Hello.
I am Vily, best known as one of TEST’s Military Directors.
I specialize in Fleet combat and high level alliance meta related content. I am arguable one of the most knowledgeable people in the game on a variety of topics related to capitals, supercapitals, fleet combat, the logistics of alliance movement, operations and infrastructure and many more. No other player has played at the level I have for as long as I have and survived the rigors, the burnout and the challenge put forth. I am the resilience candidate and I come bearing knowledge.
I am apply to the CSM because i know the difference it can make and the importance of having someone with my knowledgebase on it. I see through the last two terms i have served how meaningful the CSM as an organization can be and how much of a difference i have been able to make for the positive growth of the game. I am apply to the CSM because i feel that if i wasn’t there it would represent a knowledge gap in the CSM that would open up inroads to problems that players should not have to experience.
Players can expect from me the same thing they have received from me in the last two terms. My attention, my time, my dedication, my experience and my conviction and passion to seeing eve forward into the next decade. I know much of that may come across as lofty or wordy, but in the end i will work hard, i will work to make things better and i will succeed at it.
This process asked me to write down my eve-online story, so i actually took a gamble at it.
i failed spectacularly. I got 4000 words in and got 3 years deep. I will do a 100 word summary at the end of what i did manage to take you to current day, however I will write you the rest soon, 16 years of my life has been with eve and it would seem it will be hard to remember and tell the story of it all
I first started playing this game in August of 2005. I read an article that spurred me into action and this sounded like an interesting game. I was just getting over Diablo2 HC and FF11 and was looking for something new and exciting. EVE hit the spot. I created my first character Stannis Baratheon and got underway. Because I was a Song of Ice and Fire fan at the time and the third book had just come out many of my early ship names were related to Game of Thrones lore, a couple of which stick with me to this day. The series may be cursed now but certainly it was cool beans back then.
I played for a few weeks as Stannis until switching to a new character. From then on I would be Robet Katrix, a fierce mercenary with a style and skill that others could only dream of. I had to impress my skill upon the galaxy and joined a corp within a week, one with the coolest name ever. The Night Shift Cowboys of EVE. We lived near the Geminate area in low/high-sec and we were the baddest cats in town. This area is well known for the Sisters of Eve Arc nowadays but back in 2015 that was our home.
It was around this time I created an alt account named Vily. I couldn’t really think of anything original. Being the mad young nerd I was at the time I had a crush on a girl named Lily, who I used to chat about Game of Thrones with on MSN Messenger. So I decided Vily would do. Vily used to sit in the belts near Lirerim in a Bestower and afk mine asteroids. I made big money doing this, I could mine a whole bestower cargo hold while afk. I thought I was a genius. I would also make another indy alt at this time and do basically the same thing, but nobody cares about him.
My fortunes soon took a rough turn. I lost my Caracal and precious +4 implant set gating through N-CREL to members of The Five camping the 0.0 entrance gate. The bastards were very efficient about slaughtering me. Shortly afterward though things would get worse. Two groups of highsec mercs swooped in to lay waste to all that I held dear, The Battle angels and the Mercenary Coalition. They would wardeclare the Cowboys and our coalition of corporations that was called the, “Coalition of Empires.” I distinctly remember a ventrillo or mumble meeting where all the corps got together and declared how we would fight and murder the bastards, and how we wouldn’t let them beat us. Well, we were promptly murdered doing level 3 missions in Perimeter near Jita. I lost my Ferox with Scout Rails, which was like being tossed into the gutter. We fought on for a few days, without positive results. My time in the Cowboys ended shortly thereafter. The corp just fell apart after a while. Robet Katrix was back in action as a freelancer mercenary that could now fly a Ferox. I was gonna go kick some ass.
I proply jumped back into the job pool, and took a look at the Organized Combat Consortium. Their CEO has Hawk, whom I had great respect for, and their corp killboard site is so cool. I decided I was going to be a merc with these dudes. I soon joined, and officially became a merc. I found myself a bit disappointed that they didn’t have any active contracts at the time I joined, and was informed that our corp was actually getting ready to join some alliance called the Huzzah Federation in Catch. Those guys were fighting the Stain Empire, and having a big war. There were some really cool videos of the fights, and I was very excited. So I move to Hibi in Tash-Murkon along with all the other corp dudes while we prepped for joining the Alliance. Boredom was once again my enemy, and while sitting in Hibi I decided to check out the belts. I found that a lot of dudes were mining those belts. The thought occurred to me that it would be a shame if something happened to their cans with all that ore…
I proceeded to start helping myself to that profitable ore. A few days later I was chatting about my new exploits in corp, specifically about how I had stolen the ore of a player named Arnold Schwarzeneger. Unfortunately for me it turned out that Arnold was a friendly neutral with the corporation. It also turned out that stealing ore was against OCCs conduct rules. I was promptly kicked from the corp.
Well ■■■■. This was kind of a cool moment for me because while it was super disappointing it helped determine my future in Eve. Hibi would become my industrial base of operations for the next seven to eight years. It had a nice Amarr factory station, access to lowsec, and active customers to purchase the stuff I built. My first forays into industrial life would all take place there because I moved to be part of a corp that kicked me out for stealing an ore can.
So I dithered around and questioned myself for a bit. Where should a disgraced merc go? The answer was Relinquished. Relinquished was a Khanid Supporting RP corp (before there were actual Khanid races in Bloodlines). Here I would meet many of the people I still talk to and work with, or against, to this day. As part of the Khanid defenders we lived near the market hub in Agil, defending space from the local Blood Raider RP crew Cruorism Seraphim. A group of traitorous and clever people who hated me for my raw pilot skill in using things like warp core stabs and just general ingenuity. We had many brawls over the month or two I was there. I would also meet one of my first apprentices, a young Aegis Stormborn, as well as characters like Cyshade who I’ve been friends with now for 16 years on and off.
I can’t remember what ended my time with Relinquished. I think it was the CEO just wanting to go back to BOB, but the corp quickly fell apart and once more I was looking for a home. This time I would join a group of winners. I joined the corporation Adeptus Gattacus along with a friend named Rolvaag and the good times were rolling once again. On the first or second day living up in the area near the M-0 pipe in Obe I think we killed an Apocalypse Battleship. Rolvaag and I were now pirates . This Apocalypse was owned by Stamm, a one day Rule of Three Alliance leader. The kill dropped almost a billion isk in blueprints and random stuff. It’s hard for me to describe how much a billion was back then, but it was exponentially more than it is currently. It was a good time to be in Eve.
We would soon learn that ADGA was joining an alliance called KAOS empire and moving up to Tenal. Our alliance would be claiming sov space and working with Forsaken Empire and friends against some other groups like Razor, along with associated other problem children. Our alliance would come second in the first ever alliance tournament losing to Band of Brothers because we didn’t have crystals. There would be a variety of fleet battles with FE and others, primarily around the H-W pipe. There was one major battle involving both of our alliance’s Dreads where Cujo’s Moros and someone else’s dread were killed in S-EVIQ. I flew a Blackbird for that fight and remember that when we jumped in many of us didn’t load. We all had to relog back in. The resulting black screen gave the defenders a big advantage and they won the battle.
Eventually death would come to our alliance though. Mercenary Coalition was hired against us and my traumatic memories of my old dead Ferox came back in a rush. I decided I would not be the sheep again! But sadly most of the rest of my alliance would. I remember having half of our total kills in the war. I set up a bait Scorpion with neuts/web/disruptor/ecm and armor tank and caught a Vagabond and a Crow. I did my part. Sadly the alliance would get crushed in pretty short order and poor old Robet Katrix was back to square one.
At this point Amarr CEO and ADGA were crumbling and we ended up with almost everyone of relevance going to the rich main corporation of the alliance Species 5618, run by Cujo. This corporation was set to head off towards a new alliance in the south called ASCN, and word on the street that it was the place to be. So I went all in with Vily and Robet, off to the lands of the south. I would lose my Bestower on one of the early hauler convoys down, but the market in AZN was pretty deep and I remember getting most of my stuff locally. Somewhere out there there is a video of my flying a Maeldicition versus I think Whateve, the group that followed Battle Angels.
My time in ASCN was otherwise pretty quiet. A fair bit of crabbing and some minor stuff but nothing that I can overly remember. The big thing was that none of my friends from ADGA had really come with me to the bigtime corp and I felt bored. I joined a Blood raider RP corp called Blood inquisition with Vily for a little bit before it fell apart and then shortly after I was back up north with Beagle corp.
Beagle Corp isn’t a well known corp these days. Its hay day is long past and it was never revived, but it was an equivalent of Black Legion or something similar during its time. Nonetheless it was bordering on an “elite” corporation and after managing to get myself in I was enthusiastic and ready to rock and roll.
Beagle would terrorize the north and this would be the first time Vily would begin to take prominence over Robet with my characters. At this time Robet was a specialized Caldari pilot and was working towards capitals and the long trains that accompanied them. Vily had not done a ton of PVP. Aside from a stint flying a crusader around providence solo and getting myself on the Red list. Vily was fresh meat. This was also around the time that interdictors were being released into the game and the technology to prevent people from warping away at the time was massive. It enabled kills in a way that had never been done before and Vily was able to skill into it almost immediately. I became a Dictor pilot for almost every fleet. I don’t know where I ranked but I wouldn’t hesitate to guess that I had more kills in a Heretic in this time period than any other pilot in the game. It became my signature ship, and would later show up in my forum sigs to boot.
We would roam Deklien to Tenal, Vale, and Cloud Ring, based from Ohkunen area. Many cool videos and kills were had and we built and maintained a reputation. The time I spent in Beagle was shorter than many of the other corporations I had joined previously, but the bonds of friendship and the sheer joy of playing cements that time in my memory. The only error I really made was paying 500 mil up front for a capital ship that turned out not to exist. I had the money and took it in stride as a learning experience.
Our CEO would have to take time for RL stuff and the corp would fall into disrepair in short order, but the names of Beagle’s heros would carry into the future and affect Eve for the decade to come. Many of those refugee’s would eventually settle into a group called Coracao Ardente.
Once again homeless for the fifth time in a couple years I was now looking for my next spot. However I was now one of the baddest cats on the street. I wasn’t just the shy rookie who thought I was hot ■■■■ from a year ago, now I WAS actually hot ■■■■. Beagle had taught me how to pvp and I knew where my skills were. It was late 2006 and I was ready for the big time.
At that time the Mercenary Coalition was forming a new corporation, Eternity Inc. It was being run by a guy called Larson7 (who would one day become CCP XX). There was an extensive interview process which involved my researching boxing questions and displaying everything I knew about Eve. This was the newest corp in Mercenary Coalition. It would be the clubs in the deck and it was gonna be epic. I was the eighth member of the corporation to be accepted.
We lived in Period Basis and I farmed in the CJF area in Stain, trying to get officers as I would chain belt rat. I could make 20mil an hour if I got lucky. We would take contracts and go wreak havoc wherever we got pointed. It was great times and for me was probably one of the foundational alliance experiences I had. One of the really cool things I did the first week was defending the ED-L9T egg drop of FIX from a combined force of AAA and others. It was a bloody battle that lasted hours. We ended up saving a Minmatar outpost. Very soon after began the real fun.
The war with ASCN and BOB was coming to an end. The first real contract I can remember at the time was the BOB vs. Goon/RA was in the east. At this point the war had been ongoing for a bit and we were there to just back up BOB as they were struggling to make any progress. We rolled into The Great Wildlands as we headed towards Scalding, and there were a few small battles. We only did this for a short time, but it would lead to our war against MM, Dusk and Dawn and Iron In The North.
We continuously camped the MSHD area, just harvesting kills like mad during this time. It seems funny compared to my current position, but just sitting and gate camping in that area to the tune of 50 to 100 kills a day was an incredible thing. I remember being super pumped about the speed in which my killboard stats were charging through the ranks.
Eventually we would have the Battle Of E-O. I was involved in my very first capfight. All that training was finally put to use. It was a hectic and scary moment as I think our two supers and like 6 carrier/dreads took on a roughly equal size force. The combination of supers being very strong and having a stronger subcap fleet would carry us to a victory but it was a really fun moment for me. There is a video of this fight somewhere but while I have a copy I cannot find it on youtube.
This campaign would continue for a while with a quick hiatus to the east, seeing us move quickly into the new drone regions to support allies with capitals. We came in with a big force, working with Outbreak and Fatal and planning to clear a bevy of POS’s and attack. By the end of the night we achieved the first mothership kill in eve. A direct result of both my own failures and successes in some way or another. During the siege on the second tower of the night I disconnected with my Chimera along with one other pilot (stradavarious in a Naglfar). The fleet left us behind because there wasn’t any real risk expected. Helen warped his Aeon in. During this time I managed to approach and bump/desync his Aeon, and when the fleet arrived to save Strad he was unable to warp before more bumps came in. Back then dictors didn’t cancel already initiated warps so the only way to tackle a supercapital was to bump/desync them or get the bubble down before they initiated warp, which was nearly impossible. Our fleet landed and he died seconds after his desync caused his ghost hull to warp away while his Aeon exploded.
I remember that same night we were asked if we wanted to go down and help LV make their last stand in 1v-. If I recall we actually did but couldn’t get there before the battle was over/the game broke and shortly after we would see the end of LV in the south. We stayed for a few days and then headed back westward towards the north.
The next big event was the Battle of P-2TTL. It was a well documented one at the time and one where MC was able to leverage super and capital advantages (sound familiar?) to fight off a larger force. We were victorious and took the system. We began the slow collapse and destruction of Dusk and Dawn. This war went on for many months as we slowly pushed through Deklien, through Branch, and then Tenal. Near the end of this campaign we took the QYZM Pocket and exploited it until it was later handed over to Mostly Harmless.
One of the more interesting things that happened throughout the war was me stockpiling hundreds of kinetic armor hardeners and energy nuets so that we could tank a Leviathan Doomsday, nuet him out so he couldn’t jump and bump him from warping. I sold it all in 2015 for a nice profit after it sat in bkg for the better part of a decade.
Throughout aloof this I ran fleets and gangs and continue to cement myself as one of the most active and relevant players within the alliance. I soon ceased to be just another pilot and moved into the role of a Corporate Director. This was my first real leadership position and I took it with the utmost seriousness. This was also the point I was inducted into MC leadership roles.
After this we were involved in various campaigns in the south central area around Catch, and I distinctly remember the FAT camp video being my favorite record of those events for a long time. It was a great opportunity to fly all kinds of stuff. I remember leading and being in fleets, doing all kinds of stuff throughout the area.
The core thing happened over the coming months was the slow approach of Tortuga and the larger war. In late 2007 MC had been struggling with its relationship with BOB. It had had a lot more success and just generally viewed itself as a much more elite alliance. This led MC to break its previous arrangements with BOB and establish the Tortuga Mercenary Coalition in Period Basis. The Coalition took in other Merc groups like KIA. The intent was to break off from BOB and setup our own region run by mercs. While there was initial success, as BOB was distracted by things in other areas, over the course of a few months our situation went from manageable to struggling to survive.
At that point in MC’s life cycle things were rough internally, and it was annoying. I was effectively one of the last active FCs at the time and when the last big fights were going on there just weren’t enough people committed to make them hyper meaningful. In the end, it was literally me and 50 or so odd guys trying to defend our land and failing. We invariably got evicted and for the most part MC fractured.
Somehow during all this calamity I had ended up in the CEO role of my corporation, with Mynas Atoch (probably the strongest combat logistician this game has ever seen) as my XO. We had a large active corporation that in 2008 could field 40 dreadnaughts on our own with subs to boot. We were strong, active, and ready for a new path forward. A better leader might have taken us down better paths, but I took the route that was kinda laid before me and at this point. That was for ETNY to found the alliance Project Alice.
Alice was the idea of one of our corp directors, Maris Ellien, and it seemed like a great idea. We had the strength, ability, and money to run an alliance, why not? Well we went from Period Basis to Pure Blind and we settled into Fade, planning to turn ourselves into the next best thing. The group lost a big chunk of its membership during the move, but we did retain a good crew of guys. However our numbers were nothing special and just barely enough to hold the space we had taken in fade/PB area.
Around this time we developed friendly relations with the old Northern Coalition, enabling a working relationship with the people living in Deklien. They all wanted a taste of the old MC on their side. This enabled us to participate with the defense against the first MAX damage campaign by Band of Brothers. We assisted our allies in IRON and did our best to help hold the line. Things were looking good, and we were picking up a couple corporations. Membership was growing (albeit slowly) and then came decision time. At this point we had been sitting on the fence about whether to join the old NC officially or not. While I had been on the side of joining, most of the others had been against it. It would mean a certain level of mutual defense, and obligations. The others did not see the danger of not being a part of it. When Red Alliance showed up in Pure Blind, having just been pushed out of the south, and were looking to take all our moons and space we had nowhere to look for help. We took it in stride and accepted our fate.
In a matter of months we would be evicted and would make the decision to close out the corporation.
(well written part ends)
From there i would join my merc bros, attacking ER, moving from there to RZR, from RZR to MH and from MH to goons. I would stay in goons for five years, leading and commanding in goons through many of their foundational moments. I would leave six months before wwb1 and head off to test where i would end up being one of their prosectors. From there i would stay in test for the next five years, taking the rebounding alliance from a player to a mega-player and being an important part of the current wars in play.
I know that there is certainly no love lost between myself and many of the players of eve but i will say this. I care for eve and wish to protect it anyway i can. We may not see eye to eye but i will do whatever i can to protect it. If you vote for me, your voting for that.