Skill urself (INGME) burst onto the scene a couple of years ago; a supercapital-heavy, aggressive, and highly selective alliance which refused to be constrained by the blue donut mentality of nullsec. They could easily have negotiated their way into holding sovereignty, but instead elected for an alternative strategy: to team up with the wormhole alliances of VOLTA and Unspoken in order to wage war against the well-entrenched, and incredibly wealthy, Drone Region Federation. It wasn’t long before the DRF were announcing their withdrawal from the drone regions, and the newly founded Holy League were moving their things into the vacuum, ready to take over the rental programme.
Capqu, co-executor of Skill urself and CEO of Half Empty, explained their unexpected victory in simple terms to New Eden Report:
Against the DRF, we eventually came to a point where we had similar super numbers to theirs, but superior knowledge of and a will to actually use them.
This evening, Capqu took to the podium to deliver a very different speech to gathered members of Skill urself’s top corporations: Half Empty and Zero Fun Allowed. In a clip obtained by The Eve Informant, he explained that he’d taken the hard decision to disband the alliance, after many friends quitting the game had left it just not feeling the same any more. There were four choices, Capqu reasoned: they could not disband, join Fraternity, join Pandemic Horde, or go to D-OJEZ (where it all began) and disband.
Skill urself, Capqu said, had achieved everything they set out to do and more. They were formed to compete in the Alliance Tournament, which isn’t running this year, and had taken more space than they could ever possibly exploit. “I want to end Skill urself on a high,” he said, adding a touch of shade: “and not end up like PL” (Pandemic Legion).
He detailed the plan by which Skill urself will end: the plan is to have an alliance meeting with the rest of Skill urself’s member corporations present on Monday, and a move op to D-O on Friday, giving people plenty of time to consolidate their assets and work out what they want to do next. After this, they intend to disband the alliance, dropping all of their sovereignty. Capqu asked the pilots present to give Skill urself’s renters plenty of time to pack up and move out; and to refrain from hunting them as they did so.
For me personally, Skill urself represented the best parts of Eve: a pure PvP alliance that wasn’t afraid to use expensive ships (they had a Revenant doctrine) and never hesitated to take on a major fight. Flightleader’s videos were instrumental in my getting interested in using heavier ships and really trying to be a better small gang and solo player. I’ll be sad to see Skill urself gone after what they’ve managed to accomplish in only a couple of years of existence, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what former SkillU pilots choose to do, if they stick around.
We know that Higher Than Everest, formerly of Pandemic Legion and The-Culture, will be joining embattled Fraternity in the southeast, moving from relative peace in the east onto the front lines of a war with Test Alliance. The fate of Skill urself’s other corporations — Know your Role, Crystalline, End-Game, GreenSwarm, Avalanche and others — is less certain, but having played a part in one of Eve Online’s biggest shocks certainly won’t hurt their credentials if they choose to seek new alliances to join.
What will become of the drone regions is anyone’s guess. Will VOLTA and Hard Knocks hold onto it? Will the Russians, formerly of the DRF, rush to reclaim their ancestral home? Will PanFam withdraw from the siege of Tribute to assault the available space in the east of New Eden? Will a new alliance reform in Skill urself’s image and claim the space for themselves? One thing’s for certain: this is likely to shape an interesting chapter in Eve over the coming months.
What will happen to the drone regions? Is Skill urself disbanding a great loss to the game or a good thing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
