With the ruleset of ATXIV announced and the tournament itself a mere two months away, I thought it would be cool to take a look at one of the most exciting parts of tournament play – the ridiculously expensive and overpowered Alliance Tournament prize ships. Since ATVII in YC 111 (2009) CCP have released frigate and cruiser combos as rewards. Let’s take a closer look at them and see how likely they are to be fielded in tournament play this year in ATXIV. All statistics on usage are taken from zKill, I am aware these may be incomplete but they are the best data I had available.

ATXVII 2009 – Freki & Mimir – Won by Pandemic Legion, Circle-Of-Two Second Place

The first pair was Minmatar assault frigates and HACs in the Freki and Mimir.

Freki – 100B

Minmatar Frigate Bonuses (per skill level)

12.5% bonus to small projectile turret damage

30% bonus to stasis webifier optimal range

Role Bonus:

50% bonus to Small Projectile Turret optimal range

50% bonus to Small Projectile Turret falloff

75% reduction in Afterburner and Microwarpdrive activation cost

Slot-wise, it’s essentially a Jaguar minus the utility high that wants to be a Hyena. It’s about the same speed which sucks for all AFs in modern EVE, let alone for amazeballs 100B ISK ships. It’s base HP is fairly comparable to the Wolf, so why are you paying 100B for this thing? TL;DR The web bonus is pretty cool, 50% better than the Cruor. That said, if you want a tanky little armour frigate with good webs, bring the Cruor. It’s half the points thanks to the Blood Raiders sponsoring ATXIV.

The first ever player-kill with a Freki was on the seventh of January, 2010 when Sodey of No limit Productions killed a Republic Fleet Firetail in highsec. The first Freki loss was in Day five of Alliance Tournament VIII against RED.Overlord, who they had used a Freki team against the previous weekend. The second Freki loss came the following day in their match against WE FORM VOLTRON. It was next sighted in the hands of vegeta in their match against The Exiled Gaming.

It took two more years for the Freki to start appearing on killmails again, getting on kills in southern lowsec FW space and The Citadel highsec. In total therefore, we have only lost two Frekis to explosions, but as always with uniques, only CCP know how many have been lost to banned accounts.

In Tournament play:

ATVIII Day 3 Circle-Of-Two vs RED Overlord – Win

ATVIII Day 5 Circle-Of-Two vs RED.Overlord – Win

ATVIII Day 6 Circle-Of-Two vs WE FORM VOLTRON – Loss

NEO I Guiding Hand Social Club vs The Exiled Gaming – Win

Probability of Freki sighting this year – 0 out of 5

Mimir – 110B

Minmatar Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):

20% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage

4% bonus to all armour resistances

Role Bonus:

50% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret optimal range and falloff

25% bonus to ship maximum velocity

When it came to designing to Mimir it feels like a Minmatar engineer was in charge and they’d kidnapped an Amarr engineer to torture ship designs out of. The armour bonus is gorgeous, but to make sure it wasn’t too slow the Minmatar boss told them to add more thrusters to make sure it wasn’t as galumphing and sedentary as an Abbadon. The closest comparison would be to an armour Muninn, so let’s throw together a crappy fit just to look as comparing stats.

Minor things: Slightly worse DPS, better cap, one more drone, less lock range, less scan resolution.

Major things: TONs more EHP thanks to the resis bonus, WAY faster thanks to the raw velocity bonus, no sig reduction means it’s far easier to hit and nearly HALF the Sensor Integrity (easier to jam), LOTS better projection if worse tracking.

The speed and tank are great, but a Deimos/Phobos or Muninn are comparable choices without the astronomical price tag. If you’re really going hardball into an armour rush team it’s a valid option if you’ve got the wallet to spare.

The first kill that involved a Mimir was made in Jita, of all places, on the 15th of December, 2009, where it killed a Myrmidon with the help of a Harbinger. Count MonteCarlo who must have stones of steel has a lot of solo kills in the Mimir in southern nullsec. As far as I can gather, we’ve never seen use of the Mimir in tournament play, its most recent use being by Ninja Unicorns with large horns and Nocturnal Romance in northern low bordering and in Syndicate. Tinkerhell (a name we’re likely to see mentioned here a few times) has certainly been down to show it off in the past. I managed to find some classic Mimir solo PvP footage by Mortelstrike, which is allegedly footage of current Pandemic Horde leader and Alliance Tournament guru, Admiral Goberius.

Probability of Mimir sighting this year – 1 out of 5

ATVIII 2010 – Utu & Adrestia – Won by Pandemic Legion, HYDRA RELOADED Second Place

From Minmatar we move to the Gallente AF and HAC AT prizes.

Utu – 90B

Gallente Frigate bonuses (per skill level):

10% bonus to Drone damage

10% bonus to Warp Scrambler and Warp Disruptor optimal range

Role bonus:

50% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret optimal range

50% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret tracking speed

50% reduction in module heat damage taken.

Following on from the Freki, the Utu is an Ishkur that identifies as a Keres, dropping a high slot for an extra mid. Note the lack of any small hybrid turret damage or rate of fire bonus, yep, it sucks in the same way the Ishkur does at least. Really though, it is just an Ishkur with a tiny bit more buffer, a bit faster, a bit better cap life and a jaw-dropping price tag. Even if we had T2 damage drones, it is highly doubtful it would be chosen for a team to field this year.

Our first Utu sighting comes from the boys over at HYDRA RELOADED (the ones who won them) on what looks like a south to east roam on July 18th 2010, shortly after ATVIIII ended, getting on a Vengeance, two Vagabonds, and Arazu and a Hyperion flown by Morel Nova and then Rhak Amharr. Morel proceeded to lose his the very next day in a fight with a Daredevil. The second Utu loss loss was in August of the same year, flown by YinandYang of General Tso’s Alliance who at least put a reasonable amount of bling on it rather than being warp core stabbed up. Since then, it’s appeared in the hands of various pilots in Heimatar until July 2013 where it made its first appearance in players hands in the Alliance Tournament in ATXI, flown by fmercury of Pandemic Legion in trio with Destorya and Dez Affinity in their match against The Initiative (which they then went on to win). Fmerc’s Utu was lost, but the other two survived. After that, the Utu has appeared mostly in Curse, this year so far in the hands of Voodoch1ld of “Clever Use of Neutral Toons” alliance.

In tournament play:

ATXI Day 4 Pandemic Legion vs The Initiative. – Win

Probability of Utu sighting this year – 0 out of 5

Adrestia – 160B+

Gallente Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):

20% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage

20% bonus to Warp Scrambler and Warp Disruptor optimal range

Role bonus:

50% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret falloff

25% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret tracking speed

The Adrestia is (in my opinion) the most arousing of the Alliance Tournament prize ships. 1000 DPS at 4km/s with a long scram is pretty fucking awesome, even the “Balance Legion” Orthrus ain’t got shit on the Adrestia. Made famous by the legendary ex-HYDRA leader Garmon in his amazing solo PvP videos, titled Garmonation, the Adrestia appears in Garmonation 9. The Adrestia is amazing, but from what I’m told, in the AT an Adrestia comp will almost guarantee you a win, but certainly lose you one, if not both the Adrestias you field. That is one hell of a price tag for a single game victory, though potentially worth it in the final rounds.

Aside Garmon, the most common Adrestia pilots are Nocturnal Romance’s TinkerHell and Pandemic Legion’s Bluemelon, all three of whom have lost one, joined by Dancul1001 also of Pandemic Legion, holding the Adrestia’s only tournament loss in one of PL’s matches against Hydra in ATXI on day six of the tournament. Without Bluemelon or TinkerHell, modern Adrestia sightings are much fewer and further between, but your best bet remains northern lowsec around the Placid area.

In tournament play:

ATXI Day 5 Pandemic Legion vs Agony Empire – Win

ATXI Day 6 Pandemic Legion vs HYDRA RELOADED – Loss

As amazing as the Adrestia is, you will need balls of steel to bring one this year with the availability of HIC scrams which will shut them them down HARD.

Probability of Adrestia sighting this year – 1.5 out of 5

Catch more AT prize ship analysis in part two!