Will the hype train be derailed?

The second New Eden Open finals weekend begins in a few minutes as I type this. Today's a short day, with about three and a half hours of matches. A number of questions remain to be answered:

• Can anyone stop the Hydra Reloaded Warlords of the Deep team?
• Is the WeHURT hype for-real?
• Who's going to fight it out for third place?
• Will CCP Dolan stop watching himself on TV? ;-)

I'm particularly interested to see how WeHURT does today. To date, they've beaten the following teams to get to this winner's bracket final: Team Footwork, Asine Hitama's Team, ISN Incursion Shiny Network, and Kolbasz Inside. I consider that last one to have been their only truly difficult challenge. That said, Warlords has had an almost equally relatively easy run, with only THINGY giving them a run for their money. So today's match will be really interesting.

In terms of pilot skill, I'd say WeHURT has the best pilots. But in terms of teamwork, Warlords far outstrips them. Over time and a number of matches -- in sports, say -- a solid team with great teamwork will overcome an "all-star" team every time. Today, we'll see how well this holds up in EVE. To beat Hydra Reloaded in AT11 took an extraordinary level of endurance, teamwork, and commitment from Pandemic Legion.

I personally feel like in terms of strong teams, Warlords is on top, followed by Kolbasz, and THINGY and WeHURT are tied for third. And Dyslexodus and the others are definitely waiting in the wings if anyone trips. I look forward to seeing how things go!

Finally, one thing about the matches that can't be overlooked: two of the teams today will have to fight up to five matches! That is incredibly tough and it's going to be important to see who can hold up under that much abuse. As I keep saying again and again, teamwork and endurance is going to be hugely important.

As I've said a number of times, Dolan improves every time he does one of these. He's down to only a few distracting tics. But people talking in TV panels are told again and again, "Don't look at the camera, don't look at the monitors." You look at the people that you're talking to. Dolan's fine at the first but simply cannot seem to resist the second. Without that, he's one of the best EVE tournament commentators around.

NEOII Finals weekend! Go!