R1FTA T1 Tournament

Kaeda Maxwell arranged a R1FTA tournament based on T1 frigates and modules only with no ECM. Many of the R1FTA pilots signed up and Starwalker was no exception. The key of course was to define what ships and fits to use against whom. In essence two different fits would be needed one for close combat and one for ranged combat.

Starwalker had seen previously in corporation chat that range fits would generally do better in frigate duels than close combat fits. In essence you strike and kite the opponent to death, whilst typically being out of range of any return fire.

Numerous Rifter close combat fits could be modified for T1:

·       Shield (buffer) tanked with auto cannons and rockets | neutralisers | vampires

·       Armour (active and buffer) with auto cannons and rockets | neutralisers | vampires

Looking for a ranged fit, the search began with the favoured Rifter and using the 280mm ‘Scout’ Artillery I but that did not seem to have either the range or bite needed against multiple different targets. Whilst some other rebels had been successful with it, most notably Tomba, it seemed too easy for an opponent with a web to get close. Starwalker looked elsewhere and came to the Kestrel after re-reading Azual’s excellent articles on Know Your Enemy.

Starwalker had previously flown various Caldari ships during his pre-R1FTA days when missioning. Unfortunately an accident with the medical clone had removed 5% of skills and Standard Missiles V but that would be easy enough to train again.

The Kestrel fit created nominally had less DPS than the artillery Rifter but it could operate easily at a range between 15km-20km. At that range the Rifter DPS would fall off dramatically and 15km-20km was also comfortably outside of web range. So effectively the applied DPS would be higher and the chances of being caught by a close combat ship would be reduced.

So decision made, Starwalker went to the Neocom console to order the ships and equipment for the T1 Tournament. The final confirmation, if any were needed, was that another rebel - Rocanegra – had already successfully used a Kestrel.