Hello capsuleers!

The moment you have all been waiting for is rapidly approaching. Who will rise to the challenge and emerge victorious from the second New Eden Open, claiming their share of the $25.000 and 700+ PLEX prize pool? Follow all the action and root for your favorite team on CCP's Twitch channel. So make sure you tune in and don't miss any of the action!

The New Eden Open is an online PVP tournament in EVE where the best and most dedicated pilots put their skills to the test in an 8v8 deathmatch format. A series of fights where the amount of friends or titans doesn't matter. All broadcast live with commentary from CCP Dolan, CCP Fozzie and CCP Rise and your new host CCP Bro.

If you want to learn more check out the New Eden Open website.

Hello capsuleers!

The moment you have all been waiting for is rapidly approaching. Who will rise to the challenge and emerge victorious from the second New Eden Open, claiming their share of the $25.000 and 700+ PLEX prize pool? Follow all the action and root for your favorite team on CCP's Twitch channel. So make sure you tune in and don't miss any of the action!

The New Eden Open is an online PVP tournament in EVE where the best and most dedicated pilots put their skills to the test in an 8v8 deathmatch format. A series of fights where the amount of friends or titans doesn't matter. All broadcast live with commentary from CCP Dolan, CCP Fozzie and CCP Rise and your new host CCP Bro.

If you want to learn more check out the New Eden Open website.

Hello capsuleers!

The moment you have all been waiting for is rapidly approaching. Who will rise to the challenge and emerge victorious from the second New Eden Open, claiming their share of the $25.000 and 700+ PLEX prize pool? Follow all the action and root for your favorite team on CCP's Twitch channel. So make sure you tune in and don't miss any of the action!

The New Eden Open is an online PVP tournament in EVE where the best and most dedicated pilots put their skills to the test in an 8v8 deathmatch format. A series of fights where the amount of friends or titans doesn't matter. All broadcast live with commentary from CCP Dolan, CCP Fozzie and CCP Rise and your new host CCP Bro.

If you want to learn more check out the New Eden Open website.

Hello again capsuleers!

I‘m here with some more information on the New Eden Open II and to remind you that sign ups are open until January 20^th, so make haste dear pilots if you plan to enter the fray and build up some serious e-fame!! For those of you wondering what the New Eden Open is all about, read this blog.

First off I want to refresh your memory on what the stakes are this year.

PRIZES

The prize pool totals $25,000 to be distributed in the following way:

• 1st place: $12,000
• 2nd place: $8,000
• 3rd place: $5,000

On top of that all the PLEX gathered in the silent auction for spots in the tournament will also be given out as prizes and distributed in the following way:

• 1st place: 50% of PLEX
• 2nd place: 30% of PLEX
• 3rd place: 20% of PLEX
•  

SPONSORSHIP

Now that you all know what you are playing for let‘s talk about sponsorships. We are bringing back the sponsorship program from last years‘ NEO due to requests from the forums. This program works in such a way that a team and a sponsor make an agreement on what is covered by the sponsor, such as entry fee to the tournament and cost of ships during the tournament, then the team captain must file a support ticket to the Community queue and alert us of the sponsorship. In the end should the team take any of the top three spots the sponsor will receive the secondary PLEX prize instead of the team. So eccentric space billionaires with nothing to do, go sponsor a tournament team to spice things up a bit! So get out there and hunt for that diamond in the rough and on the flip side if you feel your team is amazingly good but need funding I encourage you to look for funding on the tournament forums or in game.

PRACTICE

For this tournament teams must choose to either practice on Singularity or on Tranquility. In an effort to aid the training on Singularity, especially for newer players that might rely on skillpoints that haven‘t been mirrored over yet, we will be handing out skillpoints to those who request them. In order to be eligible for the skillpoints your character must have been created before the last mirror and therefore exist on Singularity, and you must be a registered member on a tournament team. Players can apply for the skillpoints by filing a support ticket to the Community queue between the end of the silent auction on January the 23rd and January 30th. We will then hand out the skillpoints in the following days.

HILARIOUS/AMAZING PLAYER ADVERTISING

I am also happy to announce that we will offer players the chance to create their own advertisements for this year's NEO. All details on how you can do that and how to submit them can be found in this forum post by CCP Loxy.

RECAP OF THE SILENT AUCTION PROCESS

As a reminder for those that may have forgot—here’s how the silent auction will take place as explained by the fabulous CCP Gargant:

"On January 20^th after downtime we will announce the final number of teams that signed up and begin the silent auction for the 28 spots in the tournament. Your bids should be sent by your team captain to the character CCP Alliance Tournament with the name of your team included in the mail. Remember that your initial 5 signup PLEX will be a part of this amount. You can update your bid for the two days it is open as you see fit but no bids will be made public by us. At the end of the auction on January 23^rd the teams that did not secure a spot in the tournament will have a chance to get one of the remaining three spots via a raffle. If Asine Hitama’s Team choose not accept the final spot, it will also be dispensed at this time."

COST OF SPECIAL EDITION SHIPS

I also wanted to let you all know that CCP Fozzie has made public the point cost for special edition ships in the NEO and you can find all information on that right here.

RUSSIAN STREAM

I am delighted to announce that we will be providing Russian coverage of the entire tournament thanks to CCP Leeloo, CCP Vesna Prishla and CCP Lost in Space that have graciously volunteered their spare time to make it happen!

Looking forward to seeing you out on the battlefield and if there are any questions make sure to first look on the tournament forum and if you can‘t find the answer there then start up a thread and we‘ll answer it as soon as possible.

- CCP Bro

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

Hello again!

With December already here I have received a lot of questions about the New Eden Open. Will there be another one? When will it happen? How big will the prize pool be? Well capsuleers, ask no more! I am here to give you the answers!

For those that don't know what the New Eden Open is, it is an EVE Online tournament featuring real life cash prizes held by CCP. So if you are interested in some serious spacefighting business then open those eyes and keep reading!

I am happy to announce that we will have a second New Eden Open, and it is going to be even bigger than the first one! We are also making some changes to the tournament based on the lessons we learned last year. So without further ado, let‘s go over the changes and dates for the second New Eden Open.

Oh.. Sorry.. I almost forgot, the prize pool this time around will be $25,000! The payout structure will be as follows:

• 1st place: $12,000
• 2nd place: $8,000
• 3rd place: $5,000

Now for the changes. We are reducing the maximum team size from 24 characters down to 12 characters. We are doing this to make the prize payouts more meaningful as well as to put the competitors in a place where they need to adapt to bans in a different way. We also think that this will encourage teams to have more practice matches against each other and hopefully stimulate a more healthy competitive environment around tournaments.

The other big change is obviously the dates of the tournament. Last year the tournament conflicted with some holidays and made it difficult for some to watch and compete. When we were looking at doing this year‘s New Eden Open we were facied with similar challenges when navigating expansions and holidays. We thought it would be better to move the tournament to a more convenient time, and find a permanent home for it in the schedule for the year.

The number of teams in the tournament will be unchanged at 32 teams but only 28 slots will be up for the silent auction. One of the extra slots will go to last year‘s winner Asine Hitama‘s Team (should they choose to accept it) and the rest of the slots will be dispensed through a raffle that will occur after the silent auction finishes.

The final rules for the tournament this year are being worked on, but I can tell you that we are looking in to how to deal with Bastion Mode Marauders, and how to balance tinker and sentry drone setups in a way that will encourage fun counterplay and new strategies.

But on to the dates!

• 12th of December: Signups open
• 20th of December: Signups close at downtime and the number of teams are announced. Silent auction starts.
• 22nd of December: Winners of the silent auction announced and final list of teams published, including the raffled teams.
• 1st of February: First weekend starts
• 8th of February: Second weekend starts
• 15th of February: Third and final weekend starts

Finally I wanted to quickly address the issues with payment that occurred with last years winners. It is no secret that paying out the prizes is something that has taken longer than it should. The original arrangement was that our partner at the time was supposed to handle payments of the prizes. When they closed down their service we stepped in to deliver the promised prizes without any prior experience of paying out prizes like this. This resulted in us learning multiple lessons and streamlining our processes.

That is all I have for now but keep your eyes open for more dev blogs about the NEO in the coming days.

-CCP Bro

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

Hello spacefriends,

On behalf of the team at CCP, I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the PLEX for Good campaign so far. With your help, we have already raised over $43,000 to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan! This really goes to show what the EVE community is capable of doing when it bands together to do something good.

With this charity drive already shaping up to be the biggest we have ever done, we wanted to do something special for the occasion to both show our support for the cause, and to show how much we value the effort of the community surrounding this. Therefore, we will be doing an eight-hour charity livestream marathon with all your favorite CCPers to keep you company for the last part of the charity drive.

The charity livestream will take place from 13:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC on the 7th of December at http://twitch.tv/ccp

We will have a packed schedule for the stream, and here are some examples of the activities we’ll have:

• Playthrough of the Danger game
• Small developer roams
• Developer DUST 514 matches
• A sampling of icelandic cuisine
• Developer duels (Following is a picture so you know what to expect)

But this wouldn’t be a charity marathon without pledges, would it?  Our team has gotten together and promised to do some pretty amazing things should we reach specific fundraising goals. 

• For every $2,000 CCP Dolan will be shot with 1 paintball
• If we reach $50,000
  • CCP Lebowski will get the Minmatar logo tattooed on his calf
  • GM Spider will get the Amarr logo tattooed on his body
  • CCP Dolan will have the number 50 waxed on his chest
• If we reach $55,000, CCP Gargant will shave his head
• If we reach S60,000, CCP Guard will spar against an Icelandic Tae Kwon Do medalist
• If we reach $75,000, GM CiD will get the Wreckage sleeve tattoo from EVE Online tattooed on his arm
• If we reach $125,000 CCP Mimic will shave her head
• More to be announced when we go live!

I would also like to use this opportunity to ask you, the community, to make your own pledges on the forums to help encourage people to donate during the charity drive. It could be anything from doing an event to taking out a very expensive fleet if we reach a certain goal.

The sky is the limit and I fully trust you in the community to make something amazing happen. If you are planning on hosting an event to help this charity drive in any way I encourage you to let us know by filing a petition to the community queue so we can help you spread the word.

We are also looking into possibilities to provide the option to donate directly to the Icelandic Red Cross through Paypal, this way players and their friends who don‘t have an active subscription but still want to be a part of this amazing gesture can contribute to the cause. So keep an eye out for that donation button during the stream.

We are looking forward to a day of fun with all of you and we hope you join us for what is shaping up to be the most fun streams ever streamed. (Apart from this passionate EVE player serenating CCP karkur: http://www.twitch.tv/sirsqueebles/c/3257159)

• CCP Bro

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

Hello spacefriends,

On behalf of the team at CCP, I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the PLEX for Good campaign so far. With your help, we have already raised over $43,000 to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan! This really goes to show what the EVE community is capable of doing when it bands together to do something good.

With this charity drive already shaping up to be the biggest we have ever done, we wanted to do something special for the occasion to both show our support for the cause, and to show how much we value the effort of the community surrounding this. Therefore, we will be doing an eight-hour charity livestream marathon with all your favorite CCPers to keep you company for the last part of the charity drive.

The charity livestream will take place from 13:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC on the 7th of December at http://twitch.tv/ccp

We will have a packed schedule for the stream, and here are some examples of the activities we’ll have:

• Playthrough of the Danger game
• Small developer roams
• Developer DUST 514 matches
• A sampling of icelandic cuisine
• Developer duels (Following is a picture so you know what to expect)

But this wouldn’t be a charity marathon without pledges, would it?  Our team has gotten together and promised to do some pretty amazing things should we reach specific fundraising goals. 

• For every $2,000 CCP Dolan will be shot with 1 paintball
• If we reach $50,000
  • CCP Lebowski will get the Minmatar logo tattooed on his calf
  • GM Spider will get the Amarr logo tattooed on his body
  • CCP Dolan will have the number 50 waxed on his chest
• If we reach $55,000, CCP Gargant will shave his head
• If we reach S60,000, CCP Guard will spar against an Icelandic Tae Kwon Do medalist
• If we reach $75,000, GM CiD will get the Wreckage sleeve tattoo from EVE Online tattooed on his arm
• If we reach $125,000 CCP Mimic will shave her head
• More to be announced when we go live!

I would also like to use this opportunity to ask you, the community, to make your own pledges on the forums to help encourage people to donate during the charity drive. It could be anything from doing an event to taking out a very expensive fleet if we reach a certain goal.

The sky is the limit and I fully trust you in the community to make something amazing happen. If you are planning on hosting an event to help this charity drive in any way I encourage you to let us know by filing a petition to the community queue so we can help you spread the word.

We are also looking into possibilities to provide the option to donate directly to the Icelandic Red Cross through Paypal, this way players and their friends who don‘t have an active subscription but still want to be a part of this amazing gesture can contribute to the cause. So keep an eye out for that donation button during the stream.

We are looking forward to a day of fun with all of you and we hope you join us for what is shaping up to be the most fun streams ever streamed. (Apart from this passionate EVE player serenating CCP karkur: http://www.twitch.tv/sirsqueebles/c/3257159)

• CCP Bro

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

With the sign-ups for Alliance Tournament XI in full swing, we in the Tournament Team thought it would be a nice time to draw attention to some changes to the tournament from last year. As we mentioned previously the cost of signing up to the random draw is only 5 PLEX. Should you be unlucky and your alliance is not drawn in the random draw, do not despair!  Following the draw there will be a silent auction for the remaining 32 spots in the tournament with the minimum bid being, you guessed it, just 5 PLEX.

Obviously having the experience of participating in an Alliance Tournament alone is worth 5 PLEX, but there’s more!  Let’s have a look at the features and prizes that come along with tournament participation this year:

Firstly, your alliance will receive access to our test server Duality to practice on. What that means is you will have a private server with a fully seeded market to practice on. As if that isn’t enough, CCP Veritas has worked his magic on the server which allows us to give each alliance a password protected system for them to guard their secrets in. The team captain for each alliance will get the power to set a password for the system and give it out to alliance members that he wants there. This will function similar to POS forcefield passwords. This goes a long way to increase security, so there is no more need to hide in wormholes for instance, but be aware that spying and turncoating is, as always, still possible.

Secondly, the Tournament Team has taken steps to reduce the amount of ISK you need to spend to be on par with the richest pilots in the tournament. By limiting hardwiring implants to +3% bonuses, you will not need to rip out a few billion ISK’s worth of implants between matches just to gain a slight edge against your opponent. Implants are still an important part of an alliance tournament team but you can be certain now that you won’t be against a team that’s splashed cash to get full +6% brains.

Thirdly, you advance through the double elimination bracket to the finals – and win. There are a few things that you can expect to receive:

-          As per usual there will be a prize ship BPC  for the 1^st place winner of AT XI with a different prize ship BPC for the 2^nd place winner. Details about them will be revealed close to the tournament itself, because we love keeping you guys excited about these things.

-          Each of the top three placing teams will receive in-game medals! That’s right, they are back. Gold for 1^st place, silver for 2^nd place and bronze for 3^rd. These medals have been a hallmark of past Alliance Tournaments  and only stopped being handed out last year. Because of that, the medals will be given out retroactively for the AT X.

-          As a participant in AT XI, your alliance will be immortalized on special in-game collectible cards that will be given out some time after the tournament, in the same style as the New Eden Open.

-          The winners of previous Alliance Tournaments haven’t had their name engraved anywhere in the past and the Tournament Team did not feel that was acceptable. A special Alliance Tournament cup will be created, engraved with the name of each winning team for each of the past tournaments and then the winners of AT XI. This cup will be stored in the lobby at CCP headquarters and displayed at Fanfest and other big gatherings.

The Alliance Tournament is meant to be a place for alliances to field a team of their best pilots and test their mettle. We encourage every single alliance to seriously consider participating as there is great fun to be had and even greater prizes to win. Sign-ups will remain open until 23:59 UTC on June 9^th so get your alliance executor to reverse redeem 5 PLEX and log into account management and sign your alliance up! Coupled with the fantastic EVE TV team that was announced in an earlier blog, this Alliance Tournament is poised to blow every prior one out of the water. Better yet, it will blow all previous tournaments out of space!

EDIT: Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances there will be no trophy for the tournament this year. We will still endeavour to have a trophy for next year's competition.

Well hello there capsuleers!

It is time for the anticipated update on the upcoming Alliance Tournament XI. More specifically on the prize ships for this years tournament which are simply put, amazing. This time around these special edition ships are from the Angel Cartel and for the first time ever we see one of the tournament ships feature a hull that has never been used before on a ship available to the playerbase. So let‘s get down to business, I present to you this years tournament prize ships:

This year's prize ships are a new line of advanced covert vessels developed by the Angel Cartel. They are built to take advantage of the element of suprise, to hunt the spacelanes solo or in wolfpacks and to dissolve into the darkness of deep space before the authorities arrive. The moment you think you're safe is the moment these deadly pirate vessels are most likely to appear.

Runners Up Prize: The Chremoas Covert Ops Ship

The Chremoas is the Angel Cartel's take on the Covert Ops ship. Don't let the class designation fool you, the Chremoas is a more than capable combat vessel that takes advantage of a covert cloak, advanced targetting systems previously only seen on stealth bombers, and ample midslots to pick and control the fights it knows it can win. By the time a you see a Chremoas decloak, the fight is already over.

3H/5M/3L, 2 turrets, 1 launcher

Grand Prize: The Moracha Force Recon Ship

The Moracha is what goes bump in the night. Built to be the ultimate tool of piracy and terror, this Recon Ship combines the electronic warfare and covert abilities of its class with the speed and ferocity that Angel Cartel cruisers are known for. The first ever capsuleer ship to use the Ixion ship hull, the distinctive appearance of the Moracha goes along with incredible combat capabilities that make it ideal for both solo and wolfpack hunting.

4H/6M/5L, 3 turrets, 1 launcher

Due to our deployment schedule, these ships will be awarded to the winners and runners up about three weeks after the conclusion of the tournament.

It is clear that the stakes are higher than ever and the tournament is set to be as good as ever. Now that you know what lies in store for the winners and runners up of the tournament it is time to hear about what awaits the viewers. This year our friends and sponsors over at Razer, Alienware and EVE Time Code are showering us with prizes to give out to dedicated fans of the tournament that tune in to the live stream so we will be running various competitions to give you a chance to get your hands on some sweet, sweet merchandise from our partners. So tune in, pay attention and participate in the tournament frenzy that is sweeping New Eden like a Minmatar man in an Amarrian captains quarters.

But that is not all that is offered for dedicated fans. If you want to enjoy the tournament like never before (and you like going to the pub) we know of two gaming bars that will be showing the entire tournament over all three weekends. If you know of another bar that is doing the same then make sure you post it on the tournament forums and rally some more locals to enjoy the show with some liquid refreshments and fellow EVE enthusiasts.

First off we have the Interface eSports and Gaming bar in Berlin that is located at Perleberger Str. 17, Berlin, Germany and feature monthly EVE player gatherings with the next one being on the 20th of July (which coincidentally is the first day of the tournament!) as well as featuring EVE Live streaming every Wednesday at 21:00 CEST. The bar is specialized in combining eSports and Gaming with a nice ambience of a casual but stylish bar. It is possible to enjoy a broad variety of drinks in conjunction with playing some games (alone or with friends) or you can just relax while watching your favorite games.

Secondly we have a bar called Meltdown in London located at  342 Caledonian Road, N1 1BB, London, United Kingdom with the closest London Underground stations being Kings Cross and Caledonian Road. Plans are still being made on any events that might be held surrounding the tournament but this is a bar that is sure to give you a good time. Especially when they are showing the Alliance Tournament.

That is all for this time dear friends, the tournament draws closer and excitement is growing within the company as well as the community for finding out what alliance will emerge victorious and forever etch their name into the history books of New Eden.

On behalf of the tournament team,

CCP Bro 

After a nail biting silent auction we have our winners and competitors for Alliance Tournament XI. I know a lot of you are bursting with excitement to find out who got in so without further ado here are your 32 teams that qualified through the silent auction. Everybody ready? Everybody gripping their chairs with excitement? Everybody have a buddy nearby to catch you if you faint? Ok, that’s enough of that.

Here are your teams for the Alliance Tournament XI! (Note, auction winners are listed in alphabetical order). Congratulations to the alliances that have made it this far. I can safely say the journey will be harder from now on, some will try and fall; others will succeed and advance. But one thing is certain: at the end of the tournament we will have our champion!

But we are not done yet. Our wonderful web team have been working hard on getting the tournament website up and running and I highly recommend that you check it out if you are interested in who is playing who and at what time, what the rules are and the latest news about the tournament.

One more thing before we wrap this blog up. This year we are adding something new to the Alliance Tournament broadcast. For the first time we will have an entire broadcast hosted and commentated in Russian. This is a test run to scope the viability of alternate language streams when it comes to tournaments in our effort to break down the language barrier that may have kept previous Alliance Tournaments out of reach from some of our non-English speaking players. As commentators for this stream we will have CCP Vesna Prishla and CCP Leeloo.

As always we love to hear what you have to say, so leave a comment and let the theorycrafting begin!

If you are new to the Alliance Tournament and want to learn more you can watch videos from previous tournaments on our Youtube page here.

On behalf of the tournament team,

CCP Bro