Eve Online

Eve Online  (officially capitalized EVE Online) is a video game by CCP Games. It is a player-driven persistent-world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in a science fiction space setting. Players pilot customisable ships through a universe comprising over 7,500 star systems.  Most star systems are connected to one or more other star systems by means of stargates. The star systems can contain several phenomena including, but not limited to: moons, planets, stations, wormholes, asteroid belts and complexes.

Players of Eve Online are able to participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration and combat (bothplayer versus environment and player versus player). The range of activities available to the player is facilitated by a character advancement system based upon training skills in real time, even while not logged into the game.

Eve Online was first released in North America and Europe in May 2003, it was published from May to December 2003 by Simon & Schuster Interactive, after which CCP purchased the rights back and began to self-publish via a digital distribution scheme. On January 22, 2008 it was announced that Eve Online would be distributed via Steam. On March 10, 2009 the game was again made available in boxed form in stores, released by Atari. The current version of Eve Online is dubbed Incursion, which was released on November 30, 2010. However, it was not until January 18th 2011 when Incursion was released to Tranquility , the main server.

GamePlay:

Players start the game by either selecting a previously-created character or by creating a new one. Each Eve Online account allows for up to three characters to be made. When players create a new character they start by choosing one of the four playable races of Amarr, Gallente, Minmatar and Caldari. Each race is further divided into three bloodlines that give characters different pre-defined appearances, which can be finely tuned by the player.

Unlike many other MMOs, where there are numerous copies of the game universe (called "shards" or "realms") intended to run at once,Eve Online is functionally a single-universe game. There are technically three copies of the universe running (the main server "Tranquility", the Chinese-based "Serenity", and the test server "Singularity" which is subject to periodic wipes when new content is being tested) but rather than starting a new "realm" when in-game population increases, CCP simply adds new features to the existing game environment, sometimes going so far as to close an entire system when necessary.

Player tournaments:

During two weekends in July 2006, a live streaming video production called Eve TV covered the events of the 2nd Caldari Alliance Tournament. The tournament pitted three-man teams from the top alliances against each other. Eve TV provided live in-game footage of the battles along with expert commentary. Analysis of the teams and strategies, interviews with CCP staff and behind-the-scenes specials were also aired between battles. Eve TV was produced and hosted primarily by DJs from Eve-Radio (a player-run streaming radio station) with resources provided by CCP. A total of 95 matches were scheduled, with the Band of Brothers alliance emerging the winner on the final day.

The first two weekends in December 2006 saw the 3rd Alliance tournament. This was once again broadcast via live streaming video by Eve TV The tournament saw 40 Alliances pitting five-man teams against each other. Once again, the Band of Brothers alliance emerged as the winner. Of particular note in this tournament, was the fielding of an Imperial Apocalypse by the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate. The ship was destroyed in the semi-finals of the tournament by the COW (Cult of War) team. A last minute attempt to arrange an 8 billion ISK ransom for the ship fell through.

The fourth Alliance tournament in September 2007 brought several exciting upsets, with Star Fraction defeating Band of Brothers in the second round, using only tech 1 cruisers, and a relative unknown, Hun Reloaded, sweeping both the semifinals and finals to win.

The two weekends starting February 29, 2008 and March 7, 2008 saw the fifth Alliance Tournament. Eve TV provided coverage via live streaming video. During the six days a total of 40 teams competed in 95 matches. The last tournament's winner, HUN Reloaded, made its way into the quarter-finals where it lost to Ev0ke alliance who later became tournament champion after having won all of its eight matches.

The sixth Alliance Tournament was held during three consecutive weekends starting January 24, 2009 and ending on February 8, 2009. A total of 64 teams took part in the qualifying rounds on opening weekend. While the final weekend was broadcast live via Eve TV, the qualifying rounds were broadcast through various Eve Online radio channels. A number of changes were made to the tournament rules compared to previous tournaments. This was also the first tournament in which the newly formed Factional Militias were able to take part alongside traditional alliance teams. In the final match R.U.R. went up against Pandemic Legion with Pandemic Legion emerging as the tournament winner.

Alliance Tournament 7 took place in September 2009, with Pandemic Legion winning a second successive tournament, beating Circle of Two in the final.

Alliance Tournament 8 took place in June 2010, once again Pandemic Legion winning for the third time, beating HYDRA RELOADED.