Editor’s note: Written with contributions from nync.
Red Alliance (RED), an historic presence in New Eden, has undergone a catastrophic disruption. According to a post published on Reddit on Feb. 13, 2021, many corporations in RED have been ejected from the alliance, booted by a leader accused of theft.
According to the reddit post, the changes in RED started a couple months ago when their leader, Zapp, left the alliance due to health concerns. A new leader was elected, with the hope that he would prove his worth. That leader, Dodger, began to transfer money out of the corporation and, when asked by other leaders for an accounting of such transfers, responded with excuses that the ISK would be returned “someday” or that it was being put into “structures.”
RED Drops 514 members, Almost 50% of Its Pilots
According to internal accounting, linked in the reddit post, Dodger misappropriated some 286 billion ISK since Nov. 20, 2020. When other leaders moved to restrict Dodger’s powers, he was able to avoid the demotion and gained even greater power by expelling corporations from Red Alliance, leaving only those corps loyal to him. The reddit post is signed by eight leaders of corps no longer part of RED, having gotten the boot in Dodger’s purge. A check of evewho.com shows the alliance has lost 514 members, almost half of its pre-purge total. According to nync, one of the founding members of RED (but now with Trigger Happy), many of these expelled pilots are joining Siberian Squads (SB-SQ).
RED’s Storied History
Red Alliance is one of the oldest groups in the game. They were founded in 2005 by the corporation UA Industry to unite Russian speaking corporations living in the Curse region, shortly after the game first came out. They created a large empire in that area of space, spread to adjoining regions, and eventually controlled hundreds of systems. One of the very first massive wars in EVE, referred to as the War for Insmother in Andrew Groen’s Empires of EVE, saw RED defend themselves against the Coalition of the South. The battle turned into the legendary defense of C-6, then the capital system for RED, against overwhelming odds, as the Coalition of the South sent over 400 pilots to take out the 70 remaining pilots of RED, but they could not break the line and eventually retreated.
Later, in another war, Red Alliance joined up with Goonswarm to fight Band of Brothers. Along with Tau Ceti Federation, they created the now legendary RedSwarm Federation, successfully repelling an invasion of what was considered an Elite PvP powerhouse, the alliance Band Of Brothers (BoB.) During that war, the relatively inexperienced Goons were joined, and sometimes led, by experienced Russian FCs like nync, who found it difficult to lead the rambunctious bees who had trouble following orders. This video shows Redswarm involved in one of the first battles involving dreads in the history of EVE.
Nync: And then we joined forces with Goons and xix. Sesfan was [the] main FC for Goons. I was constantly saving his ass. . . . He wrote [the song] “Little Bees” when I was leading [combined] RA / Goon fleets and it was hard as hell.”
The song, a cover of “Let it Be,” became a classic for establishing the culture of Goons, known at the time for being “terrible” at this game, a reputation Red Alliance members confirm. Nync: “It was like leading bunch of drunk gnomes.”
Later still, Redswarm turned the tables on BoB and attack them in their then-home region of Delve. Many famous FCs and alliance leaders have come out of RED, like: UAxDEATH, MACTEP, Rasatan, nync, Hanzo Viper and others. The game was considerably different in those years, as this video from 2006 attests, which shows RED taking on E. R. A.
Seeing what has become of Red Alliance, nync says, “Seeing this, is . . . I have no words.”
“Take Care of Business”
In World War Bee, Red Alliance began the conflict on the side of PAPI, but in late October of 2020 flipped sides and allied themselves with the Imperium. While not official members of the Imperium, RED currently remains allied with Goons. The Mittani noted recently on The Meta Show that RED was undergoing “some kind of coup. . . . I don’t know all the details, I don’t need to know. . . . There is internal drama in the alliance.” Brisc Rubal summed it up by noting how important the relationship has been between Goons and RED over many years in EVE: “We want our friends in Red Alliance to take care of their business and get back to the fight.”
