Alliance Tournament.

Easley loves the Alliance Tournament. He watches youtube habitually. I think its pretty cool, but didn't make predictions. I'm catching up on the fights at work, using Youtube with no audio. Still fun to watch though.

-A- won their fight. Easley had picked them to win as well. They had 3x Tengu that went the distance, where Perihelion brought a BC gang to the fight. -A- took losses when they could have won the fight quicker; they primaried Drakes over Cyclones. I'm a believer in the tank of the Drake... and I know the Cyclone CAN have an awesome active tank. But all active tanks rely on cap... and when you're cap is gone you die. So after primarying Drakes, they switched to Cyclones and those died much faster. This removes DPS from the field. But it was a good fight.

Hydra Reloaded thrashed Agony. Agony brought 3 Daredevils, 2 Proteus', and 3x Daredevils as well as an Oneirous and EOS. Hydra brought 2 Sleipners, 2 Canes and a bunch of bombers. It should have been more of an even fight than it was. Agony immediately lost a Daredevil. The EOS was primaried and almost went down before reps caught up. Then the other 2 Daredevils died. The two Vigilants agony had melted next. Then a Proteus, EOS, until the Proteus was all that was left. Then Hydra self destructed all their ships and gave the match to Agony.

Hmm. Well whatever I guess.

Lawn v Arbeitaholics was a joke. Lawn worked them badly. I can't say whether Lawn will go far, as Arbeitaholics were less than impressive. But grats as they move on.

Atlas destroyed Intrepid crossing. I thought it would be a close fight... but it wasn't. Intrepid got worked.

Bane took out Unaffiliated in what was an alright fight. As soon as I saw ship compositions I new Unaffiliated would lose. Not enough DPS... Tengu, Nighthawk, 3x Drake... not enough firepower. Rook almost instapopped, Thrashers flashed dead and then the Basilisk was primaried. With the Bhaalgorn Bane had... it was dead soon. Neuts on logistics = pain. Bane then took on the Drakes. I personally would have gone with the Tengu, as the neuts would have made short work of it, but at this point it was already over. Congrats to Bane.

Majesta took the match against Beyond Virginity. Majesta brought Tengus, Command Ships, and a Scimi. Beyond brought out 2 Widows and 3 Rooks... The Rooks died quickly, then the Scimitar. The Widows just didn't have the ability to hit the Tengu's or the Sleipnirs with enough of a punch. Congrats Majesta. This was the first match Easley got wrong :)

Panda got beat. Not bad, but they got beat. I was really looking forward to this match, but was honestly a bit dissapointed with it. I expected better from Panda.. but I feel they didn't bring enough DPS to the field. Nighthawk, 3x Tengu, a Drake... epic tanking but its not who takes the longest to die. Its who doesn't die. Congrats to Brick Squad.

Circle of Two faced off against Indecisive Certainty. As soon as I saw the Drakes, Curse, etc. I called Circle of Two. I love the Curse. I fly the Curse. But in a controlled environment, you will be primaried after ECM. You will die. The Bhaalgorn is a much more effective neuting ship in the tourny in my opinion, as it can tank, deal DPS and neut. Congrats to Circle of Two.

Cry Havoc v Plutonix. This was a crazy match. As soon as I saw ship composition I thought dang, Plutonix is gonna take this one. I wanted Cry Havoc but I didn't think it was going to happen. Then the match started... and Cry Havoc raped Plutonix. Plutonix failed horribly... they lost ships like flies. Grats Cry Havoc... Plutonix needs to practice more.

CVA v Darkside was interesting to see. I called Darkside from the get go, but I had my moments of pause during this match. This biggest thing I couldn't figure out was once the two Rooks died from CVA (and why did it take so long for them to die) and the Maelstrom's (Darkside had 3) were free to fire.... they didn't primary the Drakes (CVA had 3). The Maelstroms were hitting the smaller ships for shit... and would have been much more effective taking down the Drakes. The Drakes were killing off Darkside's smaller ships and were saved until last. I do understand that Drakes don't do massive damage, but neither do Maelstroms with artillery on small targets with high transversal... just saying. But congratulations to Darkside for moving on. CVA guys... I'll see ya in Yong.

PL vs Dead Terrorists.... wow. I saw similar compositions up top on the heavy ships, but PL went for more destroyers while Dead Terrorists went pirate faction frigates. I don't like pirate faction frigs in the tournament. Their ability to dictate engagement and warp off when needed is moot.... better to spend the fitting points on other stuff. Combined with PL's discipline meant that Dead Terrorists were annihilated. Congrats to PL.

Noir vs Death from Above was crazy. I was expecting Noir to take it, but they didn't. The Death from Above composition was a good match for Noir and they used it well. It was a good fight, but not well played by Noir.

Morsus Mihi v Dystopia Alliance was the most exciting fight so far. It wasn't until 5 or 6 minutes in that I had an idea of how it might turn out. Not sure about the Blackbird... but the ECM approach (3x Rooks, 2x Widow) has been pretty succesful. But Dystopia managed to focus fire well and taking down the Basilisk that MM had was the game changer. After that it was downhill. But props to both for a great fight, and I look forward to seeing Dystopia.

Electric Monkey Overlords v Leguinea Romana was intriguing from the start. The first thing I noticed was Dominix's, which had been unseen as of yet. I also noticed an abundance of T3 on Electric Monkey. This fight was just ridiculous. I had no idea how it was going to turn out, but the three Cruors Leguinea had were intriguing. Combined with the natural neuting power of the Dominix I figured that would tip in the favor of Leguinea. I was right. It was a long and awesome fight but in the end the neuts won.

Electus Matari v Veni Vidi Vici. Wasn't too familiar with either entity. Immediately I saw the heavier ship composition of Electus Matari and thought they would take it... but was interested to see how Veni and the Curse would play in on the match. Immeidately I noticed that Veni didn't focus fire well, and Electus did. Electus primaried the Scimitar and dropped it very quickly. Veni killed the Griffins... but that wasn't much of a game changer. Veni then lost their curse, and it was down to the slugfest of the larger ships... To which Electus had numerical advantage and logistics. Great job logistically by Electus. Their Sleipner survived while taking down a Nighthawk and the opposing Sleipner. From there it was downhill, as the 3 Drakes and the Dramiel died. Props to Electus.

Erebus Alliance v RED.OVERLORD. First thing I noticed was lack of logistics for Erebus. That and their Ishtars... all 3 of them. Matched up against 3 Machariels and 3x Dramiel/3x Daredevil... I knew ROL was going to take it. Take it they did. No contest. It was a rape train. Pop, pop, pop. Congratulations ROL on decimating your opponent.

Day 2

Eve Engineering v R.A.G.E. I noticed EVE Engineering went heavy with 2x Rattlesnakes... but apart from the Dominix the rest of their gang seemed weak. I immediately picked RAGE for this one. Of all the small, low point ships to choose... Kestrel? Caracal? Catalyst? It went just as I thought, with RAGE stomping them hardcore. Massacred. I will congratulate RAGE... but WTF EVE Engineering?

Honourable Templum of Alcedonia v WE FORM VOLTRON. I looked at the screen and said "Voltron will stomp". They did. Composition was beautiful, Alcedona composition horrible. 'Nuff said.

HUN Reloaded v The Tusker Bastards. I had to root for the Tuskers. Sure, HUN lives in Fountain. But I chat with Tuskers all day on the blog channels and such. I was confused by 2x Rook... but then armor tanking heavy hitters. Guardian was logical for those... but the Rooks were sure to die fast. And they did. Slowly but surely HUN Reloaded took the fight. Congrats HUNs.

Huzzah Federation v THE R0NIN. My first thought was Huzzah is going to win this one. Just seemed to be the better matchup. That was until it became apparent that they couldn't focus fire to save their lives. It was horrible. So congratulations to Ronin... I didn't like your composition but it worked well this match.

Important Internet Spaceship League v Monks of War. I looked at compositions and immediately decided Internet Spaceships went with too few high point ships. However, their DPS was impressive as they started on the Widow... but Monks focused fire and killed a Nightmare in exchange for that Widow. I noticed a lack of focus fire, which allowed the Monks to keep a Machariel alive. But once the second Machariel died... it was downhill. Congrats to Monks.

Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate v The Wrong Alliance. I liked the matchup. IAC had Cynabals and Vagas. Lots of speed. Wrong had lots of tank, 3x Nighthawk 3x Drake. Against some other teams I would hvae said not enough DPS. But IAC looked to be in trouble with all the missiles. Which they were. They got worked. Grats to Wrong Alliance

Ivy League v SOLAR FLEET. I immediately decided ECM was going to win or lose this match. 3x Vindicator is heavy DPS, as is 2x Golem. I was understandably confused when Solar Fleet didn't primary the ECM, even more so when their DPS was spread around. Then it seemed to settle on a... Golem? It seemed to be poor judgement from a Solar. But then Ivy League did the same thing, and didn't focuse fire. Those Vindicators got point blank on the first Golem and boom, he was dead. I was disgusted with both teams at this point... the fight just seemed to be very sloppily executed. Solar then picked up momentum and started focusing and coordinating more and just decimated Ivy League at the end. Grats to Solar for pulling it together and beating Ivy.

Manifest Destiny. v RAZOR Alliance. Did't know where this one would go. Piloting skills would be very important in this match... quirky composition on both teams. The 3x Sleipners proved to be just too much, both Manifest Curses went down fast, leaving only 3x Proteus and a couple Dramiels to try and deal with the rest of the RZR team. One Sleipnir died, but there was still too much on the field including the RZR Scimitar. The comments on the Youtube video by RZR made me balls hide though. Too much gaylove talk. Gratz RZR, but relax.

Mos Vape Heavy Industries v Paisti Syndicate.

WTF?

Both teams were made of fail. Mos Vape had random tankers, shield and armor. But at least they had heavy hitters. Paisti went Nighthawk... Curse, 3x Ishtar, Rook? But Vape lost all their AFs early on (piloting ability fail), and the speed of Paisti (piloting ability too) meant they stayed alive and kept drones alive and on the larger ships of Vape. Congrats to Paisti for taking that one.

Negative Ten. v Soldiers of Thunderstorm. Liked the Matchup. Negative had the BC thing going on, combining speed and firepower but lack of tank. Soldiers had one Dominix... and some T3s. If the Brutix's could get in close and the Canes could keep their speed up... they could take it. Negative immediately primaried a Proteus and managed to slowly take it down. The Negative logistics team did an excellent job keeping their BCs alive. Amazing job. Soldiers primaried a Cane (maybe thinking shield tanked) and found a nice armor buffer... and weren't able to break it. Then the second Proteus went down, and I knew it was over. I was impressed with Negative Ten. Congatulations.

Old Intentions v Ushra'Khan. Immediately I thought, damn Old Intentions with RRBS might do the trick. Tracking all the BCs would be a little difficult but the rep chain should keep their BS alive. Right? Just primary the Raven, which those BS would kill fast, and work on the rest.

Wrong.

No remote reps. They primaried the Basilisk. Then a Sleipner. The Raven stayed alive, and rained torps on their BS. For those who understand the power of a torp Raven... you can see my confusion. Torp Raven's can do massive DPS on battleship sized targets, especially with a painter. It was also the easiest thing for the Geddons to hit. No RR and their logistics dead, Old Intentions went down. Bad decision making, as UK didn't do anything special. Their Raven was alive at the end, and was the difference maker. Congrats to UK.

OWN Alliance v The G0dfathers. Sorry to all those NC OWN readers.. but I called Godfathers from the get go. They are pretty pro small gang PVPers... and OWN isn't anything I have been impressed with since I started my 0.0 experience in Deklein with them. But what should have been a bit more even of a fight was a freak slaughter. Grats to Godfathers.

Pitch Black Legion v The Kadeshi. Pitch Black just didn't seem to have the firepower up front. The match proved very interesting, but in the end the 3x Rooks and Stealth bomber core didn't have what was needed. Closer than I thought it would be but well played by The Kadeshi.

Rote Kapelle v Silver Twilight Enterprises. Wasn't really a fight. Rote Kapelle had good composition, Silver Twilight didn't. Game over. Grats to Rote Kapelle.

Snatch Victory v THE SPACE P0LICE. What should have been a great fight was... well... sad. Snatch got destroyed. Nice job Police.

T o r m e n t u m v The Star Fraction. Immediately noticed the heavy DPS on the Machariel from the bombers. Also, Tormentum taking no damage, which can only mean a great job buy the Rook pilots. This continued for the whole match. Excellent target calling, logistics and ECM by Tormentum.

Looking forward to next week.