Lowsec is a thriving place with rivalries old and new. Before becoming Editor-in-Chief here at Crossing Zebras, I was the writer of the Lowlife weekly column, attempting to cover as much of it as possible. Although I still write Lowlife when I have time (which is more seldom that I’d like), there is so much going on that simply doesn’t get covered. In order to remedy that, CZ welcomes #EVE_NT organiser and lowsec outlaw Nashh Kadavr. Nashh will be reporting on lowsec in lowsec style (among other things). That means hands-on, violent and dirty, exploring the evolving meta and the many entities that call it home. No headline posers here—the “metagame” is endless war, and violence the norm.—Niden The long standing feud Overload Everything [CYNOU] have with lowsec dominators Shadow Cartel [SHDWC] reignited again over the weekend. A clash between the two lowsec power blocks erupted Saturday evening at about 2145 and lasted over 45 minutes, resulting in over 50 billion isk in losses between the two sides. Doomchinchilla, the overconfident but charismatic leader of Overload Everything, was once part of the Shadow Cartel Alliance, but left after relationships soured between the US and EU time zones. An authority from CYNOU claims that the secretive leader of Shadow Cartel’s obsession with POCOs caused the rift between the two groups, and eventually the split. Management between the two Alliances have not seen eye to eye since the break-up, and it appears Chinchilla’s men are inspired to obstruct and pick fights with SHDWC at every single convenience. According to sources, the conflict centered around a poorly defended small POS in Hesarid, Essence, and involved predominantly armour tanked faction battleships, in fleets of roughly equal size. Overload assisted the POS owners and friends Psychotic Tendencies [TISHU] in an attempt to save the tower. Although already working on the assault of the POS, SHDWC showed no clear advantage as CYNOU had already bridged their fleet to a nearby POCO. However, SHDWC immediately warped to the cyno, putting their autocannon Machariels at close range to the arty Machariel fleet of Overload. As the two Machariel fleets clashed at the CYNOU entry point, a few ships fell to both sides before reps stabilized, and more tactical thinking was required. Unlike Overload Everything, Shadow Cartel had not thought to bring Triage carriers, and for a moment it seemed the fight would be over faster than initially thought. A pilot in the Shadow fleet commented;Fortunately for us, logistics pros BALEX (Balkan Express) kept our ships alive while the FCs concocted a plan of attackWith Shadow Guardians managing to keep their Bhaalgorns up long enough to cap out the two triaged carriers, the fight became a more level playing field, and ships started to explode faster on the Overload side. Some skilled probing from a TISHU pilot caught the Shadow Cartel command Loki unprepared, and its destruction caused havoc to the stability of their fleet until it was replaced. Easily Excited [NSFW] made an appearance on field in EWAR frigates and proceeded to shoot both sides, possibly to get on as many killmails as possible. Although their effects may have been minimal in the grand scheme of things, it appears Overload Everything and TISHU suffered most of the EWAR projected by NSFW, probably due to TISHU’s ongoing campaign against NSFW. The loss of links, combined with well coordinated alpha from the Overload Everything Machariels contributed the loss of Shadow’s Bhaalgorns. However, by this time the cap damage had been done, and Shadow were able to destroy the two triage Archons, bringing an end to the fight. Doom proceeded to explain that they had indeed been beaten by superior tactics and pilot error on their side but continued; “[…]it was nice to fight Shadow Cartel and I’m glad Dead Terrorists were not there to hold their hands.” Holding the field and claiming victory with 10 versus 30 losses, W0wbagger’s only comment: “Both sides had fun and that’s why we play, the best fights are even numbered ones where both sides lose ships, and it comes down to tactics and luck to decide the fight. Removal of our links almost cost us the fight and had it happened earlier, the result may have been different. GF” Despite this particular battle not involving many capitals, the value of the total losses makes it one of the lowsec highlights of the weekend. It is likely the rivalry between the two sides will continue, and more drama is sure to evolve in the coming months. The increased popularity of Machariels could indicate a replacement for the much loved Ishtar fleets of late. It is nice to see an introduction of Nestors on the battlefield too, and it will be interesting to see what value they can add in battles to come.