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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%
Pirate underdogs victorious in first round of EVE Alliance PvP Tournament
You killed KIA. You bastards! The EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament returned this past weekend, guns blazing. The first qualifying round is now finished, huge bets in ISK were won and lost, and the competitors are preparing themselves for next weekend's face-offs. There were some good fights, and some surprises as well. When the relatively new pirate alliance "The Bastards" went toe to toe against KIA Alliance -- a formidable mercenary alliance in EVE Online comprised of seasoned combat pilots, many players assumed KIA would win. Those assumptions were wrong -- The Bastards scored a decisive victory against their opponents, no doubt to the chagrin of many players who bet against the pirates. One combatant from The Bastards, a career pirate (in EVE) named "Flashfresh", wrote about the experience of preparing to face some heavy competition from KIA Alliance and how their time spent in training paid off. Flashfresh wrote: "This afternoon, the team was announced, moved to a staging area and the Ventrilo server became a cacophony of mad noise. The rest (including me) cheered ourselves hoarse. There was no worry or fear amongst the Bastards team; no talk about the opposition only on how we were going to do. The entire corp had volunteered time and resources to train and train and train. We were ready."
EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament VI begins today
The sixth Alliance PvP Tournament in EVE Online kicked off today, with some of the game's most formidable player alliances going head to head in team-based combat. The first qualifying round takes place on January 24th and 25th, from 1500 - 2100 GMT. EVE Online dev CCP Mindstar explained earlier this week how players can tune in to the tournament. The two stages of qualifying rounds, this weekend and next, can be listened to in audio in a few different ways. Players can either listen in-game in the "Alliance Tournament" channel using EVE Voice, or tune in to what's happening via the web at EVE Radio, Split Infinity Radio, or New Eden Radio -- all of which are broadcasting tournament coverage. This Alliance Tournament is the first where the qualifying rounds have been made available in audio, with commentators selected from among the game's top PvP'ers, notably Crovan and Verone -- both of whom have a well-deserved reputation for being knowledgeable about the combat side of the game. A match schedule is also available for those who want to tune in to a particular battle. While the qualifying rounds of Alliance Tournament VI are audio-only, the finals of the tournament will be broadcast live in video, on February 7th and 8th. As an added bonus, that live video broadcast will feature some of the first footage shown from the upcoming Apocrypha expansion.Update: While only the final rounds of the tournament will be streamed live, CCP Games is already making the qualifying rounds footage available on their YouTube page. The player-run EVE Network News is also following the matches, announcing the winners as they're declared, accompanied by audio commentary, and embedding video of the combat as it becomes available.
EVE players get free advertising during live PvP tournament broadcast
A popular event in EVE Online is returning this winter: the Alliance PvP Tournament, which kicks off late January, continuing through to final rounds in February. The final rounds of the Alliance PvP Tournament will be broadcast live, which is the basis for the latest announcement from CCP Games. EVE Online dev CCP Fallout has stated there will be free advertising slots for players to use during the live broadcast of the tournament finals. As CCP Fallout says, "Simply put: this is the biggest ad space available for EVE players and yet it will cost you absolutely nothing to submit an advertisement." We cringe at the thought of some of the video footage that could make it into the live broadcast (while looking forward to it as well), but CCP Games has laid out some general and technical guidelines that should keep the live broadcast relatively clean. Also, they've opened up the use of some of their intellectual property for players to use in producing their adverts -- namely the EVE Online music and sound effects. (Although it must be noted that you actually have to use their music and sound effects, due to copyright issues that would inevitably result from widespread Rick-rolling.)
EVE's Alliance PVP Tournament returns
EVE Online players have been noting the conspicuous absence of the Alliance PvP Tournament, which was brought up at a dev panel at EVE Fanfest 2008. The news imparted at that time did not bode well for the future of the alliance tournaments, given the expense and level of involvement on the part of the CCP Games staff to run it. But EVE developer CCP Mindstar has given word that the alliance tournament is on for 2009, and listed the relevant dates as they presently stand: Tournament Signups -- Dec 19th - Jan 9thQualifying Round 1 -- Jan 24th, Jan 25thQualifying Round 2 -- Jan 31st, Feb 1stFinals -- Feb 7th, Feb 8thThe tournament rules will remain largely the same as in previous years, but some changes are to be expected. The EVE Alliance PvP Tournament VI will take place over six days -- specifically, over three weekends so weekday conflicts won't be an issue.
CCP Games releases more EVE Fanfest 2008 video footage
For most of us who weren't able to attend EVE Fanfest 2008 earlier this month in Reykjavik, at least there have been videos of the various presentations and panels. CCP Games released quite a number of these just over a week ago, but they recently went ahead and added more. The new footage, which can be seen in higher resolution on the EVE Online Videos page or on the CCP Games YouTube page, gives viewers a look at: Designing the Walking in Stations expansion The Fanfest 2008 PvP Tournament Roxor QA! Are we ready to ship? TQ Servers: Making mountains out of molehills All footage on the EVE Online Videos page is available in two resolutions, viewable as embedded video or downloadable.
EVE Fanfest 2008 live dev blog Thursday, October 30
The 2008 Fanfest for EVE Online is almost here, and it seems that some things will be different this year, not limited to the new PvP Tournament scenario. CCP Wrangler writes: "With EVE Fanfest 2008 approaching we decided to let you ask the Fanfest organizers some questions. Murinae and Krisnitori will join us... and Whisper will be asking them your Fanfest related questions." The live dev blog will take place on Thursday, October 30th, at 20:00 GMT. To hear it, you'll need to enter the in-game channel 'Live Dev Blog' and enable EVE Voice via your right-click menu. As with the previous live dev blogs, the way to get your questions answered is to post in the announcement thread, from which the devs will select questions to field.
EVE TV returns to Fanfest, seeking interviews with players
CCP Games announced that EVE TV is going to returning for EVE Online Fanfest 2008, and will still operate under the principle of being "something made by EVE players, for EVE players." That's the word from one of newest members of the Marketing team at CCP Games, CCP Charlie, who introduces himself by announcing the scheduled content from Fanfest that they'll be recording and making available to everyone. He says, "Every video will be made available for download within a week or two after the Fanfest," and lists the specific content we can expect to view:
EVE Fanfest 2008 PvP Tournament details announced in video
We've mentioned that EVE Online's next PvP tournament will be unusual, featuring a mix of ship combat (as expected) and mining (completely unexpected). The end result promises to be wonderfully chaotic and offers something interesting for players of all types, whether hardcore PvP-er or carebear. In fact, this also creates the new possibility of having industry-focused players giving tournament commentary alongside the PvP veterans, but there's been no word on this to date. While EVE's PvP tournament viewers at Fanfest 2008 can look forward to the pandemonium of coordinating mining lasers with missile fire, it's a safe assumption that the tournament participants themselves would like to know how this is expected to go down. CCP Games now has a video explaining how the tournament will work, and has posted two charts showing the brackets of the EVE Fanfest 2008 PvP Tournament schedule. In fact, devs CCP Mindstar and CCP Claw were filmed randomly drawing teams from a 'hat' and matching them up, which was later solidified into the schedule.
EVE Fanfest PvP Tournament rules announced with video demo
We've known for a little while that the EVE Online 2008 PvP Tournament will be a departure from how it's been run in previous years. Perhaps better reflecting the interests of the wider player base, the 2008 PvP tournament will feature mining that takes place amidst the chaos of combat. The implementation of these new objectives was briefly outlined by CCP Games in July, but they've now clarified the rules and systems to be used; a video they've put up on the official EVE site does a good job of explaining how it's all going to work. Basically, all tournament participants will receive 'super characters' with all skills maxed at level 5. Both sides will have a Rorqual capital mining ship -- the space between those is considered to be the arena, where combat can occur. Both sides attempt to collect as much ore as possible within 15 minutes, as the video explains: "Any methods within the rules can be used to accomplish this and stop your opponents from doing the same. Mining ore yourself, killing enemy miners and looting their wrecks, stealing from enemy jetcans or just outright destroying the opposing team are all within the rules."
Gotfrag releases videos of the MLG 3v3 WoW Tournament
Remember the MLG San Diego 3v3 WoW Arena Tournament we reported on a while back? If you missed the live streaming video of the event, you now have a second chance to watch, as GotFrag has begun posting videos of various matches and interviews with team members at their website. If you have any interest in Arena PvP, these videos are definitely recommended watching. The commentators obviously know what they're talking about, and explain both teams' actions in terms that your average WoW player should be able to understand. A lot of us at WoW Insider watched, and we all agree that we learned something valuable about life, love, and learning to play Arena PvP from it. You may even pick up some tricks to kick off your Season 4 playing from them.
EVE Fanfest 2008 to have first public preview of Ambulation
Massively previously announced some of the details of the upcoming EVE Online Fanfest 2008, but CCP Games has just updated their site dedicated to the annual capsuleer pilgrimage. The three-day event (November 6-8) will be filled with a PvP Tournament; presentations by CCP devs to showcase upcoming game features; roundtable discussions between players and devs; and a silent auction of EVE collectibles with proceeds to benefit sick children. If any of that sounds enticing to you, it actually gets better. EVE Fanfest 2008 will feature a hands-on demo of Ambulation. CCP states: "You'll be able to sit down and interact with character avatars live at FanFest. This will be the first public demonstration of EVE with Walking in Stations and we expect this experience to be a huge draw." To help pack in the crowds, CCP Games is offering travel packages for reduced rates on airfare and hotel stays, and they've expanded the travel package offerings to more countries since their initial Fanfest announcement. Check out CCP's Fanfest '08 site for the full details on what's the most anticipated annual event for EVE Online fanatics (and a few Massively writers as well).
Development servers in live?
With the game updated to patch 2.4, and the servers "scheduled" (I use the term loosely) to come online in 15 minutes, I'm presented with a nice little server selection box when I log in. Complete with a new location (Blizzard's catogorization, not mine) to choose: "Development."What is this?When clicking the name I'm not seeing anything different. It still shows the realms off line. In fact, it's the only option. Now my memory isn't completely clear here, as it's something I've always just clicked on, but for my U.S. account the options there have always been "United States" and "Oceanic." So what's this new tag about? The only time I've seen this has been on the PTR.I have a few guesses.First, and quite likely the most plausible explanation, is that it is an artifact of the servers being upgraded. Blizzard takes the servers down, the put them into a special mode, and they update them as needed. That could be all this tag is about.
