Circle of Two, one of Eve Online’s biggest alliances is in the midst of a coup, with one of its leaders, The Judge, defecting to rival alliance The Imperium, taking a tonne of ISK and assets with him.
It’s all happened very quickly at around 02:00 BST on September 12, when a Circle of Two keepstar, a giant space station constructed by members of the alliance, changed ownership to a corporation outside of the alliance. Ownership then changed again to Goonswarm, the main corporation within the Imperium.
Since the transfer of control, Goons have celebrated by writing “LOL” in warp disrupt bubbles above the station.
The Judge, who also sits on the Council of Stellar Management, a board of players who regularly speak with Eve developers CCP about the state of the game, admitted on a stream that he was responsible for the theft and that he had made off with over a 1.5 trillion ISK in in-game currency and assets – including a titan owned by GigX, the leader of Circle of Two.
The exact value of everything stolen isn’t yet clear but it looks like it’s the largest theft in Eve history, the next largest theft tops out at one trillion ISK.
In response to the theft, GigX sent threats to the Judge and tried to get his personal details to publish online. CCP responded by permanently banning his account.
Not all of the assets were transferred to The Imperium. The Judge also handed over the keys to Circle of Two’s Fortizar citadels to TEST Alliance, another enemy of GigX’s alliance.
Since the theft, TEST and The Imperium have been encouraging Circle of Two members to jump ship and join their alliance. A tempting offer considering that, since the transfer of ownership, many members of Circle of Two have now been locked out from all the assets they had stored in the alliances citadels.
