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| | + | #REDIRECT[[The_Graduates_(Player_corporation)#History]] |
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| − | {{merge|The Graduates (Player corporation)}}
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| − | {{Note|The following is an account of The Graduates major accomplishments and history as compiled by its members (key contributors: FluidVoid, Jereth Ravyn, Manas, Ronan Teisdari, and Zers). If you have any historical information to add, or if you feel anything here is inaccurate, please utilize the [[Talk:History_of_The_Graduates_%28Player_corporation%29| discussion page]].}}
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| − | ====Ante Corpum====
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| − | Time before The Graduates [TGRAD] is not a time before time, and there were rather interesting events leading up to the formation of the corporation we all call home.
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| − | [[The Big Blue]] [BLUE] was an alliance set up by [[NAGA]], a [[T2|T2]] manufacturer, wanting to create a space in 0.0 where neutrals could come and live. They brought in [[The Four Horsemen]] and cleared out an area in [[Geminate]] in the IPS constellation based around [[BWF-ZZ]]. This area was selected because it was close to empire and generally considered to be second-rate space. They put up a [[Gallente|Gallente]] [[Outpost|outpost]] there and meanwhile [[Eve University]] [E-UNI], the mother corp of The Graduates, was invited to join Big Blue. The rules of engagement were [[Not Red Don't Shoot]] ([[NRDS|NRDS]]) in all BLUE space.
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| − | The powers that be at the time ([[Forsaken Empire]] and others) didn't mind BLUE entering that space since it was quite unruly and a degree of order was established. Also, they didn't particularly want the space...but as time went on space in 0.0 became generally more cramped, together with IPS space becoming more valuable via the Four Horsemen putting a [[Mining|mining]] Empire next door in 8MG. So when BLUE was weakened by a [[Mercenary Coalition]] (MC) attack, the vultures came in and soon after the Four Horsemen left BLUE. A discussion within [[Eve_University|Eve University]] entailed whether we could hold IPS without them. Manas, the first [[CEO|CEO]] of The Graduates, wanted to stick it out in IPS and fight to the end, but two-thirds of the directors thought it was hopeless. Shortly after [[Eve_University|Eve University]] announced that we were leaving Geminate and the University received offers from other alliances to get access to their space. Many of these were with highly political powers, and the directors worried about neutrality constraints, but one was from the [[Interstellar Starbase Syndicate (Player alliance)|Interstellar Starbase Syndicate]] ([[ISS|ISS]]) offering E-Uni the [[ISS|ISS]] Cassini [[Station|station]] in [[EC-P8R]] to run for [[ISS|ISS]] [[Shareholders|shareholders]].
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| − | After some discussion on that the E-Uni directors still thought, despite [[ISS|ISS]] neutrality stance, that it would be too political to accept...so Manas contacted [[Count Tessassine]] directly about forming a new corporation that would be separate from [[Eve_University|Eve University]] but consisted of [[Eve_University|Eve University]] members. This corporation would join [[ISS|ISS]] and take over [[ISS|ISS]] Cassini. Count agreed and The Graduates (TGRAD) was born, consisting of Manas and 25 other willing, mostly older [[Eve_University|Eve University]] players who wanted to stay in 0.0 space.
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| − | ====Unto the Breach====
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| − | The average day in EC was a few friendlies and many reds. It involved the patience of Job in waiting for gate camps to break/be broken so you could finally snap down to the gate and hop into empire to get that thing you just really, really needed to have. Blackbirds were flown that did more blowing up than did [[Jamming|jamming]], and [[ninja mining]] [[Crokite|crokite]] in stabbed ospreys with 7 reds in local was commonplace.
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| − | Throughout the time spent in [[EC-P8R|EC-P8R]] it seemed that TGRAD was only loosely affiliated with [[ISS|ISS]]. Much of this was due to [[ISS|ISS]] Cassini's relatively lonely position in the north while almost all [[ISS|ISS]] resources remained in the south. After declaring war D2 and other northern alliances crushed us with what could only be considered an overzealous amount of force—many of our pilots that were on the experienced end were still training to get [[T2|T2]] equipment for [[Battleships|battleships]], let alone capital skills/[[Assets|assets]], while D2 showed up in a [[Titan|titan]]. Quite sadly TGRADs (chiefly Manas and Ronan) had just invested a rather large amount of [[ISK|isk]] in replacing the [[ISS|ISS]] towers in [[EC-P8R|EC-P8R]] about one week prior to hostilities. Almost all of that investment was lost. Thus the first [[Exodus|exodus]] TGRADs would make to empire, though the members of BLUE knew the hardship well.
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| − | ====There's No Place Like Drone====
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| − | Shortly after leaving [[ISS|ISS]], we joined the IVY League. Who is IVY League? They are no other than [[Eve_University|Eve University]].
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| − | The IVY alliance was created to help ward off the cheap war decs that the corp was getting. Shortly after rejoining E-Uni, we received a war dec from Privateers which were quickly dispatched. We gave a week long expedition in low-sec to young E-Uni students. They had great fun, killed a [[Pirate|pirate]] or two, and made some [[ISK|isk]].
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| − | Since day one of the new drone regions, IVY held a small three star dead end cluster in one of the regions. The more experienced members had been [[Mining|mining]] and ratting there, providing [[Minerals|minerals]] for some of the E-Uni production lines and allowing them to get some needed [[ISK|isk]] for future combat.
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| − | In early April, just after our first capital pilots finished their training, we joined them in 0.0 space to help secure it and get some needed [[Minerals|minerals]] for our production lines. The drone regions were still bugged at this point, making [[Mining|mining]] a little difficult. About two weeks into the deep space project, we got a visit from Invictus. They put two of our [[POS|POS]]'s into reinforced mode because they wanted to see how we would react.
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| − | We talked with Virtuosso about it, and agreed that we would have our [[Fleet|fleet]] in system the following day at an agreed time, and they would come in and engage. They were late, but they did come. The battle was great. We destroyed a very large amount of [[ISK|isk]] value in ships and mods, and lost about one-third of that ourselves. It was probably the best large scale [[Fleet|fleet]] battle E-Uni has ever had.
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| − | The following weekend, while the Invictus alliance leaders were away, a few over reaching corps, decided to put up a [[POS|POS]] in our system, and completely destroyed one of our [[POS|POS]]'s. At that time it became an [[ISK|isk]] sink and that is not something E-Uni could afford. We started to tear down our [[POS|POS]]'s, and jump everything back to empire. This process took a little over twenty-four hours at an almost non stop rate to jump everything we had back.
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| − | In the middle of the pull out, the Invictus alliance leader was back on and was troubled that we were leaving. As he put it, "We used a nuke on a kitten", as they only wanted a little [[PvP|pvp]] and didn't want us to leave. It was too late as a [[POS|POS]] was destroyed. We didn't have the means for repeated [[PvP|pvp]] encounters of any scale as we had no [[Station|station]] rights anywhere in the region and everyone felt it was necessary to kill us on the way.
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| − | For many of the members of The Graduates at the time, this movement to the drone regions was the first experience they had with 0.0 logistics, living out of a [[POS|POS]] instead of an [[Outpost|outpost]], and [[Fleet|fleet]] warfare. These were some crucial first steps that the corporation needed to own in order to endeavor to greater success in the future. Simply put: any established entity in 0.0 must have solid logistics and be [[Fleet|fleet]] capable.
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| − | ====TGRADs IV: A New Hope====
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| − | At this time, we decided we could no longer stay in IVY because of their 'neutral' stance...we needed to leave IVY to continue to teach 0.0 to new Eve pilots, as there was no way to do it while in IVY, without causing political issues. Almost everyone was involved in the ‘ [[Great_War|Great War]]' which we wanted to try and avoid for now. We ended up finding a new and upcoming alliance.
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| − | Essentially we were offered the opportunity to be the [[Pets|pets]] or meat-[[Shields|shields]] of other alliances, generally having an affiliation with one side of the [[Great_War|Great War]], or the up and coming alliance Ronan Teisdari mentioned; the Brutally Clever Empire [BRUCE]. The corporate vote was split, but there was a fair majority in favor of joining [[BRUCE|BRUCE]]...and so it came to pass.
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| − | Early on TGRADs focused on proving themselves invaluable; we tried making sure we were the most represented corp on [[Fleet|fleet]] ops, we tried making sure we were on every alliance [[Freighter|freighter]] op or [[Mining|mining]] op, and we tried to lead the [[Killboard|killboard]] at all times. This perceived cockiness or pride soon led to tensions that never really resolved themselves, though generally it was limited to singular pilots who were consequently dealt with if need be. As TGRADs and [[BRUCE|BRUCE]] grew, we shook off our aggressors in lower Syndicate and eventually seized most of their territory and [[Assets|assets]] for our own. Thus, aside from a mercenary contract here and there, we lived in peace for a time.
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| − | We soon grew restless in this peace, however, and looked outward for what might be. The alliance leadership soon became aware of an [[Outpost|outpost]] that had not yet been secured by a [[Band of Brothers (Player alliance)|BoB]] ally, RISE. Unaware of what was going on, our [[Fleet|fleet]] began forming up for what was clearly an important operation—our [[Fleet|fleet]] quickly became large enough that it required two fleets for it to form in. Mercenary [[Coalition|Coalition]] decided to unveil a [[Titan|Titan]] by using a [[Doomsday_device|doomsday device]] ([[DD|DD]]) on one of those two fleets. Despite heavy losses, a great number of the pilots survived the [[DD|DD]] and simply continued onward. As such we managed to get from Syndicate to Fountain, flip the [[Outpost|outpost]] before downtime (otherwise RISE would have had [[Sovereignty|sovereignty]]), and begin camping the entrance to the system.
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| − | It didn't take long until we grew in size and ambition enough that we sought other [[Outpost|outpost]] systems in Fountain that were up for grabs and established ourselves as the major power block in lower Fountain. Eventually we grew to control the [[Outposts|outposts]] in U-SOH2, 7BX-6F, PNQY-Y, and Y-2ANO. We also campaigned into Cloud Ring to pacify the area. Convinced that we need to shore up our defenses, Friedrich Psitalon (the [[BRUCE|BRUCE]] alliance leader) sought to establish a “Western Power Block” in terms of major power blocks in the eve universe. In the end this project failed to produce results and it soon became evident that being red to all the major entities around was going to be problematic.
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| − | Many will cite [[Pandemic_Legion|Pandemic Legion]] as the cause of [[BRUCE|BRUCE]]'s decline and, eventually, downfall. Perhaps others will say there was simply too much infighting over [[Pandemic_Legion|Pandemic Legion]]/[[Burn_Eden|Burn Eden]]. Realistically, though, the single greatest reason for the downfall is much the same reason as the fast rise of [[BRUCE|BRUCE]]: growth. Simply put, [[BRUCE|BRUCE]] had grown to be the second largest alliance in eve. That being said, the number of overall leadership for the alliance (corp representatives notwithstanding) remained fairly static. Alliance leadership was largely staffed by the membership of The Dead Parrot Shoppe [FOOM] and they become over-tasked, over-burdened, and burnt out. The losses we were incurring were not that great, the stresses we were under, likewise, were not unbearable. We simply imploded under the burden of our own collective weight.
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| − | ====Calm Like A Bomb====
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| − | As [[BRUCE|BRUCE]] disintegrated and TGRADs, being the largest corp left, tried propping up the alliance, lots of pilots left. Some left to go with [[FOOM|FOOM]], some left to pursue [[PvP|PvP]] interests, and some left merely to wander brighter shores. This time was similar to other transitions only in that TGRADs once more returned to [[Empire_Space|Empire space]] after a short stay in Syndicate. Being left in the hot-seat of a disintegrating alliance, losing corporations from it and membership from your own corporation made this transition particularly difficult and painful. There were also TGRAD pilots who, through out of game difficulties, felt they could no longer commit themselves to the corp.
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| − | After serving out the committed time, TGRADs headed back to Empire and once more fielded, prodded, and investigated opportunities to fulfill the mission of being a 0.0 entity. The unenviable task of finding an alliance that is not greatly involved in the politics of the [[Great_War|great war]], that isn't going to turn your corporation into a subservient pet, and who will not force you to pay inordinate rent fees.
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| − | Somehow an acceptable solution was always found in the past and this time was no different—we were invited into a trial membership period by [[Morsus_Mihi|Morsus Mihi]] [RAWR],which was very well received by the members of TGRAD. After two months of hard fighting along side the existing [[Morsus_Mihi|Morsus Mihi]] corps against [[Band of Brothers (Player alliance)|BoB]] in Deklein and Tribute, it was announced that The Graduates earned a permanent spot in the alliance.
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| − | ====Tenacious G: Tribute====
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| − | [[Image:Graduatehall.png|right|thumb|150px|FG Graduate Hall]]
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| − | Now well established in Tribute and with relative stability returned to the region, The Graduates set to work on the ambitious project of constructing an [[Outpost|outpost]] entirely themselves. Needed to fulfill [[Manufacturing|manufacturing]] and production requirements, work began on the [[Amarr|Amarr]] factory that was to become the new shining acheivement in the anals of TGRAD history. Funded entirely by donations from within the corp and built through the blood, sweat, and tears of its members, the [[Outpost|outpost]] was finished construction in mid January of 2009, months ahead of schedule. Located in the F-G7BO system at Planet VIII, FG Grauate Hall is well supplied and connected to the rest of sovereign [[Morsus_Mihi|Morsus Mihi]] space via traditional stargates and an extensive network of [[Jump_bridges|jump bridges]]. The Graduates are no stranger to managing an [[Outpost|outpost]], and FG Graduate Hall will enable them to spread their influence both at home and abroad.
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