Celebrity Death Match #26; Tyrrax Thorrk

The celebrity

Tyrrax Thorrk, a legend of old. Possibly the inventor of most eve scams and betrayals, possibly behind most of them himself in some way or another.

Selling and reselling his super-capital several times over made him famous alone but becoming appointed CEO of his target alliance before robbing them blind would top that for sure.

And of course Tyrrax is the person, the only one, to have had a unique ship destroyed (amongst other rare items) The Gold Magnate, one of a kind famously piloted by Tyrrax was wiped out resulting in some of the most discussed forum threads in eve history. Love and hate for him intermixed, some wanting the rare items stored and secure, some glad it had seen action. And finally Tyraxx heads up the Guilding hand social club, it's members, official or not are responsible for some of the greatest cons in EVE known to date.

Preparations

As usual I agreed to meet the celeb in the location of his choice, regretting that as soon as Tyrrax explained he lives deep in null-security space. I hate 0.0.

His choice of ship was T1 Frigates, not faction, fitting restrictions were; no damps, no ECM, no faction fittings. The cheap variety suited me well as I was pretty confident I wouldn't even make it to his home-system.

On the morning of the fight-day I set off just before downtime, clearing the first 25 jumps before logging. As soon as I was able to return I continued the remaining 30 jumps, making it all the way to my destination without encountering anyone and only getting stuck in 4 bubbles.

Making a snug safe spot I cloaked up and turned to some admin duties, before logging off.

I returned an hour before our arranged meeting time and lay in wait. D-scan amused me over the following hours as no less than 15 Titans passed through. I waited, and waited. I reminisced some previous CDM's that had resulted in waiting and comforted myself in the fact I once waited for 2 days straight.

After 4 hours however Comms got busy and a small gang was forming led by my trusted right hand man Anabaric and I made the judgement call to abandon. Clearly not keen to traverse the 55 jumps back I self-destructed both my ship and pod.

On contacting Tyrrax the following day he was genuinely apologetic and offered to reschedule and meet at the location of my choice. I initially declined but then contemplated the travel through zerozero and accepted his generous offer.

The fight

After a arduous journey spanning many jumps Tyrrax was reported a jump out from Goinard. Fellow alliance members had been notified of his imminent arrival so they wouldn't attempt shooting him cutting this fight short after all the effort already invested.

Moments later and Tyrrax appeared in the local channel and notified me he was making a safe-spot for us to meet at.

'Ready, warp to me at 0-30, fight on landing'

'Rgr' I replied checking onboard systems one final time before sliding into the vacuum. Pepperspray my shield/ab Rifter was overloaded with more ammo and repair-paste I could possibly need.

Pepperspray is a DPS monster with decent speed, not slowed by armor plates or armor repairers. She also sports a tracking enhancer to get more true DPS. She has surprised many a frigate by out-damaging repair modules and making up for less tank by it's sheer destructive power.

Still unsure of what Mr Thork would be piloting I spammed the Directional scanner as soon as I entered warp, a Rifter. Let's hope he gets within range I wished as I pre-heated all active modules.

As the warp-tunnel closed up behind me I was alone, I franticly looked around me before realizing I had not included fleet members to my overview.

Swiftly correcting my mistake the fight had begun, Tyrrax's speedy Rifter appeared out of nowhere and raced passed my rustbucket, sling-shotting immediately back towards me.

Weapons hot and firing, superheated Phased Plasma shells and Rockets crashed into Tyraxx.
On his return loop and firing his own cannons Mr Thorrk struck deep into my shield buffer, obliterating 25% of it's integrity.

A flurry of damage dealing blows was exchanged before I realized my opponents speed had dropped significantly. In fear of me bringing a kiting fit Kestrel, Tyrrax Thork had fitted a MWD and my scram had disabled it.

Rockets and shells powered through his armor as my shields broke and revealed the thin layers underneath.

But it was too late, held together by duck-tape and a damage control the fight ended abruptly as Tyrrax violently exploded, only wreckage and dust remained as his pod fled the scene.

A short and brutal fight marking CDM's 26th edition. GF!

Lady Shaniqua where arth thou?

CDM #24; Sard Caid, Billionaire playboy in black rubber pants?

CDM #24; Sard Caid, Billionaire playboy in black rubber pants?

The Celeb, preparation…

Sard Caid, what an excellent pirate name… every time his name comes up in one of the many Intel-channels we now share it fills me with dread. It exudes danger, dread and horror. Intimidating as his name had always been to me, his actions proved that it was not just hot air. This man means business, being ranked within Battleclinic’s top 500 pilots and an impressive solo career behind him.

On a few occasions we had spoken, nothing more than comments here or there though. Brief encounters in solar systems far and wide. I learned about Sard well over a year ago, when I read his blog through the now dead Capsuleer application. Tales of action and the result of looking for action, vividly explained in a well written manner and the occasional sprinkle of excellent Fiction. Broadside is an ingenious name for a PVP biased blog, for those not familiar with the term broadside; this is the wiki link.

Sard also managed to get himself a cool article in E-On!

I contacted Mr Caid a few weeks ago and asked if he would be interested in meeting me for a Celebrity Death Match. Sard was not familiar with my blog but after some explaining he agreed to meet me. It took him a few hours to catch up on some of some previous CDM’s and the rules. This CDM was to be different than any other, excellent. Sard proposed to fight in T1 frigates and to duel it out over 5 fights, first to 3 wins. Each fight a new frigate flavour would have to be used, No Faction items other than ammo were allowed, ECM would be allowed however Sard laughed; ‘ECM makes baby Jesus cry’… ‘Ha! Yeah’ I sniggered, making a mental note to not bring ECM.

With a fleet of war vessels at my disposal, choosing ships should be an easy task, right? Wrong. Worms, Comets, Dramiels, Daredevils and other such goodies are classified Faction and thus a nono, Enyo’s, Ishkurs, Wolves and various other frigate sized hulls adorn the many docking slots in my hangar; frigate sized yes but T1 they are not.

Ok so let’s take the T1 frigates that I have flown before and know work in some way or another;

‘Nuet-Riftah’ (one of LS’s designs), ‘Kessy of Doom’ (a CDM classic), ‘Chack’nul’ (Tristan fit by Chack’nul), and ‘Persey’ (Persephone’s Incursis) and a …

Mmm I am stuck…

Browsing forums for idea’s on a fifth frigate yielded nothing. I spent various hours on EFT trying to come up with a frigate fit that I believed in. I tried fitting a Griffin, but the DPS is laughable, and ‘ECM makes baby Jesus cry’. It would be funny though…

In my time in EVE I have met a few pilots that are simply exceptional at figuring out what fittings work on certain ships and one of those pilots is 00sage00 from Yarrbear tales. I was flicking through some stuff on his blog and then stumbled on ‘the gingerbread man’; a kiting-1v1-Vigil. Bingo! That’s just what I was looking for! Well, almost, I can’t use Artillery Cannons…

A few small amendments and hey presto, my fifth frigate was good to go! This fit also lacked a Warp-disruptor of any kind; interesting I thought and stripped all my frigates from Scram’s and replaced them with either webs or Tracking-disruptors.

Sard Caid is ranked 5500 places better than me on Battleclinic and has double the skill-points but I am so gonna kick this dudes ass!

-=o0o=-


The fights

Both of us had our frigates stationed one jump from the Weld solar system, and a ‘warp-to-point’ in Weld itself. Neither of us knew what ships the other would field, however I had made some estimates on what he was likely to bring and also in what order.

I had hoped Sard wouldn’t mention anything like it but to my dread he requested that all ships should fit a point or if it didn’t a draw could be achieved by warping off. ‘Yeah cool no worries’ I mumbled, cursing under my breath. (I replaced some of the ewar on my frigs with scrams)


Fight 1;
For morale, self confidence and a general good start it was clear that both of us would field what is overall considered to be the best frigate available; the Rifter. I was pretty certain that he would bring one and judging from previous kill-mails he was likely to fit it with Auto-cannons and a Nos for weapons, web, scram and afterburner in mids, small plate and Small Armour rep in lows. Pretty classic.

I have been flying the Nuet-Riftah for some time now as I really really like the fitting. I have not scored a single kill with it just yet however and lost 4 of them. This is the fit that LS used to brutally destroy one of my earlier Rifter adventures. So, perfect right?

Rifter Vs Rifter;
Both of us entered Weld and warped to the meeting point at our preferred range. As expected D-scan revealed I would be fighting a Rifter. I crossed my fingers and hoped he wouldn’t land 20 clicks from me and MWD/Arti me to death.

As our warp engines slowed and the sub-warp engines roared to life I already felt victory was mine; we both warped in nice and close. All my modules were overheated before the fight even started, cannons spat hot projectile rounds towards my foe. Nuzzle flare mixed with the red lightning streaking from my energy-neutraliser. At this close range the muzzle flashes from our cannons nearly touched. Then it dawned on me, this fight was over before it even started. It was obvious, I should have known; Sard has a web, I do not. What was I thinking?!

There was nothing I could do, with the lack of a Web myself; Sard was slowly edging away from me. His NOS comfortably kept his repper going, repairing the now little damage my ammo choice was doing. With barrage fitted and keeping me at arms-length, Mr Caid trounced my Rifter, shredding through shield, armour and hull.

1-0 to Sard Caid

-=o0o=-

Fight 2;
It was likely for Sard to bring a Punisher, but would it be this round or the next? It was all a gamble so I undocked the ‘Kessy of Doom’. My gank-Kestrel used in this very format in previous CDM’s has a little sentimental value. No it isn’t the greatest frig ever, but I love it, and have had some great fights with them.

On jumping into Weld I held cloak and my breath. The stress and pressure of the first fight had been replaced by shaking hands and adrenaline coursing through my veins. I sighed, closed my eyes for a moment and mentally prepared for what was coming.

The gate induced cloak dissipated. My Kestrel slipped into a shakey warp-tunnel towards the meeting point.

‘A Kestrel!?’ Sard noted over comms, ‘what the hell am I supposed to do with that!’. Sards distress filled me with the confidence I needed. I focused; squinting at my head-up-display I activated all modules the very second I was able to.

Caldari Navy rockets spewed out of four launchers, fast and furious. Sard had chosen an Incursis but it was clear he had not flown one for a little while as the drone stayed firmly in its bay for at least 10 seconds. My single web did not slow my opponent’s vessel sufficiently for the rockets to achieve their full damage potential, the oversized shield on the Kestrel did a stellar job however and outlasted Sards’ shields and armour.

A damage control on Gallente ships add a significant amount of EHP to their structure. This fight would prove this yet again. Sards’ ship was on fire, leaving a trail of smoke and debris. His overheated weapons rained volleys of pain; straight through my armour, and straight through my hull.

In a moment of disbelief I watched my pod gently rock up and down amongst the Kessies wreckage. ‘Good fight!’ I mustered…

2-0 to Sard Caid

-=o0o=-

Fight 3;
The subsequentl fight could determine the outcome of this CDM. The next ship I had in line was the Chack’nul named Tristan. A great little ship but also easily outmanoeuvred and kited. That was the reason I had removed the scram and put on a second webifier. It would give Sard the opportunity to warp himself to safety and force the fight into a draw. All or nothing I figured and took the webber back off and reinstalled the scrambler.

Tristan Vs Merlin
There was a distinct possibility that Sard Caid would bring a Tristan himself, if not, surely this time he is bringing the Punisher? Warping to the battlefield I spammed D-scan, slightly surprised to see a Merlin as ship of choice. Surprised also that Sard could fly Caldari ships, I had not seen any in loss-mails, or at least none that I could remember…

As with the previous fights both of us warped in nice and close. Caldari Navy rockets and antimatter hurtled towards the Merlin, crashing into its reinforced shields. My own shields were not long for this world, enemy fire cutting through them revealing the tougher armour-plates underneath.

Range and speed again proved to be the deciding factor. The Merlin’s top speed peaked well beyond the Tristan’s heavier fit. Desperate attempts to get my blasters back in range were futile; my heart sank, knowing the inevitable was due any second. One final attempt to slingshot myself into range failed and the last slivers of hull gave way. The Tristan erupted in a large blue ball of fire, ejecting smoke-trails from its core.

‘Ah damn!’ I proclaimed, knowing that I hadn’t even come close to beating Sard Caid. Three of my wrecks now littered the field; none of them had been looted yet.


3-0 to Sard Caid

-=o0o=-

Fight 4;
The score was beyond redemption, this CDM was lost. We had already agreed to continue our fights even if a winner would be crowned after 3 fights. Both of us had prepared 5 frigates and were intend on seeing them destroy or be destroyed.

The next ship I had planned to use was the Incursis but it was time to redeem myself a little and bring out a MWD propelled vessel rather than a Afterburner. Time to bring out ‘the gingerbread man’.

Vigil Vs Tristan
This was the first time for me undocking a Vigil, ever. My pending/delayed CDM with Aiden Mourne was to be in Vigils so this was to be a practise run.

Sard was in high spirits, the 3 previous victories clearly giving him superhuman confidence. I hoped that this would make him forget to check for basics like; ‘am I being scrambled?’. This Vigil sported a MWD and a sensor disruptor but no point of any kind.

A Tristan registered on the onboard scanner mid-warp to our battlefield. I commandeered the Vigil to 20 kilometres from the usual, intending to keep Sard’s Tristan at approximately 15 clicks range.

The Tristan struggled to hit me at this range, the MWD keeping my speed high enough to dodge several sling-shot attempts. Again there was a delay in Sard ejecting his combat drone, however once deployed I turned my pitiful DPS on the remote combat drone to eliminate the only damage I was taking.

Concentrating hard on keeping range and shooting Sard’s drone became harder as the drone repeatedly got retracted. I noticed that my Sensor disrupter didn’t have the effect I desired and became increasingly worried that Sard would bail and force this match to a draw. With Sard’s Gallente frigate now suffering severe Armor damage, glory was inching closer, I didn’t want to let this slip away...

Blood rushed to my head, I had done it! At least this CDM wouldn’t be a complete humiliation! What the….? No, no no NO! My speed dropped to less than 10% of its intended output, meaning only one thing; Sard had craftily tricked me in to a tighter orbit and managed to get a scram and a web on me.

A lack of patience and concentration had got the better of me, it didn’t matter if I had full shields, armor and hull, none of them had been reinforced as speed was my only defence. With Sards’ hull only just peering through my Vigil violently erupted, making it the fourth frigate wreck to litter the field.

4-0 to Sard Caid

-=o0o=-

Fight 5;
I limped back to my staging station to pick up my final ship, already dreading having to write this post; imagining the heckles, fitting no no’s and general laughs I will have to endure. Sod it; I was smiling from ear to ear, this is the most fun I had had in ages.

Incursis Vs Griffin;
Well at least I was sure this time on what Sard would be bringing, a Punisher, guaranteed. I stripped the scrambler and replaced it with a tracking disrupter, risking a draw but that didn’t matter anymore. Feeling confident I let ‘Persey’ slide into the darkness, aligned to the Weld gate and initiated the warpdrive.

‘At least I should win this one’ I stated over our comms channel. ‘I hope so’ Sard laughed, ‘but what makes you think that anyway?’. ‘Well…’ I started as I entered the Weld Solar system, ‘I have a pretty decent anti-Punisher fitting on this ha ha!’. Sard remained quiet for a few seconds then chuckled; ‘well, this is not a Punisher but I do have lasers’.

I aligned to the warp-in-point and engaged the warp-drive. D-scan revealed a Badger, clearly not Sard, a Griffin, clearly not Sard, a Thrasher also not Sard… Hold on a minute.. I .. but but…

I landed a split second before Sard Caid’s Griffin appeared on grid. I ejected my Hobgoblin, knowing that my drone would be my only chance. As soon as the onboard computer let me, I targeted the Griffin, send in my drone and immediately lost lock. A quick check satisfied me that at least the Drone had received its instructions and was attacking the Griffin. There was nothing left to do but wait… baby Jebus cried…

My singular drone was taking heavy damage and a difficult choice stood ahead of me; do I recall or not? Unable to check how much damage my foe was taking I made the choice to recall the drone, saving it from destruction but knowing that all I could do from that point on is hoping his ECM’s would drop a cycle.

Already in low armour I tried to make a run for it but just as I got myself in a position where I could warp off, his ECM missed; giving me a tiny window of opportunity. Weapons primed and overheated started spewing hot death at the Griffin, slamming through a last sliver of Armour before lighting up its hull. Thick plumes of smoke and fire trailed behind the Griffin.

Then...

Darkness returned, electronic blackout… ‘NOOOOOO!’ I yelped, letting go of controls and watched ‘Persey’ expand as a tiny blue flash vomited out my pod.

GFGF! I sputtered; still surprised Sard Caid brought a Griffin?! Where was his punisher?

5-0 to Sard Caid

-=o0o=-

Aftermath and stuffs

Sard Caid was extremely pleasant to talk to, his name may invoke fear but his calm soft spoken voice does not. He was happy and in good spirits and so he should be I guess. It was refreshing and positive to meet Mr Sard Caid, I haven’t enjoyed myself like this for a while! The recent blog-posts flying around from most seasoned Pirate veterans spell doom and gloom. It is depressing and I disagree, it is nice to find someone that is likeminded on at least that part. Or as Sard put it;

‘I don’t have time to moan about the state of low-sec, I am too busy shooting stuff’

CDM #23; Entity, Lord of the Items

Celebrity Death Match #23; Entity, Lord of the Items

-=o0o=-

The Celeb

If there were to be an -A-list for the way Celebrity Death Match ranks its celebs, this man would be somewhere at the top of the list. ‘The Lord of the Items’ has been playing EVE since 2003, and is best known for that title and what it stands for.

There are various alliances that wield great power through combined isk values; however this man alone, as a single individual is the wealthiest man in our Universe. His power is not used to fund vast armies or to conquer space; he uses his wealth to fund a very noble hobby, collecting and preserving EVE’s history.

I had heard and read about this man over 2 years ago, as a mission runner, drooling over Navy Issue Ravens, and then looking into a State Raven. Why were they never available on the market or contracts? Looking into rare ships history a bit further it became clear how rare some of these ships actually are. EVEWiki is a great tool to look up basic information on guides or items. Every time I looked at a rare ship’s history; the name ‘Entity’ could be found in the text somewhere…

Entity holds the single largest collection of items in EVE. This includes one hell of a lot Faction, Commander and complex gear most of us could not afford to buy a single piece of. Other than that there are items in Entity’s collection that do not even exist anymore; prototype drones, artefacts. Then there are the items most pilots only dream of having; the rare ships, and boy, does he have a nice collection.

I feel extremely honoured to have been given some time to speak to Mr Entity, he made time for me, joked with me and spoke openly about his history and pretty much anything I asked of him. His involvement with CCP, his banning and un-banning from the game, his isk income… you name it.

One of the reasons I started this project was to be able to meet Pilots of the ‘celebrity’ persuasion, see what they are about, and find out what makes their EVE-day tick. Entity has been one of the most interesting EVEbrities to have met so far, a unique individual with a great history and noble existence in our Universe.

-=o0o=-

Preparations

Entity had not heard of my blog prior to me contacting him, many celebs not in the blogging community haven’t. Its nerve-wracking trying to explain what I do and why I would like to meet up with a potential participant for CDM. Not knowing of CDM, people must think I am nuts. The Lord of the Items was as suspicious as I suspected, but took the time to hear me out and read over previous CDM’s before agreeing to participate.

Interceptors it was to be, another CDM first. Jokes were exchanged about there not being any ‘rare’ interceptors… even if there was, he wouldn’t have undocked in one. I am glad he wouldn’t have; he is preserving items that pilots like me would have foolishly undocked in, then lost, forever.

Faction items were allowed as was Faction ammo, no ECM or ECM drones, other than that everything goes.

As soon as the fight was confirmed I contacted the only man I know that gives me ‘no-bullshit-advice’ on ships, ship-fittings, tactics, my hair and anything else I need help with. Lady Shaniqua answered the call and we got to work…

Yes Entity can be found on Battleclinic but with hardly any history; kills or losses no concrete info is available. He has an army of alts that do his Industry work for him so there is no need for him to have his skills trained in that direction. With well over 100 million skill-points he must be able to fly all races, and be able to fit them as he pleases and well.

Our best guess would be that he would come in a close range, high DPS fit ship and therefore he must be coming in an AB fit Taranis. Within minutes LS ruffled up and old Rail-Ranis fit, some modifications were made, tactics discussed and that was that. The tactics were simply to ‘kite’ at the edge of scram- and web-range peppering the pain. If Entity would for some reason bring a kiting MWD fit himself, manual flight would have to trick him into scram range and victory would be assured. Discussions went on about ‘orbit’ and ‘keep-at-range’ but for the most part I was confident that with this ship I stood a chance, however so slim...


-=o0o=-

The Fight

With Entity not having undocked other than to collect rare items for several years, stood in my favour for sure, I PvP as often as I can. However with a near unlimited budget and with a significant skill-point advantage this fight was sure to swing in his favour. I had already accepted the loss before undocking.

The agreed system was a mere few jumps from my home system and the journey there was without hassle, evading a small camp on the way. I docked up in the agreed system to find a missing module. For some reason the Stasis Web was missing from my setup however a replacement was quickly found.

I baptised my Taranis ‘Entity Destiny’ and undocked into the blackness… and certain doom.

The Carrier that had previously sat at the undock, had gone, and the system was fairly quiet.

‘mm a Ranis?’ Entity quizzed in our fleet chat.

Quickly pinging the scanner revealed no ships in space within 14.5 AU, he must have seen me come in, perhaps the Carrier was his alt, or maybe he was watching me, cloaked.

Silence on deck, as usual, silence before the storm.

With nothing left but the fight, we wished each-other good luck and I initiated the Warp-drive.

Instructions to the Ranis navigation systems were clear, I intended to land at 10k from my foe and remain at roughly that distance.

The long warp didn’t settle my nerves, hitting the D-scanner again as soon as I was within range showed up a single Claw. A Claw? Is that good or bad? I am not familiar with the Claw and don’t know anyone that flies it, in fact I don’t think I have seen one for some time. Should I change tactics? Should I try a tight orbit?

The warp-tunnel collapsed, spewing out my frigate sized vessel, my time to think was up, time for action.

Entity had manoeuvred himself away from the warp-in-point, creating a distance of about 25 kilometres. This was not good; if he was range fit he could easily outrun me, and my anti-blaster-Ranis fit would be useless.

Drones are often overlooked on ships that can only field a few of them, with this in mind I immediately ejected two Hobgoblins and on resolving lock both sped towards the enemy Interceptor. As expected both were ignored as the gap between us rapidly closed. The drones initially overshot but on the return-loop they opened fire and steadily began eating away at the Claw’s defences.

Our speeding vessels nearly collided, both clearly determent to keep each-other close enough to keep within the optimal range of our weapons. Entity’s Auto-cannons ripped large chunks of shield away from my spacecraft, demolishing it in merely a few volleys.

Red and blue lightning snaked from Entity’s Claw to my Ranis; diminishing my capacitor every 4 seconds. A quick check of his speed showed he was AB fit and I turned of my scram, saving every last bit of capacitor for my overheated Rail-guns, Afterburner and Web.

Desperately I tried to create a little distance as my Armour buckles and tears as easily as the shield had done. Flames erupt from my Ranis, this fight was nearing its end, my end.

The superheated rounds of Caldari Navy Antimatter propelled from red-hot-Rail-guns combined with the power of two high-damage drones slowly took their toll on the armour-tanking claw. Too slow however and closing down my HUD I prepared to capture the moment I would valiantly explode in my efforts to take down the Lord of the Items.

I selected his vessel as the focal point, with myself in the background for maximum cinematic effect.

The camera jolted heavily and a burning Taranis appeared in my overview. I… what? The confusion took a few seconds to settle down until I realized what this meant. Opening the HUD showed my vessel had a solid 15% hull remaining and all three mid-slots burned out. Unbelievable! I made it!

-=o0o=-

Aftermath

It took about a minute to make my way back to Entity’s wreck and raid its contents. I returned all dropped goods to its original owner, as I always do. It did drop one unusual item, estimated at about 80 million isk and the Claw sported T2 rigs.

His fit was more expensive than mine; his skills are nearly three times that of my own, why did I win? The answer is not that simple, yes I did manage to get myself to a range where his guns did less damage, whilst mine still did full damage. The truth is; Entity didn’t overheat his modules or weapons.

Mynxee introduced me to overheating, a skill-book I immediately purchased and use every fight I get myself into. It is often the first thing I do, even before a fight starts, it is second nature to me.

I explained to Entity that most modules had burned out and laughed, he went silent for a moment but then stuttered; ‘Crap, I forgot to overheat’. PVP skills go rusty if you don’t use them regularly, it’s not like riding a bike, it’s a spaceship.

This simple equation shows the result if Entity would have overheated;

WINNER =\lim_{z\rightarrow z_0} f(z)=f(z_0)ax^2 >(hothothot)+ bx + c = 0 (Mad skillz) ax2 + x bx + c = 0> = Entity

Pretty obvious indeed, perhaps next time Mr Entity…

-=o0o=-

The video

After my second meeting with Mr Entity, where we spend maybe 2 hours talking about life, love, EVE and other related stuff, I decided to include a video with this CDM. This is not an easy decision as I already knew how much time it takes to make a video, to a standard that pleases me enough.

I had prepared the basic intro to the video in the weeks before our fight, I did some basic editing of the video and Lady Shaniqua helped me get some extra footage to make the video into a spectacular one. I posted a very basic version of it on youtube for LS and Sassy B to give me some feedback on. We agreed it was too long and LS wanted to see some kittens?!

A further 30 hours had been spent on the video; editing, clipping, adding effects, adding music, overlays, you name it.

And then my laptop crashed, and no, I didn’t back anything up. A years’ worth of fraps, programs, fittings, blog-posts, artwork and the Entity video gone forever.

So for your viewing pleasure I present the very first upload of the video, pre-editing;

Celebrity Death Match #20; Arrhidaeus

CDM #20 Arrhidaeus

Arrhidaeus requested a CDM with me about 7 months ago. I put him on hold at the time as this is not how CDM works, Celebrities are not self appointed. What his request did do however is draw attention to his blog, and what a blog it is indeed.

I started reading his stuff and immediately fell in love with his writing style, it was clever, witty, informative and of superior quality than my own for sure. Ever since I started reading his stuff he never ceases to amaze me with the quality of what he puts up for the world to see. Perhaps not as regular as some other bloggers but with Arrhi it is quality, not quantity. I personally started lobbying for his Blog to be added to the Blog Pack and still do (You reading this CK? Don’t make me post more sad panda pictures!)

As a fellow Bastard I get to follow his progression in-game as well and his heroics still amaze me every day. We are on different time-zones but due to my RL work I generally play the same time he would do. His playtime is about half of what I generally log-in for in any given week and we score about the same kills on average. This obviously means that if Arrhi would play as much as I do, he would kill twice as much as I do.

With a penchant for Navy Slicers Arrhidaeus rips up foes left right and centre, scoring epic solo kills wherever he roams. It is he himself I blame for my own addiction to Faction flavoured Frigates; my kill/loss ratio isn’t as good as his however…

Perhaps it is clear enough from the above but let me be very clear that I hold this man in the highest esteem and have a little bit of a man-crush on him…

Time for that CDM then I guess.


Preparation and stuffz…
Some ideas floated around about what to fight in, Faction Frigs had been mentioned, fitting restrictions were briefly discussed but Arrhi could not decide what to do. As time passed we flew occasionally together on little roams. On one particular evening we ended up Vitreaze and engaged 3 Tusker pilots in a Rifter, Firetail and a Jaguar, we preceded to melt them but lost Arrhi’s Slicer, leaving me to face three experienced pilots. By sheer luck all three Tuskers fell to my Ishkur, surviving with just a sliver of hull. Read Arrhi’s story here.

Arhhi was impressed, and of course I basked in the glory of the moment. It was utter luck not skill however that made me survive that fight. Perhaps I am wrong but I think that moment defined the choice of ships Arrhi eventually decided to fight me in…

Assault Frigates, another CDM first, brilliant! For days before the fight I tried to imagine what to bring, I can fly 3 different Races worth of AF’s and thus had the choice of 6 different ships. It was hard to imagine what my opponent would turn up in as he rarely flies Assault Frigs. No research was required to what he can and can’t do; I already follow his moves and progressions on the kill-board closely.

The fight played over and over again in my head; on the way to work, on the bus, when I made breakfast, you name it. This CDM I wanted to win more than any other. I wanted to show him who is boss and dominate…

After long deliberation I decided to use a kiting flavour of my Ishkur. A crazy fit perhaps but in all the possible scenarios that I played over and over in my head I saw this to be the fit that would work. Microwarpdrive-loving-Arhhi wouldn’t be able to run away from me or kite me if I fit a MWD myself. With a semi decent tank I would be able to tank whatever he throws at me if he is long range fit, and if he does fit an Afterburner instead I shall pummel him from range…

The fight
Arrhidaeus safed up in our home system Evati and the moment of truth had come. The Kaalikiota owned station released the sleek hull of ‘Mégas Aléxandros’ into the cold blackness. Named after Alexander the Great, the Ishkur class Assault Frigate aligned gently to a blank point in space. Its smooth surfaces reflected the lights beaming from the stations undock point.

‘Good luck’ I mumbled as the Warpdrive engaged. I lied, I didn’t wish him any luck, I wanted him to die. The room went silent, no music, no distractions, final equipment check…

Scanning ahead had already revealed the ship type I would be fighting, as the warp tunnel closed behind me I landed 30 clicks from my rival’s Ishkur.

Tactics had already been prepared for fighting this particular encounter as I set to work. I fired up the Microwarpdrive and selected a comfortable 20k orbit. Superheated rounds of Caldari Navy Thorium propelled towards the much slower target, doing minimal damage and missing various salvos.

The 10 Warrior II Light Scout Drones stayed in their bay until Arrhidaeus committed his own drones to travel the 20 kilometres into my direction. His drones finally deployed sped towards me…

Knowing the Ishkur well I proceeded to take out the majority of his DPS output by deploying my own drones and targeting his. Fighting at this range meant his drones had a long way to travel back every time he recalled them, giving my drones more time to destroy and maim.

Trying to keep count of how many drones he had left became harder as the fight went on but at best four to my estimation and set my drones to attack his spacecraft.

With Arrhi now suffering from heavy Armour damage I felt victorious and closed down all items on my Head Up Display to get a nice shot of his ship erupting into fragments.

But I waited, and waited a little longer, without the satisfying blue flash filling my overview. Quickly bringing my HUD back online it became clear that my drones were no more. Luckily I still had all my spares and deployed a fresh batch.

This fight had gone on for some time now and I started to wonder why my guns didn’t put out enough damage to finish off those last little slivers of hull. Checking logs revealed that nearly all shots fired missed their target. Thinking that my high speed didn’t help the tracking of my guns I slowed down, switching to manual flight.

My opponents shields slowly recharged as I desperately tried to approach and fly away to reduce our transversal and get a straight shot at him. Harder work than it may sound, as my weapons only have a 23k range and getting to close meant his Ion Blasters and NOS became an issue. So much of an issue that at one stage I took such heavy damage my hull peered through. Barely had I managed to escape and gained enough range to repair the damage done.

Concentrating so much on getting my guns to score some hits I forgot about my remaining drones until it was to late. A little grey cloud appeared were my final drone was last seen.

This couldn’t be a draw, I didn’t want it to end like this, I panicked as I loaded up the last scraps of ammo. The duration of the fight had been the cause for burnt out modules for the both of us, however Arrhi burned out the one reason my guns where useless, a Tracking Disruptor.

With his EWAR now out of the equation my guns finally did some damage. With my MWD burned out I selected approach and crossed my fingers as overheated-nearly-burned-out-Railguns fired hot lead.

I had won, I had actually won! This is the first CDM in 6 encounters I won! I surveyed the damage to my ship and realised the repair bill would be rather substantial. The fight started of with my hold crammed full of ammo and cap-charges. All that was left in my hold now were cigarettes, spirits, and a test-dummy.

Twenty-six minutes, a whopping 996 Faction Thorium charges and 40 cap-charges were spent trying to destroy Arrhidaeus, leaving just 4 rounds of ammo in my smoking Railguns...


Just for you Arrhi
My apologies for the late posting of this CDM but I didn’t want to post it until the video was completed to my satisfaction. Many thanks to our brother-in-arms TheHermit for helping me put this video together (watch it in HD, much better yeah). Perhaps only followers of both our blogs will understand, Arhhi, this is for you;




The ‘theme’ as you may have guessed is ‘Mortal Combat’, I intended to make this straight after this post made by Mr Arrhidaeus some time ago. Again I want to thank all involved in making this video possible, and yes I will deffo make more in the future.

Selling out
You may have noticed that CDM, or me as its representative is selling out. I have spend a lot of isk and time on CDM and it has finally come to a stage where I feel comfortable asking for sponsorship.

Some time ago a chap paid me 50 mil isk and I named my ship used in the next CDM in his honor, now however the isk goals are higher and I have been very lucky to find 2 sponsors for this video.

Many thanks to Selene D’Celeste from EOH POKER and the ever brilliant T’amber from ShipsOfEve for the contributions to this project. I hope to work together again in the future! (wink wink)

Another video is scheduled for my CDM with Entity some time soon, if you want to support the project or sponsor the video please contact me in-game or email me at nshhkdvr@gmail.com.


Watch this space!

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!

100 blog postings

100!
This is my onehundreth post! For some not a mayor achievement perhaps, but for me it is. I had never thought I enjoyed writing to be very honest but August 2009 I started off to give it a try.

Being a big fan of the Capsuleer application on my i-pod, being part of the blog pack was a dream. That dream realised I just hope to post enough readable material to keep me in it.

The beginnings
One of my first projects took off like a rocket. Celebrity Death Match was born the day I fought Shae Tiann and wrote a post about it calling it CDM just for shits and giggles. Piggybacking on the success of others the concept became well known and before I knew it I was renamed; ‘that CDM guy’.

The CDM project is still going but it is increasingly harder to get celebrities to commit and agree a time and place to meet up. The series however remains the back bone of my blog and still gets the most hits when I post a new one.

Just this week #21 has been completed and CDM #20 is still to be posted, I have a few celebrities that have agreed to meet and fight me but more on that soon.

Then what?
Other than the CDM posts I run various other projects; ‘A week in the life of…’ Is a series where I spend a week in a well known corp to see what they get up to and what the pilots are like. ‘A week in the life of the Pythons’ proved to be a huge success and a second one had been planned not long after. I intended to spend a week with the Tuskers but with a Bastard/Tusker alliance now in full effect it seems a little pointless. That and the fact the Tuskers have been getting enough attention lately made me put this one off a little longer…

‘Project Rifter’ has just commenced and seems to be reasonable popular also. I wanted to see what the big deal with the Rifter was and thus skilled 46 days specifically to fly this frigate. The project is in full swing so more on that soon…

Fillers
The all important fillers; in between projects I try to keep my audience entertained with some Pirate related adventures under the posting header ‘Pirates Ahoy!’. In these posts I tell the tales of Bastards and friends and the yarring we get into.

I tried to be clever like Roc Wieler and do a ‘Roc’s Rules’ type thing with the Series called ‘Bio Funnies’, however I have not found this particularly stimulating and have stopped these for the time being.

Another string of posts I started is the Help Desk. Originally I intended to publish self written guides about; D-scanner use, probing, aggression timers etc etc. These have all been done so many times already however and much better than I could do myself. Instead it evolved in to a ship fitting guide with clear disclaimers to avoid too much trolling.

Ramblings is another header I use to post stuff I simply can’t fit in anywhere else, it is indeed filled with ramblings and if I doodle anything this is where it can be found.

Fans?
I don’t know about fans but my blog has 46 followers and I get the occasional shout-out in local. I find it all very flattering and have learned to enjoy it. My goal is to eventually have as many followers as Kirith or Mynxee, go on, stroke my ego and click 'follow'.

Pilots have convo’d me throughout EVE to complement or duel me and I always accept. I don’t mind losing a ship here or there…

I did once get an EVE-mail from an army-chap based in Iraq, who said my post made his days easier, that choked me up a bit…

Stats
I have to admit I am a bit of a pc-noob and thus don’t know how to find out if anybody has subscribed to this blog through Google-reader or such likes. A friend has been so kind to add Google Analytics to my blog and I have been following that every day ever since…

In a game of statistics lets have some statistics, please note that these figures are taken from Google Analytics and thus do not show some RSS feeds and no i-pod capsuleer readers are added to this. God knows how many i-podders read all this rubbish, they never leave a comment =)

Top 5 most viewed posts;
1 A week I the Life of the pythons
2 Help Desk 4; how to fit a drake
3 EPIC Celebrity Death Match #16
4 Celebrity Death Match #19 Prometheus
5 Help Desk 5; how to fit a Vexor

Top 5 reffering sites;
1 Mynxee’s; Life in Low sec
2 Spectre’s; Evenewb (RIP?)
3 Kane Rizzel’s; A pirates perspective
4 Crazy Kinux; Crazy Kinux Musings
5 Kiriths Kodachi’s; Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah

Top 5 Country visits
1 United States
2 United Kingdom
3 Canada
4 Australia
5 Germany
(Blog visited by CCP; 22)

Top 5 strange keywords that apparently land you on my blog
1 ‘celebrity crutch shot’
2 ‘jensius duo’
3 ‘banana alpha’
4 ‘pre-arranged girl fight’
5 ‘eve rifter blog jerk’

And now?
Wow, I don’t know really, we’ll see where all this takes me. I am a proud Bastard and intend to stay there and thus posts will be Bastard related in some way for sure.

As CDM #20 has already happened I shall post CDM statistic next I guess as I try to do them every 5 CDM’s. Other than that I am working on a video to go with the next ‘Project Rifter’ post, desperately trying to get hold of Photoshop so I can work on some more art-work and then there is recruitment again soon too…


Watch this space

Celebrity Death Match #21; T'amber

Celebrity Death Match #21; T'amber- EVE Lottery Mogul

Chack’Nul
Chack’Nul contacted me several months ago and requested a duel, not something that unusual really, I get these requests rather often since the start of CDM nearly a year ago. Mr Chack’Nul fought me in his ‘Tristan of Doom’ and completely obliterated my ‘Kessy of Doom’. He graciously linked me his fit and I fell in love with it. That was the day I started training for Gallente Vessels and still stock some Tristan’s named in his honour. We did catch up at a later date to test my skills in the sexy Tristan hull, Chack killed me again, his superior skills very clear.

We sporadically stay in touch and one particular conversation he suggested for me to challenge T’amber for a Celebrity Death Match. T’amber? From shipsofeve? Ha! Like as if he’s gonna make time for me. One thing I learned is that celebrities that do not write blogs themselves see me as a nuisance if anything.

A few months later and I received an Eve-mail from Chack, in it was a copied convo between him and T’amber. The convo had Chack describing what I do and T’amber seemed interested however not keen on leaving Jita. But he was interested…

First contact
T’amber has been in my address-book for some time, and he certainly had a spot on the Celebrity Death Match wish list. It never seemed right to speak to him however; I lacked the balls to disturb him. With the initial contact already made for me I made the call…

The conversation took me back to the early days of CDM, I had to explain who I am, what I do and then convince my opponent to agree to a duel. Contacting a fellow blogger is usually easier as they will have heard of CDM or even read it before.

Mr T’amber didn’t make me grovel or beg though and agreed to meet up with me, as long as the duel would take place in Jita. ‘Well’ I mumbled… ‘there is a little issue with the Jita high security status thingy…’. ‘Them’s the stipulations, I live in Jita and don’t leave there’ the lottery mogul continued; ‘Security status is irrelevant’ pointing at his own sec status. Hang on, this dude is a super rich, well know tycoon, lives in Jita and has a -10 sec status?!

‘Yes, of course’ is all I could muster, not sure what to expect from a duel in high sec with a shoot on sight sticker on my back. ‘It will be a time-trial; we will both undock in Jita 4-4 and the pilot alive the longest, wins’. T1 Battleship was to be the flavour of hull type, and as a parting hint he linked a previous BS-loss, lost in the very same way he intended to time-trial-duel me. ‘Crap’, he is an experienced-BS-suicider?

This conversation took some time; his responses were short and sporadic. One of the first questions I ask when speaking to a potential CDM contestant is if they have time to speak, he said he did. Only after speaking to him a few times and spending time in his home solar system do I understand our very first conversation. He did give me all the time and attention he could spare, having 10 different chats on the go at any one time is a quiet time for him I guess…

Preparations
EFT provided some insight in what could possibly be done to max out a buffer for my Dominix. Lag was to be expected, possible so much so that undocking would fill my overview with nothing. Nothing until I would awake again in my home system covered in pod goo. My choice was simple; no active mods, no Invuls, no Damage Control systems, just 1600 plates and large Shield Extenders.

Saturday night after work I undocked my Jovian Egg into the Evati night sky and set course for Jita. My intentions were simply to be ready to do the duel at a moment’s notice on Sunday, the agreed date. I had my sons christening and didn’t know if I would have enough time to fit and prepare my stuff on the day of the duel.

I decided to travel in my pod as it is the safest and quickest way to get into high-sec space. The align time is virtually 0 and thus no pilot would be able to get a lock on me quick enough to stop my progress. ‘Nothing can kill you’ I hummed to myself speeding through system after system. On-route I spammed the request for support on the day of the fight.

‘Nothing can kill you’ I hummed to myself, taking a sip from my 2am coffee. I nearly choked on that coffee when the inside of the Evati Clone Facilities filled the screen.

A large ‘Vehemence’ smart bomb doesn’t require a lock and its favourite food is eggs. I updated the clone and immediately set off again. Less chirpy this time however, I like my implants you know…

Arriving in the system I lost my pod it didn’t take long to find the perpetrators. Pirate Corp ‘Negative ten’ must have had a bad day at the office and were killing indiscriminately with their sizeable BS-heavy fleet. Many roads lead to Jita, I know, but the opportunity for sleep was getting smaller and smaller so I piped up in local, requesting safe passage in return for a fee. Isk and words of honour where exchanged.

Travel was uneventful after that and I docked up in the busiest station in the busiest solar system in the EVE Universe. Jita… god how I hate her... the local channel filled up quicker than one could read, scams, links to contracts, vague snippets of conversations poured through, madness, absolute madness. I purchased a Dominix and fitted it to the spec I prepared earlier, filled the cargo hold with lots of random rubbish, logged off and went to bed.

If I would believe in hell I am sure to be taking a nose-dive into that lava pit some day, I mumbled some stuff in church when my son was christened, wishing to be at home, playing EVE. Dinner with the parents in law couldn’t be over quick enough… From the restaurant I rushed home to get the last of the AT8 action and to get an update on the Dead Terrorist/Bastard fight earlier that day before seeking contact with T’amber.

Unfortunately our date was to be postponed as this CDM’s celebrity was severely ill, taking regular breaks to puke his guts out. Our time trial got rescheduled for the following evening…

On Monday I logged in and had to endure 4 hours of Jita’s insanity. The local chat channel did what it usually does, the two channels in use by T’ambers-shipsofeve were no better however, pandemonium, jokes, singing, links to various pictures, prizes being thrown around, bingo, you name it, it was happening.

It certainly wasn’t the longest wait for a celebrity but it was definitely the most mentally draining. I don’t know how he does it, how could any sane man deal with this kind of mental terrorism? T’amber is made of sturdier brain stuff than me, that’s for sure…

The duel
When my opponent finally found a spare minute to grant me my duel, a final call was made for pilots in Jita to undock and prepare to shoot me or T’amber, or both. The moment I had waited for had come as T’amber counted down from 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1 UNDOCK!

‘Rep me quick’ prepared to undock, the overview blacked out, no night sky appeared. For a moment I thought I would simply awake in Evati never knowing what had hit me but the outside of the Jita station finally appeared.

The strategy was pretty simple, undock and watch…

The heavy humming of the stations bowels ceased, with chat channels now minimized everything went quiet. Eerily quiet in fact, as my Dominix-class Battleship gently floated away from the docking bay. Jita Police arrived as the silence broke; many ships now lighting up bright yellow as their targeting systems went live. Here we go… The silence broke properly as Jita opened up its guns on me.

Like thunder and lightning, streams of light from all around me started connecting with my vessel. A full-red-flashy-overview took my shields as if they weren’t even there. I tried to target T’amber and get a volley of to ensure a spot on the kill-mail but the lag was so bad I couldn’t even resolve a lock.

The lag did stand in my favour however as T’amber had 2 active mods on his Dominix and would have serious issues even switching them on…

Alarm bells flared, screaming even over the sound of guns, announcing the inevitable. The Domi erupted in a large bright ball of fire, vomiting out my pod in the process. I don’t know how, but I managed to engage the warp drive and as the tunnel prepared to suck me in, I caught a glimpse of T’amber’s ship exploding.

One of the shipsofeve-volunteers had kept time from when we each undocked (I undocked earlier) and he reluctantly declared me the winner. Perhaps not the greatest way to duel, but this was not about the action more mass entertainment, I guess. It has been a pleasure meeting T’amber and having had a sneaky peak into his EVE life, I cannot imagine what he must put up with.

Spin-dizzy I selected the quickest route home and closed down shipsofeve-channels that continued to pour out more stuff and chatter, faster than the eye could see.


More CDM soon, so watch this space…

CDM NEEDS YOU!

CDM #21 has been scheduled for this Sunday! For the more observant readers you may have noticed that there is a CDM missing, number #20 to be exact. This CDM has already taken place however I shall not be posting the result and blurb just yet as there is a little side project to be added to this and this is not completed. It will be done soon however so keep your eyes peeled for that one!

The reason I am giving you the heads up on CDM #21 is because I need your help. The 21st EVE Celebrity Death Match shall be with Mr T’Amber from the well known SHIPS OF EVE LOTTERY. As always the Celebrity makes up the rules for the fights and T’amber has requested a rather strange duel…

We are to undock in Jita 4-4 in Battleships with our -10 sec status and the winner will be the Pilot that stays alive the longest. A time trial CDM first!

Now you may ask; how can I help? The answer to that is pretty simple; bring guns or Remote-Repping ships to Jita this coming Sunday. To shoot T’Amber you will take no Concord or Police aggression and will assist in bringing down my foe quicker. To ensure I live longer I require Remote Repping, however this is only to be done by pilots willing to sacrifice their ship and security status as by assisting notorious outlaw Nashh you will take Concord aggression and will be shot.

The fight will happen Sunday evening in between an Alliance Tournament match, however a time has not been agreed just yet as I have my sons christening to attend to first. Not that I am religious but the wife wants to and she is the boss. It shall therefore take place later in the day and on ‘Jita-Cam’.

So be part of a CDM this Sunday and come to Jita 4-4, bring guns and help obliterate T’Amber or be really brave and bring some Remote Reps for me!

Please leave a comment on this post letting me know if you will be attending and what you’ll be bringing and I shall ensure to mention any supporters in the actual CDM post and buy everyone a beer after the action!

Watch this space…

Celebrity Death Match #19; Prometheus09

Celebrity Death Match #19; Prometheus09

The long awaited return of Celebrity Death Match has finally come. And what a return indeed; this would prove to be one of the most costly and fastest CDM’s to date…

Prometheus has been on my list for some time, as have others, but I simply haven’t been able to organize any CDM’s. Being busy in RL has limited the time I get online and the majority of my online time has been spent being a pirate. It takes a lot of time and dedication being a pirate you know…

A prolific blogger for some time, Prometheus of The Captains Log, went on my list after ‘Chribba Gate’. An incident in which his then corp ‘CONCORD preservation and recovery’ war-decked and attacked EVE’s best known carebear. The response to his actions where intense, made the CCP newsreel and caused an upset for lots of pilots. It made me chuckle.

Prom has been accepted into the NOIR Mercenary group a little while ago and looks to be having a good time. Being free from a contract at this current moment made it a good time to meet up and duel it out for the sake of CDM.

After initial contact was made I quickly refreshed Mr Prometheus with the rules; no warping off, fight to the death but no pod squishing, any other rule or limitation he may wish for.

‘Battleships it is then’ Prom responded quickly, filling me with dread. Previous large ship CDM’s have been fought with an alt of mine, not Nashh. ‘As you wish’ I reluctantly mumbled knowing that Nashh only ownes one BS and has the skill trained to 1.

Research time I
It took some time to find enough details on Prom to convince myself I actually stood a chance in this fight. Searching kill-boards from previous corps (Battleclinic was down) revealed Layzors as the BS weapon of choice. Excellent I figured, providing I can get within range, my standard Domi fit would wipe the floor with him. I say standard Domi fit as I cant field BS sized weaponry and thus sport Neuts across the entire highslots.

Second problem then becomes transporting said vessel to the fight location Amarr, or at least a low sec system close to there. This never was a real issue until now. Being a dedicated pirate at heart my sec status dropped quickly and has been a solid -10 for some time. This indeed means that the shorter high sec route to our agreed system is a big no no. The low sec route is 48 jumps, and although police free certainly not safe for my sexy flashy Dominix.

Mmm, I made the deal and I shall deliver on my promise, as I always do, I tried to pep talk myself. But what if..Maybe..wait a second..Bingo! NOIR known for their stealthy manoeuvres fly Stealth Bombers and thus so does Prom. This could be another CDM first; a T2 frigate fight!

I EVE-mailed my to-be-opponent and suggested a SB fight rather than BS fight. The response came quickly and it was in my favour, Prometheus agreed.

Research time II
It appears my adversary can fly Stealth Bombers of all races but I had already chosen my Damage type; EM. I had a look over his kill-board stats again and looked at the fits he is known to fly and what weapons he has used in the past.

Ok so he can use target painters and sensor-dampeners. No sign of T2 Torpedoes however and I think I have found my winning formula.

Picture of fit one;
Fit for the simple purpose of hitting a small target at range. Excellent, no need for cloak which leaves 2 turret slots…

Turret slots? A Stealth Bomber has turret slots? Mmm, what if…

OMFG I am so clever, he would never expect this one.

Picture of fit 2;

A volley of incoming torpedoes would wipe out my shields but they would quickly be repaired before a second volley hits. Combined with the fire-power of Frigate sized Weaponry against a Frigate with 1.7 K tank this fight was gonna last no more than 10 seconds.


Prom Night I
My main hangar in Evati had all the required modules and a stack of the Gallente Nemesis. Fitting didn’t take long and I set off. I fitted a cloak just to help me safely through the low sec systems on my 28 jump trip. I hadn’t expected any trouble running a Frigate hull through high-sec hence the shorter route option.

At various gate’s the coppers shot my shields off but by the time I landed at the outbound gate the shields where fully repped up. This filled me with even more confidence in my fitting choice.

Five jumps from my Target system (Ami) my luck turned. It turned and slapped a shovel in my face…

My Vessel of glory named Prom Night, fell to a highsec gate camper with I can only presume lots of sensor boosters. People actually sit in high sec, sensor boosted, waiting for flashy’s? I quickly spammed the warp button to at least save my pod but when the warp-drive wouldn’t activate all I could muster in local was;

Nashh Kadavr> O dear…

Karma had come for me. For all the pods I hadn’t requested a ransom for and simply shot, this was my payback. O do I wish he had offered to ransom me, 500 million in implants now floated in space somewhere, lost forever.

I would later discover that my killer Rico Felix is ranked 8th on Battleclinic and scored a whopping 143 kills versus 0 losses in the last 7 days! O and his favourite kill? Pods…

Prom Night II
My clone awoke in Evati. A little moment of rage came over me. Not just the loss of my ship & pod, but also the fact that I was going to arrive early for the arranged fight but now I was going to be late.

Viginti> Alcohol helps that

Yes it does. A quick smoke break and a Guinness later I fitted another Nemesis. I had to do this fight tonight, for the simple reason that if I would postpone, Prometheus would find the kill-mail and know my intended fit.

A few items short this time I figured I just race there the 48 jumps through low sec and get Prometheus to get me the last items from Amarr.

The trip this time was long, very long. I had to evade 3 gate camps but no further incidents. On arrival in Ami I expected to have Amarr-market access but I didn’t so I made my way there in my pod to purchase the missing items.

A touch of lag made me hover outside the Amarrian Station of choice and someone thought it would be funny to let of a smart bomb. Cold sweat broke out as the inside of a station filled my overview. ‘O shit’ I managed in our private chat. Quickly checking my location revealed I had survived the smart bomb.

I transferred my clone to this very station just in case I lost my pod again on the way back to Ami. The goods where purchased and a courier contract setup. I didn’t want to reveal my purchased items by trading to keep the surprise until later.

As my egg entered the void, alarm bells flared up, nearly giving me a heart attack. A warp tunnel enveloped around me and I was safe, with my pod a mere 13% from structure…

The Fight is on
Prometheus made a safe spot with his alt which would be used as a warp-in point. Nerves started to rattle now as my fitting choice required a close orbit around my target. What if he is 100 clicks away? Will my MWD blow my signature-radius to gigantic proportions, allowing him to deal full damage with his Torpedoes?

I signalled I was ready as did Prometheus. ‘Prom Night II’ slipped into the darkness and entered warp as I commanded it to ‘warp to 0’.

A tense few seconds later Prom’s Manticore entered my overview, 18837k, 1803k, 148k, 100k, shit,28k, yeah baby, 7k, 3k and the warp-tunnel closed behind me.

All weapons primed and pre-overloaded went to work; spewing hot ion charged rounds and T2 Rage Rockets. Ha! Take that! Super-confidence filled my head as I was convinced I had outsmarted my foe by fitting Frigate weapons instead of Torpedoes.

My shields smashed with that super-confidence. In a desperate attempt to save myself I overloaded the mid slots and activated the shield-repper and cap-booster.

A single cycle is all they managed as my inbox flashed even before the Nemesis exploded violently into space dust.

How was this possible? What just happened? I had expected to win in 10 maybe 15 seconds; instead I lost in less than 8.

Prometheus shared his fit and it became clear I had not outsmarted him, he had outsmarted me. The reason he warped to 0 was for the very same reason as I had done. That sneaky little bugger had fit Frigate guns!

We shared GF’s as I docked with my tail in between my legs. Tired and defeated, under heavy wife aggro I logged for the night.

Job well done to Prometheus, until we meet again…

Watch this space.

EVE 2010

EVE 2010

Here is a late post on my plans for 2010. It's late as RL has taken hold of my blogging time and my desire to pewpew any other free minute I get. I am working on the right balance...

Plans for RL life;

• Baby NO2 is underway and should arrive in no more than 3 weeks from today.
• I am getting married in September.
• Stop smoking, drink less, work out.
• Moving somewhere sunny at the end of the year.
• I hope to attend Fanfest 2010 with the family and represent the Bastards.

In Game Plans;

• No more flying blind drunk, tipsy is ok.
• Achieve the rank of 'General of the Air Force' (currently I am a Colonel)
• Get in on some capital kills.
• Refine skills for the ships I fly currently, then branch out to Minnie ships.
• Build more and expand my fleet.

On the Blogging front;

For one I will finally install Word on my new laptop and post just from there, as posting from work messes up the layout, text size and fonts for some reason.

I have some new blog topics in the pipe line and some old ones to build on here is a brief description;

• Celebrity Death Match

A second EPIC CDM had been in the making, one where I intended to field a Carrier and a support crew (Celebs) to fight Goon CEO Karttoon. Some delays and a long story later you can guess that this is now not happening. However the plan is not dead, so expect a Carrier CDM this year...

Other CDM's are still pending; Crazy Kinux, Arrhidaeus, and lots more well known Pilots to meet and fight...

• A week in the life of...

A new post about Nashh spending a week with well known Corporations to tell the community about an outsiders point of view of these corps. Finding out what kind of things they get up too, what the crews are like and an oppertunity for these corps to advertise their reqruitment status etc.. should be fun!

• Help Desk

A topic that is hard to work with as most topics I intended to discuss here are done and done again. However one post shall follow soon; 'Funky Chicken Fits'. This topic may die out soon after but lets see how we roll...

• Fiction

Fiction story's are still brewing and I shall post at least 2 full storys this year.

• Pirates Ahoy!

How can I live a pirate's life in New Eden and not write about them?! Excactly, this post shall describe the adventures of Nashh with the Bastards and friends. The Corp has big plans this year and there shall be plenty to write about, some action, some stupid mistakes but above all a bit of fun!

I hope I havent lost too many readers with my absence and I thank all of you with your kind words, either ingame or on the blog.

Watch this space...