EVE Online continues to defend its reputation as one of the strangest and most involving games around, as one guy offers a $75,000 bounty to fellow players, if they can rid him of his rivals.
Just to be clear, ‘holder2k’ is offering $75,000 of actual real world money through a contract on Paypal. Interested pilots can sign up and set out to drive one of EVE’s most notorious alliances from holder2k’s territory.
To be fair, that’s a baller move.
So which group of players could possibly warrant such a high price for their disposal? Apparently, it’s the infamous Hard Knocks, a ruthless bunch who were actually the first alliance to build EVE’s very own Death Star (or something close to it).
As if that wasn’t challenge enough, holder2k wants to evict from a starsystem colloquially known as ‘Rage,’ a well defended place designed to be almost siege proof.
So, even if holder2k can put together the army needed to break through, there’s still the Death Star to deal with. Known as ‘Fort Knocks’, it’s a fearsome doomsday weapon that can take out a whole battalion in one shot.
Yep – EVE Online is fucking insane.
holder2k attempted to rally forces on Reddit:
I’m giving away IRL money through a paypal contract link to pay for the IRL time for gamers to participate in evictions. Employed or not Employed IRL you can participate. It will be a “contract link” so payment will be verified by your effort and in game toons. The money can be contractually recalled if you try to take money and run. The event will be Total Payout of: $75,000 USD for Hard Knocks Eviction. Please send legit queries to: me with your in game toon names. The paypal link will be up in 3 weeks based on level on response and screening of toons. The event will be recorded and all toon names logged. The amount is based on total payout, so the more people the less individual payout. Doing the math on HK if we get 800 toons, it’s $94 per toon, if we get less the payout goes up. Timing of Ops not disclosed.
While this is all very intriguing, there’s still the unavoidable fact that using real world money to get people to do stuff in EVE is a direct violation of the game’s Terms of Service.
But why is this guy so desperate to beat the Hard Knocks that he’s willing to pay $75,000 and risk being banned?
It seems pretty complicated (and ridiculous) but Hard Knocks basically reckon that holder2k is actually an EVE player called HeWhoShallNotBe Named, who just so happens to have beef with Hard Knocks’ director of operations; NoobMan.
According to chatlogs posted by senior director Jerzii Devil, NoobMan and HWSNB Named fell out a while back, with things coming to a head when Named was banned from Hard Knocks’ public chat following a disagreement.
The conflict has reportedly gotten out of hand since then, with members of Hard Knocks allegedly calling up Named in real life, harassing him.
Understandably, Named didn’t take kindly to this:
I see that you took it upon yourself to pass that [cell phone number] along to other people in your [corporation]. Because I’ve received eight voice messages of people trolling me [in real life]. Most of the numbers were spoofed, but Verizon was able to trace six of them back to the correct origin. That number was a work number for a large global bank where I’m International Legal Council. The bank has now turned it over to the federal authorities to investigate.
However, NoobMan maintains that Named has actually been threatening him outside of the game, and claims that he just wants to be left alone.
Things then escalated in-game when, just days after holder2k placed the bounty, Hard Knocks found the HQ for Hispanic Enterprises (Named’s corporation), and bombed the fuck out of it.
Hard Knocks member ‘misterzigger.’ wrote:
We are evicting Hispanic Enterprises, due to their members constantly being creepy and harassing Noobman, as well as offering [$75,000] to Reddit to evict [Hard Knocks].
How this strange tale will end is anyone’s guess. One thing is for sure though; certain EVE players really need to chill out, maybe play some Animal Crossing for a bit instead.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.