I love reading about the AT and the unique ships it injects into Eve. (More importantly the ships.) However, the alliance tournament has always been kind of backwards compared to video game tournaments that have been running for years.
Imagine, American football. I can’t play in the NFL (National Football League - America’s highest viewed football season.), even if I was good enough. I’d have to get recruited into one of the few teams that are already part of the NFL, which won’t happen even if I dedicated my life to it. I’m now too old to even start.
Video games have historically been different. I could just log into world of warcraft and start playing in their arena. My progression is limited only on how well I do. Blizz will hold a cup, I’ll sign up for it and if I do well, I will get an invite to blizzcon, the super bowl of world of warcraft arena.
Beautifully, I could dedicate my life to doing well and compete with the highest standard of players at large events. Alternatively, I could continue being casual, but sign up any ways. Even though I likely wont win, I still participated in the cup! (I’ve done this and it was very fun.)
You can’t really participate in Eve’s alliance tournament at all. It’s never really used it’s video game status to give access to any one who wishes to compete. Not only does this allow me to compete if I want, but it breeds extremely high skill. I’m sure that the counter-strike tournament winners are all better at counter-strike than the NFL players are at football.
Why was the AT set up so backwards? I’f we’re to see a tournament in the future we’d need to set up a way to start a team and use a menu to join a fight queue, complete with MMR, rules, and all. Allow me to participate in the tournament even though my alliance already has a team or simply hasn’t signed up.
You do know that feeder rounds etc are a thing? Just set your own alliance up and give it a go next year (yeah right like either of these is going to happen but you had 15 years to try)
Fro example, last year on Thunderdome (post CCP Logibro) the point totals for ships were not properly updated. For the viewers this only results in incorrect point totals being displayed. But for the match referee he/she has to clear an error for every player on the team using the incorrectly valued ships, one at a time. It’s a huge pita.
When everything is running smoothly the referee can easily scan down and see everything is in order and just hit proceed. When something like point totals are wrong, match prep time takes exponentially longer.
I would also like to point out that the point totals are functionally irrelevant in the current format.
I like the idea of somehow using Abyssal Deadspace as a tournament arena.
3v3, 5v5, 10v10 abyssal arena ladder + yearly finals sounds really awesome! If CCP would add point values to ships and and check the participating teams for fits, implants, comp etc, as you mentioned, we would already have a quite stable environment available for player organized tournaments. Just need spectator tools then and you can delete TD … pls ccp
Wow, I just returned after a long time and was actually really looking forward to watching the AT again this year, however, I can barely move anymyore bc a crust of salt has dried all over me reading some responses in here. Funny how that is, from a community that supposedly creates so much content by itself all the time, by smacking each ozher in teh face. I mean, I get the dis appointment, really. But come on.
I guess you haven’t been back long enough yet for “bitter vet” symptoms to get reasserted.
I’ll add my voice to those that are very disappointed in CCP’s decision not to hold the AT this year. I also share the concerns that the AT will never actually return. This announcement has a lot of the signs of how companies talk about a program or policy they are actually planning to kill off entirely. Companies may differ in various ways, but their lies tend to sound alike.
I think what I have enjoyed the most about the AT is that it is a great format for showcasing the capabilities of different ships in EVE when used by groups of experienced and talented pilots. It can show you what tactics are most effective in different “rock-paper-scissors” matchups for different ship combinations.
The AT may also be the closest thing to a fair fight that many players may ever see in EVE. Most fights in EVE are pretty lopsided affairs, even a lot of 1v1 matchups due to wide variations in ship fits, implants, etc. For those players that may have a strong interest in strategy and tactics, this is a weakness in the game. One can certainly play other games to scratch that itch (which I do sometimes), but it would be interesting to see the kind of combat that might result if CCP introduced various arena-style PVP formats. The Abyssal pockets seem like something that could be repurposed to support that.
I hope that my concerns are misplaced and that CCP actually brings back the AT next year, but I’m not very hopeful of this right now.
I am also personally disappointed in the loss of the AT because it means that we won’t get to see CCP LeggyBro this year. Leggy, some of us miss you in all your many-legged glory. What a pilot you could be if you could fly a ship!
I have had some time to consider this decision not to have the Alliance Tournament this year. I also see the usual comments about “can I have your stuff”
Well no, you cannot. Because I have an awful lot of stuff from investing in this game. Now that I know the company that is charging for this game is no longer interested in investing in it, I am going to continue to enjoy the game for about a year. I am just going to liquidate my stuff to do so, rather than pay any more money into this game.
I figure if it goes as expected I and my accounts will be leaving as there is another game I have my eye on anyway. And then I will know I am not leaving all that stuff behind. If I am wrong, well I can always invest back into the game.
It is just time to step back from this game and see what truly is going to happen.
If this is a matter of prioritization, then we should never have another AT because such a small % of players actively fly in it.
Also it’s a fallacy to say you can’t have it this year because it could/should be better. Could say that literally every year from now until EVE dies… Would it be that much worse than the last one? Why did you not cancel that one?
Your stated reasons will and have been always true, and thus fail to explain why this particular tournament was cancelled. It’s not rocket science…
