Apr 072014
 

csm9

It is that time of year again when EVE goes to polls to vote for the Council of Stellar Management. And like last year I have sat down and looked over the quite considerable candidate list and have selected those I think deserve to be on your ballots this year.  Obviously I have included myself as I am running for a place on CSM 9.

As with last year you will be able to list up to 14 candidates on your ballot, and if a candidate at the top of the list gets in before your vote is counted, it will move to the next in the list and so on until 14 candidates are elected.

So without further ado here are the 14 candidates I feel will make for the best possible 9th Council of Stellar Management. Please note they are in no particular order, I will provide a couple of recommended ways to order them at the end of this post:

Mangala Solaris

I feel the work of CSM 8 is unfinished and would like to see that through to the end, while continuing to try my best to represent all of you in my interactions with CCP and my fellow CSM delegates.

Jayne Fillon:

Jayne is amazingly knowledgeable about the game, especially when it comes to pvp. I feel that he would do a great job on the CSM on that basis alone, however his work with the social communities within EVE including Spectre Fleet and Ganked has demonstrated excellent abilities as an enabler and CCP needs the input of such individuals when it comes to future content additions.

Ali Aras

Ali is the star of CSM 8. She has worked tirelessly to represent the vast majority of the playerbase and has been at the forefront of all the CSM’s activities and discussions with the developers – good and bad. She has worked tirelessly on the duties of Secretary. She very much deserves a place on your ballots for CSM 9 to continue on this good work.

Xander Phoena:

Xander is a true gent. As someone with immense community presence, I feel that he will bring the perspective of the community to the CSM in their interactions with CCP, which is especially invaluable with a community that does like to break out the pitch forks regularly! As well as his proven community focus, he knows what he does not know about EVE and is always willing to reach out to those who have that knowledge, something that is invaluable in a CSM member.

Mike Azariah

Mike ran for CSM over and over until finally winning a seat on CSM 8.  After a year of working alongside him I have to admit that had I known the sort of man he was before I would have voted for him on every other occasion he ran!  Mike is a tremendous communicator, with a wide depth of knowledge about EVE and a totally steadfast advocate for the casual player regardless of where they call home.

Steve Ronuken:

Last Steve was the “little fish” who no one knew much about, however over the past year Steve has upped his profile and demonstrated a grasp of many aspects of EVE that has surprised many people. He has also not wavered from his core focus on greater support for third party developers, and given the tools he has provided to the community this past year I am a convert and now share his views on this issue.

Sugar Kyle:

Lowsec needs a CSM representative, not just on CSM 9 but on all CSM’s going forward. I am of the belief that Sugar is an excellent start to a new lowsec legacy on the CSM. She is incredibly knowledgeable about issues as diverse as industry, pvp and the new player experience, and how they all can contribute to a better lowsec for all. 

Psianh Auvyander:

Psianh has a background in community management, and as we keep seeing communication between the players, CSM and CCP is very important, therefore on this alone Psianh will make an excellent member of CSM 9. However this is not solely why I chose to recommend him. He has a solid footing in small gang pvp across many areas of EVE, understands that EVE needs an active merc community, and after a long chat with him he has strong ideas on new players and how best to ensure they advance in EVE.

Matias Otero:

The founder and spiritual leader of Brave Newbies. Matias has overseen the creation of a major entity within EVE in under a year, something that requires the drive and focus needed to be a successful CSM member. He is deeply interested in the retention of new players and has a sweeping vision for improving the sandbox like no other.

Mynnna:

Mynnna is easily the most knowledgeable of the current CSM when it comes to issues like industry, economics and nullsec mechanics.  Combine this knowledge with what he has learned about the CSM process during his stellar term on CSM 8, and this makes him an obvious pick for CSM 9.

Corbexx:

Possibly the strongest wormhole candidate since Two Step. Is known to nearly everyone in that community, has forgotten more about wormholes and wormhole mechanics than I have ever learned and of course in what seems to be a banner year for industry he has some interesting thoughts there too.  He could probably beat me in a RL fight too. 

DJ Funkybacon:

Another lowsec candidate, however Funky is very much the lowsec pvp candidate with a huge focus on Faction Warfare and the betterment of it. If you have any interest at all in FW, then Funky needs your support.  Additionally as with some of the other candidates above, Funky thanks in part to his EVE Radio presence is a very well known guy in the community, and as I have said for others such individuals are needed on the CSM both for the benefit of CCP and for your benefit as well.

James Arget:

As with last year I have found myself supporting multiple wormhole candidates. I have worked with James for the duration of the 8th CSM and he has been a very hard worker indeed, and one who always put the concerns of his wormhole constituents at the forefront of his dealings with CCP and the CSM. He will no doubt continue this going into CSM 9.

Progodlegend:

Like many others I originally considered Progodlegend to be running purely for the fun of it. However I was wrong. During the latter half of CSM 8s term, he has demonstrated a level of knowledge about the game beyond his apparent nullsec focus that made me sit up and pay attention. On top of this his activities in providing content for his coalition members and their enemies make him a must recommend by someone like me.

As I said towards the top of this post, I am providing a couple of slates (suggested ballot orders using my favoured candidates) for you to follow when voting opens tomorrow.

I am happy to be able to provide magic links for each slate that – once you have logged into the voting page – you should click the one you agree with. This will then highlight the relevant candidates and allow you to drag & drop them onto your ballot. All you then need to do is click submit vote. The magic links are beneath the slates found below. Choose ONE that suits and use that.

 

“People wot I like and think you should like too”:

All of them are massively well qualified for the job and I really would relish working with them for the betterment of EVE during CSM 9. If I could order them in another way, everyone bar myself would be at #2.

  1. Mangala Solaris
  2. Jayne Fillon
  3. Ali Aras
  4. Xander Phoena
  5. Mike Azariah
  6. Steve Ronuken
  7. Sugar Kyle
  8. Psianh Auvyander
  9. Matias Otero
  10. Mynnna
  11. Corbexx
  12. DJ Funkybacon
  13. James Arget
  14. Progodlegend

 Click this as per the above instructions:

http://bit.ly/1lIB3TZ

 

“Wisdom of the ages”:

This slate consists of CSM 8 incumbents – who all have been excellent during their terms and like myself feel they have both things they wish to see through and experience and knowledge to impart as part of CSM 9; My other recommendations from the candidate pool that have a range of experience across activities in EVE that will be useful for the CSM going forward.

  1. Mangala Solaris
  2. Ali Aras
  3. Xander Phoena
  4. Mike Azariah
  5. Sugar Kyle
  6. Mynnna
  7. Jayne Fillon
  8. James Arget
  9. Progodlegend
  10. Steve Ronuken
  11. Psianh Auvyander
  12. DJ Funkybacon
  13. Corbexx
  14. Matias Otero

Click this as per the above instructions:

http://bit.ly/Q0tn49

 

“Pee Vee Pee”:

Many, if not all, of my recommendations pvp in one way or another. If you are a solid pvp fanatic that loves the thrill of the kill, flying with your buddies or everyone ever, beyond anything else EVE has to offer then this slate is very much for you. 

  1. Mangala Solaris
  2. Jayne Fillon
  3. Psianh Auvyander
  4. Corbexx
  5. DJ Funkybacon
  6. Sugar Kyle
  7. Matias Otero
  8. Ali Aras
  9. Progodlegend
  10. James Arget
  11. Mike Azariah
  12. Mynnna
  13. Xander Phoena
  14. Steve Ronuken

Click this as per the above instructions:

http://bit.ly/1kHxITP

Nov 122013
 

CSM_LOGO

This coming Thursday – 14th November 2013 – CCP will be streaming more details of Rubicon, the upcoming EVE Online expansion, as well as looking further ahead into the future of EVE. This will be live streamed on the CCP Twitch channel from 19.00 UTC, hosted by the excellent CCP Guard alongside the EVE Development team.

While you can watch this alone, discuss it on the forums, or even brave the stream chat channel, I invite you to join me on the RvB Ganked Mumble on the day to talk about the Rubicon. its features and anything else discussed by CCP. I shall be online from 18.00 UTC for those interested in watching the stream with me. Additionally for those unable to use a mic, please join the RvB Ganked channel ingame to discuss the expansion at the same time.

I am hoping any available members of the CSM will be there as well.

For those of you who play Planetside 2 with me on Thursdays, lets play on Wednesday 13th.  So get downloading that 1.7GB performance patch!!! Everyone else, I shall see you on Thursday.

Nov 082013
 

Yulai – Acting on behalf of the navies for the Amarr Empire, Caldari State, Gallente Federation, and Minmatar Republic, CONCORD has put out a one-time call for capsuleers to provide backup on a “massive, sustained assault on high-priority targets”. Kilkkuken Mallen, Chief Intelligence Operative for CONCORD, said, “We are currently unable to provide details on the target, as this would represent a significant security risk in the operation. However, this threat is considered extremely high to all law-abiding citizens of New Eden. We ask that any capsuleer who wishes to protect civilized space gather up at our two rally points in Sarum Prime and Meves on November 7 for departure at 18:50.”

The above was an announcement made earlier this week and as usual piqued my interest enough to mail the RvB Ganked mailing list saying “yeah lets do this”.  Yesterday rolls round and I move myself into Sarum Prime with around 4 hours to go and already the system is getting busy, as was the Live Events channel. Now due to confusion on my part I was not originally going to run a fleet, just join a CCP run fleet, however me being me and all of you being, well all of you, that plan went out the window. Next thing you know I am taking x’s from around 150 people, many of them regulars to Ganked or members of RvB, and many more people sent my way by folks in the Live Events channel including my fellow CSM delegates, Chitsa Jason & James Arget.

Around 18.00 GMT we started getting reports from fleet members moving to join us that Sarum Prime was under traffic control, much like Jita on a Sunday evening, however it must be noted it was sitting at around 1300 pilots all looking for fleets for the event, so this was very much expected. It was not long after this that when Fozzie tweeted that the people in Sarum should make best speed to Ihal in Derelik, which meant my fleet was one of the first to get going as we had several twitter uses in fleet. By all accounts, moving off so early was a Good Thing, as a wave of ever increasing Time Dilation (TiDi) followed in our wake, with late joiners moving from Sarum 20-30 minutes after announcing endlessly in fleet about 10% TiDi on each jump.

Arriving in Ihal we formed up on the Mifrata gate while getting eyes into that system. Scouts reported a Naga gang set up off gate for a good while, a gang that got themselves a few kills when random eventers would just jump right into them from Ihal, before they themselves moved away and into Curse. While waiting on our fleet to regroup we set to spamming local with this:

[18:53:01] Sami Okuuda > Warriors of the State, jump into Mifrana and engage the Sansha’s forces at the second Planet!

Unintentional typo that still caused many to jump into Mifrata, while we giggled in fleet chat.

Finally we started to move towards RMOC – obviously knowing we had to pass through Doril caused us to nearly rethink this, but as TiDi was so insane we just went with it, as going to any other nearby Null entry would have been too time consuming. Instead I announced that we would wait till around 400-500 of the people in Sendaya local had moved on before we would follow.  The rest of the plan was made up as we jumped into Doril, while most of those before us were dying horribly to the numerous fleets setup on & around the gate.  And who knew, such a simple plan as “burn off, kill the sabres, warp to bottom station” would work? Not me for sure!

Yet it did, and all our fleet lost was like 10 dudes, including a Nighthawk – but he took it well, and the fleet chucked iskies at him for being a hero about it. 

Once we got out of Doril, TiDi fell away and we moved to RMOC as quick as we could, however we arrived seconds too late for the event, as all Angel installations & ships had either been “protected” by the locals of Curse, or self destructed in a show of Pirate balls! Either way the Empires had lost. However we wandered around system getting a few kills, getting killed a few times, until we decided that it was time to head back to Empire.  And that was pretty uneventful.  Arrived back on the Sendaya gate in Doril to see a pretty large fight going on, but with heavy TiDi and bombers on field we decided NOT to whelp into the centre of it, and instead hit lowsec and got a few more kills there, most of stupid flashies that do not warp when pod squads land at 0 on them!

When all is said & done, we had a good time.  Lots of new people – well new to pvp – flew with us and came away with a good impression of Ganked & RvB as a result of us NOT whelping / freezing up on the jump into Doril or at the first sign of TiDi. I am still finding kills we either achieved as a fleet or whored on to, just keep an eye on this campaign – and if you do find it, post that bloody suspect Cynabal from Ihal!!!

Here is a few quotes from people who flew with us:

Was in the fleet with RvB FC – we didn´t jump right throu and we avoided to be bombed … from 150+ we only loose 10 ships and then finaly got into 0.0 – but the event was over. We had only 4 to 6 logi (include myself) for a 150 man fleet ;D. 

It was a goog experience for a newbie on my side and iam looking forward to be in such fights again thanks to the FC !!! From what i read here the other fleets are not so lucky to have a propper leader so i think the expierience was awful and thats not how you drag people into pvp. You scare them into highsec and so I dont unterstand some of the comments because 10 year old chars with huge experience in fighting.

 

[ 2013.11.08 14:10:35 ] Phobia Severasse > Mangala Solaris it was great, mostly cos we had decent FC it would have sucked to be cannon fodder. Perfect Eve event though

 

Completely forgot to say this: turns out that, if not for your watchfulness with the twitter, we’d all get stuck in 23 jumps of 10% tidi instead of getting those nice fights in null and lowsec. I was just reading forums and realized how bad it was for people who didn’t get lucky to have a good FC like you.

 

Anyway thats enough food for my ego, what did I think of the event itself?

As a pod pilot: it was messy, it felt very disorganised, exactly what was the goal? what was the time frame the Empires needed to achieve this goal in? However while I say this, I still enjoyed myself massively. I primarily went to shoot dudes, with taking part in the “RP” side of the event as a distant secondary.

As an FC of a public high-sec fleet: I was shocked at how little information was put across by the event “actors”, especially in the few hours before Sarum filled up and once in Ihal & Sendaya, together with how poorly their fleets seem to be lead – let alone the other high-sec fleets I came across along the way.  More information would have certainly been great here. Still now the dust has settled, as an FC I really loved it.  Having many new people in fleet who “got it” right away and were willing to follow really made me want to impress, and while I think I did not do as well as I could, my fleet members seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

How would I suggest things be ran? Especially events that have the possibility to reach the scale of last nights event, which had some 3000 involved pilots across two regions with many many more trying to join in and facing numerous perceived hurdles.

Well I would always count on the null based attendee’s to be more organised – regardless of the Event location. To that end, while you cannot ever organise high sec residents to that scale, draft in people who have a proven track record of doing so and get them to be your shepherds.  Yes its nice having CCP actors leading fleets, but do they have much experience cat herding people who have never pvp’d, never so much as jumped to low sec and so on? On this topic this says it all:

[19:51:51] Ren Karetta > Alright people, we’re going to make a run for it

Approach the people who have done this & offer to name check them in follow up reports as chosen reps of the empires or such things, or invite people from across the cluster to put their names in the hat for this opportunity so as to avoid any claims of bias, hell I could name half a dozen organisations and/or pilots who could be tapped for being the player “reps” at such events, and yes that would include myself!

Additionally to the above, if you do go with player reps – or at least more experienced “actors” – go with more form up points.  For a 4 empire event, having 2 initial form up points just did not pan out as well as it should have.  If the people had been spread out then the initial moves would have been less of the drama bomb they became.  And also geography can play a part here too for example, a Caldari force could have reached Curse from one direction – yes it would have meant a run through GW, but hey quietest region ever! – while the Amarr groups came over from Sarum.

If TiDi is to factor in, can CCP ensure that the most likely route is reinforced or as close to it as possible, yes you wont avoid TiDi entirely, but at least it could be lessened. If the Sarum>Ihal route had been reinforced it may well have led to less of the tears we have seen on EVEO today. People expected to die when reaching null-sec, they just expected to reach null-sec first!

To close, I feel that events of this scale should continue to be undertaken, – the large scale fights are what make people sit up and look at eve just as much as the intrigue does after all – just CCP should ask the players, especially those of us heavily involved in the EVE community, for some assistance. We wont say no, we wont (well most of us wont) accuse CCP of bias if we get overlooked in favour of others to help out.

 

(Note all of the above is my own opinion not that of Mangala as CSM. Just Mangala as FC, as regular dude.  It should also be noted I have yet to watch any fraps my fleet may have captured last night and my memory is sketchy on a Friday afternoon!)

Oct 022013
 

Its that time again, just a brief round up of various items from the past few weeks, from CSM to Ganked to RvB and EVE in general.

CSM_LOGO

The Summer Summit Minutes are coming on a treat with the old guys of the CSM putting us kids to shame and doing 4/5 sessions each, cant say when they will go public as that relies a lot on CCP, although should be noted that some of the content unveiled with the Rubicon announcement makes certain sessions moot.

In other CSM news, as you may know I held my first Watch with Mangala during the Winter Expansion announcement last week, and it went very well. 50 of you were on comms for this as well as many more hanging in the RvB Ganked channel ingame too.  Lots of good discussion during & after the Rubicon announcement, especially during when being “live” people had less of a chance to think their responses to new features through.  I’ll certainly be repeating this for future expansion announcements as well as any other live streams that CCP do – just as long as it isn’t a live stream of a roam as I will be logged in shooting at it!

rvbbanner_zps47c402d2

The RvB Forever War (just the war between Red & Blue) has been running (nearly uninterrupted) for 4 years and 4 days, and at 02.57 UTC 29/09/13, we hit the 500,000 kill milestone. Yes, HALF A MILLION kills in a little over 4 years.

This is the kill that took the 500,000 mark, typically it involved a Maller. Well done to everyone who got us to this point over the past 4 years, old & new members alike. The winners received this special medal:

I Was There [500,000]

This Medal was awarded to those pilots involved in the 500,000th Forever War explosion.

Accept this award on behalf of all past, present, and future RvB Members

gankedyr2mk2

Plans for Ganked 100 are really firming up, I will have my final decision on shield or armour caps before I depart for EVE Vegas on the 15th.  Regardless of how this goes if you are one of our prospective cap pilots please add to this spreadsheet, as well as get yourself training the same skills on SISI, as we will be having a training session or two on how to use caps in the run up to Ganked 100. 

The schedule for the Autumn & Winter has pretty much been settled amongst your FC’s – there is still room for some changes if anyone else wants to give it a go of course.  Check this spreadsheet here.  As you can see a good variety of roams coming in the next few months, as ever logistics will be welcome on all of them, so if that is what you like do not feel a need to stay home!

Ganked also passed 9,000 kills over our 94 total roams this past weekend, and it was this kill that took us there.  Red Bishop won a Armageddon Navy Issue – courtesy of our sponsors at SomerBlink – for snagging Final Blow & highest damage on the pod.

RvBP is also back playing Planetside 2 every thursday night from 18.00 UTC. Give us a look on the Vanu Sov over on the Mattherson server.

For those who missed it, here is a video of the final part of our last minute roam against CCP on Friday 27th September:

 

Remember that this weekend see’s the first Crossing Zebras Community FFA. This free for all will feature CSM, Podcasters, Bloggers & of course YOU! So from 20.00 UTC on Saturday make sure you are in Asakai to take part in the fun – you can even get to shoot me!  For more details check the Crossing Zebras site here.

Sep 242013
 

 

Xander Phoena, the host of Crossing Zebras, one of the foremost podcasts in EVE, came to me with a great idea. A community FFA featuring the CSM, the podcast community, bloggers and best of all YOU, the public!  So join us on 5th October 2013 from 20.00 EVE in the system of Asakai. Bring frigates, destroyers or even cruisers and meet us at the Sun. 

Do not miss out on a killmail of your favourite CSM members, or podcast hosts!

What we would love from you is people to stream the event live & in person, so if you use Twitch and stream ganked, or solo roams or indeed anything, drop by the system and get the coverage rolling. 

We will have some prizes to offer, including random contracts of Slicers & Firetails from me, courtesy of Judontknowme a former RvB Ganked regular, as well as other items to be arranged between now and the 5th October.

Check this post out over on the Crossing Zebras site for more details, or to ask any questions join the ingame channel CZ Community FFA

I’ll see you there!

Sep 222013
 

CSM_LOGO

 

 

Thursday 26th September 2013 is the day that CCP will publicly announce details of the next EVE Online expansion.  This will be live streamed on the CCP Twitch channel from 20.00 UTC, hosted by the excellent CCP Guard alongside the EVE Development team. 

While you can watch this alone, discuss it on the forums, or even brave the stream chat channel, I invite you to join me on the RvB Ganked Mumble on the day to talk about the expansion & its features as they are announced by CCP.  I shall be online from 19.00 UTC for those interested in watching the announcement with me.  Additionally for those unable to use a mic, please join the RvB Ganked channel ingame to discuss the expansion at the same time.

I am hoping any available members of the CSM will be there as well.

I’ll see you all on Thursday.

Sep 052013
 

CSM_LOGO

 

August 28th through 30th saw the CSM8 Summer Summit with CCP.

7 members of CSM8 got to attend in person: Trebor Daehdoow, Ripard Teg, Ali Aras, Mynnna, Mike Azariah, James Arget & Korvin, with the rest of us being able to digitally attend thanks to the magic of technology.  Before I go on it has to be said that Chitsa Jason was easily digital man of the summit, he was there for everything & even webcammed in too, unlike the rest of us who are shy and retiring.

Over the 3 days of the summit we took part in around 20 sessions with a VERY large number of teams from inside of CCP – see a rough line up here:

NjL8J6n

Overall it is my opinion that the sessions themselves were very positive with just one or two exceptions, however even those finished on a good note, thanks in part to fellow CSM members really plugging our role as stakeholders.

The standout sessions for me were as follows:

  • Economy: EyjoG was as ever well prepared with a serious amount of graph porn related to numerous financial statistics, all of which kept the small time financier in my head happy;
  • Art: What can I say I am a sucker for pretty pictures, and the Art team did not fail to deliver, including new looks for various in game items. I would go further, but I could be breaking my NDA and Dolan will hurt me if I do that;
  • 5-0 sessions: 5-0 is the team of the moment at CCP – helps when you feature the likes of CCP Fozzie – and what they showed the CSM was very well received, and I know you all will enjoy the content to come in Winter & beyond from this team as much as we enjoyed hearing about it;
  • UI: Spoke with reps from several groups for this session, and I came away very much looking forward to what the connected teams have to offer in the near future.  

Every session that I digitally attended – and there was a couple I was not present for due to real life getting in the way – were just as good as the above, but the standouts were the ones that really made ME sit up & take notice for my own reasons. Each of us on the CSM had sessions like that, for examples check Ripard Teg’s daily writeups over on his blog.

All in all it was an excellent Summit, even with a few technical niggles for those digitally attending – bad sound on day one & unable to be heard for half of day three – and I do look forward to being on the in-room version of this picture during the Winter:

cpucFSg

As for the minutes, we have started the task of working on those this week, now that we have videos of the sessions available.  We will be doing a two paragraph summary of each session, as well as more in-depth minutes for those people who REALLY want to read every word said. I cannot say with any certainty when these will be ready, just that with Ali shepherding us around, they will be ready sooner rather than later.  And to the members of previous CSM’s who I may have offended when it came to comments on how long the minutes took to be publicised: I feel your pain now, I am sorry!

Jul 082013
 

alliance-tournament-xi-header

 

AT XI kicks off in 12 days with the matches below making up the opening games of the first day of the tournament.  Below you find my predictions for these matches – my chosen winners are highlighted in BOLD:

Circle-Of-Two vs SCUM. (The team with an AT pedigree v some lowsec gate-campers? No contest.)

Of Sound Mind vs YOUR VOTES DON’T COUNT (While I like SOUND, I have had many more good times with & against the waffles.)

Curatores Veritatis Alliance vs R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N (T.O.O M.A.N.Y D.O.T.S.  So I am favouring CVA, although will they form up before the match begins?)

THE R0NIN vs CAStabouts (Another team with AT Pedigree v ? Yeah.)

Goonswarm Federation vs Sleeper Social Club (I’d like to see Goons get far this year so I can take their scalp for the RvB scalp collection.)

Verge of Collapse vs Outbreak. (VoC riding a wave after last year, so totally favouring them.)

Wormhole Holders vs Rote Kapelle (I would love to face RK again this year, without them flying out of the arena.)

Perihelion Alliance vs The Fourth District (I like the 4th, and root for them every chance I get.)

D3vil’s Childr3n vs Late Night Alliance (Not a clue who either are, so I flipped a coin)

Clockwork Pineapple vs Rainbow Dash Friends (Ponies. Nuff said.)

RAZOR Alliance vs Babylon 5.. (I just finished a rewatch of B5)

Sicarius Draconis vs Test Alliance Please Ignore (Id like this scalp too)

Moist. vs Transmission Lost (Not a clue who either are, so I flipped a coin)

Surely You’re Joking vs Nulli Secunda (Scalps for the scalp throne)

Exiled Ones vs Choke Point (Not a clue who either are, so I flipped a coin)

JIHADASQUAD vs Exodus. (Exodus. seem like a pretty good group of small gangers, so I went with them.)

Noir. Mercenary Group vs Shadow Cartel (This was a hard call, both are good groups of pvpers, but in the end I also flipped a coin)

HUN Reloaded vs DarkSide. (HUN should do really well this year.)

Darkness of Despair vs Quebec United Legions (Lets see what these russians can do)

M.I.F vs Angeli Mortis (I have at least heard of Angeli, so I am going with them.)

Kill It With Fire vs Ministry of Inappropriate Footwork (Kill it could surprise me, but I know a few pilots in Ministry and totally will be rooting for them.)

The G0dfathers vs Urine Alliance (Urine are a scalp I want, and a group I want to do well, will they become Kings of Tourney space?)

SOLAR FLEET vs HYDRA RELOADED (Solar cant bot the tourney.)

End of Life vs Darkspawn. (Not a bloody clue.)

Heretic Initiative vs No Holes Barred (Fuck the franchise.)

WHY so Seri0Us vs RvB (Seriously, you expected anything else?)

W-Space vs Mildly Sober (Flipped a coin)

The Obsidian Front vs The Initiative. (Totally expect Initiative to take this.)

Confederation of xXPIZZAXx vs Dead Terrorists (Pizza will be great to watch I am sure.)

Sadistica Alliance vs Agony Empire (I like Agony, and know many of their pilots. Friendship, best ship.)

Pandemic Legion vs Synthetic Systems (Too easy a choice)

The Kadeshi vs Drunk ‘n’ Disorderly (The Kadeshi is a long term tourney participant, they should do this easily.)

If you have your own ideas, feel free to post them in the comments.

 

========================================================

CSM_LOGO

Not really too much to say on the CSM, except that the past 3 weeks or so have in my opinion been really good for our interactions with CCP, I cannot say on what subjects, but I have felt like I have been contributing a lot more.   Additionally the summit dates are the 28th to 30th August, I will not be “live”, but I will be there remotely due to work commitments.  

Also, please join me on the EUNI public mumble on the 13th as per this post on their website.

 

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This past weekend Ganked 75 rolled over 120 talwars into space and scored over 120 kills.  It was a strange roam, we had a quiet time in Syndicate, helped the blues of a fleet member defend a sieged POS, and got to Fountain were comms proceeded to break down enough that I got really annoyed and kicked everyone…  

Now in my defence I had 2 guys giving varying intel, 1 guy rehashing a fight some slackers had just had, and a few other people continuing to sing – after an admittedly great fleet wide rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody – and someone else calling a cheetah on a gate as primary, just to see our own bubble go up as some bombers decloak while half the fleet is warping into our bubble and the other half is jumping away from the bombs, no wonder I was annoyed.

Anyway, I soon calmed down and we reformed around half the fleet in Stacmon – usual after a whelp – and went and fought an Agony Empire PVP Basics roam. Welcoming newbs to pvp always feels good.

We did have an array of Somer.Blink sponsored prizes too, and here are my winners for the night:

Spots: Hookbill (Rexanna Gold, Stian83, Rebbeca Naresh, Jeff Spartan, Saintcav, Lenier Chenal, Targan Yaken, mach eon, coat hanga strangla, kitty baugh)
Distinction: Navy Drake (Telemachus Rheade, FishySquirrel)
Excellence: Raven Navy (Ceofore Aideron)

Final Blow & Top Damage on our 7000th Mail: Osprey Navy Issue x2 (Redbad)

Jul 052013
 

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When the in game clock ticks over to 17.55 today, Mangala Solaris will have been a member of the amazing institution known as RvB for exactly 3 years.

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Like many of you, I first joined RvB with an alt however in July 2010, not long after returning from the outside world, I found myself looking for a home with my main and so I signed up to Blue Republic with Mangala. Within hours I was whoring those mails and even getting the odd final blow. My favourite kill from those early days will always be this one, and people wonder why I like the unlimited combat area so much!

Somehow I started FCing – arranged fights, impromptu scraps, roams and so much more – and from there I helped out in Command a couple of times and slowly moved towards becoming the pimp for RvB I am today.  

During my journey from eager RvB main to jaded & bitter RvB veteran I have seen & undertaken many things:

  • Four moves from Verge Vendor to Everyshore to Lonetrek and now The Forge;
  • Helped RvB pass 500,000 kills, kills which no matter how they were made all have a story behind them;
  • Several epic wars with those smelly layabouts over in EVE University, during which high sec saw what we still hold to be the largest battles between two entities it has ever seen;
  • Innumerable other third party wars, some fun ones, some not so fun – MATE;
  • An RvB directors’ wild idea go from a simple purple roam to become EVE’s premier public roam, with dear old me having FC’d over 50 of them;
  • Our Mass frigate FFA’s, a couple of which have given the server a severe RvB shaped headache;
  • And who could forget all the support & assistance RvB gave me during my successful campaign to become a CSM 8 Delegate.

After three wonderful years & nearly 6000 killmails that I have found my way on to, I feel more at home here than ever, and I know that this is down to all of you. This includes the people who cause me to get annoyed, the people who cannot read the rules, the people who make the rules, and especially the people who make it a joy to log in and (occasionally) undock. Keep doing what you do and I’ll still be here in another 3 years.

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