[SMALL GANG TOURNAMENT] The Dead Pilot's Society [FINAL AAR]
Posted: 2018.06.18 09:50
Team Members
The following team members have been living up to our name:
✪ Alexander Oromov
✪ Ethan Solum
✪ Hideo Date
✪
✪ Puzzled Monkey
✪ Tiberius Auduin
✪ Yrgrasil
✪ Zoltan Irvam
We lived through 70 different ways of death and we enjoyed it!
Tournament Statistics
✪ ISK Destroyed: 1,724,606,559.00 ISK
✪ # of Kills: 57 Kills
✪ Most Expensive Kill: 128,364,168.13 ISK
✪ ISK Lost: 1,122,226,254.30 ISK
✪ # of Losses: 70 Losses
✪ Most Expensive Loss: 55,640,757.75 ISK
✪ Regions: 5 Regions (Black Rise, Essence, Placid, Syndicate, Verge Vendor)
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[AAR] Small Gang Tournament
In Brief
Our team's motto was: "Slow and steady". We went out a sweeping 14 times. 11 of our fleets lasted for 15 up to 60 minutes. Our ship selection was mostly compromised of Atrons, Comets, and Algos (Gallente Pride!). On average we had 3.36 people on fleet. We were a volume team. Our average kills were only 30.5m ISK worth. The large number of engagements gave us plenty of learning opportunities (see "Best Piloting Improvement" below).
Key Learnings
Leading most of the fleets, my top three key learnings from our roams were:
(1) PPP - Positioning, Piloting, Patience:
Spoiler
Fights are not only done by diving into engagements and exchanging volleys. Fights can consist of warping in at various ranges and "dancing" with the opponents. e.g. Patient maneuvers can lure careless hostiles out providing the opportunity to kill them away from their fleet. Patiently spreading enemies out on grid can yield an initial advantages for the actual gang engagement. Snatching selected kills by third-partying ongoing large-scale fights is done in the same way. Drones can soften opponents shields, before going in for the tackle. Generally, piloting your ship pre-fight is not only useful, but exhilarating and a way to extend your battle time (and skills)!
✈ Be patient. Sometimes, slowing down yields better results. There's much more to fights than we're used to and when we learn about our capabilities and succeed in playing our cards right, it's a massive reward (not only to oneself, but the entire team). The only thing you need to master is to know you and your enemy (lol - sorry, quick Sun Tzu reference right there, but it's so true in EVE!).
✈ Be patient. Sometimes, slowing down yields better results. There's much more to fights than we're used to and when we learn about our capabilities and succeed in playing our cards right, it's a massive reward (not only to oneself, but the entire team). The only thing you need to master is to know you and your enemy (lol - sorry, quick Sun Tzu reference right there, but it's so true in EVE!).
Spoiler
Being organized is more important than being just right there. Many times we just lost, because locals had a variety of toys available, while we were flying mostly kitchen sink without tailoring our ships to the tournament game play. Initially, we have lost many ships, because of not having invested in preparation and logistics. When we finally did bring in ships, we were much more successful.
✈ Learn from your battle experiences and make yourself a variety of ships available to play with and adjust to the ever changing circumstances.
✈ Learn from your battle experiences and make yourself a variety of ships available to play with and adjust to the ever changing circumstances.
Spoiler
In EVE, as well in real life, it's the people who keep us going. If we didn't had such a good chemistry and fun in our team, we would probably have burned out rather soon and lose out on the many nice fleets we had together. It wasn't always easy, but we did encourage each other. Also a good bond yields more trust and more confidence, which in return leads to better focus, faster reaction, and more kills!
✈ Try to fly with the guys you like, do it regularly, and always participate actively in fleet. We are all in this together.
✈ Try to fly with the guys you like, do it regularly, and always participate actively in fleet. We are all in this together.
★ Ivy League (Algos and Derptron) vs. No Handlebars (Flycatcher, Heretic, Falcon)
Spoiler
On Thursday morning, I was doing Federation Grand Prix runs. Burning to my location Postouvin, led me through 0.0 space. I spotted two "No Handlebars" Interdictors camping both sides of the 6E-578 and MHC-R3 connection. I called Puzzled in and we set up a game plan:
Situation: They were troll-camping killing a gazillion of incoming Grand Prix shuttles. I was absolutely confident about their mindset and that they will engage us after drawing so much blood on that gate. Our Plan: We will let ourselves be shot by the Heretic in MHC-R3 to give him a timer and will jump through to engage the Flycatcher. Puzzled would hold cloak for as long as needed - with me drawing initial DPS. Our Ships: I got a tanked T1 Algos to draw DPS and Puzzled brought a fast Derptron to chase down and hold the target if need be. The Action: So, we came in. I warped us to a different align point and went to the gate. I let myself be shot by the Heretic. He has a timer now. I jumped through the gate. I get bubbled and I start to engage the Flycatcher. He is buffer fit and shoots back. With the Flycatcher's shields half-way down he starts to burn away from me. I call in Puzzled screaming to give all his heat to the MWD and scram that Flycatcher before he gets out of range. Puzzled catches him. At that exact moment a Falcon decloaks 20km off us. He locks me up. I'm jammed. Starting to take accelerated damage and not able to shoot back, my loyal drones stay on target. I have no idea on the status of the Flycatcher tank. I start to BELIEVE and I scream to Puzzled to stay on target no matter what. As I'm about to go down the Flycatcher suddenly pops! The bubble goes down! I align out and warp off with 7% structure. Hasta la vista, No Handlebars! Leaving the incoming Heretic, the Falcon, and the dead Flycatcher behind, we slowly made our way to PC9 to repair and calm down, having a laugh and giving each other a digital high five on a very successful execution of the game plan.
Situation: They were troll-camping killing a gazillion of incoming Grand Prix shuttles. I was absolutely confident about their mindset and that they will engage us after drawing so much blood on that gate. Our Plan: We will let ourselves be shot by the Heretic in MHC-R3 to give him a timer and will jump through to engage the Flycatcher. Puzzled would hold cloak for as long as needed - with me drawing initial DPS. Our Ships: I got a tanked T1 Algos to draw DPS and Puzzled brought a fast Derptron to chase down and hold the target if need be. The Action: So, we came in. I warped us to a different align point and went to the gate. I let myself be shot by the Heretic. He has a timer now. I jumped through the gate. I get bubbled and I start to engage the Flycatcher. He is buffer fit and shoots back. With the Flycatcher's shields half-way down he starts to burn away from me. I call in Puzzled screaming to give all his heat to the MWD and scram that Flycatcher before he gets out of range. Puzzled catches him. At that exact moment a Falcon decloaks 20km off us. He locks me up. I'm jammed. Starting to take accelerated damage and not able to shoot back, my loyal drones stay on target. I have no idea on the status of the Flycatcher tank. I start to BELIEVE and I scream to Puzzled to stay on target no matter what. As I'm about to go down the Flycatcher suddenly pops! The bubble goes down! I align out and warp off with 7% structure. Hasta la vista, No Handlebars! Leaving the incoming Heretic, the Falcon, and the dead Flycatcher behind, we slowly made our way to PC9 to repair and calm down, having a laugh and giving each other a digital high five on a very successful execution of the game plan.
★ The Dead Pilot's Society - Brave, Curious, Eager (and Dead lol)
Spoiler
Excluding myself, I would like to nominate my team members for the Best Piloting Improvement award.
While I was celebrating my birthday, Hideo already took charge from day one and started to transform into a small gang FC. He draw first blood and will already take out his first regular fleet on Thursday. Our new players Ethan Solum and Puzzled Monkey became proficient fighters, resourceful scouts, and indistinguishable from our core. Playing with them now, I wouldn't even notice them being new to the game. Zoltan did become invaluable to our team by moving into the world of DST and Freighter logistics. And Tiberius... Well, Tiberius did his thing - camped gates, baited, punished our targets, and got drunk. XD
With such a great team, there was not much left for me to do. Thanks for making this so easy and enjoyable!
While I was celebrating my birthday, Hideo already took charge from day one and started to transform into a small gang FC. He draw first blood and will already take out his first regular fleet on Thursday. Our new players Ethan Solum and Puzzled Monkey became proficient fighters, resourceful scouts, and indistinguishable from our core. Playing with them now, I wouldn't even notice them being new to the game. Zoltan did become invaluable to our team by moving into the world of DST and Freighter logistics. And Tiberius... Well, Tiberius did his thing - camped gates, baited, punished our targets, and got drunk. XD
With such a great team, there was not much left for me to do. Thanks for making this so easy and enjoyable!
Spoiler
"We're going to Tama!" ...ahhm, not these last words...