CCP has announced the winners of this year’s election for the Eleventh Council of Stellar Management (CSM 11).
They are:
- Steve Ronuken of Fuzzworks, in Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
- Sullen Decimus of Polaris Rising, in The Bastion
- The Judge of Balkan Mafia, in Circle-of-Two
- Fafer of Tr0pa de elite., in Northern Coalition.
- NoobMan of Hard Knocks Inc., in Hard Knocks Citizens
- Jin’taan of Pentag Blade, in Curatores Veritates Alliance
- Kyle Aparthos of Apotheosis, in TheDivision
- Innominate of GoonWaffe, in Goonswarm Federation
- Bobmon of Habitual Euthanasia, in Pandemic Legion,
- Nashh Kadavr of Sniggerdly, in Pandemic Legion
- Mr Hyde113 of ElitistOps, in Pandemic Legion
- Aryth of GoonWaffe, in Goonswarm Federation
- Xenuria of KarmaFleet, in Goonswarm Federation
- Gorski Car of Sniggerdly, in Pandemic Legion
The two ‘Permanent Seats’ will be occupied by Aryth, of Goonswarm, and Mr Hyde113, of Pandemic Legion. The only returning members from CSM X are Steve Ronuken and Gorski Car.
TMC congratulates all of the winners and wishes them success and sanity in their efforts in the coming year.
During the announcement of the winners, voter turnout was shown to be very low for this year’s election. The CSM has never been a representative group endorsed by all players, so no election has enjoyed 100% backing. Still, voter turnout was especially low for CSM 11. It came as no surprise to CCP.
“[The CSM 10] term was not an easy one, and some of that was our fault, and we’ve already taken steps to get the process around the CSM to a better place.”
– CCP Seagull
CSM 10 saw one member leave for real-life reasons, one kicked for being absent, and a third kicked for undisclosed reasons. It is assumed that the undisclosed reason was related to leaks about changes to capital ships. That controversy in particular irritated voters, who began to see the CSM delegates as using their insider information to create advantages for their friends.
In the transition to this year’s election, incumbent CSM member Sion Kumitomo was disqualified from running due to his affiliation with TheMittani.com. The winter summit suffered from low attendance as some notable CSM members chose to stay home (although many of them attended sessions remotely). Later, the CCP community member in charge of CSM, CCP Leeloo, was transferred to other duties and two senior CCP community team members were put in charge. Among CSM 11 council members, only two have prior CSM experience. Steve Ronuken was elected to CSM 9 and CSM 10, while Gorski Car was brought in partway through both the CSM 9 and CSM 10 terms to replace members who were removed or left.
New faces on the Council
Now that the votes have been counted and our newly elected CSM members have been named, we wait to see how this Council will play out. We are in for a potentially turbulent year. Aryth, one of Goonswarm’s candidates and known for being much more volatile than Sion Kumitomo, earned a permanent seat. This means he will be invited to attend all CSM meetings in Iceland during the CSM 11 term. Xenuria, another controversial Imperium figure, will also be one to watch.
Political friction may factor into CSM 11’s ability to function smoothly with the election of The Judge and Gorski Car. The Judge is a diplomat for Circle of Two, a former Imperium alliance that betrayed the Imperium during the current war. With their abrupt departure, Co2 left many Imperium members stranded in Vale. The Judge has publicly defended Co2’s actions and called for a change in Imperium leadership. Gorski Car, who has had troubles of his own and is a known critic of The Imperium.
Some lesser known figures in EVE politics who were elected include Kyle Aparthos, Bobmon, and Nash Kadavr. Kyle Aparthos is a former leader of Space Monkey’s Alliance, and a former TMC editor. He penned two articles that depicted the SMA triumph over IWANTISK, but later denounced SMA and left to form his own alliance. Bobmon is in charge of EN24 (evenews24.com), and serves as content director there. Nashh Kadavr, former leader of The Bastards, is now with Pandemic Legion (PL). He also runs a news website, EVE_NT (eve-nt.uk), that specializes in player meetups and events, and has organized the well-attended EVE Nottingham meetup for years.
In addition to these personalities, most other the CSM 11 winners are political players aligned with one of two factions: The Imperium (4 members) and MoneyBadgers (6 members, mostly from PL). Among CSM 11 members, only Steve Ronuken and Jin’taan are not politically-focused. Steve is known for his involvement with third-party software development, and Jin’taan is a fleet commander for the Provi Bloc coalition, which has been a neutral presence for years. NoobMan, from wormhole space, is not officially affiliated in the current war but has ties to Pandemic Legion.
In times of war, player alignments become more magnified and often more divisive. With the lineup on CSM 11, the potential for a raucous CSM year is clear. If that happens, next year’s election could see even worse voter turnout. However, if CSM 11 members can rise above their in-game animosities, they have a real opportunity to improve the overall image of CSM.
With the enthusiastic shepherding from the newly-assigned CSM Management team of CCP Guard and CCP Logibro, a results-focused CSM 11 that can pull together might be just what is needed to overcome the CSM’s past challenges. Certainly CCP Guard’s winning smile, optimism and quick humor can only help.
“CCP Seagull is really diving into the project hard with us, it’s awesome.”
– CCP Guard
Oddly enough, getting high level buy-in from Seagull was what Goonswarm’s Aryth suggested in his CSMWatch interview as the key to restoring the Council’s credibility. At the start of every term, optimism reigns that the Council members will conduct themselves in a professional manner and that CCP will engage and listen to their suggestions. This year, with CCP’s seeming interest in resolving communications and other obstacles, there is hope that can happen. Only time will tell.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Matterall.
