A perfidious plan has brought down the alliance Circle of Two in EVE Online. The leader has lost everything he built up in 14 years. Even the traitor is now practically done with EVE.
September 11, 2017, will go down in the annals of EVE Online as the day of the “greatest betrayal” in the glorious history of the sci-fi MMORPG. EVE players already call September 11 “Judgement Day”, the day of the Last Judgment.
We reported on what happened there: A member of the powerful alliance “Circle of Two” betrayed his own people, robbed the money and blueprints, and handed the space stations over to the enemies. In the days following this betrayal, the alliance collapsed.
The clan leader himself was permanently banned by developer CCP after he publicly made a threat against the traitor. Thousands of players have since left the alliance. The enemies, from the Imperium, triumph and celebrate themselves for this successful coup.
Personal conflict escalated into betrayal
Two weeks later, it is now known how it all happened. It was a perfectly executed betrayal with deep consequences and a long backstory. The traitors are all too willing to play their roles in the game and readily provide information to sites like Kotaku or PC Gamer.
After all, betrayal is part of the game in EVE Online, part of a “meta-game” that takes place in conversations outside of the game, and some prefer to play that much more than the actual MMORPG.
Clearly, there had been tensions for a long time between the later traitor, The Judge, and the leader of his alliance, Gigx.
According to The Judge, he always had to pick up the diplomatic shards and try to hold the fragile power structure in EVE together while his boss, Gigx, was an egomaniac who demanded absolute obedience.
Gigx was the star of his alliance and was revered there like a demigod. This increasingly frustrated The Judge. He apparently felt underappreciated.
With the latest patches, it became increasingly difficult to maintain Circle of Two’s diplomatic connections with other alliances. The chief diplomat had to work hard here, while his leader didn’t care and acted rather counterproductively. All of this led to growing tensions between The Judge and Gigx, at least according to the traitor’s account.
Betrayal built up over a year
One of the enemies, Aryth, took advantage of these tensions. He recognized these tensions over a year ago and gradually persuaded The Judge into the grand betrayal.
Aryth’s alliance, the Goonswarm Federation, had an outstanding score to settle with Circle of Two. When Goonswarm was embroiled in a war in 2016, their allies, the Circle of Two, severed all ties to them and abandoned them in their hour of need. The announcement to break all bridges even came from The Judge at that time. Goonswarm had to clear the field and withdrew to lick their wounds.
Goonswarm vowed to take terrible revenge on Circle of Two at that time. Aryth began to look for potential traitors within Circle of Two at player meetings. There, he early on recognized The Judge as a possible target due to his growing dissatisfaction with his situation and leader Gigx.
The final maneuver to bring The Judge to betrayal then took place in a bar in Iceland. Even in the presence of one of the EVE developers, who wanted to find out what the “meta-game” of EVE actually is and how it is played.
There, Aryth finally made The Judge the offer after a few drinks to destroy Circle of Two and join the Goonswarm Federation.
Everything happens while the boss sleeps – Game of Thrones as a model
The betrayal itself was orchestrated to cause maximum damage. The Judge could see as an administrator in Teamspeak exactly when Gigx went offline, then he waited a while until he was sure that the alliance leader was sleeping and carried out his betrayal.
It came with an announcement like from the TV series Game of Thrones. While it was said in the famous scene of the Red Wedding “The Lannister send their regards”, the betrayal began with the message: “Aryth and The Judge send their regards.”
The Judge transferred billions in ISK and blueprints from the treasury of Circle of Two and handed over the Keepstar citadel to the enemies of Goonswarm, who immediately began a surprise attack.
When Gigx woke up and learned what had happened, it was already too late. Furious, Gigx then threatened in the alliance chat that he would cut off The Judge’s hands. However, The Judge had anticipated the outburst of rage and set another trap. The Judge made Gigx’s threat public by live-streaming the alliance chat on Twitch, forcing developer CCP to permanently ban Gigx.
Gigx lost in one hour, he says, everything he has built up in 14 years.
The game is over for the traitor as well
The traitor, The Judge, knew what Aryth and Goonswarm Federation saw in him: a potential double agent who could be turned.
The Judge knows what the action means for him: No one will trust him anymore. His days as one of the “powerful” in EVE are numbered: “Money comes and goes, your reputation is all you have in EVE Online. No one will give me the keys to a Keepstar anymore,” he says in a conversation with Kotaku.
- The Judge got his revenge. Real revenge, revenge in the “Rains of Castamere” style – revenge like in Game of Thrones. He is now ready to step back from EVE Online.
- His victim, Gigx, has no other choice after his permanent ban. “It is finally time for other things,” Gigx tells the magazine PC Gamer.
- Aryth, on the other hand, the puppeteer behind all of this, loves EVE more than ever. The entire action has rekindled his love for EVE and the brutal meta-game.
More on the topic can be found here:
Betrayal in EVE Online – Intrigues like from Game of Thrones
