Has EVE's most powerful alliance fallen?
Band of Brothers (renamed KenZoku) was once the most powerful alliance in EVE Online with a stated goal, even here at Massively, to control all of the game's New Eden galaxy. Now, KenZoku has reportedly left the contested, lawless frontier of 0.0 space after months of resisting the combined forces of rival alliances.
One of EVE's in-game journalists, Interstellar Correspondent ISD Clarity Brown, reports from the site of KenZoku's last holdout: "GoonSwarm and their allies deployed a camp on KenZoku's sole remaining outpost last night. A joint force of pilots from Pandemic Legion, GoonSwarm, Morsus Mihi, Razor Alliance and KIA deployed 27 titans around the station in a show of force and gave a demonstration of the sheer power embodied in such a gang."
Titans are the game's most expensive weapons of mass destruction, massive ships capable of unleashing 'Doomsday' area-of-effect attacks that melt fleets caught in the blast. To unleash 27 Doomsday blasts at once is... quite a sight, as the video footage demonstrates.
Band of Brothers was dealt a crippling blow back in February when a well-placed member of their own alliance defected to GoonSwarm, but on his way out, used his access privileges to disband the Band of Brothers with one click of a mouse. BoB reformed under a new moniker, KenZoku, but had lost some of their strategic advantages in the war, given the game mechanics of sovereignty (system control) in EVE. The struggle between KenZoku and their allied enemies has lasted months, but with this week's announcement of KenZoku's retreat, some say that the largest virtual conflict ever waged in the game has ended.
What KenZoku's next move will be is uncertain, but it's doubtful that players who have held the reigns of power in alliance warfare throughout the history of EVE will simply give up. We're curious about what will happen next, and if EVE Online could be entering a new era in player politics. Time will tell.
