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Since this tournament is based on teams not alliances the concept of alliance B teams doesn't really apply. We expect that for the first couple times many teams will be from specific alliances but hopefully teams will start developing identities of their own eventually.

There is no restriction against an alliance, corp or any other benefactor sponsoring multiple teams as long as those teams are distinct and are working for their own victory.

As in all previous eve tournaments, the tournament team completely reserves the right to do whatever is needed to ensure that the matches are competitive.

This is generally called a corporation in EVE, a guild in other MMOs, and so on, since that is the metric by which identity is formed.

Sure, the occassional lone wolf from the group is out there roaming... but this is a matter of identity...

Point being, I don't see why you'd want to see many cross-corporate/alliance teams in the tournament. It's mostly irrelevant. The only relevance to lifting the restriction is to allow corporations+alliances to field more than one team, since that is the metric with which we identify groups of people in EVE.

As you go, It will never matter that "Team Indigo Slap Face" won the tournament. It will matter that 5 goonz, a PL dude, and 3 random dudes from an alt corp guys won the tournament. And that's all people will ever see. The only way a Team will ever get a true identity as you want is to form a separate corp/alliance and do so. Which eventually means if this takes off you will have tournament corps out there.

In tears?

I'm gonna be cautiously optimistic this time, even though it sometimes feels like CCP are preaching sportsmanship and stroking the player with one hand, while slapping him with the other. This is a highly subjective opinion though, I may be somewhat biased by bittervet syndrome.

I'm concerned about how this will go down in mainstream gaming media though. I can certainly see some harmful headlines, especially from those who aren't fully aware of how the PLEX system works. Judging by the comments (or lack thereof) by the CSM, I assume they were sidelined and as surprised as the rest of us by this announcement. They may not be the best to consult on esports matters, but they have easy access to those of us who have been involved and have been following the esports scene for a long time.

A few words for Bro and Fozzie specifically (and the other who organize this). I hope there is a future for this. I would strongly urge you to limit participation to one character pr person. I want to see Kil2, Garmon, Prom (their actual names, not alts) and all these guys we already know from media productions, compete with eachother. It's the storylines we need to create for this thing to explode. Nobody would watch the UFC if Joe Blows were fighting Dim Sums every time. It's the Anderson Silvas and the Randy Cotoures who makes it interesting. It's the Brazillian Top Team vs Chute Box rivalries that engage us so deeply. We need our own Nadas and Boxers and Nesteas to emerge. We need our own Clan 9 vs Death Row, or fnatic vs SK Gaming rivalries to get the blood boiling and the stakes raised.

You need to focus on the Teams and the names, they need to create the brand. We need to be able to recognize and pick out those we know to be good pvp'ers, so we can cheer for them, worship or hate them. If we can't easily recognize who are fighting, we don't have a stake in the outcome of the fight, and the result won't matter. It won't draw us back another time. After this initial round, you need to look to preserve the "teambrands" or at least encourage them to "bring it" to the next tourney. This could be done by invites for example. Maybe the top 8 teams will be invited back to the next tournament, provided they keep roster changes limited and such.

I would also suggest to try to reach out to people who truely know what this is all about. The likes of Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham, Rod "Slasher" Breslau and so forth. They are contractbound by other companies to some extents, but that probably don't prevent anyone from reaching out informally. Talk to maybe MLG management. A lot of those guys are passionate about what they do, and I would imagine guys like Sundance DiGiovanni could give excellent advices about the most important things to look out for.

We can't just go ahead in the usual way of "This is Eve Online. We do it our own way, we don't care bla bla bla". We need to pay attention to mainstream gaming media coverage, stream numbers etc, because that is what will bring the external sponsors like Razer, MSI, TT and others. And those are the companies one would like to attract to an E-Sport.

Good Luck. And may the best team win!

Oki I think I see what you mean, thank you. Also good idea with the bans imho it makes for a lot of interesting strategy / meta.

I wonder if running some "regional" tournaments to qualify for entry into the big tournament might work as a mechanism to get the smaller corps and less-wealthy players into the matches.

Most sporting events work that way: you have qualifying matches at the local and regional level to qualify for the big tournament. It's an organizational hassle for CCP, I guess, but then again there's no reason that CCP itself has to coordinate all this: player councils could handle running the regional tourneys. Using this model, any level of team could get to the tourney if they won the local and regional matches.

it will be nice to see the stream live into our desk officier on our big hd flat tv !!!

and

This made me and at the same time. A $360 - 400 floor (20x PLEX) is an interesting way to open the bidding. Larger groups of non-alliance players should be able to come up with the scratch to submit teams.

But this bidding method still favors those with the mega-deep pockets and the egos to match, i.e., tech-fueled alliance space jockeys.

Alternatively, why not have a team lottery (transparently managed) with the same participation restrictions? This certainly would make team involvement more equitable.

If concerned about the sincerity of the teams vying for competition, then host preliminary tournaments to weed out those who are simply looking to troll the event and your company.

$9600 Assuming that the auction bids go no higher than the price of entry.

I'm counting the posts until a CCP employee or surrogate 'cries poor' and bemoans the incredible financial burden this tournament will place on their organization.

I really don't see what the big fuss is about CCP charging plex for entry like this.

Firstly this is the first ever tournament. If they find what is being charged etc isn't providing the correct results, it will change. It's all experimental (like the best college years) and therefore the best thing for everyone to do is just run with it and see what happens.

Secondly if CCP are trying to make this the "Premier League" of EVE (or the "Major Leagues" or whatever) PvP tournaments then it kind of makes sense to cost a lot to enter. EVE players has constantly proven to be more then capable of creating organisations and social structures where none exist. How long before someone figures out that if they get sponsored by say... Somer Blink for 8 Plex and they call their Team "The Somer Blink Giants" and agree to mention them in any posts/interviews etc that it's already reduced the rest of the Plex they need to raise? Not saying Somer Blink are interested in sponsoring anyone but you get the point.

Thirdly, you think anyone runs a tournament out of charity and good will? It's a sodding company! The Olympics is, on the face of it, run as a charity but even then there's a lot of money thrown in from Sponsors and then the host nation pays a hell of a lot of money to host it.