New Eden Open: Day 2 Matches 14-15

ISN – Incursion Shiny Network vs. EFS

The third match of day two was also a must-win for both competitors. ISN brought a fairly routine setup with two Vargur battleships supported by a logistics ship and five frigates, EFS had made the unusual choice of only seven ships, with two Navy Megathrons and a Kronos along with frigate and destroyer support.

In the initial exchange EFS lost their one destroyer and a Griffin ECM frigate without reply. However, shortly after EFS managed to engage a Vargur at close range with their battleships and destroyed it quickly in exchange for a tackling Enyo frigate. The last of EFS‘ frigates died as the second ISN Vargur came under heavy fire. Despite only having three ships remaining to ISN‘s seven, the points were in favour of EFS by virtue of destroying a costly battleship. EFS maintained the pressure with a Navy Megathron clinging to life as it took part in the destruction of ISN‘s second Vargur.

The points now heavily in EFS‘ favour at 13-35 with 5 minutes remaining, ISN desperately needed a kill, but they’d lost both high-damage Vargurs and only had small frigates to take on the surviving heavily-armoured EFS battleships. A brave but futile charge from the ISN frigates resulted in a Hawk loss, compounding their woes. The remaining frigates desperately peppered a wounded Navy Megathron, but to no avail. The match was taken by EFS.

RESULT: ISN – Incursion Shiny Network (out) 13 – 52 EFS

Guiding Hand Social Club vs. Last Huzzah

The Guiding Hand Social Club is the stuff of EVE legend, having hit mainstream media news some years ago for the now infamous heist of in-game assets valued at thousands of real world dollars. Their pilots are clever, experienced and had the advantage of a bye in the tournament, so nobody had seen them perform. They brought a bold but fragile electronic warfare fleet protected by two Sleipnir command ships and a Cyclone battlecruiser. Last Huzzah had won their previous match and had no real disadvantage in terms of knock-out fear. They fielded a fleet comprising two Vargur battleships with logistics and frigate support.

First blood went to Last Huzzah as the killed both GHSC Sabres, removing the ability for GHSC to deal effectively with incoming frigates, although Last Huzzah lost a Hawk assault frigate in the exchange. Last Huzzah‘s offence continued, destroying a Cyclone battlecruiser then chewing through GHSC‘s entire Blackbird ECM cruiser wing. With only two Sleipnirs remaining to face down an almost complete Last Huzzah team, Guiding Hand Social Club were powerless. Last Huzzah had been rewarded for keeping it simple and won the match convincingly, showing a bit of swagger as they toyed with the last enemy ship to buy time to loot the field for valuable wrecks.

RESULT: Last Huzzah 70 – 4 Guiding Hand Social Club