Rote Drei, RK and AT8 Day 2!

So much to write about and so little time!

AT8 day 2 is now behind us, upping my win percentage from .500 to a staggering .531!  At least I didn't go down, and I did guess, emphasis on guess, right on the one match that mattered, our match.  So let me recap that first,  Go to Here and turn the volume down after reading this...

I was flying the Bhaalgorn of sparkley bits, named Rote Drei, Man is that ever a sexy ship!  Joining me were an Eos, and no it didn't boost my already long web range (that a skirmish link not a info warfare one...)  Anyways, 2 Brutix, 3 Purifier stealth bombers, a Guardian and 2 Keres completed our lineup of 99 points. Primaries were assigned and a bombing run setup.  Our guardian pilot was having major trouble staying logged in giving me heart palpitations as I thought of what losing Rote Drei would do.  Fortunately we were able to get him back online in time, or maybe a little late, and stable, for the match.


The rest of the fleet was given Primaries while I was given the order to kill the Keres, Blackthorrn, first, hanging 47 KM away from me, 1km outside web range, and in good to perfect scorch range.  Everyone else was to focus fire on the Rook, Joe Fester, also just barely outside of my web range.  The idea was to get ECM off the field, then swap to the Basilisk then kill everything else.  The Purifiers were going to drop bombs, since they were 10km closer to the targets than the rest of the fleet, putting them close to 30-35km from the other fleet.  Now keep in mind bombs have a 30km range with a 15km explosion radius.  So really you can hit out to 45km with a bomb.  The match started and I immediately spanked my MWD towards the enemy fleet's cluster of ships, some 45+ KM distant.  Locking the Kitsune, Rook, Basilisk and our Brutix's for my med Armor rep drones.


Our bombs did hit, contributing damage across the board but mostly to the Rook and possibly the Kitsune.  I either finished off the Kitsune after the bombs hit or managed to oneshot it just before the bombs landed and as my webs were landing on it and the Rook.  The Rook was dead before I could cycle my guns on it(note the bomb damage on the killmail), so it was on to Sashade in the Basilisk.  Our focused fire picked the Basilisk off quickly, and the rout was on.  A single volley of cruise missiles struck my shields, taking them down to half, but their fire was the only time I was hit.  Georgena May was next, the first of three Ravens, neuted, webbed, now inside 29km.  Followed by sina241198.  And then Vulkan Prime.  We paused to loot, offering a laughable ransom in local of 1bil to destruct our ships as HYDRA had done before, but mainly to pass the time as we looted.  Twilight, extremely good natured to the end, said they were just one isk short, we would have happily accepted 999,999,999.00 but they declined, with their Nighthawk, Bubbajmac being the last to fall.


Some reports of us losing a SB to boundary violations were incorrect.  We returned all our ships to our hangars at the end of the match.


GF to STENT.  Good luck in your next match!


So enough of a recap, how about the fights that really surprised me?


- TB - losing their Flagship to HUN.  It's a rough loss and the first Flagship loss of the tourney.  Props for fielding the Bhaalgorn though, it takes guts, lots of guts, to put it out there in any match, let alone against a good group of PvPers like HUN!  I'm not sure if we had been in the same position we would have done the same.


STIM pilots in general (mainly because there are tons of SFites) don't really like Jade, so when T O R M E N T U M slapped them out of the park, it was a great thing to see!  Well for us at least, besides who can get tired of watching Jade die.  The setup I was so impressed with, forming around 3 Mach's doesn't look as invincible as initially thought when used to such good effect day 1. 


R.A.G.E stepped in(to replace Goons) with a very impressive showing against EVE ENGINEERING.  On short notice that was a great job.

The trend of non-flexible FCing continued into the second day, with certain teams calling bad primaries, or failing to correctly identify threats.

VOLTRON fielded the first flagship of the tourney, using it in style to drub the pilots of Honourable Templum of Alcedonia.  It was a very impressive and DPS heavy setup, made greater by the pinning power of the Bhaalgorn I know all too well.  Carnage like that, always fun to watch.

Jita-cam was great, but I wish they had setup Rens cam and Amarr Cam for fun. 

I can't wait to see the matchups in week 2, RK is currently ranked closed to the top by various people running the numbers so it looks like we will face some tough opposition next weekend.  I think we will either face .-A-. or Agony Empire in the next round.  .-A-. were very successful with the much emulated Tengu setup in the first day, Agony winning by default after Hydra suicided, but both ending up with a high number of points and very skilled pilots despite Agony's near loss.  I will post with my picks once the matches are released.

Side notes : Eve broke the PCU setting the new one at 60k users!  Just before the RK match, seems like someone was interested in us ;)

Also yesterday, my blog broke 50 visits in a day for the first time ever with 89 unique users connecting to the blog, an achievement for me at least, welcome to the blog peeps!