EveNews24 obtained an exclusive interview with JEFFRAIDER, one of EVE Online’s favorite personalities, member of Sniggerdly and top diplomat in Pandemic Legion. He talks about diplomacy and waffles, how his love of frigates has caused him back pain, the Revenantgate incident and #AGMARMONEYTEAM.
D: To start off with – are you a French toast, pancake or waffle person?
J: WAFFLES. My favorite waffles are the 3v3 grid ones. Pwnage.
D: What does a regular day in EVE as PL’s top diplomat consist of?
J: A PL diplomat is basically just a dude who sets standings that the current campaign commander asks for, and pays for reimbursement when we kill blues, so I never need to open communications with some alliance or like smooth things over. Basically I tell dudes we’re blue or that we’ve reset them and the CC does the actual diplomacy.
D: So you’re saying that as a PL diplo, you personally don’t need to do outreach. Despite this though, are there any diplos that you respect or have fostered a great working or personal relationship with?
J: Yeah my favorite “other diplo” is firstly Lady Scarlet from NC., because we both have the exact same tolerance for bullshit, so if I ask her to do something or she asks me to do something we know it’s because we have to and it’s not some stupid crap. My next favorite was a1arica from EMP before they died, because she put exquisite formatting into her requests and thus gave a shit.
D: Any sane person would have probably quit EVE, considering the amount of mails about incidents, reimbursements or problems you usually receive. What is it that keeps you going?
J: Same thing that keeps our logi guys, FCs and everyone else who helps going. I love playing EVE with PL and want us to win. If I have to eat a few shit sandwiches, that’s just the price I pay.
D: What’s the trickiest situation that you’ve been confronted with as PL diplo and successfully resolved?
J: Well, generally speaking, my trickiest stuff isn’t with another alliance – like I said, mostly the campaign commander does the actual diplomacy. I feel like the craziest tight rope I generally walk is being the go-to person for Grath Telkin (CEO of Sniggerdly) and Phalanx III (head of logistics) and their rage. I don’t mind saying that my selfless warrior spirit has stopped many a PL implosion.
D: Do you ever get the Vile Rat 2.0 treatment – that is, someone shooting a blue and then telling you about it later?
J: Literally all the time. The worst part of that is like, if anyone shot a blue, and was like ‘Yeah, I did that’, it’d be kind of okay. But the problem is every single dude who kills a blue wants to pull some guardhouse lawyer shit and try to pitch the idea that the blue was coming right at them. And the worst part of being in PL is like the leaders of each corp are just as annoying as the initial offender. So if someone in corp X shoots a blue, I get an essay about how they had no choice but to murder the Imicus, and once they absolutely refuse to pay for it and I go to their corp leaders for them to handle it, I get the corp leaders trying the same story. I am a Section 8.
D: So, despite all this and the crazy antics that happen in Pandemic Legion on a regular basis, you’ve earned yourself a reputation for being one of the chilliest guys in EVE, exemplified by how you handled Revenantgate. What is it that drives your #nomad philosophy?
J: Yeah, that (Revenantgate incident) was actually amazing because personally I love hearing Grath get mad. Some pretty good press for the JEFFRAIDER cause, and some good Grath rage. I dunno, I just have decided I like the people in EVE/PL more than I care about any ship losses, so for me as long as the same people are still playing, I’m still happy. I hate any drama that makes people I love fight, and I love hearing people I like laugh their asses off. That’s about it. My endgame is having fun and hearing my buddies have fun.
D: How would you describe your relationship with Grath “The Rage” Telkin?
J: He’s my favourite person ever. I’d lay down in traffic for him.
D: What’s your opinion of Elo Knight, the other reputedly chill dude in EVE, and Black “Younger” Legion?
J: Elo is one of the best FCs in EVE and owns. Oh, shit, here’s a good example right now in IRC:
[00:39] <YazoulSamaiel> StriderHiryu
[00:39] <YazoulSamaiel> ur a stupid cunt
[00:39] <StriderHiryu> yes i know
[00:39] <StriderHiryu> so is kapads
[00:40] <YazoulSamaiel> what has he done now?
[00:40] <StriderHiryu> he just lost his nyx to BL
[00:57] <JEFFRAIDER> may wanna cut out the elo killin nyx chat logs
[00:57] <JEFFRAIDER> that was a troll
[00:57] <JEFFRAIDER> that I got pwned w/
D: What brought you to EVE in the first place, anyway?
J: The Tyrrax Thork story about stealing and assassinating some nerd. I was like ‘Wow, that sounds awesome.’ I started running missions in my Ibis, went to a Kestrel, and back down to an Ibis. I was in Goonswarm, because I am an SA (Something Awful) Goon from way back. My bro Phalanx III saved me, because he was in an elite high-sec mission-running corp, and he’s one of my best friends IRL. After about 6 months in that corp, I saw a ‘Sniggwaffe is recruiting’ ad, Phal wanted to try it and we just did it.
D: So, as I understand it, your career in the PL community began not as a regular member of a PL corp, but as a Waffle back in 2009. What about Sniggwaffe motivated you to continue, when did you graduate to PL and how important was this experience in terms of your overall EVE career?
J: Waffles was amazing. Honestly, the Waffles experience for me literally felt like vying for a spot in PL. And I kinda played that game trying to get kills, FC, blah blah. But once I got into PL I just really wanted to go back to Waffles. And I’ve been very active with Waffles since, just because for me, the gameplay of Waffles is way more fun – they get small gang fights, and no one accuses them of always having a cyno. I like being in PL because the option to put big boy pants on and use caps and supers and big doctrine fleets is fun. But personally, I’ve always had more fun with small gang stuff, and modern Waffles is especially full of people who just want to do that, rather than try to be the next to graduate to PL.
D: If you could revisit your time in Waffles, would there be anything that you’d try and do differently?
J: Stay in longer. I was in such a hurry to graduate it was crazy. Waffles are just the best – a crew of dudes who want to win but also appreciate the value of a fun fight. You suggest T1 fleets in PL and people are like “is there a good T3 version of this?” Douches.
D: What’s the secret behind a successful JEFFRAIDER capital op?
J: Don’t be there and claim success if we win. Disavow knowledge if we lose.
D: What’s your guilty pleasure in EVE?
J: Frigates. I seriously love just getting ridiculous fights in frigs and win or lose, no one cares except me and the guy I’m owning or getting owned by. I installed EFT at work and I spend a lot of time theorycrafting niche weird frigs to try and solo with.
D: What’s your favourite frigate then? How do others in PL see your frigate obsession?
J: Probably the Incursus overall, I loved the old version. I still like the new version but honestly, I love trying new shit. And also when I was a Waffle applying to PL, my recruiter asked me why I had like 30 Taranis loss mails. And if I combined all the losses from my alts, I’d probably be the most frequent loser in all of PL, so everyone’s just used to it by now. I don’t know – I lose some shit. I sold my alt Steve Merchant who I had like 1/3 of my losses on. I love dying.
D: Despite it not being a CONCORD-recommended activity, I’ve heard rumours about the JEFFRAIDER tendency to drink and fly. What is your favourite drink and why?
J: My favourite booze is Talisker scotch. It tastes amazing and it’s not that pricey.
D: Now, let’s look at your deepest, darkest secrets. What’s your most embarrassing killmail?
J: I know the exact one – I’m looking. It made my back hurt when it happened. Back pain over EVE – lost a Dramiel to a perfectly fit Blackbird. It took about 5 mins to die, and afterwards I actually had a shower IRL and my lower back hurt with stress.
D: What other games do you play aside from EVE Online?
J: My favorite thing about EVE Online is that I get a huge crew of dudes who have similar interests to play other games with. We play almost everything but my current roster is Insurgency, BF4, Wargame: ALB, Men of War: Assault Squad 2, Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior, Arma3, Defcon, Red Orchestra 2, and in a few weeks, TITANFALL.
D: To some more serious business now – a lot of players have expressed fears about the future of 0.0 space and the advent of the big blue donut. Do you think their concerns are reasonable?
J: Yeah definitely – my main thing isn’t with the blues, it’s the number of dudes on each side. I couldn’t even really go on many ops in the recent (Halloween) war because like every single fight was ti-di city, and that means you’re in until downtime. I hate that. So yeah, 0.0 has a lot of blues – but the main problem is local numbers. I hate 2k local fights, and also when supers get used, bubbles last 20-30 minutes. Everyone can go by gates from anywhere in EVE and pile on – this isn’t good. I don’t have any way to fix it though, so that’s why I love Waffles.
D: What do you hope to see the Pandemic Legion community achieve in 2014?
J: Honestly for me, and I think a lot of PL, the goal is just to keep on keepin’ on. There’s no enemy I want to conquer because we’ve done that before, there’s no people in EVE I really hate, I just want people to keep interest and keep having fun. And I want a good crew of people around to play whatever games catch my interest with me. I basically just want everyone to keep having fun playing video games together.
D: Can you explain the phenomenon that is #AGMARMONEYTEAM?
J: Sure – you know the like Floyd Mayweather – how how he created a money team? Agmar, one of PL’s most moneyed dudes created a phenomenon called #AGMARMONEYTEAM and basically if you’re worried about how much the bill is gonna be at Chili’s, you’re not really invited to #AGMARMONEYTEAM but if you just spread a few thousand neodymium on the cheque then you’re part of #AGMARMONEYTEAM.
D: Will you be attending Fanfest 2014?
J: No, unfortunately my job doesn’t allow it at all.
D: To finish off, are there any alliance members or other players you’d like to give special thanks to (or abuse) for something in particular they’ve done?
J: Yeah, a huge shout out to Phalanx III, our logistics god. He is the reason that anyone who died in B-R in a capital could hop in another one and keep dying. He’s our absolute lifeblood. Also shout out to Manfred Sideous, one of the dudes who never gives up and creates content all the time. Alliances run on Logistics and FCs and those two dudes enable fun for hundreds of other nerds all the time.
