"It's very clear that this was the largest number of daily pvp deaths in a lowsec system. I'm not 100% sure of the exact kill numbers (a few bits of conflicting data that I can't sort out myself) but every possible way of reading the data shows this with the lowsec record."
-CCP Fozzie
Yesterday A Band Apart & Stay Frosty held our 7th Annual FFA Event in Ouelletta and all of Eve Online was invited to participate. And while all of them didn't show up obviously, a big number of them did.
Ok, so deep breath. All in all we handed out aprox 6,300 Frigates. It is hard to know exact numbers because at the end there we were raiding our regular Corporation hangars and handing out anything we could to keep up. I think we even handed out our cache of Ganking Thrashers we keep on hand.
According to Dotlan, Ouelletta saw over 11,000 ship and pod kills yesterday. With some reports putting that number up over the 12,000 total. Again, it is always hard to know the true data and we're waiting on a potential final tally from CCP. Once we have that I'll update this post with the new information.
If these numbers hold and I fully expect them to based on what we've seen, this may very well be the largest loss of ships/pods in one day EVER in Low Security space. Based on what I know of Eve history I expect it will be an historic day. I used to attend RnK's FFA events back in the day and while they were huge for their time, I don't ever remember them resulting in these types of numbers. And Low Sec battles, while many like Asakai are historic, never really add up to these numbers either. So I expect we've set new records here. And if you happened to be there, you'll have something else to remember it by.
But numbers are only one side of the story. The most important reason I keep doing these (and this is not my 7th FFA, it's more like my 14th. This is number 7 with Stay Frosty.) is for the players. Especially those that do not often or ever get a chance to experience PvP in Eve. We run these primarily for them. I get so much positive feedback from those players that it makes all the hard work and logistics totally worth it. Many current Stay Frosty and ABA members experienced their first taste of PvP at one of our previous events.
If you attended yesterday I hope you had a great time. I can tell you that this year's event was the least impacted by outside forces, all in all everyone behaved themselves pretty decently. Yes we had some issues with snipers, AF gangs, and target traps from a few groups. And yes a few smartbombs managed to sneak out onto the field from time to time. These things happen. This is Eve after all. But running an event like this is a lot like herding cats, so there is only so much we can do. I know there are forces out there that could negatively impact our party and I'd like to thank them for choosing not to do so.
And I'd like to specifically thank all of our friends and supporters who helped out behind the scenes. We had some critical donations of minerals, supplies, and even some additional ships that truly helped make this event possible. Thank you. It was sincerely appreciated.
And very, very special thanks to Lucifer's Hammer and all of the pilots who worked to build and move our Frigates. I know moving the handout to the Astra was a last minute decision, but I think it was the right one. Thanks to Star and her team. You are all rock stars.
And if you are reading this and would like to donate to help us put on these events, please feel free to do so. Stay Frosty and ABA are not rich null sec powers with thousands of miners running systems, we're Pirates and Industrialists in a small Alliance who love our game. We survive on donations and on the good will of other players, we always have. Plus my ability to design Alliance logos :) Please make all donations directly to Rixx Javix in-game and I'll make sure they find themselves into the right wallets and hangars.
I love Eve. And I enjoy making events like the FFA come to life for all players to enjoy.
The Nag I scarificed yesterday.