Welcome back readers to our penultimate AT XIV Team Breakdown. We’ll be switching it up for this final stretch as Apothne gets some help from our resident Lazerhawker Ashley Traynor to show us through the twisted halls of Eve Online AT history and achievements. Of the ones we’ll be investigating today we have: Tactical Narcotics Team, Templus CALSF, TEST, The Afterlife., Galaxy Spiritus, The Explicit Alliance, The Methodical Alliance and the long-running THE R0NIN.



Tactical Narcotics Team

Formed: 14/05/2009

Seed: 8

Flagship: None

First Match: League of Unaligned Master Pilots

Oh Mr Magoo, the Imperium member alliance TNT are what my esteemed colleague Elise Randolph refer to as “clowny” in their execution of Alliance Tournament play, though you can’t argue that they’re not successful with it. They currently own two systems of sov in Delve, surrounded by the warm embrace of papa goon.

Anchoring their way to victory last year, TNT won the hearts and minds of the AT audience. This is TNTs third year participating with both previous runs being surprisingly impressive.

In their first year (ATXII), TNT beat A Nest of Vipers, TEST and the tournament old-guard THE R0NIN before being knocked into the loser’s bracket by eventual winners, The Camel Empire, before being eliminated by the old Triumvirate Team.

Last year, TNT used a LML kiting comp in their matches against WAFFLES. and Circle-Of-Two, which they won. Against Vox Populi they brought a TFI core supported by Vexor Navys which is an interesting take on the setup, winning a third time. Unfortunately, this is where the Magoo magic ran out, TNT faced Nulli secunda in a TFI vs TFI duel, again bringing their VNI variant. TNT traded their Oneiros for, well, nothing and lost the match from there.

Finally making it all the way to the final weekend, TNT faced The Tuskers in effectively the same setup as they had lost to against Nulli, but this time they fielded their old LML team. This was the fateful match where their Scimitar pilot, Janstina Urthadar (now of Shadow Cartel) had only a 5MN microwarpdrive fitted, and thus was easily tackled and explodified, costing them the match.



Templis CALSF

Formed: 24/02/2014

Seed: 43

Flagship: None

First Match: IT’S ONLY PIXELS

Hailing from Caldari Faction warfare space, CASLSF are taking on the Alliance Tournament for their first time this year. I don’t have any sov to talk about here but we can say that the northern warzone has been dominated by the Gallente for several years. Perhaps this is a push to garner some funds to support the squid effort?

(Note: After pulling out, fellow Caldari FW alliance The Bloc started mass-taking systems from the Gallente while they were busy playing in the first weekend of the AT, sneaky squid bastards).



Test Alliance Please Ignore

Formed: 12/05/2010

Seed: 9

Flagship: Scorpion Navy Issue

First Match: Scary Wormhole People

Say what you like about TEST on TQ but they have a pretty badass AT team. Currently stemming the tide of the PanFam invasion in Tribute with C02 while holding Vale for themselves, TEST have had a pretty fucking awesome year seeing the defeat of the Imperium who kicked them out of Fountain back in 2014.

ATXI: Beat Sicarus Draconis and RAZOR Alliance, lost to Late Night Alliance and SCUM.

ATXII: Beat Ushra’Khan, lost to TNT, beat HUN Reloaded, Easily Excited, Feign Disorder and Pasta Syndicate, eliminated by HYDRA RELOADED.

ATXIII: Beat Drop the Hammer, lost to Vox Populi, beat The WeHurt Initiative, Easily Excited, The G0dfathers and were eliminated by THE R0NIN.

TEST do their best work in the losers bracket where they have gone on an absolute tear for the last two years. Further, they are one of the few teams who can claim to have invented an original setup, the distributed or pseudo-tinker. You can watch it here in their match against The WeHurt Initiative.



The Afterlife.

Formed: 17/03/2014

Seed: 10

Flagship: Bhaalgorn

First Match: Psychotic Tendencies

The Afterlife are a terrifying AT team with PvP prowess also known on Tranquility throughout the years. As they did during tourney time last year, The Afterlife own the same parts of Esoteria and Feythabolis.

ATXII: Lost to PL, beat The G0dfathers, beat SCUM., beat C0VEN, beat CVA, beat Shadow Cartel, beat Exodus., beat Triumbirate and were eliminated by Nulli Secunda.

ATXIII: Beat End of Life, beat Together We Solo, lost to Triumvirate, beat Agony Empire and were eliminated by Tuskers.

The Afterlife. are scary in not only their skill, but their ability to both play the meta and come out with some really wild setups, such as their Golem/Minmatar rush team from ATXII. Hell, they’ve even made Dominix Navy Issues work.



The Bloc Galaxy Spiritus

Formed: 03/03/2014

Seed: 58

Flagship: None

First Match: Triumvirate.

Galaxy Spiritus are certainly a surprise entry this year. Having not participated before, they were ushered in at the last moment after The Bloc backed out. They’re a Russian group hailing from around Syndicate who don’t seem too PvP-shy from the looks of their killboard; although they own no sov. Winning a single game, especially against previous tournament heavyweights like Tri would be an incredible achievement.



The Explicit Alliance

Formed: 13/05/2013

Seed: 16

Flagship: None

First Match: Badfellas Inc.

Explicit are a sov-holding alliance who own space in Perrigen Falls and The Spire. In AT attempt 2, electric boogaloo, they’ll be looking to build on their tournament debut last year. Explicit achieved the goal I think any AT team should hope for on their first entry, winning a single match. Let’s see if they can push further through the bracket this year!

ATXIII: Lost to Hard Knocks, beat A Band Apart and were eliminated by Northern Coalition.



The Methodical Alliance

Formed: 15/04/2011

Seed: 29

Flagship: Bhaalgorn

First Match: Out of Sight.

The Methodical Alliance currently hold a large swathe of Branch, making their third attempt at the AT.

ATXII: Beat End of Life, lost to The Gorgon Empire and were eliminated by WAFFLES.

ATXIII: Beat Verge of Collapse, lost to Warlords of the Deep, and were eliminated by Dream Fleet.

1-2 for two years, both times hitting a big AT player in the second round. Is this the year where Methodical can make it deeper into the bracket?



THE R0NIN

Formed: 24/10/2006

Seed: 6

Flagship: Bhaalgorn

First Match: Red vs Blue

The R0NIN are the oldest Alliance Tournament team still kicking and they have been consistently one of the strongest teams in the tournament for over a decade. As well as ten AT appearances, they came second in the first NEO.

ATIII: Lost to BoB in the finals

ATIV: Lost to Morsus Mihi Ro16.

ATVI: (Under R.U.R), lost to PL in the finals.

ATVII: Lost to C02 Ro16.

ATVIII: Lost to Atlas Ro16.

ATIX: Beat Aggrivated Assault, lost to Power of Two and WE FORM VOLTRON.

ATX: Beat Dirt Nap Squat, lost to The G0dfathers.

ATXI: Beat CAStabouts, CVA, WAFFLES., Rote Kappelle and lost to Exodus. and Darkside.

ATXII: Beat Dead Terrorists, Easily Excited, lost to TNT and then beat M.I.F, Rote Kapelle and HYDRA before finally being eliminated by The Tuskers Co.

ATXIII: Beat It Must Be Jelly Cause Jam Don’t Shake, beat R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N, lost to Shadow Cartel, beat Test and were eliminated by Exodus.

Despite a long and storied history THE R0NIN are yet to take first place in the tournament sharing the EVE Online Kong Line with HYDRA RELOADED. In the last few years with more new teams achieving excellence in tournament play the R0NIN have not been able to keep up and remain in the absolute top tier of teams.

If anything, being the gatekeeper to that realm. Beating THE R0NIN is an achievement very few groups of players can boast and is a sure sign of entering that top tier of tournament play.