Ah....remember this?
Van Hemlock: The Completion of Titans
That was on 28th Sept. Well, congratulations to
Ascendant Frontier (ASCN) for managing to keep it alive for six weeks, which was frankly longer than I'd given it:
EVE Online Vault: ASCN Titan Lost (via Virgin Worlds)
So there you go - eight months to build, six weeks to lose, or more precisely five minutes to actually be blown up. As with most things EVE-related, the truth of the events are shrouded in smacktalk, propaganda, spin and misdirection, but a little research shows not an epic space battle of
Return of the Jedi proportions, or a plucky lone hero winning against overwhelming odds,
Last Starfighter style, but a bitter and sorry tale which rather demeans the whole affair.
Depending who you believe:
The attackers,
Band of Brothers (BoB) maintain that the Titan pilot, Cyvok, fled to a supposed safe-spot, in order to log out, rather than see his ship destroyed after an initial assault proved more than he was expecting. Unfortunately, when he did log out, he was still flagged with the PvP Aggression Timer, which prevented his ship from vanishing as intended, and left it hanging in space, unmanned, for at least 15 minutes, allowing the attack fleet to scan for it, locate it and dismantle it in a leisurely fashion, what with it not firing back, or healing itself or anything.
or
The Titan pilot had Technical Difficulties, causing him to crash to desktop. Events then preceeded as above, with the pilot logging back in to find himself dead, and having just lost a 160 billion ISK ship.
Excellent summary for those of us not currently on top of EVE goings on, by MidStealtherBlues, half way down
this message board page.
Both sides seem to agree that the pilot being link-dead, i.e not actually connected to the game at the time, was the main reason the ship died, but the quibbling and wrangling now centres on the age-old PvP chestnut - Did he pull the plug? Naturally all manner of petitioning, arguing, forum rhetoric and smart-mouthing is now in progress, in the hopes that the Gods can just give ASCN their ball back, due to 'this one not counting' or somesuch. All very ignominious and sordid, but hardly a surprising way for EVE's biggest ship to go down - in recrimination and heated dispute.
Those with too much time on their hands can attempt to divine the Real Truth of events, using this thread, and others around it, as a starting point:
EVE Online Forums:
There was 3, now theres 2 - TITAN DOWN
EVE is very much a culture of not only 'screenshot or it didn't happen', but 'fraps or it didn't happen', so there ought to be a YouTube link buried somewhere in all that trashtalk, or at least a good screenshot or two. I'm inclined to believe it happened, but as to wether it was down to misjudged panic and cowardice, or unfortunate technical difficulties, I don't think anyone of us will ever know the truth...
Meanwhile the rest of the EVE playerbase are calling for the wreckage to be turned into a permanent memorial wrecked hulk, so the thre rest of us can make pilgrimages in years to come, to the site of what will most likely end up being called 'Cyvok's Folly'.
And there was me getting paranoid about flying a Typhoon!
Edit: Vrigin Worlds, doing the legwork, so I don't have to! Titan-Death Video found here:
EVE Online Vault: Titan destruction video now up!
...pretty lights...