The last half of the article has been rewritten; less beholden to hyperbole and quick summations of the relationships involved, more questions on CCP rulings.
Last year was my first alliance tournament. Not as a competitor. Obviously. As a spectator. I was super excited about watching it. And barring the final match (more on that in a smidgen), the tournament exceeded all of my expectations. Mainly because of CCP. Damn, they put on a great show. I've never watched video game tournaments before, and did not quite realize how sporting event-like they could be. It was like watching a compressed version of the Final Four tournament (a big American college basketball tournament, which I don't actually watch, because basketball is hell of boring, but if you live in North America you can't help but know something about it.)
Alliance Tournament IX was quite exciting. I especially enjoyed all the in-match commentating by actual players (flown out to Iceland for the job on CCP's dime, no less.) The inter-match banter and analysis was even more fantastic. Damn, if CCP Soundwave isn't the funniest person living in the middle of the North Atlantic. CCP put on an excellent show that flaunted their game most spectacularly.
Some of the shine to all this CCP and competitive excellence was taken off the event with the shenanigans of the final match. One alliance, Hydra Reloaded, decides to cozy-up with another alliance, Outbreak, train, strategize, share tactics together, two teams become one. They ensured they were in separate draws come the final day of the tournament. Effectively, one team makes it to the final match.
So come the tournament final, Outbreak throws the match for Hydra Reloaded. It was a complete farce. Their apology afterwards? They were sorry they couldn't have faked their fight more convincingly. Like, what the hell? Fake is fake, convincing or not. That shit would have got out no matter, no way to keep that secret. People in EVE can't keep their mouths shut if they think they've pulled one over.
So the rule for the upcoming Alliance Tournament X, alliances will not be allowed to field multiple teams, consider it the Hydra Reloaded rule. They won last year's tournament, so they get the infamy of the new rule named after them.
We wouldn't be particularly enthused if the University of Indiana were fielding two teams in the Final Four tournament. Even worse if the University of Indiana created the University of Central Indiana, which doesn't normally have any students except during March when suddenly basketball players, and those basketball players are students at the University of Indiana the rest of the year.
So, this year, so far, three alliances have been banned from Alliance Tournament X. Hydra Reloaded and Outbreak. Because they figured they could do as they did last year, two teams from, effectively, one alliance. As well, Your Votes Don't Count has been banned, apparently Pandemic Legion's version of Outbreak.
The rules do state that only the B and C teams of an alliance will be disqualified, which should mean that only Outbreak is out of the tournament. So, why Hydra Reloaded as well? They got it right with Your Votes Don't Count, they being the alternative team of Pandemic Legion. Team B out, Team A remains. So, again, why is Hydra gone? In that case both Teams A and B were disqualified.
The new rule against pre-tournament collusion, it's good in essence, if not so much in wording or in the quality of the actions taken so far by CCP.
So kudos to CCP Sreegs for trying to make the starting line of Alliance Tournament X fairer, even if he's somewhat failing at consistency. Come down hard on folks trying to game the pre-tournament entry process, but don't have every ruling be some special case. (Also, why is Sreegs such a dick in all his forum posts? Still too much Goon in him? I find his sarcasm hilarious, but it doesn't help the situation. Most people don't appreciate good sarcasm.)
One alliance, one team. Seems fair enough to me.
Am I one of the only ones out there who actually fully enjoyed last year's final?
ReplyDeleteYou, Hydra Reloaded and Outbreak. :)
DeleteNope. As it was happening I thought, "Only in EVE." And it was glorious.
DeleteThe PL/Snigwaffe relationship isn't the same as the hydra/outbreak one. Sniggwaffe is PL's training corp, but they don't work together very often, and not at all where the Tourny is concerned. Most times the two alliances aren't even blue to each other. The real sad thing is that the waffles (Snigwaffe dudes) have put in a huge amount of time already, testing way more then the PL team has so far and don't get to compete. I can see why CCP sees them as a B team, but there was 0 collusion, which is why PL hasn't been removed.
ReplyDeleteAs a member of PL, I can firmly say that Sniggwaffe has been operating COMPLETELY Seperately this year. A few members of Waffles stepped up to lead their own team, but sadly they didn't get in through the draw and don't really have a means of paying for the auction. :(
DeleteI too enjoyed the final last year, it was a wonderful introduction into why Eve is Eve and not some other 'theme park' game or standard competitive game.
ReplyDeleteAlso; "Even worse if the University of Indiana created the University of Central Indiana, which doesn't normally have any students except during March when suddenly basketball players, and those basketball players are students at the University of Indiana the rest of the year."
I assume you are not aware that Outbreak. are, through out the year, one of the best small gang PvP corps/alliances in game and occupy an entirely different area of the Eve universe to Hydra...
Normal shenanigans during the course of the tournament are fine. If TinyAlliance wants to throw their match versus Goonswarm, because The Mittani sent them 20 Plex ... that sort of thing is fine.
DeleteBut it should still be one alliance, one team.
Other alliances are practicing together too and they're not getting banned. RvB is too different alliances, but they were allowed to participate as one. Hydra and Outbreak on the other hand made a petition, got a green light from GM and then got banned. In addition to the petitions they sent multiple emails, which went unanswered. If CCP wasn't acting out of spite they'd have either told them not to practice together or let one of the teams participate. Nevermind the fact that both Hydra and Outbreak are pretty damn old entities and have also fought each other.
DeleteThe team rule was: "To ensure that all Alliances get a fair opportunity to participate we will be checking on team entries and will disqualify teams who we consider to be 'B' or 'C' teams for bigger Alliances." So they could not ban both Hydra and 0utbreak. based on that unless you're saying that Pandemic Legion is their main team.
tl;dr The writer of this blog has neither read the tournament rules nor has clue of what's going on in EVE.
RvB actually wanted to enter to different teams. What would happen if they met in competition was still up in the air but would probably boil to down to something silly but still competitve (bantams vs bantams e.g.) CCP was contacted and RvB was advised to only enroll one team, which is what they're doing.
DeleteRvB, while technically two alliances, is one entity in actuality. This is why CCP decided they couldn't enter the tournament separately, but instead had to enter as a single "purple" entity.
DeleteAlso, confirming Red Fed vs Blue Rep noobship fight would be hilarious fun.
Hydra and Outbreak were caught practicing together on Sisi, which is a clear and deliberate violation of the new collusion rule. This is why both alliances were disqualified from ATX. They were cheating.
ReplyDeletePL and Snigwaffe is a different situation. One of the Snigwaffe alliance leaders is a PL alt, and CCP was worried about the possibility of future accusations of collusion. No rules were actually broken by these teams, though, and so they were told that only one alliance would be allowed to compete, due to a technicality. As far as I know, PL could have bowed out of ATX and allowed Snigwaffe to compete instead.
Are you a moron?
DeleteMany other alliances practiced together on Sisi too. Goons & TEST, CVA & 4th, etc.
CCP banned HYDRA & Outbreak because they are bitter about last year's final and needed an excuse.
Don't be silly, boy. CCP is neither bitter about last year's final, nor were they looking for an excuse to ban Hydra/OB from ATX.
DeleteIn fact, everyone, incl. CCP, was pretty much amused (albeit a bit bored, too) by last year's final. However, no one wants to see a repeat in future ATs, so the collusion rule was added.
Hydra and OB knew about the new rule, and knew exactly why it was added. However, they decided to try to get around it and were caught doing so. CCP did not need an excuse to disqualify them - Hydra and OB disqualified themselves by being stupid enough to cheat.
Your unsubstantiated suspicions not withstanding, no other teams have actually been caught practicing together on Sisi. They have all read the rules, too. If you have evidence to the contrary, feel free to submit it to CCP Sreegs.
TEST is not practicing with the Goons. Stop lying.
DeleteYea, but you can ask also why were Hydra and Outbreak banned from the tournament, they waren't even officay yet in the AT X beacause they haven't had spot from the random draw or the biding. If they warent official team they couldn't brake the rules ?
ReplyDeleteThey became official participants when they submitted their entry fees.
DeleteWhile the final match of last years fight wasn't nearly as good as it could be, you don't seem to have any grasp on what actually occurred.
ReplyDeleteGenos Occidere and Outbreak are completely separate corporations with different goals within EVE and made up of different people. Neither corporation has alts in the others, although members from the corporations have moved between for various reasons. They're two different corporations, and what you saw last year was two different teams who practiced against each other day after day, and when they both finally got to the final they felt bad about shooting their friends.
It sucked, was boring to watch, but I think it's a little insulting to call Outbreak "the B team" because they deserved that win as much as anyone but decided to give it to Genos Occidere.
Outbreak and Genos Occidere were obviously continuing to practice again this year due to their friendly relationship and neither corporation being able to field enough pilots to practice internally, and to make the ridiculous logistics of practicing secretly in a wormhole easier formed an alliance.
I honestly believe that even if Genos Occidere and Outbreak did not trust each other as much as they do, that they would still form an alliance purely because it saves tens of hours of logistics. I don't think it was an appropriate ban.
This is bullshit from the ATX team.
ReplyDeleteVital communications ahead of time were overlooked/ignored by the ATX team from both hydra and ob who were both seeking not to get banned and openly stated that in their mails.
In the case of RVB they were contacted by the ATX team with a solution to not get banned. Which they followed. Yay for RVB!!
Pl and snigwaffe both entered by the way of paying the admission fees for the tournament and broke the stacking the dec rule. The main alliance which is undoubtedly PL were not removed as the rules stated. Its also worth noting here that the rules are about stacking the dec and not practicing together which is where they are all pointing towards. Yay for PL!!
Other teams continue to practice with each other in WH's and CVA also stated they were waiting to get confirmation on the very same rule Hydra/OB were removed for as they wanted to do the exact same thing. The rules were ambiguous at best and needed further clarification and this was demonstrated by all the questions posted about them.
Folks have been throwing matches for strategic positioning for a long time now across many previous tournaments and was never considered badly until it happened in a final. The AT team disrespectfully called Outbreak and Hydra cheats on the forums but at no point were they guilty of cheating, only of putting up a bad show for the grand final.
If all this doesn't point to a personal and vindictive agenda with Hydra/Outbreak then nothing will.
It is clear that the ATX team were looking for a reason to remove Hydra and Outbreak. In their over zealousness to achieve this they created incosistencies all over the place. It's actually pretty clear to anyone who has followed it that the ATX team are at fault here but too proud to admit it.
ATX is a complete sham so far.
wow. I was wondering why I didn't see hydra anywhere in the schedule. ATX is a farce. I've been looking forward to it for a year but now I find it hard to care. I don't actually play EVE, but it's pathetic that CCP cowtowed to all the whiny bitches who didn't like last year's final. The AT9 final exemplified the "do anything" spirit of the game.
ReplyDelete