Weekend Break - Nalvula

Living in the same system for more or less a year makes you familiar with the area, but with familiarity comes boredom, you know exactly what will happen if you shoot a ship belonging to a member of this corporation, he is undoubtably baiting with a Falcon alt cloaked up around him. Therefore, every once in a while I like to go on a "weekend break" as it were, moving a few ships to another system.

For my latest break I decided to move to Ishomilken, home of fellow pirate corporations Fla5hy Red and Python Cartel. Whilst I have had some contact with Python when they lived in Old Man Star, I have not dealt with Fla5hy Red before, just knowing that they were formed from ex-Guristas Associates, another pirate corporation.

My ship of choice was my simple shield Harbinger, packing enough punch to deal with any Battlecruiser solo and having enough speed and agility to outrun the majority of ships out there, making it ideal for solo PvP.

Making my way over there on the 20th of November after finding the area around Hevrice devoid of any activity, I ran into little resistance.

Even when I arrived in Ishomilken, the system was dead. Thus, I moved onto Mara, where I finally found some action. A Falcon was decloaked 100km off a stargate, dropping combat scanner probes. Landing ontop of him, I quickly reduced him to half structure before he could jam me. Unfortunately, a Bhaalgorn, Megathron Navy Issue and Tempest landed ontop of me and I was forced to flee.

Not finding anything else of interest in space, I chose to head towards the 0.0 entry systems in Lonetrek, as there tends to be a ton of PvP happening around these systems. This proved to be correct, as jumping into Nalvula, which was along the way, I spied a Russian Raven doing a mission. A minute later, thanks to my alt I was landing on the acceleration gate to his mission. A minute after that, he was dead, his ship reduced to debris.

The Raven, Caldari Battleship

 Waiting out GCC in a safe spot, a Merlin and Thrasher appeared on D-scan, both with original ship names (X's Merlin etc.). Warping to top belt on a hunch which proved correct as both ships were there. Popping each one took a single volley, same deal with their capsules.

Whilst waiting out my now-renewed Global Criminal Countdown, my scout alt revealed a single Sniggwaffe Hurricane engaging a gang composed of roughly a dozen ships, varying from frigates up to battlecruisers 500km off a stargate. The probes were once again deployed, 30 seconds later my Harbinger landed 50km off the Hurricane and about 70km off the enemy gang. Making a beeline for the gang, the Hurricane warped off. The gang now focusing on me, I managed to pop a suicidal Stabber who was kind enough to plow into me. The rest of the gang warped off as I turned to approach them.

Below is the conversation in local before, during and after the fight.

[ 2010.11.21 00:41:50 ] Vladimir Norkoff > my god you guys are terrible.. it's just ONE hurricane
[ 2010.11.21 00:42:08 ] Vladimir Norkoff > (though tbh I am rooting for the GOON)
[ 2010.11.21 00:48:34 ] mdkREAPERmdk > tusker faggot
[ 2010.11.21 00:48:45 ] mdkREAPERmdk > killmail whore tbh
[ 2010.11.21 00:48:46 ] Suleiman Shouaa > Ouch, wasn't going to fire on you
[ 2010.11.21 00:49:02 ] Vladimir Norkoff > feh... and it was such a good fight
[ 2010.11.21 00:49:14 ] mdkREAPERmdk > you locked me i got scared :(
[ 2010.11.21 00:49:20 ] mdkREAPERmdk > i know pajama sam dont kill meeeee!
[ 2010.11.21 00:49:27 ] Suleiman Shouaa > He knows me :)
[ 2010.11.21 00:49:33 ] mdkREAPERmdk > \o/
[ 2010.11.21 00:50:26 ] Suleiman Shouaa > Gotta love their attitude

Pajama Sam is an ex-Tusker who joined Sniggwaffe. After talking to him in The Tusker's Public Channel, he convinced me mdkREAPERmdk was not as mean as he came across and is a big softie. :)

Returning to my safe spot, I had a quick bio break. When I returned, a Loki had me tackled and was orbitting me at 30km.

The Loki, Strategic Cruiser class 

After a few minutes of shooting him, it was clear that I was unable to break his tank due to Minmatar T3 Resists against Lasers and he was unwilling to come in closer so I simply burnt away from him and warped off.

I docked up to repair, whilst in the meantime my alt spotted a Deimos in a safe spot. Recognising the ship name as one of the members of the gang from earlier, I secured a warp in with my alt and quickly dispatched him. A quick look in local revealed that he had actually logged off with aggression, which would not stand. Probing down his capsule after it finished emergency warping, I popped that as well.

Docking up again, but this time to drop off loot, I spied a Proteus with a Oneiros on scan. Narrowing them down using the scanner, within mere seconds it was clear they were running a mission: mission NPC rat wrecks were on scan with them. Once again cracking out the probes, my alt started working on them. Shortly afterwards I was in warp to the spot he had probed down.

Unfortunately, they had left the mission but it was still active, judging by the number of rats still left. Waiting a few minutes in a pounce safe-spot, I warped in again but they managed to escape before I could target them. After a few more minutes of this being repeated, I noticed the Oneiros was simply sitting in a safe spot close to the mission whilst the Proteus warped in first to check it out. Probing him down was trivial and in no time at all I was tearing through his armor. Holding him in place in low structure, I wanted to tempt his Proteus buddy out, but after a few minutes it was clear he wasn't coming so I therefore finished him off, with his capsule escaping.

At this point, I went AFK for 15-30 minutes in a station. After undocking, I noticed the Loki pilot from before being outside the station in a Deimos. As he warped off, I noticed his direction and sent my alt over there to investigate. He was clearing a Radar site, which I had conventionality probed down earlier. Warping in with my main, he ran back to the station before I finished landing.

Once back on station, I decided to toy with him, to see if he would engage me. Ungrouping my guns, I started firing two lasers out of seven at him, hoping he would take the bait. After some chatter in local, engage me he did! Opening fire with all seven lasers, I easily broke through his tank and he started running away. Unfortunately, I got stuck on the station and he got away. :(

Local before and after:

[ 2010.11.21 02:05:22 ] Lady Thanatos > I don't know what is worse
[ 2010.11.21 02:05:25 ] Lady Thanatos > a deimos tanking you
[ 2010.11.21 02:05:29 ] Lady Thanatos > or you engaging on a station
[ 2010.11.21 02:06:51 ] Suleiman Shouaa > Where I'm from we actually engage on stations
[ 2010.11.21 02:07:04 ] Lady Thanatos > I'm sure you do
[ 2010.11.21 02:07:10 ] Lady Thanatos > and ruin your pretty killboard?
[ 2010.11.21 02:07:17 ] Lady Thanatos > I don't think I've ever heard such a lie
[ 2010.11.21 02:07:30 ] Suleiman Shouaa > You must not pvp much
[ 2010.11.21 02:07:42 ] Lady Thanatos > never do
[ 2010.11.21 02:08:59 ] Lady Thanatos > not going to engage again?
[ 2010.11.21 02:09:34 ] Suleiman Shouaa > Just wasting charges if you won't fire back
[ 2010.11.21 02:09:39 ] Lady Thanatos > fine
[ 2010.11.21 02:09:40 ] Lady Thanatos > I will this time
[ 2010.11.21 02:11:43 ] Lady Thanatos > ehhe told you I would

Deciding I had enough fun in this system, I moved on, entering Sniggwaffe's home system. Despite this, I found nothing undocked so I headed back to Nalvula. One of the members of Python that I knew from my Assault Frigate Tournament was in local - IEATCRAYONS so I had a brief chat with him before checking out a small loop of systems. Passing through into Nalvula again, I found 2 Drakes with GCC sitting on a stargate. Warping in at range, I started pewpewing them and took them both down.

Megathron, Gallente battleship

Heading back to Ishomilken, I docked and logged in Aurohunen after attempting to kill a neutral Megathron on a stargate. He was in 5% structure as I was forced to warp off, with me also being in 5% structure. Was very, very close, if I had slightly more tank I would have killed him.

And thus ended the first day of my break. More was to follow.

Rend

As mentioned in a previous blogpost, I lost my Abaddon after many glorious battles and purchased a new one, calling it Rend after someone suggested it in the comments for that blogpost.

Rend, my new flagship

Eager to test it out in battle, I threw it into many situations where a simple Battlecruiser would not suffice. Unfortunately, most people are intimidated by its mere presence and decided to either dock up or leave the field once it arrived.

However, I finally found an opportunity to use it in glorious combat. Late at night on a weekday, just before turning in, on a whim I decided to scan down any wormholes near Hevrice to see if there was anything to kill. Joking around with corpmates on Ventrilo, someone mentioned that knowing my luck, I would find 4 Tengus running Sleeper sites whilst I was in the midst of jumping into a wormhole. Pulsing the directional scanner as I was about to retort, I spied 3 Nighthawks and a Drake on scan, but with no POS on scan meaning they were running sleeper sites!

A Nighthawk, Caldari Command Ship

Mentioning this over comms, my corpmates started asking whether I was kidding or not. Assuring them I was not, we quickly assembled a fleet together after gathering further intel, such as the fact that the wormhole system was a Class 3 Wolf-Rayat system, giving moderate bonuses to armor resists whilst giving moderate penalties to shield resists. All in all, we rallied together 3 Amarr Battleships along with our own Drake, as well as a Heavy Interdictor for initial tackle on the wormhole entrance.

As my alt reported that they were warping to the next site, our Broadsword jumped into the wormhole and was warped to the next site courtesy of a second scouting alt. Moments later, "Bubble up" was heard and the rest of the fleet warped in. They all fell, despite them scattering in different directions in an attempt to pull away.

With the Heavy Interdictor preventing their pods warping off, we grabed individual points, in several cases chasing pods down with the Battleships. A hefty ransom of 500M was paid for the pods. All in all, we made a quick ~750M once the Nighthawks as well as the Sleeper wrecks were salvaged. After insurance, this would almost pay for the price of Rend, a good start! But I wanted more, and did I get it!

To be continued... 

Presents!

Hey, Merry Christmas to you all!

My present to you guys will be increased activity on this blog, at least until I run out of steam! I have a huge backlog of posts lined up, so this should be good!

Also, for increased holiday joy, the first 3 people to comment on this post will receive 25M ISK directly to their character!

Merry Christmas guys!

Tweaked - Design

I've been busy lately and have been spending my "blogging time" on improving the look of the blog, with the help of fellow Tusker Tressin Khiyne who has designed the new banner and the background.

So, what do you guys think?

Profession

Many players who play Eve suggest that it is impossible to make a profit off piracy, that there are simply too many blobs running around that a solo or small gang specialized pirate has no way to generate revenue and must accumulate wealth through other, various means.

A player could be a ratter, warping from asteroid belt to asteroid belt in 0.0. Another could be a market whizz, manipulating the market of Jita in order to maximise his profits. And the last could be a mission runner, tirelessly running Level 4 missions (or perhaps even Level 5 missions!) in order to generate the ISK he needs. All that ISK produced is then (typically) channeled into his PvP, purchasing new ships and new fittings and then taking them out, losing them and starting all over again.

Why not break the cycle? Why not produce ISK whilst PvPing? Wouldn't that save time and increase your enjoyment of Eve?

Most call it economy unfeasible. Other, wiser individuals know that it is possible up until a point depending on the ship classes you fly. For example, Tusker CEO Ka Jolo blogged about it at length, discussing the fact that he was easily making a profit PvPing whilst flying a T1 Frigate but it became suddenly more difficult to keep out of the red once he started flying T2 Frigates which cost significantly more and then almost tipping over when he started flying T2 Cruisers on a regular basis.

Nowadays, it is common to see him in a Battlecruiser, a fairly inexpensive ship class for the amount of firepower it can lay down.

Now then, what about anyone else? In the Tuskers, we have a fair few pilots who have to resort to other methods to fund their PvP, roughly 40%. The rest tend to earn just enough ISK to stay afloat as long as they keep their spending in check.

Now, for the final case study, myself. I get a few fair Evemails from fans and victims asking why I do what I do; why I am a pirate. The reason? Simply put, it is the only profession in Eve where I can make ISK whilst enjoying myself the entire time I am playing. I have tried mission running, I have tried ratting and they are boring. Dedicating time to generate enough ISK to do what I want later is a waste of time for me, when I could be out there having fun and making a profit.

 Now then, the final question is how much ISK do I earn? They say a picture is worth a thousand words so..

Yes, I am a handsome chap

Conclusions

Piracy is a profession like any other and you can indeed make a profit out of it. Whilst it appears relatively small compared to other sources, this is not a true indicator of how revenue I get. Currently, I am waiting to receive about 500M worth of loot splits from various fights I have been in. On top of that, I have also invested a substantial amount of ISK into my alt whilst at the same time for my future development by purchasing multiple ships I cannot currently fly yet, just sitting in my hangar and gathering dust, at least for now. They are not earning me ISK and are currently just a dead weight.

Back to Lowsec - Faction makes everything better

After killing the Brutix and the Rupture and the locals being suitably annoyed, I decided to leave on a high point and make my way back to Hevrice. The journey was uneventful and in no time at all I was safely docked in Hevrice VI station.

After a short rest, I headed towards Adirain, still in my Shield Harbinger. Aeschee itself was clear, whilst in Adirian there were signs of activity, with ships moving between the IV station and the V station. Warping to the V station, I decided to wait and see what the Roughnecks would bring out.

I would not be disappointed, as a Drake and a Hurricane promptly undocked and began firing on me. Judging by the incoming DPS, it was clear that the Hurricane was armor tanked and the Drake had no Ballistic Control units fitted, but instead a passive shield setup in his low slots.

Pulling away from their slow Battlecruisers through a single cycle of my MWD, I warped to top belt and awaited their arrival as I did not wish to fight on their home station, where reinforcements could suddenly arrive from.

After positioning myself far enough away from the center of the belt that I would initially be out of range of the Hurricane whilst still being able to point them, the pair arrived. I immediately pointed and began firing on the Hurricane, as he was significantly faster then his comrade whilst also packing more firepower. His armor buffer slowly dropped as I manually piloted in such a way that I could stay within 24km of him whilst steering clear of the Drake.

Suddenly, a neutral Megathron arrived in the belt.

The Megathron, Battleship class ship hull

Glancing through the new arrival's employment history it was clear that he was unaffiliated with the Roughnecks and indeed, the Roughneck Drake warped off. However, as I was busy checking through the employment history, I lost point on the Hurricane and he warped off in low armor. Unsure of what the Megathron pilot's intentions were, I decided to lay the first blow by both firing and pointing him from a safe distance. As his armor buffer went down surprisingly quickly, I noticed that my capacitor was running dangerously low and a quick look at my ship revealed the cause: the Megathron had a heavy energy neutralizer fitted and was directing it at me!

With the Megathron at 30% armor and seemingly content with just neutralizing my capacitor, I decided to hang around and see if I could finish him off. At this point however, the Megathron's reinforcements arrived: another Megathron, a Hurricane and a pair of Guardians, fearsome Logistics Cruisers capable of repairing damaged ships in mere seconds. With my eyes, I could see the damage I had inflicted on the Megathron being repaired and I was forced to warp off.

A pair of Guardians transferring capacitor as well as remote armor reps between them

Calling out on Ventrilo for reinforcements, several pilots included Tusker CEO Ka Jolo reported they were close by and willing to lend a hand. Requesting Battleship support with Heavy Neutralizers in order to drain the Guardians dry and prevent them from lending their aid, my corpmates quickly reshipped and in a matter of minutes, were sitting on the Adirain gate in Aeschee, with my main on the other side of the stargate with my alt nearby ready to provide warpins.

Ordering the fleet to jump in and hold cloak, I fleet warped us to one of the Guardians. As we landed, there was only that Guardian and a Megathron in the belt. Once we acquired targetting locks and had both ships pointed, we focused all our DPS as well as our Ewar on the Guardian who promptly exploded as the other Guardian and Megathron arrived back in the belt. The new Guardian wisely warped in at range so he would not share the same fate as his ally, but this provided to be only delay the inevital as he was soon tackled and vaporised.

At this point, we ripped straight through their Battleships, as without their Logistics support they fell quickly and cleanly, with no losses on our side. After the expected "gf"s in local, we started looting the wrecks. The casual conversation on Ventrilo was broken with someone exclaiming that the Guardian wreck he was looted contained Faction loot. Curious, I asked him to link the items in Fleet Chat. When he did, silence descended on Ventrilo as he had linked an fairly ordinary C-Type Armor Hardener but also a Officer Armor Hardener, which often sell for 1B ISK each.

At the same time, another pilot in the fleet spoke up and said that the Guardian wreck he was looting also contained a Faction Armor Hardener as well as a Officer Hardener. After a quick glance at the overview to make sure both members of the fleet were not talking about the same wreck, I asked him to confirm this by linking the items in Fleet, which only took him a few seconds.

Payday

 

 

Heading back to Hevrice was quiet and we docked up once we arrived, itching to get out of the terribly slow Battleships we had brought with us.

However, in a curious twist of fate it turned out the Drake that had warped off the belt in the beginning had actually warped to a stargate and had opened fire on the other Megathron, who had promptly dispatched him.

Within an hour we had returned to Adirain and finding the original Roughneck Hurricane that had fought me in in a safe spot, I probed him and annihilated him, keeping him alive long enough to see if backup would show which they didn't. Before turning in for the night, I returned to Adirain once more and killed another Roughneck Drake, this one piloted by the same pilot as before, also in top belt.

0.0 Antics

Whilst I am a low sec pirate, I like to dabble in 0.0, mostly because of the change of pace; in 0.0  you are much more likely to stir the nest by simply passing through the area, leading to some great fights. Case in point a few days ago.

ItsmeHck1, a fellow Tusker was conducting a roam through Syndicate 0.0 with ex-Hellcat eviwyn, now a member of Shadow Cartel, a pirate alliance who lives close to the Tuskers.

By the time I logged on, they were already in 0.0 and I hastened to catch up to them in my shield Harbinger. When I finally arrived in Syndicate, they were engaging a Vindicator running a mission with a Basilisk and Scimitar. Unsurprisingly, they both died as the Vindicator was PvP fit and they were unable to break the Remote Reps coming from the Logistics Cruisers, allowing for reinforcements to come in, namely two Sleipnirs and a Sabre.

Determined to not make the trip wasted, I started moving around the surrounding area looking for a fight. Jumping into F67E-Q from the 0.0 entry system MHC-R3 there was a Rupture waiting on the other side of the Stargate, possibly tipped off from one of the cloaked pilots in MHC.

The Rupture, the most offensive of Minmatar Cruisers with a double damage bonus

Knowing that he would be either armor tanked, in which case I could kite him or he would be shield tanked, in which case I should slice straight through him with my Heavy Pulse Laser IIs, I decloaked and immediately overheated my MWD and burnt away whilst firing back at the Rupture with Scorch M, hoping to pull him off the gate. And pull him off the gate I did!

As he burnt after me, judging by his velocity and the fact that I annihilated his shields in two shots whilst almost hitting a brick wall once he got into armor, I was able to determine that he was armor tanked. Furthermore, judging by the slow progress I was making through his armor, it was likely that he was max-tanked, ie. 1600mm plate + Trimarks + Energized Adaptive Membranes + Damage Control which meant his damage output was rather pultry with just a rack of 180mm Autocannons. Still, it meant that he could possible stay alive long enough for me to run out of capacitor and be a sitting duck.

Just as I overheated my guns in order to get the fight over with as soon as possible, the MHC stargate flashed as a newcomer appeared in local. A second later, he decloaked, revealing a Brutix Battlecruiser.

Maximum gank, minimal tank. The way of the dreaded Brutix

As he decloaked, he sped towards me, ignoring the damaged Rupture, meaning that they were allies together. Judging by his velocity, he was very likely to be shield tanked, the most extreme version of the Brutix with the maximum amount of firepower and enough tank to last until it arrived in the heart of the enemy, ready to rip it out with its fearsome firepower. My plan to deal with it? Keep enough distance between me and the Brutix so that he couldn't scramble me and turn off my microwarpdrive whilst still keeping within 24km of the Rupture in order to keep it pointed.

Unfortunately, this became complicated as the Rupture turned around and started moving back towards the Brutix. Cursing, I gave chase whilst still pouring damage onto it. As the Rupture slipped into low armor, I was forced to toggle heat off my guns lest they melt, reducing my DPS.

The Rupture finally reached the Brutix, but instead of stopping he kept burning, undoubtably trying to force me to run past the Brutix to get the kill, who could easily grab me. Instead, I chose to change my course and moved upwards, allowing me to still follow the Rupture and keep firing on him whilst not running into the Brutix.

As the Rupture finally entered structure, my capacitor was low, a result of running my microwarpdrive, cap heavy lasers and my warp disruptor for two minutes full throttle. As he managed to put some extra distance on me, I was forced to take a more direct approach, bringing me even closer to the Brutix who was now 16km from me and closing.

At this point the Rupture was 32km away from me and in he was in 10% structure. Already congratulating myself as there was no way he could warp off before I could fire a last volley, I could only look on in shock as he managed to warp off towards a station. My heart started pounding as I realised the Brutix was now only 15km off me with my capacitor level now down to 20% of maximum. Giving myself two last bursts of overheated microwarpdrive speed boost, I pulled enough range and warped to the station. As I arrived, the Rupture docked and I was forced to do the same, repairing the heat damage on my guns as the Rupture was no doubt repairing the damage to his armor.

Thinking back in the quiet of the station, the only explanation I could come up with for why the Rupture had managed to warp off was that he was aligning to the station whilst burning, something I had neglected to check for when I looked at his ship.

A Curse, the perfect counter to Amarr gunships

 Moving my scouting alt into the area, I noticed a few more ships out in the system, in total the Brutix, a Curse and two Ruptures. The Curse in particular worried me, due to him being able to suck my capacitor dry in seconds, which would prevent me from firing my lasers. Whilst it is possible to solo a Curse in a Harbinger, it is very tricky and requires a significant amount of luck.

However, I was determined to at least kill one ship. Warping to the planet closest to the stargate they were waiting at, I sat there and waited for them to land.

Shortly afterwards, the Brutix landed and I immediately set to warp, putting my drones on him and keeping him at 20km. As I thought, he was shield tanked and only slightly slower then me. As he entered armor, he was unable to close in but still kept chasing me. Panicking, he must have called in his gank and as they arrived, they were 70km off due to me kiting him away from his initial position.

Overheating my guns, and in a bid to prevent him from running away, I turned off my microwarpdrive and allowed him to tackle me as I reduced him to half armor. His gang all burnt towards me, with the Curse topping up at a healthy 2km/s. As soon as he got within 24km of me, I would be easily to pin down. As he hit structure, I cursed Gallente for having remarkably thick structure as my damage slowed down as the Curse rapidly approached.

Curse @ 45km: Brutix at 75% structure
Curse @ 37km: Brutix at 50% structure, Curse is applying neuts, must be faction, at 50% capacitor
Curse @ 30km: Brutix at 25% structure, Curse's neuts have cycled, at 25% capacitor
Curse @ 25km: Brutix down, spam warp with no capacitor left, GOGOGO

And I managed to get out!

gf gf!

Docked up and went AFK for a few minutes to calm down. When I turned, my alt spotted the Rupture I had engaged earlier camping a bubble on my out-gate, in line with the station. Warping to the planet near the outgate then to the stargate allowed me to bypass the bubble and I started moving towards the Rupture. As I hoped, he started chasing me, with me kiting him again, keeping a very close eye on both his relative velocity to me and his range.

As he dropped into low armor, a Guardian suddenly appeared on grid! Luckily for me, the Guardian got stuck in the Rupture's own bubble and was forced to watch from 100km away as I annihilated his corpmate, unable to provide his remote repair as the Rupture was thankfully out of range. Scooping the loot, I was pleased to see some faction items which would sell nicely. Transferring them to my alt's cargo hold, I headed back to Hevrice to see what other scraps I could get into.

To be continued later..

CCP Lovechild

Quick post this time.

Logging on today, I just intended to change skills. However, having a quick look through the area revealed a small neutral gang hanging around stargates. After checking employment histories, they all seemed relatively old, but with several having the grand title of "Miner Associate" I figured they would be inexperienced. This would later prove to be the case. Their fleet consisted of:

• Megathron
• Hyperion
• Drake
• Prophecy
• Cyclone
• Imperial Navy Slicer
• Cormorant

After trying multiple times to separate the Slicer or the Cormorant away from the rest of their gang in my Wolf, I was unsuccessful but managed to get aggression from all of them, allowing me to return fire on them for the next 15 minutes on stargates without the deadly sentry guns opening up on me. Racing back to Hevrice, I swapped my Wolf to a Shield Harbinger. Hurrying back to Aeschee, I saw their gang jump into Ladistier. Using my alt in a Cheetah, designation Mjöllnir, I was able to watch them burn back to the gate, obviously waiting for me to jump into them.

As I was preparing to do so, Burntime, a famous PvPer jumped into them also and started engaging in his Tempest. Following his example, I did the same, luckily still having aggression against their entire fleet. Burning away from both Burntime's Tempest and the enemy gang, I immediately started firing on their support, bringing their Cormorant to half structure before he jumped back into Aeschee, along with their Slicer. At the same time, Burntime vaporised the Cyclone. As the enemy gang warped off or jumped back into Aeschee, we only managed to snag their Drake.

The Drake, a deadly foe

After chasing their remaining ships around Ladistier, they moved onto Old Man Star, a den of pirates whilst Burntime logged off. After finding them on the high security stargate in Old Man Star, I was struck with how to get them to aggress me again; their original aggression timer of 15 minutes had long since finished. After warping in at different ranges in an attempt to get them to fire on me, I tried something a corpmate suggested.

Nova Blackadder > Anything going on tonight?
Suleiman Shouaa > Was trying to solo a noob BS/BC gang
Suleiman Shouaa > Burntime had the same idea, so we killed a few then the rest ran
Anxiir > lol
Nova Blackadder > heh
Suleiman Shouaa > And now they're hugging a high sec gate
Causticum > off to bed, night guys
Nova Blackadder > bah wish I could help you out there Sule
Nova Blackadder > gn Caus
Suleiman Shouaa > I wish they would shoot me
Suleiman Shouaa > Trying to figure out a way I can get them to aggress me
Suleiman Shouaa > Without getting within 5km of the BS
Suleiman Shouaa > Think I will try the jump through when they shoot me
Nova Blackadder > did you try the old "eject 1 ammo in a can" then rename it to you and fire it so they see that Suleiman is firing at "You", trick?
Suleiman Shouaa > Nope
Suleiman Shouaa > That sounds pretty sneaky.
Nova Blackadder > doesnt always work but sometimes it does. Always worth a shot
Suleiman Shouaa > True
Suleiman Shouaa > Well, if that fails
Suleiman Shouaa > I might risk the high sec jump through
Suleiman Shouaa > Its only a 0.5...

But even that didn't work! I decided to try my last resort: warp to the Villore stargate at 0km, wait until they all have aggressed me, jump into Villore, warp off the Old Man Star stargate before I get scrambled by the Faction Police (they don't like -10.0 sec status pirates) , turn around and warp back to the Old Man Star stargate at 0km, jump back into Old Man Star, burn away from the Villore stargate and see if I can kill anything. Sounds tricky right? And this is before you consider the fact that if there just happened to be a neutral on the other side of the stargate with a Warp Disruptor, I would be incredibly screwed.

I tried it anyway.

Thankfully, the plan went according to plan until I landed back on the Old Man Star stargate. Waiting for me was a small Gallente FW gang with several Battleships, a HAC as well as a Taranis. Jumping back into Old Man Star, I successfully managed to burn away from the stargate, taking the Slicer to half structure before he managed to warp off. However, I nailed the Cormorant, turned around once I was 100km from the stargate and attempted to kill the Eagle that was following me. Unfortunately, he had quite a sturdy tank so I was forced to disengage before my capacitor ran low. As I stayed aligned in my near-safe to the Villore gate, I was chatted to in local by the Cormorant's buddies.

Vladimir Draco > Suleiman Shouaa r u CCP's lovechild?
Suleiman Shouaa > ?
Vladimir Draco > it appear u r immune to gate guns and concord, well done bro
Vladimir Draco > respect
Suleiman Shouaa > What are you talking about?
Suleiman Shouaa > This is low sec, there is no concord.
Vladimir Draco > u went to high numb nutz
Suleiman Shouaa > Yep.
Suleiman Shouaa > But I didn't have gcc.
Suleiman Shouaa > Perhaps you should stay in high sec til you figure out the difference between agression & gcc
Vladimir Draco > -10
Vladimir Draco > killed in any high
Suleiman Shouaa > Yes, the faction police don't like me.
Suleiman Shouaa > concord tolerate me unless if I have gcc.
Suleiman Shouaa > Perhaps you should brush up on your knowledge of timers
Vladimir Draco > ok, I will put u in the WTF category

Suleiman Shouaa == Love Child?!

Now considering Low sec is considered to be CCP's "Ignored Child" compared to 0.0, High Security and Wormhole space, I find it quite amusing that I am CCP's Love Child. Wonder if this means I can shop in Jita without Faction Police going crazy? Only one way to find out....

Death of a Leviathan

Today, on November 3rd I finally lost my flagship, Rend, class Abaddon Battleship.

The details of how and why it fell in combat shall be told, but first, a glimpse into the past, to see why I thought of it as my flagship.

Rend died before I had the foresight to make a screenshot

 The Beginning - Acquiring Rainbow

Over a year ago, last August, I was a fledging pirate living in Verge Vendor. I was not yet a Tusker, but chose to fly with them in small gangs causing chaos where we passed through, rocking our foes like a Hurricane. One of my favorite activities to do was probe down mission runners in Aeschee and exact a toll on them, a mission tax as I liked to call it.

My preferred method of payment was a simple ISK transfer, but for a few special clients I was willing to accept their ship as a guarantee of their pod safety. At the time, I was training support skills and could only fly up to Amarr Cruisers in PvP, albeit with T1 turrets. So for me, hunting down the Battleships running missions in and around Aeschee satisfied my need to fly larger ships in PvP by destroying or taxing the lumbering beasts.

And so it was in late August that I quickly located a Abaddon class Battleship running a mission in Aeschee itself. Assuming a crack Tusker team, we set upon the vessel and quickly locked it down. Whilst commencing ransom negiotations, the pilot chose to eject from his ship in his capsule and promptly warped off.

Once the shock ran off, we set about finding someone who could actually fly the blasted thing. Glancing at my skillsheet, I was suprised to notice that I already had Amarr Battleship trained to III, the necessary level to fly the Abaddon, due to my dark history of running missions in an Apocalypse before turning to the light of piracy.

Boarding the vessel, my heart was pounding. Finally, I was in control of one of the most advanced spaceships known to man. The fitting however was truly attrocius. Armed with multiple sized lasers, some large and some medium, each with a different crystal loaded. By firing them all, I could create a very pretty rainbow of laser pewpew which dazzled my allies, but could barely scratch the shields off a Drake. Bringing the vessel back to my base took a few minutes, but once I docked it up I set about acquiring the fittings in order to make it shine.

Looking at appropiate turrets for it (Mega Pulse Laser IIs), I was dismayed to see that they were still a long, long distance off, requiring me to train T2 Medium Lasers as well as Large Energy Turret to V. Plugging the skills into my Evemon skill plan, it calculated that I would be able to fly my Abaddon with T2 Large Guns in December, a few days before Christmas.

Opening the Present - Dud

Just before the Tusker Christmas Party, I finally finished my training queue and I was ready to fit Mega Pulse Laser IIs on my prized ship. Once fitted, I asked for a test subject. A Tusker came forward in a Drake and I directed my lasers at him, testing out Imperial Navy Multifrequency L first, followed by Scorch L. I was incredibly impressed at how quickly I could swap ranges whilst still maintaining 90% of my close range DPS once I loaded Scorch.

However, I was less then impressed by its close ranged DPS. A quick discussion with various Tuskers quickly solved the issue, it turned out that my gunnery support skills, whilst adequate for Cruiser sized turrets, were not up to scratch for Battleship sized turrets. Therefore, I would need to do some more training to get as much out of my Abaddon as possible.

Opening the Present Redone - Jackpot!

After spending a few more months training up my support skills, I was ready to step back into the Abaddon.Immediately I could notice the difference, I could lock even faster, lock even further and do even more damage, from both my lasers and my new T2 Heavy Drones.

Finally, I was ready to use it in PvP, but not before christening it with a new name, to strike fear into the hearts of the unbelievers. I settled on Rend, for I would rend the layers of armor from their hulls until naught remained.

Bringing it to the frontline

The area around Hevrice is fairly active, with large FW gangs passing through it several times a day. In addition, Russians also like to frequent the area, taking a break from 0.0 or their mundane tasks in high security space. Therefore, one must be careful about when and where to deploy such a fearsome beast, least it become bogged down or attract too much attention.

Despite that, I still made good use of it, most recently:

•  An absolutely epic chain of fights in a wormhole. Started off with killing a Damnation with my corpmate in a Stiletto tackling. The Damnation was running Sleeper sites and called in his corpmate in a Drake after stalling for time by asking for a ransom and not settling on the details. Improper use of MWD and my Neutralizer led to me running out of capacitor charges. However, I managed to warp off in half structure by diverting all remaining capacitor to my Neutralizer which temporarily turned off his Warp Disruptor. Returning to K-Space (Known Space), I docked up and repaired my damage (the repair bill was 20M, yikes!) before returning with more capacitor charges. By now more corpmates of the Damnation had logged on, but we had another Tusker arrive in his Stabber. Managed to get them to engage at a planet, killing a Drake and then a Hound before once again running out of cap boosters and suffering heavy damage. After topping up again after footing another 20M repair bill, I returned and finish the job, killing the rest of their gang with impunity, ending with their Legion, which coincedently was my first ever Legion kill and also securing me a kill of every single T3 ship. 

• Baiting in Old Man Star top belt V - 1 at 0 for a Covert Cyno gang. We killed a prominent Caldari Faction Warfare FC in his Hurricane when he came in to tackle me for his 15 man gang Assault Frigate and got out before they could tackle me, despite not being aligned. However, I chose to warp to a Russian POS which started firing on me. I still however managed to get out in 80% armor. 

• Baiting Roughnecks a little while later with the same gang behind me. Managed to kill 2 Myrmidons but somehow their Dominix warped off, possible due to stabs.  

• Busting a SCUM. Alliance gatecamp in Ostingele with some ex-corpmates, before Naxias from PODLA arrived and all parties left the field. More ships were present, but due to not all of them being on Killmails, they are not shown.

•  Logging on the next day, intending to bring the Abaddon back to Hevrice but instead acting as bait for once again, a Covert Cyno gang. This time however for Spiritus Draconis, some friends/foes who live near us. Managed to ensnare SCUM. Alliance again.

•  Fun with some neutrals after heading back with the Covert Cyno gang.

• After taking a brief break, logging back on again I found myself camped into a station by a neutral Megathron, Pilgrim and Thorax. After some careful testing and some luck with the Megathron shooting another neutral and thus incurring the wrath of the Sentry Guns, I managed to deal with the Pilgrim and the Thorax, with the Megathron docking up in half armor. 

•  Another epic fight, again with Roughnecks. They killed a corpmate in a rather unsportly fight, so we decided to get some revenge. Despite them fielding a much heavier force then we expected, forcing us to retreat,we dove back in and came out with several kills for 0 losses, despite them fielding both Logistics Cruisers as well as a Carrier. Unfortunately, the Battle Report is incorrect due to an earlier Tusker gang passing through the system a few hours ago. The correct list of ships can be found in the Comments section of the Raven Killmail.

• Helped kill a missioning Thanatos flown by Athiest Syndicate 4 jumps from their home system.

• Coming back after a night out and taking my Abaddon out to play near Aeschee. Managed to pull some Roughnecks off their stations using my alt as bait in a Hurricane. Killed their Myrmidon, however due to their ECM drones getting two jams off on me, it took longer than I expected as he was able to rep up my damage between cycles. However, with careful use of my own ECM drones as well as some luck, I managed to bail out in 10% armor by jamming both their Drake and their Ferox. After docking up, they camped me into a station until I logged off. 

The fall of a Titan

However, all good things must come to an end. After a fairly uneventful pseudo-roam, with only one fight worth mentioning which consisted of us attempting to tackle two Drakes and a Tengu running a mission and then them bringing in more guys after they warped off. Eventually, they had Logistics on the field and it was time to bail. My Shield Harbinger got out in half structure, which was good, but then warped to a station with GCC and Agression Timer which was bad. It was also bad that one of the Drakes that warped off was also there, but thankfully he was just out of point range as I warped off in 30% structure, thankfully to a belt this time.

After spending some time looking for more targets, fellow Tusker Tsubutai found a small gang of 2 Brutixes, a Hurricane, an Arazu and a Falcon sitting on a wormhole entrance a few jumps from Hevrice. After rounding up a fairly well mixed gang, consisting of my Abaddon as bait, Tsubutai in a Artillery Hurricane with ECCM fitted to kill their Falcon, new Tusker recruit leyo690 in a Shield AC Hurricane, Kishin Hattori in his Dramiel (which he has blogged about here) as well as fellow Tusker Director Robert Mason in his own Falcon, we set off.

After an eventful journey, where we encountered two other gangs in only 4 jumps, we arrived and I warped at 30km to the wormhole they were sitting out, hoping to draw them away from the entrance so they could not keep jumping and out to avoid being killed. However, they were having none of that and all of them promptly jumped in!

After warping out and warping back in, I finally got a response as their Arazu and Falcon decloaked, pointing me and jamming me as their Battlecruisers jumped back. Calling my gang in, I declared the Falcon the primary and he promptly disappeared, his odd choice of tank giving him no real benefit at all. Our Falcon called out that he was surrounded by drones and pointed by the Arazu. Just as we began setting into the Arazu, Robert Mason called out that he was down, despite smartbombing as many drones as possible. Mere seconds later, their Arazu disappeared from this universe.

At this point, we switched attention to their Battlecruisers, which had been pounding relentlessly on me during the entire fight up until this point. As I saw my armor slowly drop, I called a shield Hurricane primary. Unfortunately, he managed to slip away as he entered low shields and warped off. At this point, I was entering 30% armor and had the opportunity to slip away, as I was not pointed. As I contemplated it, I chose instead to stay since it appeared we had the edge. Unfortunately, this proved to be the wrong decision as all the remaining Battlecruisers on the field for the enemy all decided to point me. My death assured, I could only overheat everything at the 2nd Shield Hurricane. He slipped into the void mere seconds before I exploded in a glorious explosion of purest light.

With my death, the fleet no longer had a solid anchor and we were forced to disengage and consolidate, holding the field.

As I warped my pod off the battlefield, I thought to myself not of regret, but of fate. That was a damn good send-off.

The Aftermath

Even as I type this, I am purchasing a new Abaddon hull, along with full fittings. Rend earned its keep, and I can only hope its replacement can step into its boots, which are mighty indeed. 

P.S. I like Lasers

Any suggestions for the name of my new Abaddon? If I ultimately choose your name, I will send you 100M and mention you here.

A Glimpse at Chaos

When playing Eve, I often find myself listening to the same songs, as they seem to...fit. Below are a few highlights, in no particular order:


Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle
Devil May Cry 4 Soundtrack - Shall Never Surrender
Emiya - Kenji Kawai ver
Ready Steady Go - L'Arc En Ciel
Lost Prophets - Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
Pendulum - Witchcraft
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
The Script - The Man who can't be Moved
Skankfunk - Sky-2-High
Sum 41 - No Reason
Super Smash Bros Melee - Mute City Theme
TobyMac - Ignition

Of course, the song I am listening to depends on what exactly I am doing. For example, if I am raiding a wormhole, the songs I seem to be drawn towards are Knights of Cydonia as well as The Man who can't be Moved, as wormhole PvP is mostly waiting, building up tension and then a sudden release. Therefore, songs that slowly build up to their climax tend to mesh well, providing a perfect harmony of destruction & music.

Artwork for the single, Knights of Cydonia

In times when I am already involved in brutal PvP against another gang or solo, a louder song is more appropriate, with a much higher tempo. For these situations, I turn to No Reason and Ignition to get into the groove.

Artwork for Chuck, the Album containing No Reason

 So the question is this, what do you listen to when PvPing?

The Tuskers - Bloggers Extraordinaires

The Tuskers have been noted as having a very high blogger to pilot ratio (higher than any corporation that I know of) so for ease of access, below is a list of Tusker bloggers.

1. Bourreau - The Bald Buccaneer
2. Jaxley - Onslaughts of an Outlawed
3. Ka Jolo - Your money or your life!
4. Kirith Darkblade - Kirith Darkblade - EVE Pirate
5.  Kishin Hattori - Journeys of a Baroque Pilot
6. Mr Snypes - Intergalactic Man of Leisure
7. Tressin Khiyne - Sentry Fire
8. The Tuskers Public Relations Blog 
9. Valgore Meurte - I will take what I can get  

Also notable ex-Tuskers include Wensley, famous writer of The Rifter Guide: Solo PvP. He has published the latest version of the Guide a few days ago, and it can be found here. Another famous ex-Tusker is Romeo Blakstorm with his blog Life among the Pirates. Romeo has also made another blog, detailing the exploits of his new alt Oxidizing Agent, called Dangerous Goods.

Status - Elite

For many, becoming "Elite" at a video game is one of their goals. In Eve Online, with so many metrics one can be measured upon to judge one's success, it is tricky to say when one has finally reached this level.

However, I believe I have finally become "Elite". You don't believe me? Look below.

From The Tusker Killboard, found here

 The sigificance of the number 1337? Urban Dictionary is your friend.

The journey has been long, the fights interesting and the action non-stop! My final kill was soloing this fail-fit Dominix class Battleship in my Abaddon class Battleship, affectionately nicknamed Rend. Whilst the fight and the kill were unremarkable except for the fact that I destroyed the vessel before its pilot managed to get it into warp, my 1335 & 1336 kills as a Tusker were marvelous but that is a story for another time.

I have also submitted the Dominix killmail for Ga'len's Fail Mail Friday on his blog. Fingers crossed, it might win this week's contest.

Expect more posts in the coming weeks, I've got a host of stories to tell.

Assault Frigate Tournament - Audio!

Video still taking a while, mostly due to the video footage currently being 60GB and stored on a hard drive 1000 kilometres away! Sent the audio files away and the corpmate with the video footage ItsmeHck1 is slowly putting it away.

In the meantime, participants were offered the chance to choose a song that playedas they were called out, as their own introduction song. Below is a list of their chosen songs, some good, some interesting, some frankly very Python-esque songs and even a song produced by one of their participants themselves!

1. Tsubutai - Erasure - Always
2. Golden Helmet - Golden Helmet of Mambrino
   
3. Kazaji - Top Gun - Theme Song
4. RichardCypherr - None chosen
5. SuperMaugen - Blah Blah Blah Kesha Mp3 Ft. 3OH!3 
6. CLETIS TEE - None chosen 
7. Cyber Ten - NAPPsquad - Shut up Woman Get on my horse!
8. Lachesis VII - Spaceballs - Spaceballs
9. Sintei Ruhl - None chosen
10. Causticum - Tony Renis - Quando, quando, quando
11. Bourreau - Yello - Oh Yea
12. Htrag - Shakira ft. Freshlyground - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
13. Platypus King - Mulan - I'll make a man out of you
14. Zombiedeadhead (Stand in for Xydros) - The Clash - I fought the Law 
15. IEATCRAYONS - Holland Boys - I am Gay 
16. Trony - Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
17. Jaxley - LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls
18. Tressin Khiyne - You Are A Pirate (Lazy Town)
19. Ilik Tanikalot - Kokiriko bushi
20. von Diel - Copacabana - Barry Manilow
21. SolusLunes - SolusLunes - Nameless (his own song)
22. Andrea Skye - BearForce1 - BearForce1
23. ItsmeHck1 - K3 - De drie biggetjes (Random Dutch song?)
24. Dotard - Bondage Fairies - He Man

Due to technicial difficulties (Eve refusing to save my chatlogs of that evening), I have been unable to get a full list of song requests for further rounds. However, the ones I have managed to recover are below:

3 Man FFA (Round #2) song requests:

von Diel - Loituma - Ieva's polka, Ievan Polkka
Andrea Skye - Tomboy - It's OK to be gay
Kazaji - BARBIE GIRL! (Chosen with love by GoldenHelmet)
Dotard - Wagner - RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES - Furtwangler
Lachesis VII - Oingo Boingo - Little Girls: Relaid Audio

Semi-Finals (Round #3) song requests:

Andrea Skye - Mindless Self Indulgence - Bitches

Final (Round #4) song requests:

Lachesis VII - Sex Dwarf 
Trony - Urban Cookie Collective - The Key, The Secret

If you participated in the Tournament, but not all of your songs are listed above, feel free to comment below or send me an Evemail and I'll correct the mistake.




Even if you weren't there, any thoughts on the songs chosen? Any particular favorites?

Interim #2

Been busy in RL recently, giving me less time to play Eve and get things sorted. The Assault Frigate Tournament Videos will not be out for at least another few days; I have a few new ideas for how to present them to make them more interesting.

However, I still have some more data to chug through, so below is a graph showing the weapon systems used in the Assault Frigate Tournament.

Interesting to note that nobody used Gatling Pulse Lasers nor Gatling 75mm Rails, despite their ease of fitting and high tracking (at least for the Pulses!). Also, Light Neutron Blaster IIs were not used, most likely due to their high fitting requirements as well as low tracking.

Next update will be a bit more substantial, I promise!

Assault Frigate Tournament - Fittings!

Below is a list of participants for the Assault Frigate Tournament, along with their fittings. The progression of each participant will be shown in the next blog post.

1. Tsubutai - Ishkur 
2. Golden Helmet - Vengeance
   
3. Kazaji - Retribution
4. RichardCypherr - Jaguar
5. SuperMaugen - Ishkur 
6. CLETIS TEE - Ishkur 
7. Cyber Ten - Retribution
8. Lachesis VII - Retribution 
9. Sintei Ruhl - Wolf
10. Causticum - Jaguar
11. Bourreau - Wolf
12. Htrag - Harpy
13. Platypus King - Jaguar 
14. Zombiedeadhead (Stand in for Xydros) - Wolf 
15. IEATCRAYONS - Hawk 
16. Trony -Wolf 
17. Jaxley - Enyo 
18. Tressin Khiyne - Wolf 
19. Ilik Tanikalot - Enyo 
20. von Diel - Ishkur 
21. SolusLunes - Vengeance
22. Andrea Skye -Retribution 
23. ItsmeHck1 - Ishkur 
24. Dotard - Wolf

Interesting fact is that all 8 Assault Frigates were present. I did not expect to see so many Retributions and Wolfs. I guess people thought that their main weakness (lack of mids) is not that big in a Tournament where you do not need to keep someone warp scrambled. Ishkurs are unsurprisingly popular, the combination of the large drone bay and amble mid slots means that you can play around with their fittings quite freely.

Another interesting fact is that 3 of the top 4 players were flying Retributions, with the winner flying a Wolf.

Pretty graph!

Interim

Quick update on the recordings for the Assault Frigate tournament:

I've finished editing the audio, now I just need to sync it with the videos before I upload them to YouTube. Much thanks goes to Avan Sercedos, an Ex-Tusker who helped me commentate as well as recording Ventrilo, as well as ItsmeHck1 for frapsing the tournament.

I expect the videos to be uploaded on Friday.

In addition, the prizes for the tournament have now all been contracted to the winners. If you have not received your prize(s) yet, feel free to send me an Evemail.

Also, the new expansion has been announced by CCP titled Incursion. 

Nothing particularly interesting to a low sec pirate such as myself, but check it out!

Assault Frigate Tournament - Winners!

Tournament is over, and the winners are:

1st Place - Trony (Wolf) of the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve. He also has the choice of either a Domination Warp Disruptor or a Domination Warp Scrambler, courtesy of Vsmit

2nd Place - Lachesis VII (Retribution) of the Python Cartel

3rd Place - Andrea Skye (Retribution) of the Python Cartel

Secret Prize #1 - Bourreau of the Tuskers, for the most gank orientated fit, with just a Damage Control and a Medium Shield Extender for a tank on his Wolf.

Secret Prize #2 - Causticum of the Tuskers for the youngest player to win a match, which he did by beating Sintei Ruhl's Wolf in his Jaguar.

Secret Prize #3 - Lachesis VII of the Python Cartel for actually properly using a Retribution, winning his matches through careful kiting.

Secret Prize #4 - IEATCRAYONS of the Python Cartel, for the most interesting fit, using a Medium Shield Booster as well as Rocket Launchers on his Hawk.

Most Original Setup - Golden Helmet of the Python Cartel, for his active tanked Vengeance with a MWD as well as 2 Energy Neutralizers.

The prizes will be contracted to the winners in the next 48 hours.

Each fight was frapsed as well as Ventrilo being recorded. Expect to see videos and audio files in the next few days!

Assault Frigate Tournament - Final update!

With the Tournament occurring within the next 24 hours, I have a few updates.

First of all, fellow Tusker Causticum has offered to run a betting service.

The details can be found here. Any questions, please refer them to Causticum ingame.

In addition, I have made an ingame channel for participants and other interested parties to interact in, as well over Tusker Ventrilo.

The channel name is Suleiman's Assault Frigate Tournament - Lounge.

Thirdly, the prizes keep pilling in and this should be an awesome event.

May the best man (or woman) win!

Assault Frigate Tournament - Lineup announced!

So here it is, the 24 pilots who will be battling for the prizes!

 The awesome design above has been done by Tressin Khiyne.

To become the champion, you must win a 1v1, then come out on top of a 3 man FFA. Finally, you must progress through the semi finals and then win the final to be crowned Assault Frigate champion!

The two losers from the semi finals will face each other to determine who will be 3rd and who will be 4th.

The Prizes will be contracted to the winners within 48 hours of the tournament concluding and they are still building up.

Let the games begin!

P.S. Can participants please Evemail me their setups ASAP so I can produce pretty graphs of modules, ships, weapons used etc.

There can be only one!

As of right now, I have recieved 23 entrance fees, meaning there is only 1 left!

That means that if you are considering entering, decide now and send in your entrance fee ASAP in order to be guaranteed a spot. 

My reasoning of choosing 24 as the cap is due to the compromise between the positives and the negatives of increasing the cap which are listed below.

Positives:

• Better prizes as more people donate and I can purchase better prizes using the entrance fees.
• The event becomes more interesting as there will be more banter and more interaction between different corporations.

Negatives:

• The tournament will take longer due to more matches.
• Organizing the tournament increases exponentially, making sure everyone is ready to go etc.

Also note there is also a hard cap due to the Ventrilo server, currently the Tusker Ventrilo server has 35 slots.

That's all for now, once I have received the last entrance fee I will be sending out Evemails keeping people up to date with changes as well as further details.

Until next time...

Assault Frigate Tournament - Update!

At this moment in time, I have received 14 entrance fees. There is a cap to how many people can participate, and that magic number is 24 so spend in your entrance fees sooner rather than later to guarantee your spot!

In addition, several generous players have donated to the Prize Pot the following:

1st Place - 100M (Nashh Kadavr)

2nd Place - 50M (Nashh Kadavr)

3rd Place - 25M (Nashh Kadavr)

Secret Prize #1 - Federation Navy Comet (Robert Mason)

Secret Prize #2 - Republic Fleet Firetail (Tressin Khiyne)

Secret Prize #3 - Imperial Navy Slicer (Purchased from funds donated by Rantuket)

Secret Prize #4 - Caldari Navy Hookbill (Purchased from funds donated by Ranktuket)

Much thanks most go to these fine gentlemen for such exquisite prizes. As a show of how much I appreciate their generosity, I am also adding in a further prize from myself.

Most Original Setup - Succubus (Suleiman Shouaa)

Don't forget about the original prizes also! As it stands right now, this is the full list of prizes.

Prizes:

1st Place - 200M + Faction/Pirate Cruiser of your choice

2nd Place - 100M + Faction/Pirate Frigate of your choice
 
3rd Place - 50M + Salvage Rights
 
Most original setup - Succubus
 
Secret Prize #1 - Federation Navy Comet
 
Secret Prize #2 - Republic Fleet Firetail
 
Secret Prize #3 - Imperial Navy Slicer
 
Secret Prize #4 - Caldari Navy Hookbill


Let the games begin!


In another news, I just broke 100B destroyed as a Tusker. The kill that pushed me "over the top" was killing a Russian Dramiel in my Omen Navy Issue!

Hope Incarnate, my Omen Navy Issue