Kamela, The Bleak Lands – The Star Fraction has been the victim of corporate theft with two towers worth over one billion isk being stolen by former director Misan Pal’taek, now a member of Stimulus (a member corporation of Rote Kapelle), and two associates.

The Star Fraction member Jade Constantine described how the theft was conducted: “[Misan Pal'taek] employed two agents: the first was a tower gunner who actually did the unanchoring of our defense towers, he was named Taloc Tsukuyomi; he was aided by another of Misan’s agents, an industrial pilot named Sevok Kurouto. All three are, [from now on, put on a 'Kill On Sight' list] by the Star Fraction and in time we will take our revenge against them.“

Jade Constantine explained that Kamela is an important staging point for The Star Fraction and key to their low-security system operations. She considers the loss of these towers less of an isk problem and more of a strategic issue as not only did the thief steal the towers, increasing the vulnerability of Star Fraction forces in the system, but also “[Misan Pal'taek] informed Sev3rance of this weak point. We struggled to replace the staging towers and were immediately attacked by Sev3rance and the CVA.”

Former The Star Fraction Director Misan Pal’taek commented “I had left an associate in The Star Fraction star base holder corporation, Hebog y Tan. He simply unanchored the two towers in Kamela, taking all the ammo and modules with some unnamed assistance,“ She firmly denied the alleged involvement with CVA and Sev3rance – “I never actively worked with any CVA forces. I currently am fighting several CVA [allies] nearby actually, Fidelas Constans and the past couple of weeks against Tread Alliance and Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive.“

Shortly after this event one of the allegedly-involved pilots was shot down by The Star Fraction, causing a allegations of hypocrisy regarding their NRDS policy. Star Fraction’s public response was to state that shooting someone involved in an act of theft is clearly a case of valid hostility but calls for a public release of verifiable evidence continue.

Lustrevik, Heimatar – Silver Night of Re-Awakened Technologies Inc, Electus Matari is sponsoring a writing contest, wherein he wants to hear pilot-authored stories of the people of New Eden.

Whereas much of the news and fiction popular amongst pilots surrounds the comings and goings of the capsuleer community, this contest will judge the best story concerning the doings of any citizen other than a capsuleer.

Silver Night reminded potential entrants that there is more to New Eden than spacecraft, stating that there are also “mining colonies, planets, moons and stations” adding “the possibilities are nearly limitless.”

The prizes range from rare pirate faction battleships with 300 million isk provided for fittings, to Fleet-issue battleships and cruisers.

Entries for Silver Night’s contest can be up to 3,000 words long and must be submitted by 21:55 on the 21.03.112.

GalNet References
Silver’s First Annual Fiction Contest

Hello eSports fans!

It is my proud duty to bring to you the details of Alliance Tournament VIII – it’s like Alliance Tournament VII, but with an extra I!

Along with this blog release comes the latest update to the Alliance Tournament section of the site. Cast your eyes a little bit to the left, and a little bit downwards; almost…almost…there we go! Both the rules and the format sections have been updated, so I’d like to explain some of the thought processes behind these updates.

We have seen quite a bit of evolution in the rules between tournaments five, six and seven, to the point where the rules in seven were praised so much that it kind of left me wondering where to go next. I spoke to a lot of people in-house over various ideas for changes to the way we do things, and we were kind of struggling to make a decision. Our next stop was the CSM, who were firmly of the belief that the rules are fine the way they are and that further evolution of the tournament would occur naturally with balance changes and ship changes in EVE. In the end, this made the decision; we would not completely rewrite the rules for Alliance Tournament VIII. So what did we change?

Well, the first major change is that pilots may only compete on behalf of alliances that they have been members of for a minimum of 60 days before the beginning of the tournament. Much like real life sports events, this creates a ‘transfer window’ and will curtail some of the more undesirable methods of player-switching that sometimes take place in tournament teams. The second major change is that the maximum number allowed of any given ship type has gone up to three, from two. We felt that this limitation was a good thing but maybe a little too strict, and that three would still do the job of stopping complete homogeneity in team setups.

As far as points go, Heavy Assault Cruisers have gone down one point in cost, T1 cruisers drop two points, and faction cruisers go up by a point. These are the usual simple balance changes that will always occur; HACs were too expensive in AT VII, as were cruisers, partly by design as these ships had been so popular before. They should now be in line with other ships in cost vs effectiveness.

Now, on to format. The team selection procedure has been one of the toughest things to get right, so this time we’re going to try a slightly different approach. 16 slots will be reserved for the top 16 finishers from Alliance Tournament VII, and 16 slots will be sold via auction. The remaining slots, however many that may be, will be allocated by random draw as in previous tournaments. The decision to use an auction method came about because it was something that we had already talked about – allowing the ‘big alliances’ that have sometimes missed out on a tournament spot a way to leverage their size and make sure they get in to the tournament. The CSM brought this idea up also without it being mentioned, and since we were both on the same page it became a final decision. At this point we have not yet decided on the precise auction method; details will be announced in the alliance tournament forum soon.

We also have a slight change to the way teams score points through Intentional Handicapping. This is a system that allows teams to purposefully put themselves at a disadvantage in order to give themselves a large potential for scoring. The minimum number of points allowed per team has been reduced to 50. We don’t expect this to hugely change the format, but it may allow for some interesting comebacks and does mean that teams who are happy with their setup, for example maybe somewhere in the 90-100 points range, can choose not to use any ‘filler’ ships and instead aim to gain a few extra points. And now, for the grand finale…

Flagships!

“A flagship is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, a designation given on account of being either the largest, fastest, newest, most heavily armed or, for publicity purposes, the best known. In military terms, it is a ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships.”

Flagships are the elite of your tournament team. They are the strongest, toughest, most damaging (and most expensive) ship you can field. Flagships must have a name, and successful flagships can become the stuff of tournament legend. The disadvantageous side of this, though, is that flagships are famous. As a tradeoff for their power, your opponents will know in advance what they are capable of when their setup is advertised for all to see. This raises the question of when you should field your flagship -if at all. Do you use it in the early rounds, and risk losing it? Do you save it for a late game where you may need some extra power? And if you do that, will your opponent predict it and counter it? And will we see some rare battleships fielded as flagships, heralding the return of the most expensive ships in Eve to the tournament? I’m excited just thinking about it.

And that, PvP lovers, brings us to the close of this summary of the changes for Alliance Tournament VIII. We hope you like the rules, both the things that have stayed the same and the things that have changed, and we hope you are looking forward to June 5th as much as we are! We have some more announcements we will be making in the leadup to the tournament, so stay glued to the news and keep a watchful eye on the tournament forum.

Until then – fly deadly!

On second thoughts, don’t fly deadly. That’s the worst signoff I’ve ever heard.

Intaki, Placid - A major push by Federal Defence Union forces in the last week has resulted in 13 systems which were originally held by the Gallente Federation returning to its governance, including Intaki Prime.

The 13 systems resecured by the Federal Defence Union between 21.02.112 and 27.02.112 were:

Essence
** 08:53 27.02.112 Vifrevaert

Verge Vendor
** 03:49 20.02.112 Jovainnon
** 18:50 21.02.112 Loes
** 04:50 22.02.112 Hevrice
** 00:53 26.02.112 Melmaniel
** 23:53 26.02.112 Muetralle

Placid
** 18:50 22.02.112 Brarel
** 08:51 23.02.112 Vey
** 17:52 23.02.112 Agoze
** 14:51 24.02.112 Intaki
** 15:51 24.02.112 Frarie
** 22:53 26.02.112 Reschard
** 08:53 27.02.112 Eugales

Faraelle Brightman of FDU corporation Eleutherian Guard claims that the battle for Jovainnon in Verge Vendor was a very close thing. State Protectorate corporation Space Perverts and Forum Warriors United [PERVS] managed to engage and conquer an FDU outpost just in time to protect the system’s vulnerable control bunker early in the day, but persistent efforts from FDU forces spearheaded by Handsome Millionaire Playboys [HAMPB] rendered the bunker vulnerable again and went on to destroy it.

Both PERVS and Costolle Military Assistance Corporation had been resisting the efforts of Handsome Millionaire Playboys and their FDU allies in Verge Vendor, both by capturing FDU outposts and engaging with FDU-aligned pilots as they attempt to force State Protectorate forces to deploy elsewhere, but the attacks appear to have been too persistent and widespread for them all to be met effectively. According to John Tanashima of ICS-762 Drunken Butterflies, the main FDU onslaught coincided with a substantial curtailing of PERVS operations, leaving only a few corporations and a number of individual pilots directly in STPRO service to oppose system captures.

Loes and Hevrice, a system that had already changed hands three times this year, fell with what HAMPB representative Tavis Darwin describes as “only light resistance,” but then the conflict in the region reached a stalemate that was only broken with the fall of both Melmaniel and Muetralle to the FDU 4 days later.

Meanwhile in Placid, an organized coalition of FDU corporations were pushing towards the recapture of the Intaki homeworld. Azure Horizon Federate Militia, Moira., Eleutherian Guard, Strix Armaments and Defence, ArmoredCore Armed Forces and many other FDU affiliates worked intensively in the pirate-infested region to capture State Protectorate installations and drive out occupying forces.

Different corporations in the FDU coalition took on the task of organizing and leading the strikes to recapture various systems, with Azure Federate Horizon, sources claim, taking a leading role in the liberation (those in the Intaki separatist and pro-state movements might prefer to say “reconquest”) of the Intaki system itself.

John Tanashima accorded particular respect to Luminaire General Julianus Soter as an opponent. His corporation, Moira., took the lead in the assault upon STPRO defences around Eugales. “General Soter of the FDU did a great job organising an attack, they changed tactics. Started to take space superiority in a single system and pound the Caldari Navy down, instead of looking for deserted systems to take them by surprise.”

Tanashima felt, however, that the sudden reorganization and drive from the FDU was not the only factor involved. He continued, stating “At the same moment, the Space Perverts and Forum Warriors Incorporated corporation diminished its global presence, leaving a small core of Caldari capsuleers to defend. Any one of these without the other would have diminished the STPRO effectiveness in keeping systems, but both at the same time… Well, you can see the results.”

Meanwhile, more reports coming in of further systems falling to the Federal Defence Union – a forthcoming report will give more details.

KBP7-G, Providence – Atlas Alliance reinforced two Sev3rance [-7-] industrial structures in the KBP7-G system in what was declared as the first move in the full scale deployment to the Providence region.

“We are here to burn down Providence just like we did with Geminate” commented Tzuko1, an Atlas pilot, as the fleet engaged the second tower in the system. This is now a full scale deployment that started with just roaming gang participation in a similar manner to the previous Atlas deployment in the Geminate conflict. “We are looking for good fights” he added, again denying any interest in full territorial control: “We will split it to renters, Against ALL Authorities [AAA] and some other entities, in territory terms we are looking for moons.”

Asked to describe the outcome of these engagements Tzuko1 stated that besides the reinforcement of the two industrial structures, opposing casualties were counted as around 30 battleship class vessels and about the same number of support ships.

An anonymous source close to Sev3rance considered the moon resources as a “prepared argument to cover the real reasons for coming to our space. There are no juicy moons in this region or any nice minerals in the belts. You do not come to Providence because of the profit the systems give you by default. I think in their position as servants to AAA and the southern bloc, they will for sure take part in larger scale operations in this space… The real movements will be made soon and we will see what the complete plan of the southern bloc is like. At this moment it looks like [it is focused on] cutting off all exits in this region… It is motivated by AAA… There is for sure a plan… and ATLAS will have to play a part in this or is doing this as part of their relationship… this Drake fleet reinforced two industrial [towers] and nothing else… I’m looking forward to good fights.”

EvilPHish of Cold Steel Alliance [STEEL] affirmed his alliance’s commitment to their relationship with Sev3rance and willingness to do everything possible to aid in any possible way. “Sev3rance is like a sister alliance to us. STEEL and -7- go way back to the times when we were both helping Curatores Veritatis Alliance [CVA] drive Ushra’Khan from Northern Providence. It’s pretty obvious AAA got its… allies into the [conflict]. We will stay to fight until and beyond our last system if need be.”

CVA Executor Aralis commented that the situation was “pretty obvious” since “people like ATLAS do not come for good fights” and affirmed his belief that this move by ATLAS results from their relationship with AAA and is part of the greater offensive in Providence. “They think we are busy and they hope for some easy kills.”

GalNet References
Sev3rance Alliance Battle Records – KBP7-G
ATLAS Alliance Battle Records – KBP7-G