Streamfleet descended on the beautiful city of Amsterdam, to bring Evesterdam to EVE players and viewers across the world.This was the first stop of the EVE Invasion World Tour and streamfleets first full coverage of a CCP event. We were approached by CCP earlier in the year and invited to stream all of the world tour. This was not something we took lightly, but relished the chance to show what we could do.

Friday saw our two teams (CCP and Streamfleet) get together for lunch before the event set up started. Watching CCP’s Guard and Tara run across the road for hugs will always remain in memory (lets not mention CCP Tara forgetting her bag in the excitement). The initial set up day is always difficult, a mixture of reconnecting with friends from across New Eden whilst needing to complete the many, many tasks,  always turns into a late night, surrounded by pizza, good friends and unconnected cables. We left for the night aware of work still needed to be completed - but were confident all would be achieved on time.

Day One

After a late night getting used to the venue and testing equipment (and possibly a few drinks - to bond as a team), there was an early start for the blurry eyed streamfleet staff as we went through the final checklists and completed the last of the setup and testing.We were finishing the last few steps as New Eden’s Nerds poured in through the front doors. This is something I have been privileged to see a few times, the opening of the event, seeing the excited faces stream in from all over the world, brought together by our love of pew pew and spaceships and of course EVE. Just before day one’s schedule started we found a slight hiccup with the audio side of the stream, which lead to a delay of the stream starting. Decisions and fixes came thick and fast as we tried to get the content across the internet to the waiting EVE faithful. Thankfully the combined team of  CCP and streamfleet managed to get things back on the right track.However, we are perfectionists, and whilst overall day one was a success we had the feeling we could have done better. A late afternoon shopping trip and an interesting Uber journey meant new kit was brought in to fix the audio problem - the cheers and relief in the air was evident when it worked straight away.  The team stayed briefly for the saturday night party and apologies for anyone that we didnt get the chance to talk to  - we knew an early start was needed for Day 2. So, whilst relaxing at the hotel with a little alcohol, we discussed all we thought could be improved and went to get some rest for the next morning, which came all too soon.

Day Two - Sunday

The morning after the night before. Bright sunshine greeted us as we left the hotel for the quickish walk to the venue (that was a loooong 2 mins walk) now was time to get back in   - retest and deliver again. Full stream tests were carried out again, the schedule checked, rechecked and planned again, we were good to go!  We hit the Go Live button to start the day from the studio - all was good, we played the segway video and cut to the lore presentation, but what was this??? No Audio? Have you ever had your heart truly sink? Well that was us in the control room. Why? How? Was said many times, looks of disbelief, moments that in reality lasted just seconds felt like an eternity.  All of our tests had worked fine, but as we switched to the presentation room we lost it all, but yet again, the quick thinking and process elimination got us back up, live and with a workaround to give us back the Audio very quickly.

Today had many presentations and interviews which went really well, but today was the day we transmitted a tournament for the first time. I will say we learnt a lot from this part of the event - some last minute changes to the format, a missing streaming pc and some excited players and devs meant that it was fun and watching the participants get the shakes during the fights was great. On our side of things, there are improvements to be made, but i feel it went well, obviously after a few technical hiccups, but it worked, it was fun to watch and I can’t wait for the next one.

The closing ceremony

We knew this would be emotional, we had planned with Bam Stroker and a lot of faces around the community, to produce a video from the players to CCP Guard. After discussions with CCP we knew we would be limited to just a 5minute segment, which meant trying to have as many clips as possible whilst telling a story all the more difficult to do. But, seeing the impact it had on Svienni was beautifu, we watched from the balcony as he stood there, transfixed by all the wonderful comments. I think the closing ceremony was a great send off to a legendary community Dev, one we will all feel the loss of. His next company of work have gained an absolute gem. This also signified the end of our streaming from Amsterdam, which came with a celebration and a huge sigh of relief from us all.

The clean up of all of the equipment took all of the CCP staff and streamfleet staff to accomplish, what had taken many many hours to put up was stripped down in just over an hour..After we had completed stowing for shipping all the equipment we were left with about fifty minutes to get back to the hotel (this didnt make moses nervous in the slightest - i have never seen her walk so fast before), get changed and to the docks. The friendship was luckily still there when we arrived. The rest of that night was a bit of a blur, talking, drinking and for some reason kissing Suitonia and covering Ms Moses in beer.

It was really nice for us all to get together as we had on the Friday, as a combined team and relax knowing our job was done. But there is a few thank yous and tip of the hats to do before I sign off.

The Technical production team we had was lead by a very underrated and mostly unknown Director of streamfleet, EQ11. Without him this would have been impossible for us, he really does deserve more than just a passing comment. His knowledge and experience in producing shows on stream is a thing to behold, i truly think he is a genius. I am very thankful he is on our team. Even though we can shout at each other sometimes during shows, a beer and a hug in the evening always cemments the team bond. Unmistakably a legend of EVE.

This brings me to Ms Moses, professional does not quite cover this lady. The organisational skills from her real life occupation, have transformed the bootleg way streamfleet used to do things. I now use trello regularly, trust me, for me that is a big step i had to take.She is the calmest person in any situation, her decision making is fast and ( yes I will say it ) always the correct call. I have always said this Lady could take over the world, but only if she wanted to.

Alexsi Aksan, another behind the scenes hero, he will hate me saying this, but I have. His technical knowledge and tournament organisational skills are immense, if not one of the best in the game. To have a team of Alexsi and EQ truly gave me confidence that we could achieve everything asked of us, I really am truly thankful.

Jonny UK, what more can be said of this likely lad? A genuinely talented host. With no scripting and sometimes just a “ this is Uriel, interview him”, no planning or script, he took the mic and smashed it. Considering it was his first EVE meet, let alone doing all he did during it, he truly shows the talent that he commands. Also provided one of the most talked about parts of the stream, who knew a handshake could do so much. Thank you buddy, you did amazing.

CCP DEV’s - Tara you were by our side all weekend, Dopamine we laughed and got annoyed together,  Knight you shared our technical frustrations,  Bjorn you hosted and did awesome, GG the king of Thunderdome, Oracle who would simply do anything thrown at her and of course Guard, THANK YOU. The faith and encoragement from you all has been amazing. Thank you for your belief and help during the weekend. Together we brought Evesterdam to the masses, without your support we could not have achieved this.

There it is Evesterdam, from my point of view. Bring on EVE Russia!!

o7

Raiden