Au Revior En Garde – Part One

Zebra Corp is currently without an alliance. As of 20:00 10th June Zebra left En Garde after a long process of trying of attempting to obtain full membership into AAA. We loved our time flying with AAA and for the most part they are a good bunch of guys, but unfortunately the way events transpired, we were held in En Garde far too long. Today I am going to delve into the history of Zebra Corp, how we ended up in En Garde and ultimately what drove us to leave. 

Zebra is a PvP corp and while we are by no means the best out there, we have some exceptional pilots in our ranks. Back in the days of the NC-dominated north, Zebra was far less PvP oriented. We still had a lot of the pilots we have today, but we were much happier carebearing than we were chasing down rogue neuts and running fleets into enemy space. A perfect microcosm of the NC at its finest it seems.

As things started to change, we were among the first corps to get involved in the NC/DRF war for control of the north. As renters we really had no reason to fight – we weren’t offered any ship replacements, we still had to pay rent for the systems we held but couldn’t use and it was pretty unlikely we would be given thanks for our efforts. But we fought. This was the beginning of Zebra becoming a proper PvP corp.

Once the war finished in an inevitable and expected manner, we started looking for entry into an alternative null-sec PvP oriented alliance. Spending time in various places, looking for somewhere to call home and allow space for development, our final calling point was AAA.

We initiated several conversations with AAA leadership and a place in En Garde was swiftly offered. There, we were told, we would be monitored and nurtured to develop into a corp that would be welcomed into AAA. We jumped at the opportunity, and spent the several months in the first half of 2012 fighting alongside AAA members and having gud-fites all round. As far as fighting alongside AAA, I think everyone in Zebra enjoyed the opportunity and considered it a great experience all round. However it was becoming increasingly apparent that the place we wanted in AAA was not going to be available to us and En Garde was not somewhere Zebra was destined to spend too long languishing in.

En Garde leadership are under the delusion that they are some separate entity to AAA, that they are somehow able to steer the alliance and that they can make unrealistic demands of the member corps. In the last few months the leadership in En Garde has started to charge members for sov holding, stations and system upgrades for the industrialists and carebears in the ranks. Zebra was once in a similar situation 18 months ago in the north and back then we were known as renters.

As a member corp of En Garde, Zebra has shown itself to be the best group of PvPers they had.  Our kill count and efficiency stats were consistently at the top of the killboard, with our kill per member stats being very much higher than any other member corp. In fact according to our May stats, we actually performed better than 50% of AAA corps! It has certainly not been a lack of our participation that prevented us being promoted. It seems likely to be our super count or relatively low count of FCs within our ranks that has stifled our chance of moving to the AAA ranks. AAA (and En Garde) were made aware that these were issues we would like to develop as part of En Garde. Instead, we were given little to zero chance to FC and not only were we given zero space to build supers, we were also charged exorbitant membership fees for the little space that En Garde was crammed into.

And so it is that we have now left En Garde. Membership was sold to us as a footstep into AAA and this clearly wasn’t the case. It has been a lot of fun flying alongside AAA and there have been some amazing fights while we did so, but in the end, we did the whole renter thing previously and it’s not something we care to repeat.

To the friends we have made and left behind, fly safe, and catch you in a fleet soon!

Jeg