Intergalactic Summit

Greetings, capsuleers and tournament enthusiasts!

The thirteenth Alliance Tournament is rapidly approaching, and that means that the Golden Masque is ready to continue the tradition of hosting a viewing party as it has for other capsuleer tournaments over the last several years.

The Alliance Tournament's three weekends of intense small-gang combat begin on the fifteenth of August; with the Golden Masque's central holosphere uniquely designed for events like these, and what could be trillions in prizes on the line, you don't want to miss this event! Bring your corpmates and friends, and grab a table (or two or even more - there's lots of space!) and support your favorite teams as they and their crews compete for fame and glory!

This year, due to what we speculate are budgeting concerns on the part of the Tournament's organizers, the first weekend of matches - the so-called Qualifiers - will not be broadcast to the public. As a result, the viewing party will officially begin on the twenty-second of August. We will, of course, be attempting to find a way to hook into the publicized arena and ship telemetry data to provide something for people to watch the first weekend or during the week leading up to the second weekend, so if you're interested, please feel free to drop in! [Update 117/06/29: The Independent Gaming Commission has reached a deal with the Interstellar Services Department; there will be broadcasts of some form of the first weekend of matches. See my subsequent post for details.]

Some additional details:

Directions:
The Golden Masque is located in the noncapsuleer sections of the CONCORD Bureau station in Yulai, approximately halfway between the capsuleer docking berths and the Interbus transit hubs, just outside the checkpoint to the capsuleer-only areas. For those who are unable to make it to the Golden Masque in person, access to our holopresence system is available upon request. Just connect to the FTL 'channel' The Golden Masque. Doors will be open for the event itself approximately one hour before matches start, but the Golden Masque will be open prior to that for those looking to mingle in relative peace and quiet.

Food, Drink:
As the Golden Masque is not just an event hall but also a restaurant, food and drink will of course be made available to patrons - as usual, at no charge - via the Neocom-compatible interfaces located at each table.

Betting:
The Golden Masque does not provide betting services of its own. However, as with past tournament viewings, a variety of capsuleer-run betting services (including EOH and EVE-Bet) will also be openly accessible through the same table interfaces that food and drink orders can be made through. Feel free to engage in friendly wagers with other patrons as well!

Dress Code:
There is no specific dress code in effect for the duration of the Alliance Tournament beyond "no nudity", so feel free to drop by as dressed up (or down) as you see fit.

Security:
Our security policy is also unchanged from previous events. No weapons or illicit substances are permitted on the premises with the sole exception of authorized station security personnel, and violence will be met with the restraint and likely removal of the offender(s) by station security.

Any questions can be either asked here in this thread, or relayed to me via EVEmail; I will do my best to answer them in a timely fashion.

On behalf of myself, Tyrathlion Interstellar, and those who work at the Golden Masque, we look forward to seeing you there for the Tournament!

Keta Lindur
Executive Manager, Tyrathlion Interstellar

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For those who desire a "tl;dr":
What: Viewing party for the thirteenth Alliance Tournament
When: August 15h, 16th, 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th, from an hour before the broadcast starts (approximately 13:00 NEST) to whenever the broadcast ends (approximately 21:00-22:00 NEST).
Where: The Golden Masque (Holopresence available)
Who: You! And friends and corpmates.
Dress code: No nudity.
Security: No weapons, illicit substances or violence permitted. Offenders will be restrained and removed (if necessary) by station personnel.

I was there last year and the service impressed me. I will certainly drop by if possible.

The Interstellar Services Department has provided information about their broadcasts of the arenas during the first weekend to the general public, so I am in the midst of making sure that the Masque's systems will be set and ready to go.

Because matches will be occurring in two systems simultaneously, it will not be possible to use the primary holoprojection field to display every match. To accomodate, for the first weekend of matches, preference for the primary holoprojection field will be given to matches involving alliances whose members are attending the viewing party. In the event that two simultaneous matches both have representatives at the Masque, one will be selected at random. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience or disappointment this may cause.

We will, however, be making both feeds available to the tables, and you will be able to watch the matches that are not in the primary holoprojection field on your table in front of you, in addition to the usual services available there.

In addition, the Independent Gaming Commission has also made the match schedules available. I have updated the original post with relevant information regarding the timeframe of the party.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Be there folks if you enjoy good commentaries on the various matches, or simply enjoy cheering your teams in good company!

For more info regarding the 13th Alliance Tournament, you can read the article 'The 13th Alliance tournament has kicked off!' that I recently published, cotnaining links to the schedules & broadcast times, also includes a list of the teams & their flagship choices, if they picked one.

With the first weekend of the Alliance Tournament over, we now got a better insight in the teams & who didn't make the cut.

The article I published regarding it can be found here: 13th Alliance Tournament first weekend results

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend of matches between skilled opponents. There's been quite some team collapses, but also teams that fought with the full brunt of their capacities to achieve victory.
Among the eliminated teams, there aren't any outstanding surprises, all teams that did good in previous Alliance Tournaments are still in the competition.

Less nice were of course the two rule violations. One was understandable, the other less so. Alliance Tournament management looked into both cases & handed out the rulings. I provided links to both cases in the article.

In the end, lets not sour the Tournament by these two cases, as almost all teams did play it fair! Looking forward to what next weekend will bring!

The doors at the Golden Masque are open for day four of the thirteenth Alliance Tournament! Come on over soon if you want to get a good seat!

The Independent Gaming Commission's broadcast will begin in about forty-five minutes, and the first matches for day four will begin fifteen minutes afterward. Up to sixteen teams could be heading home today!

Finals weekend is upon us!

Sixteen teams remain, but only four will still be standing at the end of today's matches, so come cheer on your favorites at the Golden Masque with everyone else!

The doors are open and tables are starting to be taken, so head on down if you're looking to get a good seat to view the action!