Announcing Alliance Tournament XIX
Competitive capsuleers,
It’s that time again! Rally your best fighters, analysts, theory crafters, and spreadsheet enjoyers as the path to the 19th Alliance Tournament is right around the corner. Alliances will once again be sending up to ten of their most versed combatants to fight it out in the arena for glory and epic prizes. They’ll be broadcast to the rest of the cluster with their teams and the EVE community cheering on for their glory and conquest! Experienced casters and commentators will also be back again to help break down the tournament content for viewers and (hopefully) assist with who they would put their channel points on to win even more prizes!
Today's news announcement will primarily highlight the key dates in the next few months to help everyone schedule around the tournament a little better. They will also be summarized in bullet point fashion at the end of this article. As is tradition, we will outline a few of the changes and smaller details you can expect to see compared to previous tournaments.
We will also once again be working alongside the production team over at EVE_NT, who will be reaching out to the community to search for commentators or analysts, so if you think you have what it takes to be involved in the production, head on over to the application page to put your name in the hat!
To get things started, it’s trailer time!
PRE-SEASON & SIGNUPS
In previous years, the captain would be responsible for providing the names of all those that they’d like to enlist to grant access to Thunderdome. As the number of invites per team is limited, this had become difficult for teams to try out and practice before making a final decision on a team competition. This year, we are introducing a pre-season registration method, where individuals are responsible for requesting a tournament account and access to Thunderdome, rather than the captain exclusively. Captains will still be required to submit a team roster for their team, as well as the usual two-part registration for mercenaries, but individuals will now be responsible for registering for tournament accounts. Team sign-ups and merc registration forms will feature in the rules post next week.
You can register for a tournament account here and will start distribution on Monday!
If you registered for an account during the recent Captains Cup and were approved, the account you were provided with will now be your access account for Thunderdome and you will not need to re-register for a Thunderdome account.
Regular team sign-ups will be opening on 25 April and we will publish a follow-up article with the full rules and sign-up instructions on that day. Until then, get your propaganda artists working on brainstorming new Alliance Tournament ad ideas, posters, and any other weird and wonderful creations you can dream up! Don’t forget to also give your alliance executors a poke so that they can make sure that they register your team!
All regular updates will be communicated via the official EVE Online Discord in the #at-announcements channel. Any tournament questions can also be asked over in our #tournament-questions or #at-general channels as well.
PRIZES
Just a small section here on this year’s prizes - we are happy to share that this year’s prize ships will be variations on the Adrestia and Utu. These will be slight variants to the past prize ships so that we preserve the uniqueness of the originals, but we’ll show you what these will look like, along with their associated stats, closer to the main event in a separate prize blog. Consequently, this also means that this year's sponsor is the Gallente.
TOURNAMENT UPDATES AND CHANGES FROM ATXVIII
The format of the Alliance Tournament this year will be the same as what we all know and love; double elimination 10v10 team battles with ships having certain point values. The rules for the event are being refreshed again to ensure that the tournament remains diverse and fun to watch, with an emphasis on pilot skill and team knowledge.
During last year's tournament, we introduced a unique format for the “Trials Tournament”. This year, however, we are making a few changes in relation to the entry process into the tournament. Whilst there will be spots reserved for the top 4 alliances that finished last year, the remaining 28 slots will be earned through the Feeders Tournament this year with NO teams earning entry via silent bid auction. This also means that we will be increasing the entry cost slightly from 2,500 PLEX to 3,000 PLEX. The details of the Feeder Tournament format and the draw will be shared on 23 May 2023, so keep an eye out!
Here are some of the changes you can look forward to this year:
The IGC thanks the Minmatar for their sponsorship in the last tournament! We will be adjusting their revised point values whilst making a few of the Gallente ship costs a little more favorable.
The new navy faction ships released to the public last year have been added. In addition, a few Triglavian ships have had their points reduced.
Scripted sensor dampeners and weapon disruption will remain. However, only ships that have a hull bonus that is applicable to those effects will be able to equip those modules, i.e the Maulus, Keres, Velator, Celestis, Lachesis and Arazu for sensor dampeners, and the Pilgrim, Arbitrator, Impairor, Sentinel, Curse, Crucifier, and Crucifier Navy Issue for weapon disruption modules.
You can look forward to the full list of changes and point values being released on 25 April!
If you are interested in recruiting for your alliance team or finding a team to fly with, we recommend checking out the #looking-for-team channel in the Alliance Tournament section on Discord!
KEY DATES:
20 April - Pre-season begins
25 April - Rules announced & sign-ups open
9 May – Sign-ups close
11 May – Team Roster (and merc) submissions open
13 June – Roster (and merc) lock concludes (ad submission deadline for the Feeders)
24 & 25 June - Feeders Tournament weekend 1
1 & 2 July - Feeders Tournament weekend 2
4 July - Post Feeders roster lock begins
18 July - Post Feeders roster lock concludes & flagship submissions begin
25 July - Flagship lock deadline (ad submission deadline for the main tournament)
12 & 13 August – Alliance Tournament XIX weekend 1
19 & 20 August – Alliance Tournament XIX weekend 2
Other community tournament organizers have also reached out to advise that there are plans for an "Opens" series to be run prior to the Feeders Tournament as well to get everyone warmed up!
Should anything change and any of these dates require adjusting, we will keep you apprised, but we look forward to seeing you in the arena!
