CCP Sreegs
C C P
C C P Alliance
1417
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Posted - 2012.05.24 17:55:00 -
[1] - Quote
Dearest Alliance Tournament Interested Space Commanders,
Many of you have seen that there have been a few changes to the rules between this year and last yearGÇÖs tournament. Aside from the usual yearly tweaks in format and ship composition weGÇÖve also had to add or change some rules in order to provide an environment of fair competition, or as fair as competition can be within EVE. We learned as a team last year that in order to provide a fair environment for the entire EVE audience we need to be a lot more careful with the sometimes hard-to-gauge overlap in alliances in order to ensure that the tournament wasnGÇÖt simply packed with the B and C teams of immensely influential or powerful alliances. This is the EVE Alliance Tournament which we believe should be a venue for as many of the alliances as possible from within New Eden to compete for the top prize. We donGÇÖt believe that a small alliance who can only field one team should struggle against the odds simply to be a competitor with the odds stacked against them by people who have the capacity to essentially place multiple bets.
In addition to our concerns about smaller teams even being able to gain entry weGÇÖve encountered a situation where carefully coordinated collusion between alliances, which from the tournament perspective operate as a single logical unit, can also twist the results which in our view presents an equally unfair playing field. This is not at all to say that thereGÇÖs no place for metagaming of any kind in the tournament. This is EVE afterall and that represents a critical component of the universe we all enjoy. It does mean however that we need to pay increased attention to situations where there is a negative situation and enforce our rules equally and fairly in the spirit for which they were made.
It is because of these philosophical beliefs and changes that we have come to the tough decision of removing three teams from eligibility for competition in Alliance Tournament X.
It was widely known after the finals last year that Hydra Reloaded and Outbreak. had worked together as a single unit in order to game the competition. It was our hope that they would take their winnings and enter this yearGÇÖs tournament as separate entities without having to consider a replay of last year. They are both individually highly competitive teams and when they are working in their own interests they are among the best. Unfortunately Hydra and Outbreak are working from the same playbook as last year, practicing together in a single corporation on the test server in a single wormhole. We view them as they represent themselves, which mirrors how they represented themselves last year, as a single entity. For that reason they are barred from competition having entered the tournament masquerading as two units while functioning in reality as one.
YOUR VOTES DONGÇÖT COUNT is an alliance consisting of a holding corporation and Sniggwaffe, which is widely known as the farm team for Sniggerdly. This is a fact which they openly admit. Unfortunately given that fact, and given the fact that the team captain and CEO bounce regularly between or have alts in Pandemic Legion, we cannot consider them anything other than a B team for Pandemic Legion and as such have to remove them from eligibility for competition.
Other than removal from competition none of the teams affected will be penalized in any way and their application fees will be returned.
We know that some of you will agree with this decision and some of you, clearly those removed, will not. We have not gone into it lightly and have spent multiple hours deliberating about it. We are however, unanimous in this decision given the weight of the evidence and felt it best to get this out of the way prior to any bidding in the auction this evening. Ultimately we feel that the equal enforcement of these rules is necessary in order to provide a competitive and fair tournament environment and that was the basis for our decision. We apologize to those affected sincerely that we did not make this decision any sooner, but it was not one that was made lightly and needed to be given due attention. While we understand that some of you may be a bit put off please try to maintain some modicum of decorum (that means donGÇÖt be a butt) on the forums as the rules havenGÇÖt changed and we wonGÇÖt be here to see your rage this evening as weGÇÖre running the auctions.
I also want to note that we will be continuing these investigations throughout the tournament and there may at later stages be teams that choose to game the system. Should that occur we will edit this thread and include additional information related to their removal.
With all that said weGÇÖre looking forward to moving on and making Alliance Tournament X the best and most competitive tournament ever so enjoy the rest of your evening!
Running list of removed teams:
Hydra Reloaded
Outbreak.
YOUR VOTES DONGÇÖT COUNT
"Sreegs has juuust edged out Soundwave as my favourite dev." - Meita Way 2012 |