EVE player run lottery offers some of game's rarest ships

One of the things we really like about EVE Online is how the sandbox encourages all manner of player-run services and ventures. Sure, some of them can be risky, but others have been quite successful. A few of these projects are starting to become a mainstay of the game and some players have really made a name for themselves by establishing such ventures. A good example of this is EVE Online player T'Amber who is known for running lotteries. Big lotteries. The current (and fourth) "Ships of EVE" lottery that T'Amber is running is no exception and has tons of prizes, including some very rare ships in the game. Ticket prices are reasonable at 10 million ISK each, particularly in light of what can be won.

1st place is a whopping 228 ship collector's fleet, featuring one of virtually every Tech I, Tech II, and Tech III ship across the game's four races, along with their faction variants (including the pirate faction ships). The collective value of this prize fleet is many billions of ISK. Just as appealing to some players as winning first prize in this lottery is coming in second -- and getting a "Mimir". Blueprints for these rare cruisers were only given to members of Pandemic Legion for winning EVE Alliance Tournament VII this past September. Indeed, the "VII" is emblazoned on the ship's hull, commemorating the tournament victory. There are very few Mimirs in the game and Ships of EVE 4 might be the only chance most players will have of obtaining one.

There's more to win beyond the ship collector's fleet and the Mimir; Ships of EVE 4 has 23 prize levels in total, including faction battleships with full Officer module fittings and various faction-fit ships. New Eden trillionaire F90OEX is acting as a third-party guarantor for the contest -- the prizes are in his possession as with the three previous Ships of EVE contests and he will be drawing the winning tickets, logged at the 3rd party site InvisibleCastle.

Entering Ships of EVE 4 is easy. Players transfer 10 million ISK to T'Amber in-game, with "SOE4" as the reason for the player donation. T'Amber also has a page set up where players can verify that their ticket purchase has been processed and they're in the running.

There's still plenty of time to enter and the final drawing will be held on Saturday, January 23rd. As a bonus, if ticket sales exceed 15,000, a Guardian-Vexor will be included among the prizes. These ships, like the Mimir, are rarities in New Eden and can fetch contract prices of 15 billion ISK or more.

For those who want to get their hands on a Mimir but don't want to leave it up to chance, T'Amber is also running a "Domination Tournament" -- an organized Tech 1 frigate tournament where New Eden's capsuleers can fight it out over the next few weeks. The tournament winner will be awarded one of the coveted Mimir cruisers. (Ships of EVE 4 actually secured two of these rare ships, one for the ticket drawing and another for the frigate tournament).

You can check out the full details of Ships of EVE 4 on the official game forums or on T'Amber's site.