AT X - Group stages weekend 1 recap

Another Weekend in the books, filled with many more great and face-palming moments, but beyond the fights, there's a whole new level. That is, how are the groups panning out. Don't worry, we'll get there.

Highlights(lots)/Lowlights(not many)

Day 5

• HUN throw down with some Vargur love, teasing people with a Vargur shield tank, letting it drop armor before kicking it into overdrive and going 125 - 0!
• Agony Empire delivered a bore fest of a total win. Sucks that the Rook based setups seem to be doing so well this year. Really hate the monotony of the ECM dominated fights, not a lot of damage out there, makes for boring watching, still a very solid win.
• TEST drives the WINDICATOR , and wins.
• Two "underdog" wins in a row by FEARLESS and Cap. pun. that were good matches.
• Dead Terrorists and Heretics had an amazing back and forth match that went to time. DT 55 points, Heretics 76.25 points.
• Shout out to Exodus for putting together a solid team and taking some by surprise. Nice Flagship.
• Lots of pretty explosions (and fast) in this match. Once again showing that armor tanks can easily be overwhelmed by high (enough) DPS. We thank Suddenly Spaceships. and Shadow Cartel for their efforts in lighting up the screen.
• Rote "No boundaries" Kapelle decided discretion was the better part of valor when facing a tough RvB team that can only be taken as serious contenders, and attempted to run away. RvB wouldn't let us go without a fight, and quickly removed our pilots from their ships for daring to show their face on the field. (they weren't very nice!) I missed the match but got to watch twitter explode after RvB won. Didn't know that Jester was such a polarizing figure.

My predictions, well, they were pretty bad for the first day of group stages : 6/16. Ewww, that's 37.5% Let's see how well I did on Day 6.

Day 6

• Raivi's doubt single handedly allows Black Legion. to advance. He did do a good job on explaining why bringing fewer ships to a match is a bad idea. I appreciated it <3
• HUN show that their Vargur setup isn't just a fluke, and steamrolls again.
• Agony gives more proof that Vindi's are better, hull for hull than pairs of Talos' Stream failures messed up this match pretty bad, but not Agony.
• FA after being so good in the initial matches make everyone wonder wtf is happening, in particular watch for the scimi reps... on things that aren't taking any damage. n1
• "no boundaries" TEST beat out the Rote record and drive 4 ships out of bounds, making a certain Dev's day as he gets to press his kill button some more. Somehow they manage to win... making me head-scratch the rest of the day. Proving that they are the better violators.
• FEARLESS. redeem their terrible Vindicator use in the qualifiers, pushing down hard on Capital Punishment. and coming away with a win.
• Heritic Nation provided a nice counter to the Vindicator, killing off a strong Gorgon Empire team featuring two Vindi's, and a disconnected Bhaalgorn that cost GE the match.
• In a Match of rock vs paper, or I guess I should say ROOK(Dead Terrorists) vs paper(Exodus), the paper wrapped up those rooks, deploying a mass of drones to avoid those pesky jams. In Bolton's word, out of context, "ownzoned"
• Shadow Cartel has a slugging match with PZZA and barely lose. Great match to watch.
• Another flagship down when Suddenly Spaceships attack!
• RvB shows up for a win again, successfully trouncing Kill it With Fire.
• Probably the match of the tourney happens when PL vs Rote heats up. PL brought a gutsy setup, complete with two Bhaalgorns, including their flagship Bhaalgorn, for posterity, everything on that Bhaalgorn that CAN be pimped legally according to the AT rules, is. Then on top of their already 20BIL isk Bhaalgorn they brought in four AT9 tournament prizes, the Malice, who's hulls are likely 30 bil alone! Rote brings a Sleipnir setup, that's 8 points under, to help drive up their points total if they win, and dives into the 160bil PL setup like their hair is on fire. I've seen the fight about 10 times now, and each time it's amazing. If you watch nothing else, watch this fight, full screen, lights off, sound up. "The most tense I've been in a long time..." Just so you know, the odds against Rote were 3:1 on Monocle Madness and 11:1 in some other places. DAMN IT!

Somehow, as if pre-inspired by the Rote win, my predictions managed to recover, going from crap to savant in just one 24 hour period.  It makes sense that I had no chance to run any bets on Sunday, and lost most of my bets on Saturday. Still 13/16 correct is 81.25%!

Giving me a combined two day average of 19/32 or 59.3%. Steps in the right direction I tell you!

Upcoming : Predictions for the last day of the group stages and likely FINALS PREDICTIONS (in b4 I predict rote to win it all.)