"New Eden Superstar" February ~ Adriel Malakai

Pilot Note

In New Eden there are many many different pilots and many different ways to play. It is the greatest sandbox, where your dreams come true as well have you watch as they are crushed into thousand pieces. New Eden superstar is a look at a different capsuleer that Phox has encountered in New Eden and their take on EVE Online. I do not fully support them, but I feel that their views of the game are important to get a greater grasp of the New Eden Universe. New Eden Superstar are those chosen players that play EVE their way 

New Eden Superstar 

Adriel Malakai

There are thousands way to play EVE Online, no way is right and no way is wrong (unless you put small guns on a battleships then you are very very wrong).  Late in fall of 2010 I was still budding in New Eden and trying to become more focused player. I had my first taste of PVP a fail fit Brutix in a Wormhole fight with Noir. Mercancary group and I wanted to more. 

To educate me in the art of PvP in New Eden was Adriel Malakai although it was not in a way that I would have wanted. After a nearly 50 day wardec, I had lost a few ships to is corp, but I gained a huge amount experience and a drive to learn how to PvP. From talking in chats and watch how Shoulda Checked Local [OOPS] set up fleets I gained better understanding of PvP and knew that I didn't want to be a carebear anymore. So for the month of February I give you Adriel Malakai a New Eden Superstar. 

   How long have you been playing EVE? What got you playing?
I've been playing consistently for about three years (since May 2010), but first played as part of Goonswarm on my original character in 2006-2007. Adriel has been my main for about two-and-a-half years (since October 2010).

   What role do you play in EVE, Pirate, Griefer, Education officer, Etc...What job did you start out with?
   I currently play a combination of a Merc and a Griefer. Some of what I do is griefing for hire, though a lot of our contracts are actually defensive decs, where we are paid to come in and shut down the aggressor quickly and efficiently.
   When I first started playing on my original character, I was just a random grunt in Goonswarm dying in merlins. I only played for about nine months between 2006-2007, and came back in May 2010. When I came back, I actually started a HS mining/missioning corp with some RL friends and did that for a while before getting utterly bored and decided to start killing people. About that time (October 2010) I founded Shoulda Checked Local with four of my in-game buddies to be a pvp corp. We all used brand new alts (Adriel was a few months old and just had learning skills at the time) and started killing people after about three weeks, teaching ourselves along the way. This was hands down the best decision of my EVE career.
   What makes you keep playing EVE?

   The part that keeps me coming back to EVE is the fact that I can truly play the mean, terrible person who ruins people's days and absolutely crushes everything people have worked for. In most games, it is expected that all of the players are relatively friendly, helpful, and working to make the game a fun time for everyone. In EVE, I get to absolutely ruin someone's game - and it's both expected and encouraged. It's a fun place to let loose and just be someone completely different to how I normally am. Then you add in the adrenaline rushes from big fights, and you've got quite the addicting game.

   As a Wardec corp what is your favorite war and why?

   My favorite war is probably the one we had against Axiom Alliance. It was our first major war and we kept getting fight after fight. In the end, we destroyed well over two hundred ships (close to three hundred if you count an alt corp we used in the beginning) and had several very memorable fights. I'm sure some of my recollection is through rose-colored glasses, but it's definitely the war that we compare all other "great" wars against. A link for our campaign can be found here.

  Favorite kill you have had in EVE?

   I have quite a few favorite kills from the last few years, many of which were rather cheap, but caused a very large number of tears. But, I have to say one of the most profitable kills, that happens to be one of my favorite is Kill: Brooksy2005 (Bhaalgorn), accompanied by this Kill: Brooksy2005 (Capsule).
   Brooksy was actually a guy we were interested in recruiting, who claimed to have massive PVP experience, and was coming to HS to try out decs/mercing for a while. His previous character was ~5k/500 in LS/NS, many of which were small gang/solo kills, so we were quite interested. He claimed that he sold his previous character and bought this one due to the incredibly low standing with the Gallente and Minmatar (both -10.0)
   Once we got him on comms, we began to realize that he was absolutely retarded, didn't understand anything regarding PVP, and was somewhat annoying. So, being the assholes that we are, we convinced him to jump in his retardedly expensive slave set (originally meant for an Avatar by the previous owner) and to fit out that incredibly expensive bhaalgorn. As a final test to determine whether we would kill him or boot him, we instructed him to put the second MWD on the ship to "Dual prop to ridiculous speeds." He enthusiastically fitted it to the ship, and his fate was sealed.

   Once we had him safely moved to our staging system at the time, we brought him into an alt corp in the alliance for his 30 day probation, so that he couldn't AWOX anyone. Once in, I asked him to duel my Vindi to test how good his Bhaalgorn was. Since this was pre-Retribution 1.1, I convinced him to go suspect so we could legally shoot each other. Once he went yellow, we locked him down, kicked his corp from the alliance, killed him, and caught his pod. We then proceeded to ransom him for 1b ISK before podding him. he then went to join The Ghost Army, before they kicked him for being terrible and losing expensive ships.
   Everyone has a favorite time in EVE either a roam, op, or just a certain place in the game, what was yours?

   My favorite time in EVE is whenever I'm FCing a fight - the bigger, the better. I get a real thrill from fleet fights, and love fighting outnumbered, and still pulling off a win. There's nothing quite like the adrenaline from taking a fight you're sure you're going to lose.
  Last one, what advice do you have new players or new pvpers?

  The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to fight smart and to pay attention to what's going on around you. Many players get super focused on the one dude they're shooting and get themselves killed because they weren't watching local, their overview, and d-scan. Part of fighting smart is knowing when to run, and what not to engage.
  The next biggest thing is to pick a ship and fully train it. Once it's fully trained, then move to another ship. Jumping all over the place ends with you having a bunch of terrible ships instead of a few good ones. Other than that, you should never stop PVPing. =)

Though it started out as a rocky one at gun point, I consider Adriel to be on of my good friend in New Eden. As a member of Axiom Alliance I saw first had what a well trained and organized group could do using small numbers. In the best way I could, I tried to follow her example and continued late night chats about fitting and tactics. And after nearly two years of asking question and seeking help. I finally made it into a Shoulda Check Local Fleet.