SCL 4 Team drawings completed!

With the fourth SCL drawing near, the random draw for the remaining ten slots has finally been completed. Full details can be found at this link.

Or I am just going to copy it all in here.

Pandemic Legion and Reputation Cartel, as top 4 finishers in SCL 3, are guaranteed spots. Insurance Fraud Inc and Warlords of the Deep did not return this round.

This leaves 10 spots from the random drawing, so the first 10 teams on this list get in. I will be mailing these team captains to collect the entry fee.

1. Team Mincemeat
2. TEST Tourney Team Please Ignore
3. Spiritus Draconis
4. EXEceptional Otters
5. DeepWater
6. Pandemic B-Lues
7. Black Legion
8. Footwork
9. Top Three Teams from ATXI
10. Verge of Collapse
Your Boats Don't Count
RONIN
xX.Shadoo.For.Queen.Xx
Reputation Cartel
Late Night Alliance
CVA
Jakkaru's Revenge
Cerberus Allstars
Penumbra
Zulu Squad
Pandemic Legion
No Boundaries
Nulli Secunda
AT Renegades Council (RIOT)

Now with all 12 teams chosen the SCL can continue down the path for what is likely the most talked about tournament so far. Mainly because of the screen time the SCL commentators received during ATXI and the still relatively high interest around the SCL and alliance tournaments.

Unfortunately, my Rote Kapelle-filled team (No Boundaries) did not make the cut, but Reputation Cartel is guaranteed a spot. So no SCL for me! Maybe SCL5. In any case the SCL website remains down, but the bracket will now be filled in with actual team names.

Also, thanks Poetic, who pointed out that the teams that were guaranteed spots were also in the random drawing, those being both PL and Reputation Cartel.

SCL4 - Fourth Tournament announced.

With ATXI now in the books, it's time to get back to the excitement that is the SCL. Fourth iteration for the SCL is starting the weekend of September 14th and 15th. Full details can be found on the post by community rep for the SCL, Aegon Blackfire, in the Eve Alliance tournament subform.

A quick breakdown of the ruleset follows:

• Teams will be 10 players, as opposed to the 12 in ATXI, and point limit for teams will be 85 points versus the 100 for the AT.
• Energy transfers will be limited to logistics ships to cripple the remote energy "tinker" teams that slowed much of ATXI down, and had a significant impact in SCL3.
• Tournament prize ships cannot be used, mostly because the SCL takes place on a test server, so everyone would have access to the prize ships, making it even less realistic.
• 12 teams will compete with the top four from SCL3 being granted slots, while the other 8 slots will be picked at random, should there be more than 8 remaining entrants.
• 1b isk entry fee to be paid on TQ after teams are selected to participate, which will be rolled into the prize fund.
• Double elimination series similar to ATXI will be employed. (hopefully with something to break up the finals so it's not one match per hour)
• Banning rules will be in effect from the first match.

More specific details can be found on the thread but the usual website for the SCL is offline. Bracket can be found here.

When more is announced I will cover teams as well. Until then, get your applications in and your banning strategies ready.

SCL3 tournament Announced!

After another successful showing of the SCL on Apr 6, and 7th, whose match replays can be found at the SCL site here(Will be updated with SCL2 footage shortly), the Pandemic Legion team, led by tourney champion Admiral Goberius had a thriller best of five Final(Full stream footage linked there) against the Reputation Cartel team, a mix epic posters from the Failheap-Challenge forums. Well worth the watch, and a blast down to the last match.

Good news, the team behind the Syndicate Competitive League is up to their old tricks and preparing for SCL #3!

Currently scheduled for May 11th and 12th, numerous rule changes have been made from SCL #1 to SCL #2. The biggest change was going from a longer double elimination bracket with best of three matches down to a single elimination bracket with best of three matches except the final which is a best of five. In SCL 1, the double elimination, best of three matches format left some teams up well into the night and early hours of their mornings, not that it slowed down the SCL 1 Hydra team at all, who still were victorious against the Exodunks team in SCL 1.

Back to SCL #3 aka SCL3, the rules are once again being modified by the SCL team to allow for better setups, changing meta and hopefully a bit of a shake-up to the turtle and ECM tank teams we saw in SCL2. Details post from one of the Tourney front men, Bacchanalian, is located on the eve-o forums here.

In short they are making a few ship-point changes.... but one of the bigger changes listed isn't something obviously important to the casual fan. That is "Only one Remote Energy Transfer module may be fitted per ship. They may be fitted on any and all ships, but only ONE per ship is allowed." Unless you are familiar with the SCL or even previous alliance tournaments, this change may seem a little pointless.

However, this change was needed because as the popularity of turtle cross tanking setups rose, due to their effectiveness, there was a chance where two "turtle" teams would face each other in a stand off that would exceed the match time with no kills. Making it very difficult to score the round or to provide needed resolution. This simple change should result in more explosions and less 'invincible' Golem, Sin, Vargur and other shield spider turtle tanks.

There will be a new third place determining match, best of three that will happen just before the championship match on Sunday.

Additionally the SCL is looking for another commentator for their booth.. In their words

Ever considered being a commentator? Think you have what it takes? The SCL staff is looking for one more voice to bring on board. Applicants need to demonstrate ample PvP experience, and a high level of past tournament participation is recommended. The ability to commit to both days of the weekend and multiple SCL dates is requested, and it is also asked that you not participate in the SCL in any way should you opt to become a commentator-we don't want active competitors "in the booth". Contact Seldarine for details.

Well beyond that, the winners of SCL1 and SCL2 have been invited to compete in SCL3, that would be the mostly Hydra team of "Warlords of the Deep" and the Pandemic Legion Team. Creates quite the match-up

 Now as for improvements I think still need to be made,

• If this really is meant to be a season vice just fights once a month, then some kind of points system and season needs to be considered. I think the SCL team is looking into this already, but it would be good to know it was in the works. Perhaps they just can't decide on a way to do the standings and are working that out and will apply whatever system they figure out to the past winners and participants when they do get a system in place.
• A season would need to be defined, IE monthly fights that start to count using the above system from this month to this month next year.

Common questions or rather, common thoughts about the SCL and why "it's not worth watching."

1. It takes place on SiSi, making ship costs immaterial reducing the immersion of the SCL into the Eve universe!  A: my response to this is simple. The teams that are fighting in the SCL would raise the money anyways, additionally it levels the playing field for the people who would not be able to raise the money, allowing the SCL to reach out to a wider participant base at a lower cost than NEO or AT's past.
2. Since not as much is at risk, it seems like security measures aren't as extreme as for the NEO or AT, why is that? A: This question seemed often asked, to me at least. In past AT's, most specifically AT6 through 10, there was no banning, so setups that could be thought up and tested out and worked well could be used, and thus finding out about a teams preferred setups gave insight into what your team might be facing if facing them. With the advent of banning, all setups must be more fluid and much more adaptable. Because of this, spying becomes less important as banning makes it difficult to predict exactly what fleet you might see. Teams have to train against and with far more comps than just coming up with one solid comp and sticking to it.

In any case, I look forward to SCL3! May seems a long way off at this point, but not over the horizon, just on the other side of Fanfest.

SCL you say?! I think so!

YES SPACE FRIENDS! It is that time again. The Syndicate Competitive League (http://syndicatecl.com/) in association with Monocle Madness (Mega-Lotteries for the mentally insane), Eve-Bet, Somer Blink, Eve time code(.com)and of course CCP Games creators of Eve Online!

Are happy to announce that this weekend the next round of fights is taking place as scheduled, this weekend, April 6 and 7th!

The first round starts Saturday at 1700 GMT (that's 10am PDT, my time zone), and has an updated Bracket in the appropriate section of the SCL website. I have posted it here for ease of view... The link is here if you would like to go check out the SCL website...

So for those of us who forget the exact format and rules, information about the matches can be found at this link, but here is the long and the short of it.

• It is no longer a double elimination bracket, each fight is a set of a best of three matches, and 8 teams total are allowed to enter.
• Teams captains, ten minutes prior to each match, ban two ships each. For instance, Bhaalgorns and Vindicators, while the other team is able to counter ban two ships of their own, let's say Kronos and Tengu.
• Matches are fought on the Test server, mainly to prevent interference before CCP stepped in and moved the SCL (thanks Fozzie) to Jove space on the test server.
• Each match is a total of 10 minutes with the team with the most points left after 10 minutes winning, or first ship to be destroyed loses if the match goes longer than 10 minutes. No draws.

Ship points, module rules and other more specific rules can be found on the SCL website if you are interested.

As always the action will be intense, and their insightful commentators, Bacchanalian, Apathetic Brent, and Seldarine will be on hand to keep us entertained.

Reports from the SCL staff is that Arydanika has been working hard to provide more between match content including interviews setup with some CCP staff like CCP Fox Four (Aka CCP "Socksfour") and community figures to provide a little more action between the action.

All in all I am pretty excited about this, the next round of the SCL. (and many more to come). Best of luck to the SCL staff, CCP Fozzie, and the combatants this weekend.

SCL wrap up

This weekend saw the first (mostly) player run Eve Online tournament, the first month of the SCL. I did a little coverage on this event as it started up on Saturday, but honestly I wasn't expecting such a quality event.

Sure the commentators weren't 100% every time, but then I don't expect them to be. Yes, there were delays, both on the stream, the 7 second UI delay for one, or cutting to the repetitive ads before commentators finished talking, a by-product of clicking the "advert" button without accounting for the lag. Here's a tip for the SCL guys, three seconds of dead time allows all commentary to finish around the worth, but you press that "start adverts" button and that happens instantly. Sorry side tracked by the small things...

Yes there were scheduling delays in the macro sense, ie the hour long delay the start of the second day along with matches being delayed while things were worked out.

All that crap, forgotten. The quality of the event not only showed that the idea of competitive play in Eve is possible, it works great. Let me cover the winning formula.

1. Great teams of competitors. Pulling from the best in Eve, I'm sure there are other great competitors out there, but the ones that were present were showing off the skill of flying in a match as well as the meta surrounding practicing, fits and counter fits.
2. Knowledgeable staff, in both the Eve knowledgeable sense, but also technically savvy, experienced in streaming, experienced with the tourney.
3. Huge, amazing, stunning support from CCP Fozzie (more on this later).
4. Solid backing, in this case done by Eve-Bet, Monocle Madness and Somer Blink.
5. Good prize pool, contributed by the above sponsors for the players
6. Great in-event competitions for the watchers, both in the Eve chat channels, the SCL stream chat and other venues, like the Monocle Madness in game chat, and probably others, I'm sure the eve bet channel and the Somer channels were just as active as the MM channel.
7. Interim music - Even the music was good. Sure it wasn't exactly what I would have chosen to pass the time, as I was trying to solo pvp during the breaks, but still good stuff. Thanks to Pretty Lights for the music!
8. Three match format, forcing more than just a single win to determine the course of the tourney. Adds to the enjoyment, even adds to the drama. Reduces the chances of a miraculous finish like the Thorax rush, or the Rote Kapelle win against PL, but I think the trade off is worth it.

If you missed any of the action the replays are all parsed out, and up for review on twitch here.

My favorite matches :

• The marathon of matches for Insurance Fraud, Match 11 round 1 through Match 12 round 3. Some crazy back and forth matches there, just amazing that IF was able to come back after matches of that calibre again and again. Impressive stamina.
• Just about all of the Exodunks. matches - Match 3 Match 6 Match 7 Match 13 and Match 14
• Matches by Warlords were just an effort in dominance. Very impressive.

Congrats to Warlords of the Deep, winners of month 1 of the SCL! exciting to the last drop.

Now here are a few things I would suggest to make the event better in March.

1. More commentators. By the final matches the few that were available were burnt out, hoarse, and emotionally drained. They did great, but more "talent" in the pool would only help the situation.
2. More resources behind the scenes. Both for the AMAZING CCP Fozzie who not only worked a weekend without pay, BUT ALSO worked the event through the night, while sick (uphill both ways, naked, while in a white out blizzard). No shit, this guy is amazing. I know he reads this blog occasionally, Fozzie, you seriously blow my mind with this kind of work. Even if nobody else realizes it your dedication to events like this is why Eve and esports will only get better. Thank you! If you didn't know, you are my favorite Dev, SORRY PUNK!
3. Player resources behind the scene for SCL, in the form of guys on Twitter, taking over when the matches end to update the site and do some number crunching, update the site in more real-time.
4. Better community interaction. By better I just mean more-of. More interviews, more fansite/blog previews of the teams. Getting community buy in on the teams is super important, but unfortunately it isn's something that a small 300 word blurb about each team can do. I'm talking about a web-page for each team, dedicated coverage, interviews of key members, or strong performers.
5. Choosing a match MVP, especially for the finals, and single this person out for an after-match interview over skype, or perhaps a little after match gift, of isk or PLEX? Who knows, but individual acknowledgement is always good. And it doesn't have to be the team Captains every time, but they'd be a good start!
6. More post-match review. Including the tipping point and strategies used. Especially when people show up with non-standard fits that people not in-the-know can understand what those fits could have been useful for.
7. Mid-month review of the previous month's action. Like a one to two hour show detailing the action of the previous month, having the talking-heads, as it were, speak to the tactics and strategies used and ships used. Talk about the winning team and the tournament in general.

All in all, an amazing first showing, so much better than I was expecting. So much good PvP, great bets (even if I lost all my iskies). Bacchanalian posted up a great summary on the Eve forums from his perspective, that is well worth the read as well, and can be found here...

Great show guys. I look forward to next month! I will post dates and times as soon as I know them.

Syndicate CL!

I've seen some chatter about this, but not nearly enough! Even a dev focus blog isn't enough!

Last year a few Syndicate residents took up the challenge of setting up and organizing the "Syndicate Regional Alliance Tournament." A non-CCP sponsored event. This year the same people and some newcomers have taken it to the next level and are launching the first ever Syndicate Competitive League(SCL).

With some Dev support the matches are going to take place on Sisi or Buckingham, the test servers and hopefully also in relatively safe Jove space, outside of the prying forces of regular nullsec. This is pretty critical to any time someone tries to do something like this because the intent to meddle will always be present. With the matches properly isolated ala the AT tourneys it should be good fun, even if it's not on TQ directly.

In any case, the tourney is sponsored by various Eve groups, including notorious establishments like Monocle Madness, Somer Blink, and Eve bet. Monocle madness and Eve bet are both doing per match bets as well as other bets, ie stream going down, etc.

Anyways, back to the SCL, their website is very well put together. It's over here -> http://www.syndicatecl.com/index.php

It's setup with information about the teams, the schedule, the rules, and all the other information.

But most importantly, since it starts in just under a half an hour;

Here are the live stream links

Streaming through their website.

On twitch tv.