CCP Games—in a widely criticized move—elected to try a new process for CSM voting this year. The sudden change shocked many capsuleers causing outrage across New Eden, with the current CSM remaining silent on the issue thus far. Without preamble, CCP Dopamine made the announcement on the EVE forums early this morning: “New, Improved Voting Method Implemented Effective Immediately.”

Starting this morning we are happy to announce the first CSM voting Caucuses in EVE Online history. Rather than an online ballot, pilots will now navigate in-game to specific systems in game to cast their vote for their chosen CSM members.

The process is rather simple. Pilots will need to fly to a designated caucusing system in New Eden where nodes representing their preferred CSM candidate will spawn. Each node is out of D-scan range from the others. The node grid will be restricted to Battleships only, excluding Blops. This is to make counting them easier and ensure all players have an even chance of attending the caucuses. Once warped to the node, a player’s ship is warp scrambled and they must loot a large cargo container containing exactly one Scientist commodity per player and slow boat it 75km to a drop off point where the scientist will be counted by volunteer staff—with help from a new app commissioned to aid staff—as a vote for the representing node’s candidate.

This process may seem limiting to some, but it ensures that only dedicated, real players vote for candidates they are sure are right for the CSM. There is no restriction on the number of alts a pilot may caucus vote with, but they must be in a non-Blops battleship to caucus vote.

The extended donwntime today may have surprised players, but we are confident they will understand as the first nodes spawned. The first location is in Delve. We have chosen Delve for the first to vote region after careful consideration, but all regions will have a chance at being caucusing locations should the trial of this system prove effective this year.

Best of luck, capsuleers, and be sure you all choose the candidate right for you before warping to a node. The first are awaiting caucus-eers now in Y-OMTZ.

The thread has already garnered hundreds of angry responses from users, with many crying foul on the unprecedented change. Most complaints are leveled at the difficulty of caucusing and choice of location. Many users claim this is a clear sign of bias toward the Imperium or Nullsec dominated CSM. Zkill is showing a steady feed of t1 battleships dying to gatecamps at entry systems to Delve, while many more have vowed not to vote in protest. Despite the largely negative backlash, some users are praising this as an anti-botting move or one “taking votes from the hands of rich players” accused of stacking votes with “multitudes of alts”, since only players in-game can vote in this new process. Only time will tell how the new Capsuleer Caucuses will affect voting.