1v1? More like 1vFail...

I don't get into many 1v1 fights out in militia lowsec, for a few reasons. First, the times that I want to go out and get kills, I normally end up joining a fleet (or more often FCing, lately). The times I'm more inclined to actually solo, I'm stuck with the "lowsec curse" of either finding nothing or getting blobbed. I think I've had a grand total of four 1v1 fights - a frigate duel I narrowly lost with both of us in structure, a Taranis that tried to tackle my Ishkur on a gate, an inconclusive duel between my Jaguar and a Hawk (he couldn't keep point on me and I couldn't stay in range to break his tank), and one far more lopsided fight - which is the subject of this post.

My opponent in this particular duel was Loren Gallen. Loren's something of a celebrity in the Caldari-Gallente FW community, due to the staggering number of kills he packs into the course of a day, ranging from ganks of highsec mission runners to 1v1 duels in lowsec. (Despite some Caldari militia members turning their noses up at both his highsec ganking and a few fairly obvious cases of killmail whoring, holding a #9 rank on Battleclinic is nothing to sneeze at, in my books.) Aside from that, Loren and I get on quite well with each other, having developed something of a friendship since the first time we met on the field.



Before the duel, I saw Loren's name pop up in Enaluri local, where I'd been spinning my ship and minding my own business. Interested in some action, I hopped into my Hurricane and undocked, hoping to catch him for a fight. Lo and behold, Loren and his infamous Cynabal were sitting 50km off the undock. That's where the comedy of errors began.

1. I engaged a Cynabal in a Hurricane.
2. I engaged Loren's Cynabal in a Hurricane that I'm not particularly experienced with flying.
3. I'd forgotten to repair my modules after the last time I flew the Cane, so I went into the fight with 75% heat damage on my guns.
4. My range management was pretty awful. Loren's dual-prop fit was definitely more effective at actually controlling the range, but I was less focused on keeping range than... whatever it was I was doing. My guns weren't doing nearly as much damage as they could have, and I lost point several times despite having a long point fitted.
5. I'd somehow not managed to re-activate my point after the second time or so of losing it, and somehow, forgotten to turn on my damage control until I was almost in half shields.
6. My heat management wasn't great; I overloaded my guns way too early, especially with the heat damage they'd already taken, and ended up burning them out before the Cynabal hit peak recharge.
7. Because of the range of the engagement, the two medium neuts I had in my utility high slots were pretty well useless.
8. Did I mention I undocked a Hurricane against Loren's Cynabal?

All in all, the fight didn't go as badly as I thought it would - I ended up bringing the Cynabal down to about 1/3 shields before my structure buckled. I wasn't really expecting it to be a close fight, given the circumstances, so I'm fairly satisfied with how things turned out. Ironically, the biggest facepalm moment of the fight was when I docked back up in my pod to get a ship to scoop my wreck with - sitting in front of me in the hangar was my brand-new, TD-bonused, 37.8km-neut-range Curse. (On the other hand, I doubt Loren would've engaged if he'd seen me undock in the recon, so having it was a mixed blessing.)

This 1v1 was probably the most fun I've ever had while losing a ship. In fact, I'm pretty proud of this lossmail - not because of the sheer volume of fail I packed into one fight (which was impressive), but because I undocked in the first place. I'm normally the type of person who's very cautious, and definitely not inclined to rush into something like, say, a 1v1 against a pilot that I'm almost certain will beat me. This time, I shrugged and did it anyway. Sure, I didn't get a killmail out of it, but I enjoyed it immensely and it's been a huge boost to my confidence.

I'm sure I haven't been the first to say this, but next time I have a 1v1 against Loren, I'll be ready for it.