EVE Online's Alliance Tournament XX Begins Tomorrow

CCP Games published additional information about EVE Online's Alliance Tournament XX yesterday. Normally I kind of ignore the event. If I want to watch health bars go up and down I'll log into Final Fantasy XIV and play my white mage job. But after the latest Pearl Abyss earnings call I have a little more incentive to pay attention to the performance of the AT this year.

On the second quarter earnings call for 2024 held two weeks ago, Pearl Abyss announced to the investment analysts on the call that the company had an expectation the EVE intellectual property would earn at least ₩20 billion every quarter. I will not go deeply into the fact this was the first time Pearl Abyss set a specific revenue target for a product or series of products in the five years I've reported on the earnings calls. Needless to say, CCP Games is under a little pressure to match its highest revenue quarter (in terms of South Korean won) on a consistent basis going forward.

To add a little more context, one of the themes Pearl Abyss stresses to investors on the earnings calls is outreach to the player bases of its games in order to increase player loyalty to the product. Greater player loyalty to the product means more revenue. At least to the overlords in Anyang. I always thought the secret to success was creating social bonds between players, but what do I know?

CCP Ghost talking about the Friendship Machine in 2019

Anyway, in the case of EVE, the two player-related events Pearl Abyss loves to highlight on investor calls are EVE Fanfest held in Reykjavik and the annual Alliance Tournament. And with no Fanfest in 2024, the marketing department should have enough money to throw a little extra at the AT this year. Add in this is the 20th iteration of the event and all forces should be aligned to make the event this year a little extra special.

The feeder tournament will take place the next two weekends, 24-25 August and 31 August-1 September. Here are the differences between the feeder tournament and the main Alliance Tournament.

• The feeder tournament will take place on the Thunderdome tournament server instead of the Tranquility live server. Pilot names on Thunderdome should correspond to their character on Tranquility and the name the captain registers in the roster.
  
  
• Flagships are not allowed in the Feeder Tournament.
  
  
• Each team in the Feeder Tournament will have two bans per match instead of four. These will be exchanged as one ban from each team, then a second round of single bans.
  
  
• There are no restrictions on ship type bans in the feeder tournament.

Looking at the feeder tournament schedule, 65 matches will occur to narrow the field down to 32 teams.

Due to their finish in Alliance Tournament XIX, the following alliances automatically qualify for this year's tournament.

1. Fraternity. 
2. The Tuskers Co 
3. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 
4. Truth. Honour. Light.

For those who follow the Alliance Tournament, here are the major differences from last year.

• This tournament is now sponsored by the Guristas. As such, the previous CONCORD directives have been rescinded, reducing multiple pirate faction ship costs instead. Gallente-sponsored ships from ATXIX have had their costs restored.
  
  
• The top 4 winning teams from ATXIX have been invited back by the IGC and will have no cost of entry.
  
  
• The PLEX Silent Auction Buy-ins have been removed this year, and the entry cost has been increased from 3,000 PLEX to 4,000 PLEX.
  
  
• Flagship rules have been adjusted to allow prize ships from the previous three alliance tournament to be fielded. Additionally, several previously restricted ships are now allowed.
  
  
• The point system has been overhauled. The new point cap per team is 200 points, and multiple ships now have new unique point values.
  
  
• Boosters that don’t directly impact the tournament, such as Cerebral Accelerators, are now allowed.
  
  
• Instead of 4 total bans submitted to the referee, 2 bans will be submitted by both teams and then shared, followed by 2 additional bans from each team that will also be shared.
  
  
• Several new ship hulls from the Equinox and Havoc expansions have been added to the tournament.

The big bucks indeed were spent to create not two but three special edition ships as prizes for this year's tournament.

The Guristas haven't hosted an Alliance Tournament since ATXII, where The Camel Empire claimed the Whiptail and Chameleon. That was 10 years ago. Now, the Guristas have returned with a bang and made some out-of-this-world updates to the original CONCORD prizes! Let’s take a look at the incredible rewards awaiting our fearless competitors and their supporters.

To begin with, the number of ship prizes has been upped from two to three! And if that’s not enough, for the first time in history, an AT battleship will be awarded, marking this as a truly momentous occasion.

Introducing the pinnacle of Guristas engineering: the Sidewinder, the Python, and the Cobra. These exceptional vessels, with significant tweaks based on the original CONCORD prize ships, will undoubtedly impress in the hands of skilled pilots. Guristas engineers are still refining the final designs, their engineers working with utmost secrecy to upgrade each ship with their own flavor. They did divulge that they would “flip the script” on the security status bonus the original hulls have but refused to elaborate further. Although tight lipped when pressed for further bonuses, they did share the core design behind the latest prototypes:

Sidewinder

• Covert Ops Frigate, based on the Pacifier.

Cobra

• Force Recon Cruiser, based on the Enforcer.

Python

• Black Ops Battleship, based on the Marshal.

At the time of this writing Rixx Javix has not responded to the idea he has mentioned about ship bonuses for negative security status showing up on AT ships.

The number of ships handed out as prizes is also unprecedented. Whereas last year 140 prize ships were given out to the top 16 teams, this year the number jumps up to 385.

• 1st (winner of finals): 40x [Frigate], 40x [Cruiser], 20x [Battleship] 
  
  
• 2nd (loser of winner’s bracket): 30x [Frigate], 30x [Cruiser], 15x [Battleship] 
  
  
• 3rd (loser of match 61):  20x [Frigate], 20x [Cruiser], 10x [Battleship] 
  
  
• 4th (loser of match 60):  12x [Frigate], 12x [Cruiser], 6x[Battleship] 
  
  
• Top 6 (2 teams, K.O. in losers round 6):  8x [Frigate], 8x [Cruiser], 4x [Battleship] 
  
  
• Top 8 (2 teams, K.O. in losers round 5):  6x [Frigate], 6x [Cruiser], 3x [Battleship] 
  
  
• Top 12 (4 teams, K.O. in losers round 4): 4x [Frigate], 4x [Cruiser], 2x [Battleship] 
  
  
• Top 16 (4 teams, K.O. in losers round 3): 2x [Frigate], 2x [Cruiser], 1x[Battleship] 

The art department was also at work making ship SKINs for the tournament.

This year, the purple & green graffiti-polished SKINs are available for 4 different CONCORD ships, down from 9 last year. The SKINs will be featured on the Pacifier, Enforcer, Monitor, and the Marshal. 

Ten SKINs will be granted to a team per match victory, both in the Feeder rounds and the Main Event. Some additional shine - or graffiti, depending on how you look at it - is still being applied, so the final appearance may differ slightly!