Once again, we’ve reached the summer and once again, it’s tournament season!

This weekend it begins, as hundreds of pilots are tested to see who will survive the trials and tribulations of this year’s challenge.

In four weekends we’ll have the definitive answer to the ultimate question – Which alliance in New Eden is the worst at avoiding the Alliance Tournament arena boundaries this year.

We’ll find out who’s going to win too, and that’ll also be awesome! We're looking forward to see who holds the Alliance Tournament Cup next!

Tournament Resources:

Before we dive into the prize structure for this year, let’s take a quick look at some ATXVI information.

Here’s a handy list of forum threads and resources to get you off to a good start when it comes to understanding the sixteenth Alliance Tournament:

The Broadcast Schedule:

We're incredibly excited to be partnering with EVE NT again this year, who are part of +10 Gaming, and we're super pumped that all four weekends of the Alliance Tournament will be streamed live from their Studio in the UK for your viewing pleasure.

The whole of all four weekends will be streamed live on the CCP Twitch Channel, and +10 Gaming's Twitch channel, so you won't miss a minute of the action!

Broadcast times for Alliance Tournament XVI will be as follows:

(All times are UTC / EVE Time)

Weekend One:

Weekend Two:

Weekend Three:

Finals:

2018/08/18 - Broadcast Starts - 14:30 - Matches Start - 15:00 - Matches & Analysis - CCP Twitch

Your Hosts & Experts:

The Alliance Tournament commentary and analysis team will be made up of the following ladies and gentlemen over the course of the four weekends of broadcasts:

Hosts

Ithica Hawk

Apothne

Commentators / Analysts

Jin'taan

Jin'taan's Gold Suit

Elise Randolph

The Bazzalisk

Suitonia

Rhiload

Brett Thomas Thomas

Rahne Chocolate

Lazarus Telraven

Black Bart Pirate

In addition to this, the following devs will be joining the analysts and commentators during the course of the four weekends of broadcasts:

CCP Antiquarian – Senior Quality Assurance Analyst

CCP Bjorn – Financial Analyst & Former Game Master

CCP Karkur – Senior Software Engineer

CCP Masterplan – Senior Software Engineer

CCP Shreddy – Live Producer

Adjustment to the Special Final Day Rule Twist:

After considering the community discussion around the special rule variation for the ATXVI final day and the impact of this rule on the team entering the grand finals from the elimination bracket, we have decided to make an adjustment to the rule which moderates the impact this mechanic has on the elimination bracket team:

If the grand finals series reaches the fourth and final potential match, the restrictions on bringing repeat ships from previous wins will reset and for that final match all normally legal ships will once again become available for use. The standard three match bans per team will continue to apply in this match.

Prizes:

And now we get to the part that everyone's been waiting for, the prizes that are up for grabs this year.

The Alliance Tournament Cup

The Alliance Tournament Cup is an in-game inventory, only one of which exists. Every year, the name of the alliance that wins the cup is added to the description to reflect a complete list of Alliance Tournament winners over the years.

Last year, the Alliance Tournament Cup was handed to VYDRA RELOLDED. After the conclusion of Alliance Tournament XVI, it will be re-claimed and handed to the victors, with the addition of their name in the description.

Alliance Tournament Medals

As is tradition, Alliance Tournament XVI will see the issue of gold, silver and bronze inventory item medals for the top three alliances. The number of each medal granted will reflect the number of participants that can be involved in an Alliance Tournament match. In this case, 10.

Due to technical restrictions, this year we will not be issuing character sheet medals to all members of the participating alliances.

PLEX

As with the last several Alliance Tournaments, we will be distributing PLEX collected as entry fees into the tournament.

This year, PLEX will be awarded as follows:

Teams that place between 17th and 32nd will receive 2500 PLEX

Teams that place in the top 16 will receive 5000 PLEX

Alliance Tournament Prize Ships

Since Alliance Tournament VII, the winners prizes have been a set of exclusive, limited edition frigates and cruisers with unmatched stats and combat prowess.

Only fifty of each hull ever exist, and these ships are considered some of the most coveted hulls in the cluster for veteran players and collectors alike.

In keeping with tradition, we will once again be distributing special edition hulls to the teams that rank top four when the tournament comes to a close.

They will be distributed as follows, in blueprint copy form:

1st place - 25 Cruisers & 25 Frigates

2nd place - 15 Cruisers & 15 Frigates

3rd place - 7 Cruisers & 7 Frigates

4th place - 3 Cruisers & 3 Frigates

This year, the ships on offer from the Independent Gaming Commission are provided by the tournament sponsors - The Society of Conscious Thought.

The SoCT have provided limited edition versions of the Damavik and the Vedmak as prize ships this year, combining a blend of Triglavian technology alongside heavy design influence and hardware from the Society's shipyards.

Preliminary ship stats and appearances are as follows, although these are subject to change before release:

Hydra

Precursor Frigate bonuses (per skill level):

7.5% bonus to Light Entropic Disintegrator damage

5% bonus to Light Entropic Disintegrator optimal range

Covert Ops bonuses (per skill level):

Additional 10% bonus to Light Entropic Disintegrator maximum damage multiplier bonus

20% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement

Role Bonus:

100% bonus to Remote Armor Repairer range

50% bonus to Energy Neutralizer capacitor need

50% bonus to Remote Armor Repairer capacitor need

50% bonus to Smart Bomb capacitor need

50% bonus to Core and Combat Scanner Probe strength

Can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device and Covert Cynosural Field Generator

Cloak reactivation delay reduced to 5 seconds

Stats:

4 High Slots

4 Mid Slots

4 Low Slots

3 Rig Slots

1 Turret Hardpoint

Drone Bandwidth - 15 mbit/sec

Drone Capacity - 30 m3

Cargo Capacity - 213 m3

Flat resistances across all damage types

Tiamat

Precursor Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):

7.5% bonus to Heavy Entropic Disintegrator damage

5% bonus to Heavy Entropic Disintegrator optimal range

Recon Ships bonuses (per skill level):

Additional 10% bonus to Heavy Entropic Disintegrator maximum damage multiplier bonus

20% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement

Role Bonus:

100% bonus to Remote Armor Repairer range

50% bonus to Energy Neutralizer capacitor need

50% bonus to Remote Armor Repairer capacitor need

50% bonus to Smart Bomb capacitor need

37.5% bonus to Core and Combat Scanner Probe strength

Can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device and Covert Cynosural Field Generator

Cloak reactivation delay reduced to 5 seconds

Stats:

5 High Slots

5 Mid Slots

5 Low Slots

3 Rig Slots

1 Turret Hardpoint

Drone Bandwidth - 50 mbit/sec

Drone Capacity - 100 m3

Cargo Capacity - 533 m3

Flat resistances across all damage types

Triglavian Victory SKIN

As with Alliance Tournament XV, we will also be issuing a SKIN that can be applied to Triglavian hulls that will give them a unique visual style.

We'll be awarding 10 copies of this SKIN for each series won by a team. This includes the single match series that make up the bulk of the tournament.

Multi-match series will only award one SKIN set for winning the series as a whole. This should provide an additional incentive to try and win every match you can.

These SKINs will also be issued to those teams that were drawn to recieve byes through a series due to the structure of the tournament and their placement within it.

We're once again looking forward to tournament season, and hope you'll join us on Twitch for all four weekends for mayhem.

And of course, to all the hopeful participants - Good luck, and fly dangerous!