The first semi final of Alliance Tournament 9 was an exciting and close match between Darkside. [.-D-.] and Outbreak. [TOXIN] that showed two excellent teams and great battle tactics with TOXIN winning in the end.

.-D-. fielded a solid Ammar team which they brought now for the third time in a row with three Legions, two Curses, two Cruors, two Maledictions for tackling and a Guardian for logistics. TOXIN brought a good Minmatar 'rush' high speed team of three Sleipnirs and a Claymore for damage, Huginn for tackling, Scimitar for logistics and three Sabres and a Thrasher.

While .-D-. fielded their ships at staged distances of medium to far range, TOXIN had all their ships at the far opposite site of the arena.

The match was open! And ... nothing. Instead of the usual rushing and screaming we saw only few movements, their teams hovering at their starting place, focusing on each other before the deadly strike. TOXIN began a wide move to swing around the arena, avoiding .-D-.'s Curse with their dangerous energy neutralizing capabilities.

When TOXIN finished their pincer movement, they fiercely rushed in .-D-.'s open side and towards their Guardian which was tackled, put under heavy fire and exploded soon after, a heavy disadvantage for .-D-. who only were able to kill one of TOXIN's Sabre.

.-D-. now focused onto TOXIN's Scimitar which was tackled down but in a surprise move was able to escape leaving .-D-. with a difficult choice to either follow him out of the center of the battle or leaving him to go and having him repair the TOXIN team. MadMax RuS from .-D-. thinks that "this was a breaking point of the fight." and Zarathushtra from TOXIN praised his Scimitar pilot for this move "Saulc Neslo is hero of the day".

Not wasting time, .-D-. decided within seconds to follow TOXIN's Scimitar with their Legions but the Scimitar being much faster was able to lure the Legions quite a bit away before they gave up, returning to the heat of the battlefield where in the meanwhile TOXIN kill one of .-D-.'s Curse and their Cruors.

.-D-. at once attacked TOXIN's Scimitar after it returned to the battle center again and swiftly killed it, then .-D-. focused their fire on the Huginn which was dangerous due to its webbing capabilities. With these ships killed, the match slowly slipped into .-D-.'s favour, especially after they also killed all TOXIN's Sabres and the Thrasher while only losing one Malediction.

TOXIN in the meanwhile put heavy damage onto one of the Legions and finally chewed through its heavy armor tank and reduced it to pieces of wrecked rubble but not without losing one of their own Sleipnirs.

The breathtaking end game was dominated by excellent piloting on both sides, only two Sleipnirs and a Claymore left for TOXIN, with .-D-. having two Legions, a Curse and a Malediction. When .-D-. lost another Legion, the match was now heavily in favour of TOXIN and they kept this advantage to the end, slowly chewing through the remaining .-D-.'s ships.

Zarathushtra highly praised his team "Everyone in the team was just so damn good. I am very proud of this corp." Dragon Ramirez was still highly excited "Oh man! Still shaking". MadMax RuS was a bit disapointed by the result: "We came to win. Better luck next season!"