You probably think you know the way warfare goes in Eve. Two sides each bring their allies, face off on the grid, and start wrecking each other. That all makes sense.
It’s also boring, at least to Goons.
A fight broke out in Detorid on Friday, in which Solar Fleet attempted to defend several of their timers against encroachment from an aggressively expanding group of Chinese pilots under the umbrella of the Fraternity alliance [FRT]. A Goonswarm fleet under the command of Kendarr showed up to join the fight, although they had no stake in the outcome. Remember the “boring” bit from earlier? Goonswarm made this fight interesting by switching sides almost as soon as the battle began. I asked Kendarr himself for some details about what happened.
INN: How did Goonswarm come to be involved in the fight?
Kendarr: When we arrived, I said, ‘I’m here to third party.’ In the convo [with Solar Fleet] I said I would shoot FRT, as they were the larger side. After the convo I saw that the Solar/XIX fleet was actually larger. Jumped in and just shot what was closest, which was Solar/XIX.
INN: So you were just there for a good fight and didn’t particularly care about who was on the receiving end?
Kendarr: Pretty much.
INN: How many pilots did you have with you?
Kendarr: I had about 100, with 50 rail Rokhs.
INN: How did Solar/XIX react when they found out you were shooting at them?
Kendarr: They shot me back 😀
INN: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Kendarr: It was a Space Violence fleet, so credit to the squad.
INN: Thanks for your time.
With Kendarr’s fleet fighting on FRT’s side, the battle was surprisingly even. Solar Fleet and their allies lost approximately 33 billion ISK, and FRT and Goons lost a combined 37 billion. Interestingly, the question of who “won” is complicated by all involved parties having differing objectives. According to this Reddit writeup by an XIX pilot, Solar/XIX were able to claim partial victory by defending all their structures in the Dronelands, and they also narrowly won the ISK battle. FRT were also able to claim partial victory by successfully attacking three XIX structures in Detorid. Kendarr and Goonswarm, however, were able to claim total victory, since their only objective was to have a good fight, and they did precisely that.
