The Battle of B-R5RB: Eve Online Battle Over Missed Payment Costs Players $750,000

B-R5RB will probably not go down in the annals of history alongside the Hastings, the Somme or Waterloo as the scene of one of the greatest battles ever fought, but for thousands of online players, it will be a name which will likely live on for many years - and all because of the missed payment of a bill.

Unlike the locations mentioned above, the Battle of B-R5RB took place in cyber-space, within the universe of Eve Online, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (or MMPORG for short) set in outer space.

The game challenges players to construct and manage their own spaceship, allowing them to join large teams or "corporations" in a bid to gain control over resources found in the game's virtual solar system - which is made up of some 7,500 star systems.

Biggest ever

The battle is the biggest in the history of the game - which has over half a million subscribers - according to reports on Reddit, and was fought between two of the biggest groups within the game.

Clashes break out continually between these alliances over territory and this latest battle was no different. The main protagonists involved were the N3 Coalition (N3C) and Pandemic Legion on one side, with the Clusterf**k Coalition (CFC) and Russian Coalition on the other.

The Battle of System B-R5RB however was a little different because of the reason behind the battle began - a missed payment:

"Earlier today an alliance in the N3 coalition missed a bill payment for the system where Pandemic Legion is staging and storing their fleets. This missed bill caused sovereignty to drop across the system leaving the station vulnerable to capture. Seizing the opportunity, the CFC (Goonswarm Federation, Razor Alliance, Black Legion and the Initiative) and Russian Coalition (Solar Fleet, Darkness of Despair and Against ALL Authorities) captured the station," Eve Online said.

100 Titan ships destoryed

The battle began on Monday, 27 January and lasted for more than 14 hours with the final total of ships having been destroyed were still being totted up. According to posters on the Reddit thread following the battle however, over 100 Titan ships - which are the most powerful in the game - were destroyed in the battle.

Eve Online's in-game currency is ISK (Interstellar Kredits) and it is used to buy, sell and modify items within the game.

Reports suggests trillions of ISK was lost in the Battle of System B-R5RB and while a direct conversion into real-world currency is not an exact science, in 2010 an estimate (above) suggested that a fleet-ready Titan ship was worth $7,600 - meaning the today's battle would have cost in the region of $750,000.

Other estimates suggest each Titan is worth 100 billion ISK, which, if you had to earn by selling game time to other players, would equate to around $3,000.