Introduction
What a weekend! The Eve Online Alliance Tournament XX finals took place on 26th and 27th October, providing a fantastic show for all capsuleers across New Eden. Days 3 and 4 decided the top 16 teams and crowned the grand winner of this year’s tournament. In case you missed it, I covered Days 1 and 2 in a separate post, including the history of the event.
This weekend, teams were fighting not just for the title and medals, but also for amazing new AT ships, including a T2 battleship – the first of its kind in 18 years! You can check the visuals and stats in this post.
If you enjoy numbers and graphs, be sure to check my separate post for more detailed analysis.
Table of Contents
And the Winners Are…
Day 3 started with two matches to determine the top 16 teams, as four teams from the lower bracket had not yet played their matches. The top 16 is a meaningful milestone, as it secures ship prizes, while the rest of the teams walk away with just SKINs.
Here is how the Top 16 bracket looks:
The finals were between Truth. Honour. Light. and The Tuskers Co. Both teams were among the four invited to the tournament based on previous standings, with THL being the defending champion. The new AT XX champions are The Tuskers Co. And this wasn’t their first victory – they also claimed the champion’s title in ATXIV (2016).
This victory also helped me to go all-in against the odds and win 16k channel points! So I finally can get my first Twitch Channel SKIN, yay!
How Tuskers Won the Finals
Fortune Opener 2:0
The finals followed a best-of-five format. Besides regular ship bans, the finals also included conquest bans, meaning that if a team won with a particular ship, they could not use that ship again. The Tuskers Co. opened with two wins in a row, bringing the score to 2-0. The first win was secured with their triple Dominix setup, executing a brilliant MJD beacon maneuver. Truth. Honour. Light. brought Navy and regular Armageddons, which were dismantled by the Dominix’s energy neutralizers and drones. Their second win was secured by their cruise missile setup similar to this.
Bad Picks 2:1
The next two matches were messy for the Tuskers. In the third match, they brought a dual Dominix Navy Issue and Sin, all shield-fitted – and it didn’t work out. The Sin, with three drone damage mods, and the Dominix Navy with four, simply got deleted by the medium laser spam from the THL comp. The Sin, known for its low EHP, was the first to fall.
Tuskers could have used it as bait, potentially fitting it with a triple buffer to buy precious seconds to reduce incoming damage, as the other Dominixes only had an X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster for tanking. All three battleships were also fitted for capacitor warfare – a long-term strategy that didn’t fit well with their damage mods and lack of tank.
They could have won by either going for a remote rep setup with a beefier tank or focusing on guns to utilize the large hybrid turret damage bonus and delete enemy battlecruisers before falling themselves.
Draw 2:2
The fourth match was also a loss for Tuskers. Both teams brought long-range weapons like railguns and beam lasers. But Tuskers had a mix of everything with almost no tank. THL’s composition, relying heavily on the medium-sized guns of the Ferox Navy Issue and Phantasms, allowed them to rush in and take out the Tuskers’ glass cannons. The Tuskers had massive EWAR support, including damps, ECM, and target painters, but it wasn’t enough. Despite the outcome, it was a spectacular, explosive battle. No complaints here.
Win by Points 3:2
In the final fifth match, the Tuskers brought their triple Typhoon cruise missile setup again, supported by THREE Hyenas. THL brought their flagship Bhaalgorn fitted with officer modules, supported by two Deacons, Pontifex, and a rack of medium laser gunships. The three support ships stood no chance against the cruise missiles, amplified by missile guidance computers and painters. The support trades were heavily in Tuskers’ favor, with their support dodging enemy beams long enough for the cruise missiles to do their job. After six minutes, the combat essentially ended, with Tuskers scoring 131 points versus THL’s 90.
For the last four minutes, the Tuskers team dodged the flagship using arena MJD beacons and decided not to risk their victory for a potential officer module drop. According to a comment from the Tuskers team, they knew the Bhaal was fitted with officer-grade local reps, which they were unable to break with the remaining forces, so they decided to secure the win by points.
Eve Online Tournament XX Finals: Favorite Moments
The show was filled with loud emotions, wins, and losses. It’s easy to lose sight of the small pivotal moments and the people behind them. This section is dedicated to immortalizing the exceptional plays by capsuleers during Eve Online AT XX:
- Do not give up: In the match between Ronin Reloaded and WE FORM V0LTA, Poiuyt20 Fliba, despite losing all his teammates and effectively the match, kept fighting and managed to snipe away a few more ships, including V0LTA’s Deacon Planet 6 in the last seconds.
- Full throttle, Match 48: IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII vs Odin’s Call. Mirror medium gun spam brawl comp, and within 60 seconds, five ships were down. I think I forgot to breathe while watching this – this is what we want to see, not boring control and kiting nonsense. The most fascinating part? The match ended 200 to 0! Absolute target calling by the barcode team, with MVP pilot PastyWhiteDevil in his Hyena.
- Revenge applied: Match 50, Deteriorated vs WE FORM V0LTA. This match saw explosions on both sides, with triple battleships facing medium gun spam. Stiggy Mikakka showed impressive manoeuvring, escaping doom in his Navy Brutix with just 6% structure remaining, only to return later and destroy the Praxis oppressor. The match was lost, but #StiggyLives in our minds.
- Small heroes among the titans: Match 57, Platinum Sensitivity vs Odin’s Call. Yes, we again saw the skillful play of Mark Bridges in his fat Hyena (or should I say Bhaal flagship?), and for the first time, I saw a full attack bar at 100%, meaning everyone applied damage – even the Deacon used its drones. There was also a tiny but meaningful hero move from Thalia pilot Neibis Rudus, who was bumping enemy battleships away from their flagship to allow their own team to loot it. Killboard link.
- MVP Interceptor: Lucius VanCleef from Ragequit Cancel Sub versus IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (barcode) in Match 58. He soloed a Maulus, Vexor, and Crucifier, cruising across the arena at 5 km/s in his Raptor while his teammates took down Hwi Kante’s Bhaalgorn flagship. It’s easy to overlook these moments, as everyone’s eyes are on big expensive ships, but these small episodes turn the tide of battle.
Worst Moments
Do not take these too personally – I’m just sharing my experience and emotions, and I understand there are many factors that could have escaped my notice, but this is how it looked to a regular viewer:
- Useless logistics: Match 42, Unspoken Alliance vs White Squall. The Rodiva from White Squall was completely ineffective, losing all teammates to drone damage. Whether it was poor positioning or something else, there was no EWAR interference of any kind.
- Most boring match: Match 43, Ragequit Cancel Sub vs Genshin Impact Alliance. Four battleships, nose to nose – a perfect stage for spectacular combat. Yet, both teams brought control setups, resulting in the first T1 frigate kill after five minutes of nothing happening.
- Bad target calling: Match 45, Platinum Sensitivity vs Till Doomsday. Till Doomsday were heavily controlled, yet they targeted Mark Bridges’ flagship while his whole team was present. Mark was bait-tanking them for three minutes. They eventually switched, but it was too late, and they started to fall apart. The entire team was tackled by Arbitrators, which should have been prioritized.
- What the hell moment: Match 50, Paper Numbers vs Evasive Maneuvering. Papers had it all – full control bar, jamming on logistics, everything tackled – yet their damage bar remained cold. If not for the EWAR modules spread on the enemy team, I would have thought Paper Numbers were AFK. This is the most mysterious match for me.
Final Words
In my Day 1&2 recap, I already explained how this show has become a family tradition – watching the stream on TV with my young son, much like any spectacular sports show. It’s very hard to draw anything while paying full attention, yet he took on the role of a sports sketch artist and drew the final combat.
If you’re into numbers and stats, be sure to check out my deep dive into AT XX statistics – it includes an interactive report!
The Tuskers Co enjoy! 😉
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