For the first five years of my Eve career I wandered in the wilderness. Like many of us. Struggling to find your place, survive the long skill-trains, learn the massive amount of things there are to learn, and discover for yourself what it is you truly enjoy. My journey during those early days was a lucky one in many ways. Early on I found a Corporation of good people to join and they were largely in the same boat, with enough very patient veterans to help guide a young player like myself. I was very fortunate.
I was in Providence very quickly, only a few weeks into the game. Growing up in Null Sec was extremely challenging but it instilled in me a love for that challenge. I discovered rather quickly that I enjoyed the challenges of combat within New Eden. Fighting other players. The tactics. The strategy. All of it. And so I set out to learn from anyone I could. I took FC classes and learned to lead gangs and fleets. And we fought in several very large wars. Or, at least, I tried to fight in several large wars. Back in those days the Eve server was not as stable as it is today. In one large fight I spent most of it staring at a black screen for an hour only to discover that I had already died. Eve was a harsh mistress back then.
I won't recount my entire history. Point being that eventually I found that the spirit of those early days in Providence were not common in Null Sec space. But they were common in another space called Low Security space. And once I was properly introduced I immediately feel in love with it. Lawless. Independent. And full of pirates and other criminal elements. Low Sec felt like home. I had finally discovered the place where I belonged inside of New Eden. Now I just needed to find a way to make it an actual home. So, once again, I determined to learn from the best.
There can be no doubt that my greatest accomplishment inside of Eve is Stay Frosty. I set out determined to build the greatest Pirate corporation New Eden had ever seen. And in those early days that was nothing but bravado and propaganda - my determination (at least to me) was never in doubt. Others didn't see it that way. And early on we faced a tremendous amount of challenges. Spais, thieves, back-stabbers, players who shut-down our servers and stole our comms channels, wars, threats and much more. The road was littered with wrecks and challenges we had to overcome. But there was never a moment when I faltered or thought about quitting. And while some decisions in those early days are ones I wish I could do-over, I can't. And in the years that have followed I have made an effort to make peace with them as best I could.
Since then our success has been solely about the pilots who have chosen to fly with us. A roster of some of the greatest solo and small gang players the game has ever seen. Some continue to fly with us today and others have moved on to become players in other areas of space. And some have retired from the game to pursue other interests or real life. But they are all part of our family and always will be. But I must say that our current group of players is among the best we've ever seen. We work together in ways old Stay Frosty pilots wouldn't recognize - while still maintaining the spirit and the independence we worked so hard to build upon. It truly is an incredible thing to be a part of.
What do the years ahead hold for us? I dunno. Who can predict these things? In May of next year Stay Frosty will be 12 years old. We're not that far away from celebrating our 100,000th solo kill as a corporation. A lot of milestones remain to be conquered and set for the future. And I'm looking forward to them all.
YARRR!