Blink and you would have missed it. At 23:30 Eve time on May 7 a Goonswarm Federation Wyvern belonging to Amy Winthrop of the corporation Ascendance was downed in the lowsec region of Everyshore by Shadow Cartel. only fourteen minutes after another Goonswarm Wyvern was downed in Catch. A look at the killmail reveals a story of a shit fit, Black Ops battleships, and a lot of skill injectors.
What Happened?
During an interview, fleet commander thearrowofapollo laid out the events through the eyes of Shadow Cartel:
thearrowofapollo: We received notifications of a poco being hit. We investigated a bit about the pilot, and we saw he liked capital ships so we sent a hunter that way and we saw he was in a Wyvern. We then checked ranges and prepped for tackle. I pinged for blops to fit max scrams, since the poco was almost rf-ed and we had no time to send a hic alt into the system. The hunter landed right on top of the wyvern at first and got decloaked so our Pilgrim warped back out, warped back in, and landing 5km off the Wyvern. By this time, I had like 30 blops with max scrams in jump range and the Wyvern started to align, the poco being rf-ed. From there on some more 20 blops were waiting for a secondary cyno, along with a few triages we had on standby.
INN: Was the Wyvern alone?
thearrowofapollo: Yeah, he was alone. We suspected it was a bait since there were 2 hic pilots docked in one station close to the poco with an insta undock to that poco also. so maybe it was a bait…or not. It failed its purpose either way.
INN: What was your reaction after it was killed and you saw the killmail?
thearrowofapolllo: We were happy we killed it, but the fit was awful. Like most of Eve, we don’t like goons so the kill was comforting.
Fifty Black Ops battleships melted the questionably fit Wyvern quickly. The Wyvern pilot did manage to reinforce the Customs Office before being tackled, but was unable to land any kills against Shadow Cartel.
Just… Why?
The Wyvern’s death brought up a lot of questions. What was she doing? Where did a fourteen-day-old character get a super? How many skill injectors did it take? To answer these questions, I had to go straight to the source, Amy Winthrop herself.
INN: First up, are you new to Eve Online or is this just an alt of an older player?
Amy Winthrop: I’m a new player. Just quit WoW and wanted to have an endless endgame experience and all my research pointed to Eve.
INN: Why did you shoot the Customs Office?
Amy Winthrop: I had five days of jump fatigue (max) and had 6 hours until I could jump next. Upon researching the fact that you can kill customs offices, I found that the system I was in was filled with POCOs that belonged to a corp that upon checking their killboard, loses these things every day. Since my killboard already sucked, I figured why not jot some 100M+ kills on to it. Definitely backfired.
INN: Where did you get the super?
Amy Winthrop: I bought it off contract from some corp in lowsec. I’m a bit bitter about the whole 6 months’ rule [in Goonswarm]. Without it, I wouldn’t have lost my super.
INN: Since you would have had to buy skill injectors to fly a super this early, how many did you have to buy?
Amy Winthrop: 77. I’m the stereotypical injector junkie.
INN: Do you have anything you would like everyone to know?
Amy Winthrop: Yeah, this was 1,000% my own stupid fault. Everyone in my corp was telling me not to do it. This is not a reflection on my corp, my alliance, or anything other than my own stupidity.
The Takeaway
This confrontation illustrates one of the greatest principles of Eve Online that sets it apart from any other MMOs. Skill points do not determine effectiveness. No matter how many injectors you use, you are only as good as you know how to be. All Eve players must come to terms with this principle eventually. For some, such as our young friend in the Wyvern, that lesson is a lot more expensive than it is for others. The only thing that experienced players can do is guide them on their way, and try to control the damage as much as possible.
What is the true moral of this story? According to Ascendance CEO Uncle Pilot, it’s pretty simple: “[22:09:50] Uncle Pilot > Never not fly a super on a 14 day character”
As always, INN would like to thank thearrowofapollo, Amy Winthrop, and Uncle Pilot for answering our questions.
