Pandemic Legion vs Circle-Of-Two

Finals - Sunday 20th September - 21:30

Pandemic Legion: Alliance Tournament Champions After Stunning Victory Over Circle-Of-Two

Reported by: Clarity Brown

Pandemic Legion [-10.0] have certainly lived up to their name during this tournament. They were fast, deadly, got everywhere and anything they left behind certainly wasn't pretty any more. Circle-Of-Two [CO2], who had come out of relative obscurity to achieve a string of shock victories in the preceding rounds, put up a stalwart fight, but the stealth bomber team was once again triumphant, making Pandemic Legion the champions of Alliance Tournament VII.



The two teams set up about 50km apart, both off the beacon but not diametrically opposite each other. Supremely confident, -10.0 kept their whole team together - a posture which allows fast responses to crises but perhaps doesn't afford the same thinking time as one separating the electronic warfare and logistics ships. CO2, meanwhile, put their Guardian well back but kept everything else with their main fleet. CO2 had gone with a heavily Minmatar fleet, with a pair of Sabres and a pair of Thrashers to engage the stealth bombers.

The match kicked off with Pandemic Legion launching Warrior IIs to deal with the CO2 destroyers and then launched those lethal concussion bombs, tearing apart Sidzo and marko23's Hurricanes, then Ugrus joined his collegaues in the Burning Wreck society as drones tore up his Thrasher. CO2 attempted to confound -10.0 remote repair strategy with spread fire, but Tanis Kitieran, Pandemic Legion's Scimitar pilot, calmly kept damage across the fleet under control. Jowan's Abaddon (CO2) was heavily jammed by Elize Randolph and WiseMan Ari, -10.0's Rook pilots, but was obviously packing heavy ECCM, as he still managed bursts of fire. He was close to falling when the equally jammed Guardian flown by zemiljoradnik managed to achieve a lock on him long enough to repair much of his armour damage.

CO2 lost one of their Sabre pilots, 2hertz, to some very accurate shooting from ICoraxI's Loki, and Pandemic Legion went on to clean up the last of CO2's destroyers with their Warrior IIs while the bulk of their fleet closed with Jowan's Abaddon. That Abaddon, however, caused Pandemic Legion's only casualty of the match, bringing down Elize Randolph's Rook in an effort to allow his team to bring more of their DPS to bear. The Legion's retribution was swift and painful, destroying gigX's Dominix and taking his potent Ogre II drones out of play.

Under fire from all sides, torpeodoes smashing the vessel left and right, its signature bloated by target painters, Jowan's Abaddon still obstinately refused to die. It took eight full minutes of determined firepower from the Legion to finally break its tank, thanks to the periodic bursts of repairs from the CO2 Guardian - the second it vented its atmosphere into space, the Pandemic Legion target painter was on that Guardian and the bombers, with -10.0 team captain Shamis Orzoz's Claymore, closed up around zemljoradnik. When the smoke cleared, CO2 was without a logistics ship and Mrav's Damnation and Ignann's Sabre were all alone in a sea of Legionaires. Sensibly, the fleet little Sabre employed some evasive maneuvers, or, to put it another way, got as far out as possible, and then tried to aid Mrav as it could, kiting drones or shooting at them, but keeping his distance was his only real choice. Mrav, meanwhile, was swiftly devastated by pounding torpedo fire from the bombers, leaving Ignann to be picked off at the last by strafing fire from Shamis Orzoz's Claymore.

While they certainly made their victories look effortless, Shamis Orzoz explained after the match that they were anything but. Their team had planned and practiced for 2 months in a project that went far beyond the few pilots actually seen on the field.

"We would not have won without the help of the following people, who worked very hard on theorycrafting setups: Admiral Goberius, Creyn Hawk, straife, Ohne, BreAnna Calyanus and rn bonnet. They all contributed valuable setups, and valuable counters to other good setups.

"We tested a lot. I think we've probably had 'bout 15 organized practice sessions, each one lasting at least 2 hours.

"There was no one single team we were worried about, but we worried about somebody bringing a strong counter to the bombers. The best counter to the bombers was revealed by us in the semi-finals; the Minmatar team we fielded defeats the bombers 95% of the time&hellips; Also, the team we fielded in Match 2 beats the bombers about 70% of the time, so I was mildly concerned that somebody would find the counter in our own setups. Admiral Goberius came up with the bomber team and it took me nearly 2 weeks to come up with a counter, which is what I used in Match 2&hellips; Goberius has been running bomber fleets for months and months in regular&hellips; combat, which is why he favoured them for the tourney as well. They are the most DPS per point you can get as long as you have the primary webbed/painted."

Congratulations are due to Circle-Of-Two, finishing as runners-up, who upset all the odds and forged through the Tournament and into viewers' memories with their hard-fought matches. They go home with a set of blueprints for priceless Freki frigates. But after all that practice and planning, and the spectacular results they produced in each match, no-one could say that Pandemic Legion's victory in Alliance Tournament VII is not well-deserved. Keep watching their killboard to see if their Mimir prize cruisers perform as well as their bomber fleets.