ATX : Best (most memorable) matches of

Verge of Collapse ATX Champions

So I was beaten to the finish by Toterra of "Scram Web" but in the Olympic spirt, that doesn't mean I am not going to finish my post! His Five best fights are also quite a good selection.

Most Confusing for new viewers: 

This has to to go the match between Exodus. and Agony Empire in the final day. Agony brought a bait and switch setup that focuses on the nuances of ATX rules to be effective. The commentators do a great job of explaining the situation, but the simple breakdown was this. Agony's setup was based around a heavily tanked "bait" Basilisk, a logistics ship that would have usually provided extremely strong repair for the ships around it, however the real repair ship was a similarly hard-tanked Tengu fit with the logistics sub-system. This was the basis for a rare bait-and-switch gambit. The match teetered on the edge, but in combination with switching primaries and some pilots on the Exodus team noticing the shield transfers coming from the Tengu, the jig was up, and the t1 resists of the Ferox, most likely holding a shield resist link, was the first to fold, followed by the Tengu and a Gila literally seconds before the end of the match.

'Hard counters' produce unexpected results: 

HUN Reloaded had been cruising through the Alliance tournament showing off their Vargur chops like a honey badger. In fact they only came in a single setup that didn't revolve around the Vargur. I predicted in my bracketology that HUN would actually put Pandemic Legion out of the finals, and it looks like my bracket was at least right up until that point. Pandemic Legion had just debuted a new setup, one with three Widows. Now as most people know, the HUN's Vargur weakness, if they had one, was extremely low sensor strength. Pandemic Legion arrived with their Widow ECM setup, their hard counter to the Vargur. HUN just didn't let it happen, their tanks lasted through the jams of the widows and they managed to slowly make headway against the heavy ECM and tank of their opponents. In a match of patience and discipline, HUN was able to come out on top.

Short but sweet:

So many more than one match falls in this category, but really I think this particular match started off ATX in the right way. During the first day of qualifiers, Red V Blue was paired up against Get off My Lawn. It turned into one of the shortest and most brutal victories, claiming a record of the fastest win. The RvB team continued this fights tradition throughout the rest of their tourney bid.

Additionally, another quick and dirty match showed why even a single Vindicator was above there reproach of several Talos. Capital Punishment faced off vs Suddenly Spaceships. The matchup was really something that turned out to be a defining moment, both for the Vindicator's future in the Alliance tournament and the fate of Talos based setups.


This last fight I want to draw attention to was as Brutal as it was fun to watch, Once again it was Suddenly Spaceships, but this time vs Shadow Cartel. The Paladin heavy setup of Suddenly Spaceships faced off against a talos swarm, at first it looked like things might be going their way, but the Talos DPS was just too much, downing first one Paladin and then the other, only losing a pair of Talos in return. From there Shadow Cartel cleaned up the rest of the field.

Consensus "match that made the tourney"

Now I am not just over-hyping this match because it involved Rote Kapelle, this truly was one of those matches that the Alliance tournament can rest it's hat on. Pandemic Legion brought around 160 bil isk worth of ships and fittings including several Alliance Tournament prize ships up against the much cheaper Rote Kapelle DPS first setup that cost around 10 bil isk all told. The results were spectacular and you can tell from the reaction of the commentators involved that they wished this match had lasted just a bit longer, if only to see one of those shiny Malice's die.

The Culmination of 4 weekends:

Two teams fought their way to the end and something has to be said for the nature of their paths: HUN Reloaded beat (in just the final day) FEARLESS., followed by The G0dfathers, followed by Pandemic Legion. And that was just to MAKE it to the final match. Beating any one of those teams in a day would be hard work, beating all four before even getting to the finals? Herculean.

Verge of Collapse had just as difficult a path, beating Rote Kapelle, Mildly Intoxicated, and Exodus., just to show up in the finals. Now take me as some kind of fool, but I always tend to root for the team that puts my team out of the finals. Except for the Dallas Cowboys, but that's a different story entirely! To me the two teams in the final represent all the participating teams up to that point, everyone they have beaten and everyone that those people have beaten.

It all comes down to one final fight, and what a fight it was. Vargurs hadn't been denied yet, and HUN looked up to the challenge. Verge of Collapse had won massive battles on their path to the finals and were just as deserving of being there. Truly a memorable final match.

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!