As for how much time and money is involved…since all skill increases in EVE are time-based rather than experience point-based, a lot of time…probably a minimum of a year per player if they’re sporting super-capital ships. It takes a long time to train up the required skills for those.

Money-wise, at about 15 bucks a month (if memory serves) to play, that’s between 500,000 and 600,000 US dollars combined investment, depending on exactly how many were involved in the battle and how long any have actually been playing.