EVE Alliance Tournament Discussion

I am a bit disappointed. As far as I can remember, AT9 has already got a lot of critics for being sized for 64 teams only and a couple of famous alliances were missing from the tournament while some noname alliances got in. I was kinda hoping that the organizers learned from this mistake and changed the format somehow to allow more teams to compete. I understand that increasing the team count also increases the number of matches to be played during qualification which increases the effort required by CCP to organize it, but it is not impossible to create a 128-team version of the tourney without doubling the number of matches needed.

The main problem is with the auction and random draw imo.

With no reserved slots, any team that wants to be guaranteed in the tournament will have to buy a slot in the auctions. This year all the top teams will be bidding so if there are limited auctions slots, no matter the isk cost, some good alliances who take the tournament seriously are going to have to rely on the random draw.

And because the random draw is well.... random, there will be the case again of good, entertaining teams not getting in, whilst terrible, unprepared teams that may or may not even bother to turn up for their matches get a spot. Much like what happened last year.

I hope whoever is organising the tournament realises this and makes sure there are enough slots up for auction so that all the serious teams can get a guaranteed place.

Why don't we wait till after this tournament to decide wether they learned from their mistakes. There's not all that much they can change for this year, as everything has been announced. Still comments after the tournament can help them improve next year.

It would be most excellent to give every team that signs up a chance. Offering the buyouts and not a pure draw is just a way to pacify the very loud teams that have enough ISK to buy their way in anyway.

I would definately be in favor of a format that allows all signups to get into the initial matches.

Thanx for the response, awaiting with hope :)

Ah, yes. So if Darkside doesn't make it in the draw we can only really blame ourselves? We're not a sov-holding alliance with billions of moon ISK, and we didn't get 50 frigs/cruisers worth tens of billions each. We can't afford the auction.

From my point of view increasing the number of participants is positive in almost every regard.

Implementation details may vary but the bottom line is 64 slots seems a bit thin.

Is it though? 128 teams would create potential for many boring/garbage matches to sit through. I am assuming it would be done without doubling number of matches of course... but either way.

Can this event support 128 teams and still stay interesting enough to be a part of? Regardless of involvement (player, producer, designer, janitor, fan, forum whore) once you get into 100+ participants it has to be at least as interesting as NCAA or people will stop attending in all areas.

Maybe EVE is now large enough to just go all out and still have a worthwhile annual event. Everybody gets a shot but most get knocked out first round.

IF that is true then I will revisit my view on the entire tournament. Although I agree there has to be a limit to resources input and being able to manage it. Perhaps we are at that limit all ready.

This is exactly the problem. Some scrub 0.0 renter alliance that thinks 'pvp' is a 500man gang with supercap support in a time dilated system gets spacerich of moons they are "allowed" by daddy blue blob, enters competition, and gets knocked out by one of the big 4 after being terible on live TV. CCP get their spectacle, they get the big name Alliances in the final 4, they get to promote their game.

Small alliances that think PVP is about a 5-10 dudes who can actually fly getting into fights get the middle finger from CCP because "it's only 5-10bil to get in" and if you don't have that lying about you are a not worth the air time. Getting money out of your alliance for ships to fly in the tournament is one thing, but asking people to pony up billions so CCP can accumulate Real Life Money to promote their own game stinks.

This isn't a PvP tournament, this is a "Who has accumulated the most ISK" tournament.

Or as Monty Python puts it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnzFx7-5hhY#t=3m30s

I don't understand what people want here. I keep hearing that people want there too be no team limit, and then other people think the signup prices is too high. You know who would sign up for a tournament that costs nothing, has unlimited slots, and gives you an opportunity to win more isk than you will ever need?

Everyone.

Everyone would sign up. You'd have devs working this thing for months every weekend, and you'd have the same small teams that "can't pay such a hefty fee" literally running out of money in lost ships over rounds upon rounds of prelim matches.

Even MLG (A company who only does E-Sports) at Winter Championship only seeds about 200 teams in H:R, and this was one of their premiere events. Plus, they charge 70 bucks A HEAD for their big games if you want to compete.

Anybody who really thinks they have a shot at winning can absolutely get into this tournament if they want too. You stand to win like 4 trillion isk worth of ships if you take first, i think you can front up a a few days worth of 10 people running missions.