Nullsec in Eve Online is akin to a concept from political philosophy, a “state of nature”. Such a place has virtually no intrinsic rules, only those you have the strength to enforce. The strong dominate the weak and control the limited resources of the environment. In nullsec, each alliance or coalition can be thought as a single individual in this state of nature. As one might expect, there will be occasions where a weaker group is caught between two larger and stronger ones. Existing as such a buffer zone is often treacherous, as illustrated by Belgium and Poland in World Wars I and II respectively. Buffer zones almost inevitably are trampled under foot by one of their stronger neighbors and their citizens pay the price.
Our story begins in the southwest nullsec region of Period Basis. The region is somewhat out of the way, and this combined with numerous low truesec systems make the region prime ratting territory. Period Basis has been in a state of flux over the past six months. It was originally Imperium (then CFC) renter space, but preceding the Phoebe jump drive changes it was sold to the N3 coalition to become part of Northern Associates (NA). As Northern Associates began to fracture under the pressure of multiple invasions, Period Basis was given to the NA corps living in the area. A few of these corps were absorbed by the alliance Sugar.
Sugar. was originally a PVP-centric alliance living in Syndicate. Founded by a man known as Bryce (he’s owned many different characters), the alliance flourished in the region, growing to over 1000 members. As it often happens, Bryce began to burn out from leading the alliance and turned over the reins to his co-leader, Nu Genesis. It was under his watch that Sugar moved to Period Basis and absorbed the renter corps, as mentioned earlier. This may have not been the best move, as the absorbed corps had chaotic leadership at best. This organizational instability spread to the alliance level, to the point which Nu Genesis urged Bryce to return to the game. Bryce complied, but he didn’t realize the extent of the disfunction of his former alliance. Any chain of command that existed before he left had devolved to the point of being nonfunctional. Too many people had claims to authority and no single person had the charisma to rein in the rest.
By the time Bryce returned, The Confederation of xXPizzaXx (PIZZA) had began to take sov and had gained a foothold in Period Basis. Sugar. had been allies (at least on paper) with the neighboring alliance of Darkness., but they provided little military support. Some of the Sugar. leadership had been throwing insults at PIZZA, which prompted PIZZA to reinforce a number of Sugar’s stations. Bryce saw the writing on the wall, and reasoned that it would be best for his corp would be absorbed by PIZZA. Nu Genesis wished to not leave on poor terms with the rest of the alliance, so a meeting of Sugar’s leadership was called. The plan was to extend the offer of joining PIZZA to the rest of the alliance, but this was taken the wrong way and tempers flared. Following the meeting a number of leaders sequestered themselves in a locked channel, excluding Bryce, who soon found that his TS admin permissions removed.
This was the final straw for Bryce, so he flexed his alliance executor powers and revoked docking rights for all but his and Nu Genesis’ corps (Altruism and Gentlemen of Discerning Taste respectively). This rendered all assets for the member corps inaccessible. It’s still unclear how much ISK was effectively lost by this sudden loss of docking rights, but it was enough to enrage the members of Sugar. This prompted Nu Genesis to kick all but his and Bryce’s corps from the alliance. With that, Sugar. was effectively dead.
The preceding story was almost entirely based on Bryce’s comments on the event. TMC has yet to receive comment from any other former leaders leaders of Sugar. If the comments on the Reddit thread announcing Sugar’s death are any indication, many would paint Bryce as the bad guy in this whole situation. This is very understandable, given that many of them may had much of their assets impounded due to Bryce’s actions. Hopefully the other parties in this alliance implosion will come forward to give their take on events. If this does happen, this article will be edited to reflect that.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Lioso.
