Caldari PvP Tournament: Final Day Review

And so it came to pass that Band of Brothers won their third consecutive PvP tournament with a comprehensive dismantling of The R0NIN in the final, but perhaps the competition will be most remembered for Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate's spectacular loss of an Imperial Navy Apocalypse.

The R0NIN surprised a great deal of people by making it to the final but may feel that they let themselves down by their performance in the final as they fell to BoB's experienced hands, whose team will be celebrating the arrival of Navy fitted Storms or Corvuses.

With BoB's past successes clearly they spent some considerable time designing tactics and getting the necessary ships and equipment for the tournament, planning and logistics that The R0NIN mirrored as they revealed they took six weeks to lay the foundation for their showing.

Nebula Rasa got the round of 16 off to a superb start with a titanic struggle with The Corporation Alliance. At one stage it was 5-2 with Nebula having lost their two Vexor Navy Issues at the start. Gradually they clawed their way back into the contest taking out an Abbadon, the fight swung back their way when TCA's Curse was taken out and the loss of the nosferatu allowed the Dominix to regain its armour at a steadier rate having been down to one third for a considerable time. The perpetual nightmare for Amarr pilots hit home as the Absolution ran out of capacitor and with it ended TCA's tournament dreams.

If the first fight was an incredible start, the second did not disappoint as The R0NIN, underdogs by some distance, fought back to shock Stain Empire. Having taken first blood with a pair of Navy Hoobills, SE seemed to have the upper hand and with R0NIN concentrating on ships that were being armour repaired by a Guardian, all seemed to be going according to plan for the team from the South.

With two Abbadons with all nosferatu set-ups the teams were fairly well matched and this point was emphatically made once R0NIN took out their opposition's two mauluses. In a knockout match and when tension is high often it is the team that makes fewest mistakes that win and the tie turned when SE's Guardian got caught on the opposite side of the arena to his team-mates, despite an heroic effort to get back to within remote armour range, R0NIN eventually beat the tank and took a three ship to two lead. The final two ships could not last long given they were reliant on the logistics ship for their tank and R0NIN pulled off something of a shock win.

Exquisite Malevolance stormed to a convincing win over The Five whilst The Star Fraction beat the shield tank of Veritas Immortalis to inflict a points defeat on them. Prime Orbital Systems were humbled by Terra Incognita, who used a classic armour tank and dampener set-up to score the perfect victory.

Having breezed through the group stages, Against ALL Authorities were rudely returned to earth with a bump as they faced BoB in their first knockout game and were dumped out after a 5-0 defeat despite using the first Bhaalgorn seen in this tournament. BoB decided to go toe-to-toe with two high damage teams on display and they were the ones that prevailed.

So popular was the tournament proving that the championships had to be relocated to allow more pilots to be able to view proceedings.

A battle of tanking between Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate and Axiom Empire eventually swung in the direction of the former. The Imperial Apocalypse provided heavy duty damage that removed Axiom's Curse after the obligatory swapping of smaller ships and with IAC having the nosferatu advantage they were in a strong position. Although AE managed to eventually kill off their opponent's Curse, they did so at the cost of a Vulture, which sealed matters.

With two unheralded teams going head-to-head it was Cult of War that impressed viewers with their mauling of Sani Sabik, who had done so well in the group stages. Once again the quick changing of targets foxed support, whilst Sani Sabik's relentless pursuit of the opposing Dominix proved their downfall.

The quarter-finals started with Nebula Rasa's drones causing carnage in Exquisite Malevolance's ranks and leading to an easier victory than was expected. The R0NIN went with a pure damage line-up and crushed The Star Fraction, for whom Jasmine Constantine's suicide rush was a spectacular end for their championships. Following the trend for one-sided victories, BoB scored a 5-0 victory over Terra Incognita, with their Bhaalgorn in devastating form, grabbing the first kill after just four seconds.

The last quarter-final pitched IAC against Cult or War, which provided the most talked about event in the championships.

Tyrrax Thorrk's side once again chose to field their Imperial Issue Apocalypse, a decision they came to regret. CoW started two ships to the good as they scored a pair of Maulus kills whilst they withheld a barrage directed at their Retribution.

IAC probed their opponents looking for a weak spot but lost a Curse in the process, however, the tactic almost bore fruit with the Retribution and Ishtar going dangerously close to hull damage. Something of a stalemate ensued until IAC's Absolution was eventually worn down which left the Imperial Apocalypse alone. CoW attempted a 15 billion isk ransom which was declined as was the counter-offer of 2.5b and so with time running down maybe the ship could be saved but alas there was too much damage output for it to endure and its demise was assured.

If the quarter finals were brutal, the semi-finals were worse as BoB defeated Nebula Rasa 5-0 and The R0NIN followed with a similar victory over Cult of War, who were presumably still celebrating their amazing Impoc kill.

Once again BoB's Bhaalgorn stormed into the midst of the enemy and cap drained anything in sight; Nebula Rasa went for something of a spread attack and almost caught their opponent’s off-guard. Past experience has shown that BoB are adept at supporting one another and so it proved again and whilst they dealt with the varied attacks of their foes, they efficiently targeted and destroyed the remaining ships.

The semi was played with a fantastic spirit of sportsmanship, with a BoB pilot suffering various logistical problems and each time NR allowing him time to get set-up properly, where perhaps others would not have been so patient.

In the other match, an Ishtar was surprisingly the first kill as The R0NIN pummelled Cult of War. Good support kept their Navy Hookbills in the game as CoW flitted from ship to ship, yet it was a damage dealing Abbadon that was causing them the most problems. The Dominix that was the Imperial Apocalypse's downfall had its fame short-lived and with a deadly dampening/damage combination, The R0NIN breezed into the final.

The final itself was a re-run of previous BoB fights as they stuck with a winning tactic involving the Bhaalgorn. It raced into the centre and preceded to cap drain anything it could reach, which was everything! A Hookbill was first to fall, as BoB systematically worked their way from smallest-largest ship. Once R0NIN's Curse was taken out of the equation, they were at the mercy of nosferatu but attempted to counter this by webbing the Bhaalgorn with drones. With a 5 versus 2 their last tactic was to try running but once they hit the arena edge it was all over as BoB closed the gap and killed the remaining ships.

An entertaining tournament overall with some new faces, new tactics, some superb team performances and of course the Imperial Apocalypse's demise. BoB once again proved masters of the small squad format but with new challengers making themselves known to the community it time will tell if they have enough to topple the holders.