The Eve Online Invasion World Tour has ended but has set the scene for a tournament of champions gathered from around the globe at this year’s Fanfest. Signature to each Tour location was the Invasion Tournament Series, an arena-style 2v2 LAN tournament which produced seven victorious teams to compete in the Invasion Global Finals at Eve Fanfest 2020. The eighth and final winning team hails from the most appropriate locale: New Eden.
The Online Qualifiers pitted 32 hopeful pairs against each other, culminating in a best of three finale with team Dead Inside Kids’ Yoshitoshi and Frenzy Chaos besting team Lootscript’s Tikktokk Tokkzikk and Cable Uta with a 2-1 victory. I sat down with Yoshitoshi and Tikktokk to discuss their bout as well as the tournament in general.
Approach and Die!
Dead Inside Kids’ Yoshitoshi recounts anticipating their finals opponent. “So we’re in the finals and waiting to find out who we’ll face. I want to fight with Lootscript because they don’t know how we fight, and we don’t know how they fight.” Lootscript makes it to the finals and in a turn of events unique to the Online Qualifiers, “CCP made a Breaking News from The Scope about a Triglavian Invasion.” The ship type and fits were changed from Navy Battleships and Battlecruisers to any Precursor vessels. “We see Triglavian ships as the options, our favorite ship type. Nice! Dead Inside’s tactic is awesome – approach and die! We banned the Nergal and Ikitursa and fielded a Leshak and Drekavak.” Indeed, that did work out for Dead Inside Kids. “We win two matches and lose one. Lootscript was nice. They beat our friends Eve After School to get into the finals. Interesting how the finals would have been if we had to fight against our friends.”
Lootscript’s Tikktokk also commented on the unprecedented ship-type change for the finals. “We theory crafted before the bans and matches, and quickly figured out the Leshak and Drekavac would be the strongest composition. You always have to assume your opponent plans and plays perfectly, so we expected Dead Inside Kids to come to the same conclusion.” Confident in their skill expression. “We wanted to avoid a mirror matchup, with all strengths and weaknesses being the same there are fewer opportunities to outplay your opponent. We settled on fielding the Ikitursa and Nergal and banning the Drekavac. With the Drek out of the picture our composition should be able to secure the win through skillful piloting and juggling the Nergal’s two tracking disruptors against any other composition.” With palpable resignation, Tikktokk states “Then they banned the Nergal.”
Mirror Matches
“We didn’t have time to come up with a different plan, so we decided to play it safe and chose the Leshak and Drekavac,” Tikktokk said. “We started at range from each other and danced around to break each others’ spools. They danced better than us and ended up winning the first round.” Lootscript shook off the initial loss, “The start of the second match was identical to the first one, only this time we danced better and won.”
Yoshitoshi elaborates, “I missed my tackle on the Leshak, that gave them a win in the second round.”
The third round allowed Tikktokk to witness the Dead Inside Kids signature tactic, “I think nerves got to both teams for the final match, as we both decided to rush into a close-range brawl with no opportunities for outplays. We lost the final game to the dice roll we desperately wanted to avoid.” Tikktokk reflects, “The only thing I would have done differently is not risk a brawl by rushing in. Had we stayed calm and pulled back like we did in match two, I think the outcome could have been very different.”
Comparing Tic-Tac-Toe to Chess
The Invasion Tournament got a few things right in Yoshitoshi’s opinion. “I like the idea that finalists will play at a LAN tournament. It’s insanely cooler than just sitting at home and winning.” Compared to the now defunct Alliance Tournament, “The only thing I don’t like with this tournament is the ship format. Two passive ships are not as interesting as active tanked compositions. The AT has Logi ships and a lot of space for imagination.”
Tikktokk agreed. “The format has great potential, but the execution could have been better. There were some glaring balancing issues where each round had a strongest setup. Most notably the first round where the Scorpion Navy Issue had no apparent counter other than another Scorpion Navy Issue.”
Tikktokk thinks a few tweaks are required before the IT format can replace the AT. “We were able to correctly predict the meta for every round of the tournament on the day the rules were released. With only two pilots on a team, the matches lacked tactical depth. I think with additional pilots, better balance, and less or no time to practice and ‘solve’ the meta, this format could be excellent. But as it stands, comparing the IT to the AT is like comparing tic-tac-toe to chess.”
Invasion Tournament Finalists
Dead Inside Kids will pocket the 10,000 PLEX prize for their victory and will prepare for their fully accommodated trip to Iceland for Eve Fanfest 2020. The Invasion Global Finals bracket is complete, joining them with the other World Tour champions:
Hydra Wormholed – Nik Domar and Vasama From the Eve Amsterdam tour date who competed with T1 Frigates and T1 Cruisers.
Russian Weeb Squad – Nika NOisEr and useless fat nerd from the Eve St. Petersburg tour date who competed with Navy Frigates and Navy Cruisers.
NSA Green – Firebolt972 and Maria Deteis from the Eve Sydney tour date who competed with Pirate Frigates and Pirate Cruisers.
Rustbuckets – Debes Sparre and Sharlandra from the Eve Toronto tour date who competed with Assault Frigates and Assault Cruisers.
No Fox Given – Urs Blank and Mikokoel from the Eve Berlin tour date who competed with T3 Destroyers and Combat Battlecruisers.
Spod or Bust – Somer Adoudel and DrangonTeeth Ellecon from the Eve Las Vegas tour date who competed with Attack Battlecruisers and Battleships.
RNG – StarFleetCommander and Annie Gardet from the Eve London tour date who competed with Command Ships and Pirate Ships.
Dead Inside Kids – Yoshitoshi and Frenzy Chaos from the Eve Online Qualifiers tour date who competed with Navy Battleships and Navy Battlecruisers with a change to Triglavian ships for the final match.