Growing pains are a part of every corp and alliance in New Eden and Brave is no exception to that. For those that have not been following all the happenings, on March 30th there was a major meeting of the Brave Council concerning proposals being pushed forth by vying factions within the alliances. There had been some discontent over the structure of the council and some of the corp directors wanted to have more say in matters of the alliance. Malphas Inanis had presented a proposal to restructure the council.

The Head Diplomat of Brave, Draleth opposed the plan and opted to present his own proposal. This proposal would see the council turned into a Triumvirate (leadership of three) that would have power over the alliance. The directors could bring grievances to the Triumvirate if they did not like what they did but had no real way to oppose their rule aside for a 2/3rds majority vote to kick. In effect BNI directors wished to have a wider distribution of power and Draleth and his faction sought to do pretty much the opposite by giving themselves more power.

Where Things Went Bad

When the vote took place, Malphas’s plan passed in an over whelming majority. Draleth and his secondary, Anna, were somewhat unhappy about the council’s refusal to follow their plan. Instead of simply respecting the council choice and “staying classy” (TM) they decided to knock all the fine China off the table and storm out. Draleth and Anna took to reddit like the furies. Unsatisfied with not getting their way they turned to fantastical explanations, rumor mongering and even poetry.

Malphas is a Goon spy! They even claimed that there were “agents working on behalf of Seraph.” Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have “agents” according to Draleth. This train wreck did not stop there and continued to spawn multiple discussion on the subject.

What WAS my role?

I’m the CEO of a corp named Hades Effect that once had the purpose of uniting dedicated cov ops pilots. All in all that doesn’t amount to much as it hasn’t really been used for anything more than a place holder for a project I may decide to pick up again when time allows. My true functional role is being “the most junior of diplomats” within Surely You’re Joking, a wormhole mercenary alliance living in low sec. Surely You’re Joking has been friends with Brave for quite some time.

See:

Now where do I fit into all this? I had a couple conversations with one of Brave’s junior diplomats, Nonnak Severin. Pell Helix, (SYJ leader and the True Pirate King of Wormhole space smugsmugsmug trololololol) learned about our conversations and asked to be forwarded the content. Considering he’s my alliance leader I had little choice in the matter and provided him the content. In it there was incriminating evidence that was confirmed from varying sources and was enough to take note of. I won’t get into but suffice to say it was enough to warrant concern from our leadership as well as some of our contacts in Brave.

Who is Nonnak Severin?

Nonnak Severin (AKA Griff Severin and Jimmy ‘Bloodaxe’ Rustler) has this link as his most notable accomplishment. If the name is familiar to some of you in BNI, it is so because his other notable accomplishment is turning a three way battle between HERO Coalition, Provibloc and the CFC into a TMC ALOD (Awful Loss of the Day) article. It seems a bit odd to me that as a BNI diplo, he would choose to spin the battle as an embarrassing failure for BNI rather than “Hey BNI went from flying cruisers in Syndicate to INVADING a 0.0 region with Dreads.” The losses in the article were by no means “awful.” You win, you lose, you grow, you stay Brave and no one should tell you differently.

Before that he spent most of his time trying to destabilize Bombers Bar and writing an article that looks an awfully lot like an earlier piece written by Inquisitor Kitchner. More recently he has joined BNI and has been catapulted to diplomat status only a few days after joining.

Why is he even being discussed in this article? Nonnak was advanced from line member to diplomat within days of joining BNI. Want to take a guess who was behind that? None other than Draleth and Anna. Want to take a guess who the “third” in Draleth and Anna’s “Rule of Three” (Triumvirate) was going to be? It doesn’t need to be spelled out. As Draleth stormed out of his old position he named Nonnak as his successor.

What do we do now?

It must be difficult for line members to see portions of their leadership at odds with one another. It be confusing and can have a demoralizing effect. Although what has happened cannot be undone, it is important to understand some things. It’s important that Brave line members move on. Draleth and Anna were not wrong in bringing their proposal to the council. Where they messed up was throwing a tantrum when the vote did not go their way and take the drama to their line members on reddit. I’m sure Draleth and Anna had their part in bringing Brave to the place it is. Their accomplishments, whatever they may be and for whatever motives they had, still contributed to Brave’s growth.

However the actions that followed the council’s decision were not the right ones to take. In any entity you are part of, there will be choices the organization takes that you may not agree with. If one truly cares for the organization, they’re going to try to adapt to the situation and do what is best for said organization. Throwing a tantrum was not the right decision. That doesn’t make Draleth and Anna bad people. By all means they may be wonderful friends to fly and joke with and whatever else. What their actions show unfortunately, is that they aren’t leadership material. Either they are incompetent in thinking this sort of drama mongering action wouldn’t harm BNI membership or they are malicious in their intent and did so on purpose.

Fear not Brave ones!

You know what? None of this matters. It’s all bullshit. Brave is about fun per hour and none of this garbage means anything. This article has two purposes. One is to inform people on what happened. The second purpose is for you to use it as a way to cope with this non sense and move on. I’m not saying this as “SYJ diplomat be nice to blues Seraph.” I’m saying this as a fellow Eve player that has enjoyed seeing Brave grow. I enjoy its “stay classy” attitude and I would like to see Brave grow to its full potential. Lychton is a great guy to talk to and a wonderful person. No not Lychton the name in the game, Lychton as a human being is a genuinely nice guy. I’ve spent hours speaking with him and listening to his ideas and dreams for Brave. Fear not, this guy really REALLY cares for his line members. You have a leader most Eve players will never have the pleasure of playing under.

Advice on the Metagame: Know thy enemy

What is meta gaming? “Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game.”

It may be a bit scary but now that Brave has decided to make an impact in 0.0 and formed its own coalition, you’re going to be subject to attempted metagame attempts both internal (such as the Triumvirate proposal) and external. There are people that are unhappy about Brave’s existence and their role in 0.0. Why? Because even though right now the membership may not be flying full blinged out AHAC and T3 fleets, Brave carries the potential to reshape 0.0. So when you see comments like “we can’t do it” or “TEST is bad for us” ask yourselves who has something to gain from pushing forth those sentiments.

At the same time it is just as important not to go paranoid. “Fear is the mind killer.” People who wish to do Brave harm are the ones also running around accusing everyone of being spies. They act as if they are concerned about Brave’s well being by making mention but their goal is to spread paranoia and discontent.

Don’t Grow Up Too Fast

I know there is a current of thought within BNI that wants to see Brave grow up. To be blunt, there’s a handful of individuals getting a little butthurt about losing ships. That sort of mentality doesn’t make fun as much fun anymore. Look at the established “elite” alliances in Eve these days. They won’t undock for certain fights because they’ll lose their ships. Even though they have trillions of isk to replace their losses, their egos won’t let them just go play the damn game. Instead they’d rather sit smug on their self assurance. Brave may one day get to that point in its existence being “elite pvp” and all that. But that’s not where Brave should be today. There will be plenty of time to be “elite pvp” in the future. Don’t grow up too fast, just have fun.

Advice on what to fly

Of course the above should be considered within the span of your economic limits. Anyone can say “let’s go whelp, it’ll be fun” but it isn’t fun when you don’t have anymore ships. As such BNI needs to keep in mind its strengths and it’s greatest strength is its membership. 24/7 BNI can form a fleet. That’s a spectacular accomplishment. Now the question is what do you fly so that you remain effective but you don’t go broke when you lose your ship?

Kiting is your friend. In the old days the file and rank line ship was the Drake. It offered great defensive capabilities with decent DPS. The great thing about the Drake however was that it had great reach. Brave has so many members in fleet that if all those members could apply even a bit of damage to a target, they’ll knock it out of the sky. I’d recommend looking into the Caracal. Keep at range, apply damage. Along with that I cannot recommend EWAR too much. It’s a great force multiplier and everyone should be using a sensor damp or TD when possible.

Another cheap low SP ship I’d recommend is the Stabber. (http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=22717506) I whelped this beautiful thing recently but it’s a great ship for doing just that. It’s fast and you can kite at the edge of point range with the right ammo OR if you want you can get in close, apply webs and neuts and fire off DPS ammo.

The two ships can even be used together as a hammer and anvil combination. Just something to consider.

Last Words

I see an idealism and love of the game that inspires me to enjoy the game more myself. You’re not just part of another Eve alliance, and you’re a phenomenon. Don’t let the bickering of a few ruin the fun of the majority. Continue focusing on staying classy and having the most fun per minute that you can. You have a great leader that cares for your well being and you should follow his example in being caring for your fellow members.

I truly wish BNI nothing but the best. Stay classy. Stay Brave.

– Seraph IX Basarab