While many of GTA Online’s players actively avoid conflict in order to limit the chances of a griefer interrupting their crew’s get-rich-quick scheme, some of Los Santos’ current residents have been engaged in a bit of a gang war over the past few weeks.
In the past, this kind of thing has meant dressing up as aliens or soldiers from the American revolution, but this time players have adopted more corporate identities, taking on the colours of two different in-game beverages, Sprunk and e-Cola, in order to fight it out.
Well, now one of these sides has finally emerged victorious, though not without a controversial reveal putting the win into some interesting context.
Were you aware of the subtle irony lurking behind GTA Online’s cola war?
This triumph is the subject of two recent threads in the GTA Online subreddit, the first of which began with a post from user brucejr01, who shared an image of them bedecked in e-Cola gear, simply captioning it: “eCola WON!”
The reaction to their post played host to a tidal wave of disappointed Sprunk advocates, whose takes on their defeat varied in terms of graciousness, with user develsixteen2017 forming the exception to the rule by saying: “I’m unhappy. But congratulations. Enjoy your free clothing.”
Others were less cordial, with user JamesAyres0310 declaring: “this was rigged from the start with e-Cola being the first quick snack (on the weapon wheel) and literally every Sprunk vending machine being broken”, while kneppy56 lamented: “I (genuinely) drank tens of thousands of Sprunks and this is what happens.”
Meanwhile, user Togger_The_Cat suggested that brucejr01’s declaration of victory might be a little premature, saying: “I'm gonna laugh if this ends up like the (1948 US) Truman/Dewey election.”
However, a different surprise twist prompted the creation of another Reddit thread on the war, which saw user DoxVidsYT kick it off by revealing that in the game’s lore, the e-COLA brand is actually owned by the Sprunk company, in a reversal of the real-life relationship between Coca Cola and Sprite.
Naturally, this caused some players to conclude that they’d been played like a damn fiddle, with user Freidhiem mourning: “They made you shills in a war they couldn't lose!”
Regardless of whether you believe GTA Online’s criminals have been hoodwinked, bamboozled and deceived, make sure to follow us for more GTA Online and GTA 6 updates as new vehicles and more arrive.