they have redesigned the moving part on the Alien to include a mount for optics, it ends up being quite high though, not as graceful as the original design.
As far as a comparison, I know I have a perceived bias as I'm sponsored by CZ, but to be honest if I thought that another pistol was worth switching to I'd end my sponsorship and go to that other pistol. Of all the pistols on the market there are now two that I could consider, the Phoenix and the Legion 320. The Phoenix is the nicest piece of machining going on a pistol, save for maybe a SV or a true master made custom pistol, the Shadow 2s I have for match and practice are close, but they aren't necessarily what the average 2 comes out like. The Phoenix shoots quite nice, but unfortunately they didn't have some of the upgrades that I feel are needed, available the last time I was talking to them (European Champs this past September in Serbia), which are flush safeties and slidestop. As well, it would mean all new mags, and holster, definitely not wanting to drop that coin on what in the end, I don't think would affect my times or scores.
Now, the Sig 320 Legion, that tungsten infused monster. It is f&cking impressive. We have two 320s at Abby in our armory a Romeo and an X5, the Romeo is a bunch of meh, but the X5 is quite nice, the grip module being the difference (have an X5 grip or the Romeo, just haven't installed it yet), but the trigger is still nowhere near as nice as my Shadows or Shadow 2s (like 10 of those things now), but the Legion? that is a whole nother story. I've got two students with them and man are they nice. The trigger is totally different from the X5, in a good way, and the weight, my god, for a "plastic" gun it's perfect. The balance of that thing is just stunning. If I was gonna go striker fired for competition that is where I would go, easily the nicest striker fired gun I've ever shot. And that includes shooting Vogel's guns and even Dave's guns when he was still Glock sponsored. And that was with an out of the box set of Legions.
As for the Alien, it's cool as ####, but man, in Serbia I put over a 1000 rounds through one and we had to baby the crap out of that thing to keep it running. It does not like to be dirty, and it gets hot, really hot, which means you have to let it cool down. Now, we were told it was the practice ammo that was the issue for needing to be cleaned so much, but even still, I was shooting the same ammo out of my guns, and had zero issue, same for Angus, Eric, and others that were at Ljub's private training range. We spent 3 days shooting there and farting around with guns (including Angus's A01D with Acro mounted to it) and I was quite happy to be running my 2s in the end.
So, final thoughts? If I was going to switch it would most likely be to the Sig, they have knocked it out of the park with that thing. If other manufacturers were to do the same (if they even can) I'd expect to see some amazing stuff in a Glock format (and no the current Zev is not a contender, it's just a glossed up Glock with a decentish trigger), maybe even out of S&W with their abomination M&P (mine sits in the safe with rust marks on its supposed stainless slide), but I think Sig is going to stay the top dog in the striker market, at least competitively speaking, for quite awhile now.
