BB40 – For the Empress! For the State! For the Council! For the Free!

Fresh from publishing the community spotlight on the EVE blogosphere and Blog Banters, CCP Phantom has suggested a banter focus on competitive tournaments.

There is no finer spectacle in the universe of EVE Online than the explosive dance of weapon-laden spaceships in combat. The yearly Alliance Tournament is the jewel in EVE Online’s eSports crown and the upcoming New Eden Open should deliver the same gladiatorial entertainment showcase.

Given the scope of the sandbox, what part should eSports play in EVE Online and what other formats could provide internet spaceship entertainment for spectators and participants alike?

I tend not to watch any of the live streams or participate in live events, purely and simply because I live at the opposite end of the clock to GMT. CTAs are a PITA for exactly the same reason. A bit of a shame but there it is.

I do however, watch some of the alliance matches in the days afterwards and marvel at the set ups and flying. Some of the matches that stick in my memory are the hero tanking missile boat that won an unexpected victory a couple of years back, that definitive bombing run from the previous tourney and most of the matches involving Vindicators in the last round… or at least some of them anyways 😛

Oh, I was right about seeing Sleipners and ancillary shield boosters all over the show too 🙂

Ahem. Anyways, they were some tight, tight matches with some seriously HOLY @#$%! moments going on. In fact I’m pretty sure I was yelling transversal! get some transversal!! and reps!!! at the screen a time or three 🙂

OK – so here we go…. Choose a megacorp sponsor and join a team (or one of them). Individual corporations could be set up to do this in a similar fashion to Faction Warfare. Round robin tournaments in to identify the top teams, then a sudden death tourney to identify the top team of respectively the Caldari State, the Amarr Empire, the Gallente and the Minmatar.

Rewards would be in LPs, blue prints, hulls etc etc as appropriate for each series and faction. Then on an annual basis, the big one. The top team of each empire flies against the other, in a brutal, no holds barred slugfest between all four. Winner takes absolutely everything. The gold, the glory, the girls (or boys).

And here’s the kicker – you only fly what your faction makes. Gallente team? Gallente ships, etc etc.

If CCP gets on board with something like this, the rewards as well as the kudos could be astronomical. Did I mention the back stabbing, deal making and breaking, the meta gaming, spais and infiltration? Oh there will be. And it will be AWESOME.

You are fighting for your faction. The status gains and hits ought to be significant, especially if you’re podding other people. Concord would obviously be taking a well earned… donuts? Is that donuts….?

To give you some idea of the thinking behind this, take off your EvE goggles for a moment. Most of us who play the game on a regular basis forget we have a massive database of ships, fittings and tactics in our heads. We tend read and write with all of the implied knowledge that brings.

To an outsider two or four empires warring is easy to understand. Rusty conglomerations of girders lobbing hypersonic projectiles at shiny gold laser-armed space bananas who happen to be firing straight back is also easy to understand.

Back stabbing and skulduggery also a well acknowledged part of the human condition 😉

This could be a real pagent. Something with flair, pomp and circumstance… and it should be relatively easy to market to the uninitiated.

For the capsuleers, well there is of course whatever shiny happens to be part of this, but more to the point it’s a chance to take part in events where your name, either by deeds heroic or done dirt cheap, could resound through New Eden for a long time to come.

And fame (or infamy) is a powerful draw indeed.

Scheme safely,

H

 

P.S Go here for lots more good stuff —-> BB40!