The interviews are done, the campaigning is over, and the voting begins…

VOTE HERE! Election ends June 15th, don’t wait!

As has been tradition for the past decade Declarations of War is putting out a suggested ballot for our listeners and the Noir. extended family. These candidates are worth your time, trust, and support and we hope you’ll give it to them. Even if you change up the order or switch people out entirely, please use all 10 spots of your ballot and consider them for these quality pilots:

tl;dr

1. Brisc Rubal
2. Stitch Kaneland
3. Suitonia
4. Rixx Javix:
5. i Beast:
6. Phantomite
7. Kenneth Feld
8. Mike Azariah
9. Arsia Elkin
10. Mark Resurrectus

1. Brisc Rubal: Last year we put Brisc at the top spot in our ballot saying “When media or potential players think of the EVE playerbase, I want them to see an image of Brisc in their mind.” And it’s no exaggeration that the support of Declarations of War listeners like you is the main, possibly only, reason he made it on the council last year. And for the entire last year he has proven those votes well earned. You are hard pressed to find CSM members past or present that are as engaged, articulate, hard working, and inclusive as Brisc. He consistently makes himself available to players publicly and privately while working hard to advocate for multiple playstyles and perspectives. Brisc takes representing the entire playerbase seriously and he is phenomenal at it.
2. Stitch Kaneland: Stitch has the focus on ship balance I think the CSM has really been lacking as well as a who’s who background of lowsec and nullsec which includes his membership in legendary pirate alliance and Alliance Tournament Champions The Tuskers. But EVEN COOLER than all of that is one of his signature characteristics: “playing the game with a single character (no alts).” While many players have several accounts and a good portion run at least 2 at a time, that is a playstyle inaccessible to many and steadily increase the burden on even hardcore players. The CSM needs to have a single-account viewpoint in mind when giving feedback, and Stitch is the voice to make that happen.
3. Suitonia: Ship balance has either fallen by the wayside (what happened to rapid fire balance tweaks?) or gone off the rails (fleet interceptors losing passive nullification with no stats changes). Suitonia was The Ship Numbers Guy on CSM 12 and 13, and I suspect it was not a coincidence that the tempo and quality of balance changes was on a higher level that it is today. Hopefully by bringing Suitonia back to the Council, we can bring CCP’s focus back to balance as a content generator.
4. Rixx Javix: A titan of the EVE community, Rixx brings many years of experience working with (and sometimes around) CCP as an artist and member of the EVE media vis his blog EVOGANDA. He also runs A Band Apart./Stay Frosty, which are excellent, fun loving old-school pirate orgs with stellar reputations. If you heard him on our CSM Candidate Panel, you know his passion for EVE and the EVE Community runs high but never so high as to clash regularly with others. In fact, he had great chemistry with the other guests on our show which suggests one of the most anticipated CSM candidates of the year might fit the part quite well.
5. i Beast: Speaking of anticipated candidates, the hype for i Beast aka Lussy Lou is a train that cannot be stopped (or at least we hope so, voters!). He’s one of the most popular EVE YouTubers and Twitch Streamers where he presents high quality small gang PVP and educational for the EVE masses young and old. I expect he’ll have unique perspectives on both ship balance and new player retention, and EVE video content creation .i Beast is also a loud and proud EVE Russian, bringing some needed cultural diversity to the CSM.
6. Phantomite: Phantomite was #2 on our ballot last year and by all accounts he has been a tireless advocate for a lot of great ideas this past year. Other CSM reps have spoken extremely highly of him and his effectiveness as a rep, and his views still resonate strongly with myself and the rest of the DoW cast. Frankly, the only reason he’s not higher is because of the exciting new and returning faces that probably need your support more to get their shot at serving on the council.
7. Kenneth Feld: Every CSM needs an Industry Guy and this year Kenneth Feld is the best choice by a mile. Normally we’d rank this slot lower on the ballot but with the focus on industry, economy, scarcity, and resource distribution this past year that is likely to continue into next year it’s a higher priority. Kenneth has served well on CSM so far and knows the NDA’d context of all of the discussions around those topics so far. He’s classified as a “go-to-guy” from both Artimus and Andy, which is more than enough vouch to make it on this list.
8. Mike Azariah: Mike is a Lorax that speaks for the newbies. He’s few people’s number 1 but winds up on just about everyone’s ballot because even if you’re not a good hearted empire dweller who spends most of their time running a charity for new players, Mike has proven time and time again to being the best highsec CSM representative anyone else could hope to work with on any given issue. He’s a great guy, a great communicator with the community, and generous with both his time and knowledge to the CSM and new players alike.
9. Arisa Elkin: Another lowsec and balance candidate? Yeah you bet your ass! While other candidates on this list have deep general experience with ship balancing, Arisa has actually already articulated some damn good, and in some cases innovative, solutions to some of EVE’s balancing painpoints. She is a Faction Warfare expert as well with some unique and exciting takes to spice up that mechanic without CCP having to redesign it from the ground up. Arisa is also something of a lore and RP expert, which while not a priority does add some fun flavor to the game and enables her to advocate for Pochven/Trig/EDENCOM content and players while not confining her to that perspective.
10. Mark Resurrectus: WH space always used to have a candidate but recently their playerbase has gotten so tribal and fractured that they were unable to mass enough votes behind a single candidate to get them elected. That’s a damn shame because wormholes are one of the most unique mechanics and areas of space in the game. Their perspective should be represented as changes are discussed that could affect WH players differently than in known space, either by type or degree. It sounds like Mark has the best chance of being the one to get that critical mass, so if we have any voting power left over let’s give it to him 🙂

Honorable mentions: Gobbins who as leader of Pandemic Horde will definitely not need anyone’s help getting in but he deserves it anyway if you have a spare spot on your ballot, Jurius Doctor for newbro support and education, Teddy Gbyc for WH, Maldavius for Pochven