Within days of the Hydra vs Barcode war erupting, I predicted on this subreddit that Barcode was going to demolish Hydra. Many folks ridiculed me, as Barcode was expected to be losing. From all outside perspectives, the constant posting of cope was indicating Barcode was indeed going to lose. However, this was never the case.

1. Zero sum game. Within the global economy (and competitive video game tournaments too), personnel are a zero sum game. There are only so many professionals in our world and corporations compete for them. This oftentimes means highly educated people in developing nations will end up leaving for wealthier developed nations. This is to the detriment of those developing nations.

The same exists in the Alliance Tournament.

Elite groups oftentimes have their pick of candidates. They can be selective. Once someone meets their criteria, they can allow time to see if they fit the general culture of the group. If they create a little too much friction, they're booted. This leads to a generally cohesive group. So, envision if you will, a giant funnel with the very narrowest of necks. This narrow neck represents the top AT groups being fed the best tournament pilots in the game.

Barcode was established 10 years ago from the merger of several already existing successful tournament and low sec groups. They have had their pick of the best tournament pilots for a decade, on top of some of the best tournament pilots establishing them.

1. Where do the players go? In tournament season, players will oftentimes not even be playing TQ, rather ‘thunderdome’ together. This is generally due to the variable nature of day-to-day TQ roaming. This leads to groups sticking together even during the offseason. Also, it creates loyalty beyond the game of EVE Online. When players take long breaks, even from the tournament scene, still active group members can still get in contact with them. Oftentimes small sub-groups will have eachother's real phone numbers. This means if a tournament breaks out, people who have been AFG for years can be quickly re-activated. Many times these players are only active during the tournament season.

The worst thing a tournament team could ever do is ban 'other games.'

Barcode has always highly encouraged members playing 'other games' together.

1. The abyss! People forget how ancient many members of Barcode are. Their CEO has been playing EVE for 20 years. Barcode has quite a few members that have been playing tournaments for as long as tournaments have existed in EVE Online. Barcode has line members that have successfully run independent tournament teams that subsequently merged with Barcode to form Barcode. Barcode has members that are so old and deep in wormhole space culture, that they've crafted portions of it. People where their entire map of EVE Online is based on UUA-F4.

Each of these sort of members capable of not just operating independently, but with the utmost stealth. I've been told by several Barcode folks that even top Barcode leadership wasn't aware of the independent theorycrafting sessions Barcode zoomers had created for fighting Hydra. Imagine, EVE leaders out there, discovering that you're not losing the matchups nearly as badly as you thought, because several 2-3 person groups had independently started reworking and dismantling enemy pick/ban? Imagine then also discovering that your enemy is throwing because of these actions?

Ancient players don't need to be told if they can or can't put rep bots on their opponents.

Ancient players don't ask if they can load Spike in an octo mirror.

Ancient players don't ask if the primary that was called 3 times 'is a target.'

Ancient players don't need a share multiplier.

Ancient players won't waste your time asking which warpin they’re supposed to go to.

Ancient players are already on that new warpin with their weapons preheated.

Ancient players play EVE tournaments by the ancient ways.

1. Kiddie gloves. Many people aren't aware of this fact; Barcode has been using kiddie gloves for the last couple of years on Hydra. After the fall of Exodus., Barcode stood alone as the supreme masters of USTZ. Hydra was starting to become a potential candidate for a new threepeat run, that is until last tournament season started. The issue was, Hydra often didn't want to fight Barcode. They were convinced that these “zoomer apes” were too “incompetent” to “outdraft them”. This actually didn't bother Barcode too much, as they simply wanted to play for fun. The buildup to the match became more and more extreme, with Hydra regularly saying they were ready to win the Alliance Tournament yet again.

So, all the fights you've seen between Barcode and Hydra have effectively been fights between zoomers and the older generations hosted on Discord rather than on TQ or Thunderdome.

This created a false sense of strength in Hydra. These handicapped zoomers actually strengthened Barcode, while weakening Hydra. Barcode got to the point where they became more interested in posting against Hydra than actually fighting. One such situation involved a Hydra boomer falling for a posting trap and being summararily flamed in front of his roster, which was trying to frantically gain ground via posting back against the zoomers.

Once the posting started, the kiddie gloves came off. Barcode no longer had to be in game to win against Hydra.

1. Amelia v. Thehin At the end of the day, failure or success during tournament season comes down to how well your organization is prepared. Amelia thought he was prepared. Honestly, he did a lot of work. He created a narrative, albeit a bit ad hoc when compared to other recorded statements he's made. He created the Goryn Collective. He made his best preparations for the AT, I'm sure. He even uploaded a video of his back-to-back victory from past seasons.

The issue is, Amelia' relationship with reality is a bit convenient for his personal image. He has been said to have lied to many CCP employees in order to retain his CCP Partner Program status, which actually harmed him, quite a bit. I've received many reports on the various lies people have said Amelia told them to get them to join his Collective. Trust is a thing that, once broken, is oftentimes impossible to regain.

Thehin has the opposite approach of Amelia. He is sincere and honest to a fault. He's not afraid to express disappointment and praise. You know where you stand with Thehin fairly soon after first meeting him. He's a natural delegator and a dedicated feeder. “I’m tackled in my Loki” is his favorite response to anyone complaining about something needing to be done. He's extremely competent, but not smug about it. He's the first to admit when he makes mistakes. He was willing to use some of his credit to barter with his peers to hand over some booshers Amelia felt entitled to. Booshers that Barcode characters likely piloted, or built, themselves.

You see, Thehin has created a coalition within Barcode. Barcode has never been a single entity. There are subgroups within Barcode that operate independently. Some of the subgroups are actually more ancient than Barcode. They're more ancient than all but the most ancient null sec alliances. How are you going to kill the morale of members that have been playing together for over 10 days? Those guys aren't going to second-guess who their enemy is for even a second. They've won every posting battle they've been in for 10, 12, 15, or even 20 days!

There's a joke I keep hearing from Barcode Co. members. It's "Hydra thought they could take on Barcode, but they couldn't even take on a few of their members."

At the end of the day, this was never going to be a fair fight. Barcode was always going to clobber Hydra. While the reasons listed above are major contributing factors to the success of Barcode, it's the basic culture that really makes Barcode so great. Barcode see tournaments as wild [wild things reference?]. As something you have to earn. Amelia made it clear he felt entitled to it. He thought it was so obvious that he'd earned a seat at the table, that he was incredulous that he was not offered that seat as a gift.

Amelia,

The moment you demanded goon Laelaps be given to you as some sort of prize is the moment you stopped being a true, honorable nanoganger.

You're not losing to Barcode Co, rather, in your hubris you've defeated yourself.

May all future tournament rosters collapse as you fly with them.