The hour of Alliance Tournament XII approaches. One integral part of tournaments is actual participants, so it is time for signing up!

On Friday May 30th signups will open and alliance executors (CEOs of the executor corporation in an alliance) can sign their alliance up for the random draw for AT XII for a chance of a spot in the tournament. A total of 32 spots will be filled via the random draw, with a further 32 spots being given to highest bidders in a silent auction after the random draw.

A total of 64 teams will then duke it out in August for the chance to win fantastic prizes and vigorous bragging rights. Last year it was Pandemic Legion that snatched the victory from the jaws of HYDRA Reloaded, with a not-so-much Cindarella story where they emerged from the losers' bracket and won a total of 9 matches in one day.

Do you want to shoot for internet spaceship stardom, endless wrecking shots when bragging, the shiniest prizes in New Eden, and to have fun in the biggest tournament in EVE Online? Here are the specifics of what you need to do.

We also suggest reading onwards for the rules of Alliance Tournament XII. Some factors have been added to make things interesting and others tweaked to discourage uninteresting things.

Payment

Entry for the random draw will be 5 PLEX per alliance. If your alliance wishes to participate, have the CEO of the alliance executor corp reverse-redeem 5 PLEX, which will be withdrawn before the random draw.  All PLEX will be retained by CCP and teams who are not successful in the random draw can use these PLEX as part of their bid for a spot through the auction. If you are not successful in either the random draw or auction, your 5 PLEX will be refunded to the CEO character of the alliance executor corporation.

Tournament Entry

All entrants will be required to sign up via the Alliance Tournament section of the Account Management page. The link will be advertise when signups open on May 30th. The 64 competing teams will be decided as follows:

32 teams will be drawn randomly. The draw will be held live and recorded on CCP’s official Twitch.tv stream on June 11th.

32 teams will bid for positions with a silent PLEX auction over EVEmail. All silent auction bids will be sent to CCP Gargant in-game.

Entry into the random draw will cost 5 PLEX, auction slots will begin at 5 PLEX and have no maximum bid.

Competition Dates

Alliance Signup Period – May 30th until June 8th at 23:59 UTC

Live stream of the 32 team random draw - June 11th (time TBD)

Silent Auction Period – June 12th to the 19th at 11:00 UTC (downtime)

Participating Teams & Schedule Confirmed - June 20th

Tournament Weekend One (Non-studio) – August 16th and 17th

Tournament Weekend Two (Non-studio) – August 23rd and 24th

Tournament Weekend Three (Studio) - August 30th and 31st

Tournament Weekend Four (Studio, Finals) – September 6th and 7th

RULES

Tournament Rules

This is a single-stage, double elimination tournament with 64 teams allowed to enter.

As a player, you may only compete for a single alliance, regardless of how many player-accounts you own.

All competing pilots must be members of the alliance for which they are competing, and have been a member of that alliance by 11:00 UTC April 24th 2014.

All alliance members are eligible to compete in any match in which their alliance is taking part, subject to all applicable rules; teams do not have to remain the same between games.

Please note that both the format and match rules are subject to change. It is strongly advised that participants watch the tournament forum regularly for announcements.

Match Rules

Teams can field up to twelve pilots on the battlefield.

Fights are limited to 10 minutes. If a fight reaches time, it will be stopped and whichever team has the higher total points value will be declared winner. See "Victory Conditions", below.

Intentional pod killing is NOT allowed and may result in the offender being punished. All podkills will be reimbursed.

The match simulation is taken as is. Teams are advised to spend the pre warp-in time to verify that their ships are completely operational.

Penalties

A player found breaking any rules can be penalized to various degrees, depending on the severity of the offence. All penalties are incurred at the tournament referee's discretion. Decisions are final. Penalties may be levied against a player or team and may include, but are not limited to:

• Points deduction
• Reducing the offending ship(s) shield / armor / hull / capacitor to 50%
• Involuntary moving of the offending ship(s)
• Removal from the fight
• Ban from competing for one or more matches
• Ban from competing for the remainder of the tournament, and/or any future tournaments
• The referees can call a match null and void or declare a result if they believe that one of the teams is not competing. This tournament is designed to showcase the talents of pilots and should be entertaining.

Format

The format of the tournament will be a modified double-elimination setup which will culminate in a best-of-5 match final. The third place will go to the loser of the final Elimination bracket match.

Place & Tactics

Captains must be online and available 45 minutes prior to the match to make their ban choices. Further details on bans can be found in the subsection Ships and bans.

Participants should be prepared, in their chosen ships, and in a fleet 20 minutes before their scheduled fight time. Teams will be brought by a GM to a solar system in uncharted space and designated as team 1 and team 2. If you are not ready within this time allocation you will be disqualified from this match and the opposing team will be given an automatic win.

There are eight beacons in the system which serve as start off points. Four beacons are marked for Team 1 and four marked for Team 2. Teams will be moved to the beacon of their captain's choosing. Once the teams are in system, all instructions will be given by the referee in local chat. You must keep an eye on that channel at all times once in system.

Once word is given, teams warp in to the arena beacon specified, at a range of their choosing, up to a maximum of 50 km. Team members are allowed to warp in at different ranges.

The arena will measure 125 km radius around the central beacon.

The arena contains nine Mobile Micro Jump Unit structures, one placed in the center and eight placed 87km away from the center in the direction of each of the eight team beacons. These outer structures form a cube around the center of the arena with sides approximately 100km in length. These Mobile Micro Jump Units are indestructible and usable by all.

The host will begin a countdown. When the countdown ends, the host will break target locks of all ships in the arena.

If a player warps out/leaves the arena, his/her ship will be destroyed. This includes disconnection emergency warps. This rule is in effect before and during the match.

Warping within the arena is NOT allowed.

Boarding a ship during the match is NOT allowed.

Dropping cargo containers, anchorable items or mobile structures is NOT allowed. Dropping regular jettison containers is allowed.

The following restrictions are in place after teams warp to the arena beacon, until the match begins:

• Locking players before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Activating aggressive or targeted modules before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Launching drones before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Moving before the match starts is NOT allowed.
• Beginning the activation cycle of a Micro Jump Drive or Mobile Micro Jump Unit before the match starts is NOT allowed.

Ships & Points

Each team has 100 points with which to select their ships.

Each team may have up to 12 ships on the battlefield.

Teams may field no more than 3 of a given ship. This applies to specifically named ships only and not ship hulls. For example, 3 Merlins, 3 Hawks, and 3 Harpies would be legal.

Unlike in the New Eden Open II, “skinned” variants of ships count as their base ships and cannot be used to bypass hull limits or bans.

Teams may field no more than 1 logistics ship, or 1 tech one support cruiser, or 2 support frigates in each match.

Teams may field no more than 1 marauder in each match.

Ship point values are as follows. Ship types not listed in the table are not allowed.

Previous Alliance Tournament prize ships that have both T2 and Faction status fall under their T2 classes for point values.

• Marauder - 26
• Battleship, Pirate Faction – 20
• Dominix - 20
• Battleship, Navy Faction - 19
• Battleship (other than the Dominix) - 17
• Black Ops Battleship - 17
• Command Ship - 16
• Strategic Cruiser - 16
• Recon Ship - 14
• Battlecruiser, Navy Faction – 14
• Ishtar - 14
• Battlecruiser (including the Gnosis) - 13
• Logistics Cruiser - 13
• Heavy Assault Cruiser (other than the Ishtar) - 12
• Cruiser, Faction - 12
• Heavy Interdictor - 11
• Tech 1 Support Cruiser - 10
• Cruiser - 6
• Electronic Attack Frigate - 6
• Frigate, Faction - 4
• Assault Frigate - 4
• Tech 1 Disruption Frigate – 4
• Covert Ops Ship - 4
• Interdictor – 4
• Stealth Bomber - 4
• Interceptor - 3
• Destroyer - 3
• Tech 1 Industrial Ships - 3
• Frigate - 2

Fitting Restrictions

All T1 and T2 modules are allowed, with the following exceptions:

• All Remote Armor Repair modules and Remote Shield Transfer modules are NOT allowed, EXCEPT on ONE of: a Logistics Ship, a Strategic Cruiser, a Tech 1 Support Cruiser; or on up to TWO Tech 1 Support Frigates.
• Only ONE Remote Energy Transfer module is allowed per ship.
• The Ancillary Shield Boost module will be restricted to a maximum of one per ship

Faction, COSMOS, deadspace and officer modules are NOT allowed.

T1 Rigs are allowed. T2 Rigs are NOT allowed.

All T1 and T2 ammunition, missiles and charges are allowed. Faction ammunition, missiles and capacitor boosters are allowed.

All drones are allowed, including Logistics drones and Augmented drones.

Attribute Enhancers that give bonuses to anything other than perception, intelligence, willpower, memory, and charisma are NOT allowed.

Genolution "CA-" implants are NOT allowed.

With the exception of leadership Mindlinks, ONLY Hardwirings that have a name ending in "1", "2" or "3" are allowed.

All Leadership Mindlinks (including navy mindlinks) are allowed.

Boosters (drugs) are NOT allowed.

Cloaking is NOT allowed.

Cap Boosters are allowed.

Micro-jump drives are allowed.

Flagships

Any standard T1 or Faction battleship hull may be designated as a flagship.

Team captains must indicate to the GM managing their match if they intend to use their flagship in any given match, and which pilot is flying the flagship.

Flagships may ignore meta level restrictions for the following module types (this means they may fit faction, officer, cosmos, and deadspace versions):

• All Legal Highslot Modules (not including remote armour repair modules or remote shield transfer modules)
• Electronic Warfare Modules
• Weapon Upgrade Modules
• ONE Shield Booster or up to TWO Armour Repairers

Flagship ship types must be decided in advance and their ship type submitted to "CCP Alliance Tournament" character via EVEmail no later than August 10th. The fittings for a flagship do not have to be disclosed. The names of flagships do not have to be disclosed or remain constant. Fittings may also be changed from match to match.

All flagship hull types will be published in the flagships section of the EVE Online Alliance Tournament site following the deadline date.

A flagship may be fielded in any match, even if its ship type has been banned, and counts as a normal ship in every way other than the ones defined above.

Flagships must still follow all non-metalevel based fitting restrictions, including any restrictions that ban module types or limit the number of a certain module that can be fitted.

A flagship costs the same points value as for a normal ship of its type.

You are under no obligation to field your flagship in any given match.

If your flagship is destroyed, it may not be fielded again during the tournament.

Victory Conditions

During a match, a team scores points for each enemy ship it kills, equal to the tournament points value of that ship. The team that has scored the most points at the conclusion of the match, or that destroys the entire opposing team, is the winner.

If a team chooses to field less than 100 points, non-fielded points count towards the opponent's score.

If a fight is tied after 10 minutes, time dilation will be used to progressively speed up the tournament solar system and encourage a prompt end to the match.

In the very unlikely case that a fight is tied after 15 minutes, the victory will be awarded to the team that had more collective potential team DPS at the beginning of the match, as measured by the tournament automated “attack bar”.

Ships and Bans

Banning of ships will occur during all matches.

Team captains must be online and available to conduct ship bans 45 minutes before the start of each match. At 44 minutes before each match if the captain is unavailable their team’s bans are forfeit.

Each team gets two bans.

The way the banning phase works is as follows:

The team which starts the banning phase is decided randomly.

All ships that are eligible for competition are eligible for banning.

Bans are done in 1 – 2 – 1 order. For example Team A will take the first ban, Team B will take the second and third ban, and Team A will finish the banning phase with the fourth ban.

Each ban has a time limit of one minute; if no ship is selected within that timeframe the ban is forfeit.

Once the bans start, a drop down menu will appear where you select the ship to ban. You can type the name of the ship to speed up the process.

Please be aware that banning a ship will not remove it from the list. Selecting the same ship type twice is a wasted ban.

Each ban targets a specific ship type and not a ship class or other hull. For example, banning the Harpy would not exclude the Hawk or frigates in general.

Teams should endeavor to have multiple ship setups available as bans may impact your primary team setup. No additional time will be given if teams do not have eligible ships available.

During the final day of competition, some matches will require teams to be ready within 15 minutes after the completion of banning. We expect that many teams will find this time limit challenging. The best teams in New Eden will be the ones that can adapt quickly.

All bans apply to both teams equally.

And that's it for now! You can expect more news about the 12th Alliance Tournament, and tournaments in general, in the coming months so stay tuned and come hang out in the Tournament discussion forum! I intend to direct some scraping and feedback efforts there.

Until next time, on behalf of the Tournament Team

• CCP Gargant

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