Never understood what made CCP change its mind on lower popular activities like the old arena. In the past it used to be kept in the game, just like the FOBs etc.
In other words: Bring the old arena back!
Every month, like clockwork, the same person bumps this post to keep it from being closed.
I understand you want the proving grounds back. They arenât coming back.
cough but what if they maybe come back? I want it back.
There will be another event to celebrate 2 years request: [Summer 2022 event] Celebrating 2 years request to bring back old arena - 180B in prizes! (July 14 - August 14)
I know its been 2 years, many players havenât played in the times the old arena was a thing.
This VOD from yesterdayâs memorial stream gives you some insight: Twitch
The link does not work 
It says that you need a timemachine or something 
Ohh I see, VODâs get deleted on Twitch after 2 weeks, so I made this: Eve Online What was the old arena like? - YouTube
I do not really know what the old arena was like (never participated in it), but I do support those that want it back. It sounds like good content and EVE needs more content right now.
Unfortunately, there is a nerf coming to abyssals, affecting the places where you can run them. I have no idea if restrictions on that were already in place during the time the old arena existed, but it used to give a suspect flag when exiting a high tier abyssal in hi sec in the early days of abyssals.
If CCP wants to add PVP risk to abyssals, the 2nd gate with a small chance to take it accidentally could be seen as PVP risk?
Its not guaranteed ship loss and you can reduce/eliminate that risk by taking precautions, in that case not playing half AFK and keeping an eye where you click etc.
2 years passed since I opened this thread, and it still gets a little bit of attention (even though a few post might have been made by one person using alts, but I appreciate the support).
I think only the request for the lowsec gate to Stain lasted longer so far (correct me if I am wrong).
The problem was that it was a solved format, you either do the meta thing or you die.
and solution to it was the ikkitursa with a full ass clap pod â it would only die in a mirror match.
And the people with empty pods or using t1 ships were free kills, and the people with the solved solution would just farm it uncontested to the point where everybody else stopped â as it was certain death for p
The current arena abyssals that have pod and ship limitations are the v2 of this, but the player base that does them is generally fairly small, and similar problems arise â from the low participation, to the format being solved (though the variations in ships, 2v2, 3v3, 3-5 person FFA, etc. helps a lot with this!)
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I can confirm that a lot of the current formats are like this. A good example was the crimson frigate FFA, where the Kestrel and Tristan were dominant ships. This was the case in all past frig FFAâs.
Another example: Battleship 1v1, the Hyperion and turtle Praxis always seem to be dominant in these formats, regardless of the restrictions.
I mean, there is simply nothing you can do against a solved meta in arenas, unless you change the stats of a ship, which also affects its usage outside the abyss/arenas.
In the old arena, there were 3-4 strong ships, but there was a variety of different fits on them. For example the Cerberus, there was a propless RLML fit, a propless HAM fit and many more different fits, from very cheap ones to super blingy ones. As I said in my thread in the features and ideas discussion, the âsolved metaâ is not a design issue, its a ship balance issue. However, it would take me wonder what effect the upcoming HAC changes would have had on the old arena, it would have taken out the RLML cerb, but the Muninn as a missile boat could have been a stong option. Or you could also check out what ships are beeing used to run abyssal sites, the majority is done in a Gila, thats because it is easy to use and strong.
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An idea came to my mind: What if the old arena could be used to wait out your suspect timer after completing a high tier abyssal in a .8 system?
Also, it seems that the popularity of FFA events is decreasing dramatically. The latest Prophency (Turkey) FFA had extremely low participation rates. More than half of the leaderboard had 0 wins. In last years Turkey FFA arena this was different, queues were rarely longer than 3 minutes and a variety of ppl was doing it. This year only like 10 ppl did it actively, the rest only did a few matches and gave up. The Foundation day Amarr frig FFA sometimes had 10 min+ queue times, and that in the cheapest possible format you can do (T1 frigs with meta 0 modules).
One of the arguments that lead to the removeal of the old arena was low participation, but when I look at the latest FFA and 2v2 arenas, it seems like this is no longer a vaild reason. Only 1v1 arenas are massively more popular. (Sure there are more ppl doing the FFA/2v2 than the old arena, but you have to look at those that do them consistently across the weekend, you may come to numbers close to, or even below the old arena, that was the case during the Navy Frig 2v2 at Fanfest).
From what I heard, the old arena was some niche content and unique. So is the new version with the events and filaments. Only a handfull of people enjoy these events mostly, especially 2v2 and FFA.
If it was up to me, I would bring the old arena back. I donât think having both will reduce activity in the proving ground events at all.
If we get any PG events at allâŚ
No new events up on SISI, no announcements from CCP. I wonder how that ârestuffingâ takes until we get more events
Well seems like we got a little bit of an answer here regarding the events (not returning the old arena): Twitch
Removing content without any proper communication is bad, either continue the events or return the old arena.
Also that link is dead
Its been 4 months+ since the last event, still no news regarding the PG
seems like I have to prepare the 3 year request event without arenas this year
The Summer event is back this year, celebrating 3 years request to bring back the old arena!
[Summer 2023 event] Celebrating 3 years request to bring back old arena - 150B+ in prizes (July 8 - August 6) - Events / In Game Events - EVE Online Forums
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After over 3 years of non stop requesting it, it is time that it gets done, vote the old arena in September!