 This is Witchspace news for Friday the first of November 2019, I'm CMDR Buur. In this weeks news, the scourge concludes and the galaxy has a new system state to weaponise, the Elite Dangerous Web Store reopens, Speed Bowl 3 is just over a week away and the pit trip ends on Sunday night. If you find this video useful hit like and subscribe and remember to click the little bell icon you can also join the Buur Pit community on our Discord server and if you want to help support the work of this channel you'll also find us on Patreon, links to everything you need are in the description below. The Scourge Interstellar Initiative came to an end this week but the rise of the crop destroying Blight will have ramifications that will rattle on through the galaxy for some time to come. In its wake the Scourge has left behind a new system state called Blight. If a system is infected with Blight by receiving imports of infected food then its food stocks can quickly become diminished sending the system into a state of famine. When that happens no influence can be gained from combat but double influence can be gained by delivering food to a system. Factions can attempt to cure the Blight before famine sets in by delivering agronomic treatment which is a kind of expectorant for lettuce flu which can be purchased from high tech systems. Whilst it looks like the interstellar initiative was always set to fail in safara's frontier needed a way to get the Blight state into the game it has been done in a nicely inventive and in universe way rather than just dropping it in and going here you go this is now a thing. It also nicely demonstrates that as promised previously by fdev the Galnet newsfeed has gone from being a somewhat quirky and sometimes frustrating oddity with no real impact on the galaxy to a must monitor galaxy smacking thing of consequence. The next time something is posted on galnet it is in all likelihood either a thing or the start of a thing. With the launch of the arcs virtual currency in September and everything that it brought with it we also lost something the purely web interface to the extras store disappeared the store that replaced it in game was very usable and did the job just fine but it only did it while you were playing elite. This week saw the web interface for the extras store re-released you can now browse the entire elite dangerous extras collection from the comfort of your sofa or look at paint packs explore ship kits choose your next bobblehead or even top up your arcs balance while waiting for the bus. The third annual gravity well galactic speed flight championships are coming to elite dangerous on the 9th and 10th of this month yes speed bowling is back and this time the target zone is more nuts than ever before. If you're not familiar with the sport of speed bowling then I've linked a video below from prime time casual that explains the method but in essence it involves dropping into a high G gravity well at about 200km from the surface turning flight assist off so that your ship then goes into free fall but then thrusting upward during the descent this causes the unfortunate ship to follow the curve of the planet as it falls and gain speed resulting in huge increases over and above those which are normally achievable in regular normal sane responsible and safe flight. With a bit of clever building and some engineering tweaks you can reasonably expect to squeeze something like 500 to 900 meters per second out of a ship in normal conditions. If you speed bowl a ship you can get speeds between 1000 and 4000 meters per second and above. The more dedicated and practiced speed bowlers and by that I mean commander sandaling can speed bowl for hours on end just following the curve of a planet and gain speeds in the region of 33,000 meters per second. This year's challenge which has been given the moniker of chasing sandaling will see full hardy pilots from across the galaxy gathering in the skies above the Margolis depot in the 61 virginis system. Over the course of the two day event the challenge requires pilots to gain the highest possible speed they can and fly through a finish zone that is a maximum of 2000 meters above and 2000 meters away from the Margolis depot sensor point. There are prizes on offer from frontier developments for the fastest pilots as judged by commanders primetime casual and halo jones and if that isn't enough then there are extra bragging rights available if you can beat sandaling himself achieving a higher speed than the mad scotsman flying through the tiny gap between the central towers of Margolis depot. Full details on how to enter the competition are linked below over the course of the weekend we'll have a ship parked at Margolis depot and will be live streaming in open on twitch. And finally our first ever organized expedition the pit trip ends on sunday night after its six week jaunt around some of the best and most beautiful sights within a thousand light years of the bubble. A slightly unusual format the small ship only pit trip has been a series of weekly short range road trips that culminated in a sunday meet up at a main waypoint for shenanigans hoonary mild peril and general giggling. I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone that has participated and special thanks to edsm.net for helping to sort out a couple of wobbles and while I have your attention I need a collective round of applause in particular for commanders giant hamster, thomason and aggregate chip for organizing and then cat herding large groups of SRVs into the thargoid ground installation that's an evening I don't think any of us will forget in a very long time there will be a pit trip too. That's it for now thanks very much for watching we'll be back later this week with more videos until then oh seven commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time.