Header art by Mintaki
Warrior. Poet. Revolutionary. Hero. These are the words used to describe a pilot who this reporter half-heartedly believes chased off the PL menace from Providence. I recently had the honor to sit down and talk with Lumio. Now some of you will read this, and naturally think I’m just joining in on the meme. TAPI says he’s a pet, or mascot, but they are truly wrong. He reminds me of the days of old. The era in New Eden we have long since forgotten, the days when a single man could be a hero. Those of you fortunate enough to not grace reddit with your presence may not know of Lumio En Tilavine. So I’m going to tell you just a little about the man before I get into the interview.
Lumio En Tilavine is a pilot who has taken up residence in the null-sec region of Providence. While learning to fly again, Lumio also needed a way to make ISK, as most poor revolutionaries do. After some ‘good-ish’ advice from fellow capsuleers he left his terrible home in high-sec space and headed out to a proper nullsec in hopes of anomalies and good fights. For a while he prospered, he made friends with the surrounding groups in the NRDS area of Providence. Then as most men are, he was pushed. The reason we’re here now is that Lumio pushed back.
[Editor’s Note: the following interview is unedited, save for minor spelling and grammar corrections]
Johnny Crowe: So first question, and I know it’s racially sensitive, but I promised someone I’d ask. Are you ‘of true latino descent?’ It’s part of your legend or whatever.
Lumio en Tilavine: I’m not latino haha. Didn’t see that coming.
JC: I know, just part of the legend, so I had to ask. Did you know you’re a famous meme? You’re basically the Inigo Montaya of New Eden.
LT: Yes and no. Like I know there is stuff about me on Reddit. I know people like to make fun in a good way of what I do/did. and I did some funny video about doing stuff in eve but I don’t really know what point the meme thing reached.
JC: Tell me about your space and what makes you so relentless to defend it? You’re basically a honey badger.
LT: Oh, that started when I came back to eve online. It started when I came to providence. I got kicked from the previous space I was trying to live in. It was in Teshkat, but the local force was attacking me non-stop. At that time I was watching YouTube to learn some tricks, like how to make money and stuff, and many people told me to skill [into] Vexors to make money.
JC: Yeah. The VNI is pretty good for AFK ratting—not a bad route to go for a new dude to make ISK.
LT: In lowsec it was hard to make money because there are not a lot of sites. So I went to Amarr one day asking why there is not a lot of sites like in the videos.
JC: Because of ADMs and territorial upgrades stuff, yeah.
LT: People told me go in nullsec… Most of the people told me to go to Provi because they are noob-friendly and they accept newcomers. I settled in H-6 in Ark Alliance space. They were very cool with me and I finally was able to make good money. Providence did have a lot of NRDS (not red don’t shoot). Then the Honorable Third Party guys noticed me ratting and they just kept coming to hunt me. To a point where I started fitting a warp scrambler to my Vexor hoping I could at least kill one [of them] one day.
Then I got told not to fight in a [PvE] Vexor and have a Vexor fitted for fighting.
One day, the day I tilt, I got killed by Honorable Third Party, and I decided that next time they come in local, I will reship. 20 minutes later, a unknown toon came into my site and opened a portal. Five HTP jumped on me. I was super mad. I made the statement I would fight them equal, and they found a way to prevent me reshipping. At that point I said in local that they hadn’t heard the last of me. I was really mad.
JC: Haha. So that’s where that came from! You’re very famous for “you haven’t heard the last of me.”
LT: So the next week when I saw them coming into H-6, I reshipped and “apply pressure until they leave”. I usually end up dying but it was all about making the statement serious. A member of Ark Alliance told me to keep fighting and make sure to fly cheap so I could not be mad at losing stuff.
JC: That’s good advice
LT: Yes exactly. Over time, I came to a point were I didn’t care to die, I just wanted to go back to their system fighting them again. Because I was dying a lot I thought making a last stand shout about me coming back would be logical.
JC: Tell me about the Myrmidon and the Raitaru. Did you really solo kill their citadel out of anger? How long did that take?
LT: I got killed multiple times that night by PL. I didn’t care—it was all about making a statement. Then I saw that industrial ship (I usually only fight people that want to fight, I don’t go after people making money). He was PL, so I wanted to get a kill. We both jumped from 9UY to U-Q (I think). He cloaked and warped to the citadel. At this point, I understood that this structure needed to go and started making R&D to see a way to kill it. My first choice was the Vexor, but after six hours shooting the structure, I figured something was wrong.
I read on the internet that the damage was calculated over 20 seconds, so I changed the rigs in order to shoot faster. It paused the citadel, but every minute it repaired for 10 seconds, to a point where I couldn’t kill it before it repaired. So the Myrmidon became the next obvious choice. That one managed to stop the timer. I came to the next event and killed the structure.
JC: That’s excellent.
LT: After that, I tried many times to hit the PL structure, but they kept coming to defend them on the second event.
JC: I see. It’s because you made them look super foolish solo.
LT: On the waffle Raitaru, no. On all the other citadels, yes. I tricked them one time on one anchoring Astrahus, but I took so long to hit it solo that I got noticed. Many PL, HTP, and other cool people took time to make me improve my game in fighting by giving me fits and tips.
JC: Tell me about those groups. I’ve been told you’ve been offered a home in many big alliances and you generally refuse. Why?
LT: Well, HTP kept asking me every time I was fighting them. It was kind of a joke. Every time I told them that I was 800m – 1b -1.2b down because of them. Same for PL. I anchored a Raitaru in 9UY so I could store ships, but they showed up with heavy ships to kill it. It didn’t go down undefended. I lost 3 Domis to those titans, but they did know they hadn’t seen the last of me. They directly sent an invite after the fight.
JC: Is there any message you want to send to the enemies of Lumio?
LT: I refused that one too, for the same reason I refused HTP offers. TEST, Brave, Purple Helmeted Warriors, and many other people have offered me a spot but the tactical solution is my corp, and I really wanted to give a shot at fighting PL in Provi. None of them were deployed to fight PL at that time, and Purple were allied to both HTP and PL.
LT: It will come to a point where being in my corp with my corp mates won’t make anything good, but for now I have a lot of fun.
Now, most of you will think I’m ‘memeing’, or making fun of a meme, but I’m not. Lumio honestly reminds me of a time when New Eden was different, a time when people could make a difference and build their own sandcastles. You don’t see that anymore, especially with newer pilots. Lumio shows us there are still players out there learning, players with grit, players who dig in and make a cause for themselves. I look forward to seeing where he and the BroForce will be in the coming years.
All I have left to say is that you all haven’t heard the last of Lumio en Tilavine.
