The Bloodbath of B-R5RB
What better way to finish up what I’m now calling my Eve Online Trilogy, than to talk about the Bloodbath of B-R5RB?! Not the biggest, not the most costly, but by far the most famous. Even those who do not play Eve Online have heard of the Bloodbath of B-R5RB. At the time, it was the greatest battle EVE Online had ever seen—that any game had ever seen. On January 27th, 2014, exactly one year after the Battle of Asakai, over 7500 players, 717 corporations, and 55 alliances participated in the battle. Some of the biggest battles in EVE Online have been the result of human error. The previously mentioned Battle of Asakai, was the result of a pilot pressing the wrong button and warping into the wrong system. In the case of B-R5RB: unpaid rent.
The Real Race to a Virtual War
H A V O C, a corporation within Nulli Secunda who belonged to the N3 Coalition, missed a payment in order to maintain sovereignty over their station in B-R5RB. Enemy scouts noticed this when they witnessed H A V O C quietly trying to recapture their own station.
The Clusterf**k Coalition (CFC) and a coalition of Russian alliances decided to capitalize on the mistake, using the real life timezone difference to their advantage to field a Capital fleet ready to invade the system before N3 and Pandemic Legion could amount an effective defense. But as both coalitions began amassing their fleets, sending out call-to-arms across the expanse of New Eden, it became obvious this would be no minor conflict.
The CFC decided to field their entire Capital fleet, while N3 and Pandemic Legion arrived on scene in their infamous Wrecking Ball, a formation that they had used to soundly defeat the CFC in an earlier conflict. Within hours the battle had begun in earnest, as thousands of players flooded into B-R5RB to reinforce their respective allies. Meanwhile, thousands of smaller skirmishes were erupting across New Eden as both forces attempted to control the conflict in and around the system.Though N3 initially showed they had the upper hand, destroying several Titans and forcing a few more to flee, they made a crucial error when deciding to focus all firepower on the Russian fleet commander Sort Dragon. Sort Dragon’s Titan was equipped with incredibly high damage resistance, and with his entire fleet working to keep him adequately repaired, the long grind to bringing him down allowed CFC to kill several of N3’s Titans in response. As North America approached its primetime, N3 was simply not getting the numbers they’d need to maintain the conflict. Before long, the retreat was sounded. Spies within N3 alerted CFC of the retreat and preparations were made to prevent escape.
Counting the Dead
Well before the dust was settled and the wreckage counted, it was obvious that New Eden had just seen its greatest war. The 21-hour-long conflict involved over 7,548 player with a maximum of 2,670 players in the B-R5RB at one time, resulted in the loss of 11 trillion ISK (around $300,000 USD), the destruction of an unprecedented 75 Titans, along with hundreds of Capitals, and tens of thousands of sub-capital ships.
The event drew the attention of major news outlets the world over, and the developers, CCP, honored the battle with a monument to the Titans sacrificed in the name of unpaid rent.
