Thursday 15 July 2010

Celebrity Death Match #22; Rixx Javix


Celebrity Death Match #22; Rixx Javix - EVE artist Exraordinair

The Celebrity
I had intended to ask Mr. Javix for a CDM some time ago, his arrival into the blog pack made him an easy addition to my wish list. I started following him and with every post he made my desire to fight him become stronger and stronger. His space-comic jokes make me chuckle and his art work astounds me every time he does something new.

Browsing his folder of previously made pieces related to EVE, it dawned on me I would love to own a Rixx Javix piece for myself or for my corporation the Bastards. His work clearly very popular I wasn’t sure if he would make time for me or even would do any work for me at all. Our first contact was pretty easy going, Rixx responded to my emails and after a quick convo 3 jobs were taken on...

The first was a Bastard promo poster, and I have to say it is one of his best to date;


Secondly I requested a new blog banner and another fine piece was delivered, and at a very good price too;


The third and final job is still secret but for those that may know me a little better or have me as a RL facebook friend will know what’s coming. I hope to be posting more on that later this month.

With our business completed I could finally ask him to join me in a CDM. Rixx accepted immediately and after we discussed some of the standard rules for CDM I offered for him to take his time in deciding what ships he would like to fly, where and under what restrictions.

It didn’t take him to long please read his post on the decision making process.

So, Battlecruisers it was to be, brilliant, one of my favourite ship classes. The restrictions where; no ECM and only one faction module if we'd choose to use any… Brief chats were exchanged in the days before the fight, chats where we sneakily tried to find out who would be flying what ship but cards were kept close to our chests. I still had not decided at this stage as I have a few fitted Battlecruisers about, all of which I like but serve a different purpose. None where really suitable for 1v1's but their base fitting would suffice…


Preparations
On the last night before the fight the final details were exchanged. Mr Rixx explained his troubles getting his ship together through war-target-infested trade hubs, even being shot at when he attempted to dock up and get fittings together. As a joke and final attempt to find out what he would be bring is asked; 'its a Drake, isn’t it?'… I didn’t get a response and we continued our conversation. As we completed our chat and went our separate ways I read over the chat log again... why didn’t he respond? He could have just joked, laughed it off, agreed it was and double bluffed me… He could have triple bluffed me or what not... but he didn’t respond. Mmm…

Don’t get me wrong, I suck at poker but his poker-face was rubbish, he was so deffo gonna fly a drake... right?

With Hulkageddon 3 in full swing and I found myself deep into high-sec on the day of the fight. In the morning I raced back to Evati to look at the available vessels. I didn’t care too much to be honest as I had already decided to fly a buffer Myrm, the very same one that once took out two T2 fitted Hurricanes in a single sitting. With confidence I intended to land myself right on top of him, rip up any drones he may have then slug him to death with a selection of mixed sized drones of my own.

To my horror (I literally broke into a cold sweat) I discovered at the last pod loss my clone grade was insufficient in size for the skills now in my head. I had lost 13 full days off of heavy drones V and thus would be unable to use T2 Ogres. Shit, crap, now what? Go into battle with T1 ogres? And make a fool out of myself? i don’t think so, I need a different ship.

Quickly browsing through the available ships I discovered all my drakes have been either destroyed or moved to different hangars, the closest being in Ardar, 6 jumps out.

On route I spotted a familiar face in the local communications channel, with some other chap shouting GF! GF! I chuckled as I warped on top of Lady Shaniqua's Rifter and quickly proceeded through the gate, not sure if my pod would be safe. At the next gate I found an Ishtar and some friends clearly making the return trip home much more difficult. Now sharing multiple channels with LS I requested if he would be so kind to scout me back to Evati.

As the mentor for Project Rifter, I already know of Shaniqua’s fitting expertise so it only seemed sensible to discuss the upcoming fight and my intended fit. As I now decided to fly a Drake into combat myself, I took a Podla-Drake fit as the base, but instead of a point I intended to use a target painter and T2 Fury missiles. We talked and talked and ideas were exchanged, eventually agreeing that perhaps the Drake was not the way to go and another BC hull would give me a better chance.

In the mean time on planet earth wife aggro made me rage log and move to the spare room. A cigarette and a beer later I calmed down sufficiently to get a fit together for the pending fight. I don’t like making people wait and was thus relieved when I checked my emails and found a message from Rixx explaining his connection issues, possibly delaying the flight. Speeding back to Evati, again in my pod, Rixx logged in. shit...

I kept quiet and didn’t speak to him in the bloggers channel, on entering Evati I hoped to be able to slip in unnoticed but with just 3 other pilots in local he was sure to see me online and check up on me. I was not ready, not even close. I didn’t even have a hull sorted let alone the fitting...

With no Drake available to me and with more and more doubt that Rixx would actually come in a drake himself I decided to pick up the Myrmidon with a 109k buffer. A good base as long as I could get close enough to my opponent to make the rest of the fitting work.

I stripped the high slots of their small Blasters and replaced them with small Auto Cannons to save a minute worth of Capacitor, took of the second webifier and the Sensor Booster and frantically tried to decide what to replace them with. I needed to get close to my opponent and there was still the risk he would warp in at range and slowly break my tank, leaving me powerless to respond if he would take out my gimped drones.

Targeting range dampeners! Two targeting range dampeners may force him close enough for me to cut off his MWD and my superior tank would certainly give me enough time to kill him. Brilliant idea! I finalised my fit and responded to the convo request now sent by my foe.

‘Ready?’ Mr Rixx requested… ‘yes’ was the hesitant response. We agreed to warp to a bookmark made by Mr Javix earlier that day. ‘Are we to warp at range or to 0?’ I requested. ‘..well that’s the beauty of bookmarks’ Rixx started, ‘you can’t warp at range…’

‘Ok sweet… Quick bio and let’s get it on..’ I made use of the brief delay to quickly relieve my bladder and have a smoke to settle the building nerves. As I inhaled the delicious cancerous smoke into my warming lungs, reality hit me… Can’t warp at range? I didn’t know that… Holy shit he is not in a Drake! He is prepared to warp in close so he must be Blaster fit something... Brutix? Myrm? Ferox? Certainly not a Cane, too piraty for this pirate hater… Either way or anyhoe, he is turret based. For sure… right?

I sucked down the last remains of nicotine and ran back up the stairs, crashed through the bedroom door and jumped into the pilot seat. Quickly opening the ‘EWAR’ station container revealed the last two available tracking disrupters…

In a flash my ship was stripped of the MWD as it would be shut down immediately anyway by his scram, replaced it with an Afterburner, ripped out the Targeting Range Dampeners and wacked on two Tracking Disrupters. The changes left me plenty of grid to replace a small Energy Neutraliser with a Medium variety and now I was ready… Bring it on Mr Rixx and suck up the pain!

The Fight
‘DIE RIXX DIE’ smoothly sailed into the Evati night sky, aligned to a Station at moon X to pick up the bookmark needed to get to our fight location, and set off.

The Gallente vessel turned slowly and took its time to get up to warp speed, enough time for me to re-arrange my drone bay. One full rack of Warrior II Drones, one full rack of Hammerhead II’s and then the heavy damage set; one Hobgoblin II, 2 Hammerhead II’s and the embarrassing addition of two T1 Ogres…

With the location registered into my onboard systems Rixx Javix started the count-down…

Rixx Javix> 3
Nashh Kadavr> 2
Rixx Javix> 1
Nashh Kadavr> good luck!

‘You are gonna need it sucker!’ I laughed out loud to myself, confident that I could better my standings in this whole CDM adventure…

My glorious ship had undocked and initialised its warp drives… with the distance closing down rapidly I primed my mid slots and waited for my enemy to land right on top of me…

I couldn’t wait, tension built up… Primed Web and scram would stop him dead in his tracks, Tracking Disrupters already overheated would render his Turrets useless and…

WTF?!

O crap, I fucked up, blood rushed to my head as embarrassment already filled me from the gut up. My heart sank as his ship exited the warp tunnel…

A Drake? But but… why? I thought…

I switched of the TD’s and as soon as I could get a lock attempted to scram out his MWD. His speed didn’t reduce until the web started cycling, now clearly making 3 modules in my mid-slots completely useless…

And holy crap his tank is immense! My drones barely scratched him! Stick to the plan, I convinced myself as I targeted his 5 Warrior II’s… 4?

This was not going well at all, in the minute this fight had been going on my Drones had been attacking his Drones; hence his shields were looking so healthy. Quickly redirected drones started chewing into the Drake whilst my web and small Auto Cannons made short work of the remaining Warriors.

The Myrm’s Armour had already taken a steady beating by this point and without any active repairs this was just a matter of time…

With Frapps running I burned out the high slots when trying to get a pretty picture of my pending demise…

Thanks to Rixx for this Video;






I fail, and suck at EVE… My fitting was wrong, my tactics where wrong and my opponent had well and truly beaten me.

In a daze I floated in space, only surrounded by the fragile shell of my escape pod… Slowly being circled by the ‘DIE NASHH DIE’ baptised Drake. Bobbing up and down gently near the remains of my fail Myrm…

Alarms flared up as my pod got targeted and a warp disrupter prevented my escape.

Rixx Javix> hands up this is a ransom!

We both laughed it off as the pirate hating combat pilot couldn’t complete his ransom. With probes out in the system (not the Bastards) it was time to part ways…



It has been my pleasure and honour meeting Mr Rixx Javix and hope to keep in contact for the duration of my EVE life. Please also read his side of the story and don’t forget to check out his art!



Until we meet again…

Watch this space!

10 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good CDM, you shoulda just gone with ECM in your last two mids =)

    Too bad he couldn't follow through on the ransom demand as that would have been very funny, especially coming from him!

    Looks like his no-reponse proved your undoing, better luck next time!

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  2. What a tale! LOL I had no idea of course what was happening on your end. Now so many things make sense. And I am even more pleased to have chosen the HAM Drake.

    I also admit that the bookmark idea was designed to my advantage, I was worried you'd warp in at range in a Harbi or something. very zero spacey of me.

    Just to clarify I don't hate Pirates in real life, not even mostly in-game, that came from living in Providence for so long. Now we're NBSI so it doesn't matter as much. I can kill in low-sec and pop neauts all day now. lol

    As I said in my version, much appreciated m8. This was a lot of fun and I hope we can set up a rematch someday.

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  3. Thanks rixx for the oppertunity! much appreciated and thanks for the video!

    and yes LS, you told me so...

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  4. How come you can't warp to bookmarks at range?

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  5. Nursultan - Someone always has to ruin it don't they? lol. I was convinced that Nashh would try to use range as his weapon, and warp to something (like a can) at range. Which is funny since his post indicates that he was worried I would do that. The BM thing was a last minute wrinkle that I added to assure we would both warp to zero. I could have easily have made that a rule of the contest, but honestly I forgot to do so. So that spur of the moment bending of the truth was the next best thing.

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  6. LOLOL! Great tale as usual...and even funnier comments :) CDM is one of the most brilliant concepts ever. ♥ ya, Nashh!

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  7. Hey! Where's the victors Mynxee love?!? :( So sad.

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  8. That was a nice fight. Rixx posted his fitting for the corp to comment on. I was proud when he told us that he won. Very nice post on what was going through your mind with your ship setup.

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