I’m A PvP Video Junkie

It was with great disappointment that I missed today’s tournament matches. I will now have to wait to view them later (once CCP uploads the footage) without the pre-game discussion panels.

I have to confess that, with only rare exceptions, I watch every single Eve PvP video I find on the Eve-O forums. I’m a huge Eve PvP Video fan and the alliance tournament is, for me, an even better experience. Not even the sometimes lack-luster commentary cannot stop me from loving this event.

It was watching PvP videos that, while I was still new to the game, gave me a sense of how PvP fits (and playstyle) differed from the missions I was rapidly growing bored of. To this day, I still draw occasional inspiration from videos.

You can actually find my first “significant” ship loss in one of Bellum Eternus’s pvp videos. I was in a poorly-fit myrmidon with a 1 mil-sp friend piloting a catalyst. We both pinned our hopes on a slightly more experienced pilot flying an Abaddon.

Unfortunately, if you know Bellum, you know he has high-grade implants and often pimps his tier 3 battleships with dead-space fits. The result was a Hyperion that cut through all of us in record time.

I try to watch everything, but sometimes videos fall through the cracks or are never released beyond a corp forum. As I see it, the following listed vids are the best around.

Please help me out by suggesting any other vids that you feel were extraordinary. I may or may not have seen it before, but don’t hesitate to let me know what you’ve enjoyed before.

The bestvideos from the first half of 2010 include:

PL’s Mercenary Theory (oh the carnage…)

Theseus (another amazing Cry Havoc video)

Science & Intrigue (Hydra Reloaded is truly the “elite soloist” alliance of choice)

The Rocket Witchcraft (Fon is a beast, much respect)

Future Proof (a perfect short story. 2010’s “Day of Darkness 2” but not quite on the level of either “Clear Skies” in my opinion)

Mind Game (Endless Subversion shows us how to fly a battle cruiser properly)

Daybreak (seeing that last CVA logo hammered down by a fleet of Ushra Khan  in all Minmatar and Angel ships was just… awesome)

TAKE MY POLL – “What has been the best EvE PvP video of 2010 so far?”

You can find all of the videos in this thread.

Older videos that really stand out in my mind are:

All of Stahlregen’s Goonswarm videos (helped bring me to Eve and many others have said the same)

Day of Darkness 2

Clear Skies 1 & 2

Relentless (a testament to BoB’s resilience in defending “The Alamo”)

Operation Tortuga (epic storytelling)

Arachnophobia (the first video that showed me the power of RRBS)

Cry Havoc Videos (Strife and V For Victory are the two that standout in  my mind)

MAX (back when BoB could steamroll northern regions before meeting real resistance)

Thriller (This curse pilot is fucking amazing. The fight with the abandoned Raven… omg…)

Garmonation 1-7 (they were all so awesome)

Kil2’s Videos (easily one of my favorite pilots of all time)

The Dronelands War (IRC gave up “blue with everyone” status to do what Eve is about – making a bold and violent move. They were never amazing but the story telling in this video is quite good.)

Teamwork Crow (wtf Edna… 20km/s with 1 overdrive)

Tri Nation Chapters 1 & 2 (people mock Tri but they were a force of nature)

So, how might one single out the greatest Eve video of all time? For me it comes down to two factors: story-telling and action.  The perfect balance can be found in The Clarion Call #1, “Call for Support,” and the sequel, “Pantheon.”

Lord Maldoror captures amazing footage and Princess Aricia is an excellent narrator. Fairlight Trading Corp (formerly Foundation, now in Rooks & Kings) have always been good at escalating mid-size fights with carrier support and when -MVN- was in IAC we were often impressed by their feats.

These videos feature impressive “against the odds” fighting along with clear story-telling. These videos were also somewhat innovative tactically. While there may have been a few alliances out there escalating fights like this with a single triage carrier or winning cap-fights massively out-numbered with “Pantheon” carriers but I certainly never saw footage like this anywhere else.

Battle Clinic :: Rankings Error Fixed

In a previous post, I discussed the turmoil caused by Battle Clinic readjusting its ranking system. While the changes were only intended to seriously impact players who engaged in extensive suicide ganking, a database error caused most pilots to drop thousands of ranks over night.

During the period of “bugged” rankings, I dropped from the top 2000 to below 8000! El’Tar, the #1 listed pilot, was down to #150.

Today, a quick visit to BC reveals that I’m back up to #1905 and steadily climbing over the last month. I’m still a ways off from my personal best, but that’s my own fault for playing casually over the last 6+ months, not any kind of rankings error.

El’Tar, known to most as “Garmon” (though that character was sold some time ago), has been returned to his rightful position at #1. For those who want to see why he ranks so high, I recommend searching for his videos on Eve-O.

The latest release from the pilot formerly known as Garmon features a Mimir (the ship given to PL for winning Alliance Tournament 7) flown solo against incredible odds. This is the only Mimir that has seen real combat on a frequent basis, and it would still be rotting in a PL hangar if not for Cippa gifting it to Gobbins before quitting Eve.