Every year 32 teams of brave pilots take on the best of the best (and some of the plain lucky) in the New Eden Open, EVE’s original tournament, which sees shiny internet spaceships fight it out for real cash prizes. This year, $12,000 are up for grabs for the first place winner, which is not bad for playing a video game, although it’s far from the life of luxury we all hope to earn from sitting on our couches!
EVE is one of the worlds longest running MMOs and one of the most controversial. Famously, earlier in the year, an epic space battle online between over 4,000 players netted nearly $500,000 of real cash damage on each other, after someone neglected to pay their bills to defend a virtual star system.
The space based MMO picks up press for its high cost battles or insidious corporation infiltrations, that have cost players months of hard work in game, only to have it stolen, entirely within its EULA, out from under them. But its tournaments, the summer’s Alliance Tournament and the New Eden Open, really are showcases for the type of e-sport that if you play (and even if you don’t) can become a real supporter event.
This weekend hosts the finale on March 16th via CCPs Twitch TV page (subscribe for notifications). The final showdown for the first and second prizes of $12,000 and $8,000 respectively will see missiles, lasers and chunks of cared for starships, blown apart.
So if watching blokes run around on grass kicking a ball doesn’t take your fancy, get the Twitch.TV app for your TV and watch internet spaceships slug it out! Perhaps even give EVEs famously Player vs Player orientated universe a try yourself and see if you can make it into the next year’s events. Let us know how that works out for you!