The finals for Eve’s Alliance Tournament IX ended today, but not how anyone would have expected. Accusations of the finals being rigged or setup started even before the final match ended. You see what many Eve Online players and viewers of the tournament didn’t know was that the two finalists were really one team.
The two finalist, Hydra Reloaded and Outbreak, were originally part of the same Eve Alliance, Hydra Reloaded, two months before the start of Alliance Tournament IX and one player was in control of both teams.
That Eve Online player goes by the name of Garmon and was the team captain for both tournament teams. In a tactical move by Garmon and the alliance, a new alliance called Outbreak was created so Hydra Reloaded could have two entries in the tournament and increase their chance of making the finals. So when the semi-finals ended and both Hydra Reloaded and Outbreak made the finals, the fix was in.
Hydra Reloaded entered the finals with a joke of a ship setup and were quickly decimated by team Outbreak. However as both teams were sharing the same chat channel and communicating with each other, they decided that Hydra Reloaded would win the finals, so team Outbreak let-up their attack and allowed the remains players from Hydra Reloaded to finish them off.
It seems that many Eve Online players and viewers were outraged by this rigged final match and have taken to the Eve Online forums to express their disgust. However not everyone shares this view, many players applaud what Hydra Reloaded and Garmon had done simply stating that this is what Eve Online is all about. Bending rules and taking advantage of them to win at all costs. The real victory wasn’t won in the finals, but was the accomplishment of getting two teams into the finals.
Since the end of the tournament, Hydra Reloaded has made a public apology for how the finals ended. No official response from CCP or Alliance Tournament has been given and whether or not new rules will be put in place for next year so something like this doesn’t happen again.
This was so utterly stupid and CCP should feel ashamed.
No need for CCP to be ashamed as they had nothing to do with it except for encouraging metagaming – also a very interesting read from the finalist(s) here:
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1531749
This is amazing and CCP should be proud. They have created a universe for others to play in. How they choose to play, is up to them. EVE thrives on it’s freedom, Eve may change the rules of the tournament later, but this tourney should be left alone as it stands. If they DQ the 2 teams, the new ‘winner’ will have a hollow victory and be laughed at.
If I could split my football team in half and get both of the teams to the superbowl, then guess what, I deserve to win the superbowl.