I've always worn my failures on my sleeve for everyone to see them. I hide nothing. I've lost 2,118 ships in Eve (so far) and I plan on losing even more. And I've lost those ships in every conceivable way possible, stupidity, bad planning, aggression, lag, mistakes, and just plain old shooting above my weight class. Failure is the best teacher. And not being afraid of failure is the door thru which great adventures happen. And 7,488 victories. (So far)
Last week was not a good week. Not in Eve and not out here in bizarro world. Good fights were hard to come by and everyone seemed determined to bait for blobs, or otherwise run away from fights. It was a struggle, but nothing unusual. Typically these cycles happen and they move on. But sometimes the combination of slow cycle combined with real world stress form a wave of try hard in which you take fights you know you shouldn't take - all in the name of content. You see this happen in micro often after a long roam. By the time you get to the end you'll take any fight, and that usually doesn't end well.
So my week ended with three fights I'd like to discuss here today.
Loss One - The Beam Slicer
I hadn't flown a Slicer in awhile, so I figured I'd fit one up and try the beam version for a change of pace. Nothing wrong with that decision. What happened here is a simple case of pride overcoming common sense. I don't know what it is about the Slicer, but it affects the brain of people who fly it. I often use this against them when I am fighting them. Far too often I will explode a Slicer pilot for the simple reason that they stay to finish. When they could have just warped away. Well, this is what I did. I tackled a Thorax in a belt and was easily killing it, it was sooo close to exploding. I saw the Kikis on scan (there were three in local) but stayed in the belt to explode the rax. Even after the Kiki landed I could have just warped away... but he was so close to exploding.
Bad decision and I paid for it.
Loss Two - The Jackdaw
This one is similar. I was in no real danger from the Kiki and I thought I had backup coming. I cold have warped away at anytime. But again, the idea of the kill was more powerful in the moment than the thought of letting him go. Unfortunately for me my backup landed on the gate and not on me, so it wasn't any help. The Kiki was dying, but being slightly faster than me, he kept pulling range. Which should have been my cue to leave. Instead I did a dumb ass stupid thing and switch my ship into Prop mode and overheated my MWD just as he came back into range. The combination of those two things doomed my ship.
Bad timing and I paid for it.
Loss Three - The Tormentor
I was actually moving this ship from one system to another when I saw the reports about the Worm in local. He was fighting something else at the time and I figured he'd be hurt, so I warped in with this ship. I was wrong and he was in perfect health when I arrived alone. As you probably know, this did not end well for me. I will say the ship performed well and I almost got him a couple of times. But once he made the adjustments, it was all over.
Bad match up and I paid for it.
The Worm Kill
I re-shipped into a Worm and came back and killed him though. So it wasn't all bad.
I called it back luck in the title, but really it all comes down to bad decision making. Being human it is challenging to focus all the time and Eve demands that level of commitment. Mistakes end up costing you. On the other hand I almost solo'd a Thorax in a Slicer, almost killed a Kiki in a Jackdaw, and almost won a fight against a Worm in a Tormentor. The slight edge between failure and incredible kill is a thin one. And if you don't take those risks you never get those rewards.
It just helps to be perfect. And perfection is sometimes difficult to achieve when the world is falling down around you. This is why you can't let losses define you, or bum you out, or change the way you play the game. Learn from them. Embrace them. And try better next time.
That is why I don't hide my losses.