On December 31st. I asked The Mittani who he thought the most influential player in Eve Online was for 2011. His response came with no surprise, as he pointed the response to himself but dismissed the question as he was sure I wasn’t going to publish it. Although some might reply that this was a very narcissistic assessment, I would fence the critique by saying that there was no egoism in his statement. Days before, I had asked the group of players to whom I normally refer to as “we” whenever I write an Eve News24 article this same question. They are mostly people “in the know”, a large part of them in juxtaposition to The Mittani’s goals in the game. The response was utterly unanimous.
Keeping it real
The truth is indeed that The Mittani was the Most Influential player during the year 2011. Eve Online is a game played both on and offline. When I started to research into this article I became aware that no actual research was needed; as the result of the deeds done during 2011 pretty much speak for itself. We’ll name a few in a moment, but I’ll address one question which was pressed by one of these players: “Who Won 2010?”. Though Call, but in the back of my mind it would be between UAXDeath, Vuk Lau, The Mittani and of course Sir Molle.
The reason I somehow managed to churn such high-profile names in the past paragraph without needing to point at exchanged profanities is to set a precedent; The Mittani didn’t spawn out of thin air and became the 2011′s most influential player. There was already a growing criterion of him being relevant. Also there existed a series of events which under the right circumstances, right company and right decisions helped him to gain enough relevance to be truly influential.
Relevance is the New ISK, time to stock up on some.
Being relevant enough is absolutely what matters now-days, how fat your wallet is won’t matter much if you can’t command anything larger than your own pimp-mobile or being an useful cog inside a larger set of things, in other words if you aren’t proactively (good or evil) towards other players than yourself, you will always remain a nobody inside Eve Online.
To ensure no claim of bias is made (as if), we have taken the same template Time Magazine uses for a Person of the Year (the feature which inspired this piece) and adapted it for our mention. Make no mistake, this piece is by no means a propaganda article, as much as The Mittani’s detractors would like you to believe. I was also to name other nine players which were influential enough, yet I decided to save it and explore another series under a similar premise.
The Most Influential Player of 2011
In a year when UaxDeath and friends toppled the Northern Coalition and Technetium became synonymous of american dollars; when the blob in the South showed signs of cooling but russian’s showed no signs of statesmanship; when TEST Alliance, a rising superpower, juggled its pride of their antics with an embarrassing climax; and when CCP Games set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the allegedly intend to introduce hardcore-RMT mechanics. The Deklein Coalition has been led by one steely and determined man, emerged as a critical linchpin of the 23rd century.
GoonSwarm Federation lives in history—and history lives Within the GSF. Throughout the early part of the 2010 year, the GSF cast an ominous shadow over Null-Sec. It was the Northern Coalition’s dark twin. But after the catastrophic fall of the Technetium Wall, The GSF receded from the null-sec consciousness as we became mired in CCP’s own polarizing politics. And it lost its place in the great game of geopolitics, its significance dwarfed not just by the Drone Russian Forces but also by the rising giants of Pandemic Legion and Ev0ke. That view was always naive. The GSF is central to Eve Online — and the new post-Crucible null-sec that is being born. Today it is the largest alliance; it shares five regions within the reach of the Deklein Coalition; it has a significant and restive TESTie population; it has Eve largest stockpile of Technetium moons and a lethal nuclear arsenal of super-carriers; it is the Eve Online’s second largest incursion running entity after the High-Sec Carebears; and it is an indispensable player in whatever happens in the current northern conflict. For all these reasons, if GSF fails, all bets are off for the “wouldn’t care less” crowd. And if it succeeds as the new super-powerbloc in the family of powerblocs, it will owe much of that success to one man, The Mittani.
No one would label The Mittani a child of destiny. Some even went as far as mentioning the opportunist take on the aftermath of the original GoonSwarm. Or how if it weren’t by Tau Ceti’s demise, the GoonSwarm couldn’t had a healthy gestation period within the care of the Northern Coalition while savage wars were being fought on any of its five borders. Other even more resentful of The Mittani’s in-game fortunes are quick to wordplay on how he currently is a “jobless lawyer”, when in fact he is a retired one. Serious Business are indeed the Internet Spaceships. If we were to keep going on the hatred filled pejoratives attributed to his name by his adversaries (CAOD was pretty useful); it would only help to further cement his God-Like stature of sorts among his enemies.
When this intense and brooding player took over the remains of the old Goons, he found his newly formed alliance on the verge of fail-scale. With dauntless persistence, a sharp vision of what the GSF should become and a sense that he embodied the spirit of being a Goon, over the years The Mittani has put his his alliance back on the Eve Online map. And not content with this he intended to redraw it himself.
If you managed to read our 2011 review, it will be no coincidence the existence of an underlying recurring factor; The Mittani being linked to most of these events, in one way or another (excluding the Isk Bank scandal). What really sealed the deal was the Gallente Ice Interdiction campaign for the sole reason of being a pro-active initiative, rather than a reactive one. While the credit of it should go to the egg-heads who came up with it; there are two kind of men in this world, the men who come up with ideas and the ones who puts them motion.
Eve News24′s Player of the Year is neither an honor nor an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of Eve Online as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about boldly spearheading one’s own initiatives into Eve Online day to day life. A solid statement on the realities of EVE Online. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Make no mistake; The Mittani is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that an ideal CSM would define it. He is not a paragon of integrity either (bot wise). He stands, above all, for the ability to tickle the “butterfly” and call in for the “effect” in ways a few others could. At significant cost to the principles and ideas which some argue would ensure a larger EVE Online player-base, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing his will on top of other powerblocs and brought GoonSwarm Federation back to the place long occupied by now-fallen giants.
For these reasons, The Mittani is 2011 Player of the Year.
R
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