DUST 514 To Make Mark On New Eden

The CCP New Eden tournament season doesn't end with the finals of Alliance Tournament XI on Sunday.  Beginning on 12 August running through 4 September the first open DUST 514 tournament will take place.  CCP will co-host the Prime League Tournament with Urgent Fury.  Unlike EVE's Alliance Tournament, the DUST 514 tourney will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with two leagues, a North American league and a European League, each vying for a skill point accelerator, vehicles, and ISK.

The prizes for each league

While the prizes are nowhere near the scale of those received by the winners of ATXI, the winners of each league do get to do something unique: name a planet.  That's right, DUST 514 players will change the star map, at least just the tiniest bit.  The names are subject to CCP approval (thus keeping the TTP number above 0) but DUST players will make their first lasting impression on EVE Online.

Thinking about the move, I can see why naming planets is a good prize.  Whenever a battle is fought on one of those planets the victors can crow just a bit.  Or eat crow if they lose.  And the idea of marking an event in-game is not new.  Pandemic Legion has a monument marking one of the Alliance Tournament victories in Amamake on the Osoggur gate.

The one thing I wonder about is the reaction of EVE players.  I'm sure a lot will complain about DUST "taking over" their game, but with DUST already playing a factor in faction warfare and with long term plans to somehow become involved in the sovereignty system, renaming a couple of planets is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.  Then again, I'm a Minmatar pilot and our home system of Pator already has all the planets named.  I can't help but wonder if CCP opened up Pandora's Box and now players will want to name all the planets.