Bloodbath of B-R5RB

Eve Online is an MMORPG space game in which players engage in a variety of activities including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and combat. Players may form corporations (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 in-game 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]

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. N3 and Pandemic Legion lost 59 Titans, while the CFC and Russian coalition lost only 16.[4][14]

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 US$300,000–330,000 in real-world money.[6][7][15] This estimate comes from a figure listed in the official report by CCP Games, which the report based on 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 US$20, and it is from this theoretical real-world value that the estimated dollar amounts lost in the battle are drawn.[16] 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.[17] 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 meat worlds, in real life, it is the resources you have available."[17]

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),[18][19] 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". He also highlighted some of the economic repercussions, including the increase in the price of Tritanium, which he viewed as an upshot of "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.[20] Other N3 forces retreated in from the south, and in the following few days CFC alliances managed to capture a total of 23 systems in the regions Immensea, Catch, Tenerifis, and Feythabolis from N3/Pandemic Legion alliances.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23]

Due to the media attention given to the battle, it, like Asakai the year before, inspired thousands of people to join the game. In the 30 days after B-R5RB, new player subscriptions increased 10 percent (although most players quit after one month of gameplay).[24] This resulted in a minimum of $50,000 USD in additional revenue for CCP Games.[24]

The total number of players in the B-R5RB system peaked at 2,670, which was less than the previously largest battle in Eve at 6VDT-H, which had 4,070 players in the main battle.[25] B-R5RB however had many smaller related battles playing out, meaning it involved more players in total. The number of players was later surpassed by the battle of 9-4RP2, with over 6,000 players in system and many more in related battles.[26] However, due to technical issues with the larger battle, B-R5RB remains the second largest battle in the EVE Online universe in terms of resources destroyed.[26] An even larger battle at FWST-8, in 2020, saw 8,825 players participating in total, with a peak of 6,557 located in the system, breaking two Guinness World Records for the "Largest Multiplayer Videogame PVP Battle" and the "Most Concurrent Participants in a Multiplayer Videogame PvP Battle", making it the current largest battle in the game in terms of player count. B-R5RB remains the most expensive battle, however.[27][28] On December 31 2020 The Massacre of M2-XFE broke the record of largest total destruction in a single battle.

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] The name references both the Titan-class ships used in the game and the war in Greek mythology between the Titans and the Olympian gods.[29] 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] The history of the battle and the installed memorial has been called a "must-see" for players as well as the general public who might otherwise not be interested in the game.[29]

• CCP Games' video coverage of the battle
• Compilation of video footage from the battle
• Screenshots from the main battle