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Second weekend, the teams that made it!
Well, this weekend has been a slaughterhouse, with many teams that got eliminated from the tournament! 4 teams remain undefeated, while 12 teams are still competing in the Elimination part!
Undefeated Teams
Camel Empire ----- Warlords of the Deep
Nulli Secunda ---- Pandemic legion
Among the undefeated teams there's no major surprise, these 4 teams are the big game contenders and always end up high in the Alliance Tournaments! Nice to note is that the Warlords of the Deep is the old Hydra team. In the final weekend these teams will fight 3 matches to determine who can go to the finals!
The Elimination Battles
The Tuskers & Co. ----- The Afterlife
winner against
Tactical Narcotics Team
The Gorgon Empire & Spawn ----- End of Life
winner against
Shadow Cartel
Test Alliance Please Ignore ----THE R0NIN
winner against
Exodus.
Phoebe Freeport Republic ---- Hard Knock Citizens
winner against
Triumvirate.
These will be some tense matches, as the teams here must win to continue! No third chance for them! Most teams here are of little surprise, as they tend to get far in previous AllianceTournaments as well. Also a few new names who managed to get this far! Lets see if they can win against established teams!
In this light, the Phoebe Freeport Republic match against Hard Knock Citizens will be especially curious as both are new teams competing in the Tournament!
All in all, the Finals weekend will hopefully be filled with thrilling battles where teams do their best to outmatch the opponent & provide ambiance for their spectators & fans!
You can see the Tournament brackets here: 13th Alliance Tournament Brackets
You can get a quick view of the matches itself with the excellent 3D match review option provided by NULL-SEC.COM. You get the 3D views by simply clicking the match yo'ure inetrested in & use the option to review it once the match is selected.
If you prefer to view the stream of the matches, you can visit Alliance Tournament XIII Complete set, provided by capsuleer Ranger 1 with thanks to CCP & ISD personnel that streamed it all.
Some observations of the Tournament
ECM galore!
In these two weekends, there's been complains about the large use of ECM in this tournament, reducing some matches to the luck of a draw, whether a jam would work or not.
This abundance of ECM can be attributed to various factors.
1) ECM is very effective in small scale engagements, like this tournament. The ability to shut down 1 to 3 ships gives you a great advantage, even of only temporary shut down.
2) Tech 2 drones & Meta drones are banned this tournament. Unlike the previous one, which saw an overabundance of Gecko-drone users & tech 2 drones. Usually drones are a nice counter to ECM as you can reassign them to others & you can't jam a flight of them, allowing you to chase off or even destroy the Jammer.
2) The banning of Dampening scripts. These tend to be a good counter to ECM as well, as they force the usually fragile ECM ships to close in, making them more vulnerable to be shot.
With two counters nerfed, the large deployment of ECM was to be a given at this Alliance Tournament as it's a tool that gives a large advantage for the team that wields it.
Alliance Tournament ships galore!
I reported last weekend already that AT ship prizes were used in this Tournament, namely the Malice. but this weekend the Malice AT9 frigate was fielded more liberally, by multiple teams, showing the lethality of this ship in team engagements.
However, the Malice wasn't the only AT prize ship that was seen this tournament. Pandemic Legion brought in the Etana logistic cruiser on the field in their matchs against Shadow Cartel.
While Shadow Cartel lost this match, they did bring home a moral victory by blowing up the prized Etana cruiser!
The Etana cruiser is an offspring of the Osprey Caldari cruiser. It was designed during Heth's rule to assist in espionage & covert operations. Prototypes of this ship were deployed to spy on Gallente ship & troop movements around Caldari Prime.
In order to perform this function, this logistic cruiser was equipped with a covert jump drive & advanced electronics allowing it to have an unparalleled shield transfer rate and equip a covert ops cloak on top of it.
The State sponsored the 10th Alliance Tournament, providing a batch of 50 Etana logistic cruisers for the wining team Verge of Collapse.
Closing note
Quite some tense & close matches now. Not to mention that multiple teams fielded AT prize ships, risking billions to win their matches. While it does give the Team that uses the AT prize ship a nice advantage, the Alliance Tournament is the event to use them, as they're far to rare & expensive for normal combat operations. not to mention that the opposing team can score a bonus moral victory by blowing one of these ships up, as Shadow Cartel did with the Etana from Pandemic Legion!
Also the Tournament matches went smooth now, no hiccups or rule-lawyering, boosting everyone's enjoyment!
Now onwards to the Grand Finals! Where the best of the best duke it out to win fabulous prizes!
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