When Stay Frosty was formed back in 2013 we weren't able to join in on the Alliance Tournament because, well simply put, we didn't have an alliance yet. A Band Apart was still a year away from being formed and, even so, it takes time after formation to earn eligibility. In the meantime we thought it would be a good idea to get some tournament experience and so we signed-up for the NEO Tournament.
We sucked. We didn't practice. We didn't take it seriously. And we mostly got our asses handed to us. Except for one glorious day in the middle of all that chaos. A day in which we still sucked pretty hard, but still managed to win a match against Kids With Knives. Obviously Stay Frosty and ABA would go on to compete in many more Alliance Tournaments in the coming decade and win many more important matches over bigger alliances - but there is just something about this specific NEO match that keeps bringing me back to watch it nearly ten years later.
This was a do or die match. If we lose we are out of the tournament. About two hours before the match was scheduled to start we are on comms going over our potential fleet comps and debating what to bring. If I remember right our last match was a Gal Rush style comp, or maybe a Min Rush style comp - either way it was a losing comp. As the time kept ticking away I was getting more and more frustrated. We had good pilots, but we hadn't practiced and we had very little confidence in our comps. Heck, most of us hadn't even flown together that often inside the game yet.
At the last minute I made a decision. We would fly a Pirate themed comp in the match. And I quickly outlined the formations and what ships we would bring along. We had one problem - no matter how we worked the points we kept getting left with 2 points left over. We decided to bring a pirate rookie ship in that slot and I reached out to the tournament team to get approval for that. I was told that pirate rookie ships could not be used in the matches. So we had to break the perfect pirate comp up with a Merlin, which if I'm remembering right- was loaded with ecm or tracking disruptors. Either way, the Merlin was in.
We didn't have those ships laying around and prepared. We had to fit them on the spot and try to make sense of everything. It was chaos. Time was running out. We made several mistakes along the way and in the rush. For me the biggest mistake was in the balance of my cargo hold. How much ammo do you bring along and how many cap charges will you need? As it turned out - I needed one more cap charge. One more cap charge and my Mach would have lived.
My feeling then was to put great pilots in the ships they know and let them be great pilots. There are a lot of great moments in this match, edge of your seat decisions that helped turn the tide in our favor. And dumb moves that cost us ships and almost cost us the match. And some truly amazing Cynabal flying from Watson and Oma. It is a messy, terrible, horrible, and utterly fantastic match and while it doesn't showcase the world's best flying or strategy - it does perfectly capture the insane tenacity and spirit that is Stay Frosty.
I return to this one every so often and watch it, remembering that crazy day. And how this moment captured the crazy of those early days. And how well it defined us and what we were about for everyone to see.
Friendly Neighborhood Pirates indeed.