It was the biggest battle in the history of PvP and yet few gamers outside of the world of EVE Online even knew about it. The Battle of Asakai will gone down as a landmark event in CCP Games' space sim, not just for the amount of gamers who participated, but also for its destruction.

As with any meaningful battle, it all started with an economic misunderstanding, when a member of one faction, H A V O C, failed to make a payment to C O N C O R D in exchange for a relatively small system in B-R5RB. Without the transfer, said system fell out of sovereignty…and then all hell broke loose.

The specifics of The Battle of Asakai are better explained in a lengthy blog post in the EVE community forums, but here's essentially what went down: the coalitions of the CFC Alliance and a Russian-heavy coalition moved in on the territory in B-R5RB while two other coalitions, Pandemic Legion and N3, moved to stop them. And once the players were set, the massive EVE Online battle commenced.

The conflict itself raged for the about 12 hours, and featured plenty of the requisite ebbs and flows. Tons of fleets were destroyed, including immensely valuable ships called Titans, and even more ISK (EVE Online's virtual currency, which can also be bought using actually currency) was lost. Like we said, this was the most destructive battle in the history of the game.

Eventually, however, there could be only one victor, and that turned out to be the CFC and Russian fleets. The Pandemic and N3 fleets retreated - those that could escape the battle zone - and the victors claimed B-R5RB.

For some truly amazing shots from The Battle of Asakai make sure to check out the gallery below:

[gallery columns="2" link="file" ids="214452,214453,214454,214455"]

For as much as EVE Online might seem like a series of spreadsheets to the uninitiated, there is clearly a lot more going under the hood. In essence, the world of EVE is the closest we might ever get to a space civilization, where even the most miniscule considerations (like bill payments) are important. There's a delicate balance in EVE Online, and now we've seen what happens when that balance is upset. It really is the space sims of space sims, and we hope that Star Citizen can incorporate some similar ideas.

[NOTE: I am only a casual observer of EVE Online so I apologize if any mistakes or misinformation was shared in this article. If so, please let me know in the comments I will make the appropriate corrections]

Did you participate in or know about the Battle of Asakai? Have you ever seen anything this massive before?

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Source: EVE Online Forums