Alliance Tournament XXII Prize Pool Now Buys Exactly One Jump Freighter; Finalists Thank Fenris Creations For The Discipline
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND – Fenris Creations, the Reykjavik-based developer formerly known as CCP Games, announced this week that the grand prize for Alliance Tournament XXII has been finalized at a sum total that industry analysts are describing as “technically not zero.”
The prize pool, accumulated through years of microtransactions, SKIN sales, and a particularly aggressive PLEX drive during last month’s Summer Solstice event, is now equivalent to the market value of exactly one jump freighter. Veterans were quick to note this represents a significant step down from the 2019 prize of 10,000 PLEX, which at the time could at least buy a small moon.
“We are incredibly proud of what this prize represents,” said Fenris Creations Community Manager Helga Svensdottir in an official forum post that received 47 upvotes and 312 reactions, most of them from the same corporation. “The AT has always been about honor, glory, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. This year, we’re delivering on all three by ensuring that the winning team will be able to move their winnings to any station in the galaxy using a single, lawful cyno.”
Sixteen teams remain in the tournament following an opening-round upset in which Team Dust 514, a fan club with no active members since 2015, defaulted via forum post. The bracket was further shaken when a version 24.01 patch note “fixed” a bug where docking your own ship with weapons armed triggered a killmail, causing three characters named Faucignard to delete themselves in what community members are calling “a statistically improbable coincidence.”
Finalists spoke to the EveOnion with characteristic grace under pressure. “When I told my CEO we made it to AT XXII, she asked if that was the one with the prize money,” said capsuleer Kessix Arjar, pilot of Pandemic Horde’s third-string logistics wing. “I said yes. She said congratulations. I did not correct her.”
Another finalist, who asked to remain anonymous because their alliance leadership has a strict media policy, offered a more philosophical perspective. “You don’t compete in the Alliance Tournament for the isk,” they said. “You compete in it because it is the purest expression of EVE Online: months of practice, thousands of isk in ships, and at the end, either you win something meaningless or you lose something meaningful. This year Fenris Creations has truly honored that tradition.”
Fenris Creations confirmed that the AT XXII finals will be broadcast live on the official Twitch channel, where the prize presentation is expected to last approximately 45 seconds, including the recipient’s emote reaction.
This article is satire. Faucignard is a fictional capsuleer. No titan insurance adjusters were harmed in the making of this report.
