Kick Elise Randolph from the CSM . . .

. . . and hire him as a remote, part-time consultant for the duration of ship balancing.

The more I read of Elise Randolph, especially in the CSM Summit Report, the more I'm convinced that there is no better qualified player in EVE Online to handle ship balancing.

Ship balancing requires extensive hands-on knowledge of the game, but how often do the devs play the game? To understand what balancing is needed, what new ships roles are required, a dev has to have familiarity with situations only a long-time and active player can appreciate.

CCP Fozzie has replaced CCP Tallest as the go to dev for ship balancing. He happens to have an excellent reputation (rumours that he was recently a long-time player), but CCP Fozzie plus Elise Randolph equals excellence plus more excellence. Two heads are better than one, that old cliché, but it does have truth to it.

Elise is not just any long-time player. He's flown every ship there is to fly. Been involved in nearly every major operation that EVE players have engaged in. Is familiar with everything from 1v1 to small gang warfare to massive super-capital fleet warfare. Elise is not only a top-ten pilot, he's active in this game nearly every day. He's seen it all and done it all. He's a expert theorycrafter when it comes to ship fitting. Dude is EFT in flesh and blood.

Read anything on ship balancing, where Elise gets to weigh in with his experience, you cannot be but impressed by the breadth and depth of his knowledge.

Of course, why hire someone when you get them for free. If Elise decides not to run for CSM8, CCP would be damned crazy not to snatch up Elise's expertise and experience for a price.