((This report written from the faulty and biased perspective of a single racer who happens to be in a bad mood as she writes this; read at your own peril.))

The gate operator in charge of the incoming Ares watched as the instruments showed the little interceptor slowing down from warp. The ISRC League was coming through and this one was the 5th vessel, by now, hot on the tails of a Vigil being handled by the colleague sitting right next to him.

A green-and-gold garish ship materialised in space and the pilot initiated the handshake process with the gate. The operator frowned as the instruments showed the strangely-named Distortion sitting at 3km. The pilot’s voice came terse and almost in a growl through comms. He clicked his tongue at these reckless demigods telling him how to do his job and simply replied: “I’d love to jump ya, Distortion, but you’re sitting out of range, darlin’. Approach to within 2500m, please.”

It has come to my attention that my emotional babbling in Vent (and possibly even in text channels) detracts from my racing and “doesn’t help the team,” I believe was the term. In the interest of striving for perfection (that, or KayWrath taking over me and making me go sarcastic and bitchy – you decide) I shall attempt a factual and unemotional race report.

Preparations

Maybe I should delete this section. We didn’t do any. And it showed when Eran Mintor, rookie racer, fumbled with the WP1 can. I guess our wonder racer forgot some facts when explaining how that worked while I was busy crashing to desktop.

The Race

Searaph didn’t show to race, in what is a rare event. Finding ourselves with just one Ceptor pilot and a truckload of T1s, Quin debated for a while which class to race in. We delayed the decision as much as we could, but in the end, with Zeke and Teo apparently not showing for Venture, she swapped over to Ceptors to strengthen our chances of having a good anchor.

So we set off when KillJoy gave us the go.

From the start I had issues with the stargates, constantly landing just outside activation range – at least twice throughout the race by about 1000m, forcing me to approach manually.

The first half of the race didn’t actually go too bad for me, with the exception of the constant gate annoyance. Eran fumbled a bit with the can at WP1, not realising the error message when trying to lock was actually the sign that stuff was good and he could go on racing, so he lost touch with the warp train.

At the dual WP 2 & 3, Quin forgot her microwarp drive was on overload and she busted it. She had to dock for repairs, losing precious time. She was quick about it, though, and soon overtook me and rejoined the lead of the Scuderia pack

At WP5 I did my first miswarp, from which I recovered using the lovely warp train tactic. I must have been too busy being emotional on Vent, ‘cause I have something unreadable jotted down in my paper here for WP8 in Assah. I can’t quite remember what happened – apologies to those wanting to read just the pure, unemotional facts. I probably just had some trouble navigating the 20 moons for that planet on my drop down menus. Yes, KillJoy is evil.

By this point I was trailing toward the end of the Scuderia train, only rookie Arcmako right behind me, and now and then me switching position on the track with Nakatre.

I did another miswarp into WP15, which was when my outburst prompted a complaint from my team mate. And here we are staying well away from any emotional stuff because I see now that it distracts people. It must have been my antics in Vent which caused us to be left in the dust by Takashi and Kazuo. I do hereby publicly apologise to my team. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact Takashi already had 2 or 3 seconds on us by the time we all left WP1, and with the fact Takashi is so damnably fast all the time and such a good racer.

To end my race with a bang, I crashed to desktop already after Takashi had docked, when I was a mere 2 jumps away from crossing the finish line. Yes, I got emotional again. I may have growled in Vent. I’ll try to refrain from doing so from now on.

Aftermath

Barring any penalties or disqualifications after KillJoy checks the cans around the circuit it seems the Scuderia took the entire podium in T1. We didn’t do so well in Ceptors, where Quin came after Takashi and Kazuo to take third place – nicely done, after that burnt engine.

I don’t have logs of the arrivals (because I was busy dropping off my Eve session while people were crossing the finish line) but I’m told I came in 4th place in Ceptors. This is the bit where I’d speculate about how my luck has been going this weekend and on whether I did validate all cans or not, but I’m making an effort not to.

Notes to self:
1) Bring more order to Scuderia comms. Be more like Venture. From now on perhaps report only arrivals and departures from the cans. Maybe that will help the team.

She wanted to avoid the whole post-race press conference, ceremonies, parties.. The shame of missing a podium completely was consuming enough even if she tried to forget that Kazuo had beaten both her and Quin. However, Nakatre had made the podium in Frigates, so she got dressed and showed up there.

At least today she could avoid most questions. She would only realise how she’d been scowling with angry eyes at the reporters the next day when she’d check for news of the racing scene. They would, of course, conveniently not print the part when she had smiled so warmly at her wife up on the podium. That didn’t make for great news anymore. They’d only show the bits when she was pondering who she’d have to fire for all the glitches and blackouts in her ship during the race.

Kay.
>P

Awww... I know we sucked, but it is going to be better.

Now as for "being more like Venture?" Wow, Kay, I do not think I agree

Venture -although Gallente/Matari in roots- works like a Caldari team. Cool. Efficient. No-nonsense. I imagine them running a race like one runs a fleet op, with procedures and stuff. Robotic.

Scuderia Dragonstar is much more like, Matari islander in character: laid back, disorderly, lively and infectious. We have flair. We dance on the comms, joke around, we should sing more if anything. That we curse once in a while? So what? That's who we are. Passion and fun in racing. Angry goddess coming through, step back! ZZap!

I will take angry goddess style any time over cool and efficient. So don't you dare EIN ZWEI DREI us into robot-ness

((Haha, I am thinking Brazilian vs. German football; of Jamaican vs. Swiss bobsled. Come to think of it, are our colors this season not green-gold? But, oh yes, we need to cut the banter down in chat channel, I have having to scroll up for the waypoint.))

Hugs, Q





I had prepared...

We didn't suck. I did. You guys did great.


I think you'll find that bit was a little sarcastic. Just to make things clear: I have the utmost respect for Venture and I honestly am happy Takashi is back; I just can't imagine myself running a race on the way I've been told they run their comms, nothing more.


Thank you for making my point for me in clearer words. And without the KayWrath sarcasm


I'm sorry. I didn't realise other people on the team had done anything in the days prior to the race. Epic fail on my attempt to stick to facts

Kay.

Yes, the voices in my head kept giving me strict orders to stay focused and stop babbling this Sunday.

Oh... I am not feeling particularly bright today. Missed the entire sarcasm. Forgot Tak was running by himself. I wrote this cool post for the team board, about Naka and demon and Searaph rocking rather than sucking and I fumbled it, it's not there.

I know, it must be the sunny weather, I just want to drop everything and run outside!



-Q