen (the corp is Tundragon). We mostly try to camp the lowsec entry to pure blind, and gank people doing missions and exploration sites. We joined ATX because we were kicked from Fatal Ascension, and want to prove to Zagdul that we have what it takes to succeed in null sec pvp.

Our battlecry would probably be "UNDOCK EVERYTHING." We are hoping to go up against some of the enemies we made while in FA, like the elite GET OFF MY LAWN alliance. We are working very closely with our good friends in Mordus Angels. They arent in the tournament, but they are really good, and Gen Eve has been a great help in theorycrafting fits for us, and Undertovv has been amazing in teaching us good tactics to use. 

Fluffeh Bunneh Murder Squad

where do you live?
- in rl, we live in northern new jersey; in eve, we live in jita
what does your alliance primarily do?
- we are veldspar miners
primary motivation for Joining ATX?
- we lost a bet and it was either ATX or run around the Paramis Mall in pink lingerie singing We Represent the Lolipop League
Battlecry?
- Chribba is the Messiah!!!
Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
- Honestly, all we can fly is hulks, so we're just looking for some veldspar 'roids

Black Legion.

We currently live in Venal and mostly roam sov space with Muninns and occassionally crash fights, etc. The main reason we're in this tournament is we did pretty well last year and managed to not embarass ourselves so why not be in the tournament? We don't really have any team in specific we're looking out for.

Elysian Empire

Where do you live?
We live in depths of WH space.

What does your alliance primarily do?
Everything that wormholes offer and of course, blowing stuff up.

Primary motivation for Joining ATX?
To have fun testing our mettle against the best EVE has to offer, and watching them explode.

Battlecry?
For the Empire!

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
It's always fun to come up against fellow wormhole alliances.

Kill it with Fire

What does your alliance primarily do?
Dedicated wspace alliance. We have a strong PvP focus but undertake all aspects of wormhole living.

Primary motivation for Joining ATX?
A chance to fight a bunch of top pvp alliances that we don't often get to come across.  We've wanted to enter the last couple of years but this is the first time we've really been in the right position to do so.

Battlecry?
I'm a Lead Farmer Mother Fu....!

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.
Allies = SSC
People most want to beat = SSC (In this case the SSC is the Sleeper Social club)

Choke Point

Choke Point is a small gang pvp alliance basing out of Eurgrana but operating primarily in 0.0. We do not do sov, structure grinding, blobs etc. We just log in and pvp, either solo or as a small gang. Choke Point consists of two corps who function as one on a day to day basis;

Paradox Collective is a small gang pvp corp who did comprise the majority of Black Legion’s EU timezone until they broke away a couple of years ago. They boast a number of FCs from the likes of Black Legion, BoB and the NC.

Disconnected were formed by the directors of a former NC corp (Red Horizon Inc). When the NC fell they placed the corp into Cascade Imminent then having secured it’s future, handed over to the next generation and embarked on the challenge of creating a new and very different corp. This was made possible by the support of Paradox who initially helped us get established as their guests. Once DISCN had matured the two corps formed an alliance.

Choke Point now spends it’s time terrorising the south-west corner of Geminate whilst looking for good small gang fights. The alliance is not elitist in it’s recruitment but rather looks for sound people who have potential. All we ask is that people are willing to learn, show improvement during their time with us, and fit into the community. This philosophy has allowed us to build a small but high quality pvp alliance, where everyone knows their role and the pilots they are flying with. As such we rarely lose against even numbers and regularly dominate gangs several times our size.

Although some of our pilots have competed previously this will be Choke’s first year in the tournament.

Bruderschaft der Pilger

Die Bruderschaft der Pilger (the Brotherhood of Pilgrims)is an Austrian/German Alliance of several wormhole corps. The plan to send a team to the Alliance Tournament came from Sirius Fleet, an independent corporation. Sirius Fleet is a more nullsec-oriented corporation currently based in Curse.Sirius Fleet joined the Brotherhood for AT X and now we are preparing for our first matches.

Percussive Pizza Time Diplomacy

where do you live?

We live in Black Rise. It's lowsec - militia battlespace for the most part.

what does your alliance primarily do?

Extortion, assault, trolling in intel channels, mercenary contracts, local smacktalk, and occasionally putting our serious pants on and hunting down enemy militia pilots. We really aren't a proper alliance - Percussive Pizza Time Diplomacy consists of only one corp of roughly 40 pilots. We are a tight-knit corp with a great culture and a strong sense of camaraderie. We don't scream at each other, we rarely make rules, and we never dictate anyones style of gameplay. SLAPD is a casual corp with a hardcore presence, highlighted by distasteful humor and great pilots. I believe that we are the only faction warfare alliance competing this year.

primary motivation for Joining ATX?

It's Pizza Time.

Battlecry?

See above.
http://i.imgur.com/Gn8ZI.jpg

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.

As I said before, we are a small lowsec corp going up against some very large, established competitors. We don't come into contact with most of these alliances on TQ all that often. We're going to fight hard and see how far up the ladder we can climb. In the short-term, SLAPD is definitely looking forward to fighting Rote Kapelle during week one. (We are looking forward to fighting you as well.)

Wormhole Holders

where do you live?
Mostly in W-space, but sometimes we go out into known space (low- and nullsecs) for PvP.
This is not like organized events but just small camps and roamings or participation in events of our allies

what does your alliance primarily do?

Our goal is to unite corps which have bases in W-space and to form a powerful united fleet of PVP-skilled pilots from all our corps. We always look for a new ways to improve our skills and combat experience.

primary motivation for Joining ATX?
It`s important for us to participate. Will be interesting to meet strong rivals within the official competition. Such things unite people. Also it`s a good place to tell pthers about us, make ourselves a name.

Battlecry?
None

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.

It doesn't matter who will be our enemy - I think we'll have great fun anyway

Sleeper Social Club

1. SSC has strong North American and European membership.

2. Our Alliance is an interesting combination. The first main corporation is Future Corps, of which I am the founder, who live and play in w-space. The other main corporation is The Corporation of Noble Sentiments, which is a very PVP focused corp living whever there's good pew to be had. We join up when there's fun to be had that's bigger than just one of us.

3. ---

4. PRAISE BE TO BOB, LORD OF W-SPACE!

5. It would be interesting to go against someone like Space Police since a lot of our members are Eve Uni graduates that fought against them a lot in the past. Any of the other w-space alliances would also make for a bit of deja vu. We'd have to fight with extra love against Kill it with Fire, as they're some of our best bros ever since our directors got drunk with them at fanfest.

The Gorgon Empire

where do you live?

We live in Curse, its 0.0 NPC region.

what does your alliance primarily do?

We do PVP :-) Roamings, etc.

primary motivation for Joining ATX?

It will be nice trial for our pvp abilities and it should be very interesting to confront tricky setups of another teams.

Shadow Cartel

Where do you live?
We live predominantly in and – Gallente lowsec in between the main two militia areas. But we roam far and wide.

What does your alliance primarily do?
We are predominantly a roaming lowsec pvp alliance. We don’t really gatecamp but we like to take organised gangs out to lowsec (and a bit of null) and fight militia or anyone else who’s about. We don’t officially identify as pirates as we would only ransom pods as we prefer ship killmails to ransoming ships – however call us that if you want.
We have been known to drop a few caps (Here Here) and kill a few shinies (Here) occasionally, but generally we try to find fun, outnumbered fights. – Not that we won’t gank you if you jump into us solo though! The alliance is based around gang pvp but we have a number of good soloers, as well as far too many bloggers and video makers that insist on putting my voice on youtube.

Primary Motivation for joining atx?
Alot of us have always enjoyed watching it and we fancied having a go this year- we have very low expectations but if we can get out of the 6man stage that would be great. We will try to bring some unorthodox setups as we tend to try to do generally so that as a minimum our lossmails will be entertaining to the masses.

Battlecry?
“Don’t listen to itsme”
“Jorp”
“Trolololololol”
Etc

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX
There’s no one we especially like or dislike – obviously we hope to win but we’re more in it for the taking part although obviously we would like to take part for as long as possible! There aren’t a lot of lowsec groups so we’ll be supporting our fellow lowsec denizens in team liquid and heretic nation.

Gypsy Band



Y-DW5K, Rapture, Curse.

Nullsec roamings, bombing runs and generally annoying and griefing huge claim alliances (RED, etc.)
We have placed an application for previous tournament (AT IX), but have not participated because we lost the lottery.
Battlecry? Ay-na-ne, or Ай-на-нэ.
We are looking forward to meet in combat all people we've met in space before - ROL, AAA, PL, whoever we fought against or with. Though some of the participants are promising to be a real challenge, like Darkside or HUN Reloaded.

Rote Kapelle


* Where do you live?

Rote Kapelle has operated out of Syndicate since 2009, with periodic breaks plundering whatever regions seem fat with ships in space. We believe strongly that for pilots who want to test themselves. We feel the place for that in the EVE cluster is Syndicate.  Everyone who isn't here is just coasting.

* What does your alliance primarily do?

Our goal is to fundamentally remove you from your ship, and your corpse, take your things, and play dolly with your corpse.  This is for all values of 'you'.

* Primary motivation for joining ATX?

The AT is where the best pilots go, to see who the best pilots are. The question isn't WHY we would go to the AT, but why others don't.

Allies/Enemies/people you hope to fight, and beat in ATX.

Rote doesn't really operate with Allies, with perhaps one exception who won't be in the AT.  We are very keen at testing ourselves against the best, and the best know who they are;  You can look to the finalists from previous tournaments to see our competition.  They are very good, which is why they are worth shooting for.

-----

Well I guess 20 responses isn't too shabby.

Up next : review of Minmatar rush setups, Further Alliance intro responses, Predictions for week 1, and another introduction post if I get more responses.

Friday, June 1, 2012

ATX - Week 1 matchups announced


CCP released the week one schedules for ATX, I have highlighted the matches I think will be the best fights early on.


Qualifying round 1 - Day 1 - 30th June (All times in UTC)

15:00 Agony Empire vs. Exiled Ones
15:20 Solar Fleet vs. Dead Terrorists
15:40 Lone Star Partners vs. Raiden.
16:00 The Kadeshi vs. The Space Police
16:20 Hun Reloaded vs. Perihelion Alliance
16:40 Babylon 5.. vs. Nulli Secunda
17:00 Noir Mercenary Group vs. Elysian Empire
17:20 Red Overlord vs. R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.

-- Intermission --

18:20 Fearless. Vs. Sleeper Social Club
18:40 Darkside vs. RAZOR Alliance
19:00 Get Off My Lawn vs. RvB
19:20 Why So Serious? Vs. Against ALL Authorities
19:40 Exodus vs. Bruderschaft der Pilger
20:00 Goonswarm Federation vs.  Brick Squad
20:20 Out of Sight vs. Pure Madness
20:40 The Veyr Collective vs. Northern Coalition.

End of Day one.

Qualifying round 1 - Day 2 - 1st July (All times in UTC)

15:00 Dark Taboo vs. Alpha Volley Union
15:20 Manifest destiny vs. Verge of Collapse
15:40 Shadow Cartel vs. Tribal Conclave
16:00 Dystopia Alliance vs. Pandemic Legion
16:20 Heretic Nation vs. Romanian Legion
16:40 Evoke vs. Wormhole Holders
17:00 The RONIN vs. Dirt Nap Squad
17:20 Gypsy Band vs. Curatores Veritatis Alliance

-- Intermission --

18:20 Fatal Ascension vs. Kill it with fire
18:40 Rote Kapelle vs PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY
19:00 Capital Punishment. Vs. Suddenly Spaceships
19:20 Black Legion vs. Mildly Intoxicated
19:40 The Forth District vs. The Gorgon Empire
20:00 No Holes Barred vs. Team Liquid
20:20 Chokepoint vs. Fluffeh Bunneh Murder Squad
20:40 The G0dfathers vs. Test Alliance Please Ignore

End of Day Two

ATX - A look back at past Fleet comps


First lets start off with an embarrasing recap of a fight from AT8. Rote vs GENOS in the round of 16. aka the first sighting of the : GENOS Cycle damp fleet. :Queue dastardly music:

First sighting - Here

Fit secured an Eventual AT8 2nd place.

Fleet composition

3 Myrmidon, 3 Rook, 1 Oneiros, 2 taranis, 1 Ishkur. 100 points.

Initial evaluation

(pre fight, so no idea what modules were fit.)

1. Field control - Two fast inties and the ishkur (best AF), Myrms can be fairly mobile, Rooks with light buffer and MWD are mobile. No assets to control range outside of tackle of inties and Ishkur, both armor tankers, but still kill-able.
Score : 6 of 10


2. EWAR - Myrms have a host of mid slots, as well as the obvious rooks having ECM, likely tackle for the mids of the inties and AF. Possibly TD's and or sensor damps to supplement the ECM, I guessed a high likely hood of damps over TD's to be used in synergy with the ECM to provide cycle jamming.
Score : 7 to 9 of 10


3. EWAR resistance - Myrms have a good base sensor strength, but once again also have the mids and lows to fit ECCM. Myrms are also usually up close and personal fit, so damps will be of limited use vs them. Inties and AF provide tackle, no real way to do that and be resistant to EWAR of any kind, short of getting under it and maintaining lock. Rooks are resistant to damps with a near 200km lock range (base at that time), had a plethora of mids for ECCM if so desired, usually an offensive EWAR platform though, so not likely ECCM fit.
Score : 5 to 6 of 10


4. Number of ships/EHP - Fielding 10 ships, is a good start, but not the only factor. This fit also fields some ships that can have good, but not surprising EHP, and then a fair number of ships with low EHP. I judge this really in two parts. Score : 5 of 5 for number of ships, 3 of 5 for total EHP. 
Total Score : 8 of 10.


5. Field of fire - Missiles from the Rooks could hit pretty much anywhere, but the maximum damage had to come from the Myrms and associated support. To be honest there is not much damage on the field, and that damage is limited to drones (with travel time) and missiles with the same.
Score : 5 of 10


6. Fleet continuity - The mix of the midslots of the Myrms, plus the jamming power of the Rooks is a good match of EWAR, something this setup focuses on very heavily. Further backed by the damage of the Taranis and Ishkur, and a armor logi with yet more midslots, but this is still a simple concept. The Rook's Jam targets, followed by the Myrms and whatever Ewar and DPS they hold to bring the targets down one at a time. Overall this fleet comp looks solid.
Score : 7 of 10


7. Overall - An impressive first look, even without firing a shot. The level of pilot skill can only add to this setup. Coordination of Jams and other EWAR will take this setup from a simply "good" setup to a "great" setup, and GENOS certainly has the pilots to make the most of this setup.
Score : 7 of 10


Post fight Scores

1. Field Control - Mobility played a role in all of the fights against this setup, from our to the Finals. The mobility displayed by the inties was good, but as predicted they were still killable, however, the Ishkur proved to be a tough nut to crack. Also a swarm of warriors trailed their frigates, and in turn the tackle and other light ships of opposing setups were swarmed under in just a few seconds. 
Score : 7 of 10

2. EWAR - It turns out the Myrms were damp fit and swapped between range and lock time damps doing a very good job of cycle jamming once their jammer support landed jams. For instance I was damped down to 15km and it took me approx 30 seconds to lock one of the Myrms, giving their Rooks more than ample time to keep me locked down. 
Score : 9 of 10

3. EWAR resistance - Didn't seem like there was any sensor boosters or ECCM running on the Myrms, and for sure the Rooks were not running any ECCM. The lower score here is the true one, but then you don't need EWAR resistance if you aren't taking much ewar. 
Score : 5 of 10

4. Number of Ships/EHP - Right on the money pre-fight with this one, then again it is tough not to be. The Taranis' folded but not before they removed their primary targets in most cases. 10 ships to split up enemy EWAR, and masses and masses of drones helped neutralize EWAR to the point of ineffectiveness. 
Score : 8 of 10

5. Field of Fire - Fairly accurate here too, the Myrms had to close range, as did their drones, however they did employ one "trick" of good piloting. That was assigning their Warriors to their fast movers, and using them as a swarm, eliminating other light tackle at range, and quickly. 
Score : 6 of 10

6. Fleet Continuity - Rooks worked great with the Myrms, and the Logi was easily able to keep up all the ships under the reduced DPS thanks to all the EWAR. When it was working, it worked well. 
Score : 8 of 10

7. Overall - Even more impressive in practice than the first look would suggest. Player skill played a large part in this setup to move it from a simply good to great.
Score : 9 of 10

Final fight of this setup, here.

Reasons for retirement : The PL based "minmatar rush" setup threw the beat down easily on this ECM heavy, range control setup. ECCM from the minmatar rush and high DPS removed Myrms from the field, making the use of damps ineffective at such close range, and one locked the Sleipnir based setups had no problem forcing the Myrms down, all the while tanking the incoming damage from the explosive based drones fielded against the shield based setup. It was a six minute drubbing of rock meeting scissors.

Next up : 'Minmatar Rush', ATX Week one Schedule released, Classic 'Bomber' setups, Alliance informational posts.