The last day of qualifiers of AT8, by the end of today we will know who has made the finals. Ready? FIGHT!
Match 1: HYDRA RELOADED Vs Old Intentions
Winner: HYDRA RELOADED
HYDRA dominated the first seconds of play, taking out one of Old Intention’s two Abaddons swiftly followed by the second, HYDRA’s five bombers tearing into the four battleships. A swift victory for HYDRA who wasted no time at all soundly trouncing Old Alliance. This suggests to me that their antics in the first round were a ploy to get them fielded against a weaker team in the second round and it seems to have paid off. We’ll have to wait till the rankings are calculated but I would say that HYDRA have made it into the finals.
Match 2: Morsus Mihi Vs Perihelion Alliance
Winner: Morsus Mihi
Morsus Mihi’s Guardian logistics ship was primaried by the triple Abaddons and Bhallgorn flaghip of Perihelion. A Daredevil and Dramiel popped on Morsus’ side as they took out the logistics of Perihelion. Once the Guardian was gone the armour started dropping on their Bhaalgorn and swift work was made of the rest of Perihelions team giving Morsus Mihi the win, which may earn them a place in the finals, depending on the minimum score required to make the top 32 qualifiers.
Match 3: Pitch Black Legion Vs Electric Monkey Overlords
Winner: Electric Monkey Overlords
The first sighting of a Legion in this Tournament from EMO, providing part of the T3 backbone of their team with Pitch Black bringing the now boring triple Tengu setup. Pitch Black losing a Dramiel and their logistics Basilisk EMO held the field well taking out the remaining frigate eupport followed by a Tengu and Nighthawk. The EMO team left the last Tengu alive to loot the field before melting it and taking the win.
Match 4: Plutonix Vs Panda Team
Winner: Panda Team
Plutonix some to the field with a pair of Navy Armageddons while the Pandas rely on a Command ship backbone with three Sleipnirs and a Claymore. The Guardian support of the plutonix team was immediately primaried but were unable to make much of a dent in its tank until the Sleipnirs closed and martbombed the armour repari drone into dust. The guardian popped in short order after that followed quickly by the Rapier. With no support left on the field the Eos and Navy ‘Geddons were easy pickings for the plutonix team who were yet to lose a ship. The capacitor transfer chain betwee the two battleships was broken by ECM drones negating their tanking ability and making them easy prey for the heavy damage from the four command ships.
Match 5: Curatores Veritatis Alliance Vs Manifest Destiny
Winner: Curatores Veritatis Alliance
More tengus on the field from Manifest Destiny who fielded an ECM heavy team, leaving CVA at a disadvantage due to the smaller number of ships they were feilding. CVA looked to redress the balance by taking out a rook whilst losing only a hurricane on theirs side. Manifest’s logistics pilot seemed to fall asleep as the other two rooks were despatched without getting any reapirs from the Scimitar, this failure basically cost Manifest the match as one by one their remaining ships fell, with CVA only losing two Hurricanes and a Cormorant.
Match 6: Dead Terrorists Vs The Tusker Bastards.
Winner: Dead Terrorists
You will excuse me if I’m not as unbiased in my comments on this match as I try to be on the others, I’m sure you understand 
The match started with missile span from the three -TB- Drakes focussing on one of the Terrorists’ Machariels but were unable to keep their battlecruisers alive against the DPS from the Machariels. This was mainly due to the heavy use of ECM preventing Drakes and Hurricanes getting a lock on the Terrorists ships, this also prevented the Scimitar doing very much in the way of repping. A lone -TB- Dramiel did an orbit of the field to end the match but unable to outrun the damage forever it soon fell. The Tusker Bastards leave the tournament and we’ll find out if Dead Terrorists make the cut later today.
Match 7: Unaffiliated Vs Important Internet Spaceship League
Winner: Important Internet Spaceship League
Both teams brought dual Dominixes to the arena for this match with Unaffiliated bringing a Bhaalgorn and Iteron V. The league bolstered their Domis with a pair of Blackbirds and a Hrbinger and Hurricane. The Domis were the focus for both teams from the start of the match with –U– losing the first of the ugly battleships. The league’s guardian fell first making this a straight out slug fest. WIth the two League Domi’s and a Hurricane on the field, Unaffiliated’s Bhallgorn and Daredevil could not hope to stand. The Hurricane died, along with the Daredevil leaving it to be a straight out fight between the Battleships. League taking the win.
Match 8: Mos Vape Heavy Industries Vs Beyond Virginity
Winner: Beyond Virginity
VAPE brought a blaster based gallente team to this match in the shape of two Navy Megathrons, a Proteus and Two thoraxes supported by an Oneiros and a hawk and harpy. The Bhaalgorn, Abaddon , and Megathron backbone of the Virginity team making quick work of the smaller ships and the Toraxes of the VAPE loadout. As the VAPE team disintegrated it was revelaed the both the Navy Megathrons were hull tanking, this didn’t prevent them dying as the final remaining ship, A Proteus, became the focus of virginity’s fire giving Beyond Virginity their first ever Tournament win.
Match 9: Against ALL Authorities Vs Rote Kapelle
Winner:
Rote Kapelle bring a Bhaalgorn ot this fight with bombers in support. The first flurry of bombs from Rote taking the three Proteus’ and the paired Hurricanes of -A- into armour, After a flurry of activity taking Rote’s bombers out of the picture and the the re,oval of one of -A-’s Hurricanes the match slowed down with Rote making good use of damping and neutralising from their two Curses and Keres’. The match swung in Rote’s favour as -A-’s Onieros couldn’t provide much in the way of reps due to being webbed and damped by the two Keres. One of -A-’s trio of Proteuses slowly dropped into low armour signalling the end of the match for -A- as cap warfare won the day for Rote but not without a hard fight.
Match 10: Agony Empire Vs Ushra’Khan
Winner: Ushra’Khan
Agony go into this match with alot to prove after being basically handed their win by HYDRA last round and looked try and do it with a Machariel and Sleipnir backbone with Scimitar logistics and Sabre/Dramiel tackling. Ushra’Khan brought their flagship Nightmare to the feild along with the now ubiquitous triple Tengu team. UNITY made quick work of AGONY’s logistics and worked their way through the Sleipnirs with the DPS from the Nightmare supported by the Tengus Agony managed to take out their opponents logistics but it was not enough to win them the match.
Match 11: Dystopia Alliance Vs The Kadeshi
Winner: Dystopia Alliance
A heavily Speed Tanked team fro The Kadeshi going up against a fully blaster fit Caldari team from Dystopia. Relying heavily on ECM drones the Dystopia team dominated early on taking out Kadeshi’s Sleipnir and a Cynabal quickly followed by the Scimitar. The Kadeshi were only able to take out the Worms on the Dystopia team before losing two more cynabals and a Vagabond. The match went to time with Dystopia taking the win on points.
Match 12: Cry Havoc Vs BricK sQuaD
Winner: Cry Havoc
It was Minmatar verses Minmatar in this match with BR1CK bringing a fleet Tempest and Vanilla Tempest agains Cry Havoc’s triple Machariels. The Tempests and Hurricanes were unable to break the sheild tank of the Cry Havoc who dealt with the smaller firgates on the BR1CK team in swift succession before moving on the Hurricanes and Battlships, leaving the Guardian until last.
Match 13: Darkside. Vs RAZOR Alliance
Winner: Darkside
Darkside. And razor brought a couple of off the wall setups to this fight with the commentators not reallyu sure of what to make of them. Darkside fielded two Lokis and three Brutixes with two Keres, an Oneiros and Curse as support. The match started with not a lot of movement on either side, the Enyos of the Razor team drawing fire from the Lokis whilst the fight was dominated by drones for the first section of the fight. A slow fight with limited damage on either side until Darkside started concentrating on Razor’s Guardian which turned out to be the first loss of the match swiftly followed by an Enyo and the rest of Razor’s frigate support. Razors Abaddon was next on the target list as it dipped into armour then popped, which sealed the match for Darkside.
Match 14: HUN Reloaded Vs B A N E
Winner: B A N E
Both team feilding a battlcruiser gang for this match with BANE rounding out their team with more support. First to fall was a Brutix on the HUN team with the second following soon after. BANE dominated for the rest of the match making quick work of the battle cruiser backbone of the HUN team and keeping control of their opponents damage output with judicious use of electronic warfare in the shape of damps, neuts and tracking disruptors. A flawless victory for BANE.
Match 15: Pandemic Legion Vs Monks of War
Winner: Pandemic Legion
The Monks of War enter the field with two Nightmares and a bomber heavy team with a couple of Iteron V’s as well. Pandemic came with a very ECM heavy team comprising three Rooks and three Kitsunes allowing them to control the battle from the beginning. The first losses were incurred by the monks as the DPS of their Bombers was removed from the fray. A Pandemic Kitsune followed as they started working their way through the Monks Damage dealers without taking much in the way of damage themselves. The match ended with a convincing Pandemic win as both the Iterons were melted.
Match 16: Paisti Syndicate Vs Majesta Empire
Winner: Paisti Syndicate
As we enter the final match of the qualifying rounds Paisti Syndicate have come to the arena with a battlecruiser and Tengu core, whilst Majesta empire relying more on electronic warfare though their Rook was the first to die closely followed by its companion. With no ECM on the feild Majesta quickly folded under the massed damage from two Sleipnirs and two Hurricanes fielded by Paisti. Majesta’s Curses followed and with the reaminder of any kind of combat support removed Paisti had the match in the bag from this point on. losing only a Sleipnir and leaving Majesta’s Damnation till last.
Summing Up and Final Rankings
Congratulations to todays winners, commiserations to todays losers. All is not lost for every losing team however as some of the higer scoring teams as round could still make it into the finals. Without further ado I give you the top 32 qualifying teams who will be facing off against each other next weekend in the finals:
I have calculated theses rankings using the published rules but just to clarify how I’ve ranked the teams here’s how they are ordered:
- By total win bonus – 25% of a teams score (ie the value of the ships they destroyed) is added to their final match score when they win, making this a relaiable measure of how many matches a team has won.
Then - By total score – All the points scored by the team during the qualifying rounds tking into accound the win bonus, ships destroyed and any handicap bonuses.
Then - By Second Match Opponent’s Current Rank – First tie breaker. The rank of the last opponent fought is considered. the higher the rank (1 being highest) the better.
Then - By Second Match Opponent’s Score in that match – Second tie-breaker. again the higher the better.
Then - If any further tie-breaing is required the last two steps are repeated for the team’s opponent from the first match.
Here’s the table as I have calculated it:
| Rank | Ticker | Team |
| 1 | STUGH | Rote Kapelle |
| 2 | ASMBL | WE FORM VOLTRON |
| 3 | ERROR | The Wrong Alliance |
| 4 | ATLAS | Atlas Alliance |
| 5 | UNITY | Ushra’Khan |
| 6 | CO2 | Circle-Of-Two |
| 7 | PSY | Paisti Syndicate |
| 8 | DADDY | The G0dfathers |
| 9 | C H | Cry Havoc. |
| 10 | SOLAR | SOLAR FLEET |
| 11 | .-D-. | DarkSide. |
| 12 | -10.0 | Pandemic Legion |
| 13 | RUIN | B A N E |
| 14 | 47R | THE R0NIN |
| 15 | SINGE | Dystopia Alliance |
| 16 | HYDRA | HYDRA RELOADED |
| 17 | SENEX | Perihelion Alliance |
| 18 | -EM- | Electus Matari |
| 19 | ZWART | Pitch Black Legion |
| 20 | .-A-. | Against All Authorities |
| 21 | -TOR- | T o r m e n t u m |
| 22 | GANK | Panda Team |
| 23 | AGONY | Agony Empire |
| 24 | CVA | Curatores Veritatis Alliance |
| 25 | 507 | Soldiers of Thunderstorm |
| 26 | THOR | The Kadeshi |
| 27 | R.O.L | RED.OVERLORD |
| 28 | –U– | Unaffiliated |
| 29 | IKILU | Dead Terrorists |
| 30 | ME | Majesta Empire |
| 31 | PIGS | THE SPACE POLICE |
| 32 | BR1CK | BricK sQuaD. |
Again these are not official figures, but as the differentiation between the tied teams is greater this week I don’t foresee there being that much difference between this table and any official one which comes out. The cutoff for entry into the finals was 141 points with Mos Vape being squeezed out only on the basis of tiebreak calculations. Some of the teams which lost their second round matches did indeed make the cut and they were:
Electus Matari, Against ALL Authorities, T o r m e n t u m, Agony Empire, Get Off My Lawn, The Kadeshi, RED.OVERLORD, and Majesta Empire
I’m not going to try and predict how these teams will match up in the first elimination round as I’m not sure I understand how they work it out (any suggestions are welcome) but there look to be some very exciting matches in the running next weekend.
Definite teams to watch will be Rote Kapelle, B A N E, WE FORM VOLTRON, and Get Off My Lawn.
It would seemt hat the PCU was not broken this weekend reaching a peak of only 56k users during the tournament broadcast. Next week promises to be something very special when the finals will be broadcast live from the CCP studio in Reykjavik. Tune to find out who is set to win this year’s EVE Online Alliance Tournament.
As ever all stats and videos for the matches can be found on the Interstellar Correspondent’s website.
M out.
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