EVE Alliance Tournament Discussion

It's going to be a little different this year.

The first weekend (which in the previous tournaments was the first two weekends, just put together) will not be broadcast.

The second and third weekends will have a full studio broadcast as per the finals weekends in previous tournaments.

Even if not broadcast can you seriously still record the fights and stream - its why we compete. Also great for debreifing purposes and fun to watch how badly you sucked during a tournament.

I agree with this. Each year after every AT, new alliances are dedicated to getting their name out there, and train up for the following AT. I can guarantee those building up for this one will be gutted.

I seem tobhave missed the reasoning behind why this change is happening. Why is it this way this year please?

Very disappointing. In other words, AT XIII will be a twoo weekend event involving just 32 teams. Because that is the practical impact of no coverage.

I don't know much about where the stresses come from in hosting the alliance tournament, but I wanted to throw this idea out there. Because, as many other players, I feel that it's important that there be a commentary and video broadcast of each match.

So, the initial weeks matches aren't being live broadcasted because it's too much work to do four weekends in a row of broadcasting and it's impossible to fit so many matches into one weekend of live broadcasting without running multiple matches simultaneously. I propose that you record them separately as the matches occur simultaneously. Either have commentators watch each match live (Which would require more commentators), or have the commentators watch the recordings (Without being privy to the results, of course) after the matches have finished. Then, post the recorded matches, with commentary, to YouTube.

This allows players to get a similar experience to the live broadcast without CCP actually having to broadcast the matches live. The work may not be less in amount, but CCP wouldn't be required to do it all in one stretch and the work could be strung out over more hours and even more days if needed. Personally, I'd much prefer having the match recordings shown a couple days late than to not have them at all.

I must admit I'm finding the switch back to three weekends to be somewhat ironic and amusing :)

ATX was four weekends.

ATXI was moved back to three weekends, due to (what I understand) it being too much work for people to spend their entire weekends on the tourney while also working regular jobs for four weekends in a row

ATXII was moved back out to four weekends, because (as stated on forums somewhere) it was too exhausting running 64 matches each day over two days of the first weekend; each day was extremely long for everyone involved.

Now, ATXIII is moving back to three weekends, because spreading it over four weeks is too much but to reduce how long a day it is, matches apparently will be run two at a time.

As to streaming the first weekend, please, reconsider and stream it. So much of what makes the Alliance Tournament such a joy to watch (and be in) is that first weekend! It's where the meta works itself out, where the hysterically funny matches are most commonly seen, the biggest mistakes, upsets, WTF moments, and, of course, just fail fights, happen.

You don't need to set up official commentators if you don't want, it can be just as simple as a single camera character AFK at the center of the arena, set up with as good a view of the entire arena as possible, tactical overlay in the corner like usual, and the usual bottom third showing names/ship types/etc. Obviously, there'd likely have to be two streams, since you'll have two arenas running concurrently.

Players can just watch it without commentary, or, as I imagine if you made something like this available would happen, some players would set up Teamspeak/Mumble channels for people to join and commentate and discuss what they are watching as it happens.

Heck, you could even set it up so that whoever the official player commentators are stream and commentate the first weekend from their homes, giving them invaluable "practice" for the "real thing" of the last two weekends.

At a minimum, please record and make available the fights ASAP. Viewing the fights through CREST is helpful, but it's not the same thing, not at all.

The decision to NOT broadcast the first weekend is indeed a step backwards imo. Imagine the first third of the Olympics with an empty stadium and not broadcasted on TV. The point of the AT is entertainment and for the competitors to show off their skills to the general public.
No one likes performing to an empty audience. Imagine fanfest with the first day of presentations performed behind closed doors and all we get is a devblog. It's the same thing.

So "quality" or not, I would still take the cut in webcam+mic of a commentator as opposed to none at all.

I don't get why you would even bother with the first 2 weekends if you aren't going to stream, far more people watch the tournament than enter. Even if you can't muster together a single commentator you could still stream the match / upload to YouTube. Put out a shout to the community and you will get help. Even if you don't steam live you can still cobble together some commentary after the match.... not as much fun but better than nothing.

Get some support from pilots who already stream / play Eve.

Should be able to spectate through the ingame client somehow, would probably be easy to implement and wouldn't cause any extra effort for CCP on the first weekend.