My EVE

That was a good listen, that was an interesting discussion on the "e-sport potential" of EVE.

One point Kil2 made that I think was brushed off too quickly was that tournament PVP is very different from actual PVP on Tranquility. Trying to force more of a tournament-style format into an instanced combat archetype suitable for an e-sport match is simply impossible with the current structure of the game.

The annual Alliance Tournament is great because the consequences of loss and victory carry over to the day-to-day gameplay on the TQ server. Motivation for competitors is not to be top-ranked or have the greatest match record, but for bragging rights and financial gain in the "real world" of TQ.

Modifying EVE to make instanced tournament-style PVP possible would both segregate the EVE population and bastardize what EVE is supposed to be by removing combat from the other factors and nuances of the core gameplay - things like scouting, intelligence gathering, chance/happenstance, gate and station mechanics, territory sovereignty, etc.

These are concepts lost to people watching only the Alliance Tournament, or people who would watch such an example of organized/instanced PVP. Now anyone interested by what they see will either join EVE on TQ and likely be offput by gameplay so drastically different from what they were watching, or join up for tournament play exclusively and have no real interaction with the TQ gameworld. For the latter, this means that CCP is now supporting what is actually two separate games and being forced to decide which element they want to support more.

In thinking about it, the only competition I can draw a suitable analogy to which would work within EVE is Bass Fishing. Though I've never actually watched it personally, I believe the competitors start at some dock (In EVE, any particular station) and head out into the water (space) with a set amount of time to catch (blow up) the largest and as many fish (spaceships) possible. Now what makes EVE more exciting than bass fishing is that the fish are allowed to deploy underwater mines and fire torpedos back at the fisherman.

There is no reason this format couldn't work in solo or variously sized fleet configurations. Instead of assigning point values to your teams ship, you assign them to the targets in much the same way battleclinic's killboards currently do.

If someone sat down to work out a viable rule set that does not require a lot of infrastructure/back end to enforce, I think this would be the best solution. Competitors would record their roam in its entirety and be broadcast after the fact to prevent stream sniping, though doing it live would certainly add an interesting element.

With this format, competitors do not even need to be in the same time zone, though timezone will play a factor in available targets and that becomes another element of actual relevance on Tranquility. You could also have a more diluted pool of competitors, so rather than having a "3 vs. 3" or some such traditional setup, everyone involved is competing for the week/month's "Top X-# Person Roam".

I will concede that the idea is not without flaws - as with all things EVE related, the concept can be (and thus would be) exploited through things like "sacrifice alts" for point boosting or "blockade fleets" of people amassed with the sole intent to destroy or otherwise hinder the roaming fleet. Though problematic if not kept in check, these are all factors which again are an inherent element of the game which need to be taken into consideration during actual gameplay.

What it ultimately comes down to is that EVE is not your typical game, and trying to come up with a traditional e-sports competition format