On Saturday, a group of angry Spanish players attempted to crash a server node as part of a crazy birthday party for the self-declared “Drifter Killer” Ciniel. The party was suspended by CCP before the “sacrifice” could be completed, though some players tried to mask the act as a protest over the lack of a Spanish EVE client, shining light into one of the longest standing and unaddressed player demands in the game behind the proposal to remove ganking from Highsec.

Many of the pilots involved have been banned, including Ciniel himself. This has sparked a new wave of mild protests demanding the immediate unbanning of the “martyrs”; but despite the drama and the smokescreen cause behind it, the voices claiming the translation of EVE to Spanish have suddenly ended, the cause being: A soccer tournament.

Turns out that some sort of soccer tournament is taking place in Russia this month; this could be related to the Russian collusion in the CSM, a topic that we have investigated here at EVE Onion:

https://eveonion.com/russian-collusion-in-the-csm/

The sudden reduction in activity from the Spanish speaking players has been noticed, some even attempting to win EVE during the tournament; the exception being the Chileans. We are still investigating the reason behind it, but it could be related to the unique version of “Spanish” spoken in Chile.

Other players from Hispanic nationalities gave us different reactions to the sudden drop. Peruvians kept missing the question and made off-the-mark comments, while Colombians were enraged over something; it could be related to The gigX, but we forgot to ask. Mexicans were celebrating for some reason even as the tournament began, and Argentineans were complaining about some small island; not the Falklands this time but Iceland, the home of CCP, which seems suspicious. The Spaniards are still missing from the comment department, but an internal source has told me that they are completely absent. This all paints a worrisome picture of the Spanish speaking community in the game leaving for soccer.

Going back to the party that started it all: It was supposed to be an enormous sacrifice to Bob the server with more than 5000 Condors. The planned number was twice as much and the piñata was supposed to be popped by a Marshal Battleship, and all of it streamed live on Twitch in broken English and broken Spanish, but CCP got wind of the act and put a stop to it with bans in the mix leaving behind a lot of angry weirdos.

From Ciniel’s side, he says he’s going to stop playing EVE, even if he gets unbanned. Some players that didn’t take part in the stunt have criticized Ciniel’s actions: “Putooo, you can’t put a defender on the field when you are losing! Pinche huevon”, said elreyazteca—confirmed Mexican by nickname—when asked about it. This topic is becoming increasingly polarizing in the Hispanic community, with the defenders of the banned rallying behind The Mittani for some reason and the opposers just wanting to see the “protesters” burn; but more importantly this dive simulation tournament seems like it’s going to end the Spanish presence in EVE for now.

Jotun R.

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