Tag: Snuffed Out

Snuffed Out

No king rules forever

On the 21st of October 2019, Hy Wanto Destroyer announced on Discord that it was over. Snuffed Out [B B C], the king of low security space, was no more. The alliance wouldn’t outright disband but for all intents and purposes it had.

My first encounter with the alliance was on the battlefield of Villasen, defending WAFFLES. [N0MAD] towers as part of Pandemic Legion [-10.0]. I decided to write up the battle as I was a battle reporter for EVE News 24 at the time, and wanted to expand coverage of news to encompass low security and wormhole space (with partial success).

Interviewing the combatants, I was granted access to the Snuffed Out teamspeak server. It soon became a second home for me. As Snuffed Out continued to generate fights and headlines, I was lucky enough to cover some of it. Major headlines included: Their valiant fights alongside ally Project.Mayhem. [16-13] against the Imperium, and poking at its low security underbelly, and causing no small amount of grief to those in charge. Their resistance to the viceroy program that would help kick off World War Bee (WWB). Their betrayal of Shadow Cartel [SHDWC], their long time arch nemesis, in Vaaralen. This subsequently caused a schism in the alliance resulting in the birth of Escalating Entropy [CHAOS] and the Placid Wars.

This constant contact allowed me to make friends with many Snuffed Out pilots, current and former, as well as fostering a deep appreciation for the alliance, even though I was a member of Pandemic Legion. People like: Tyler Burbon and his soundboard. Conaildo whose consumption of alcohol was second to none. Tau AD, one of the best fleet commanders I flew under whose anger and irritation were almost as famous as his thick Russian accent immortalized in countless dreadnought drops he led. Hy Wanto Destroyer who tolerated me even though I never delivered on the fanfiction he ordered me to write as punishment. Phantomite the snake who still did Harbingers even in 2019. Capitol One and his Harry Potter fanfiction. Emokidwithkantana and his My Little Pony discussions. Smarnca and his antics. PERUNGA, king of Tama and defender of the Nourvukaiken gate. Batschi, Donedy, Tyd Drakken, Meltur, Gugl, Amantus and many many others. So many I can’t list them all.

Snuffed Out, for all its setbacks, seemed to go from strength to strength even as my own fortunes seemed to decline. First was the ignominious death of Reikoku [RKK] due to internal strife, forcing me to join Hoover Inc. [DYS0N]. However, DYS0N itself moved, and morphed alongside Pandemic Legion, in directions I didn’t like leaving me once again homeless. I made one last gamble on House of Serenity. [H0S.], seemingly finding a home but it was not to be. Without a place, without a purpose, I spent most of my time on the Snuffed Out teamspeak server. Finally, as a joke, I applied to Lowlife. [LWLFE], doing what Snuffed Out members asked me to do for years. I was accepted. It turned out the joke was on me.

In Snuffed Out, for a brief moment, I felt that sense of belonging. I was enjoying EVE Online again, deploying, writing battle reports and just enjoying general banter. It felt like the heydays of Reikoku. It felt good. Sadly it was not to last. It wasn’t 2015 anymore. The game had fundamentally changed and the pressure of constant deployments wasn’t something I could keep up with as the alliance searched desperately for content. I burnt out again. What I didn’t know was that most of the alliance burnt out with me.

Perhaps it was inevitable. Low security space was never supposed to be the haunt of medium-sized alliances like Snuffed Out and Shadow Cartel. Maybe we were supposed to go big and settle in null security space and our refusal to do so had led to our content starvation. I still posit that the game itself had also changed for the worse. Citadels made content creation hard, if not downright impossible in the early days of their implementation. Rorquals unleashed untold mineral wealth into the game, allowing established power blocs to further entrench themselves with growing super capital fleets and imposing Keepstars and Fortizars in every system. Skill injectors sealed the deal, allowing individuals to create whole mining fleets and super capital squadrons out of thin air thanks to the application of skill points provided by ever increasing skill farms.

Snuffed Out tried to adapt to these changing times, making alliances where it could, coming up with schemes to better distribute moon goo to fund its operations and allow its members access to riches. It did what it could to eek out content but low security space was too small to sustain it while null security space had just too many people willing to pile in on any conflict. There was no longer a place for independent mid-sized alliances in EVE Online anymore.

Thus Snuffed Out leadership did what was best for the alliance, and frankly for them. Instead of burning out more of its pilots and allowing internal strife to rip it apart, they simply ended it. It was a hard but necessary decision.

Whether or not Snuffed Out will resurge is a question for anybody but I have a feeling that it won’t. Its disbanding is another chapter of EVE Online coming to a close, and I can’t help but feel sad for it. Snuffed Out had been an unofficial family for me for years, and official one for six months. Now it’s gone and I can’t help but grieve for its loss. Good luck to all my friends and comrades in their future endeavors.

So long, and thanks for all the memories.

Salivan Harddin is a member of Lowlife., Snuffed Out, and was an EVE Online battle reporter for the better part of five years.

News: Ostingele – The Battle of the Five Fleets

Ostingele system, Placid region. On the 22nd of November, 19:00 EVE Standard Time, five fleets clashed in the system, in a brawl that saw the destruction of three Carriers, alongside countless other ships.


The fight started, when an RvB Ganked fleet of mixed Absolution Command ships and Harbinger\Harbinger Navy Issue Battlecruiser, numbering up to a hundred and forty pilots, was roaming the area. Since the Phoebe patch the regions of Placid and Black Rise which borders it have become a battle ground between several prominent Low Security Alliances. 


However, during its roam, the RvB Ganked fleet encountered little resistance, in the form of an Ivy League [IVY] sixty pilots Thorax Cruiser fleet and a Providence Bloc thirty pilots Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruiser fleet. Both forces were engaged in combat, but at the sight of the RvB Ganked force quickly disengaged, declining to fight.


After reaching the Ostingele system and unable to find a worthy opponent to engage, the fleet was prepared to move towards the Agoze system when a cynosural beacon lit off the Agoze gate, signaling the entrance of a forty pilots fleet comprised mainly of Overload Everything [8URNT] and Psychotic Tendencies [TISHU]. The combined fleet fielded mainly Apocalypse Navy Issue Battleships, with two Archon Carriers for Logistics support.


The RvB Ganked force warped immediately on top of the newly arrived fleet, while opening communication channels with the fleet commanders of both Providence Bloc and [IVY]. Soon, an agreement to coordinate between the three fleets was reached, and they all set to work on the [TISHU]\[8URNT] fleet. At first they were able to destroy a few of the Apocalypse Navy Issue ships, but a third Archon called to the field was able to contain the damage.

 The intense fighting on the Agoze gate between the four fleets

A decision was quickly reached to focus fire on the Archons, one by one, the mighty Carriers succumbed to the torrents of fire. Losing their Logistics backbone, the [TISHU]\[8URNT] fleet quickly bailed, knowing it could not tank the damage. Its escape was helped by a Snuffed Out [B B C] Proteus Strategic Cruiser fleet, some forty pilots strong. [B B C] had been at odds with both [TISHU] and [8URNT] over control of Black Rise and Placid, and learning of its rivals’ engagement were probably hoping to help in their destruction.


It was their bad luck to arrive too late to the fight. With the new [B B C] fleet on grid, the three fleets decided to lengthen their cooperation, targeting the Guardian Logistics ships that formed the Proteus’ fleet’s logistical backbone. This was mainly due to a warp in error on [B B C]’s part, who warped too close to the RvB Ganked fleet, bringing their Logistic ships in range of the RvB Ganked stasis webifiers, holding them down and allowing the combined strength of the three fleets to annihilate them.


In an impressive feat of cooperation, all three fleets managed to coordinate their fire, downing Guardian after Guardian. With almost their entire logistics wing decimated, [B B C] were forced to withdraw from the field. 


As all the three remaining fleets sustained losses during the fighting, the Providence Bloc fleet decided to withdraw immediately. The [IVY] fleet though, decided to stay and fight the RvB Ganked fleet, leading to a very one sided battle leading to its utter defeat.


Battle report for the Ostingele system can be found here.


All told, the fight saw a hundred and seventy-eight ships lost, including three Carriers, for nineteen billion ISK of damages, with [TISHU]\[8URNT] suffering a large portion of the damages. At the peak of the battle, the system hosted three hundred and fifty pilots, with Time Dilation being noticeable.


Just another Saturday night in Low Security space.

Special thanks to Douglas Aurelius, of Sanctuary of Shadows, Overload Everything for granting an interview.