When Ethan ‘Katia Sae’ Richards agreed to run a bounty with us, we knew it would be special. Yet we had no idea just how mindblowing the entries would be. They not only took our breath away, but brought tears to Ethan’s eyes. Each winner went above and beyond the call of duty, and you can consider us sincerely humbled.

We’d like to take a moment to thank Ethan for putting on the Grand Tour challenge and for mapping out the route in such detail.

For those that missed it, Katia Sae’s Grand Tour was a celebration of the anniversary of Katia’s decade-long, record-breaking trip through the stars - an achievement that’s been cemented in EVE’s history like very few others. After Ethan mapped out 20 unique locations inspired by the original journey, we challenged our community members to visit them, screenshot them, and document their journey in roleplayed journals.

First place: AlexGoesTheWorld

We awarded first place - and $100 - to AlexGoesTheWorld, aka AlexGoesTheWorld. Upon seeing what they’d created, the thud of our jaws collectively hitting the floor could be heard from California to Caldari Prime. AlexGoesTheWorld created an entire roleplayed travel website - New Eden Voyages - offering four ‘tours’ covering Katia’s route as part of a ‘Sightseeing on the path of Katia Sae Experience’.

The tours range from ‘Safe Thrills’ under the watchful eye of CONCORD to ‘Extreme Thrills’ diving into Anoikis. Each tour comes with its own host, reviews, dining arrangements, sight breakdown, photos, and witty commentary. The website itself is slick, stylish, and professional. There’s so much great detail there, from the logo to the testimonials. But don’t just take our word for it, check it out. You can also find their bounty post here.

Here’s what Ethan had to say:

“Now I must admit I teared up a little reviewing your website. The way you broke up the story from two different points of view with the guide and the passenger - what a great way to engage the reader. Great presentation format; I loved reading it, and I’m looking forward to the rest. - Katia Sae”

Second place: Cpt Armarlio

Just a hair’s breadth behind New Eden Tours is Cpt Armarlio’s entry, which won our $50 prize. After a three-month hiatus from EVE, Armarlio was lured back into the game by the prospect of following in Katia Sae’s footsteps. Like Katia, Armarlio completed the entire 20-stop journey without losing a single ship thanks in no small part to some skilful kiting and bubble busting. Armarlio’s journal is full of top-class game photography, but where it really shines is the roleplay.

Katia’s journey was one of non-aggression. Cpt Armarlio’s was quite the opposite; it was an odyssey of vengeance played out across New Eden with the protagonist forever chasing down his nemesis Harlett Joss. Armarlio went to amazing lengths in their roleplay, including the creation and destruction of alts, weaving Just About’s challenge and Katia Sae’s Grand Tour into the plot, and writing two great poems. It’s an exceptional, clever, and creative piece of storytelling, and we were gripped throughout. You can find Armarlio’s entry here or skip straight to the journal here.

Here’s what Ethan had to say:

“Absolutely love the Grand Tour poem. Well done overall; I really enjoyed reading your RP story, it was a very creative way to incorporate the tour. - Katia Sae”

Third place: Greybill

Our worthy third-place winner comes from greybill who split their entry into three different components: a blog post, a tweet thread, and a video. We recommend starting with the blog post and then moving onto the tweet thread where you’ll find some great screenshots and video shorts showing off the tour’s stops. We particularly love this shot from the Intaki Syndicate Executive Retreat Center.

After checking out the tweets, watch this video for an overview of the journey:

Here’s what Ethan had to say:

“Fantastic! I’ll be heading to your site to catch up on the rest. Well done!”

Runner up: Keacte

Finally, we have FUN INC (Keacte), who like greybill tweeted their journal. They also streamed it in two parts which you can find here and here. You can find Fun Inc’s tweets here, although they also shared all of their gorgeous screenshots on their bounty entry. And when we say gorgeous, we mean it. Don’t believe us? Check out this beauty from the True Creations Pool of Radiance Research Lab in Stain.

Here’s what Ethan had to say:

“Beautiful shots, love it. Thanks so much for taking part!”

Once more, we’d like to thank Ethan for putting together the tour and inspiring the journeys. And we’d like to thank all four of our winners for submitting some of the best bounty entries Just About has ever received. For more on Katia Sae, we highly recommend this interview. You can find the original submissions at the bounty post. Top two images courtesy of Razorien on Flickr.