Hey guys,
Over the past couple of weeks since we announced the tournament we have been listening closely to feedback on the changes to the tournament format and rules. In this Dev blog I am going to address some of the points you have raised.
The biggest misconception I see out there is the following: “CCP is only hosting this tournament to make some quick cash off the PLEX entry fee”.
This is not true in any way, shape, or form. I can see how the auction process can be interpreted in this way; especially with our good friends at Own3d providing us with the prize money, but the reality is very different. What most people fail to include is the significant production costs involved in a large scale production like the New Eden Open. For this tournament we are building an entirely new set, renting top of the line production equipment, and we are contracting professional sound and video engineers to ensure we deliver the best possible production to our players and fans. Any PLEX we receive will be used to mitigate these costs, and I can safely say that we will not be turning a profit on our entry fees.
With that out of the way, the next two points that I want to address are, “The minimum PLEX bid is too high” and, “There are only a select few that are wealthy enough to participate”. When we decided on our team and auction format we envisioned indie teams of skilled pilots. Even though these sorts of teams don’t necessarily have enough ISK to fund their tournament and entry costs, we envisioned larger groups being able to fund these highly skilled teams. It is now clear to us know that the current prize structure provides no incentive for sponsorship in terms of rewards to the sponsor.
Hindsight is 20/20 and we have decided to make the following improvements to the tournament rules and format:
1. We are going to lower the starting bid for the auction from 20 PLEX to 10 PLEX
a. This should make the New Eden Open a bit more open for players interested in participating in their first tournament.
2. We are introducing additional PLEX prizes (Please pay special to attention to the new prize’s interaction with the sponsorship program explained below)
a. 1st place team will receive 150 PLEX in addition to the cash prize
b. 2nd place team will receive 75 PLEX in addition to the cash prize
c. 3rd place team will receive 50 PLEX in addition to the cash prize
3. We are going to implement a sponsor role for team signups.
a. Teams can specify a sponsor by having their team captain file a petition under the “Other – Community” category
b. The sponsors of the top three teams will receive the PLEX portion of those team’s prizes instead of the teams themselves
c. If there is no sponsor specified the additional PLEX prize will be paid out to the team captain
We are also happy to announce that we have even more friends of EVE Online joining us for the tournament. Razer and Logitech have been kind enough to offer us some prizes to make this event even bigger and the prizes that much more juicy. The exact details on what those prizes will be are not completely ironed out, but stay tuned to the forums and we will let you know shortly.
But wait! There is more! For those that love tournaments but are not participating, we haven’t forgot about you. We will be running a lottery on Championship Sunday with some amazing prizes from our sponsors. During the broadcast on Sunday the 2nd of December we will announce a key-word; you will then go to a specific competition forum thread and type in that keyword. Once we finish the finals we will then select, at random, winners to receive some amazing hardware from our sponsors.
Finally, I’ll leave with a word from CCP Fozzie on a minor rule change:
The Tournament Prize ships from ATVII through ATX have the same point cost as their Tech Two equivalents. The Mimir, Adrestia and Vangel cost 12 points as Heavy Assault Cruisers, and the Etana costs 13 points as a Logistics Cruiser. The Freki, Utu, Malice and Cambion cost 4 points as Assault Frigates.
That’s all for now!
On behalf of the tournament team,
CCP Bro