The great war in MMORPG Eve Online has ended after 55 weeks, and there is a clear winner. An alliance of players set out to destroy the space tyrant Alex “The Mittani” Gianturco and his “Imperium”. However, they won the war in which ships worth 3 million US dollars were destroyed.
What was the reason for the war? On July 5, 2020, the war in EVE Online broke out, which is now known as “World War Bee II”.
A group of about 52,000 player accounts, the “PAPI” coalition, took it upon themselves to drive “The Mittani” and his alliance “The Imperium” (known as Goonswarm) out of EVE Online. In a statement, one of the fleet commanders, Vily, said at the time to the US side Polygon:
“When we started the war, we knew that we would carry it through to the end. For us, this is a war of annihilation. This is a war to the death. We aim to remove The Mittani and the Imperium from EVE Online. We are here to cleanse them.”
Vily’s personal motive was clear: revenge. Vily was a commander for the Imperium in 2014 but had to go into the military in real life, and when he returned to the MMORPG, he had been booted out. For this, he wanted his retribution years later by bringing down the Imperium. A classic case of “You will see what you get from this.”
Wars between players are a big event in the MMORPG EVE Online, which are covered by the developers in news broadcasts. There was already the “World War Bee” in 2016:
“Do you know what is not embarrassing? Winning!”
Who is this space tyrant? Alex Gianturco, known as “The Mittani”, is probably the most famous and notorious player of EVE Online. He is a former lawyer who retired early from his job and has been living the MMORPG EVE Online for many years.
The Mittani is such a big deal in EVE Online that strategies of his teams partly rely on the fact that everyone wants to kill him.
He likes to portray himself as a rogue who leads an empire, plays with the psyche of his opponents, and seizes control of the universe through clever propaganda and manipulation.
The Mittani recognized early on how important it is to constantly entertain and motivate the players in EVE Online. With memes, stories, and ruthless propaganda, his troops are constantly reminded how essential it is to log in again and take up their tasks in EVE Online, to be a “busy bee in the swarm”.
“The Mittani” runs a Twitch channel. In one scene, it is mentioned: The enemies mocked that “the Imperium” stages itself with talk shows and memes and other things to maintain morale. That is embarrassing.
He then asks the camera: “Do you know what is not embarrassing? Winning!”, before The Mittani shows his best “Evil Space Lord” laugh.
3 million US dollars in ships destroyed in 55 weeks of war
What are the numbers of the war?
- The developers of EVE Online, CCP, say that a total of over 100,000 accounts were involved in the war that lasted 55 weeks.
- A highlight of the war was a battle in October 2020 when 8,825 accounts clashed. That was a world record at the time.
- Things got even tougher in January 2021 – there, 13,700 accounts fought in a battle that brought EVE Online to its knees.
- According to the developers, ships worth 3 million US dollars were destroyed in the game. In a single battle, ships worth 285,000 $ were destroyed.
Retrieved everything lost in 13 months in 2 weeks
This is how the war went: At the beginning of the war, the PAPI coalition was able to quickly push back the Imperium and gain a lot of space, but they were never able to deal the death blow to the Imperium. Ultimately, the attackers ran out of steam. They occupied too much territory, spreading themselves thin and becoming vulnerable.
While the Imperium was able to continue recruiting and keeping its pilots motivated, the attackers lost morale over the course of 13 months.
Since August 2, the Imperium has now clearly been on the winning path, reclaiming on a large scale the systems in EVE Online that they had gradually lost in the previous months:
- More than 90 systems have been reclaimed by the Imperium since August 2.
- According to CCP, the Imperium would have reclaimed the territories they lost in 13 months in less than 2 weeks.
This is what the losers say: Commander Dunk Dinkle of Brave Collective admitted defeat to his fleet. He says:
“As I said before: War is decided by morale, not by ships. The will to fight of our coalition has faded, the war is over. The Imperium has withstood the biggest and fiercest attack in the history of EVE and has not yielded. I congratulate all pilots of the Imperium and especially their leaders, they have kept their community intact over the long year.”
Space tyrant seeks revenge
This is what the winner of the war says: The “Imperium” apparently does not see the war as over at all. After 13 months on the defensive, they don’t think about laying down their arms just because the opponents no longer feel like it. From The Mittani it is said:
“You have chosen this path. You have been given every chance to choose a different path. […] My people thirst for revenge. You have failed and you have failed miserably.”
Apparently, it is now time for the Imperium to loot and pillage.
As the developers of EVE Online indicate, both sides still have their most powerful warships; perhaps we will still experience some major battles in the aftershocks of the war.
EVE Online consistently writes great stories:
Player in EVE Online hoards $5,000 worth of items for 16 years, makes a fateful mistake
