If you self-pod to manipulate alignment, that counts as a death when pods are counted.

Not a problem, I was just asking for clarification.

The alignment issue is an inherent flaw within the game, .e.g., a blue team with just a moderate positive alignment can easily wreck another blue team just by gridding, as can a red team do the same to another red team (e.g., recently I attempted to red cash in a game the other day, though could not, as within about 15-minutes later my alignment flipped to +46K just by PPT.) And for further example, there is no penalties when a corp uses personal fighters to flip a teammate or to up their alignment for gridding to accomplish the above.

When I first came back, it took a while to get used to how easy it is to manipulate alignment in TWGS today. No one today that I know of in competitive games runs just a blue or just a red team. Most if not all are a combination and it changes as circumstances change. I like to say I play "purple".

It's not a flaw, it's part of the strategy. Just because you don't understand it and/or suck at it, doesn't make it a flaw.