A Winning Proposition

We cannot have an alliance tournament.

Or, so I’m told.

CCP does not want to organise them, it takes too much man power.

The player community doesn’t want to engage, it consumes too much time and effort.

No human endeavour faces more adversity than the one humans do not want to engage with. The arrow bends to the negative and nothing happens. It’s as simple as that.

Yet, on the face of it, an alliance tournament, and certainly single or (small) fleet engagements as an eSport, would seem like a no-brainer.

The important question is: why would we even want to do that? Because, dear friends, this is the era of gaming. This is the era of eSports. 

People are already becoming professionals in team-driven games. EVE Online is just about the most natural environment for such eSport to emerge from. We have to build nothing new in the way of ships and fittings. 

CCP already have experience with gaming on a global scale. 

More and more people engage with games and are enticed by the possibilities games afford to enjoy them and to make a name for themselves.

There is an enormous potential for this to be a major revenue driver for CCP.

What would we need in the way of resources:

1. The blessing of CCP, without which no amount of dreaming will come to fruition.
2. A dedicated cluster, but not of the entire New Eden universe. One region should be ample to host all the engagements we require. If the phenomenon takes off on a scale we had not expected the amount of available space can be expanded to meet our requirements.
3. The panoply of ships, fittings and ammunitions that are the basic requirement to even have these engagements. All of which exist already.
4. A dedicated interface to clearly distinguish from the normal New Eden environment we know and love. I have some ideas how that could be made to look. My visions are as nothing to what the Elysian minds in fair and far Reykjavik would conjure up to make that the gorgeous dance of light and delight to invite us to engage.
5. A call to arms to have those among us who are of that persuasion to engage on a larger scale and at the same time, to invite people not of our ken to meet the wonderful universe of New Eden and see if their efforts meet those of our most talented theory crafters.
6. We will want to design types of engagements to be a challenge on different levels, much like what happens now in the Proving Grounds.

What is the upside?

We build a world class eSport that resonates with millions of players who will make their own path, build their own reputation.

We make EVE Online a household name in the world of gaming as the home of massive multiplayer eSport tournaments.

There is an almost limitless potential for additional revenue for CCP to be made building non-pay-to-win (this point cannot possibly be made strongly enough) assets that can be had for PLEX. Including, but not limited to:

- Team / Alliance ship SKINs

- Team / Alliance uniforms

- Medals “Give me enough medals and I'll win you any war” [Napoleon Bonaparte]

- Trophies

- 3D models

Any number of items that enrich and enhance the experience for the players so involved. As an example: 

Wargaming.net in their World of Tanks franchise have created an enormously lucrative business model selling electronic products. I am not blind to the risk of this being taken too far, specifically with the non-pay-to-win features. 

At the same time there is no reason why CCP should not benefit from making their IP available in the form of an eSport that entices people who are not familiar with EVE Online as a worldclass MMO to get to know it better and maybe join our ranks.

What is the downside?

You tell me.