Alliance Tournament V : Competitors’ Introduction – Part VI | EVE Online

Alliance Tournament V : Competitors’ Introduction – Part VI

2008-02-27 - By Svarthol

The Fifth Alliance Tournament is almost upon us. This year’s entrants include a number of new, smaller and mostly unknown alliances as well as the established tournament veterans.

Next in our series of alliance introductions, we present Divine 0rder

Divine 0rder (DOA)


With only a few days to go before the first shots are fired, pilots across the cluster are cleaning their guns and tweaking their fits, caught in a frenzy of last moment preparation. One alliance that seems to have everything in hand, however, is Divine 0rder, affectionately known as DOA.

Divine 0rder is a new face on the alliance scene, formed only on the first of this year. Grappler, a director of DOA’s executor corporation, Divine Retribution and member of the alliance council, explained to me that their relative newness doesn't represent their overall experience.

“Most of our members have been in alliances or corps together for years. We have been flying together since the Great Northern War, for the most part.”

Divine 0rder and Divine Retribution should be names familiar to many who have sought the aid of mercenaries, or been on the receiving end of their punitive declarations. One of their more well known campaigns was waged against Privateer Alliance – a heated conflict against one of the cluster’s more pervasive military forces, which Divine 0rder carried off with relatively few losses.

The mercenaries chose Deklein as their operational base, pointing out the numerous opportunities for employment there. They’ve seen many battles there against R0ADKILL alliance – who are in Group H of this year’s tournament.

When asked why Divine 0rder entered the tournament this year, grappler remarked:

“[We want] to test ourselves against the best the other alliances have to offer. In most fights, we tend to get outnumbered, so it will be nice to fight with fairly even numbers against people who want to win as badly as we do.

“And the shiny ships you can win are nice."

In the event of victory, grappler suggested that they will have a small, inter-corporation tournament to decide which prizes they will take, with the winner having first pick.

DOA have picked their final roster for the tournament, but are keeping their chosen pilots’ identities carefully concealed until the match itself.

“Skill sets and fleet composition determine who we use with which round, [and we] can’t let anyone scout us.”

While grappler said that she is keen for the chance to fight R0ADKILL in the tournament, the team they have really set their caps for is Mercenary Coalition. She sees them as a difficult challenge with some truly excellent pilots to pit her alliance against, as well as a group they have never yet had the chance to face in the field.

“[We don’t know what tactics they might use] as of yet, but we won’t see them for several rounds, so we will be watching closely.”

Another tough contest is anticipated from their very first fight, against Atlas Alliance; some DOA members have flown both with and against Atlas, and rate them as a solid opponents. To plan against the opening match, however, will be difficult, as grappler explains:

“We have a few setups we will use, but it’s going to be hard to set up for one specific group...I’m sure all involved will have more than one fleet set up, otherwise it would be easy to prepare for them.”

If Divine 0rder were to secure a triumph in the tournament, grappler anticipates a big boost in mercenary contracts for the alliance. However, she said that their recruitment, while perhaps gaining more pilots to choose from, will not go up in real terms.

“I would think we would have a fairly large boost in business, and the law of supply and demand would say our rates would go up, so that’s good for our pilots’ wallets… We are very selective with our recruiting though. Quality over quantity.”

So there we have it. A team hand-picked from the very best mercenaries DOA have to offer, looking to prove themselves in edge-of-the-seat battles against some of the cluster’s finest pilots, from old rivals to figures of aspiration.

...And win some nice shiny ships, or course.


More coverage will be available live during the tournament. As mentioned above Divine 0rder's first match is against Atlas Alliance on Day One.