Pandemic Legion crowned EVE Alliance Tournament VII champs

The biggest PvP event of the year in EVE Online is the annual Alliance Tournament, which played out over three weekends in September. The final rounds of EVE Alliance Tournament VII were fought out today and only one alliance earned the right to call themselves the game's top PvPers: Pandemic Legion, tournament champs for the second year in a row.

64 alliance teams entered the tournament 3 weeks ago, and today's finals culminated with Pandemic Legion facing off against Circle-of-Two. It was an entertaining final match but it was decided early on, as Pandemic Legion's stealth bombers unleashed waves of destruction upon Circle-of-Two, ultimately sealing their fate in the tournament. Pandemic Legion proved to be calculating in their tactics and ship setups this year. They successfully varied between speed fitted Minmatar fleets for fast and brutal blitzes, and glass cannon stealth bomber setups for powerful alpha strikes. They remained unpredictable throughout the tournament and it paid off for them.

As the first place team, Pandemic Legion will reap significant rewards: 50 billion ISK in prize money, blueprint copies for a unique "Mímir" cruiser only available to winners of EVE Alliance Tournament VII, a gold medal and an Alliance Tournament Cup.

Circle of Two took second place, and they've earned 30 billion ISK and blueprint copies for a "Freki" frigate that's unique to this tournament, as well as a silver medal.

Beyond Virginity finished in third place among the 64 alliances that entered the tournament, and will be awarded 20 billion ISK and a bronze medal.

This year's event was the first where players fielded Black Ops battleships and the modular Tech III strategic cruisers, plus there were a number of ludicrously expensive pirate faction battleships blown up in Alliance Tournament VII as well. If you missed the live stream today, anyone interested in watching the recorded matches in high-definition will be able to view them on the CCP Games YouTube page, broken down by qualifier rounds and finals. (We highly recommend watching Laconian Syndicate vs. Important Internet Spaceship League.) EVE's volunteer group Interstellar Correspondents provided detailed analysis of the tournament as it played out, and the performance of the various alliance competitors which is definitely worth seeing for more background on each recorded match.

Massively would like to wish Pandemic Legion congratulations on being crowned EVE Alliance Tournament VII champions, a title no one in the game can touch until next year. In fact, Pandemic Legion is already being recognized by the game's playerbase as being the best.

Beyond the carnage in space, what's also great about the annual EVE Alliance Tournament is the scope of player involvement in the event. It's the players themselves who provide commentary on the matches, so our congratulations also go out to those who volunteered their time to entertain us: Crovan, Kil2, Ryas Nia, TeaDaze, and Trzzbk. We're looking forward to seeing you guys back on EVE TV next year as well.

Thanks of course go out to CCP Games for making the EVE Alliance Tournament happen each year.