CQC games are run to avoid those crazy commanders with a deathwish tearing up your local station. The authorities have authorised arena combat in certain designated locations and what is currently an underground movement open only to a select few (Beta Testing) is going to explode onto the galaxy.
But there is another side which worries right thinking traders like myself - are these arenas going to be used by pirates and other n'ere-do-wells to hone their combat skills which could make trading a whole lot harder. Then again it could be a good place for trader escorts to practice too.
Anyway - I felt I should stop guessing and take a look myself. Through some blackmarket contacts I arranged to join a match. I paid my entry fees and they gave me a battered old F63 condor which I took into a team deathmatch in a Cluster Compound and then an ice field.
What a crazy rush! It is all as I feared - a great way to hone your combat skills and more addictive than Onion Head. Gotta go & play again!
