Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Best Damned Alliance Tournament Ever

There's no question mark next the the post title. No question being asked. I'm making the flat-out statement. I've watched three alliance tournaments now, and while all were great, this has so far topped them all.

So many reasons why. Every aspect of the production was top-notch. The video feed was flawless this year. The tournament format is what we've all wanted for some time. Every team was a surprise to some degree or another. The commentating was impeccable, amusing, and emotional. The additional new tournament tools developed were helpful, in no way superfluous.

Every single person that devoted their time and resources to the tournament is to be commended. From all the hard work that CCP Veritas did on improving the tournament tools, to building all new tools. To the CREST team that introduced new API datasets that allowed CCP and third-party developers to create new match analysis tools. From CCP FoxFour's personal development of graph data, to null-sec.com's recorded match visualizations. Even the mobile team was involved creating an app for the pundits to better analyze post-match.

Last year the new stream (via Own3d.tv, I believe) was flakey a lot of the time, with the stream dropping for minutes more than once. This year, via Twitch.tv, the stream was flawless. I experienced very few stutters (and that was mostly because I was doing other internetty things.) I even saw the stream hit 22,800 viewers. It might have went higher when I wasn't looking. Either way, I'm pretty sure that is an Alliance Tournament record. I'm not sure we went much above 15,000 viewers last year.

The studio had a clean and professional design, which I appreciated. I was also thankful that CCP decided not to mess around with green-screening again.

The commentating was excellent. Apathetic Brent, Bacchanalian and the excitable Shadoo were super knowledgeable. Couple that with the always superb CCP Fozzie and CCP Rise (aka CCP Douchebag), along with the always humourous CCP Dolan, and you had the A-team of commentating.

As host, CCP Soundwave was as great as he always is.

The format brought out the very best in the tournament. No more meaningless matches. A reduction in the meta-gaming. (I never want to see the elimination of meta-gaming, but its reduction due to every match having meaning was needed.) Double-elimination is exactly what the Alliance Tournament was begging for. The ban lists were also great, ensuring we didn't see the same popular set-ups over and over again. The reverse time dilation to play out ties was a nifty innovation.

I cannot point out a single flaw in the tournament this year. It was, quite simply, CCP's best, most consistent, most enjoyable effort to date. That's saying something, because I enjoyed the last two alliance tournaments quite a bit.

And a big congratulations to Pandemic Legion. Even though "umad?" is always applicable whenever I see the words pandemic and legion, you were deserving of the win. Hey, you also got that Hydra Reloaded monkey off your backs.

Great job, CCP. Great job teams. Great job commentators. I cannot wait for Alliance Tournament XII.
Source: Best Damned Alliance Tournament Ever