I know exactly, or I should say, I believe I know what caused it.
FSO is a team event, much say like football. However, in this event your team mates will change over time so the guys you are trying to kill this month are the guys that are trying to keep you alive and get you to your target next month. Yes, we all want to win but unlike the MA FSO is not as nakedly cut throat. In the MA there is no incentive to have good sportsmanship and to for players to go ... him, fields are open so I can up again in plane but should I? That violates not only violates the rules but ruins other people's good time.
Think on that last part. You just spent 75 minutes getting to your target, many times fighting your way there, or fighting your way out. Maybe you are on your way home feeling that adrenalin that comes from a fight and knowing you survived (in here it is not about wracking up only kills but also surviving), you nurse your wounded bird home .. and then bam you get jumped and end up being killed. It is a disappointment .. you almost made it home. I mean in FSO you hear players generally be disappointed when they don't make it home, they make it home but crack up their planes on landing, etc. ... you don't get that in the MA our with the MA mindset.
Now think on how that person will feel when they find out they were jumped and killed by a guy who was previously killed and upped again just because he found out the fields were open and why not.
This is what I mean about the need for good sportsmanship here. Just because you can do things doesn't mean you should.
You shouldn't taunt people in here. You might be winging with them in the future.
You shouldn't be rude, ill mannered or snarky to CMs or CiCs or others about the rides you are assigned or side you are on. We all take turns flying in the bucket and having to fly on the side we don't want or in the plane we don't like. Don't get me wrong express your opinions and do tell CiCs and CMs that you have flown for the Axis 3 frames in a row so why after requesting Allies are you now doing a 4th. Or in next frame to say, hey we flew SBDs or B5N2s in frame 1 we would like to fly something different. That is fine.
What I have an issue with is people who respond to CiCs what do you prefer flying come back with some negative and snarky remark.
So as I said and others said a different mindset is needed here and a concept of good sportsmanship.
Next if you are a CO or XO of your squad you need to communicate with your pilots. I can't stress this enough. Again unlike the MA the FSO event requires more of COs and XOs. You are the events first firewall or line of defense. As a CM I can't be everywhere answering questions. But rely on you to manage your guys. When one of your pilots goes .. hey C7 is open .. you should go, no we only get one life.
I post rules on the BBS, the events site and send you very detailed objectives again with the rules and special rules listed. I am relying on you to pass these onto your pilots and make sure they understand it. So that if say you get dump and somebody goes hey C7 is open a chorus of your guys will go no .. that breaks the rules and we can't do that.
FSO works because the responsibility is shared between CMs and COs / XOs and then trickles down to squads. Last night there was a break down in this. Also last night, and this is my opinion and does not reflect the opinion of the CM team or other CMs or is official, we saw in my mind another sign of poor sportsmanship where a few individuals put themselves above others and said I can do it and it will be fun and didn't stop and figure how it would affect the event or others in the event.
For those who were ignorant or forgot about the one life rule when pointed out or they realized they augered, return to base, or whatever (group 2 in previous post). For those who died and reupped, fought again, died, reupped and fought again, there is no excuse and I don't think I can really explain just how disappointed I am and how as an Admin CM who spends a lot of time in front of his computer designing something for all participating pilots enjoyment (instead of going out and doing things in my real life) makes me feel to see this rule breaking and extremely poor sportsmanship.