Out of Excuses, Links and Tears

I have the immense fortune to be married to a wonderful woman. She has put up with my gaming addictions for a long time and has not complained too much :) At one time I had a different shift at work and my gaming time took place while she was asleep. I slept while she was at work and worked in the evening. It wasn't ideal as far as time for a relationship but we got through it and I had several years in which to play EVE 6 hours a day.
While I no longer have that kind of time I have worked out a schedule that lets me be responsible to my relationship and work as well as have a little time to play Internet Spaceships. This past few weeks have been unique in that I had a "valid reason" to sit at the computer all day Sunday, I work on Saturdays :(
The SuperBowl of EVE comes only once per year. My wonderful wife loves her nerd and puts up with this.
Thank you Darlin, you are the light of my life :)
I am not going to write about the Alliance Tournament, there are other folks that do that way better than I care to... It was fun watching, Congratulations to Pandemic Legion and Hydra Reloaded, the 1st and 2nd place winners!
I did have plenty of time to play EVE during the intermissions and breaks between matches. One thing, overall the polish of the tournament presentation over the years has drastically improved. One could almost say it looks professional.

Saturday night I set out in my Slasher to go hunt FW plexers when I came across a Rifter. I should have gone back and fit a web instead of the extra point but I am lazy, the fight was still fairly close. My Slasher dies with him in structure.
Time for a new boat! I grab a Tormentor and head out. I like this frigate, it looks cool and now performs well enough to fit it's name. I start hunting but things are pretty dead. I try and loiter on gates,  in belts, at the sun, system by system. It finally pays off with a Tristan engaging me on a gate, negative sec status is finally paying off. Fight is kinda one sided, the Tristan is not long for this world, He loiters and loses his pod for it.
Moving on I find a Slasher that is willing to take on my Tormentor. This was a fun fight, I hate tracking disruptors unless I am the one using them. I got in close and he Neuts then TDs me. He is on orbit so I align out with him webbed and scrambled to try and get some better tracking. He shuts of his neut in prep for the ancillary repper to finish its nanite cycle and had forgotten to turn auto reload off. I think this fight would have been a close one had he not made a mistake. He died before the Tormentor was at half armor.
 Moving on again finds me nothing but gangs on the way home. I return home to spot a Venture on scan and swoop in to get the kill, someone is just finishing the Venture as I land. So I grab them and remove another Incursus from space. Trying to swoop on a Caldari Destroyer in a different belt yields the same pilot in yet another Incursus by the destroyer wreck. I relieve him of his Incursus again but not before his friend arrives and sets upon me with a kiting Tristan. I went to work on the drones but just did not have the buffer left to get through them all.
Sunday I set out while watching AT and find a Probe next door at the sun.. probing. I relieve him of his probing probe and find some stuff. This exploration stuff does not look particularly profitable to me, especially with pirates blowing you up. I am un-ashamed to say, I am not above killing Cyno Frigs, they break the boredom.
I loiter on a gate too long baiting an Incursus, as it happens he has Tristan friend. The Slasher Dies.
I find the person who apparently like Incursus' again while hunting for another destroyer in my Algos and blow up his Incursus yet again.
I find a Dramiel in local that is having some luck killing dudes. He is apparently using a legion for links off grid. Yes, Legion links for a Dramiel and Condor. So I work together with a corp mate, using our own Legion links. We nab the Dramiel, and start bouncing plexs trying to catch the Condor and wind up catching a Comet. Corp mate logs for the night so I sit in small plex with my slicer and wait. A Tusker warps his Atron right on top of my Slicer and DIES. Links were cloaked up at this time, he did whine a bit about it as they know who my link toon is, but meh, links were cloaked.
A bit later I decided to fit a shiny that I bought from a friend. I undocked to check stats, then uncloaked the links and turned them on to check stats again when a Tusker showed up to test my tank. I aggroed, so he aggroed, then his friend shows up to add some DPS. I let them spend some ammo, lazy boating out with MWD at 1/4 speed. I finally catch the Caracal being lazy and crank the MWD for a point and web, Caracal down. I could not get the Rupture to bite but Tansyaster prefers kite fits and is fairly good at it. YES THE LINKS WERE ON WITH THIS ONE.

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On Links and Tears

Links are part of the game, I do not harbor any ill-will for persons that use them. I have used them in the past for fleets, I have used them when baiting in solo situations where I will be facing a gang. I believe that you should take advantage of the elements of the game that benefit your situation as you see fit. I also find it hilarious when persons from a group that is known for using off grid links starts crying about someone using off grid links. That there be some Absolute Quality Tears.
I tend to not use them while 1v1 (unless baiting outclassed) and do not have them online all the time. I do not care if you believe me or not  :)
I pay my own sub(s), I DO WHAT I WANT.