Rumor: Band of Brothers breaks apart in EVE, GoonSwarm responsible

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 4th 2009 at 10:50PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, News items, Rumors

One of the oldest and best known alliances has broken apart in EVE Online today. Band of Brothers (BoB) has disbanded, or been disbanded, under circumstances which have not fully yet come to light. Band of Brothers is well-known for their role in "The Great War" in EVE for their fierce opposition to GoonSwarm alliance and their allies over the years. Through that war they claimed such firsts as the first Titan ship kill through their conflict with Ascendant Frontier, and have been well-known amongst the media.

Current rumors suggest that this was a GoonSwarm infiltration, but as of this posting this is unconfirmed. Multiple sources suggest that a director of the alliance has defected to GoonSwarm, stealing billions worth of assets, and compromising the sovereignty that Band of Brothers had previously established.

Massively.com will keep you up to date as more information is known about this major EVE event.

Update: GoonSwarm has released a audio file (NSFW), allegedly explaining what happened. This account is still, however, unconfirmed.

(Thanks, Six Strangelove!)

Tags: alliance, band-of-brothers, bob, breaking, ccp, eve-online, hacking, infiltration, rumor, spy, unconfirmed

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Marty said on 11:17PM 2-04-2009

That's kind of sad for me, actually. I wonder if any of the members are going to try to reform it.

Holgar said on 11:28PM 2-04-2009

Hmm slightly more than business as usual..... but HEY a few EVE playing friends of mine a while back said Band of Brothers was likely to collapse from within one day when I asked them about it after Massivelys article.

Brendan Drain said on 1:01AM 2-05-2009

There's a phrase I picked up during my 0.0 alliance management days with ISS but failed to properly understand until ISS began to fail and crumble. "An alliance cannot be destroyed, only pushed to fall apart from the inside".

BoB survived against all odds and I'd bet even if they'd been forced back to empire they would have survived in a form. But that vulnerability from within is what you need to keep an eye on. And that doesn't just mean spies, it means handling what happens AFTER the spies do their damage. BoB now face the task of keeping their alliance together in one form or another after having lost essentially everything. The corps are in disarray and their POS no longer have soverignty or alliance shield settings. That means no cyno jammers to keep the POS relatively safe and titans logging in at POS will be bumped out of the shield.

But my point is that an alliance isn't just a name, it's a collection of corps that like working with each other and if those corps reform then the alliance is still there. BoB has been pushed hard from the inside and the next few days and weeks will show whether they fall apart from the inside or stay together and carry on.

Jen said on 11:34PM 2-04-2009

This mp3 allegedly details how the defection/recruitment and disbanding unfolded. http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/0902/mittani.mp3

rektide said on 11:42PM 2-04-2009

mittani wins.
bob loses.
goons job here is done.

this is one of the more surreal events i've witnessed. the monetary worth isnt as astronomical as some of the previous corp thefts, but the amount of time and effort that have been blasted to smithereens is uncountable. and its finally upset the precarious balance of power in eve.

Ziester said on 11:44PM 2-04-2009

Hilarious. This is right up there with Lord British getting assassinated.

StarHomer said on 10:32PM 4-03-2009

Haar, IF you were in on this (and my Spidey Sense says yes), then I applaud you and your associates. I knew you had it in you old friend!!

( 8( l)

Firebreak said on 1:33AM 2-05-2009

I think that it is a little early to call it an end to the entity called BoB. All they have to do is reform but the Sovereignty is lost. Now saying that there is now blood in the water and EVE is full of sharks. If BoBs enemies react strong enough fast enough this could be a big deal. It could still be a long road.

Brendan Drain said on 2:01AM 2-05-2009

The POS that were previously somewhat protected by cyno jammers are allegedly already under siege by Goonswarm (using dreads they stole from BoB). And people are swarming in to get a piece of the action, definitely blood in the water.

GeeShizzle said on 7:18AM 2-05-2009

Personally i heard it was a deep goonswarm spy/infiltrator that emptied BoB's account... stole close to 500 of BoB's Dreds and hopped away with hundreds of millions of units of trade goods etc... completely bankrupt BoB's account and couldnt pay for all the POS fees etc...
their POS lost sovereignty and GoonSwarm and their associates we're there to clear up and podkill. BoB players couldnt use their turrets and defences and paid the price.

Expect an Epic power struggle for claim over their systems!

bad news for some.. good news for others!

Asestorian said on 8:07AM 2-05-2009

Currently it's believed that Haargoth simply switched sides because, after spying against GoonSwarm for Band of Brothers, he thought GoonSwarm was more fun.

Most of the BoB corporations are individually unaffected in terms of assets, although I expect quite a few of them have ultimately lost Titans and Motherships in build.

However, BoB have lost all of their sovereignty, which means that their 33 stations and 118 systems or so are open to be taken by anyone who feels like it. BoB corporations will be running around like headless chickens while they get things sorted out and try to remove as many assets as they can from their previous space. There is even the idea that BoB's external communications were temporarily affected due to the use of the EVE API.

Even if it turns out that ultimately the Haargoth account was stolen, CCP can do little about it simply due to the outrage and accusations of cheating that would ensue. It would be horrifically damaging to the game.

BoB really don't have much choice but to either accept that it's over, and fade into the shadows or reform (probably under a different name, such as TAFKAB, The Alliance Formerly Known As BoB) and do their best to reclaim what they lost. It will be difficult, especially as there seemed to be some grumblings in BoB already about the state of the alliance.

During The Great War, BoB stated that even if they lost Delve, they would continue on. It seems like it is time to prove it. This is the real test of BoB's claims that they truly are a Band of Brothers.

james said on 9:54AM 2-05-2009

haargoth is no more then a rat.i never worry with going to 0.0 space. he should be ashamed.someone those guys worked hard on there stuff.and was not defeated.but screwed.i guess his modo is ( can not beat them,cheat them)all of his team mates should be worried about having him in goon swarm.he may do it again.no loyalty among crooks.

Mithfindel said on 10:06AM 2-05-2009

As far as I've heard, it's exactly the Goon way to leave corp. Lemme see, Remedial grabbed some ISK, Suas grabbed a titan. I remember someone posting on CAOD that he's leaving Goonswarm (already evac'd his stuff and such) due to bad language and barbarism (no, seriously how could that happen in Goonswarm?) where another Goon told him that he should have at least smartbombed a station undock point...

Mithfindel said on 9:54AM 2-05-2009

It is noteworthy that at least in the times past, several BoB corps used to keep their common assets in the Blood Raider (NPC) stations in Delve, and as such, they can't get locked out of their assets even if their stations get taken if they've continued this practice. Naturally the logistics become a tad more complicated, specially in the regions of Querious and Period Basis.

They will keep Delve, unless an alliance at par with them moves in to live there - this might be Goons, assuming they can get their act together, but I doubt the Goons have the attention span for this. Even if Goons would move in, this would leave considerable territory for any opportunists - such as the Stain alliances. TCF has now a region in the north, as do the other NC entities. RA is the old, teethless tiger and droneland Russians are kept busy in their own regions. Of the spaceholding alliances, this would leave PL (huh?) and United Legion (yeah right...) on the Goon side, neither of which I could see mounting an effective offensive against Stain/-A-, or even defend their own regions unaided. Admittedly, as long as the North is safe, the NC likely can help them to keep their space, and parts of current Goon territories, but otherwise can't see much change in the status quo by the big alliances (some new alliances could move into Querious and Period Basis, though).

Moron said on 11:00AM 2-05-2009

Goons are the primo retards in other MMO's too. I've played wow on the US-Mal'Ganis server wich has GoonSquad on it.

Let me tell you they are the most idiotic braindead powermonger people Ive seen in that game topped up with ill will.

Its not a suprise that they would pull something like that

kugutsumen said on 1:44PM 2-05-2009

Updated GS: The Mittani's Big Announcement: "i am become death, destroyer of bob"
http://www.kugutsumen.com/showthread.php?t=3604

The thread contains most of the chatlogs, forum porn and screenshot from Mittani's thread on the goonfleet forum.