Good evening, and welcome to our coverage of the final timer at the Blood Raider Sotiyo in E-DOF2.
To recap what has led up to the timer tonight:
Just over a week ago, the Blood Raider Sotiyo was added to Tranquility. This came in with the patch on May 9, but because the Blood Raiders had to build their Sotiyo, capsuleers were first able to hunt for it on May 11.
Due to problems following the hauler rats, it took until May 12 for the Sotiyo to be located, in E-DOF2 in Period Basis. It was found by members of The Imperium incursion sig, but, due to it being in Red Alliance space, they left it to the sov holders to attack. The first night saw a Rattlesnake fleet lost to the Blood Raiders as well as a TEST fleet of bombers and tactical destroyers being destroyed. May 13 saw an attempt by streamer Jebi Vjetar to assemble a fleet of Succubus to speed and signature tank the rats, unfortunately, he was not able to amass the 50 frigates required.
Finally, on May 18, The Imperium launched an attack using Punishers, and this attempt was successful. The Scope covered the event today, with a statement from the leader of the Blood Raiders.
That brings us to tonight, where at 2116, the structure becomes vulnerable. Unlike normal citadels, there are only two timers on the Sotiyo, so if there is a successful attempt tonight, the structure will be destroyed, giving the chance for a faction blueprint to drop, as well as other Blood Raider loot.
We will keep you updated on the event as it happens, and you can follow over on INN Twitch where Dodkalm is streaming the event. INN photograph Rose Knightley is also on the scene.
2115: 1 minute to go, 686 in local and both Imperium and TEST have fleets in the system
2117: Test have engaged Goons with a T2 frigate fleet, the repair timer is paused.
2122: Timer is still paused, Imperium are focusing on shooting the Sotiyo in their T1 Amarrian frigs (used because lasers do not require reloading), while TEST continue to engage them with T2 frigates, there are also TEST Jackdaws on grid.
2130 Dodkalm just lost his ship.
2132 Dodkalm has reshipped, and coverage of orbiting the structure while firing lasers can now continue! The TEST fleet do not appear to be doing serious damage to the Imperium Fleet.
2136 Sotiyo is at approximately 90%, some minor TiDi is reported in local, and some Imperium pilots are ignoring instructions and shooting at TEST.
We have our first image from Rose Knightley of an Imperium Punisher under attack from TEST interceptors.
Another picture from Rose, of Tengus from BOPE. hanging back and watching the action
2150: Timer is still paused, more people are arriving in local, and rumours of an inbound Mercenary Coalition Fleet. FC Jay Amazingness was unfortunately shot by TEST.
2155: We are over 50% of the way through the structure. It looks like this won’t be the long night that people feared.
2203: 670 in local, structure at around 40%, TEST are bringing more pilots into the system, perhaps these will have more of an effect than the previous fleet.
2208: Sotiyo structure is still dropping, Dodkalm is still riveted by the PvE experience, as is evident from his expression in stream. However, he may get a change of scenery soon, as he is under attack!
2215 It is almost down, around 10% left. Will the stock of Punishers in the station last until the structure pops? Will someone sneak in and loot the Sotiyo right under the nose of Imperium and TEST?
2217 The MC fleet has left system. Structure is about to pop. Both Xenuria and our very own Moomin have lost their Punishers. We hope they were able to reship.
2222 Sotiyo is down. Imperium fleet is now engaging hostiles.
2224 TEST pilot Hudders looted a Molok BPC and then got exploded. We understand the print did not survive.
Zkill has the kill, it is confirmed that the Molok print did not survive the explosion.
It seems as if Karl Kox looted a Chemosh and Molok BPC, was exploded, the Chemosh was destroyed, the Molok dropped. Then Hudders picked it up, and was exploded, destroying the Molok BPC.
Killmail for the Sotiyo is now in too.
Congratulations to Imperium for hunting down, reinforcing and finally destroying the first Blood Raider Sotiyo in New Eden, and congratulations to TEST for the first Chemosh and Molok losses in New Eden.
Lekly
What are the chances that the loot will be stolen?
May 19, 2017 at 10:00 PMFroggy Storm
1 mil says someone shoots the loot.
May 19, 2017 at 10:07 PMLekly Froggy Storm
I thought cans now had a decent amount of hp so you couldn’t just do that
May 19, 2017 at 10:08 PMParv
Great coverage
May 19, 2017 at 10:20 PMCaleb Ayrania
Brilliant Drama!
May 19, 2017 at 10:28 PMMoomin Amatin
A day of firsts. The first BR Sotiyo to be killed. The first BR even theft. The first Molok BPC loss.
My concern is only that people will not be motivated to actually run these though as they are pretty easy to try and steal the loot from. You need a fair amount of effort to run them and very little to have a chance at a nice theft. Any way time will tell how this develops as I am sure that there will be some changes to come.
The “Ahh Chain” was probably the best one I have ever heard as well.
May 19, 2017 at 11:14 PMLekly Moomin Amatin
If it only takes about 100 pilots to actually run the site, it leaves plenty of room for other fleets to fight off would-be thieves. It’s really not very different from a normal citadel fight; you need a fleet on the citadel itself and another to occupy the defenders.
May 20, 2017 at 12:30 AMGanthrithor Lekly
Hi, I’m a 20m-isk interceptor. There is physically no way of preventing me from entering your system, burning around thousands of km from your Sotiyo, then warping to the wreck and looting your shit. If I make it out alive, great. If I blow up and destroy your shit, great. Either way, I win and I only had to spend 20m.
May 20, 2017 at 4:04 AMRammel Kas Ganthrithor
Admittedly getting exploded with that loot in your cargo does make you look like a right basket case though doesn’t it? Nothing more laughable than a burglar meeting his instant karma end?
At least it provided a lot of comic relief at the end of the process.
May 20, 2017 at 6:35 AMLekly Ganthrithor
You are mostly right, but there are ways to deal with interceptors, smart-bombs. Another thing that you have to remember is that this was the first, so it was highly publicized. Future Sotiyos may be found and destroyed in secret to not give thieves a chance.
May 20, 2017 at 3:57 PMpervertparade Lekly
It’s impossible to interdict the space with smartbombs. The Sotiyo wreck is enormous, and an interceptor can approach it from an unguarded angle.
Your point about OPSEC is certainly valid. But it would be somewhat disappointing if this stuff gets managed properly and farmed reliably. I’d rather see a “hold the grid to get the loot” system. Let the frigate-cheese fleet kill the Blood Raiders. Then a third-party fleet of T3Ds arrives to kill the frigates. Then the first group escalates. Eventually there’s a capital brawl around the Sotiyo wreck. Billions of pixels explode, and finally the survivors get to claim the prize.
Or maybe PL just hotdrops a dozen suicide dreads to blast the wreck before Goons can loot it. 🙂
May 21, 2017 at 2:25 PMLekly pervertparade
You wouldn’t be smart-bombing on the grid with the Sotiyo. You would set up smart-bombers by the gates to kill frigates as they jumped in. This may be harder in some systems than others, but it could work.
May 21, 2017 at 2:55 PMSkepticNerdGuy
I wish I was there
May 19, 2017 at 11:45 PMRolfski
So goons successfully attacked a new NPC but TEST made sure they got nothing out of it?
May 20, 2017 at 12:01 AMErick Asmock Rolfski
Looked more like Goons Found, RF’ed and destroyed the first BR Sotiyo and kept TEST from stealing the BPCs 😉
May 20, 2017 at 1:04 AMflaksim Erick Asmock
Sounds more like spin to me. Test had no use for those bpc’s aside from possibly selling them. Their goal was always asset denial to the goons.
However the goons want to spin this, they spent the time to grind it down with nothing to show for it.
May 20, 2017 at 5:43 AMRhivre flaksim
TEST: “Didnt want those BPCs anyway”?
May 20, 2017 at 8:33 AMTsyolin Rhivre
TEST did indeed want the BPCs but they wanted to keep it out of Goon hands even more, it was a pretty amazing thing to see unfold live. Gonna be one of those “I was there” moments for everyone for sure. 🙂
May 20, 2017 at 7:38 PMRhivre Tsyolin
Yeah, it was definitely a moment, and I think the best possible “Eve” ending!
May 21, 2017 at 7:47 PMErick Asmock flaksim
One thing I don’t do is spin. TEST has been building their ass off to become a power wielding dread, super, titan fleet. Don’t deny they would have crowed on stealing the BPCs and built them. It was clear from the start TEST was there to cherry pick the spoils. TEST tried to steal them and they failed.
Everyone wanted those BPCs. But if you stick to facts and reality what I said is true. Goons do have the three items as firsts. No one else could figure it out. We gave everyone a week to do it.
The difference between you and me is I don’t hate TEST and I am not mad they did it. Sure Goons wanted the BPCs too. But in the big picture one one group actually accomplished something and it wasn’t TEST.
May 20, 2017 at 10:06 AMRolfski Erick Asmock
Judging by this video it sounds to me that TEST was more inclined to denying goons the spoils than keeping it for themselves though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJBd7Ud-iM
May 20, 2017 at 12:36 PMErick Asmock Rolfski
Certainly it was to deny. Anyone who watched what was going on knew what the intent was. That’s part of the game.
Just don’t act like the intent was to scoop and die and have the BPCs not drop. My point is they wanted the BPCs for themselves and would have built them. The fact that they lost them leaves them with only being able to hang a hat on the Goons not getting them. It’s a half win.
May 20, 2017 at 4:08 PMRolfski Erick Asmock
It’s win nonetheless, in the end it was never about being first to find that Sotiyo and killing it. It was all about the spoils.
May 22, 2017 at 6:25 PMOf course everybody wanted the BPC’s. But goons going actually all the effort to get there (and getting pretty close) made it feel like a real loss. TEST would have gotten way too much out of it if they would have actually secured these BPC’s. That made it for them just cherry on the cake.
Tsyolin Erick Asmock
I mean no matter how it went down (be it a goon dude dying along with the BPCs or a TEST dude) the end result is still the same, the BPCs went up in flames. Who happened to be the last guy that lost it doesn’t really matter because the objectives of each side were pretty well laid out.
Goons wanted the goods, so they came WELL prepared with a pretty massive fleet of punishers PLUS smartbomb camps setup and ceptor support fleets for defense. It was pretty impressive what they fielded, TEST wasn’t going to be able to match that especially while on deployment in Stain. So instead TEST chose to go with the annoying pest tactic and fuck with the punishers and maybe have a go at the blueprints afterwards. For TEST the ultimate goal was to deny goons the BPCs, making it out with the BPCs alive was something that was somewhat hoped for albeit acknowledged as a very unrealistic goal.
Nobody is going to remember this as “Goons ultimately winning for figuring out how to beat the structure and later killing it”. It’s going to be remembered as a big event hyped up by CCP as part of a new game feature that ultimately ended in the big prize going up in a ball of flames in spectacular fashion. And god damn was it amazing to see and hear people’s reactions on comms.
May 20, 2017 at 7:36 PMflaksim
The looks of some of the streamers as the BPC’s were lost was great. Especially dbrb ragequitting and some rando imperium guy trying to laugh it off while his face spelled out utter dissapointment.
May 20, 2017 at 5:44 AMMaynar Dragneel
http://i.imgur.com/wLQPWTM.jpg 😀
May 22, 2017 at 6:21 AM