Bloodbath of B-R5RB

The Bloodbath of B-R5RB or Battle of B-R5RB was a massive-scale virtual battle fought in the MMORPG space game EVE Online, and was possibly the largest player versus player battle ever. Pitting the Clusterfuck Coalition and Russian alliances (CFC/Rus) against N3 and Pandemic Legion (N3/PL), the 21 hour long conflict involved over 7,548 player characters overall and a maximum of 2,670 players in the B-R5RB system at one time. The in-game cost of the losses totalled over 11 trillion InterStellar Kredit (ISK), an estimated theoretical real-world value of $300,000 to $330,000 USD. This theoretical value is derived from time cards which are purchasable for real currency and can be converted into a tradable item in-game.

Part of a larger conflict known as the Halloween War, the fight started after a single player controlling a space station in the star system B-R5RB accidentally failed to make a scheduled in-game routine maintenance payment which made the system (a key staging area used by N3/PL in the war) highly vulnerable to capture. The CFC and Russian coalitions began pouring players into the system in a swift offensive, and N3/PL moved in a large fleet of players as a response as well. A massive battle erupted in the system and numerous smaller engagements occurred throughout the game universe as players attempted to block reinforcements from joining the battle. CFC/Rus gained a clear win by inflicting heavy losses on N3/PL and successfully capturing B-R5RB. The losses totalled 576 Capital-class ships including 75 Titans (the largest ships available to players), along with thousands of smaller vessels.

To commemorate the sheer size and cost of the battle, the game's creators, CCP Games, erected a permanent monument in the system B-R5RB named "The Titanomachy", consisting of non-salvageable capital ship wrecks.

Background

Eve Online is a space game in which players engage in a variety of activities including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and combat. A few dozen players form corporations (called guilds or alliances in other MMORPGs), and these corporations in turn can formally join in alliance with other corporations. Many of these alliances create informal coalitions to work toward common goals and fight competing alliances. The Halloween War was a conflict in the game universe which started around Halloween in late October 2013 and pitted the CFC and "Russian" coalition and their allies against the N3 and Pandemic Legion coalitions and their allies.^[4][5][6] B-R5RB, located in the Immensea region, served as the staging ground for all Pandemic Legion fleets.^[4][6] A few days before the fighting in B-R5RB, the CFC and Russian coalition suffered a decisive loss to N3 and Pandemic Legion forces in the Battle of HED-GP in the Catch region, due to the N3/PL's "Wrecking Ball" formation of Titan and Supercarrier "supercapital" ships in the center of a huge sphere of mainly Archon carriers.^[4][7]

Battle

Outbreak of conflict

On January 27, 2014 (YC 116 in-game), the one-year anniversary of the immense Battle of Asakai, player corporation "H A V O C", a member of Nulli Secunda, which in turn is a part of the N3/Pandemic Legion coalition, mistakenly failed to make a scheduled payment to in-game security force CONCORD. This resulted in the star system B-R5RB losing its sovereign status, which meant that other players could capture the system without needing to wait for the normal "reinforcement timers" (real time waiting periods of several days designed to allow defenders to rally).^[4][5][8] An enemy scout discovered Nulli Secunda quietly attempting to regain control with their Territorial Control Units (TCU).^[9] At around 14:00 UTC, with an hour remaining on the clock before Nulli Secunda could regain control, the CFC and Russian coalition sent a capital fleet to the station. RAZOR Alliance took the station, and the Russians destroyed the N3/PL Territorial Control Unit and set up its own TCU in order to establish control.^[9][10] As capturing this system would enable them to trap Pandemic Legion assets, including hundreds of capital and sub-capital ships, inside and prevent them from joining the war, CFC Alliance and Russian-heavy coalition forces scrambled to gain control of the system, with thousands of players logging on and preparing their fleets.^[4] Manfred Sideous of Pandemic Legion claimed that the missed payment resulted from a bug, as he had enough ISK in his holding corporation wallet and had autopay checked.^[10]

Battle for B-R5RB

Pandemic Legion and N3 moved to retake the system, but the Russians destroyed all Territorial Control Units anchored in the system.^[4] N3/PL then deployed their super-carrier and carrier fleet in the "Wrecking Ball" formation just off the system's space station, a formation which had previously defeated the CFC and Russian alliance.^[4][7] As the conflict was a surprise and occurred on a Monday workday, CFC and Rus decided to take advantage and gain field superiority before N3 and PL could respond and so deployed their entire Capital Fleet to the system. Meanwhile, they deployed their sub-capital fleets to N3 staging systems, including I-NGI8 and GXK-7F, to delay any reinforcements.^[4][11]

Each side then attempted to rush all available pilots into the system, and the game's time dilation software kicked in. Time dilation is a game feature created by developer CCP Games to handle heavy loads on the game server without the game lagging or disconnecting players.^[12][13] In time dilation, the game slows up to ten percent normal speed, with each second of game time displaying as ten seconds of real time. The two sides traded Titan kills every hour, when their Doomsday weapons could fire again, and the system became filled with warp disruption bubbles, making extraction difficult.^[9] For a while neither side gained any real advantage, though CFC/Rus managed to on-line their Territorial Control Units and held a slight lead in the number of enemy Titans destroyed.^[4][9] Throughout the engagement, related battles played out across the entire game universe as fleets tried to block reinforcements, destroy fleeing capitals and super-capitals, or trap pilots attempting to enter the fray.^[4]

The tide of the battle started to turn when Manfred Sideous, the initial N3/PL fleet commander, handed control to Vince Draken, CEO of Northern Coalition. Vince Draken managed to concentrate fire on and destroy several CFC/Rus Titans, and forced some additional Russian Titans to leave the system with depleted shields and armor.^[4] However, N3/PL overestimated their success and began to focus their attacks on the Titan belonging to Sort Dragon, the commander of all remaining Russian forces in the field.^[4] This Titan had very high damage resistance, and Sort Dragon drew upon his entire fleet to assist in repairing it, enabling it to hold out much longer than most other Titans up to that point. By the time his Titan fell, the CFC/Rus had managed to destroy five N3/PL Titans, putting the alliance well ahead.^[4] James Carl, a member of the N3/Pandemic Legion coalition, reported to the Associated Press that "It looks like CFC is winning, but we're hoping now that all of our US players are online, we'll turn the tide."^[12] But when the US-timezone players logged on and reinforcements became available, PL did not see the numbers they had expected, and the CFC blockaded adjacent systems to prevent them joining the battle.^[9] Eventually, N3/PL could no longer destroy any Titans, and ordered a retreat.^[9] They switched their fire onto CFC/Rus's Dreadnoughts in an attempt to take out as many ships as possible during retreat.^[11] Due to their spy network, CFC knew that N3/PL had ordered a retreat and deployed Interdictors and Heavy Interdictors to prevent the withdrawal.^[11] N3/PL lost several more Titans, Super Carriers, and Capitals in the extraction, with many trapped by the warp disruption bubbles strewn throughout the battle area.^[4]

Aftermath

Over 7,548 unique characters participated in the overall battle, of which 6,058 participated directly in the B-R5RB system with a maximum of 2,670 in system at the same time.^[4][5] These numbers included 717 unique player corporations and involved 55 unique player alliances.^[4] Joystiq called the battle potentially the largest recorded PvP battle in any game to date.^[13] The 21 hour-long conflict resulted in the loss of 75 Titans, 13 Super Carriers, 370 Dreadnoughts, and 123 Carriers, along with thousands of smaller ships and innumerable fighters and drones.^[14] N3 and Pandemic Legion lost 59 Titans while the CFC and Russian coalition lost only 16.^[4][15] An estimated 11 trillion ISK in assets was lost during the battle, and media outlets reported the battle as the biggest and most expensive in EVE Online's history, estimating that the battle cost $300,000–$330,000 in real-world money.^[6][7][16] This estimate comes from a figure listed in the official report by CCP Games, which the report based off a theoretical conversion of pilot license extensions, or PLEX, into real-world USD.^[4] While direct conversion of real currency into ISK, or vice versa, is strictly prohibited, and PLEX units are purchasable in-game, additional PLEX units can be purchased for $15 USD, and it is from this theoretical real-world value that the estimated dollar amounts lost in the battle are drawn.^[17] However, this does not mean this amount of real-world money was expended, as many ships were purchased through in-game currency or corporation assets.^[18] Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, an economist hired by CCP Games to oversee EVE Online's economy, stated that "To me, as an economist, that doesn’t really matter. In both cases this is economical value that is created by people’s work, either in real life or in virtual life. They put their blood, sweat and tears into making stuff so they can have an advantage in a battle, because in this battle like in any other battle in meet worlds, in real life, it is the resources you have available."^[18]

Alexander Gianturco, who goes by the in-game character The Mittani, CEO of Goonwaffe (The largest corporation in the Goonswarm Federation alliance and hence the largest alliance in the CFC),^[19][20] reported to Polygon near the end of the battle that "As vengeance for [the battle of] Asakai goes, it's somewhat ironic; our forces lost three Titans and seven supercarriers last year in Asakai, and lost the battle. This year we've killed 40+ hostile Titans and we have seven more hours of killing before downtime."^[6] Also near the end of the battle, Ali Aras wrote on TheMittani.com, an Eve Online-devoted website, that "The kills made here decide not only this war, but the next, and the next after that."^[9] Aras also noted some of the economic repercussions, stating that "the price of Tritanium has been creeping upwards, anticipating the flurry of industrial production to come."^[9]

Following the Battle of B-R5RB, Pandemic Legion withdrew from the Southeast theater and struck a deal with the CFC which allowed them to evacuate billions of assets from the B-R5RB system.^[21] Other N3 forces retreated in from the south, and in the following few days CFC alliances managed to capture a total of twenty three systems in the regions Immensea, Catch, Tenerifis, and Feythabolis from N3/Pandemic Legion alliances.^[22]

In the longer term, the battle of B-R5RB did not prove as decisive as anticipated. After B-R5RB, N3 lost much territory, including a key solar system. The CFC then withdrew from the southeast theater. In the weeks after, the Russian bloc suffered internal troubles, allowing N3 to regain all of the territory lost after B-R5RB and conquer most of the Russian bloc's territory.^[23]

Commemoration

Once the game went into downtime, developer CCP Games announced that it would create an in-game monument in the B-R5RB star system to commemorate the battle. "Titanomachy" was created using brand new Titan wreck models introduced with EVE Online: Rubicon’s 1.1 release which came out immediately following the battle.^[4][14] CCP Games posted on the EVE Online website that they planned to install "Titanomachy" during downtime of January 31, and were "hard at work placing the wrecks in a hauntingly beautiful arrangement."^[4] Placed around the seventh planet in the B-R5RB system, the installation is "off grid" from the space-station. CCP Games stated that "Thereafter, any player who plays EVE can make the dangerous pilgrimage there and marvel at the scope of destruction. We expect some of the 'travel' bloggers to do full write-ups on it almost immediately and EVE videographers to make some moving tributes as well."^[4]

References

External links

• Compilation of video footage from the battle
• Screenshots from the main battle