You may have heard that the Alliance Tournament is back. Some wondered if this news would mean anything to players. Would anyone respond? Well, we learned yesterday that over 70 teams have signed up for the upcoming tournament! So, I guess we have our answer. The AT still means something. Which I already knew. Of course it does.
For those that aren't aware there are only 32 teams in the Alliance Tournament. And we have over 70 teams signed up. Even I can do that kind of math. So what happens between now and the start of the tournament? I'm glad you asked. The first step was a silent auction, each team was required to deposit 2,500 PLEX as an entrance fee. However, you could also deposit additional PLEX in order to ensure your team made it into the final roster as a silent auction. You had no idea how much to deposit. And I know many teams decided to just go with the 2,500 and let things roll. I can understand that decision. Any teams that didn't make the cut (whatever it ended up being) would have to face off in a special "one and done" feeder tournament to decide the final 8 slots for the AT. Insanity.
I wasn't taking any chances. So I pooled all my contest earnings, my own plex, and some donations from members (Thank you!) and pulled together some plex. I was looking at the number and decided to round it down a little and deposit what I thought was a solid Pirate entry of 13,000 plex. YARR! A little voice kept nagging me to deposit more, but I stuck to my guns and went with the 13 pieces of silver version. Luckily, as it turns out, that was just enough to get us onto the roster and avoid the feeder tournament! By about 2-3 teams I think. We'll know all the details about that later this week when the final results are announced.
So A Band Apart is in the Alliance Tournament and can avoid the insanity (But incredible fun!) of the feeder tournament. Whew.
As always around this time I'm going to ask my dear readers to consider a donation to help support our team. In years past we've had some truly generous sponsors and I appreciate them all. As you know we are not a large Alliance, we number just over 300 players, and most of us are evil Pirates. Wealth is not something we have a lot of in our line of business. And the AT can be very expensive. Last year we got off lucky because the Alliance Open was held on TD, so the ships were fake ships. This year however, the tournament returns to TQ and every ship, every mod, will have to be built or paid for. So any donations will be sincerely appreciated. (Make those to your friendly neighborhood Pirate Lord please.)
I'm hoping that this year will be our year to finally make the break into the final rounds. To date our highest finish is 11th. Last year we finished 16th. I think we've always managed to finish in the top 20 and come close a couple of times to breaking into that final level. Fingers crossed that this is the year we finally do.
Lots of practice, theory-crafting, and planning lie ahead.
Can't wait.