Every year I tell myself I'm going to record a video of the FF4A and spend all weekend cutting it together and every year I realize that is just impossible. It takes everything to host the event, from planning, to last minute problems, to convos, organizing, running the ABA fleet, and keeping everyone positive during the long hours of handing out ships. Our team is amazing and they do an incredible job every year. But making this event a success takes our full concentration. So thankfully other players get to create videos and stream the event for you to enjoy.
While this year's event wasn't another record breaker, I will say that it was one of the most enjoyable versions we've had in the last few years. Moving the event to Amamake really helped and I want to say thanks again to Hydra(etc) and especially to Casper and Bluemelon for helping to make that move possible and providing access for us to use their facilities. Huge help and it made a big difference having tether access once again. Thanks.
Looks like we pushed the kill total over 8,000 during the six hours of the event with nearly 200b in total losses. We had around 1,000 ships left at the close of business, maybe less. At one point we had almost 700 people in local at one time and TiDi was never really an issue, although it did try a few times.
As always some groups decided to exploit the concept by showing up in long-range up-ship fleets and coordinated gangs. This is Eve after all and we had Jackdaws, Tornados, and other stuff to deal with. It happens every year and there is nothing you can do about it, except let it happen. It is all part of the game. We had lots of big ships on grid and some of them even left the comfort of tether and put themselves in danger. These always attracted a crowd which made it challenging for frigates to get on them, but all in all it was worth the risk.
It is always challenging to be me in these events. I obviously attract a lot of attention and get blown up more than a few times. Which is to be expected. I was only podded once, so that was a welcome change from recent years. All in all I managed to score 93 wins with 25 losses (+1 pod) so that is a record I can live with. I also undocked in the Orca I had prepared for last year's event and sacrificed it to Bob. It was named "Officer Fitted Hel" and that is a meme name that I am not going to explain right now. But it will probably be the only time you ever see me in an Orca.
Once again I have to shout-out the folks behind the scenes who make these events possible. The months of planning and effort put in by the team in Lucifer's Hammer are the real heroes. And those players who sat inside stations handing out Frigates over and over again for hours and hours. These are the people that deserve all the credit.
Thanks again for everyone who attended and who undocked in a Frigate. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and I look forward to seeing you again next year.
You are all my friends. Stay Frosty.