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Bloodbath of B-R5RB
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Bloodbath of B-R5RB
Part of Halloween War
Bloodbath of B-R5RB.jpg
A screenshot of the battle
Date January 27�28, 2014 (YC 116)
Location EVE Online virtual game universe (centered in the system B-R5RB,
smaller battles and skirmishes throughout)
Result Decisive victory for CFC and Russian coalitions
Territorial
changes
CFC and Russian coalitions captured B-R5RB
N3, Pandemic Legion and allies temporarily withdrew from the southeast region
Belligerents
Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) [1]

Goonswarm Federation
RAZOR Alliance
Fidelas Constans
Gentlemen's Agreement
Fatal Ascension
Spacemonkey's Alliance
others
Halloween Coalition[2]

Solar Fleet
Black Legion
Against ALL Authorities
Darkness of Despair
others
N3/Pandemic Legion

Northern Coalition
Nulli Secunda
Fraternity.
Pandemic Legion
others
Commanders and leaders
Lazarus Telraven
The Mittani
Sort Dragon
Mister Vee
Vily

others
Manfred Sideous
Vince Draken
Grath Teklin
Elise Randolph
Makalu Zarya

others
Strength
~3670 ships
~143 Titans
~273 Supercarriers
~817 Dreadnoughts
~233 Carriers
thousands of smaller ships ~1616 ships
~72 Titans
~172 Supercarriers
~355 Dreadnoughts
~414 Carriers
thousands of smaller ships[3]
Casualties and losses
16 Titans
2 Supercarriers
106 Dreadnoughts
5 Carriers
~1900 sub-capital ships 59 Titans
12 Supercarriers
259 Dreadnoughts
112 Carriers
~1250 sub-capital ships[4]
Total forces involved 7,548 participants. Damages amounted to an approximate real-
currency value of $300,000-330,000 USD.
The Bloodbath of B-R5RB or the 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 in history. 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 PLEX, an
item purchasable with real currency that can be redeemed either for subscription
time or traded for in-game currency.

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) open 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 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.

Contents
1 Background
2 Battle
2.1 Outbreak of conflict
2.2 Battle for B-R5RB
3 Aftermath
4 Commemoration
5 References
6 External links
Background[edit]
See also: Eve Online � Universe
Eve Online is a MMORPG space game in which players engage in a variety of
activities including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and
combat. Players may form corporations (analogous to clans, guilds or alliances in
other video games), 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. Despite the prevalence of
coalitions in the game, there is no formal ingame mechanic providing for these
"super-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-class carriers (one of the most popular
and effective types at the time).[4][7]

Battle[edit]
Outbreak of conflict[edit]
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. (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.[8]) This failed payment
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][9]

An enemy scout discovered Nulli Secunda quietly attempting to regain control with
their Territorial Control Units (TCU).[10] At around 14:00 UTC, with an hour
remaining 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.[8][10] Capturing the B-R5RB system would enable the CFC
and Russian coalition to trap Pandemic Legion assets, including hundreds of capital
and sub-capital ships, thus preventing those ships from joining the war. CFC and
Russian coalition forces scrambled to gain control of the system, with thousands of
players logging on and preparing their fleets.[4]

Battle for B-R5RB[edit]

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 engaged. 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 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.[10] 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][10] 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.[10] Eventually, N3/PL could no longer destroy any Titans, and
ordered a retreat.[10] 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[edit]
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 supercarriers, 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 $20 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. Eyj�lfur Gu�mundsson, 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 meat 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."[10] 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."[10]

Following the Battle of B-R5RB, Pandemic Legion withdrew from the Southeast theater
and formed an agreement 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] 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] In the longer term, B-R5RB established CFC, later re-branded as The
Imperium, as the predominant superpower in Eve Online, with little serious
resistance challenging the coalition for the next two years.[24]

Commemoration[edit]
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 Online] 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
Online] videographers to make some moving tributes as well."[4]

References[edit]
^ Moore, Bo (February 8, 2014). "Inside the Epic Online Space Battle That Cost
Gamers $300,000". Wired. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
^ Raimo, Tarek (January 6, 2015). "The Grand Chessboard 2014". Crossing Zebras.
Retrieved November 22, 2016.
^ "Solar Fleet Killboard". January 28, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v CCP Dolan (February 1, 2014). "The
Bloodbath of B-R5RB, Gaming's Most Destructive Battle Ever". Eve Online.com. CCP
Games. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ a b c Pitcher, Jenna (January 30, 2014). "Eve Online's Bloodbath of B-R5RB cost
up to $330,000". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ a b c d Pitcher, Jenna (January 28, 2014). "Eve Online wages largest war in its
10 year history". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ a b c Savage, Phil (January 28, 2014). "EVE Online's biggest ever battle:
trillions of ISK in damages and over 70 titans lost". PC Gamer. Future plc.
Retrieved April 7, 2016.
^ a b The Mittani (January 27, 2014). "Sov Drops in B-R5 Immensea Staging System".
TheMittani.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved February
3, 2014.
^ O'Neil, Ian (January 31, 2014). "Most Destructive Space Battle Rocks Virtual
Universe". Discovery News. Discovery Communications. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ a b c d e f g h Aras, Ali (January 28, 2014). "B-R5RB: The Biggest Battle in All
Of EVE". TheMittani.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved
February 3, 2014.
^ a b c Alizabeth (January 29, 2014). "The Largest Virtual Battle Ever".
TheMittani.com. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
^ a b Lang, Derrik J (January 29, 2014). "Huge online battle destroys $600k of
ships". Stuff.co.nz. Fairfax New Zealand. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ a b Drain, Brendan (February 2, 2014). "EVE Evolved: The Bloodbath of B-R5RB".
Joystiq. AOL. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
^ a b Stieber, Zachary (January 31, 2014). "EVE Online: The Final Tally of the
Bloodbath Battle B-R5RB (+Commemoration Details)". The Epoch Times. The Epoch
Times. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ Savage, Phil (April 7, 2016). "CCP issue final battle report on EVE Online's most
destructive battle". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
^ McCormick, Rich (January 29, 2014). "Spaceships worth more than $200,000
destroyed in biggest virtual space battle ever". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved
February 8, 2014.
^ Taborek, Travis (February 5, 2014). "The Greatest Battle That Never Was: 'EVE
Online' War Most Expensive in History". The Bottom Line. Associated Students of the
University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
^ a b Kuchera, Ben (February 12, 2014). "The true cost of Eve Online's massive
space battles can't be measured in cash alone". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved
February 12, 2014.
^ "Goonswarm Federation Alliances". dotlan. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
^ "EVE Nullsec Powerblocks". EVE Dingo. Archived from the original on 8 February
2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
^ The Mittani (January 30, 2014). "Pandemic Legion To Withdraw From South".
TheMittani.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2014. Retrieved February
4, 2014.
^ Flatterpillo (February 4, 2014). "Nullsec Update: Week of January 27th".
TheMittani.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014. Retrieved February
8, 2014.
^ Jayne Fillon (April 10, 2014). "Catch Abandoned Story". TheMittani.com. Archived
from the original on May 3, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
^ Prescott, Shaun (March 28, 2016). "EVE Online is apparently hurtling towards
another massive war". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
External links[edit]
CCP Games' video coverage of the battle
Compilation of video footage from the battle
Screenshots from the main battle
v t e
CCP Games
Video games
Eve Online expansions gameplay Dust 514 Eve: Valkyrie
CCP Games Logo.svg
Related articles
Bloodbath of B-R5RB Eon Magazine Eve: The Second Genesis
Categories: Eve Online2014 in video gaming
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