EVE Online has come a long way in the last two-and-a-bit decades. It’s underappreciated just how beautiful the game has become in those years. To celebrate its evolution from ugly duckling to glorious swan, we asked our community of capsuleers to create a video showcasing its aesthetics. Titled "The Beauty of EVE Online 2025", there was a colossal $500 top prize up for grabs, so this was an opportunity to pull out all of the stops. Here are our three winners, all more than deserving of the prizes they received, as they show off exactly why EVE Online is one of the greatest video games of all time.
1st place: Rixx Javix
Rixx Javix took home the top prize here and whew, where do we begin? We implore you to watch Rixx's five-minute masterpiece. It is exactly what we were looking for, with countless incredible vistas, planetscapes, and environments. Not to mention the excellent techno-infused soundtrack. Congratulations, Rixx: this is one of the best pieces of content Just has ever seen. Here are his words on the process:
"This was a beast, over 50GB of captured video and hours and hours of editing and listening to music tracks to find the perfect combination of sounds - as well as trying to build in some allegorical threads and unique perspective. I didn't want to create a travel video, or a highlight reel - we've seen those before. I wanted to capture something unique and different, from my own personal perspective."
2nd place: Kane Carnifex
In second place came Kane Carnifex, who stretched the "four-to-eight minute-long" guideline to the limit. This EVE Online montage is like three videos stitched together, in a good way, because it covers many core aspects of the game: exploration, combat, mining, the variety of ships available, the gorgeous horizons, and more. It also has a few terrific uses of the classic Inception "BWAAAM" sound effect. Here's Kane with a little more on how making this awesome video went:
"I bring you the beauty of EVE. Everything we build can and will be destroyed. And damn do the explosions look satisfying.
“I was collecting footage like a loot goblin. I took the time to travel to in-game events. Once there, I accepted my fate: that I couldn’t cloak there to sneakily record the footage. I considered the old mantra: ‘no risk no reward’, and grabbed some shots that the community may never have seen before. After some mistakes and a lot of happy little accidents, it’s done.
The video is split into two sections, divided by Leaving Earth and Wrecking Machine (two of the songs featured in the soundtrack). In the first we build up a relationship with the player and create a short narrative hook. I blended over into the logo animation and started up the bombardment of new ‘Cinematic Ship Boarding’. After this, I headed over to the Drifter Crisis in Tabbetzur to get some ‘frontline’ footage, where I got some awesome shots.
"From there we stick to the Wrecking Machine and wreck ourselves through the beauty of fleets, bashing other players' stuff to honour EVE Online with a SiSi Dreadbrawl undock. We revive Wrecking Machine with the Female Vocal mix to finish the player structures off in an epic montage of explosions.”
3rd place: Eaglefirefly
Finally, rounding off the podium came Eaglefirefly, with their majestic four-minute long jaunt through some of the most stunning and important locations EVE Online has to offer. In this way, Eaglefirefly’s video takes us through time as well as space, beginning with the wreckage of two of EVE’s most famous battles: B-R5RB and M2-XFE. It’s masterfully put together and a peaceful watch, with a melodic soundtrack that truly lets you admire and realise how vast our favourite space game is.
Congratulations to our three winners and thank you for pouring your hearts into these videos. Here’s to many more years of EVE Online beauty! If you're looking for help getting started with the game, check out our guide to EVE Online PvE, or we have a list of the EVE Online movies players have been dreaming of.
Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Razorien on Flickr.
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