The Blob

Much of my time time last weekend was taken up by watching the Eve Alliance Tournament VIII. It's the first Alliance Tournament I've been able to watch live and I found it hugely enjoyable. The video quality was great, the majority of the commentating was informative and the matches themselves showcased some spectacular ships and piloting. If you missed any of it the matches should be appearing on Youtube.

I feel like I've learnt quite a lot from both the matches themselves and the commentary to help me when I PvP also. But there is one thing about the whole Tournament that is quintessentially not what Eve is about:

The Alliance Tournament is fair...

... Eve isn't fair.

In fact the first rule of Eve PvP should be that it is not fair. You won't get the same number of ships as you have to fight against. You won't get a pre-arranged battleground. You won't have a list of rules to comply with. There are no rules against bringing as many people as you can, piloting whatever ship you like and podding people wherever you can.

Of course anybody that has played Eve even a short amount should have already realised this unfairness. But despite this, Eve players still moan and whinge about it. All over the forums fly the constant accusations of Eve players that the fights they engage in weren't fair. And, blurted out incessantly is the warcry of the ship-less forum poster, 'We were blobbed'.

'Blobbing' somebody in Eve is simply destroying someone's ship with what appears to them to be an overwhelming and over-reactionary force. For example, bringing ten pilots to take down one enemy ship, or bringing a Carrier to destroy one Battlecruiser.

Personally, I find it a bit annoying when people are accused of 'blobbing' as if it is a bad thing; as if, somehow, a fight in Eve is only legitimate if the odds are balanced. People should realise that any fighter, including themselves, will take whatever steps they can to ensure the odds are in their favour.

What about, you might ask, those amazing pilots that go into fights one against four? Surely the odds aren't in their favour? Well, here's the secret, they are. Amazing PvP pilots calculate odds based on their own skill. They are amazing because they know how to twist our idea of a heavily one-sided fight into an amazing victory. Maybe it is true that the skillful pilot is more than equal to you and your three friends. The truth of it is, everybody that loses a ship got 'blobbed' in some fashion, even if it doesn't appear so initially.

Whether it is by numbers, ships, or skill - everybody gets blobbed and blobs in return. The only exception to this being, of course, the Eve Alliance Tournament.

So, my conclusions from this rant:

1. Stop moaning, Eve isn't fair.
2. Rejoice! Because the Eve Alliance Tournament is!