Goonfleet vs. Band of Brothers - The Mittani Speaks

Wars are not won by the winner; they are lost by the loser

— The Mittani

The Mittani has begun a column on Ten Ton Hammer, and he reflects on the second Delve war. In his words, "Wars are not won by the winner; they are lost by the loser". Much like a game of tennis, both participants enter equally matched, and wait to take advantage of their opponent's mistake.

The Mittani outlines three turning points in the war that gave Goonfleet the Delve, two of which happened before the actual war began in earnest:

1. Haargoth Agamar defected from Band of Brothers, "an error of basic corporate security writ large, where a player who had been absent from the game for four months was allowed to maintain roles in the executor corporation".
2. KenZoku published the entirety of their director forums, believing the Goons had it already, and wanting to prevent damning alterations. In truth, the Goons had only collected approximately 40% of the director forums before disbanding BoB and getting Haargoth's forum account banned. In addition to making them the fool for falling to The Mittani's bluff, it released information on their true opinion of the pet corporations, such that individual players in the pets vowed not to help in the coming conflict.
3. After losing a mothership and a titan on the same day to ambushes, KenZoku command sent out the order to dock the entire capital fleet in PR-8CA in preparation for the next day's fighting. As soon as KenZoku logged off, Goonswarm and its allies "covered the station with warp disruption bubbles, preventing any kind of egress." They camped the locked-down station for three weeks, locking away over 230 capital ships, preventing KenZoku from defending the Delve from the Goon's assault.

My hat off to you, Mittens. The Second Delve War may have been won due to the mistakes of your opponent, but you guys made Eve drama interesting even for those of us who don't play the most expensive screen saver ever.