AT X - A champion is revealed!

VERGE OF COLLAPSE - AT X CHAMPIONS!

Wow, what a final day. I wasn't able to watch all the fights, but the ones I did catch were each very very good. Everyone who made it to the final day should be very proud, just the simple time and energy needed to get that far is staggering.

My "bracketology" needed a little work, but with the exception of a few wrong turns early on, I got the long game correct, but only on half of the bracket. HUN did beat PL and force them out of the tourney right where I expected them to. I suppose if you replace Verge with Rote Kapelle then suddenly my bracket looks a whole lot better. I would have looked like a genius if I had said "the winner of Rote v Verge will win the tourney." I'm not quiet that smart :)

I could act all "I expected Verge to do well." But honestly I didn't.

Well, at least not until I watched the fight with Rote, and at that point it seemed that Verge would go all the way. Their piloting was superb, and WarGod as their logistics was just simply amazing. Yes he made some mistakes and wasn't perfect, but... they managed to win. Props to them for winning ATX!

In the end they pulled off an amazing run to victory, facing one of the toughest, if not THE toughest path to the finals than any team in history. This year there were many more competitive teams than in the past, and next year the route will be even harder as a likely pretty mad GENOS and Outbreak teams will return to the running.

HUN as well had a tough time, but they seemed to find a setup that worked for them, and stuck with it to the end. Commendable in my book, and one of the setups I will try to break down in more detail later if I feel so inclined.

As for the AT prizes this year, I have always thought that the winners should get 50 of the cruiser sized prizes as well as 25-50 of the frig sized prizes. It just seems like that would give more reason to actual win and alleviate the thing that really bothers me, the desire to look at the prizes and choose to win one or the other in order to get the better ship/prize. Despite Raivi's comments, I don't think the "Osprey" prize is very impressive, at least not as impressive as the AF for second place is.

In any case,

Standout matches in no particular order:

Pretty much every match of the Verge of Collapse team throughout the last day. From the bitter to swallow, for me, win over the Rote team, down to their next Match with MI, as they flew around trying to chase down their targets. Then the match vs Exodus who arrived with the same basic setup, MOAR DPS! I have long championed Exodus due not only their skill but also their dedication to practicing with us, all the way to the Final vs the seemingly invincible Vargur setup. Verge pushed through that fight as well, and into the final vs HUN. That match was full of surprises where Sleipnirs managed to sweep out the Vargurs and secure Verge's first Alliance tournament participation and first title.

But each winning team can look back on their match with pride:

HUN brought a Vargur based setup 8 times total before losing, defeating the most 'hard' counter they could face, the PL Widow ECM swarm, looking invincible up until the final match.

Pandemic looked great in their wins vs TEST and Darkside.. Their ECM widow setup performing better than any Widow/ECM based setup prior to that, before falling to the HUN Vargur's.

Exodus showed off their skill in their matches against the Agony Empire 'baited' turtle team, I mean come on, who wasn't screaming at that match until the end begging them to switch damage. Looked like they were going to lose four points to zero! Exodus' next match against Nulli in the elite 8 was a spectacle, QUAD windicators vs Bhaalgorns for all the marbles.

In fact I would say that perhaps even a little biased, but in many ways, ATX proved to be the best tournament thus far. Now if only CCP would get the replays on the AT site, going to be tough, given the level of partying that probably followed after another amazingly successful AT.

Indeed, where would the AT be without the full and continued support of the AT team over at CCP, so a special thanks to those people for sacrificing their weekends, cherished time off, and in some cases coming off of vacation just to speak directly to the viewers and players of Eve Online. This year's revamped match overview eased the viewing of the matches, providing a clear readout of EWAR and special effects, while adding even more information in the form of speed, pilot names, and the ever important health bars. A hearty thank you for a job well done to those guys.

On a final, more personal note, I would like to thank the Rote Kapelle team as well. Apathetic Brent was our team Captain, along with a selection of capable co-captains, Sakura Nihil, Namami, Proxay, Dradius, and the rest of our team, for making it an exciting and involving time for everyone in RK.

Next up : Who knows!

AT X - Finals Predictions.

Whew! What a crazy day. I have to admit that I was really pulling for RvB over PL in the final match, but it just wasn't meant to be for them this year.

Other highlights included some incredibly brutal matches, and still some halfway decent throw away fights like the fight between FA and Dark Taboo. FA brought a thorax heavy setup seemingly paying homage to the now old Star Fraction vs Band of Brothers match-up.

My totals were 10 right out of 16, none to shabby for such a tough round to guess since there were so many matches that were for little more than just honor. That's 62.5%.

Bah, who am I kidding, Rote made it back into the final day, after quite the DPS heavy match against KiWF, and then hoping on the sidelines that the match between PL and RvB fell in our favor. I could almost feel the angst radiating from fellow Rote members as the last match went down. Even the few seconds where PL holds fire on the Eos of RvB made me honestly consider them throwing the match to keep us out. I think they just want the chance of a rematch to avenge their earlier loss vs us rather than face off with RvB again.

On to the Final day. I guess this is the Eve version of "Bracketology" familiar to us Northern Americans for the NCAA March madness tournament. The idea is you choose the winner of the tourney before any of the matches get played, at least here we have some background.

Fair warning, I am terrible in bracketology, further, I make one mistake and it could be all over.

Special 16

HUN Reloaded vs FEARLESS. - HUN's been eating well all tourney.

The G0dFathers vs Heretic Nation

Pandemic Legion vs TEST

Darkside. vs PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY

Mildly Intoxicated vs Raiden.

Verge of Collapse vs Rote Kapelle


Exodus. vs Agony Empire - Our training partners vs our Syndicate fellows. Probably the hardest match for me to call thus far. Exodus in a nail biter.

Shadow Cartel vs Nulli Secunda

Wow that's a lot of left sidedness.

Elite 8

HUN Reloaded vs The G0dfathers

Pandemic Legion vs Darkside. - Wow, what a matchup this is going to be, like two Juggernauts slugging it out for ten minutes, it's going to be a fight that nobody is going to want to look away from. I can't wait.

Mildly Intoxicated vs Rote Kapelle -Well this is an interested match, in AT9 we faced a lot of the Mildly Intoxicated guys when they were still in Black Legion. Looking at the schedules their departure may have cost MEN a chance to get this far. It's going to be epic. This time we come out on top.

Exodus. vs Shadow Cartel - Can't go against our training partners, but if I was going to this would be the match where it would happen. Very close match up, lots of skill and ability on both sides.

Final 4

HUN Reloaded vs Pandemic Legion - Yes it's controversial, yes I could be entirely wrong, but both HUN and PL have been playing great all tourney, it's going to be a key fight for both of them, HUN has been so focused on making it into the finals, repeating as champs that is anyone is going to defeat PL, it's going to be them.

Rote Kapelle vs Exodus - Wowza.

FINALS

HUN Reloaded vs Rote Kapelle - Long time wishers vs successful champs. In a battle of the who will be's I think Rote surprises and wins the championship.

ATX Champs.

Rote Kapelle

Now I predicted we would win similar to this back in AT8 and let's just say it didn't work out to well for me. I wish for better luck this time!

To view my picks in bracket form, look here

Upcoming : ATX final results (OMG!)

AT X - Group standings breakdown

We are headed into the final weekend of the group stages, and boy are things a mess. This is a short breakdown of the different groups, standings and what each team has to do to advance, if possible.

Group A

Alliance                 Wins             Points

HUN Reloaded       2                   250

Black Legion.          1                  139

Nulli Secunda          1                  112.5

Choke Point             -                      4

A contentious group here, but only if HUN stumbles at the last weekend, and stumbles badly, they would have to score <14 points to be in grasping reach of Black Legion. Meanwhile Nulli is poised to go against Choke point who have thus far been unsuccessful in providing much opposition to anyone. Nulli, with a clean sweep there, could force Black Legion. out if MEN. lose (even with 98 points in a loss) and Nulli claims a total hell death (125 points). Choke is completely out, but if they beat Nulli they secure MEN.'s spot in the finals. This is assuming that each team brings full point setups. If Black Legion or Nulli bring shorted teams and win the math changes. This is a bracket where Nulli might take the risk of bringing a low points team in order to have a chance at advancing.

Group B

Alliance                 Wins             Points

Agony Empire         2                   250

The G0dfathers        2                   250

Fatal Ascension        -                     17

Dark Taboo              -                       4

Agony Empire and The G0dfathers have this group locked up, even though they face off this weekend, the match determines nothing as they will both be headed to the finals. FA and Dark Taboo are too far behind to catch up, short of both sides bringing extremely shorted teams, think along the lines of a dual t1 frigate duel to advance. Just for giggles, let's expand on that, both teams bring one t1 frigate (2 points), that means they automatically "spot" the other team 98 points, so whomever wins the duel, barring a tie, would get 100(match win)+98(handicap)+THD victory bonus of 25% (47.5) = 247.5 + 17 points (already earned) = 264.5 or 247.5 + 4 = 251.5. I think that FA and Dark Taboo should talk about this strategy if for no other reason that how great it would be to see. It means that both teams MIGHT, if Agony or G0d's get 0 points, the winner of FA and Dark Taboo could advance. WRONG! Minimum setup points is 50 points. And hadicaps apparently only work if the other side brings full points.

Dueling Frigates, awesome since introduction.
Except when they aren't allowed.

Group C

Alliance                   Wins             Points

Mildly Intoxicated     2                  250

TEST                        2                  250

Alpha Volley Union -                     52

Nothern Coalition.     -                      9

Another locked down group. Come on NC. and AVU, show up with t1 frigates! battle to the death. If Alpha Volley could win the Frigate duel, they would be easily able to threaten TEST or MI if they fail to score points in their matchup. UHHHH NOPE, you guys are out of it completely.

Group D

Alliance                   Wins             Points

FEARLESS.             2                   250

Verge of Collapse      1                   143

Capital Punishment    1                   125

Goonswarm                -                     48

Even Goons have a chance to advance in this group, and that'd be with 1 win and 2 losses. If FEARLESS blank Verge of Collapse this weekend, and Goonies THD Capital Punishment, they would end up with 48 (current points) + 125 (or more if they handicap) = 173 points and would slide into the finals in those most improbable way. Capital Punishment has to win in order to advance, win and hope that VoC doesn't do well vs FEARLESS. or that they do so well that FEARLESS score 0 points. It's another "death group." Where nothing is certain.

Group E

Alliance                   Wins             Points

Exodus                      2                   250

Heretic Nation           2                   201.25

Dead Terrorists          -                     71

The Gorgon Empire   -                     43

An interesting group because even though it should seem like the two teams with wins would have it on lock, in fact the handicapping theory works here as well, possibly even a smaller handicap if Heretic nation loses without any points. To lock this up Exodus and or Heretic Nation will have to score points, win or lose, OR Dead Terrorists and The Gorgon Empire fail to handicap and deny themselves.

Group F

Alliance                   Wins             Points

Darkside.                   2                  250

Raiden.                      2                  225

BricK sQuAD.          -                     22

Ev0ke                        -                       4

Darkside. and Raiden. seem to have this bracket locked up, unless one of them scores 0 points and the end game t1 frigate fight happens between Ev0ke and BricK sQuAD. Come on guys, this has to happen at least once, it's the only chance for either of you to advance. one tech 1 frig per side, DUEL ON!

Puppy says please? "Logan is fail."

Group G

Alliance                   Wins             Points

Shadow Cartel           1                   189

Suddenly Spaceships 1                   167

Gypsy Band               1                   134

PIZZA!                      1                   100

Now if all the other groups are "death" then this group is "total hell death." The winners of the two matches this weekend will likely advance. Extremely likely. Unless teams go for a complete tank setup and a win is low scoring like 2-54 points. In that case Shadow Cartel and Suddenly will both advance. Otherwise this is totally up in the air, anyone could advance.

Group H

Alliance                   Wins             Points

Red v Blue                 2                  227.5

Pandemic Legion       1                  177

Rote Kapelle              1                  138

Kill it with Fire           -                    22

I suppose I look at this group with a fair amount of love, seeing as how Rote is here, but being honest, there are tons of ways that this could go. If Rote loses to KiWF, RvB and PL advance. If RvB wins and PL doesn't score a lot of points, and a RK win over KiWF, Rote will advance with RvB to the finals. If PL wins, and RvB don't score too many points, PL and Rote would advance. If both RvB and PL score a ton of points in their match, there is a chance they would lock Rote out from advancing.

Summary

In short, of the 8 groups, B, C, E, and F are pretty much locked up for their top two seeds.

Groups A, D, and H still have some contention for the two advancing seeds.

Group G is WIDE OPEN!

ATX - Stream added

Added the ATX stream directly to the top of my blog, now you can watch and read. Enjoy, hopefully not in moderation. Obviously the feed won't show up in an RSS reader.

AT X - Group Stage Schedule

Oh, wow, well looks like a rough road for Rote to get to the finals. First a very tough match versus Red V Blue, followed by a slug fest against Pandemic Legion, with our last match being against Kill it with Fire. Well we wanted a tough schedule, we got one.

Tons of great match-ups! Hope I get to watch at least some of them!

Groups

Saturday 14th July - Day 5

15:00 Nulli Secunda vs Black Legion. -
15:20 HUN Reloaded vs Choke Point -
15:40 Fatal Ascension vs Agony Empire -
16:00 The G0dfathers vs Dark Taboo -
16:20 Mildly Intoxicated vs Alpha Volley Union -
16:40 Nothern Coalition. vs Test Alliance Please Ignore -
17:00 Goonswarm Federation vs FEARLESS. -
17:20 Verge of Collapse vs Capital Punishment. -
18:20 Dead Terrorists vs Heretic Nation -
18:40 Exodus. vs The Gorgon Empire -
19:00 Ev0ke vs DarkSide. -
19:20 Raiden. vs BricK sQuAD. -
19:40 Gypsy Band vs PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY -
20:00 Suddenly Spaceships. vs Shadow Cartel -
20:20 Rote Kapelle vs RvB -
20:40 Pandemic Legion vs Kill It With Fire -

Sunday 15th July - Day 6

15:00 Black Legion. vs Choke Point -
15:20 HUN Reloaded vs Nulli Seconda -
15:40 Agony Empire vs Dark Taboo -
16:00 The G0dfathers vs Fatal Ascension -
16:20 Alpha Volley Union vs Test Alliance Please Ignore -
16:40 Nothern Coalition. vs Mildly Intoxicated -
17:00 FEARLESS. vs Capital Punishment. -
17:20 Verge of Collapse vs Goonswarm Federation -
18:20 Heretic Nation vs The Gorgon Empire -
18:40 Exodus. vs Dead Terrorists -
19:00 DarkSide vs BricK sQuAD. -
19:20 Raiden. vs Ev0ke -
19:40 PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY vs Shadow Cartel -
20:00 Suddenly Spaceships. vs Gypsy Band -
20:20 RvB vs Kill It With Fire -
20:40 Pandemic Legion vs Rote Kapelle -

Saturday 21st July - Day 7

15:00 Nulli Seconda vs Choke Point -
15:20 HUN Reloaded vs Black Legion. -
15:40 Fatal Ascension vs Dark Taboo -
16:00 The G0dfathers vs Agony Empire -
16:20 Mildly Intoxicated vs Test Alliance Please Ignore -
16:40 Northern Coalition. vs Alpha Volley Union -
17:00 Goonswarm Federation vs Capital Punishment. -
17:20 Verge of Collapse vs FEARLESS. -
18:20 Dead Terrorists vs The Gorgon Empire -
18:40 Exodus. vs Heretic Nation -
19:00 Ev0ke vs BricK sQuAD -
19:20 Raiden. vs DarkSide. -
19:40 Gypsy Band vs Shadow Cartel -
20:00 Suddenly Spaceships. vs PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY -
20:20 Rote Kapelle vs Kill It With Fire -
20:40 Pandemic Legion vs RvB -

Upcoming - Predictions for the first weekend (hopefully), impact of XLASB in the qualifier rounds.

ATX - Group stage teams (TOP 32)

Well the qualifiers rounds are done, and now we move on to the group stages between the top 32 teams from the qualifiers. I have listed them here, but they are also available from the Alliance tournament web site, located here: http://at.eve-ic.net/10/?view=rankings

The Top 32

Teams - Points scored

1. Raiden. - 125.00

2. Exodus. - 125.00

3. Pandemic Legion - 125.00

4. Verge of Collapse - 125.00

5. Suddenly Spaceships. - 125.00

6. The G0dfathers - 125.00

7. Northern Coalition. - 125.00

8. Fatal Ascension - 125.00

9. HUN Reloaded - 125.00

10. Goonswarm Federation - 125.00

11. Dead Terrorists - 122.50

12. Gypsy Band - 122.50

13. Nulli Secunda - 100.00

14. Ev0ke - 100.00

15. Rote Kapelle - 100.00

16. Mildly Intoxicated - 95.00

17. Heretic Nation - 86.50

18. Agony Empire - 83.50

19. Black Legion. - 82.50

20. PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY - 77.00

21. FEARLESS. - 76.25

22. Alpha Volley Union - 74.50

23. DarkSide. - 74.50

24. Red vs Blue - 74.50

25. Dark Taboo - 74.00

26. Shadow Cartel - 74.00

27. The Gorgon Empire - 72.50

28. Kill It With Fire - 72.50

29. Capital Punishment. - 72.50

30. BricK sQuAD. - 70.00

31. Choke Point - 68.00

32. Test Alliance Please Ignore - 67.50

Tie breakers were, Wins, points, teams last beaten, team last lost to, points of ships left alive.

ATX - Weekend two recap

Well I would say weekend 2 was even better than the first weekend. Even the first day's matches were solid, if at times a little head-scratching on setups some of the teams brought.

I think it was Kil2 who said "STOP BRINGING THESE 50 POINT SETUPS... YOU CAN'T MAKE IT THROUGH LIKE THAT." He was pretty much right on with that comment. Only 8 of the 32 teams who lost in round one made it through to the group stages. Of those, only 3 that scored zero points in round one made it through.

How did they get through you ask? Well TEST just got very lucky with tie breakers, and is ranked 32, but did bring a 46 point setup, handicapping themselves just enough, that with a win and a THD they would end up with enough points to advance, cut off for advancement this year was a massive 67.5 points. That's only 6 points more than a round one total hell death, and was split between TEST and R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. with TEST winning the 32nd spot on tie breakers.

Otherwise, Brick Squad fielded 44 points, and won with a THD, giving them 70 points total, landing them the 30th spot, and faced a 50 point setup. Capital Punishment. fielded 42 points, and got a THD, giving them 72.5 points and 29th place, and faced a 50 point setup. Dark Taboo had just four points in round one, and fielded the biggest handicap of all, bringing 42 points, and scored a THD even though they faced a 50 point team.If ANY of the 50 point teams HAD won these match ups, they would not have advanced, since they only had 2 points, and would have ended up with 64.5 after a THD. Even if all of the 50 point teams had won, it would have dropped the point total needed to advance down to 66.5, still more than a max score of a Total Hell Death of 62.5. Message here is, even if you don't have any points, by handicapping your team, you can still advance.


PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY, 12 points last week, fielded 48 points, giving themselves a nice buffer, bringing their total up to 77 points, and getting 20th seed. I set this match apart, because even though they did face a 50 point team, their opponents could have advanced with their week one earnings of 10 points.

The rest : Choke Point, 8 points last week, Kill it with Fire, 10 points last week, Black Legion., 20 points last week, and Shadow Cartel, 14 points last week fielded 50 point setups, and advanced.

How about that winners bracket?

Rote Kapelle advanced with a win against Fluffeh Bunneh, our setup narrowly edging out theirs in a really close fight, that turned into steamroll towards the end. So we are through to the 12v12 rounds!

Otherwise, 9 teams, despite winning last week, failed to score enough points this week to advance.

Tribal Conclave was rolled by FA, dropping them out of the top 32. THE SPACE P0LICE was also rolled by HUN, Against ALL Authorities scored 2 points, but need at least 6 to advance. The R0NIN scored 4 points, but needed 6, and lost the battle of "The zero's." Team Liquid showed up in Tengu's again, didn't work out this time. Out of Sight fell to the goons. R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. lost and saved my keyboard's period keys. Elysian Empire went home 4 more points. And Fluffeh, who only had just more than 30 points to begin with scored 16, but not enough to advance.

Interestingly, both days the fights were good, setups were MUCH improved over week one, well for the most part. Some gimmicks didn't work, Alpha Tornadoes, and some worked too well, WINDICATORS! (when you don't burn out your guns guys.

ANYWAYS:
My predictions were unnaturally poor this week I felt like. With some stupidness prevailing during some of the matches, like the afore mentioned Vindicator burning out "their entire rack" of blasters, and then 3/4 of the way through the fight realizing they could un-group, amidst other questionable ship and setup.

Excuses aren't any good, so I will just say, 17/32 is better than 50% (53%). Look forward to next weekend where hopefully I can do a better job or predicting some winners, but I doubt it at this rate.

In the mean time, I did a decent job betting at Monocle Madness, and with some of their overall pots cresting over 2 bil on the first day for well known matches or good odds, then building on that the second day with some matches having pools of over 5 bil. The last match of the day, HUN reloaded vs THE SPACE P0LICE, pool was 5.5 bil isk. Others topped out at the 1-3 billion isk mark. Some people out there are losing a whole lot more isk than I have. Good luck to them to recoup it in the group stages.

Next up : The 32 group stage participants, Predictions for weekend 3 of ATX.

ATX - Week 2 predictions

Predictions for Week 2 are in some cases, much easier to predict than week 1, but in some cases that much more difficult. Mostly because good pilots, even with bad setups week one, if they are smart, can learn a lot from other setups and matches that preceed and followed their week one matches. Lots of times killmails and video's of the fights provide enough outline to reconstruct solid setups even if they aren't the originators of the idea.


While this is still possible to do from one year to the other, the changes made to modules and the new modules make this year a new game. So here we go with predictions for week 2! Just so we are clear


Little ATX jargon to whet your appetite...
ASB - Ancillary Shield booster
XLASB - Extra Large Ancillary Shield booster.
THD - Total Hell Death.


Saturday, July 7


15:00 Curatores Veritatis Alliance vs Noir. Mercenary Group - Well I guess we start with the lowest ranked and work our way to the highest. These two teams had both bad luck, and bad setups in the first round. CVA's First setup should have been fairly solid and ended up facing off against a near mirror image. Well all except for the Frigates. Gypsy brought tackle Merlins and CVA brought ECM merlins. Unfortunately their ECM just could not hold and their scimitar was tackled and killed before they could inflict any damage. They didn't lose all their ships, but it goes to show that the rules care about explosions. Not retained ships. Noir had some rough luck, with their AT captain apparently a no-show for their match. And that could be considered a high point in conjunction with the beating their recieved in the first round. In short they went up against an unexpected and very lucky rook setup, that their dual Ferox's could not break before being killed themselves. In a game of second chances, nothing short of Total Hell Death (THD, complete removal of the enemies team) can expect to move people on to the next round if they scored 0 points in the first round. It's a touch matchup but I think CVA has a good underlying team, and a semi strong setup. CVA narrowly win this not sure it actually matters


15:20 No Holes Barred vs Test Alliance Please Ignore - Speaking of teams who should probably copy off other more successful teams, we come to No Holes Barred, users of the bizzare, and ineffective armor Sleipnirs. Now for those who don't know, Sleipnirs are shield takers not because of an over-abundance of mid slots, having only 5, and 5 low slots, but because their ship bonus' heavily favor a shield tank, providing more shield per boost as one of the main bonus. I'm sure No Holes Barred knows this now, after losing in specacular fashion. Only part of that was because of the armor Sleipnirs, the other part was because of a solid setup by the opposing team. TEST Brought a solid setup for the first round, but were unable to break the tanks of the locally and remote repped Cyclones they faced in thier Sleipnirs. They were slowly ground under for a pretty convincing loss. TEST shouldn't shy away from what are obviously good setups, and come with another solid setup here. I think TEST will in this one convincingly. (I'm going to stop pointing out that it still might not matter because they scored 0 points in round one.


15:40 RAZOR Alliance vs Dirt Nap Squad. - Razor lost their first match, and I might attribute that completely to their failure to kill Darkside's Logi before their's went down. Otherwise it would have been an entirely different match. But you know how it is with "might" and "maybe." They don't get you very far. Dirt Nap Squad (DNS) on the other hand, brought what appears to be more of a "Don't die and maybe score some points" setup, rather than a "Kill some people." setup in the first week. it didn't work out so well, and despite the conservative setup, DNS still lost all their ships and didn't kill anything. RAZOR isn't a bad pvp Alliance, but then neither is DNS, despite being black ops droppers. They still do other things effectively. If DNS come more aggressive this time they might just be able to head off RAZOR and score a win.


16:00 Get Off My Lawn vs Wormholes Holders - Well LAWN's setup in round one, wasn't "BAD" it was just outclassed. Their Sabre's died very quickly after their logi went down and they didn't seem to get the memo about how good Sleipnirs are with Ancillary shield boosters, and fit a buffer tank instead. They went down in "record" time. Wormhole Holders Decided it was a good idea to show up with just three ships. Now their setup was probably pretty strong on paper. But they did seemingly zero research on how it woud work in practice and how they should warp in relative to the beacon. They lost in a big way, but at least they got the XL ASB memo. After a week of refinement and reviewing setups I think that LAWN will come out victorious here.


16:20 SOLAR FLEET vs BricK sQuAD. - SOLAR brought a Sleipnir setup from last year, fitting buffer tank instead of XLASB, and then had the unfortunate luck by running smack into a Rook based team, done right. Their lowslot ECCM wasn't up to the task of keeping them unjammed long enough to matter. BricK on the other hand brought a gank talos setup, only to run into a even more ganky Armor Vindicator setup. The total DPS was similar on both teams, however, the total EHP heavily favored their opponents, and it showed. Now just watching the matches since then, lots of teams have adapted both of these setups, but the Talos setup was rarely successful, bring brought in some form to the field 4 times, but only winning once, against the even more bland setup of Tengu's. Brick's Scimitar was also active afterburner tanked. Not a great counter to 90% webs of the Vindicator, especially when you try to dive in close with the scimitar. That speaks of bad piloting, while the SOLAR loss just looks like a bad matchup rather than bad piloting compacted with a bad matchup.


16:40 Capital Punishment. vs The Veyr Collective - Speaking of Vindicator setups... Capital Punishment. is sure aware of those. They were another set of adopters for the Talos, and it didn't end well. The Veyr Collective also brought a set of Talos' but these were armor tanked. And missing a single lowslot it looks like. They went smack up against the Nothern Coalition. Honestly it might have looked close but that one was over before it began. Capital Punishment I think has the advantage in this match.


17:00 Manifest Destiny. vs The Fourth District - Mainifest Destiny in round one brought Artillery Tornadoes. It'd be shallow to say, "And that's all I have to say." But really, that's pretty close to all I am going to say. Other than to break it down a bit so there is understanding as to why this is such a bad idea. The entire arena is 125km in radius, so sure a fight COULD happen at extreme ranges, however, warp ins are at a max of 50KM from the beacon. So the max distance that could happen would be 100km from each other. In that enagement range, 800mm Tornadoes can reach to 50-80 KM with Barrage L. And actually track to have an impact in the match. 1400mm arty Nadoes have no such luck. In addition Manifest brought their Tornadoes in at 50, so that's something, at least they were trying with their setup. Obviously, no luck. The Fourth District brought a risky Marauder setup in round one, Kronos that didn't seem to do that much damage or that much webbing (despite bonus' that seem to lend to those two things). They were torn up by a Ferox based team with really little trouble. Difficult to tell what happened there since I didn't see many web or DPS effects that should have been coming from the Kronos. Manifest Destiny has had success in the past so I am going to go with experience over the Fourth District.


17:20 Dystopia Alliance vs Pure Madness. - Dystopia decided to bring a pretty weak setup against a very strong (historically) Pandemic Legion team. They paid the price when their Widow, DCU tanked with multispecs died hard and fast in the first match. But one thing bothers me about their setup. I don't consider Dystopia a bad, by any means, alliance. In fact, they are full of old time PvPers and 'bitter-vets.' It makes me wonder about the meta game involved between PL and Dystopia. Pure Madness brought what should have been a solid Oracle setup, but they were tanked by some XLASB love from their opponents, and seemingly when they were just about to burn through one Sleipnirs charges on their XLASB, two of the Oracles got jammed out by ECM drones, reducing their DPS so the Sleipnir could easily tank them, and eventually, each one was hunted down and killed by a combination of good piloting from the Merlin they faced and then later by three sleipnirs pinning their opponents. This is the first matchup where teams actually scored points against their opponents, each team scored 2 points. Not sure how much of a help this is going to be in light of trying to advance. However total hell deaths are going to be required to move on. I really would like Pure Madness. to win here, but I am also really torn between them as tourney newcomers and underdogs and the skill and experience from a team like Dystopia. I'll take a gamble here and go with Pure Madness.


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18:20 Dark Taboo vs WHY so Seri0Us - I'm really not sure how Dark Taboo managed to kill anything with their setup, but I guess it's no surprise that they were able to kill some frigs, seeing as how the majority of their DPS was frigate sized. Here's a refresher, Taboo fielded Rooks, with small missile launchers and rocket launchers, as well as some daredevils with warp speed rigs. If there was a psyduck image I could post here, I would. WHY on the other hand, brought a ballsy setup for 2 Machariels and support, but faced a just as mean team of Sleipnirs. After some early match trade offs, the Machs ended up going down towards the ends of the match. I'm just so disappointed with the setup Dark Taboo fielded in the first round that I just can't pick them in the second.


18:40 Lone Star Partners vs Bruderschaft der Pilger - Lone star brought a pretty interesting mix of setups and ships to the first match. Their Oneiros was XLASB fit and had 3 large reps, but their smaller ships didn't have the buffer to benefit from the armor repairs and died quickly. The Vigilants's had TD's and ECCM, but no injectors, leaving them vulnerable to neuts at the very least. Bruderschaft showed up with a solid setup, but faced off against a pair of Vindicators. Even the XLASB tank isn't enough to deal with that much DPS and their ships left the field in a hurry. But the important thing to focus on from their match was that their setup was a well thought out one,  but was facing some serious trouble any way you look at Vindicators. They did make some pretty critical mistakes. You don't always want to start at 0 in a sleipnir based team, and this is exactly why. The Vindicators were able to land web at the start of the fight on both Sleipnirs, and remove them before really anything could happen. Had the Sleipnirs started further away, the result might not have been different, but it might have been closer. Lone Star looks like it is interested in out of the box setups, but Bruderschaft have proven in round one that they can at least comp a decent setup. Pretty much a toss up here for me. I will go with Bruderschaft.


19:00 Choke Point vs Exiled Ones - Choke Point was matched up again Fluffeh in the first round, so I have probably seen this fight almost as much as the Rote fight from weekend one. They brought a good setup, two machs with a few jamming frigs and a daredevil to tackle down targets. However their execution was less than stellar. Their focused fire was poor, and they were unable to go for any of the weaker targets until later in the fight. Exiled Ones on the other hand, showed up with what on the surface appeared to be a good setup. But then the killmails started rolling in to reveal Tengu's not only with an active tank, but with a large shield boosting active tank and injectors.They were able to volley fire some opponents off the field, but their setup was a confusingly bad one. Choke point rebounds here I think, and is able to score some much needed points, hopefully combining with their current 8 points.


19:20 Kill It With Fire vs RED.OverLord - I just love teams that bring Curse. And Kill it with Fire did just that, even if it didn't work out for them vs the FA Sleipnir setup, it is still a good move. EWAR really decided this fight, with the Kill it ships losing a lot of time behind Kitsune jams. RED.O brought a Tengu setup, but it was very unsuccessful vs a very strange dual tanking Mach setup that managed to outlast the Tengu DPS during their XLASB reload cycles. Historically the Tengu setup's haven't returned solid results, but have been either the punchers or the punching bags. In this case the punching bag. I'm going to side with the team that brought a curse last time.


19:40 PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY vs ROMANIAN-LEGION - Pizza, well PZZA, I have to say I was quite surprised by their fight in the first weekend. Obviously fighting directly against them might have something to do with that, but their setup was a strong kiting setup, even if they were in Drakes. Traditionally a hated ship in the tournament. Romanian-Legion showed up with an expensive but ultimately dead setup, since they decided it was a good idea to warp a pair of Machariels to 0 at the start of the match, they were quickly tackled and broken. The exchange at close range was brutal, and they were able to take down a few ships before losing. Like I've said before, having a decent setup is worthless without understanding how and where to warp into a fight. Here's a hint, it's rarely @0. I think Pizza shows up with a delivery this match and with 12 points and a strong showing here they have a good chance to make it into round 2.


20:00 The Kadeshi vs Shadow Cartel - It's a match where neither team really deserves to be in the loser bracket. The Kadeshi, I chose them in round 1, and then they made the one piloting mistake that cost them, and lost one of their Tengu's to a boundary violation. The ships they were fighting were barely unable to tank three Tengu's worth of damage, and with the loss of one of their Tengu's like that, their damage went from winning the fight levels to losing the fight. They did manage to net a cool 14 points by killing a Vigil and a Tier 3 BC (Talos). Shadow Cartel had a run of bad luck before their match even STARTED, losing a lynch pin Proteus to tragic disconnect moments before their match. Down one ship they were fought under, but still managed to rope in a few points. In a match of two good teams that lost, one through piloting error, and the other through computer error, I think both with be forced to come out swinging for the fences to make their 14 points count the most. In a very close match that could go either way, the Shadow Cartel is going eek out a victory, taking their 14 points plus this match into the group stages. It could easily be the other way around if the Shadow Cartel underestimates The Kadeshi at all.


20:20 Sleeper Social Club vs Babylon 5.. - SSC brought in some drone love in the first round, and was one of a few teams to do so. Their Ishtars threatened to blot out the sun with drones, but were tackled towards the end of the match, to just barely, lose on points to the Fearless team. Overall they brought a solid, supported setup, and scored 16 points for their trouble. Babylon 5.. brought a pair of heavily tanked Vargur's with a Webloki for support. Unfortunately for them, the Nulli team they fought brought a ton of ECM drones and were able to lock down the Vargurs enough to gain a decisive advantage. Oh, and the Babylon 5.. team brought 3 ships to a six ship match, because of this the ECM weak Marauders were swarmed with drones and the failure to fit a smartbomb on the Vargur's are very telling for their next match. I think SSC will win this one.


20:40 Black Legion. vs Perihelion Alliance - This has to be the best match of the day, how sweet they save it for last. Both teams have done well in the past... MEN. Oh how you let me down in the first round! Honestly your setup wasn't bad at all, you were just outflown by the drone swarm and fast tackle of your opponents, who removed your Logi before the match even really got heated, depriving you of the rep you needed for your buffer fit Ferox's. Black Legion still rallied and got the most points of the losing brackets, at 20 points. Perihelion brought up the second most with 16 points (tied with Babylon 5..) In round one Peri FACED a Vargur setup, and a tough loss. They brought a Proteus gank squad, but the hostile Vargurs were able to pick apart their reps at range, before focusing on the meat of the Proteus setup. Peri was just not able to grind down the rep and EHP of the Vargurs when it came time. Some questionable calls were made early on in their first match and that is usually the most telling. Solid FCing will usually slant the match. In a match I hate to choose a winner of, I will predict Perihelion goes through.




Sunday, July 8


15:00 Rote Kapelle vs Fluffeh Bunneh Murder Squad - Best match of the day. Totally! Okay okay, I'll tamper my Rote enthusiasm and predict this match objectively... Yeah right! So, Rote's setup had trouble with the Drake based kiting setup used by their first round opponents, but they were able to wrangle their targets down to score a win in the first round. Pretty much all Rote, including myself, will tell anyone who listens that getting the points we did isn't a bad thing, and we got what we wanted. Our opponents have the same number of points as we do, 37.5 so I am sure they are saying the same thing. Their initial setup was a bit of a hodge podge, focused around armor logistics and ECM, their Blackbird was really the unexpected hero of the fight. He kept most of the Griffins out of the fight, and pulled a mach to him, halfing the DPS for his teammates. The Deimos and Hurricane tanked the Mach damage well and put out enough DPS to secure points to gain the win. It should be no surprise that I think Rote has the chance to pull out a second win, but with 37.5 points each, both teams have a chance to make it through if they get some points in this match.


15:20 FEARLESS. vs Nulli Secunda - Lark and Fearless performed great in their match, holding onto a tough fought match against a Ishtar setup that could just as easily gone the other way, and looked like it would for a minute there. With 46.25 points Fearless must be pretty happy, but are likely less than happy about their second matching pair up vs Nulli. Nulli pushed through a pretty weak setup, both theirs and their opponents and brought home 41.25 points. This will be a critical match for both teams, where winning with some point or even losing with some points could move both of them through. In this match up I favor FEARLESS.


15:40 Gypsy Band vs Elysian Empire - Gypsy Band faced off against CVA in the first round and handed them a pretty decent loss, only giving up a few points from their setup of Sleipnirs and Merlins. They made some piloting mistakes, but showed up to the field at good ranges, and well led. Elysian empire arrived with a double rook setup that was mostly overlooked in week one despite the serveral victories it produced, and one horrible loss. Elysian Empire delivered a solid setup and didn't bother to copy the setup from alliances and tournaments previous. One has to give them some points for that, but be tempered by the fact that they fought against a likely leaderless and hasty setup in the Noir. team. How much does that count for against the Gypsy band after their good performance. I'm not sure. Tough call on this one without knowing the teams better I am going to go with Gypsy Band.


16:00 Mildly Intoxicated vs R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. - Mildly Intoxicated surprised a lot of people, myself included when they came out on top of the Black Legion team in the first round. Their setup was a bit of an unconventional drone setup, but their tactical use of assigned drones definitely won them that match by removing the MEN. logistics ship before it could become a factor. R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. used some real strange level of injunitiy, fitting XLASB Machariels with a supplementary armor tank to cover and repair damage when the XLASB were reloading. This in conjunction with solid piloting landed them a victory, and moved them into the winners bracket. Now will they stay here? I don't think so.


16:20 Goonswarm Federation vs Out of Sight. - Goons put on a show in round one. There's no doubt that this year their team has taken practicing and theory crafting as seriously as everyone else. Or they are doing a damn good job of trolling us all into believing that. Part of their convincing win was because the other team brought a brawler setup that just wasn't as good, and paid for it. That didn't change the fact that the Goons Vindicator based setup was a solid one. Out of Sight brought a under-shipped Sleipnir based four man setup. Strangely they are a statistical anomaly, bringing just four ships and winning against a 5 ship setup. I think the Goons arrive to win, and play for keeps, winning in the second round as well.


16:40 Dead Terrorists vs Team Liquid - If PL are the masters of the Minmatar rush by virtue of running it first and most successfully, then Dead Terrorist seem to be that origin point for the dual rook setup. In just match 2 of the first weekend, Dead Terrorists brought a setup that nobody had really had much success with, and cleared the floor of their opposition, handily disposing the often used Minmatar rush setup without a single loss. Team Liquid went to the other end of the extreme, and refined a mediocre setup, slapped some more speed on there and flew around abusing some armor tanked Sleipnirs. A good first showing, but it's unclear if that was more due to the caliber of their opponents, or due to their setup. Well now it's their chance to prove themselves against a historically dominant team in Dead Terrorists. I'm backing their play.


17:00 DarkSide. vs Verge of Collapse - DarkSide utterly rolled their opponents in the first round, using a unique setup that hasn't been duplicated since. Even after having reportedly lost some of their "key membership" they know how to put on a good show. I noted some good piloting but their setup was just so much better than the Brutix based setup they faced, that it was really never a contest. I look forward to see what they bring this time. Verge of Collapse scored with their first matchup, coming up against Tornadoes fitting artillery and otherwise poor choices. Once their Sleipnirs ran down the range, fought through some webs, and landed tackle, it was all over. From there on it was just cleanup. The VoC team showed well in the first round, but was never really in danger the entire match. Against DarkSide it is going to be a totally different story. I think a very close story. But in close matches, logic says to go with experience and proven ability.


17:20 The G0dfathers vs THE R0NIN - Battle of the Zero names! Couldn't have planned this one better myself. G0dfathers nuked TEST out of the water in the first round, but it was hardly because TEST brought a bad setup, instead it was because G0dfathers just looked way more on the ball and competent than TEST in the fight. They hope to roll that right on into their match today vs another team with a zero in their name, THE R0NIN. R0NIN punched DNS pretty hard, using a Black ops battleship as the baseline for their setup, they were able to eventually break down the DNS heavy tank setup. I'm rooting for the R0NIN here, the better of the two zero teams...


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18:20 Suddenly Spaceships. vs RvB - Suddenly Spaceships, more like Suddenly DPS! Last match Seldarine and friends met up with another high DPS fit and utterly melted it. Their Vinidcator setup was even more effective against the blaster rush setup they faced than they could have hoped for. In fact, they tore right through them hardly looking back. Coincidentally, another fast-finisher, RvB, in fact a VERY fast finisher, is matched up against them. In the first round RvB dismantled their opponents, and look to do the same here, but keep in mind that both teams got enough points in the first round that all they really need are a few points in this round to keep them in the hunt for a position in the group rounds. Good luck to both sides.


18:40 Ev0ke vs The Gorgon Empire - Ev0ke had what I could call a clean THD in their first round. Their opponents made some mistakes (warping in their tackle/web loki at 0 to support their Maelstroms, who also warped in at 0, but Ev0ke took their mistakes and capitalized fully. Their setup was solid, if not a little overused by this time in the tourney. The Gorgon Empire surprised a lot of people with the manner in which they removed their round 1 opponents from the field. Their quick, brutal THD victory was impressive and well directed. This is a solid matchup, but it still is a tourney vet vs a relative newcomer. In a coin flip decision I am going to guess The Gorgon Empire surprises once again and comes up with a win.


19:00 Against ALL Authorities vs Northern Coalition. - AAA Cruised through their first match, losing only a single merlin in exchange for two Mach kills and a convincing win. They, as well, flew the favored Sleipnir setup, and flew it well, using damp merlins to keep damage off of their Sleipnirs while focusing fire to bring down first the hostile support and then the meat of the other team. Northern Coalition brutalized their opposition, also fielding the quite popular Sleipnir setup. Wonder if this will be another mirror match where both sides bring the same setup. Might not even be uncommon to see that on the second day, once certain setups start looking favorable. In any case, AAA has had their hands full in the past week, as have NC. so I am not sure who will have had the time to lock down some practices. All told I think I like AAA in this match.


19:20 Alpha Volley Union vs Pandemic Legion - Alpha Volley Union in the first weekend brought a unique setup that I am going to call "Amarr rush." Consisting of 2 Abso's, 1 Oneiros, 2 Griffins and a Rifter. Their opponents in Dark Taboo were either up way too late and started the match in shit fit ships or were just outclassed from the start, or perhaps even both. Alpha Volley was able to remove their opponents quickly either way, and secure a win. UNFORTUNATELY they are going up against Pandemic Legion, people who know what setup you are going to bring before you even bring it. Never a good place to be in the second round. Alpha Volley will have to pull out a trick of an entirely different nature against Pandemic. I wish them luck.


19:40 Agony Empire vs Exodus. - Agony Empire had a strong showing in the first week, obviously, scoring a total hell death, mainly due to their opponents being terrible (remember LSB and injector fit Tengu) than any chance to show real ability. The Agony Setup was more designed to not lose, than to win as convincingly as it did. In the second week they go against Exodus. As predicted Exodus did very well in the first week, fielding not one but two Vindicators, a setup where one seems to have been enough to rake in easy wins, well two was no different. This is going to be another one of those vaunted good fights, but how much of that will be decided before either team even makes it to the field, I'm not sure. I think Exodus has a great chance here for an upset win.


20:00 Heretic Nation vs Raiden. - The saviors of mother Amamake triumphed in round one, but I'm not sure it was due to any great skill on their part, and more of a major blunder on the part of their opponents. However despite their opponents shortcomings, Heretic nation did show up with a solid setup and to their credit, they didn't stop their opponents while they were making a mistake, and instead capitalized on it for a major win. Raiden. faced another poor opponent, who's choice of tracking disruptor on their Vigilants made about as much sense as bringing the Sabre's and then using them as tackle for Raiden. In a battle of who had the worse first round opponent I think Heretic Nation shows off their chops.


20:20 Tribal Conclave vs Fatal Ascension - Tribal Conclave led the charge against an understrength Shadow Cartel team in the first round. Had they faced off against a full powered team the results might have, and I would even venture to say, would have, been different. Vs Fatal Ascension who's first round effort made quite the CFC cheer, after wiping the field clean of opposition, but not without loss and I might add, not without some serious close calls. In the end I don't think it matters much, Tribal Conclave is meeting a surging FA team after an easy win. Only a solid setup from back to front will save them now, and I think FA has the answer.


20:40 HUN Reloaded vs THE SPACE P0LICE - HUN showed some later alliances how a Vargur should be fit with their first round victory. Smartbombs and neuts alongside Dual 650mm guns proved to be all the DPS they needed, along with a XLASB on each to mitigate incoming damage. I was foolish to choose against them in the first round. THE SPACE P0LICE managed to take out The Kadeshi, another favorite after performances years past in their first round, and in an impressive manner, arriving in four Talos' and removing the three opponent Tengu's with ease, losing only a pair of ships in the process. Helped a little by the bad piloting from the Kadeshi, running out of bounds and all that. Either way, I felt bad for not following my guy last week and betting against HUN, I won't make that mistake again, but I think I might be wrong anyways!


That concludes weekend #2, days 3 and 4 of Alliance tournament X (oh wait, they haven't been played yet, damn)


Up next : Results from the second weekend, predictions for the next weekend and a possible surprise post somewhere in between!

ATX - Week two Schedule released

CCP has just released the schedule for week two and I will break down the matches with my
predictions later. But for now, here's the schedule! Highlighted the matches I want to watch if I can.


Saturday, July 7

15:00 Curatores Veritatis Alliance vs Noir. Mercenary Group
15:20 No Holes Barred vs Test Alliance Please Ignore
15:40 RAZOR Alliance vs Dirt Nap Squad.
16:00 Get Off My Lawn vs Wormholes Holders
16:20 SOLAR FLEET vs BricK sQuAD.
16:40 Capital Punishment. vs The Veyr Collective
17:00 Manifest Destiny. vs The Fourth District
17:20 Dystopia Alliance vs Pure Madness.

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18:20 Dark Taboo vs WHY so Seri0Us
18:40 Lone Star Partners vs Bruderschaft der Pilger
19:00 Choke Point vs Exiled Ones
19:20 Kill It With Fire vs RED.OverLord
19:40 PERCUSSIVE PIZZA TIME DIPLOMACY vs ROMANIAN-LEGION
20:00 The Kadeshi vs Shadow Cartel
20:20 Sleeper Social Club vs Babylon 5..
20:40 Black Legion. vs Perihelion Alliance


Sunday, July 8

15:00 Rote Kapelle vs Fluffeh Bunneh Murder Squad
15:20 FEARLESS. vs Nulli Secunda
15:40 Gypsy Band vs Elysian Empire
16:00 Mildly Intoxicated vs R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.
16:20 Goonswarm Federation vs Out of Sight.
16:40 Dead Terrorists vs Team Liquid
17:00 DarkSide. vs Verge of Collapse
17:20 The G0dfathers vs THE R0NIN

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18:20 Suddenly Spaceships. vs RvB
18:40 Ev0ke vs The Gorgon Empire
19:00 Against ALL Authorities vs Northern Coalition.
19:20 Alpha Volley Union vs Pandemic Legion
19:40 Agony Empire vs Exodus.
20:00 Heretic Nation vs Raiden.
20:20 Tribal Conclave vs Fatal Ascension
20:40 HUN Reloaded vs THE SPACE P0LICE


Lots of good matches this weekend it seems like.

Next up : predictions for week 2 (might be broken out into two posts).

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.

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.

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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.