EVE Online players accomplished something truly epic today as they gathered in force to take down a Keepstar citadel. That is to say EVE’s equivalent of a “Death Star” is capable of wiping out fleets of ships and costing billions in in-game currency (ISK). Over 5,700 pilots descended upon the citadel, making EVE Online history and breaking the all-time record for players in one system.

The video above highlights some of the battle for Keepstar, but the history leading up to the battle is just as interesting. For two months, behemoths Circle-of-Two and TEST have been campaigned against by the combined strength of Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition. The four have been battling it out and eventually the overwhelming numbers pushed Circle-of-Two out of the M-OEE8 solar system, abandoning their Keepstar in the process.

With the opportunity in sight, plans were underway to organize the over 5,000 pilots that were intent on taking down a fully operational Keepstar for the first time in EVE Online history. It took some preparation, a week’s-long campaign that would come to a head in a 7 hour online battle.

CCP Games, the developers of EVE Online, streamed the event along with  many of the community members on Twitch. It was also covered in a subreddit for players to talk about the battle, and an EVE community News Site also covered the event with a live thread! Plenty of hype for the largest assault in galactic history!

M-O has now broken the all-time EVE system pop record. Overwhelming numbers from the attacking forces who want to make history. #tweetfleet

— Josh Bayer / CCP Fozzie (@CCP_Fozzie) December 10, 2016

With thousands of players diving into one area in a game that is now 13 years old, the stress on the serves was enough for even the youngest Padawan to feel. With time dilation (TiDi), EVE Online is able to slow things down enough to give the servers the ability to process the incredible amount of information exploding through out this singular point in space. At some points, actions that usually took a single minute took up to ten minutes or longer.

There was so much happening in the game that gameplay was dragging, but that didn’t stop the players from carrying out the assault. With such a heavy assault, no one could get in or out, leaving Circle-of-Two and TEST with little if any hope of defending the citadel.

Neither side has poured their full force into the fight, however. This marks the battle as the largest, but not the most expensive. The most expensive in game history totaling at 11 trillion ISK, versus the roughly 200+ billion ISK worth of kills in the game. Cheaper battleships with a mean punch seem to be the way to go in this all out brawl to destroy the Keepstar. Though players were able to strike some might blows, a group in particular specializing in causing huge destruction with bombs, “Bomber’s Bar” destroyed 142 hurricane battlecrusiers in five seconds. A huge feat that you can witness below!

One thing to note is that Keepstars have what is called an “Invulnerablilty Timer”, keeping it from being destroyed right away. This is meant to give defenders time to plan. While Circle-of-Two and TEST mustered all of their forces, it was not enough to prevent the Keepstar from entering its final invulnerability timer and subsequently exploding some time after.

At hour seven EVE Online players were finally treated to a victorious light show as Keepstar erupted into several bouts of explosive energy! Interested parties can check out the kill report, which only details the base cost of the Keepstar, here. You’re probably interested in seeing the blast for yourself, so without further adieu, here in 4K and sped up for your enjoyment is the destruction of the Keepstar!

What do you think about the record breaking assault? Sound off in the comments below!