-all headline quotations are from Don McClean’s “The Pride Parade”

A battle raged in Siseide on Sept. 30, 2018, with over 500 ships involved at a cost of almost 579 billion ISK as Snuffed Out (B B C) pounded Black Legion (.MEN.). But this was not a battle between mortal enemies who each entered the system intent on destroying the other. Rather, Black Legion forces entered the system thinking they were working in cooperation with Snuffed Out.

It started out quite simply, as complex things can do;

A set of sad transparencies ’til no one could see through

The planned fight was meant to go like this: Black Legion had a fortizar being attacked by several groups, including Shoot First (SFAQL), Sev3rance (-7-), and Siege Green (SGGRN). In order to counter these groups, BL enlisted the aid of Snuffed Out. Black Legion would, according to the plan, act as bait in the region, bringing subcapital ships out in defense of the fortizar, which would bait the opponents to expect an easy battle. Snuffed Out would jump into the system in great numbers and with supercapitals so that, together with BL, they would wipe out the would-be conquerors.

Alone you stand corrupted by the vision that you sought

And blinded by your hunger all your appetites are bought

The plan went awry. Black Legion arrived on the scene with a much greater force than a “baiting” fleet might warrant, including supercapitals: an Avatar, four Ragnaroks, and an Erebus. Members of Snuffed Out, mostly in the USTZ, had set their alarms to rise early for the op, but were annoyed to find the trap had already been sprung. Instead of a tasty morsel of cheese to tempt a rat, BL seemed to have brought out a clearly non-tempting cheese wheel labeled with the sign, “Poison! Help Yourself to Some and Die.” As Hy Wanto Destroyer of Snuffed Out puts it: “I think they [Shoot First, Sev3rance, and Siege Green] had scouted us already.” The trap wasn’t going to work. No one was fooled.

But in spite of what becomes of you, your image will remain;

A reminder of your constant loss, a symbol of your gain

Again, in the words of Hy Wanto Destroyer: “BLs supers were sitting there, a very tempting thing. So, we asked our dudes if they wanna kill ’em. They all said “Yes.” Snuffed Out opened fire and when the space clutter cleared, BL had lost 81 ships compared to 35 for the attackers.

The event reminded some of “The Big Black Wedding” in which Snuffed Out awoxed ships from Shadow Cartel, sending ripples of distress and delight through the EVE community. After the Black Wedding, D0nnieDark0 of Snuff Box was quoted as saying, “Long story short I take full responsibility and openly send my apologies to anyone that feels hard done by or involved. This was a one off act against someone many of us dislike and it is not something that will be repeated. In our however many year running as a corp and alliance snuff has never done a such act. So you can be sure it won’t happen again.”

Hy Wanto Destroyer doesn’t believe the two incidents are similar: “They [BL] fucked our bait and were wasting our time at 3 a.m. and this is the second time they had done something like this. We didn’t tell them to bring supers. They were supposed to bait with subs and a few caps. They gated titans from Venal to Metro (a long ass way), [and] didn’t tell [us] about it. [BL] instantly dropped [the supers], meaning the people we were gonna bait wouldn’t escalate. This [event] was just them failing to do their job at a time we were cranky because it was 3 a.m. for us. I mean it’s not the same thing [as the Big Black Wedding] from my perspective because I actually understand the game and what happened in both.”

In an effort to get Black Legion’s perspective on the fight, INN contacted Elo Knight of Black Legion, but he declined the opportunity to respond.