·event
Capsuleer Day 2017 - fourteenth anniversary
Image: CCP Games · (c) CCP Games (used under CCP fan-content policy)
EVE turned fourteen on 6 May 2017 with the first YC-branded Capsule SKIN ("YC119 Capsuleer Day"), a Festival Launcher, and 600 fireworks - redeemable until May 23 and the last anniversary drop before the 2018 XV format reset.
Capsuleer Day 2017 - fourteenth anniversary
On 6 May 2017 EVE Online turned fourteen, and CCP shipped what would turn out to be the last anniversary drop in the looser pre-formal-branding style. Every active account received a Capsule YC119 Capsuleer Day SKIN, a Festival Launcher, and a generous 600 fireworks (200 each of barium, copper, and sodium colours). The redemption window stayed open until 23 May 2017, giving returning pilots about two and a half weeks to claim.
The YC119 naming is the noteworthy bit. 2017 was the first year the Capsule SKIN was explicitly branded with the in-fiction year ("YC119" in EVE's calendar = 2017 in real terms), establishing the per-year collectible pattern that the formally-branded 2018+ era inherited and expanded into ship-hull SKIN sets.
The 2017 anniversary timing also slotted neatly between two notable real-world EVE events: it landed about ten days after the Fighter Rework had reshaped carrier and supercarrier gameplay (April 2017), and about four months before the Judge's CO2 heist fundamentally reshaped CFC/Imperium internal politics. There's no narrative connection - Capsuleer Day 2017 was a single-weekend SKIN drop - but it does mark the end of an era. The next anniversary, 2018, was the first Capsuleer Day XV - fully-branded, two-week event window, themed combat sites, the Apotheosis-shuttle redeem drop, and the multi-tier Omega-vs-Alpha gift structure that has defined every anniversary since.