Previously on… Survivor!
Fifteen castaways hit the digital shores for Survivor: Runouw, all of them interacting with each other, befriending each other, sizing each other up.
Immediately from the get-go, the lines were drawn. NanTheDark had a list of friends he specifically said he wanted on his side, and Raz had an almost entirely different one, including nin10mode.
The game began with a twist: the first round would leave all fifteen people in the same group. They would compete together and vote together, and the two winners of the immunity challenge would start off the second round by schoolyard-picking the teams.
The first challenge was posted, requiring this batch of newbies to sift through Survivor History and identify the people within it in an ORG-worthy fashion. Many found this to be a difficult, boring trek. Some people, like JSlayerXero and Brandobrawl, outright refused to do the challenge, and others did it through gritted teeth. Regardless, many people were able to do exceedingly well, and two broke away with the win.
Nin10mode, a moderator from the website tucked in with Raz’s group, would come in second with an impressive score, and NanTheDark, already gaining status as a leader, would come away with a score above perfect.
Tribe talk continued even as both future tribes lived together as one, but regardless, the voting would become extremely erratic. People who scouted each other as alliance-partners would vote in opposite directions, some people would throw their votes onto random people, some people would even miss Tribal Council altogether and self-vote.
However, in a bizarre 5-4-3-1-1-Selfvote Tribal Council, it would be JSlayerXero, who would narrowly be sent home over Brandobrawl for his attitude pertaining to the Immunity Challenge.
14 are left. Who will be voted out next?
SPOILERS: Avoid the Breakdown if you don’t want spoilers!
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Breakdown:
Episode 2: “Being Alone.”
Tribe Breakdown (In Order of Pick):
Shadowsquid: NanTheDark; Magnen, Harmless, MegaR, Bomberman101, ChaosYoshi, Yurimaster
Oerhaos: Nin10mode; Raz, Venexis, Blackyoshi, Brandobrawl, Emelia Kaylee, 1018peter
Challenge: Tick Tock
Description: Each tribe will split seven Super Mario 63 levels between themselves and speedrun them the best that they can while using a screen recorder to document their time. Each level will serve as a duel, and the best time to complete it will win the challenge.
Winner: Oerhaos (4-3)
Voted Out: Chaos Yoshi (4-1-1-1)
Other Vote Recipients: Magnen, Bomberman, Yurimaster (1 each)
After The Vote
Our players have just experienced their first vote-out, where more people got votes than voted right. Six people went back to camp with votes against them, one of them self-inflicted. Only five people (BY, Harmless, MegaR, Raz, Venexis) voted correctly, and that was probably entirely by accident. Potential tribe divisions aside, it’s clear that alliances aren’t as valuable as they seem, although there is potential for Raz, BY, and Venexis to be aligned together, what with Raz’s super secret alliance.
However, now, after the fact, we have to deal with how it feels to leave Tribal Council. These people have never voted for someone before, and now most of them either have voted someone out or have received votes against them. It’s an interesting situation to have someone say “I don’t think you are worthy of continuing” as many votes in this game likely will come down to since alliances are primitive. Some people are angry to have been targeted, some people are remorseful for casting votes, some people wish they had pulled off a successful blindside, some people just don’t really care, but it’s clear our two tribes have their work cut out for them.
I was fortunate enough to be in the Runouw Chat Group when I posted the link to the Tribal Council vote reading. The reactions weren’t exactly muted. First off: lots of passive-aggressive reactions to getting votes.
“Lmfao 4 people voted me out. It must be my charisma. They feel threatened by it.” ~Brandobrawl
“lawl, who voted me? i wanna hug them so hard” ~Emelia Kaylee
“Also holy shit I was only voted out by 1 person that's really surprising” ~Raz
One thing I noticed when I posted the results was multiple people admitted who they voted for in public places, whether in the topic or otherwise.
“I'm sorry jslayer, I'm going to go out and say that I was one of the people who voted for you. I don't hate you or anything, you haven't done anything to tick me off at all, but your negative attitude just doesn't make me think you should stay in the game. I personally believe having a positive attitude is your best chance at winning.” ~Raz
“Voted for Slayer as well. welp. Pretty similar reason as Raz.” ~BY
“Not really. I voted for peter.” ~Brandobrawl in chat
“I voted peter” ~Emelia Kaylee in chat
Notice how no one has owned up to voting for Brandobrawl.
Raz also dropped some juicy info on his alliance in the Runouw chat as well.
“<Raz>: Brando probably voted me
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<Raz>: EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE A THING
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<Raz>: THAT I THOUGHT WE AGREED ON VIA STEAM CHAT”
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This is immediately followed by an argument between two players that somewhat mirrors more controversial arguments on Survivor.
As a member of the LGBTQ community, I’ll give my two cents: Saying something moderately annoying, wimpy, etc. is gay… is pretty annoying. I wouldn’t mind it if people stopped. Of course, it’s the internet, and that’s part of internet culture at large (you know, OP is a Faggot, Fake and Gay, etc etc). That having been said… there are certain ways you go about the conversation or the request. Those certain ways were not present that day.
Let’s just say that this couldn’t have been handled worse unless Brandobrawl straight-up called Emelia Kaylee a faggot and EmKay called Brando an evil patriarchal homophobic bigot.
<brandobrawl>: Gay.
<nin10mode>: *ghey
<BY>: Gray
<Emelia_Kaylee>: okay brando hold on I would like to ask of you something
<Emelia_Kaylee>: Could you please refrain from using "gay" or "queer" as derogatory terms
<brandobrawl>: Not really.
<brandobrawl>: Because I'm not using them as derogatory terms.
<Emelia_Kaylee>: I'm asking you to be completely serious
<Emelia_Kaylee>: You're shouting out words at random with no attached meaning whatsoever. Yes, perfectly plausible.
<BY>: we call that brando
<Emelia_Kaylee>: <brandobrawl>: THAT'S GAY
<Emelia_Kaylee>: No, I don't believe you never use "gay" or "queer" as an insult
<Emelia_Kaylee>: or just generally with negative implications at all
<SuYo1141 (Less-Than-Innocent-Bystander)>: Um...
<SuYo1141>: What exactly did I just walk into?
<Emelia_Kaylee>: Nothing at all
<brandobrawl>: MK making mountains out of mole hills again.
<Emelia_Kaylee>: I'm just slightly pissed off with brando over something arguably trivial
<SuYo1141>: >nothing
<SuYo1141>: >something
<brandobrawl>: I'm not even going to argue with MK about this, there's no point.
<Emelia_Kaylee>: Okay, okay
<Emelia_Kaylee>: You can carry on insulting things as "gay"
<SuYo1141>: First course of action is to destroy the molehill. tl;dr, Shut up MK.
<nin10mode>: Let's all play TTT
<nin10mode>: Ew what is this
<brandobrawl>: I didn't need you to tell me that.
<Emelia_Kaylee>: Oh, wow, okay
<Emelia_Kaylee>: No, that's the default course of action
<Emelia_Kaylee>: Goodbye
<Raz_>: SuYo for user rep
<nin10mode>: There are better ways to resolve a conflict
<SuYo1141>: At least it works.
<Raz_>: telling people to shut up makes it worse
<SuYo1141>: And if you're calling me out for doing that I'm surprised brando gets away with a lot of the stuff he does.
<nin10mode>: Please don't imply I'm singling you out
<brandobrawl>: He's easily influenced.
<brandobrawl>: Very easily.
<brandobrawl>: And recently he's spent a lot of time on Tumblr.
*** BY is now known as BY__
<brandobrawl>: Which is infamous for its stance on feeling insulted at the smallest cry of the words "gay", "fat", etc.
<BY__>: Well. It's indeed inappropiate in most used situations
<SuYo1141>: While I don't appreciate using the word "gay" out of context either, MK certainly made much ado about nothing.
<brandobrawl>: If you take everything anyone on the internet says to heart, you're going to have a bad time.
<BY__>: Especially if someone attempts to make a serious statement and you're shooting it down with that.
<SuYo1141>: Though I'm certainly one to talk...
<nin10mode>: What I'm saying is your tone could be changed.
<SuYo1141>: Considering I whine and bitch all the time due to the fact that I'm incompetent at my job.
<brandobrawl>: Fake Suyo stop. And don't start to feel offended with me telling you to stop, or I'll tell you to stop that.
<nin10mode>: I mean he admitted himself that it was trivial, so
<SuYo1141>: I understand, Nin, and I apologize, it just disgusted me to see MK complaining in his usual sarcastic and crude manner to something everybody else already dropped.
So there you have it. We now have established that Emelia Kaylee has several people who aren’t his biggest fans, that brandobrawl has a habit of steamrolling straight over people with little remorse, and that nin10mode is a moderator for a reason. I have a strong feeling that nin10mode will know exactly what he’s doing as a leader, seeing as he knows how to deal with what could turn out to be trouble members. The funny thing was, the underlying tension from Brando getting votes (something he clearly expects that EmKay did) was lessened by the one member of their group that actually voted for him.
I’m calling it now: There’s no way nin10mode doesn’t make merge. He is too useful, he gets along with people, and he’s a strong leader.
Another surprising reaction to the vote-out and the tension underneath is BY. BY is a very nice fellow, who surprised himself by actually being the vote that sent home his friend JSlayer. He’s a little shaken up by this, but leaves a very sharp, strong confessional.
“I'm not quite sure of what I'm going to do as the game progresses. To be honest I've mainly been doing it for the moment rather than thinking about winning. But now that I read through this bunch survivor history I do wonder if it might be needed to plan some stuff.
On another hand I do still worry about Slayer as it could have been my vote causing this definite decision as much as it could have been everyone else's one. So here I am now, watching these lists getting passed over to MoD. I'm not even knowing what tribe I'll get into, nor where I'd fit the best. It's an awkward feel to see how much, simple words/names can change. Yet I do still think that some people build up tiny groups, within they'll knock others out. For their own advantage, of course. However, I shouldn't be the only one being alone. So I'm maybe, even forced to consider to change this...
Well. Let's see how this will continue for now.”
It took awhile for the nicer members of Borneo to get into actually making alliances and face the fact that they have to be selfish in this game, but BY, arguably the nicest member of the entire season, has already figured it out. The first time he goes to Tribal Council, expect to see how far that decision gets him.
Luckily, some people are still optimistic.
“Ha, Brando may still be in but I have to say I was close to voting for Slayer too. Ah well. At this rate, the money's mine. I'm sure of it.” ~Bomberman101
A big reason I made this round a round involving all fifteen people at once is because I wanted to introduce them to the system of voting people out. Everyone has reacted in various different ways, and they will change their games in various ways in reaction, as this episode’s vote might very well show. Regardless, two vastly different leaders have two vastly different tribes to pick, but not everything will go according to plan.
Tribe Pick-Em
For this tribe pick, I decided that since it wasn’t likely that we’d get both Nin10mode (from Jersey) and NanTheDark (from Chile) on at the same time, that we would send in lists instead. They would rank who they wanted from first to last, and the top six they would afford would get into their tribe. Naturally, Nan has priority, so if they both tie for a person, Nan gets them. Of course, that does mean nin10mode could drop down and get a high priority member of Nan’s if Nan cuts him enough times. It’s a delicate gamble one has to plan carefully.
In most circumstances.
Here, it was pretty much cut and dry with one instance of going astray from the plan.
Here are the lists, side by side.
NanTheDark (Shadowsquid)
1st. Magnen
2nd. Harmless
3rd. MegaR
4th. Bomberman101
5th. ChaosYoshi
6th. Yurimaster
7th. Venexis
8th. Brandobrawl
9th. 1018peter
10th. Emelia Kaylee
11th. Blackyoshi
12th. Raz
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Nin10mode (Oerhaos)
1. Raz
2. Venexis
3. Blackyoshi
4. Brandobrawl
5. Chaos Yoshi
6. Emelia Kaylee
7. MegaR
8. Harmless
9. Yurimaster
10. Magnen
11. Bomberman101
12. 1018peter
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Nan’s last pick was Nin’s first pick. Nan’s first pick was Nin’s 10th pic. Even the briefest brush of the chart shows the minimal connection between the two peoples’ list.
Two things to note, however:
ChaosYoshi is the fifth pick for both nin10mode and NanTheDark. This is the aforementioned tie pick where Nan’s win last round gives him priority. Up until that point, everyone got their first four picks with no true conflict, with their favorites on the bottom of their opponent’s lists almost cleanly. But then Chaos Yoshi hits, and he’s the hot item for both tribes.
Which is fucking hilarious, in retrospect.
As a result of this, nin10mode is guaranteed his sixth choice: Emelia Kaylee. This now means we have the dynamic couple of EmKay and Brando on the same tribe, like gay cats in heat.
The second thing to note is that Nan ends his six on, well, six. By doing this, he takes up nin10mode’s entire bottom tier except for, wouldn’t you know it, 1018peter, the very last member on his list. This doesn’t bode well for Peter, who just got through with getting three votes for not being known and is now on the tribe led by the guy who wanted him the least. He’s gonna have to perform at the best of his abilities to get through this… or at least let Brando and EmKay at each other. If he can survive long enough to let the two of them kill each other, he’s good.
True enough, here’s the first topic made in the Oerhaos forum.
“Dear brando,
No.” ~EmeliaKaylee
“I concur.” ~Brandobrawl
And… scene.
Oerhaos
Nin10mode
Raz
Venexis
Blackyoshi
Brandobrawl
Emelia Kaylee
1018peter
Shadowsquid
NanTheDark
Magnen
Harmless
MegaR
Bomberman101
Chaos Yoshi
Yurimaster
Trivia: I got both tribe names from playful Runouw.com folklore. Shadowsquid originated from the very first year of the website, 2009. People were badgering one of the more personable, humorous moderators named fourinone about if there was going to be a new moderator to add to their crew. Fourinone responded to the clamor by linking the chat to the very first random user he could click, a no-name user who had never posted named shadowsquid86. After that, the meme took off, and he became the equivalent of god in Runouw folklore completely unopposed until another big meme rivaled it…
An even goofier, more insignificant instance caused the next tribe name, Oerhaos. Simply put, our lost 16th contestant Ridder mispronounced Perhaps, and a funny conversation ensued afterward. From there, people started to push it as the new almighty god of Runouw folklore, and the two would often rival. So our goofy, overdramatic culture inspired the tribe names, and the same people who partook in the culture glorifying nameless people and nonsense words are now playing this game.
Funnily enough, brandobrawl was involved in both the Shadowsquid and Oerhaos conversation.
Tribe Dynamic
Immediately, you can see the tribe dynamics form. Shadowsquid all get along. Even with Bomberman101 trying to scheme in the backdrop, everyone gets along well, they all like each other or at least respect each other, they’ve created their own “homes” in the topics, “visit” each other, and act like the RPGing crowd they are. They’re caring, friendly, and work together as a team for the most part.
They complain less about rules, instead pointing out their trouble in a more rational and constructive matter which helped me to fix the challenge. (I only got real trouble from Bomberman and somewhat Harmless.) Even when they found this challenge hard, they did it. None of them have had votes given to them save for Yurimaster’s self-vote. They all look up to their leader but their leader neither patronizes them or makes them his subjects.
Nan picked them all for a very clear reason: he liked them and wanted to work with them. For tribe dynamics, that’s very understandable. You want to work with people you get along with. However, then there comes Tribal Council, where you can’t be nice. If you can’t bring in at least a couple of people you absolutely want to get rid of, you better hope they give you a reason to. However, it’s clear everyone looks up to Nan and nobody on Shadowsquid would cross him.
Oerhaos, on the other hand, is very businesslike. While Blackyoshi is as kind as can be, and Venexis is very warm and openhearted, 1018peter is quiet, nin10mode is a strong yet more stoic force, Brando is a sarcastic and detached jokester, Raz is cutting and guarded, and Emelia Kaylee is emotional and bitter. They start off not getting along, and I’m amazed that they kept their act together enough to get through the challenge.
Nin10mode has his work cut out for him. He picked a duo that clearly didn’t like each other, one of which barely wanted to be there, and the rest of the cast were people that Raz wanted. I can see Raz being the Dragon to Nin10mode, with an alliance including Venexis and Blackyoshi. The good news is, those four will very likely survive the tribal phase now that they know Brando really doesn’t care. They can pick off Brando, EmKay, and poor Peter if they wish. They also must make sure, however, that everyone is comfortable, especially Peter, as he still has ties to most of Shadowsquid and could flip over there.
However, this first round was not without literally half of the tribe bitching and moaning about everything. Brandobrawl criticized my ability to run a decent challenge, Raz bitched about not liking the game the competition revolved around, nin10mode bitched when I wouldn’t let him use “checkpoints” and EmKay backed him up. They drove me to a point where I was like “hey, maybe Kurt Cobain was onto something.”
What is this super controversial challenge that has many people enraged to the point that I had to edit and clarify fifteen times?
Playing fucking platformers.
The Challenge
The centerpiece of Runouw.com, like I mentioned, is Super Mario 63, a big-ol Mario flash game that anchored the activity on the site for a long time, giving us the reason to establish our online community here. Even five years after its release, we still would frequently use it, but most importantly, create levels of our own off of it. A great deal of Runouw Culture is based off of the ability to design levels on Super Mario 63, and some amazing ones at that.
To start the tribes off on a simple challenge, I gave them access to screen recording material, and told them to split seven levels between seven people and speedrun them. I initially started off with a completely different set of levels than I ended with, and assigned the duels to their levels based off of the order they were picked. However, this wouldn’t do, because some people apparently had really slow-ass computers.
Coming from someone who had slow-ass computers, I could play a typical level at about 15FPS as opposed to a common 25-30FPS, and I had a backup plan in mind for slow recordings. When people come to me, enraged that I expect them to play 1-3FPS levels, I wonder how their computer is still running after they apparently downloaded the fucking Eiffel Tower.
With that in mind, I decided to remove the “duel” stipulation and judge the seven levels by the tribe-submitted speedrun, allowing anyone to play whichever level they wanted. To make up for the lag discrepancy between people, I used some math to convert lag-riddled times to what they would be if they had the same FPS rate at their opponent.
So finally we got the challenge on the road. I’d planned it before the tribe pick-em happened, but once the dust settled, I figured the advantage would likely be in Shadowsquid’s court. They all work together well as a team with calm heads, and many of them were currently level designing and famous for it, so they knew their way around the levels.
It was definitely not to say that Oerhaos was short on master designers familiar with SM63- hell, BY and Venexis were even LDC winners and nin10mode had a killer streak as well- but aside from BY and 1018peter, it likely had been ages since they had picked the game up, and Raz himself was not a professed fan of SM63. (His speedrun title would be “Why I Hate SM63”.)
Despite all the complaints, though, both tribes mostly knocked it out of the park. A couple people didn’t show up for the tribes (ChaosYoshi was absent for Shadowsquid and Brandobrawl was absent for Oerhaos) but it was a very high-participant challenge that went down to the wire.
I’ll break it down match-by-match.
Mythical Hollows by Star King
nin10mode vs Harmless
D.Q.’d vs 3:37
Point: Shadowsquid
This was a very, very, very, very frustrating match. These two were assigned a level from 2013, and being from a later-on date than the very first levels of the game’s history, technology marched on. As such, there are things used for casual players called checkpoints, which involves hiding a warp point one could use to warp to the halfway mark, where the warp’s location would be revealed. I had assumed that when I told people “play through the level” I didn’t need to add *the whole level, no manufactured checkpoints.
This is what Nin10mode did. He looked at where the checkpoint was, and took it.
This is what Harmless did, which is what I expected from the contestants.
That wasn’t the infuriating part at all, though. With a day to go, I told nin10mode checkpoints weren’t allowed. This was the response:
“Let me just say that LoZ Windwaker has speedswimming, a glitch that essentially breaks the game's travel system and speeds a run a tremendous amount, Yoshi's Island has warp glitches, and a plethora of other LoZ games have sequence breaks. If a real, professional speedrunner is allowed to use gamebreaking glitches and mechanics to achieve a short time, then the definition of a speedrun should be to use absolutely everything a level/stage has to offer, intentional and unintentional, to complete it in as short a time as possible.
As a hardcore gamer and a fan of Let's Plays and Livestreams, stating otherwise, especially so late in the game, seems silly. I sure as hell am not losing anymore sleepwhen I've covered for another tribesman and have considered losing sleep already to cover for another one. It's not happening. If this sounds angry, it is.”
I gave him the rest of the time available to resubmit it, but to prove his point, he refused to. As such, his brazen disregard of the rules got him nowhere except down a point. For the leader of his tribe, this was a very dangerous thing to do that could very well cost him the game, fueled entirely by pride. I went through this round scared that he WOULD lose and then I would be accused of rigging it in revenge. It sounds absurd, but that was the crowd I was dealing with on Oerhaos.
Harmless, thankfully, showed up and claimed the free point.
Lava Lair by Runouw
BY vs MegaR
49 seconds vs 54 seconds
Point: Oerhaos
This was an insanely close match after I gave MegaR the lag handicap (he was running at ⅔ the speed that BY was.) They played the very first custom level ever created by Runouw himself, the Lava Lair. Ultimately, though, BY pulled through for his tribe.
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c2nbFmnIAF Here’s his winning time.
Final Rush by 24murph
nin10mode vs NanTheDark
3:09 vs 3:31
Point: Oerhaos
Thankfully nin10mode redeemed himself from his protest with a truly stellar amateur run of one of the hardest platformer levels from the finale of the very first custom level series of all time. The crazy thing is, Nan almost took a humongous beating, submitting at first a five minute run that went through parts that, with a little ingenuity (and not cheat warps) he could have bypassed just like nin10mode did. Luckily, Yurimaster pointed out that he could skip over trouble spots and his time improved by a full minute and a half. Not enough, but an improvement.
Here’s the winning run:
Nimbus Gardens by Cryokenetic
Emelia Kaylee vs Bomberman101
0:59 vs 2:10*
Point: Oerhaos
If I had to pick an MVP for this challenge, by far it would be, of all people, Emelia Kaylee. He took a revered old-school platformer level that would, for most normal folks, take about five minutes, and exploited the structure of the level and the Rocket FLUDD to take such extreme shortcuts that it cut his time down to less than a minute. Bomberman attempted the same despite copious lag but not to the flawless extent that EmKay did it. It was clear that he had been practicing, and it was nearly flawless. (For the designing veteran, it’s also the reason you use edging tiles to block your level transitions.)
Check out the work of art here:
At this point, Oerhaos, despite nin10mode throwing the first match, is on the board 3-1. If nin10mode had kept to it and redid Mythical Hollows, that’d be the victory right there. Shadowsquid will have to bust their ass to take advantage of this mistake.
Big Boo’s Rainbow Road by Nwolf
Venexis vs Yurimaster
5:33* vs 4:43
Point: Shadowsquid
Easily the toughest level of the challenge, Nwolf’s two-tiered monolith revisited an eight-red-coin hunt in a replica of Super Mario 64’s Big Boo’s Haunt, before launching into a tribute to Rainbow Road with a final platformer section that got me stuck for ten minutes before Rage-Quitting my attempt. That last section was going to be the do-or-die moment for this duel; if you could get through that, you were golden. Venexis openly admitted that he only did one take because he got lucky with his single attempt, and Yurimaster was able to close the gap and steal the win.
Here’s his run! Notice how even he struggles with that last bit:
Shyguy Valley
Raz vs Magnen
1:55 vs 1:48*
Point: Shadowsquid
Remember that lag handicap? Yeah, it helped Magnen win a round for Shadowsquid. And it won’t be the last we see of it, either. This 2012 Yoshi’s Island sendup was relatively easy to load, but Magnen’s computer had just enough of a difference from Raz’s Hi-Def run to give her the defecit needed to win this round by seven seconds when it appeared she had lost by eight. This is especially bizarre considering how vastly different their runs were: Magnen took a longer, roundabout route whereas Raz struggled with one section many times and did not do another take. Mags took hers down post-match, but Raz still left his up. It certainly wasn’t a bad performance.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0lTcPe3ZE
This means it all comes down to the last round. 1018peter, the last pick for Oerhaos, vs Yurimaster, the last pick for Shadowsquid. Yurimaster already won a round for his team covering for ChaosYoshi, but Peter still needs to prove himself.
This challenge was very, very close to going the opposite way of what it did, for the reason that I could not load Peter’s video and had to take his time of 1:40 for granted. Compared to Yurimaster’s 1:25, that was clearly not the winner.
But then there was the lag factor. I had no clue of what 1018Peter’s lag rate was. So I asked Raz, and he provided me screenshots.
And there it was, Peter suffered a huge lag discrepancy. With the handicap given, he took down this short level in an even more compact time: one minute on the nose. How? By exploiting a shortcut even I didn’t look into.
Here’s the video. The lag makes it slower, but the run is impressive regardless:
And that’s the game. Oerhaos won the challenge. And despite what I said about them, I’m not surprised. They may not all get along perfectly and they may be marginally more bitchy than Shadowsquid, but here’s the thing: they prepared, and they got right down to business.
This is the post nin10mode made for others in Oerhaos to reference:
“Assuming we are going to go through with the SM63 Levels Speedrunning, post here for discussion.
Recording:
- Preferably, you should upload your video file to something like mediafire or 4shared. Youtube videos can take quite awhile to render. A 10 minute playthrough of SM63's tutorial level took me roughly 4 hours. (Then again, it was at 720p, but still.)
- If you want someone to render your video for you, just post a private download link here, and someone with a fast computer and a youtube account will upload it and post it.
If you have FRAPS, which as far as I've tried records smoother than other video capture programs(though I've only tried Camstudio), you can record flash games with it. If you don't have the program, it's up to you whether or not you want to pirate it or not. I know I pirated it without a second thought, but I know there are people that think about the company/developers.
Playing:
- -Jumping and diving is faster than sprinting, but it's also more dangerous for levels with bottomless pits and lava.
- -Sprinting and jumping covers more horizontal air, especially with a spin attack.
- -I'm fairly certain that diving is always faster than groundpounding.
- Your first run DOES NOT have to be the one you submit. Practice if you have the time and the will to use that time on a small event.”
He was prepared, and he prepared others to go through with it as well. People knew what to do, who was doing what, and they communicated early and often. Except Brandobrawl, everyone was a force in giving that tribe the win, even Venexis and Raz, who lost their duels.
Meanwhile, in Shadowsquid, you have people who get along well eight days of the week, but are more concerned with playing Tic-Tac-Toe, Island Adventure RPG, and Let’s-Rebuild-A-Legend-Of-Zelda-Village in their Tribe Forum rather than devoting time to the challenge. They know how to have a good time, and that could very well be the social bonds that get them through the game. However, they didn’t take the challenge as serious business, and they were certain that they were going to win by the power of friendship.
The power of friendship was going to be the one thing they had to overcome in order to vote someone out that night.
(Of course, that’s not to say Oerhaos has no experience RPing… they’re just not very good at it)
<Venexis>: The confessionals are like, the hardest part. But in a different way than challenges.
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<Venexis>: It's like, are you supposed to RP them, or talk as yourself? Who's it directed at?
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<brandobrawl>: At ur mum
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<Venexis>: key
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<Venexis>: dear mom, today i survived
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<Venexis>: lots of stuff happend and i really need clean clothz
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<Venexis>: pls send food, im sterving
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<Venexis>: buy
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Tribal Council
This was Bomberman before the challenge:
“THE OTHER TEAM THINKS THEY ARE BADASS AND CRAP WELL WE WONT TAKE THAT. WE WONT STAND FOR THIS. DURING OUR TRIBAL TIME WE SHALL TRY OUR HARDEST. WE SHALL WORK HARD AND MAKE SURE THESE RETARDS WONT WIN. LET THEM STAY CONFIDENT, BUT LETS MAKE SURE THATS WHAT CAUSES THEIR DOWNFALL. ARE YOU WITH ME? LETS NOT LET THEM WIN. WE WILL BEAT THEM IN THIS CHALLENGE. I AM GOING TO BEAT THAT LEVEL IN LESS THAN 4 MINUTES, AND YOU GUYS SHOULD TRY AS HARD TOO. WE WILL BEAT THEM AND IF WE DONT LET US MAKE SURE THAT WE ARE DAMN CLOSE TO BEATING THESE FAGS. DURING MY TIME HERE I WILL DO MY BEST TO LEAD THIS TEAM TO VICTORY.
NOW LETS DO THIS!!!”
He dropped retard and fag. I shudder at the IDEA of him and EmKay on a tribe together.
This was Bomberman after the challenge:
“Siiiiiiiiigh....
Ah well. We did good guys... We just need to have a better mindset next time and not complain as much.
THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING. NEXT TIME, I'LL DO POUR MY BLOOD AND SWEAT TO MAKE THIS TEAM WIN!
WE MAY HAVE LOST THE BATTLE, BUT NOT THE WAR.”
Last week I compared Bomberman to Richard Hatch. This week, I laugh at myself, as I realize he’s more Zane-like than anything else. Slurs aside, this 14-year-old freak is more along the lines of James Miller in that, no matter what, nothing kills him. He always has team spirit bleeding out of his ears even when they lose. I’m able to see him more as the tribe’s mascot than as a serious threat to win, and he’s a fun character.
Regardless, the Shadowsquid tribe was not so much mad that they lost, they were distraught. NanTheDark was crushed that he had to vote out one of their friends. A full half-page of the tribe cheering in one topic was immediately preceded in the same topic by the disappointed reactions of the losing tribe masked by half-hearted cheers to do better next time.
NanTheDark finally brought the attention to the event of the night: the vote. With his speech, he established that if there was a Tagi-Pagong comparison going on in this game, they were Pagong, and he was Gretchen Cordy.
“I'm gonna state it right now...
We'll have to vote someone off.
I'm not going to tell you who to vote off (and you shouldn't either). That's a personal decision you'll have to take. If it were up to me... I wouldn't vote anyone off. But that's how this game works... :/
However, I don't want us to lose our team spirit over this, no matter who is kicked out. We're still tribe Shadowsquid, and we're still gonna work together to rock Oerhaos. I know we can. There should be no hard feelings or anything.
And you can think about it this way... whoever gets voted off, it's Oerhaos' fault. Are we gonna let those bastards take out another of our tribe members? I'm not. I really don't like the fact that they're forcing us to take a Sadistic Choice on who of our friends we should eliminate from the game. What do you think? Are we gonna allow this to happen again? I will do my best to not allow it.”
And we all know what happened to Gretchen Cordy. These people certainly do. They tell me multiple times rather angrily during Tribal Council that yeah yeah they heard about the story of the mean tribe that beat the nice tribe, but that’s just it, they so actively don’t want to be Tagi. They want to be Pagong, even if it kills them.
However, tonight, they’re going to have to vote someone out. And, yes, it sucks to vote out your friends. Maybe Nan shouldn’t have put them all on one tribe. Nevertheless, into Tribal they go, determined to take down Oerhaos next time, but not before putting out one member of their tribe.
Tribal Council
The theme was, for the most part, to make the most inoffensive vote possible. Shadowsquid doesn’t want to break tribe spirit, they don’t want to hurt people, but they do want to survive. The big theme was the tribe, the leaders, the people, and team spirit, and crushing Oerhaos.
“I seriously hope the vote doesn't break our team spirit. I know that we can take these guys on. And if we break apart... we won't. I know what you're gonna say, the whole thing about that one Survivor where in a team everyone hated each other to death but had an agreement or what have you. Well I'm not like those guys. I believe that with teamwork we can reach the next phase.” ~NanTheDark
“Hey there really is no reason in ending your pride just because someone gets voted off. Sure it's sad and all but that should only make us want to work stronger. As for me, i'll still stay strong no matter what. Shadowsquid is an amazing team, and I think I get this pride from my tribe being my friends.” and “Psssh Oerhaos is gay. Their name doesn't even make sense 
. But whatever, anything they do is stupid.” ~Who else: Bomberman.
. But whatever, anything they do is stupid.” ~Who else: Bomberman.
Given the debate between Brando and EmKay on Oerhaos over proper usage of the word “Gay” I find it hysterical in a dark way the sheer Call of Duty Mouth this kid has on him. Oh, and we’ll get back to this later. Just you wait.
“I think the tribe can do it, really. We just need to figure out the tricks of the challenges and combine our strengths to match Oerhouse. Or whatever their name was. If we don't get involved, we won't even get close to beating them. And if we don't figure out the tricks of the challenge and how to utilize them as a team, then we won't do well at all.” ~Harmless
“I am going to take a shot and say that it is the likable personalities I have seen in this tribe. They are all pleasant to be around and chat with. I think it is because of this that it will be very difficult for me to decide on who to vote out.” ~ChaosYoshi
“The people I picked was picked pretty much because they were my friends. ^_^ And I knew that they were friendly, nice people, and that we could work together nicely. Also, I do believe that we can beat Oerhaos. And when I made the order... I didn't really make it in any specific order.” ~NanTheDark again
“I don't think there are any places on this tribe. We're all in it together, and I think, other than Nan being the leader, no one is higher than anyone else.” ~MegaR
“And don't give me this BS about how some jerk on the real Survivor turned out to be the winner. We're on the internet, things are run differently here.” ~Magnen
Magnen, if only you could see current Survivor ORG culture.
“I think what matters is how helpful you are, and how you participated in the challenges. I don't know if I was of great help this time, but I did my best, and that's what matter.” ~Yurimaster
With that, however, Yurimaster brings forth the more silent theme of that Tribal Council: activity matters. Being around for challenges will raise your stock.
One person just did not do that this time around.
Once again, though, voting is all across the wall. Most interestingly, we have votes for two of the bigger names on Shadowsquid: Magnen and Bomberman101. And the first cast vote on Shadowsquid goes to, of course Bomberman himself.
“Confession: This is veery difficult but also very necessary to do. This person I really don't know that well but... I just hope my vote doesn't determine who goes out or not. I never meant to.
Vote: Magnen.”
On its own, that vote is very big, but it’s combined with Bomberman asking NanTheDark for his permission to take over as leader while Nan goes on vacation. Knowing how deliberately sneaky Bomberman is, I know that he knows Magnen and Nan are close, and he wants to somehow be his number two. I don’t know where he expected the numbers to come from, but the shots have been fired.
A reasonless vote for Bomberman101 comes in from Chaos Yoshi at the last minute.
In other useless votes, we get a vote for Yurimaster from Harmless.
“If I really had to pick, I would vote off Yurimaster. Not only was he picked last by Nan (thus establishing Nan's trust with him at a slightly lower level than others), but he couldn't get around to beating Peter when trying to utilize the tricks of his level (even though he beat Ven by like a minute). I don't get him at all, and I'm not sure how he would help the team chemistry.”
It’s clear that Harmless was trying to put in logic towards his vote (although I question the validity of removing one of the two members who actually beat an Oerhaos member by their own success) but what he doesn’t know is that now we have our very first majority.
NanTheDark, Magnen, MegaR, and Yurimaster all vote together to send one of the other three home. And just like last time, it was for the person who didn’t perform in the challenge.
Chaos Yoshi would end his quiet stint on Survivor being sent home in a quiet Tribal Council, 4-1-1-1, just another tribute to Pagong. It was just too little too late for him, like Ramona Grey.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t an Earth-Shattering Vote or a blindside. CY had a feeling and he took his medicine like a grownup in Ponderosa. However, it was the beloved Shadowsquid tribe’s first vote, and it’d leave three other people with shrapnel that just might cause a few cracks. The question is, will the majority stay together? Or will this just be another Pagong?
Power List Predictions:
Nin10mode and NanTheDark, slip-ups aside, are doing a good job at being just the leader each tribe needs. Nin10mode is businesslike but even-tempered enough to deal with fights yet get his team mobilized for challenges. NanTheDark is beloved by his tribe, no one challenges his authority, and he established himself a majority in a tribe that is very united in friendship.
However, I want to shine some light on someone I also think is doing a pretty good job: MegaR. He’s a relatively UTR player so I haven’t had much to show from him this episode, but he’s voted right twice, showed up to this challenge and brushed off his absence from his first one well enough to escape getting any votes. So far, only six people left have avoided getting votes in just two rounds, and he’s done so while having enough of a finger on the pulse of the tribe to determine who goes home. If he can keep up being proactive, he will do well for himself. If anyone works with an Oerhaos down the road, it’s this guy.
Bomberman is not invincible, and he’s not subtle. Chaos Yoshi threw his vote onto him for a reason. As soon as there’s a merge, if he makes the merge, he’s going to have all of Oerhaos on his ass, and he’ll probably call a few of them fags. He’s running the risk of not even being the goat of the game.
Raz is also playing a great game. He’s active, knows the tribe, and can be strong about what he says without being as vicious as Brandobrawl or as whiny as EmKay. He will likely be happy to cut a few throats along the way but also has the pull to keep people on his side if need be. I also can see Venexis making it to the end and winning because he’s the voice of reason and the nice guy of the tribe. BY also has that perk, but he’s also painfully self-deprecating to the point where he could go to the end and not make a convincing speech. As for Peter, he is most likely to get in good with a Shadowsquid if he makes it that far.
As for those who are doomed, I already discussed Bomberman, but I’m going to add Harmless to the mix. He was in the minority for the vote, and either voted for Bomberman, Magnen, or Yurimaster according to the leftover votes. He’s quieter and less productive than Bomberman, so he’s more replaceable. For obvious reasons, Brando and EmKay also will not win, whether by losing a jury vote or being taken out pre-merge.
Magnen stands a chance, especially if she herself takes charge in the wake of NanTheDark’s absence. She’s respected and levelheaded, and is fiery like Bomberman but not to his line-crossing extent. She still binds herself with the ideals of Pagong, however, and that could be a killer. Yurimaster finds himself in the majority, but my biggest concern is that he will be too big of a non-factor for anyone to want to award the prize to.
For now, here is my list.
13. Brandobrawl
12. Harmless
11. Bomberman101
10. Emelia Kaylee
9. NanTheDark
8. Magnen
7. Yurimaster
6. Blackyoshi
5. 1018peter
4. MegaR
3. Venexis
2. Raz
1. Nin10mode
Thus concludes another episode. I’ll be organizing the Tribal Council and minimal confessionals to accompany this.
Next Time on… Survivor:
Shadowsquid is down a member, but can their cooperation on a trivia contest recover?
Tensions heat up between the two tribes, leading to a very controversial confrontation from one end.
And the competitors are forced to cope with the act of voting someone out and the guilt and anger that comes with it.
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