The official Alliance Tournament seeds are out and someone has already taken the time to make an unofficial bracket. I'm sure there are other ones out there as well, but essentially you take the top seed and pair it with the lowest seed, and then continue. A Band Apart is the 51st seed so if these early brackets hold true we'll be facing G0dfathers in the first round. Luckily we are in the same section of the bracket as PL, Shadow, and about 63 other teams that probably have more Tournament experience than we do.
This is my first AT. I've come close to being in the Alliance Tournament before, but something always happened to change those plans. Things like Alliances collapsing, or wars, or evacuations. I'm glad that it worked out that way in the past. I'm incredibly excited to be entering the AT at the head of my very own Alliance. I mean seriously? How freaking cool is that?! It honestly doesn't get much better. ABA isn't just another Alliance. It is my Eve family. Something I created from thin air and which has grown and thrived over the past year. I don't think it gets much better than that.
Let's be honest here, this is our first ever Tournament. As such it would be entirely understandable for every single person looking at a bracket to say, "Who dey?" And write us off as just another newb Alliance. Because we are just another newb Alliance. No sense in denying it. We don't have years of experience and frankly our team is not going to be filled with 200m skill point pilots. As far as expectations go, place us firmly in the "going-for-it" camp. We have no expectations other than doing extremely well, fighting hard, and making our best effort on the field of battle.
Having said that, within our team, we do have experienced pilots. Those that have participated in the AT and other Tournaments before - both with ABA and with other teams. So it would be a mistake to discount us entirely. While I might be rather notorious for not taking anything seriously, I freely admit to taking our participation in the AT extremely seriously. Maybe 89% serious. Which is a huge upgrade from my normal levels. I joke, but why play if you don't try to win? So we are putting our best foot forward.
It is a big deal looking at the seeds and seeing our name there among the other 63 teams. It is, in a larger sense, our coming out party. And while we might very well get smacked into oblivion, we shall strive to make each opponent know they were in a fight. Because if there is anything we are not newbs at, it is fighting. And, if I remember correctly, the AT comes down to a bunch of ships fighting another bunch of ships for ten minutes. And that is something we do every single day.
So we are on our way. And whatever happens, win or lose, I'm extremely proud of our members. Those on the team and those supporting the team behind the scenes. Because I do know one thing, in order to do well we need everyone behind us.
At the very least, it will be interesting.