Diary of a Pod Pilot

Submissions are open for the EVE is Real contest. I must say this is a brilliant turnaround from the drama we’ve been having lately regarding NeX, the Incarna rollout and CCP’s poor communication skills. Time to focus on what makes us all play internet spaceships to begin with and all the things CCP in fact does right. Or I should say the EVE community, and CCP seems quite prepared with this initiative to celebrate its greatest marketing tool, namely us.

For my submission I’ve selected something that was not made by me, but rather something that really got my EVE carreer rolling. The Angel Cartel (Push Eject) by Kyoko Sakoda, aka that recruitment trailer everyone loves. And damn right that they do, it’s an excellent piece of work, even now. For those of you who’ve never seen it before, I’ve included it at the end of this post.

So why does this make EVE real for me? Well, this trailer reminds me of the time when my time in Apex Unlimited was coming to an end and I spent a good while on my own before finally taking the plunge. And from there on, for those who’ve been following Myrhial’s / my story since the beginning I slowly rolled into the position where I am now, CEO of Ghost Festival, Executor of Naraka. and the person who took us from Derelik to the Amarr FW area, over to Goinard, and now finally into Curse. My, it’s been one hell of a ride and we’re still going, with so much more to come.

And that’s what really makes EVE real for me, the fact that every day the work I put in matters to many people, and that they keep amazing me with their input, and that through all these years there’s been so much I’ve gotten out of the game that goes beyond the limits of what is virtual. Just look at my interview at Fanfest, or just Fanfest as a whole, my blog of course, the tweetfleet, and the RP community. And there is so much more I am sure I am missing out on.

The funny fact is that Monoclegate, for lack of a better word, really made me realize that if EVE were to die there would be so much I’d end up missing. So much that is being taken almost for granted, and so much things that haven’t been realized yet. I seriously hope that time won’t come soon, but it is also a good reminder that we should not be scared and live our lives here and now, both the real and the virtual ones. Cut the crap and focus on what really matters. And don’t wait until tomorrow with what you can already do today.

Finals day! Again, bolded are winners and underlined are my guesses for the contests. Big congrats to Morwen Lagann on winning the G-19 keyboard!

• 15:00 The Kadeshi vs. Perihelion Alliance: Minmatar rush with Machariels versus Tengu kite team.
• 15:20 DarkSide. vs. Pandemic Legion: Amarr rush team versus Tengu / Guristas rush team. The latter rushed right in and got their asses handed.
• 15:40 Black Legion vs. P0wer 0f Tw0: Proteus / Loki with Guardian support versus Kite team with Nighthawk support (no logistics). Kite team got kited by Loki long range webs and brought to its knees.
• 16:00 White Noise. vs. Outbreak.: Shield team versus ECM with rush Tengus.
• 16:20 Wildly Inappropriate. vs. Paisti Syndicate: Minmatar rush versus ECM. WI was able to make a lot of the ECM fall, but Paisti was the stronger opponent in a superior setup.
• 16:40 Negative Ten. vs. HYDRA RELOADED: Recon mixbag versus ECM with rush Tengus.
• 17:00 B A N E vs. WE FORM VOLTRON: Gallente damage verus Minmatar rush. Flawless victory for Voltron.
• 17:20 SOLAR FLEET vs. RAZOR Alliance: Kiting with damps versus anti rush Amarr team.

BREAK

• 18:20 Perihelion Alliancevs. DarkSide.: Minmatar rush versus Amarr rush team from previous match. Excellent target calling from Darkside.
• 18:40 Black Legion vs. Outbreak.: Tengu/ Guristas rush versus Minmatar rush team.
• 19:00 Paisti Syndicate vs. HYDRA RELOADED: ECM / Minmatar versus Minmatar with damp and Bhaalgorn as flagship.
• 19:20 WE FORM VOLTRON vs. RAZOR Alliance: Caldari with Curse and Huginns versus Gallente rush with logistics. Long game! Shame of the boundary violations for Voltron. Razor beat what should have been their counter with style.
• 20:00 DarkSide. vs. Outbreak.: Legion / Blood raider / Curse setup for the third time, versus Minmatar rush.
• 20:30 HYDRA RELOADED vs. RAZOR Alliance: Minmatar rush versus Minmatar / Curse rush. Curses are pretty deadly for Hydra. Hydra opted to take out Logistics first and then take on the Curses. Top piloting!
• 21:30 Outbreak.  vs. HYDRA RELOADED: Minmatar rush versus Gallente rush with damps. Game was totally engineered. Too bad, but that’s just EVE at its finest I guess.

We had a ton of people lined up in the Skyhook for the finals too: Black Arcturus, Aria Jenneth, Vincent Pryce, Literia, Mikael Angelo, Lt Graham, Nikita Alterana, Victoria Stecker, Kimochi Rendar, Esna Pitoojee, Jekaterine, Mike Azariah, Kyoko Sakoda and Jekaterine.

Big thanks for CCP for setting this up, lots of lols were had, and I really loved that the devs came on and answered (hard) questions.

Slightly simpler blog format today as some of my favorites are actually just not having a chance at going to the finals anymore, and I also managed to miss the start due to being busy with other urgent business. Bolded are winners, underlined are votes I made for the forum contest.

• 15:00 The G0dfathers vs. Wildly Inappropriate: Missed this! Appearantly it was a Loki kite team what sweeped up a Gallente rush team.
• 15:20 The Kadeshi vs. Get Off My Lawn: Just for fun loss.
• 15:40 Vanguard Imperium vs. Paisti Syndicate: Vanguard Amarr setup, as they knew they didn’t really have a chance anymore.
• 16:00 Perihelion Alliance vs. Sev3rance: Minmatar versus Proteus team. Early mistake but a beautiful recovery.
• 16:20 Against ALL Authorities vs. DarkSide.: Fail, fail and more fail on -A-’s side. Intentional stalling, I bet. Sore losers
• 16:40 Negative Ten vs. Raiden: HAM Legions versus ECM team. Very nice ECM counter. LOL @ Raiden offering 20 bil for self-destruct.
• 17:00 Pandemic Legion vs. HYDRA RELOADED: Amarr (Heavy Pulse Laser ECM counter) versus Minmatar rush team. The latter had an easy time to take the ECM counter down.
• 17:20 Ushra’Khan vs. Unaffiliated: U’K can’t win anymore but brings a fantastic brawl setup. Entertaining watch.

BREAK

• 18:20 Black Legion vs. B A N E: Minmatar rush team versus armor BS team. Looked like B A N E couldn’t care less about the game.
• 18:40 Lack of Imagination vs. Nulli Secunda: Sentry Domis and armor Nighthawks versus a beautiful Amarr team.
• 19:00 WE FORM VOLTRON vs. The R0NIN: Minmatar rush team versus Myrmidon /Curse Gallente / Amarr mix team.
• 19:20 Aggravated Assault.. vs. POWER OF TWO: Handicap team versus Tengu kite team.
• 19:40 RvB – Red Federation vs. SOLAR FLEET: Caldari kite sans Logistics, versus Minmatar rush. Not at all the team RvB was expecting. They edged very closely to a win however, but alas lost by two (!) points.
• 20:00 White Noise vs. Babylon 5..:  Minmatar rush team versus Battleship fail team.
• 20:20 RAZOR Alliance vs. Outbreak: T1 BS brawl versus something else brawly. Outbreak gave the win to RAZOR. That just annoyed the hell out of me. Silly metagaming.
• 20:40 Circle-of-Two vs. Wild Boars: Wild Boars opted for a 50 point handicap but the previous game changed the metagame around. So ships opted to just form a conga line instead.

We also had a ton of people watching the matches @ The Skyhook again: Jekaterine, Morwen Lagann, Mikael Angelo, Kimochi Rendar, Victoria Stecker, Sognec El’Kendan, Kyoko Sakoda, Dograzor and Deadrow. We’ll be there for the finals, so if you’re a roleplayer don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity.

Having only followed it from a distance during the previous installments, I decided to get in on the hype this year and watch the televised matches now that time allows me. I also participated in the official contests being run on the forums, Twitter and Facebook, though so far haven’t won any prizes. My votes looked like this, bold are the winners and underlined are what I had voted for:

Perihelion Alliance vs. Vanguard Imperium

Negative Ten vs. Against ALL Authorities

Unaffiliated vs. HYDRA RELOADED

Nulli Secunda vs. B A N E

Babylon 5.. vs. SOLAR FLEET

Wild Boars vs. Outbreak

Memorable matches are RvB – Red Federation versus White Noise. I was so crossing my fingers for that Baahlgorn to die. Shame RvB lost a Tengu to boundary violation, that could have been a win. The hero Tengu at the end was awesome!

I also really loved the Hero Machariel of Circle-of-Two, was pretty certain drones would not finish it off but it go so close.

What really made this day for me though was that around the U’K match (poor bastards got jammed so badly, I felt bad for them!) Aria and Nausea started to watch the Tournament in character in The Skyhook, and around the next match I joined them there. Later on Kyoko joined us for a little while too. Great roleplaying fun, I’d never quite done something like that, closest would be the discussion of live events. It looks like we will be there again tomorrow, so other roleplayers, experienced or not, and no matter if you know us or not, are very welcome to join in. Let’s have a blast with this!

For a detailed view of what I made of the other matches, best follow me on Twitter, as I am avidly participating in the conversation there. Might do a report on all matches tomorrow, we’ll see what time allows for. For now, I am going to kick back at The Skyhook a little longer before bedtime and enjoy me some well-deserved RP. I’ve been working way hard on alliance matters lately!

Kale Ryoko and Kyoko Sakoda have just released their latest EVE movie, a machinima called Future Proof. Combining EVE Online, the Unreal 3 engine and large quantities of caffeine results in a stunning 12 minutes of internet spaceships, explosions and voice acting. You’ll have to watch it yourself to see what it is about, even though the title gives it away a little. Biased as I might be I was impressed by the storytelling and the atmosphere. I should probably warn in advance certain bits will have the hairs on your arms rise up. This one can right into the list of recommended watches together with their previous work, and well-known pieces such as Clear Skies.