Verdict on ATX? ("Let's sperge about team quality so hydra can feel relevant" thread)

[Shiodome]

So, the final hasn't happened yet but I can't see it being a hydra_stylee[tm] cockup. For me this has been a really great tournament.

I loved the 6v6 format then changing up to the 12v12. The smaller matches were entertaining whilst the step up to 12 man introduced some variety instead of 4 identical weeks.

The points balance was pretty good, and the restrictions worked (no dull as fuck turtle tanking with one epic exception). It was awesome to see nearly every match featuring every hull size in each team. You typically saw frig, (t3) cruiser, BC and battleship hulls all in the same team. imo that's win, and sign of really good balance. And being able to take 4 of one thing didn't seem to fuck anything up.

We like to rage, but the commentating was better than previous years imo.

And the finals day had a far greater number of really close exciting matches than any other finals day i remember. Some awesome matches.

What sucked was the feed problems (which they did seem to sort out eventually) and the group stages leading to 1 day of 'pointless' matches. If that get's sorted out i'd be happy for this format to stay essentially unchanged.

Thoughts?

[Zeekar]

I liked it a lot. The balance and especially the point reduction on some hulls really made them viable, just for example compare battleships in tournaments before or mauraders. They were pretty much unseen and it was all bcs every where while now we have proper variety of bc teams, battleship fleets with frigs etc..
Something ccp did properly for a change.

[DaDutchDude]

Agreed on pretty much all points Shiodome.

I am one of the geeks that watched pretty much every second of AT X, and it seemed like it would be exhausting to watch all, but now at the end, I actually want more. Finals day today has been the highlight though, so many awesome matches.

One thing that is awesome this year as well is the new camera / display that includes speeds and ewar, which really helps understand what happens a lot better. In a perfect world, I would actually want to watch "in-client" in a way that I could actually pan and zoom around the arena, but this year is already a HUGE step up.

Edit: Also I'd actually want to see more prizes. So many people that put a lot of work in it and only the top 2 get rewarded seems a bit wrong to me.

[Alex Caine]

Honestly, very good overall.

You pretty much covered all my thoughts Shiodome, especially the pointless group stage matches. Not sure how to fix that, but they need to.

[Liptonez]

I really enjoyed the hitpoint bars and EW icons. All the other tournaments before it basically was like watching a fight in actual EVE sitting in a covert ops, you couldn't see anything.

Now everything's condensed really well and a lot more understandable. Mad props to whoever made the UI for this.

Edit: Commentating was enjoyable too. I think MB didn't cast any of the VoC matches, so I can't complain.

[Shiodome]

I have to add, it's been so 'right' that it hadn't even occoured to me it could be any other way... but the U.I for the actual matches, showing the damage and the ewar/reps was fucking AWESOME. it added so much to the viewing experience that it was probably the greatest improvement this year.

[Tsubutai]

It's been very good. My only gripes are the absence of hydra/outbreak and the inability to differentiate between attempted and successful jams in the battle feed.

Oh, and all the fucking dubstep.

[Gesadt]

Oh, and all the fucking dubstep.

really only negative thing about this tourney is overabundance of this filth

[Alex Caine]

the inability to differentiate between attempted and successful jams in the battle feed.

Good catch.

Yeah, this could do with improving. Not a deal breaker, but it would make things much clearer.

[Maksim]

Mostly agree. I like that there were way more frigates and fewer BC's in the tourney. And we actually see BS doing well (mostly the Windicators until the end matches, though). I wish there was more cruisers, but that has probably more to do with cruiser balance than the tourney format.

The comments were better, even MBIII picked it up a bit after getting flamed over his prequal commenting.

The absolute worst for me (even worse than the bad feed) were the comedy matches. Unfortunately, only a few of the teams decided to resolve them in an honorable and entertaining way. Would be nice to adjust the format to make each match meaningful to some degree.

I am a bit concerned that the 12v12 format makes it hard for smaller alliances participate, as they need 24 people to be consistently available for practice. And, apparently, you get banned from the tourney if you try to train with other teams.

Edit: Also, have to agree, the UI was a great improvement. As mentioned, adding a way to tell between failed and successful jams and adding a capacitor indicator would make it even more amazing.

[Siriothrax]

I really enjoyed the hitpoint bars and EW icons. All the other tournaments before it basically was like watching a fight in actual EVE sitting in a covert ops, you couldn't see anything.

Now everything's condensed really well and a lot more understandable. Mad props to whoever made the UI for this.

CCP Veritas(?) just discussed how he did this. I was only half paying attention at the start, but I think he wrote the UI code to interact directly with the database. As a bonus, it made all rules checks and quite a bit of the reffing automated instead of requiring 4 GMs and a database tech always on hand. "So basically I just replaced a lot of jobs with robots and everything was better."

[Sneakyfool]

All games played at a competitive level, generally always start out with a few teams that dominate for the first few years, but over time the standard of the lesser teams usualy gets to a decent level that throws the competition wide open.

I think were just about reaching that point now, it's hard to say without Hydra and Outbreak, but i'm definitely seeing positive signs, which can only be a good thing for nuetral spectators.

I for one think going forward, nobody is gonna say on Day 1 (That team) will win etc, which is more exciting to watch, and more exciting to take part in.

Overall I think the Tournament is in a very healthy position right now.

[QwaarJet]

Solid tourney, maybe a lack of strength of depth in the teams, but that couldn't really be avoided. Points are good although I think frigs need to be upped in cost. More big stuff, less wee stuff.

Hopefully they don't change too much about the tourney...except I would love it to be every 6 months again because waiting a whole year is horrible.

[Rans]

I liked it although there were too few setups used, too many minnie rushes and too many vindi teams. Still...I doubt anyone missed Genos/Outbreak.

[Cosmin]

I really enjoyed the hitpoint bars and EW icons. All the other tournaments before it basically was like watching a fight in actual EVE sitting in a covert ops, you couldn't see anything.

Now everything's condensed really well and a lot more understandable. Mad props to whoever made the UI for this

Tbqh that thing takes a lot of screen estate, it's a good direction but needs to be refined more.

Tourney this year was wonderful imho (been watching the past ones), with a lot more gudfites. CCP is astonishing lately, world must end soon.

[W0lf Crendraven]

God that was hilarious (the `stache thing)


In general i like it a lot!

[Resi]

It's been fantastic, only downsides have been the Day 3 group matches being a bit boring and the stream getting dropped.

I've loved the new HUD, the commentators, the matches and the devs.

/fanboy

[Gesadt]

mb3 is a clown and thats his purpose here i dont understand why anyone gets their jimmies rustled over that

[Jason Marshall]

I will form an opinion about it when I know the outcome of my 20bn isk worth of wagers.

[Gesadt]

I will form an opinion about it when I know the outcome of my 20bn isk worth of wagers.

so you quit the corp and now you log in? get out