So long ATXI

And thanks for all the win.

Sunday saw the end to the Alliance tournament, and another win for PL after coming back from a 0-2 deficit in a best of five versus Hydra Reloaded. Quite a fight but lessened by the immense time between active matches. If one thing can be said, it would be that a third place match should have been held to fill the dead air between each match.

In fact while we are at it, let's break down all the things that could be better next time.

1. Third place matches to break up the finals. Perhaps exhibition matches scheduled between the finals matches to prevent 30-50 minute breaks between any action. Maybe even best of (so far) matches, or a look-back rebroadcast of some earlier matches to keep viewers interested.
2. More features. As in try to appeal to a bigger range of audience then just the e-sport inclined. Even though the majority of the changes that were broadcast in ATX never went live, it was still a good filler towards the end and during mid-day breaks.
3. This one is on the Eve community. More commercials for corps and alliances. Hell, even people or pvp videos, streaming channels, blogs, whatever. More player created content would be fun.
4. Repeats or even graphics outlining what exactly a tinker or remote setup is, why it's so powerful, even if in just very broad terms. Use of those graphics should be frequent and varied. Twitch chat was filled with "What is a tinker setup" and other similar questions that could have been more simply answered.

How about things that were more successful in ATXI than previous tourneys.

1. Of course I am going to mention the commentators. But not just the Rote Alliance guys, but everyone. Dolan, for the first time, appeared better informed and more composed in front of the camera, providing good commentary even if it was not perfect, it was at least as close as he's ever gotten. I appreciated Shadoo's self-proclaimed "passion" especially during critical bits in the match. Where Brent and Bacch took the more subdued, but excited route during matches Shadoo was excited and loud. Loved it. Fozzie, Soundwave and Rise all were their normal amazing selves, especially Fozzie, who I thought was able to retain the title of most knowledgeable and best spoken of all the CCP commentators. Rise was maybe the only downside, and only for a few moments, mostly when not doing match-time commentary. He seems adverse to taking a positive happy view, one might even consider him a bit of a bittervet.
2. Graphics - Wow, finally guys, this was so needed. Lists of ships being brought, points, explantations, not to mention previous teams beaten by who and brackets. Good stuff here.
3. Replays - Usually not a huge fan of replays when they take away from the action, but giving the commentators the sometimes worthy ability to call out critical moments and maneuvers and discuss why that second or that minute was so important really helps the eve-rookie understand the intricacies of the tournament when otherwise it just looks like exploding spaceships. With the replays and the breakdowns in combat it helped me, even as a seasoned bittervet follow bits of the action I had missed before.
4. Double elimination bracket - Simply the best, makes a lot of matches mean a lot more, and for those people who are not really competing at a very high level, it lets them exit early on.
5. Bans - Should be extended to every weekend instead of giving a cheater weekend where the best setups are noticed and then banned the next week. Gotta keep on evolving this idea.

I think the overwhelmingly positive reaction to this tourney was because so many things were done right, and because, even with the drop off in tempo towards the end of the last day, it moved at a break-neck pace. Often with 5-10 minutes between matches, and often with one good match after another.

For me this was the best presented AT, even if AT8 is still my favorite of all time.

Until next year, or rather next MONTH for the SCL, thats it for my tourney coverage.