RvB is proud to announce that on the weekend of June 1st & 2nd we will be holding our first ever public 1 v 1 frigate tournament.
The basics of the event are as follows:
Two Brackets. One for characters under 90 days & one for everyone else.
Tech One frigates only (No Faction). Any fit is a go.
No links allowed. Duellists will be fleeted with an RvB umpire to ensure this.
Implants – we cannot check for these so will be allowed, but note that you can be podded so use them at your own risk.
Prizes will be announced closer to the date. I am open to offers though if you wish to have your name in lights (or at least mentioned in blogs, forum posts and advertising).
Keep checking back to this blog as I release further information on this event.
An endless war fought by thousands of pilots who have moved through our doors since September 2009.
Pilots who have all contributed to an ever increasing set of numbers.
Numbers which I keep finding myself drawn too. So below I have grabbed a few of those numbers, thrown them together into a mixer with the result being this blog post.
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On 16th January 2013, RvB passed 200,000 kills done in the core systems of Josameto, Liekuri, Nomaa, Obanen, Otela & Poinen. This includes Red on Blue, Blue on Red, Red on Red, Blue on Blue & Purple on anyone who gets in our way.
RvB passed 400,000 life time kills on the 20th January 2013.
In the Forge as a whole we have over 212,000 kills since we moved here in March 2012. This figure is more than we killed in every previous “home region” combined by around 25%.
During the week to 20/1/13 we hit the 5 TRILLION Isk exploded mark purely for Red on Blue, Blue on Red, Red on Red, Blue on Blue kills. Not bad considering many “out there” still view us rifter alts.
RvB has killed over 371,000 ships in ONLY the regions we have “officially” lived in since September 2009 (Everyshore, The Forge, Lonetrek & Verge Vendor), this includes Red on Blue, Blue on Red, Red on Red, & Blue on Blue.
Outside of our home regions – and our eternal war – we have exploded around 28,000 ships since 2009, 4500 of those being in low/nullsec as a consequence of the excellent RvB Ganked roams.
Regarding cruiser use, following the advert back in March 2012 & our move to The Forge we had a sharp increase (obviously) in cruiser use, however over the rest of year it settled down to around an average of 1500 cruiser explosions a month. Then December 4th came and it went up to around 2400. Right now we are at 1800 for January 2013. So thanks CCP!
Blue are “winning” when it comes to Red on Blue & Blue on Red kills, by roughly 20,000 explosions. Blue should hit the 200,000 Red kills mark in February, with Red hitting the 200,000 Blue kills mark in March. The Poinen Must Burn FFA will be the reason these milestone’s happen so quickly!
The 3rd party we have killed the most is Eve University, currently sitting at 3,100 kills to 2,200 losses.
Yankunytjatjara is un-matched as RvB’s number 1 solo pilot. 1965 solo kills at this point in time. The nearest currently active Red has around a third of his total.
Yank is also the leading “loser” in RvB, with some 1700 lifetime losses. Matthias Duran in Glorious Federation of Red, has around 870 total losses and is Yank’s closest rival for most losses.
Blue spend much more time in Otela (Red HQ), than Reds do in Liekuri (Blue HQ). 26,000 to 17,000 kills respectively. Indeed, this has been quite the pattern in all the systems we have called “HQ” over the past 3 years.
Josameto is easily our busiest “core” system, with both Red & Blue sitting at around 32,000 kills there since March 2012.
Red’s all time killer of Blue’s is Kikkio with over 8500 Blue kills, while Blue’s all time killer of Red’s is Jagtor with nearly 10,000 Red kills.
Red has killed more Carriers than Blue, while Blue has killed more Dreads. Neither side has killed a Titan or Supercarrier (the 6 “live event”/incursion Mom’s do not count in my opinion).
Nomaa, the FFA/Solo system has seen 10% of RvB’s total kills for the month of January 2013. Which means there is a place for solo action in RvB!
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I hope you enjoy this look at some of what makes RvB interesting for me, so please come back in a few months when I will no doubt have much larger numbers to share with you!
RvB completed my cycle from ‘care-bear’ to ‘I don’t care bear’. I was only expecting to stay a month or so, then go back to null to round off. Now I can’t contemplate leaving, had way too much fun (Shaddai Zenjii)
2012 for RvB started off pretty much the same as previous years, with hundreds of explosions being caused by the 1800 or so pilots in RvB at that time. Little did we know what was to come our way during the next 365 days or that 2012 would be the year that RvB got into the EVE “press” more than ever before, a press usually dominated by the activities of the null-sec power houses. Fun thing is, we even had a reporter “embedded” with us for a while during the year.
Spring
As said, the year started much the same as any other, we were living in Lonetrek at the time just doing our thing with the occasional third party war thrown in, as well as the now weekly RvB Ganked roams – the 11th of which was the first of the new year & the first big item for us in the EVE press; Who knew primarying an Erebus that went on to blap most of the Ganked fleet would get the coverage it did even if many did gloss over the core fact – we did what we did for fun, just like everything RvB does.
Following the launch of the new RvB website, and the work Algis Kemokl & I put into getting it all done, I realised that all work and no play makes Mangala a very bitter boy so as a result I approached the leadership of EVE University, the other RvB command members (I started 2012 as a Director of RvB) and raised the idea of a controlled war, a war with “rules” similar to the RvB rules. Everyone agreed, and it was on. For 3 days we ran around Lonetrek and parts of Metropolis fighting the good fight with the students of the Uni.
I was in the Uni during the first war. On one encounter, I was part of a 120 strong Uni fleet facing 100 purple RvBs. I later learned Mangala was the opposing FC. The encounter left a real impression on me. Not just the battle itself but the conduct of the RvB fleet as a whole. It was a strange, seemingly laid back, kind of approach… yet disciplined. An ethos that seemed to echo RvB’s approach to serious but fun PvP. The local chat was humorous, respectful and even useful. In short, RvB’s pure PvP doctrine combined with mostly friendly, respectful local chatter left a real impression on me. (Talon White)
Life went back to normal for us after this, we had some random third party wars that were a nice distraction for some of us, and then we moved! We left Lonetrek behind and towards the end of March we pushed into The Forge, leaving Lonetrek’s markets battered & empty and its space-lanes clogged with hundreds of haulers. Around the same time as we moved, CCP started advertising RvB on the EVE log in screen.
Which saw the start of the steady rise in RvB’s numbers throughout the rest of the year, with both Red & Blue combined reaching around 5500 members by Christmas. As is obvious, this advert brought us to much wider attention, and as a result, fleet sizes got larger – the days of having 10/15 in fleet being a “good thing” ended, and the days of 30/40 man fleets began; The fights got more intense and longer lasting; Hell more isk got exploded in the two months after both the advert & the relocation then in the 6 months before it combined.
Without RvB I’m afraid my Career as Capsuleer would have drawn to a close along time ago, The sheer amount of work put into these 2 corps by both command and members is just staggering and the consequence is monumental lol’s that I will always be grateful for. For anyone who is out there wondering aimlessly through New Eden I say come and try our community out, You will not be disappointed and before you know it you’ll feel right at home. (Mandelbrot Fracture)
Another consequence of the advert was Red & Blue both reaching the a major milestone in our eternal conflict, that of having killed only the other side 100,000 times. RvB & myself provided four billion isk in prize money to the pilots with the final blow on these mails. Blue got there first, with Red not too far behind - the carnage involved during the last two to three hundred kills was truly a sight to see! If our numbers & activity had maintained the levels they were at during the start of the year, we would not have reached these numbers as early in 2012 as we did, we would have reached them around Christmas, maybe later.
I would just like to say that having flown in a small limited numbers Red fleet today after DT, that the chase into the final stretch was really good fun. I gave up a Zealot and a Crow in the name of getting Reds closer to this figure and for me that alone was worth doing. The activity that happened in Red – and even Blue – was a real testament to what people will do for isk, especially if they get to kill for it along the way! (Mangala Solaris)
Summer
From a command perspective: Keeping this crazy organization running and herding all the cats can be though, especially when I log on in the morning to read about the latest shenanigans going on in the warnings forum section or see that the ban list has grown overnight. At the same time though you sometimes wake up to great news that restore your faith in humanity. A couple examples from 2012 would be finding out about Torve’s crazy idea for blowing up tens of thousands of frigates or finding out that a member just donated 5 B isk to RvB because he had so much fun flying with us. The generosity that you get to see makes up for all the bad stuff (most days). (Professor Clio)
Summer 2012 brought RvB some huge events! From some stunning wars to the 10th Alliance Tournament to RvB Ganked’s 1st Birthday, it really really was a good time to be in RvB!
The “big” war for RvB during the Summer was a “SURPRISE” war with EVE University, which unlike the previous wars had not been arranged up front and was an all out, no holds barred fist fight between the largest groups of pilots in high security space. RvB’s unstated aim, destroy the EUNI POS, the EUNI aim to stop us from doing this & generally make us bored enough to go away. Neither aim really worked, with the POS being reinforced but not destroyed, and RvB not getting bored and going away until it was clear our members were having issue’s reshipping – and I understand the EUNI pilots were in pretty much the same situation. Despite neither side really gaining a BIG VICTORY, this war did give rise to the single largest fight in high security space ever. The Battle of Aldrat.
With the EUNI POS exiting reinforcement during EU prime on the 14th May 2012, RvB formed up some 350 pilots all willing & eager to get into Aldrat and take it down. The EUNI (and their allies) formed at least 500 to both defend it & prevent us from even getting into Aldrat. The in gate was a sight to behold. High sec had seen nothing like it, and to this day I do not believe it ever will again. For over an hour hundreds of ships of all sizes & tech levels clashed in a battle of epic proportions (in high sec terms) with RvB eventually pushed off due to a reshipping advantage by EUNI. Honestly, in my opinion several months later, neither side truly “lost” in that engagement just on the basis of “I was there”, “EVE is real”.
Thanks Mangala to you and RvB for an amazing time. Not to mention all the Unistas. (Patrick Estemaire)
The whole war was a blast for me and while I know some others disagree I believe targeting the POS is what brought about such great fights, a standard to fight for if you will. The biggest disappointment was the missed opportunity to mass undock in noobships and join in the battle at PTS undock, that would just have been perfect. (Sol Tertia)
Well thanks to RvB for coming and staying with it. That was simply epic and one of those true ‘I was there moments’ that I doubt are a frequent occurrence in a computer game. Just wishing some of my RL friends played as i guess i’m going to bore people in work to death today because i’m still buzzing. (Gaim Estemaire)
That was my first taste of PvP in EVE – great fun. Sorry to hear that all PvP in EVE is not like that fight. Props to leadership on both sides for the massive behind the scenes effort. (Deban Huren)
Thanks for the epic fight RvB! I was afraid I was going to miss it due to work, but I logged on right in the thick of things and was able to partake in the biggest battle I’ve (and probably most of Eve has) ever seen! Thanks again for the awesome fights and experience! (Sketchy McGillis)
I can say that this particular war, and the fights that came out of it were my most memorable in EVE. Finding a group that can go toe to toe with RvB & has a membership willing to do so, is as good for us as it is for them. I look forward to future conflicts between us, for fun or otherwise.
The summer did not end there, next up was RvB’s Purple showing in the 10th Alliance Tournament, thanks to CCP for making a rule that would have messed us up, but at the last minute allowing us in as a special case. It worked better than we could have hoped. Having a wider pool of pilots to chose from made the campaign much more interesting for those of us flying in the Purple AT team, as well as for the rank & file members watching us week in, week out. We started out with a stunning victory against Get Off My Lawn, had a loss to Suddenly Spaceships, beat Rote Kapelle & Kill It With Fire, and then lost to the mighty Pandemic Legion. Ending our campaign on the cusp of entry to the Finals day!
Great showing by our team! You can hold your heads up high for sure and I think it is safe to say that you have had not just us behind you, but pretty much the whole of Eve! I along with others seriously think that we can go the whole way next year. PL saying we were too strong a team to be let through is probably the biggest compliment in itself. (Relentless Jim)
AT X was fantastic for RvB and I’m really proud of our guys, everyone put in so much effort (practising 6 nights out of 8 at one point and doing it in a WH!), and I saw us really showing the rest of EVE what we were made of. We had so much backing from the EVE community which really boosted us too. (Cablex Dayspring)
Wonderful job guys! I’m sure I’m not the only one unaware of how much practice and preparation was going on behind the scenes. I really felt proud watching the matches and hearing the commentators talk up our corp so much! (Hojou)
Before we could rest from such a great showing in the Alliance Tournament, RvB found itself in another spectacular war, this time against the forces of the Northern Coalition.
Over the word mate.
I have gone in to this elsewhere, so I shall let that article and others speak for themselves. Suffice to say, never in my time in EVE have I seen someone go to war over something so ridiculous, however so much entertainment was gotten out of it, and not just by RvB and our friends mates in the North, that I will remember it as long as I remain in EVE.
Autumn
We turned 3 in September 2012, and we had a lot of events and publicity to go along with it. The birthday celebrations were our biggest yet and were unofficially kicked off by several RvBers getting very messed up at the Veto meet in London!
The community here is the best I have experienced in eve. The amount of effort people put into making RVB fun and exciting and compelling day in and day out is amazing. Leadership is engaged, and organized, and always working to make RVB better. I don’t get to play as much as I would like anymore, but when I do log on, I know my time will be enjoyable, and I can’t say that about any other aspect of eve I have been a part of. (Tral Ma’Fador)
Then I joined RVB. It is, quite simply, the most fun I’ve had in game since I started. I can pvp to my heart’s content or sit back in an alt and work towards the betterment of RVB without it feeling like a grind. I was also planning a short stint in RVB while receiving offers to go back to null but I’m hooked now. You guys are stuck with me. (Random McNally)
Two of my favourite birthday week events were Combat Mink’s Cargo Run on 15th October and Flight of the Dauntless on the 17th October. Brilliant ideas both of them and hope we have something similar some time in the future. Towards the end of Flight of the Dauntless ( I was in an arty ruppy) I’d started to take heavy damage so warped carelessly to the sun which was bad enough but then doodled about while my shields repaired. A few seconds later a Blue pilot in a frig showed up and because I wasn’t paying attention had me scrammed before I realised what had happened. Of course he was too close for my arty guns to hit him so who ever you were know that you were whisper close to bagging a rupture that day. All that saved me was the event finished and we had to stop shooting each other . Phew :-) Such are the thrills of RvB. (Penelope Star)
For a while after the birthday events, RvB was quiet with kills dropping off due to the usual end of people’s free time, although we were still killing more daily than many do in a weeks of action! Then we started seeing more and more war decs come in, not that we actually saw targets, it turned out we had become the latest “victim” of Dec Shield’s attention seeking use of broken game mechanics. That lasted the remainder of the year and really didnt put a crimp in our activities, if anything it just made people annoyed with notification spam! I like to think it also caused the madness that has begun our new trend of holding MASSIVE FREE FOR ALL FRIGATE FIGHTS. The first of these saw some 8,000 frigates exploded in 1 weekend, along with 1 server cluster. The second went much more smoothly, and saw 12.000 frigates exploded. The third is planned for 26th January & will see 26,000 frigates made available to attendee’s to utilise in the glorious business of RvB!!!!
Winter
I first flew with RvB back in Feburary for Ganked 15. I saw it being advertised on reddit and Eve Radio and i figured “why not?” I died fairly early into that night, but It was fun nonetheless. My usual “play eve for 4 months and then quit again” was about to run it’s normal cycle, until i found ganked and started attending just about every weekend. This led to many memorable events including a revelation kill by rifters, and the decidedly annoying RnK ‘encounters.’ It was about July when i finally decided that 1 day a week of RvB was not enough for me, and i enlisted. Since then, it’s been 6 months of great fun and i’m confident that i’ll be here for much longer. RvB fills a gap in pvp that no one else has been able to; a no-risk, low-cost, instantaneous fleet combat environment where GFs are the rule rather than the exception. Some people won’t like the comparison, but this is the closest thing to spaceship ‘battlegrounds’ i’ve found, and I’m proud to be a part of such an achievement. (Rashino Zea)
And the year comes to a close. RvB has increased to around 4 times the size of what it was at the start of the year; We have passed 300,000 kills of Red & Blue by Red & Blue and are now pushing 400,000; We are closing in on 5 TRILLION isk exploded just in the eternal war between Red & Blue; In all conflicts we have passed 7.5 TRILLION isk exploded over 380,000 kills; Ganked has passed 4000 kills in over 50 null sec roams and continues to provide fun for over 100 pilots every week.
It’s been almost three years now? What was meant to be a temporary introduction to PvP has become my home. As I learned more and more about the goings on of null sec PvP the less I cared to participate. The casual nature of RvB has kept me paying my subscription where I probably would have let my account lapse a long time ago. I’ve been in hundreds (if not thousands) of fleet fights, each of them fun. I’ve flown with dozens of FC’s, some terrible but most have been supremely fun to fly with (♥ Melkor Valor. When are you going to take out a frig fleet again?). I’ve taken part in some epic events (The first Sink The Bismarck was the first time I flew a Battleship in PvP. I’ll never forget that feeling. Thanks a million Mangala.) and many epic free for alls. These days I mostly look forward to the Ganked Roams, but I can still log in whenever I want and usually find some good fights within minutes. And while RvB has grown into something that barely resembles the little fight club it started as, the spirit of casual fun remains. Thanks to RvB and all of the folks in leadership who’ve done such a fantastic job keeping the chaos under some semblance of control. I’m proud to have been a part of this community since it started and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon. (J’mee Leggs)
My highlights, can’t say only one, from the crazy congas to the chaotic lemming jumps, every minute has their small history behind, enjoy everything, (Kronthar Lionkur)
Best Ganked moment of the year? Without a doubt. GCC Revelation dies to rvbgank in low sec. (AdW)
A major highpoint of the year is that we have seen 1 RvB pilot pass 10,000 kills just while flying with Blue Republic. Step forward Jagtor! The wife-whisperer really exemplifies what RvB is about and he continues to do so against all odds! Now all I have to do is poke the right people and use this fine gentleman & killer space pilot as publicity for RvB!!!!
In terms of how well our 9 months in The Forge has worked out, we have over 200,000 kills in this region alone, that is nearly as much as we had killed in all our other homes put together. With nearly 192,000 of those just in Josameto, Poinen, Otela & Liekuri. Good thing we are in the same region as Jita, otherwise I do not think any manufacturers or traders could have kept pace with our rapacious appetite for destruction.
And that boys & girls was RvB’s 2012. Some of it I had covered elsewhere as the year went on, other parts I have written about from memory. All in all it was our best year yet. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did and I look forward to going even further in 2013. I will leave you with a few words from Del Delvechio “The Man” behind the scene in RvB and a wonderful video from Zaqq:
When I joined RvB back in the Stone Age, we got excited when we could get 12 in fleet and argued about where to fight for 3 hours. Now we can get 3-4 times that number in fleet and the argument is done is 30 mins, so we’ve come a long way. I think one time I led Red with 400 kills in a month and I thought I was the real deal, now pilots get that in 4 days, and I am still not the real deal. We get more kills in a month than we used to get in 4-6 months. In my opinion, 2012 was the year RvB “grew up”.
Special thanks from me to:
1. Mangala-Technically not a part of “RvB Command”, Mangala had been vital to RvB’s long term success. Mangala is our KB expert, organizer of Ganked, Propaganda Minister, and major benefactor to all events and causes in RvB. Truly devoted to the cause and always goes above and beyond the call of duty.
2. Algis-You are all no doubt aware by now that although my general IQ is Einsteinian, my computer IQ is Lilliputian. Enter Algis, our forums wizard who can kiss my self inflicted forum boo boos and make them all better. He sorts issues, fixes problems, and generally keeps it up and running. Thanks for all the help…..
3. Shadowmaster-Although CCP took him well before his time to Spaceship Gaming Valhalla, Shadow was the consummate RvB FC. Only cared about bringing good fights. Not enough people in his fleet? Who cares, lets go. We just got pwned by the other side? Who cares, lets go. The other side has no FC? I switched, lets go. Neither side has an FC? Ok, I got both fleets, lets go. Shadow we hardly knew ya….Well played, my friend.
4. FCs-To everyone who FCs, whether its just once or 400 times, you truly are what makes people come and play. Without death and destruction there would be no RvB. So keep bringing it over and over again. Salutations to all of you. (Del Delvechio)
Xmas. A time for food, family & beer. And for presents.
At some stage during the conga portion of Ganked: All I Got For Xmas, it came to our attention that TGL3 had only gotten sweets for xmas:
And our fleet being what it was – pretty drunk already – the decision was made to give him ISK for further xmas gifts, however we did it incorrectly. Instead we kept adding to his bounty, so much so that before we departed Rens in our Kitchen Sink fleet of Doom, he had around 500million isk on his head. As the night progressed we spammed “Bounty TGL3″ in every system we entered.
For the evenings fun, I had settled on a roam into Providence & Catch and maybe further depending on the fights we would get in those regions, and so we came in through G-5EN2 and bimbled down to the pocket below KBP7-G with the result being we found targets. Plenty of them! Including a bunch of bombers that actually did for a fair few of us – luckily they reshipped via Dital and came right back! After this small engagement, we started moving back towards central Providence, however Yulai Federation and some other “holders” were ahead of us, although they proved more of a speed bump than an actual fight. Still more fun than Providence has been of late!
And the fun didn’t stop here, we carried on towards Catch when Green let us know there was a Darkside Cynabal gang around, after killing their link loki, we jumped in and tried to lock down as many as we could although they still had tengu boosts and so proved very hard to pin down – they also killed most of our tackle. We did get a couple of them though. Losing most of our tackle gave us pause to leg it back to Assah and reform so we did, having an extended bio along the way. Around an hour later we had once again moved into Provi when we saw a small group of ships just jumping into 4B-NQN as we landed, and oddly we had no scouts in 4B- so we jumped in hoping to catch them, however that did not go as well as I had hoped. We jumped into an Oracle heavy TEST gang who pretty much cleaned our clocks. However the last laugh was on us as they went on to be Pipe-Bombed by RnK!
Us being us, we reshipped and merged with the Agony alumni roam that was also out, and went back out. And once again the Provi “holders” had a fleet up that we fought. A seriously fun fight! However the locals had a reshipping advantage that we just couldnt match. Once again we had found explosions and been beaten. But not bowed.
Out again we went, this time towards Curse, however it proved much more boring than Providence. With the only fight being as we had all but given up – and even then it was a fight against a BC heavy gang with Scimi support. Was over pretty fast. And that was the night over with as well.
Overall Providence was very entertaining, much respect to Severance, Yulai Federation and all the other “holders” we encountered, you really made it interesting for us!
Normally I would mention Blink here and list the prizes they sponsored, however for this roam I did not organise anything what with it being Xmas, however Carathas – a regular Ganked attendee – provided many hulls for me to offer up, and so here goes:
As you can tell the world is still here, and so on the 22nd December 2012, Ganked 51 happened.
We took out over 150 guys in a mix of frigates & destroyers with the usual aim of finding a fight or two as well as generally banter with each other and anyone else we saw. We had a pretty quiet run through low sec from our meet up point until we jumped into Cloud Ring, where we ran over a Sabre whose pilot subsequently chased us in a smartbomb fit Typhoon. I think we made him mad.
Following this, our resident live streamer Edward “No Delay” Tivruskii, let me know that a guy in Fatal Ascension wanted to fight us, and me being a bit merry by then, agreed due to:
[ 2012.12.22 21:40:38 ] Hlakke Miccanope > kitchen sink from what I see.. to quote “whatever you want to lose”
So we run up towards their basing system in Fade, and while waiting on an in gate to regroup a bunch of lemmings warp themselves to a cyno, and find an ever increasing number of Fatal “lolololwe’resopr0″ Ascension in Battleships, BC’s, Logis and plenty of bubblers. I call a valiant retreat, with us blabbing some of their advancebubblers as we move. A scout calls that ANOTHER group has bridged ahead of us, so we were looking to be sandwiched in. I booked us to random gate after random gate, all the while trying to be as oblique as possible due to the stream being up. I got a good number of us out, but as usual in these circumstances we did lose a few.
Following this, we regrouped and went back out again, this time via Syndicate, which proved to be pretty quiet for us – despite the presence of a large Goonswarm gang in FD-MLJ. We did tussle with some elements of that gang, after catching a dumb Onyx in a nearby system. Syndicate proving itself to be quiet, we moved into Outer Ring – which WAS EVEN WORSE. No action at all. And yet people in null are always trying to get more people out there…
From OR, we chased a Loki a few jumps – after a heated discussion about it – which escaped, however while it did get away, the same bubble that held up our fleet got us a drake kill upon which we whored EVERY fleet member, including a guy who had burned all the way from Placid to catch up to us! The drake pilot took it really well, he kept fighting until the bitter end. As well as local spam from us:
[ 2012.12.23 01:34:01 ] Phantom OfKrankor > we’re coming to help [ 2012.12.23 01:34:11 ] Phantom OfKrankor > don’t worry [ 2012.12.23 01:34:27 ] Mangala Solaris > we come to snowball [ 2012.12.23 01:34:30 ] Mangala Solaris > in peace [ 2012.12.23 01:34:45 ] Phantom OfKrankor > POINT [ 2012.12.23 01:34:45 ] Veerus Weyland > POINT [ 2012.12.23 01:34:45 ] Immortal Chrono Pimpin > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:45 ] Charles Burger > POINT [ 2012.12.23 01:34:45 ] Green Gambit > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:45 ] Kast Agnet > pointed [ 2012.12.23 01:34:46 ] Khador Vess > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:46 ] Sephira Galamore > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:47 ] Veerus Weyland > SCRAM [ 2012.12.23 01:34:47 ] Dracoth Simertet > td [ 2012.12.23 01:34:47 ] Ravingone > HOE HOE HOE! [ 2012.12.23 01:34:48 ] Qall Rungbar > scramm [ 2012.12.23 01:34:49 ] Caterpil > POINT! [ 2012.12.23 01:34:49 ] Jack Sixx > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:49 ] Zantai Arji > point web [ 2012.12.23 01:34:49 ] tgl3 > POINT [ 2012.12.23 01:34:49 ] CHAOS NAGA ARAIN > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:49 ] Verse Askold > point [ 2012.12.23 01:34:51 ] Zakialwe > snowball [ 2012.12.23 01:34:52 ] Bob Shaftoes > TRACKING DISRUPTED [ 2012.12.23 01:34:53 ] Immortal Chrono Pimpin > tracking disruptor [ 2012.12.23 01:34:53 ] Vicarious Design > you poor soul [ 2012.12.23 01:34:54 ] Veerus Weyland > SNAKES ON A FUCKING PLANE [ 2012.12.23 01:34:54 ] Charles Burger > PAINTED [ 2012.12.23 01:34:54 ] Igor barga > BUBBLE [ 2012.12.23 01:34:57 ] CHAOS NAGA ARAIN > ECM [ 2012.12.23 01:34:58 ] sureis > ransom [ 2012.12.23 01:35:00 ] Mangala Solaris > POINT ON DRAEK [ 2012.12.23 01:35:01 ] Ras Raklus > scram web [ 2012.12.23 01:35:07 ] Vicarious Design > Mirco jump drive’d [ 2012.12.23 01:35:13 ] Raynor Dirtnap > webed pointed [ 2012.12.23 01:35:21 ] Thomas Hauk > HOE HOE HOE [ 2012.12.23 01:35:30 ] macgyver 3rd > nice tank bro [ 2012.12.23 01:35:31 ] Exoth3rmic > keep fighting [ 2012.12.23 01:35:32 ] Bully B > Snowball CXIV on him [ 2012.12.23 01:35:32 ] Exoth3rmic > you can do this [ 2012.12.23 01:35:37 ] Mangala Solaris > Andy Poole AWESOME DUDE [ 2012.12.23 01:35:37 ] Beanhead2 > wed/scram [ 2012.12.23 01:35:39 ] Andy Poole > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:35:40 ] Mangala Solaris > SOLO US 1 AT A TIME [ 2012.12.23 01:35:46 ] Nutjob O’Crazy > Merry Christmas [ 2012.12.23 01:35:51 ] sureis > tped [ 2012.12.23 01:35:52 ] Sephira Galamore > Merry Christmas! [ 2012.12.23 01:35:58 ] ash iskariot > teepeeee [ 2012.12.23 01:36:02 ] Mangala Solaris > Merry Xmas [ 2012.12.23 01:36:07 ] Bob Shaftoes > you are now our pet [ 2012.12.23 01:36:09 ] Luixx > pointed the drake mofo [ 2012.12.23 01:36:12 ] Bob Shaftoes > We shall call you fred [ 2012.12.23 01:36:13 ] Green Gambit > can we keep him? [ 2012.12.23 01:36:16 ] Luixx > can we keep him? [ 2012.12.23 01:36:18 ] Verse Askold > merry xmas and a happy new year [ 2012.12.23 01:36:20 ] Mangala Solaris > call him Carlos [ 2012.12.23 01:36:22 ] Green Gambit > a pet is for life – not for Christmas [ 2012.12.23 01:36:37 ] Mangala Solaris > na pets are for xmas, and dinner for new years [ 2012.12.23 01:36:53 ] Thomas Hauk > HOE HOE HOE [ 2012.12.23 01:37:01 ] Luixx > EVERYONE….. FFA NOW! [ 2012.12.23 01:37:02 ] Qall Rungbar > NICE DRAKE [ 2012.12.23 01:37:08 ] Qall Rungbar > DID SANTA GIVE IT TO YOU? [ 2012.12.23 01:37:12 ] Mangala Solaris > why cant we kill him guys [ 2012.12.23 01:37:12 ] Luixx > EVERYONE….. FFA NOW! [ 2012.12.23 01:37:14 ] Dracoth Simertet > merry christmas [ 2012.12.23 01:37:15 ] Mangala Solaris > our dps is bad [ 2012.12.23 01:37:24 ] Phantom OfKrankor > GUYS HIS SHIELD IS GOING UP [ 2012.12.23 01:37:29 ] Zakialwe > can we keep him! [ 2012.12.23 01:37:32 ] Dracoth Simertet > whats a spaceship? [ 2012.12.23 01:37:34 ] Luixx > drake = secret titan [ 2012.12.23 01:37:39 ] Qall Rungbar > Keep him [ 2012.12.23 01:37:41 ] Phantom OfKrankor > we can’t break his tank! [ 2012.12.23 01:37:45 ] Sephira Galamore > can we adopt him? [ 2012.12.23 01:37:47 ] Phantom OfKrankor > hacks? [ 2012.12.23 01:37:49 ] Qall Rungbar > one of us can point him 24/7 [ 2012.12.23 01:37:52 ] Khador Vess > can i keep him [ 2012.12.23 01:37:52 ] Fail Whale > merry xmass [ 2012.12.23 01:37:52 ] Qall Rungbar > at least [ 2012.12.23 01:37:54 ] B4ueW01f > Merry Christmas [ 2012.12.23 01:37:57 ] Khador Vess > can he be my pet [ 2012.12.23 01:37:58 ] Raynor Dirtnap > damn snowball resists! [ 2012.12.23 01:37:58 ] Fail Whale > more porn for 2013 [ 2012.12.23 01:38:07 ] Igor barga > MERRY CHRISTMAS HO HO HO HO [ 2012.12.23 01:38:18 ] Immortal Chrono Pimpin > pop your cyno you bait drake! [ 2012.12.23 01:38:19 ] Igor barga > OOPS TOO MANY HOS [ 2012.12.23 01:38:21 ] Raynor Dirtnap > Merry Gankmess! [ 2012.12.23 01:38:21 ] Kast Agnet > Andy Poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:34 ] Immortal Chrono Pimpin > Bait Drake Best Drake [ 2012.12.23 01:38:34 ] Mangala Solaris > Andy Poole FOR CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:36 ] RiotCrow Timotheos > http://costumefail.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Santa-Drunk-Naked.jpg [ 2012.12.23 01:38:36 ] Green Gambit > Andy Poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:37 ] Qall Rungbar > Andy Poole for CSM! [ 2012.12.23 01:38:37 ] ash iskariot > andy poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:37 ] Mangala Solaris > A REAL NULL HERO [ 2012.12.23 01:38:38 ] tgl3 > ANDY FOR CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:39 ] Ray Orbison > ANDY POOLE FOR CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:39 ] Khador Vess > Andy Poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:39 ] Nutjob O’Crazy > Andy Poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:39 ] Xallaxa > Andy Poole 4 csm [ 2012.12.23 01:38:40 ] B4ueW01f > thats harsh dude [ 2012.12.23 01:38:40 ] Dracoth Simertet > andy poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:42 ] Igor barga > Andy Poole CSM 2013 [ 2012.12.23 01:38:43 ] Zakialwe > Andy Poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:43 ] Crynsos Cealion > Andy Poole for CSM [ 2012.12.23 01:38:46 ] Daneel Trevize > Andy Poole the hero we deserve [ 2012.12.23 01:38:46 ] Ravingone > andy poole for csm [ 2012.12.23 01:38:46 ] Fail Whale > agreed, Andy Poole for CSM! [ 2012.12.23 01:38:48 ] Jack Sixx > Andy Poole \0/ [ 2012.12.23 01:38:51 ] Thomas Hauk > HOE HOE HOE [ 2012.12.23 01:38:52 ] Caterpil > Andy Poole for CSM! [ 2012.12.23 01:38:53 ] Mangala Solaris > ANDY POOLE THE HERO WE NEED NOT DESERVE [ 2012.12.23 01:39:15 ] Raynor Dirtnap > His name was Andy Poole
Then as he was about to die, an iteron landed in the same bubble; We caught it, it offered ransom, we got the pilot in fleet!
[ 2012.12.23 01:40:42 ] tigre valliente > no price [ 2012.12.23 01:40:43 ] tigre valliente > ? [ 2012.12.23 01:40:47 ] Thecla Elarik > hello [ 2012.12.23 01:40:52 ] tigre valliente > trying to haul stuff in to high to sell it [ 2012.12.23 01:40:53 ] Zakialwe > hello there! [ 2012.12.23 01:40:56 ] tigre valliente > I can’t say it’s what you’d like but uhh [ 2012.12.23 01:41:00 ] tigre valliente > haha I gotta try, right? [ 2012.12.23 01:41:00 ] Veerus Weyland > o hai! [ 2012.12.23 01:41:07 ] tigre valliente > lol. soooo huge [ 2012.12.23 01:41:19 ] Thecla Elarik > wasn’t our bubble [ 2012.12.23 01:41:23 ] tigre valliente > ? [ 2012.12.23 01:41:25 ] tigre valliente > whose is it hahaha [ 2012.12.23 01:41:39 ] tigre valliente > really well set up [ 2012.12.23 01:41:52 ] Rob Cobb > o/ [ 2012.12.23 01:41:58 ] Lodavier > the itty is an 05 character :O [ 2012.12.23 01:42:13 ] Daneel Trevize > we warped like 10 jumps after a loki to get here [ 2012.12.23 01:42:16 ] Phantom OfKrankor > STOP SHOOTING [ 2012.12.23 01:42:20 ] Rob Cobb > DONT SHOOT THE ITERON [ 2012.12.23 01:42:20 ] Qall Rungbar > welcome to Ganked, tigre! [ 2012.12.23 01:42:20 ] Phantom OfKrankor > BADS [ 2012.12.23 01:42:22 ] Thecla Elarik > bubble was set up by the FCON drake we also killed, afaik [ 2012.12.23 01:42:22 ] tigre valliente > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:42:24 ] tigre valliente > LOL [ 2012.12.23 01:42:26 ] tigre valliente > daaang [ 2012.12.23 01:42:27 ] tigre valliente > well done [ 2012.12.23 01:42:28 ] Westar Egdald > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:42:29 ] tigre valliente > enjoy the loot [ 2012.12.23 01:42:33 ] Sephira Galamore > WHO shot him [ 2012.12.23 01:42:42 ] tigre valliente > what did I drop? was it good? [ 2012.12.23 01:42:44 ] tigre valliente > did the ships survive =P [ 2012.12.23 01:42:48 ] macgyver 3rd > Wasn’t me for once [ 2012.12.23 01:42:50 ] Mangala Solaris > We love you :) [ 2012.12.23 01:42:52 ] tigre valliente > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:43:00 ] Phantom OfKrankor > tigre link your loss mail [ 2012.12.23 01:43:02 ] tigre valliente > daaaang [ 2012.12.23 01:43:03 ] sureis > Kill: tigre valliente (Iteron Mark IV) i thought i was just ewar [ 2012.12.23 01:43:04 ] tigre valliente > how [ 2012.12.23 01:43:07 ] Thomas Hauk > Strip Miner I ? [ 2012.12.23 01:43:08 ] Mangala Solaris > Merry Xmas dude [ 2012.12.23 01:43:11 ] Qall Rungbar > POST YOUR LOSSES NOOB [ 2012.12.23 01:43:14 ] tigre valliente > Covetor [ 2012.12.23 01:43:15 ] tigre valliente > haha [ 2012.12.23 01:43:15 ] Xallaxa > ? [ 2012.12.23 01:43:16 ] B4ueW01f > Xallaxa >.< [ 2012.12.23 01:43:19 ] tigre valliente > Covetor and Fullerite survived =P [ 2012.12.23 01:43:22 ] Phantom OfKrankor > Xallaxa primary [ 2012.12.23 01:43:24 ] Xallaxa > i didnt do anything [ 2012.12.23 01:43:26 ] Xallaxa > fuck off [ 2012.12.23 01:43:27 ] B4ueW01f > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:43:33 ] tigre valliente > Xallaxa top dmg. hah [ 2012.12.23 01:43:33 ] Xallaxa > i didnt do shit [ 2012.12.23 01:43:36 ] tigre valliente > you clearly did something bwhaahaha [ 2012.12.23 01:43:43 ] Rob Cobb > Xallaxa you bad [ 2012.12.23 01:43:47 ] tigre valliente > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:43:47 ] Sephira Galamore > ^this [ 2012.12.23 01:44:04 ] Beanhead2 > warped [ 2012.12.23 01:44:06 ] Rob Cobb > Xallaxa you bad [ 2012.12.23 01:44:15 ] Phantom OfKrankor > “I didn’t do shit” – killmail says otherwise [ 2012.12.23 01:44:15 ] Charles Burger > tigre valliente why aren’t you on comms? [ 2012.12.23 01:44:20 ] B4ueW01f > Merry Christmas! [ 2012.12.23 01:44:23 ] tigre valliente > what do you mean? [ 2012.12.23 01:44:29 ] Charles Burger > see motd get on comms [ 2012.12.23 01:44:29 ] Qall Rungbar > tigre valliente post lost you noob [ 2012.12.23 01:44:35 ] Phantom OfKrankor > he posted it [ 2012.12.23 01:44:37 ] Mangala Solaris > Kill: tigre valliente (Iteron Mark IV) [ 2012.12.23 01:44:38 ] Phantom OfKrankor > or someone did [ 2012.12.23 01:44:38 ] Qall Rungbar > srsly – get on comms [ 2012.12.23 01:44:38 ] tigre valliente > Thomas did =P [ 2012.12.23 01:44:40 ] tigre valliente > haha [ 2012.12.23 01:44:45 ] Phantom OfKrankor > Xall = bad [ 2012.12.23 01:44:49 ] tigre valliente > Qall what are you talking about? [ 2012.12.23 01:44:51 ] Xallaxa > Get over it already [ 2012.12.23 01:44:57 ] Veerus Weyland > reload MOTD tigre, get a frigate and join comms :p [ 2012.12.23 01:44:58 ] macgyver 3rd > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:44:58 ] Sephira Galamore > bounty?^^ [ 2012.12.23 01:45:08 ] tigre valliente > lol [ 2012.12.23 01:45:14 ] Phantom OfKrankor > how about you listen to FC? [ 2012.12.23 01:45:14 ] Nutjob O’Crazy > Depends what you’re saying [ 2012.12.23 01:45:18 ] tigre valliente > 80 million isk later XD
After this the fleet started to log and some people bimbled over to Tama and took a few names before the night was properly over. All in all an exciting and fun night as ever, with lots of stream related rage and then a couple of amusing kills at the end. Good way to go into the xmas break for many I am sure.
And now for the prizes, as sponsored by Somer.Blink.
tigre valliente x1 Firetail x1 Slicer (Yes a Victim, but totally a good sport) Andy Poole x1 Hookbill x1 Comet (Yes a Victim, but totally a good sport) Hayden Alyaeus x2 Firetail (Eager newbies best newbies!) Casa Rankor x2 Slicer x1 Daredevil (Hero aggression on the Onyx) Ceofore Aideron x1 Firetail x1 Slicer (Made me a duck shop thing) Exoth3rmic x1 Hookbill x1 Comet (Top Killer on the night) tgl3 x1 Hookbill x1 Comet (Top scorer on the night) CHAOS NAGA ARAIN x2 Firetail (Spent ages catching us up, and did it in time to whore things!) Xallaxa x2 Comet (Got yelled at by fleet for popping something or something, but yeah!) Melkor Valor x1 Daredevil x1 Firetail x1 Comet x1 Hookbill x1 Slicer (4000th ganked killmail was scored by Melkor) Edward Tivruskii x2 Hookbill (Streaming Rage!) Ras Raklus x1 Slicer x1 Firetail (Final blow on the drake we got in the only named system in Poitot) Yendaj x2 Hookbill (Angry woman on the internet) Vicarious Design x2 Comet (Helped our awesome newbie Hayden out loads!) Zakialwe x2 Firetail (Reminded me about things) BadAssMcKill x2 Slicer (New to ganked, did some keeping people safe work in systems as we ran away!) Kast Agnet x2 Hookbill (Scouty stuff) Kaeda Maxwell x2 Comet (70 more FA in xxxxx) Sureis x1 Slicer (Final blow on Itty!) Dracoth Simertet x1 Slicer (Final blow on the whored drake)
A little over one month ago, an RvB member by the name of Torve Starduster made a forum post suggesting a “Free for all” fight, with a twist.
The FFA, would consist of 10,000 rifters.
At first I was not sure what to make of it, and many others seemed somewhat sceptical too, however as the thread went on, the original idea got fleshed out by other posters; Logistics of fitting and movement were sorted out, donations of hulls & modules were arranged, and then suddenly it was looking like it would become a reality. During the following month a POS was set-up by an RvB members alt, several SMA’s were anchored around it, and the long task of fitting and moving 10,000 T1 frigate hulls – the 10,000 Rifters tag was still kept as it has a better ring to it than 10,000 rifters and other assorted T1 hulls with random fits – began.
And on November 3rd 2012, all the planning came together, and RvB gathered to start the biggest continuous FFA fight in our – and probably the servers – history.
A juddering halt
While I said above RvB had got together for a very explodey party, and had confirmed with Mummy & Daddy CCP that we could have that this party, it turns out that jettisoning 6,000 of anything onto the same grid as a POS, is a VERY BAD THING, for anyone trying to warp onto that same grid. So come 19.00 EVE on the 3rd November, we could not actually start the party with a huge bang, more of a whimper before it came to a sudden & juddering halt. Didn’t stop Professor Clio from being the first kill though.
Basically no matter what we tried, the grid would not load for people – and even logging off & on, e-warping back & logging mid e-warp would not help solve this – we kept ending up trying to load that grid again. Everyone who could bail did so to a noobship race, & to take part in this killmail, while the rest of us kept hoping beyond hope the grid would either load or we could get off it. It got so bad for me, that I resorted to petitioning to be moved because I was “stuck”.
To say that the petition did not go quite how I expected would be understatement. This is how it went:
I petition to be moved due to being stuck on a grid;
Senior GM responds & says “nope” “system is fine” “unfair to others if we move you”;
I reply “have you seen the actual grid I am on?”
Senior GM is like “what grid, where?”
So I tell him and mention the 6.000 ships on said grid;
Senior GM appears in the local list;
Senior GM then asks me “who did this, why did they?”
I explain – and drop Torve deep in the brown stuff at his request;
Following the above the GM is all “We’ll fix it”
CCP Dev appears in local and makes 2500 rifters disappear [ 2012.11.03 21:07:49 ] CCP DeNormalized > almost 2500 empty rifters were moved;
System then gets reset and remapped;
CCP let us carry on [ 2012.11.03 21:09:52 ] CCP DeNormalized > i’d say do your worst… but well… we’ve seen how that goes :)
And within 20 minutes the rabid killers of RvB were pouring into the system & grabbing hulls from those on the pos grid and racing out into the wilds of Abagawa to explode and be exploded by each other. No matter how many exploded, and in that first “proper” hour we had exploded loads of hulls, the grid just wasn’t clearing:
So a fleet went up, an advert was spammed around RvB, and away we went. As more and more pilots poured into system, more & more ships exploded, the belts started to become clogged with wrecks & the locals could not get a word in edgewise in local chat. I checked the star map a couple of hours later and we were at 900+ ships destroyed in just the last hour, which roughly extrapolated to close to 1200 since 21.25 or thereabouts.
We apologise for any inconvenience
The carnage in Abagawa was short lived however as TQ fell over and needed a restart, which turned into an emergency multiple hour downtime. We were all so very sad.
Not really.
We decided to take the blame – and we will forever take said blame – for the server falling over. We just think that it wasn’t quite ready for the sheer volume of kills, or kills of “shit-fits” that were happening in an otherwise peaceful high sec system. Whatever actually happened we really do not care about.
And the beat goes on
Fast forward a few hours later and I am rested enough to log back into EVE and see how the FFA was going. To my pleasure it was as explosive as it had been since the emergency downtime had ended, with around 3000 recorded kills already, and more of the euro-shift logging on and joining in with the madness in Abagawa. And for the next 10 hours, I just kept exploding ships and being exploded. At peak we had 70+ members in the FFA fleet with around another 20 in local doing their own thing, and we were averaging 5-700 kills an hour as the time ticked past downtime and deep into the afternoon. The ships to help us on our way being jettisoned from the SMA’s every time the pos grid was too easy to warp into.
10,000 ships, surely they were not all well fit?
The nicest thing to say about the fits is that they worked. Not necessarily at helping you live, but you could at least whore things if you could not be as offensive as you liked. The fits themselves ran the gamut from no tank all gank rifters, to neutron blaster merlins to mining magnates to rail fit incursus and right on to multiple logi inquisitors. In fact excepting the merlins and incursus I used, I rarely found exactly the same fit twice. Fit-roulette really helped with the adventure of this event, what with no one knowing exactly what they would get or even how to use them half the time. I did get a few fits that worked well however especially the light missile condors with ewar mid slots – sitting at 35km or so and damping/tding/tping as many targets as I could while lobbing missiles into the fray just felt so good! A few of the incursus fits performed well too – rep/blasters/mwd/point&web for example, in one of these I had a really good fight tearing up several ships alone until 5 or 6 guys who were chatting with me on comms headed my way as my ammo gave out.
Who needs enemies with friends like that eh?!
This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end
The FFA finally came to an end at 02.36am on November 5th due to there being no hulls people wanted to explode, except 1000+ bantams, of which barely any had seen use over the weekend. The last kill was this one. In total 8096 ships had been killed in around 27 hours of activity. A brief summary of how this breaks down follows this link to the killboard campaign:
To top this all off, the top 20 pilots (for november) on EVE-Kill are all RvB members.
In over 6 years of EVE, I cannot think of any organised event that has seen such a level of carnage, and in my opinion it was easily the single largest number of explosions seen in highsec ever. Not bad for t1 rifter alts. Crashing a node, getting it restarted and just keeping the carnage going for as long as it did without any drama – internally or externally – just adds to the epic of this event.
I’d like to thank the members of the Academy
The following individuals need to be pointed out for both my gratitude and that of RvB as a whole:
Torve Starduster – the man with the plan. He who started it all and was heard to exclaim “lets block out the sun” from his bathtub.
Zakhs – Logistical HERO! Set up the POS & moved 11888 fitted frigates to its SMA’s ALONE. He also seemed to ALWAYS be online when more ships were needed on grid. Did you even sleep?
Del Delvechio – for a huge donation of 2500 rifter hulls to kick off this whole thing. Without such largesse, would this event have really happened?
Random McNally, Mandelbrot Fracture, Rashino Zea and many many more – For fitting the ships with lol fits, troll fits and srs fits. You guys certainly kept us entertained during our 27 hour game of fit-roulette.
CCP – for not screwing us and removing all the initial wave of ships and for ensuring that node reinforcement actually happened. Without their assistance, we would have been “proper fucked”.
Everyone who attended the event and helped put us on the path to 8000+ explosions. I hope you all enjoy your time in RvB and treasure your memories of this event for as long as you play this game.
“If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”
Here are a few images I took over the course of the hours I spent at the event. There is a mix of ui-less and ui-filled images. As I get more from other people I will add them to this post.
Also check out this stream by Sard Caid who was in attendance on his RvB alt. Forward to around 3 hours 20 minutes for footage of the FFA. Enjoy!
Way back in the dawn of time on an internet spaceships forum that is now lost to us, a few pilots had the idea to set up 2 groups that would be at permanent war and would have no rules on who could or could not join, as long as they wanted to explode/be exploded by someone. They named the corps Blue. & Red. and for a while all was right with the world. Explosions happened and good fights were had. Then after a few months, much drama and eventual leadership inactivity caused the experiment to come to an end.
Or did it?
Around a year later, on that very same forum a few of the original protagonists of the Red v Blue experiment decided to try it again, and this time it would be harder, better, faster, stronger than the last time. And so on 25th September 2009, a new war began between the forces of the Blue Republic & the Red Federation.
After a week, 2800 explosions had been made, and the rest as they say is history.
1127 days later
Despite several changes in rules, leadership and even location the war is still going strong, with hundreds of explosions daily. From the ubiquitous T1 fit rifters to multi-billion isk fit vargurs and everything in between, no hull is sacred in the eternal war that is Red v Blue. During these 1127 days, each side has passed 100,000 kills solely of the other, with Blue reaching it first, soon followed by Red in a flurry of activity – that happens when you offer 1 billion isk to each of the pilots who get the final blow – and much more recently this explosion became the 300,000th RvB explosion. For those interested, we have exploded the general eve populace over 20,000 times, several thousand of these being in third party wars, the most memorable for me being those against the good people at Ivy League.
As you can see from the tables above the action never ends. Yes, we have had our quiet months, but that has not stopped the war machine rolling on, keeping both corporations in the Top 20 on Evekill for several years, as well as several of our pilots up there too month in and month out. As we continue on this destructive course, our member numbers also keep increasing – helped along by our very own recruitment thread, live streams, hundreds of related videos & publicity courtesy of CCP:
So much so that Red Federation just inducted its 3,000th member. Say hello to Eanok:
However RvB is already – when combined – the single largest entity in high sec space, and we are the 9th & 10th largest alliances in EVE as a whole. And all that without holding space or making our members any money. Who knew a very explodey isk sink would be so popular, I certainly don’t think the original protagonists of Plave, Tron, Chakarai, Joe Appleby to name a few could have envisioned this 3 years ago when we first went “live”.
Wait, we haven’t always lived in The Forge?
Yes, RvB has not always lived in The Forge. We started off down in Verge Vendor, why I cannot tell you as even my memory gets hazy after three years, what I do remember is that it is a remote part of Empire space in todays terms and that logistics was an absolute pain when supplying yourself with toys. Since I seem to be turning into the “RvB Stats guy”, a few weeks ago I sat down & looked into our various homes, the explosions we made while living in each & how long we spent in a given region, unsurprisingly the closer we moved towards the economic heart of Empire, the more we exploded, the larger we got…
As I said above, three years ago we started off in Verge Vendor which was the scene of over 49,000 kills – valued at 740 BILLION ISK. We lived here until August 2010 when we made the jump to Everyshore, which if you can believe it, proved even more out of the way (despite being close to 2 market hubs!), but we still reached around 39,000 kills valued at 560 BILLION ISK in our time there. It was in July 2011 that we decided to leave Gallente space and so we moved to the much more populated Caldari region of Lonetrek, achieving 75,000 kills valued at 1.3 TRILLION ISK while living mere jumps from some of the busiest Empire & nullsec regions, however the part of the region we lived in was not well loved of the membership and so in March 2012 we relocated one region over to The Forge and we have been here since then. To date we have over 145,000 kills valued at 2.1 TRILLION ISK. Yes, in 6 or so months, we have killed nearly double what we did in the 9 months we lived in Lonetrek.
You’re obsessed with the number 3.
Keen eyed observers will have noticed that I keep mentioning that RvB is three years old, or has done x or y in 3 years, I do so because – & this should be obvious – the Red v Blue war reached its third year of explosive goodness on 25th September 2012. As with previous years – see the celebrations I organised for the 2nd birthday back in 2011 (Anywhere But, Sink the Bismarck & RvB Ganked 3: Time on Target) - I made a conscious decision to step up to the plate once more and put together various events to help the thousands of pilots who fly along side me, celebrate this past year and look forward to the next. Luckily, this year I was not alone in organising our birthday events, as over the summer I became one of the founder members of the RvB events committee – not really a surprise considering my events pedigree over the past few years of my time in RvB.
I personally organised a series of RvB Ganked roams: Ganked 40, Ganked 41 & Ganked 42. All of which were really good nights with very high numbers of RvBers attending and joining in the drunken nullsec fun, in addition I set running the third iteration of my Somewhere Out There event, which has recently come to an end, with participating RvB members taking home prizes totalling 30 billion isk. Quite the birthday present from me to all of you really. As well as my events others from the committee – and the general population of RvB – stepped to the plate and organised things too:
Mandelbrot Fracture threw us a Bantam Brawl with the addition of a Navy scorp to massacre. Much hilarity ensued.
Combat Mink organised 3 weeks of evening events, from Musical Frigates to a Conga Brawl to an Industrial FFA to Gladiators – which saw Wiiggls crowned as the current Gladiator Champion of RvB!
Cartheron Crust did a bang up job of organising the first RvB Cannonball Run. A race across space and back with the entrants misleading each other, getting one another killed and so on all in the name of prizes and birthday cake!!!
Connall Tara, Blue Rep member & host of the Fly Reckless podcast put together an RvB birthday special, which can found here. Combat Mink & Wiiggls (and lots of mentions of me) where his special guests, along with many soundbytes from other RvB members!
Now that the birthday celebrations are all wrapped up and over with, I think it is safe to say that even with a larger membership this years celebrations were bigger and better and more well received than ever before. Everyone who took part really enjoyed themselves, and found new joy in being part of the RvB machine. I know I did, and I mostly stuck with organising & publicity over anything else.
Huge thanks to all of you who attended & took part in any of the events over the past 4 weeks or, its people like you that keep us on the Events committee doing what we do. Oh and because our ego’s need sustenance.
To everyone who missed out, there is always next year!
What does the future hold?
We are now into our third year, with both the 5 trillion isk exploded & 500,000 kill milestones to reach, which in my opinion are well within RvB’s grasp during this year, either way its going to be very explosive! Helping us towards those markers there will be several RvB Ganked roams, including the 50th roam – for which I am taking suggestions – however before that, there is to be a very very special RvB FFA.
Special you say?
Yes, I said special.
10,000 fitted rifters (and assorted other frigates) being jettisoned in space so RvBers can grab them, explode someone, be exploded by someone, then grab another is pretty much the very definition of special when applied to our case.
This wonderful event is being put together by a very very dedicated team of people who have spent nearly a month fitting and moving the hulls around. I expect this to go off amazingly well and result in a giant red dot marking our little corner of space for hours on the 3rd November 2012. Hopefully hundreds of us will participate in such an epic event.
My final words.
My 3 years in RvB, have been the most enjoyable of my 6 years in EVE. Nowhere else can I get the instant action on offer here, alongside an amazing array of events and contests, setup and organised by some of the funniest folks I have met in my time in game – and by me of course.
It really stuns me to take a trip down memory lane in regards to RvB and see what small roots we have grown from and to turn and look at what we can become, indeed what we have already become in some ways. And to know that I have had a part of that and have helped guide us on the path to an even more explodey future really makes me proud.
As long as RvB keeps the explosions going, anyone of us, from Command to bitter vets to fresh faced newbies and even ex-Rvbers can take away the knowledge that they are and have been a part of something very special in a game as special as EVE. So thanks to CCP, my fellow RvBers and all the people I have met on my road.
A few weeks ago, RvB found itself needing to declare war on a small corp local to our bases in The Forge; This corp was called Rock Huggers Inc & depending on who you ask, they had either been flipping cans in RvB fights, causing the less aware members of RvB to become flashy to them or they had been “innocently” leaving cans of ammo around, and merely defending themselves when RvB pilots “borrowed” that ammo. Either way, Command deemed them a nuisance – all 8 of them – and war was declared.
Given it was a cheap war against RvB, several other parties a long the way allied themselves with Rock Huggers Inc and lots of explosions – on both sides of the fence - occurred. Eventually the combat wound down till only one of the enemies allies continued to fight, and only against Blue with whom they now have a mutual war, while the remaining allies finished their period of support and went on their way.
And then roughly at the start of last week, Rock Huggers formed an alliance, which inherited the now mutual wars with RvB.
It was at this point when the fun began. Following a short, sweaty & hot period of action in the form of the original war declarations, it seems RvB became a carrier – if not the Patient Zero – of the internet spaceships version of an STD.
Basically, should you hop into bed with Purple Legion or The Marmite Collective you will become embroiled in a mutual war started by RvB – wars which we freely admit to starting, for various reasons stemming back to the original war with Rock Huggers Inc. However, once you get out of bed with those entities, instead of leaving the war behind, you take a fresh case with you. No matter how much protection you use. Then when you meet a new alliance, go to dinner, maybe dancing and then back to their place for “coffee”, you give them a dose too, all the while continuing to play host to your own infection. And each time the alliances have new corporations back to theirs, they too leave with a new case of Aggressive RvB Mutual War Syndrome. Ad infinitum. Indeed, Rock Huggers Inc used the executor corp of Purple Legion to pass a solid dose of this syndrome on to Dec Shield, who are now spreading it to every corp that passes through their doors.
The following is the list of current wars caused by various entities bed hopping:
Mutual
RvB Blue v Skunk Works (Consequence of mutual war with The Marmite Collective)
RvB Blue v Kicking Smurfs (Consequence of mutual war with The Marmite Collective)
RvB Blue v The Marmite Collective (EDIT: Was mutual, seems to be changed now)
RvB v Belteaters (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Madre Del Amor Hermoso Corp (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Purple Legion (Consequence of mutual war with Rock Huggers Inc)
RvB v Impromptu Asset Requisition (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
RvB v Purple Legion Holding Corporation (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
RvB v Dec Shield (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
RvB v Ba’als Deep Space Mining (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Epicurus Philosophy (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v CEBEP DV (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Battle BV (Consequence of mutual war with Purple Legion)
None Mutual
(Should have gone mutual when these entities left various alliances, but did not, despite leaving after the mutual wars had gone live. Yet another bug?)
RvB v Beyond the White (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Pulsar Engineering (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Benedictus Ordinis Fessa Milites (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB v Army Ninja Society (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
RvB Blue v Lonetrek Salvage and Scrap (Consequence of the former mutual war with The Marmite Collective)
RvB v Entek Heavy Industries (Consequence of mutual war with Dec Shield)
As you can see, all the above have happened in a little over a week, think of what this could look like in another week, or a month, should this keep spreading like it does. Could we be looking at the eventual doom of peace in high security space, or will a vaccine be forthcoming?
Now here is the crux of the matter, is this a bug as the folks at Dec Shield claim or is it a mechanic working as intended with the usual lack of documentation? Answer’s on a postcard please. And if you do send one, wash your hands first.
So kids, protection does not always save you does it. Still, remember
EDIT: This is not me – or RvB – complaining about the wars, as we like to fight given it is the RvB raison d’etre, but merely me wondering exactly what is going on with mutual war declarations right now.
After a short hiatus due to the recent EVE meet down in London – see TGL3′s blog for more on that – Ganked returned last night. It was both the 40th Ganked, and the first of 3 roams to celebrate RvB’s third birthday. Originally I had planned that the theme would be based on the results of this poll, however Daneel Trevize had suggested a “max dps” theme, were we bring as much gank as possible, and I liked the idea so much that I ran with it.
And what a night it was.
Met up in Rens, had the usual conga shenanigans with a little can flip idiocy thrown in for good measure resulting in Blue Rep members being able to get this kill. Then we were off. Had a speed bump of some Eternal Evocations guys in lowsec, however not all of them went flashy on our broadsword, so we only got a couple of them. After jumping into G-5EN2 we got word of a sizeable Red Alliance Tier 3 gang over in 9-F, however they would not jump into us, and their use of spais – ON THE LEAST SECURE COMMS IN EVE WITH PILOTS WHO DON’T REALLY CARE WHEN WE DIE, JUST HOW (GG RED, GG. All of EVE remembers you when you were good!) – prevented us getting successful cloaky warpins, so we just moved past them and right onto a Black Ops Hot drop performed by Russian Thunder Squad, members of -A-. Our bait vindicator worked wonders. Their blops drop failed amazingly, in that we traded 1 Vindicator – that Green got for free – for a few Black Ops BS.
WIN!
I still do not know what exactly those pilots thought they could achieve. Yes, like 2 managed to escape, but that is only because traffic control caught a few of our tacklers & bubblers. Regardless, at that point it felt really good to be back in the Ganked saddle.
And then we were off again, rolling over a CVA gang that was sat at 0 on a gate, and did not cross jump us even when I and a handful of others killed a sabre of theirs that had cross jumped. By the time I got into ERVK-P, the CVA gang was dead, or had ran away really fast. Except for 1 Lachesis that logged WITH aggression and was probed down and killed by us. God knows how the dumb manage to dress themselves in the morning. Speaking of dumb, we crashed a Legio gate-camp later on which did not warp off despite most likely knowing we were coming, and also being in one of the few systems they live in.
We started to spiral down towards the Catch/Stain border, however while idling in QETZ-W, local started spiking with -A- and their various pets, so we jumped into BUZ-DB, hit the station, killed some stuff, bubbled it and waited. And waited. And waited. And then the drake+scimi fleet they had landed in our bubbles and it was on.
IT WAS GLORIOUS!
House & myself switched calling roles, with Dan and others helping out on warpins when needed & the majority of the fleet focusing on primaries when told, grabbing points and generally not being terrible, which warmed my cold bitter heart. As a group we calmly took down targets as called, or as they presented themselves as new primaries – why hello there Mr Scimitar – without much comms clutter or even your FC doing a good impression of a rabbit caught in headlights. While we did end up dead – around 100 of us were still going by this point – we out performed ourselves massively in terms of how we did in the whelp section of the roam. Overall, I was and still am, very impressed & can happily say that fight really helped me find my love for FCing and EVE once again. Now if only I would undock more.
And then it was 2 AM UK time and it was all over. As the dust settled we had done around 14 billion isk in damage with 130+ kills to our name. Pretty epic night considering I did the whole thing SOBER and that I ran out of smokes around 11 PM UK.
One last word before videos and prizes, however I shall let fleet chat from towards the end of the night say it for me (& my ego):
[ 2012.10.07 00:11:34 ] lolololol01 > we did amazingly well against all those logi lol. was quite suprised [ 2012.10.07 00:12:08 ] Whisp3r > thx for fleet and fun [ 2012.10.07 00:12:30 ] Caterpil > Thanks for the fleet :) [ 2012.10.07 00:12:32 ] macH eoN > cheers guys o7 [ 2012.10.07 00:12:48 ] Alayna Le’line > Thanks guys, fun as usual o7 [ 2012.10.07 00:13:30 ] Shish Tukay > fun night, heading home now, bye guys o/ [ 2012.10.07 00:13:33 ] Geo Vent > I’m off. Thanks for a fun evening Mangala Solaris [ 2012.10.07 00:13:37 ] Sir Yohnny > GF guys… [ 2012.10.07 00:13:50 ] Deea Noban > o/ great fleet [ 2012.10.07 00:13:58 ] Dece Goo’Ba > Excellent Ganked night :-) ttfn! [ 2012.10.07 00:14:00 ] Rokhaard Indiz > thanks for the fleet everyone [ 2012.10.07 00:14:02 ] Yori Yolanda > thx for fleet! great fight [ 2012.10.07 00:14:12 ] mimori > Thanks chaps, was fun. [ 2012.10.07 00:14:33 ] Morindius > thanks guys, my first Ganked and I enjoyed it thoroughly. [ 2012.10.07 00:14:34 ] Thash Isnit > was fun thanks guys! [ 2012.10.07 00:14:36 ] PVDNS77 > yeah nice ganked. even died \o/ thx for fleet o7 [ 2012.10.07 00:14:47 ] Ohpehk Doshu > great night. thanks RVB [ 2012.10.07 00:14:51 ] Osoi Shinu > awesome thanks everyone [ 2012.10.07 00:14:51 ] Himaro 1 > probably the most fun i’ve had on this game in a long time [ 2012.10.07 00:14:58 ] Andrew Koch > o/ thx for an awesome fleet [ 2012.10.07 00:15:17 ] Nutbolt > thanks for ganked, was a really good end! [ 2012.10.07 00:15:22 ] SoraXIII > yeah had a great time guys Mangala Solaris is an epic FC xD [ 2012.10.07 00:15:24 ] Ganage Be’des > Thanks for the fights! [ 2012.10.07 00:15:31 ] Solaven > Thanks for the roam guys. great fun. [ 2012.10.07 00:15:36 ] Janis Praag > great fight fly unsafe! [ 2012.10.07 00:16:57 ] Stickelback > was that a win lose or draw? [ 2012.10.07 00:17:09 ] Phantom OfKrankor > it was a good loss [ 2012.10.07 00:17:35 ] Mangala Solaris > WIN. We exploded, they did too. I didnt rage :D [ 2012.10.07 00:17:57 ] Strom Crendraven > thanks that was fun! [ 2012.10.07 00:19:46 ] Kast Agnet > Cheers guys thx 4 everything [ 2012.10.07 00:20:10 ] Jagtor > cheers mang got to go [ 2012.10.07 00:21:14 ] Dieter Rams > thanks for the fleet guys [ 2012.10.07 00:21:17 ] Furious Ginger > fun time guys gtg :D [ 2012.10.07 00:21:19 ] Dieter Rams > well done [ 2012.10.07 00:21:37 ] Bazanti d’Arys > Thanks for the Fleet RvB, I had a beautifull death! [ 2012.10.07 00:21:44 ] Mangala Solaris > glad you came! [ 2012.10.07 00:21:48 ] Michael Warsaw > Thanks for having me, awesome stuff! [ 2012.10.07 00:21:53 ] Johnny Vector > that was awesome. [ 2012.10.07 00:22:14 ] Henry Warsaw > Awesome is an understatement. [ 2012.10.07 00:24:09 ] Shepherd Riddick > great ganked thx mates
Videos to follow when uploaded
As usual, our friends over at Somer.Blink sponsored prizes and here are the winners:
Corpse Collector – Eris x1 (Captain Hurrdurr – for the awesome chain of friendly pods at the end of the night!!!)
Spot Prizes – Federation Navy Comet x6 (SoraXIII, Edvantage – “I CANT SHOOT THEM OR THEM OR THEM OR THEM”, Janis Praag, Rondra Juliaris, Rokhaard Indiz for this – “when fc tells you to take a piss, you ask how high”, Henry Warsaw for this “My first pvp roam. Lets for that guys!”)
Combat Distinction – Cynabal x3 (Green Gambit – for putting that Vindicator on the line so well, BigWierdo, Admiral Rufus – This pair did some great bubbling in the various fights we had)
Combat Excellence – Machariel x1 (Macgyver 3rd – topping the KB kills for the campaign, in the face of hard competition from many including several new comers to Ganked)
For the past few weeks, my Ganked attendance was due to be pretty flaky so I arranged for Guest FC’s to take a few roams out in my stead. And for Ganked 36: Snipaa Knights, Lorkin Desal aka Boss aka Luckyccs stepped up and offered to FC a group of sniper ships (and friendly tackle) into null-sec. And in a strange twist of fate, and my body telling me “I need a night off”, I was there.
And not only was I there, but I formed up the fleet and spammed it around for a while, as strangely enough Lucky was late! Anyway, when he did show up we piled on out, with at least 45-50 Tier 3′s in fleet along with as many assorted other ships – both snipers & tacklers (ie anything frig sized). Scouts informed us of RnK being nearby however they had bailed by the time we did pass through their location, and then we found ourselves in G-5EN2.
[ 2012.08.18 19:17:45 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Local : G-5EN2 [ 2012.08.18 19:18:28 ] Mangala Solaris > hai guys [ 2012.08.18 19:18:33 ] Willaev > o7 [ 2012.08.18 19:18:37 ] Mangala Solaris > is this where the white wimmin be at?
After some mucking around we came under attack by a 35-40 man Assault Frigate gang from Severance & assorted other Provi residents. We had already moved our snipers off the gate they landed on before they attacked, keeping our tackle there to, well, tackle and those guys did a bang up job while those of us in sniper ships blapped everything. It went surprisingly well.
After being all “fuck yeah, we are pro”, we moved onwards, not seeing much as we did so. We got word of a bomber gang led by Suitonia that may have been ahead of us, however by the time we had a “plan”, they had dropped off our radar, so again on we moved until we got word of a Scorpion Navy Issue that was doing an anomaly in a system on our route. The word was right. Even after jumping 70+ guys into local, he carried on npcing, right up until the time our prober got a point on him, and was still doing it when he died. Around this time, the Severance AF gang appeared in local again:
[ 2012.08.18 20:21:34 ] Willaev > Round 2? [ 2012.08.18 20:21:57 ] Mangala Solaris > hi [ 2012.08.18 20:22:01 ] Llewelyn Fawr > o/ [ 2012.08.18 20:22:05 ] luckyccs > come at us bros [ 2012.08.18 20:22:09 ] House2twist > ROUND 9000? [ 2012.08.18 20:22:11 ] Llewelyn Fawr > spam? [ 2012.08.18 20:22:11 ] Kadesch47 > wb mates
And eventually engaged us in F9E-KX. Was a bit messier this time, but we still killed them dead, along with a couple of random Loki’s that showed up, a phobos & a phantasm as well.
Snipers really, really, really, are so much fun.
After a small break in HED-GP which consisted of being both afk and warping around popping anything people could catch, we headed back out this time into deepest Catch. We saw very little along our route until we got word that -A- and their southern buddies were in GE-8JV and for once not sitting in Armageddons with Onerios support, but in Tier 3′s much like ourselves. We raced ahead to EX6-AO and in a random move for snipers, setup right on the in-gate with a “plan”. -A- in a surprising move jumped in and started moving off the gate. Lucky started calling and things started dieing on both sides. We managed to take down quite a number of their shinier ships before we were overcome by their numbers (the silly numbers of Tornados that jumped in during the fight really bolstered the -A- numbers!), but we fought and whelped and that was why we were out after all. Evekill says this and the -A- kb (which may be green) says this.
And that was that.
Roam was over. Night was a huge success, 114 kills at around 9billion isk and to be the snipers made a change from being on the receiving end of them. What a great night Luckyccs gave us!
