This is a story that manages to stir together Helldivers 2’s coolest content update, some alleged numerical trickery, and some apparent Chinese nationalism. It’s the kind of stew that can only come from this shooter’s wider community, honestly; remember that this is the same playerbase that crashed out over PlayStation Network requirements.

Readers may recall that the shooter’s Heart of Democracy update tasked players with fighting off the invading Illuminate in the urban sprawls of Super Earth, with the objective of filling defense bars across several major cities on the planet. Earlier in the week, the city of Equality-on-Sea, aka the in-game version of Shanghai, was in danger of falling to the enemy, causing players to rally to its defense.

However, the city never hit its 100% defended state, ending at 99.9783% instead. This result led most players to understandably assume that the defense failed, since prior such major orders in the game hit similar near-successes that ended up in ultimate loss of the objective.

Cue a firestorm of furious Chinese fans who unleashed thousands of negative reviews on the game’s Steam page replete with accusations that developer Arrowhead Game Studios was manipulating the success rate and forcing the Chinese city to fall in order to lead to a final confrontation on the primary capitol city of Prosperity City (which is located in Sweden); many reviews reference the 99.9% success rate.

Ultimately the anger was unwarranted, as the game’s Twitter account just recently confirmed that Super Earth’s defense was held – and specifically calling out Equality-on-Sea as one of the last surviving megacities.

“The devastation wrought upon our home is immense. Only two Mega Cities remain standing: Prosperity City and Equality-on-Sea. The remainder have been vacated by the enemy, having suffered catastrophic damage at their hands. […] After days of nonstop fighting, Super Earth stands. The mettle of Managed Democracy has been tested; the will of the people has overcome the enemy. The Helldivers have achieved victory.”

What happens next in-game is an obviously open question, considering the Illuminate have retreated and have been taken off of the map. What remains is a previously galvanizing event that seems to have been marred by some rather ugly real-world nationalism… all because a bar in a video game didn’t fill up fully.