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CCP Games selects player commentators for EVE Alliance Tournament VII
CCP Games holds an annual EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament where player organizations face off against one another, live, in a spectacle of explosions, cunning tactics, ... and occasionally betrayal. This year's Alliance PvP Tournament will mark the seventh annual event. CCP Games likes to get the players involved in ways beyond being tournament competitors, which is good news for the gamers themselves. Rather than having the developers comment with the play-by-play action, we've mentioned that CCP put out a call to the players, seeking PvP experts to be commentators. The final choices have been made and CCP announced the names of this year's Alliance Tournament commentators today, and it's clearly an accomplished roster of players. Crovan (Dark-Rising), of The Drone Bay podcast fame, will be back again this year. As will Kil2 (coracao ardente), who did a great job last year, and who many players will know from the PvP videos he's released. Verone, arguably EVE's most well-known pirate, will apparently be enjoying the tournament as a viewer rather than commentator this year, but his Veto corpmate Ryas Nia will be on hand at Alliance Tournament VII. Ryas will be joined by two new commentators this year: TeaDaze from Agony Unleashed (a PvP training school in EVE) and Trzzbk from GoonFleet. This looks like a great lineup of players chosen to speak during the matches. EVE Alliance Tournament VII will begin in early September, and will run for three weekends, culminating in the live video broadcast of the finals from Reykjavik.
EVE podcast The Drone Bay returns
We mentioned the EVE Online podcast The Drone Bay last week, which broke radio silence after some months with an exclusive on the upcoming Fanfest PvP tournament. We thought it might have been a one-off release in connection with the player gathering, but it seems The Drone Bay has returned now, with all three hosts back on the podcast. For those who haven't listened to The Drone Bay, it's hosted by players from different walks of life in EVE. Crovan is known to many players for his PvP-centric mercenary gameplay, plus he's really good at this whole 'public speaking thing', good enough to commentate during last year's live broadcast of the EVE Alliance PvP Tournament. Then there's CrazyKinux, who's into more industry-related pursuits in EVE and has a broad knowledge of the game. The trio is rounded out by Alsedrech, who's not quite a noob anymore, but whose focus will still be helping newer players with learning the ropes of the game. The show has a good mix of commentary on happenings in New Eden and tips for new players looking to get into EVE Online.A few of us at Massively are huge fans of the podcast and we're hoping there'll be plenty more of The Drone Bay in the future. Like our own podcast Massively Speaking,The Drone Bay is part of the VirginWorlds collective. If you're curious about checking this one out, head on over to The Drone Bay site.
EVE Fanfest PvP tournament to have free-for-all and Tech III matches
The Drone Bay podcast returned recently with an EVE Online Fanfest preview. The podcast's hosts Crovan and Alsedrech got air time with EVE developers CCP Tyr and CCP Claw, as well as StevieSG from EVE TV. In addition to dropping more info about the sixth annual Fanfest and some of the options players will have for excursions in Iceland beyond the player gathering itself (which will be October 1 - 3), they discuss the Fanfest PvP tournament. The Fanfest PvP tournament is a major draw to the event. The Fanfest tournament differs from the Alliance PvP Tournament (which will be held earlier in the year, in September) in some noticeable ways. Where the Alliance tournament is taken very seriously by most competitors who spend weeks in preparation -- after all, a substantial part of the game's playerbase are watching or listening to the event live -- the Fanfest PvP tournament is meant to allow for more impromptu, spontaneous match-ups. Indeed, some winning teams at the Fanfest tournament were comprised of virtual strangers who joined up at the last minute, and the rules can lead to some... unusual scenarios. In keeping with this spirit of mixing it up, CCP has decided to hold free-for-all PvP matches at Fanfest 2009.
EVE Community Spotlight: CrazyKinux
CrazyKinux is one of the standout players in EVE Online who has contributed to the game in significant ways. He's known as Treenara Mazouk in New Eden, but most players simply call him 'CrazyKinux'. His site, CrazyKinux's Musing, is a popular destination for players curious about EVE Online or looking for info about how to get started, as well as a hub of activity for the EVE player community.Beyond the four years and counting he's been a vocal member of the player community, CrazyKinux has provided commentary on EVE through The Drone Bay podcast and later on MicroWarpCast. The writers at Massively had the good fortune to work with CrazyKinux in the past, with his Have Clone, Will Travel column, but he's since gone on to have a bigger impact on the game. CrazyKinux turned his attention to the EVE community itself, where much of the out-of-game interaction between players had been on forums or on player blogs that often existed in their own microcosm. He linked them together into a cohesive community and the momentum has resulted in hundreds of EVE players writing about their experiences in New Eden, and the most active bloggers participate in regular, intelligent discussions about the game in "EVE Blog Banters". CrazyKinux is one busy man, but Massively recently caught up with him to discuss the community of EVE players he's helped bring together and what it is about the game and its playerbase that motivated him to make this happen.
CCP Games seeking players to commentate EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament VII
One thing many EVE Online players look forward to each year is the Alliance PvP Tournament, where New Eden's pilots battle it out to see which alliance is crowned champion... until the next year when rivals fight to take that title away. Last year's tournament was very entertaining, both in terms of the matches themselves and the commentary from PvP experts selected from the playerbase, namely Crovan and Verone. This year's EVE Alliance Tournament VII will kick off in September. We don't have any further details on it yet, except that it will follow the same format that CCP used last year -- two weekends of qualifiers and a third weekend for the finals. Last year's finals were broadcast in live video, which is something that CCP Games wants to do again this in Alliance Tournament VII. In fact, they're now seeking PvP experts from among the EVE playerbase since it's worked out so well in the past. The requirements? EVE video producer CCP Charlie writes, "As an Expert you'll be on the set discussing the tournament, tactics, teams and talking with developers about EVE live on air. You'll also take shifts in the commentary booth providing live commentary on the matches themselves. You need to know your PvP and you need to know how to keep on talking!" The first two weeks' commentary will be done from those players' homes (via EVE Voice and internet radio stations), but CCP Games will fly the Experts out to Reykjavik, Iceland for the final rounds, covering both the airfare and accommodation. %Gallery-43561%
EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament finals in live video this weekend
The final rounds of the EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament VI will be streamed in live video this weekend, as 32 alliances fight their way to the top. It should be tense as any loss means elimination from the tournament. If you're not familiar with the tournament or even with EVE, that doesn't mean this weekend's live video won't be accessible for you. Really it's all about watching ships fighting in space, although long-time players will have a better angle on what's happening with tactics and setups. We recently interviewed one of the tournament's commentators, Crovan, who's also co-host of The Drone Bay podcast. He explained to us what the tournament is all about, and what makes it such a significant annual event in EVE.
Massively speaks with Crovan about EVE Alliance PvP Tournament VI Part 2
Beyond being competitors in the tournament, what are some of the ways that players watching the event can get involved with Alliance Tournament VI? Down the road in a future tournament, you could try to become a commentator the way that we have. There's other things as well -- the volunteer program that CCP runs, ISD. They've got people on the field watching the matches and doing coverage live to post on the forums for people who missed the matches. If you want to actually be part of helping produce the alliance tournament, that's an option that's available to you. Also EVE Radio and the EVE-related radio stations do quite a bit. EVE Network News were liveblogging the entire tournament. If you can't listen to the live audio stream you can still read up on it and contribute to the conversation as it's happening. There's also IRC on the Coldfront server which is the semi-official EVE IRC server where all the people hang out. I'm in there a lot of the time, some of the other experts are in there sometimes. You can get a lot of conversation both during, between, and after matches about what's going on. There are a lot of different ways you can get involved, even if you're not flying. Obviously there's no live video feed until the last weekend. But there is live audio, and the videos tend to go up on YouTube pretty quick. I was very impressed with the turnaround.
Massively interviews Crovan about EVE Alliance PvP Tournament VI
The sci-fi themed game of EVE Online is one dominated by the players themselves, many of whom join together to form alliances. Those alliances vie for control of the New Eden galaxy, sparking continual warfare and political upheaval among the thousands of pilots flying in EVE at any given time. That's really the beauty of the game: the developers provide the setting, but it's the players who make it what it is. Alliance struggles are one of the defining features of the game, but not all scores are settled through massive fleet engagements. Some alliances opt to engage one another in an arena -- viewed by thousands of EVE's pilots -- the Alliance PvP Tournament. Alliance Tournament VI kicked off last weekend, continues this weekend with qualifying rounds, and will culminate in final rounds in February, which will be streamed as live video. As the Tournament is so significant to the players, each year CCP Games invites PvP experts from among the playerbase to be the tournament's commentators. Among those veteran combat pilots in EVE Online, Crovan certainly stands out. He, along with a small team of other PvP experts, was selected to provide live commentary on the matches. This should come as no problem for him, given the PvP experience gained from his time with now-legendary Mercenary Coalition and being a familiar voice to many of us with The Drone Bay podcast. Since The Drone Bay is the official podcast of the tournament, Crovan is recognizable to many listeners as the voice of the EVE Online Alliance Tournament VI. The fact that he's been a past Alliance Tournament competitor also gives him some additional perspective on the event. It's been a while since we spoke with Crovan -- we were fortunate enough to have him with us at Massively in the past through his excellent Rogue Signal column. We caught up with Crovan this week, however, and he told us everything we wanted to know about the Alliance Tournament. %Gallery-43561%
Massively takes on EVE Online's learning curve
EVE Online is a complex game. There's no doubt about that. That complexity is a large part of the draw, but that doesn't mean learning about the game has to be a daunting experience. With that in mind, Massively has EVE Online in its sights. We've brought solid writers on staff who are quite knowledgeable about the game and are here to give some in-depth info on how EVE is played. CrazyKinux and Crovan of The Drone Bay podcast joined us in April, and since then have provided Massively's readers with some helpful columns. CrazyKinux, aka David Perry, writes the Have Clone, Will Travel column. David's most recent piece, 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers, provides a great overview of some of the third-party programs and resources available to help you plan your skill progression and your ship fittings. But we're also running two more EVE-centric columns at Massively. Read on after the jump to see what else we're bringing to the EVE community, and how we're easing that learning curve.
EVE Online's embedded reporters track tides of war
EVE Online's volunteer press corps is called Interstellar Correspondents (IC), some of whom are embedded reporters on the front lines of the war between the races in New Eden. IC has put together a site dedicated to tracking death tolls, victory points, territory captures and re-captures, as well as militia activity in contested solar systems. The resource provides a decent assessment of how the tides are shifting in the warfare of the Empyrean Age expansion. The war's top pilots and corporations are ranked by their successes in the last seven days, alternately 'All Time' stats are listed as well. A nice feature is the personal statistics search, where you can see the performance record of any pilot or corporation active in factional warfare. On a side note, the corporation Massively columnist and Drone Bay podcaster Phillip Manning recently joined, The Dead Parrot Shoppe Inc., is ranked in the top ten in all three categories: Overall Ranks, Kill Statistics, and Victory Point Statistics. Way to go, Crovan. Via CrazyKinux
