Where does your group come from originally? What is the genesis of your group?

The Border Coalition is a defensive alliance of player minor factions based on the underdeveloped edge of human space. Other new or nearby groups are welcome to join.

What is your group all about? What are your fundamental goals?

We all expand our minor factions to create bigger, stronger entities easier for players to support. We are against both slavery and the interminable conflict between Federation and Empire. We believe that the pursuit of political controversy should not be allowed to detract from human progress. The Border Coalition formed long before the chance to rise to power via the dangerous games and will continue to exist regardless of the outcome. Our goal always was to expand, colonize and protect the outer colonies, to gather and share knowledge in the void, pave the way for the future and help honourable minor factions to maintain their individual group identities and independence.

Do you have a narrative around your group? Is it part of the in-game lore?

The sovereign groups united under the Border Coalition all have been a part of this universe for a long time, developing backstories around their groups and for the coalition itself. Galnet has covered news articles about their interactions with the galaxy and all of them are proud to have been acknowledged by FD for their efforts. The Mercs in particular have put a huge amount of effort in. There are hours’ worth of videos and CG community activity behind them. But most of all, the Border Coalition has a fully fleshed out leader and figurehead, Duke Tiberius. With the best voice imaginable. Listen to him and let him sway and rouse your hearts.

Why should you win the Dangerous Games? Why should people help you in the games?

Of all the competitors, we represent the best path from the establishment of a player minor faction to recognition as Power. We are committed to making the game better for everyone. This is something that we cannot do alone, and may not be able to do at all if we cannot engage with FD to look into this. We have a track record of lobbying to improve Elite Dangerous, alongside other groups, including our fellow competitors AEDC who have battled with the BGS through some dark times, without giving up.

• We offer something very different to the existing powers. We will not, as a point of principle, get involved in the territorial squabbling and backstabbing that goes on. Our focus is outwards... to explore, to colonize and to protect the people of the galaxy. We stand for the outer colonies and will protect their sovereignty. We already have a space we call home. There is no need for “Dead Men’s Shoes”

• We are primarily colonisers. To survive as a power past our initial rise, we will have to negotiate some changes to the way PP or the BGS works with FD. Taking our place, if we win the DG is meaningless, if we have to betray our ideals past the first weeks to survive in the dark space. To survive in the borderlands in the long term we either need to soften the need for constant expansion to avoid collapse, or have an expansion and colonisation mechanism to allow us to expand our sphere of influence without conflict and increase the value of our systems without exploiting free peoples. The latter is preferable since it would make the entire game more exciting. As an indication of what struggles we face, we currently have a system with more factions than population!

What would it mean to you and your group if you did win?

PowerPlay has not been updated or improved since it began a year ago, recently it has not even been debugged. It seems that it will even take more effort beyond the Games to push for a version PowerPlay we can all enjoy. However we are very much used to this! Our ultimate goal is to help FD find a way make the whole PP mechanic more compelling, in much the same way that we played our part with the BGS. We are actively canvassing both PP agnostics and powerplay fanatics, looking for the drivers of sustainable and lasting commitment to power play and by inference the game itself. We do not presume to know what the technical solution is but we do intend to represent the aspirations of not just the Border Coalition, but the entire player community. We are aware of some intense frustrations within players who have committed more to power play than many people commit to their real life jobs, who may resent the fact that some upstarts are getting this chance. All we can say is that we will do our level best. There can be no guarantees other than we will try and that we have a track record at sticking at things through adversity without compromising our ideals.

If you were to become a Power, what sort of power would you be? Talk through all the benefits, bonuses and everything else…

Shiny toys? We focus on minor factions, our benefits will be attractive to players who want to discover, establish and expand their own societies, of whatever nature. The galaxy has almost unlimited resources, we should not expend ourselves uselessly on squabbling over what is placed right in front of us. Explore, colonise, protect! Put it another way, if we need shiny toys to encourage CMDRs to back us, we have failed to make our case compelling enough.