TRS - Brave Newbie's Crucible

I guess everybody who isn't living under a rock of Veldspar has heard that Brave Newbies have formed a coalition with Test Alliance and Spaceship Samurai. In the week since that announcement, the new coalition has deployed to Southern space and began pestering -A- and "The Russians".

BNI very much takes the role of senior partner in that new coalition. They have taken the initiative, they are the most dynamic and fresh of the three groups and they have chosen the location for the deployment.

When I listen to their spokespeople, I hear them declaring wholeheartedly that they have no intention to play "the big boy's sov game" and that they don't care about politics or all that serious spaceship business. "Keep it Classy" and "Fun per Hour" still remain their motto, but can they sustain that when they jump into the shark pool of sov null head first?

It is often said that things you do in EVE will stay with you and might eventually come back to bite you in the ass. BNI and their HERO coalition might want to stay away from the sov metagame; but the question is: Will the sov metagame stay away from them?

The members of the current powerblocs will have their own agenda and their own manipulative tactics to deal with the happily rampaging force that HERO coalition is now. What remains of N3 seem like they might try and use HERO coalition as a meatshield while they retaliate against the "Russians" in the South. Providence is probably also happy to get some relief from the pressure that the resurging -A- have put on them. The CFC seems to stay out of it for now, but I would be surprised if the higher-ups aren't already preparing plans on how to deal with that new force of chaos. No matter how much the Goonswarm leaders of CFC like to pretend that they are a force of chaos, they do not like things that are out of control. The last thing that the CFC leadership want is a magnet for every new or old player who wants to mess up nullsec. They can deal with the elite-pvp crowd of N3 and PL, or the Eastern European alliances which mostly remain an enclave players from a real-world region, but another mass movement with a strong motivating factor is not what they want around messing with their painstakingly built empire.

Already the "friendly warnings" abound. Mostly in the form of "concerned" commentators who warn about getting in bed with TEST. While I believe that the BNI council has the best intentions, I agree, that warning is not to be taken too lightly. First of all, there are certainly parts of the TEST membership who have a very strong "Grrr Goons" attitude and they might want to use HERO coalition as a vehicle to focus that into an actual campaign yet again. The other thing is, Goons and the CFC have beaten TEST and they will want to make sure that they stay down. I am sure that even now there are still enough CFC spies embedded within TEST to make sure it stays like that. HERO coalition would suffer if the CFC decided to move against them because of TEST.

The final and most insidious threat that BNI face is that of possible success. What if they really make it big? What if they really do manage to carve out an area of nullsec space for themselves and become - as the saying goes - relevant? Will the leaders be able to resist the egotripping that has turned other alliances of wild-eyed marauders into bureaucratic nightmares blinded by ISK and shackled by metagaming rules?

I hope it will never come to this. To quote "The Dark Knight": You either die a HERO or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

I certainly don't wish BNI and HERO coalition to die - I loved fighting with them and against them in Placid - but I sure as hell hope they don't become the CFC of tomorrow.

Let chaos reign!