Previously on… Survivor!
Fifteen people from one small-yet-sprawling online community known as Runouw.com signed up for one of the toughest challenges they’d face in Runouw history. Moderators, new users, the famous, the infamous, the quieter people and the big names signed up for a chance to win a Survivor ORG, and the $100 prize that went with it.
The very first day threw them right into the thick of things. They were presented with a difficult challenge in order to win immunity, and the right to be a team captain. Some rose to the challenge. Others didn’t even show up.
Right off the bat, the two team leaders set up the contrast between the two tribes. Nin10mode, a popular moderator on the website, selected a crew consisting of fellow gamers who would meet up and compete online against each other on games like TeamFortress2, Minecraft, or Mario Kart. His fellow tribesmates would include intense power player Raz, the witty science enthusiast Venexis, the genuinely caring level designer Blackyoshi, the quiet and snarky Emelia Kaylee, the shy outsider 1018peter, and the confrontational yet loyal Brandobrawl. They made the Oerhaos tribe, who became a powerful force that took over the challenges in the game.
Their opponent was the beleagured Shadowsquid tribe, led by dedicated yet emotional leader NanTheDark. He built a team of closeknit Roleplay Gamers who enjoyed the adventure of the game a little too much. His team would include the strongwilled newcomer Magnen, the fiercely loyal Harmless, the quiet but attentive Yurimaster, and their fallen comrades, the relaxed gamer Chaos Yoshi, the talented yet tense MegaR, and the passionately naive Bomberman101, the only person to outright quit the game. Despite their best intentions, they lost more members than Oerhaos, leaving them down 6-4 come the merge.
The tension between the two was immediate and pronounced. As they continued to lose, the family-like Shadowsquids showed an uglier side, outright attacking members of the Oerhaos tribe. In contrast, despite not being emotionally affected by the tension, Oerhaos’ competitive side led to some disconnect at challenges and an incident of cheating by Raz that led to 1018peter being voted out. If you asked the Squids about Oerhaos, you’d hear that they were haughty and felt above-the-game. Were you to ask the other way around, you’d hear that the Squids were unnecessarily mean spirited and spiteful.
Haughty and Spiteful would clash at last at the merge, cumulating in the Squid leader, NanTheDark, being voted out of the game. However, the inherently loyal nature of the Squids would start to gain traction over the intense competitiveness of Oerhaos. Raz would make the mistake of telling Venexis he didn’t trust him as much as other members of the alliance, and therefore he’d take advantage of the numbers given to him by Blackyoshi sticking his head out for his friend on the Squids, Yurimaster, and the Squids would earn a numbers advantage, sending home the second Oerhaos member, Brandobrawl.
The jury game brought in an intense, constantly shifting game that would claim both sides’ members until there were five left. Magnen met her end in 8th due to a last minute choice by Venexis, Yurimaster would fix broken bonds to send home the Oerhaos leader Nin10mode home in 7th, Harmless would take a self-vote by mistake and vote himself out in 6th. Last episode, a critical communication failure turned a 3-2 vote against Blackyoshi into a 2-2-1 tie that sent Emelia Kaylee home via past votes.
Now, only four remain. Blackyoshi, the emotional player, Raz, the cynical player, Yurimaster, the intuned player, Yurimaster, and the unpredictable player, Venexis.
Blackyoshi started on the bottom of Oerhaos, but contributed to their challenge wins and saved his neck from the only vote they attended. Come the merge, he would connect with his friend Yurimaster and, along with Venexis, aid him out of a Pagonging that Shadowsquid was in. However, betraying his fellow tribesmates would leave him with an intense guilt that would take his focus off of his own success and onto his friend Yurimaster’s, becoming his second in command all the way to the Final 4. Now in the final stretch, whose game will he decide to play; his own, or that of his friend?
Raz came in guns blazing. After he began, he studied the show, he freely made alliances, and he took control of the challenges that his tribe faced. However, his caustic behavior and willingness to cheat earned himself the ire of the Shadowsquid tribe. However, much like the Squids, he would remain fiercely loyal to the Oerhaos tribe, even when the chips were down. Now, he faces 3-against-1 odds from Yurimaster’s alliance, but has started reeling off a challenge streak to save himself. Can he make it all of the way or will his stubbornness get the best of him?
Yurimaster, the last Squid standing, had a lot to prove. He started off on the wrong foot and was initially an outsider on his tribe, but he corrected his social mistakes and showed his ability to work in challenges, giving the Squids their one victory. Come the merge, he utilized his bonds with others to pull himself out of a Pagonging, but still suffered the loss of many of his allies. Can he survive impossible odds and win, or will he finally suffer the fate of all of the other Squids?
Venexis was in the middle of the pack on Oerhaos, at the bottom of the only alliance. However, when Raz stated his distrust of him, he knew something had to change. He started to make bonds with the Squids instead of turning them down, and aided them in flipping on brandobrawl. He would proceed to, for various circumstances, change sides every round, taking out Oerhaos and Squid alike, helping his friends on both sides get ahead and everyone else hit the jury. However, his perfect voting streak met an end when a lapse in communication meant the end of Emelia Kaylee’s game. Will he be able to get to the end and justify his actions, or will his untrustworthiness lead to the end of his game?
Four distinct players, four different styles, four different paths, even four different goals, but only one winner. There will be three Tribal Councils, two Challenges, and only one Survivor.
SPOILERS: Avoid the Breakdown if you don’t want spoilers! Seriously, this is the finale!
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Breakdown:
Episode 12 (Finale): “Quantum Physics”
Challenge 1: D-D-D-D-D-Duel
Description: Players will face off in live heats of two in the flash game Treasure Arena.
Immunity Winner: Raz
Voted Out: Blackyoshi (3-1)
Other Votes: Venexis
Challenge 2: Endurance Trivia.
Description: The final 3 players will enter a chat room. They will have a limited amount of time to answer various roll calls, questions, multiple choice answers, or trivia.
Immunity Winner: Raz
Voted Out: Yurimsater
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This is not exactly the Final 4 I expected on day zero. In fact, let’s go back to my pre-game predictions and see the F4 I expected.
4: Yurimaster
3: Magnen
2: Bomberman101
1: NanTheDark
Yeah, even though they all ended up on a tribe together we didn’t exactly get the Shadowsquid slash Into the Shadows domination I expected. In fact, none of these four contestants really should have really had much of anything to do with each other given the way this season has gone. Blackyoshi was the Oerhaos traitor yet has been the Squids’ saving grace and has stuck with them for every post-jury vote. After Blackyoshi was considered an honorary Squid, Yurimaster and Raz are the only two people who have stuck to Tribal Lines every single vote, yet couldn’t be further apart and want nothing to do with each other. Venexis has changed allegiances at every single vote yet aside from a momentary scare in the Nin10mode vote, has not once been targeted and has received zero votes. Yet, Blackyoshi fully expects to give his life in the game for his friend Yurimaster, and Venexis has had a priority to advance those close to him further in the game, if not to the sacrificial extent that Blackyoshi is prepared to.
Simply put, this is one hell of a clusterfuck of a Final 4.
Last round, Blackyoshi and Yurimaster won the vote by a freak error of their enemies. Venexis notes how the mistake cost his friend, and how unforgiving the game is so far in.
“So uh, I really didn't see that coming. You weren't joking about it being the weirdest tie, lawl. I've been tenuously collaborating with Raz (and MK, by extension) for the this elimination and also that of Harmless previously, and to be honest, I thought our plan was more or less foolproof. We managed it last time, in arguably harder circumstances (a 6-man game as opposed to 5), so why not now?
Raz seems to think it was because MK accidentally submitted a wrong vote, and if that's the case, it's clearly a very unforgiving period in the game. To be eliminated simply because of a communication error, or worse, for just not thinking straight when you submit a vote is brutal. I'm really sad to see him go, but on the bright side, it does keep BY in... I think Raz is going home next, now.” ~Venexis
Regardless of what happened, or Venexis siding with him, Raz is the target once more by all three. His only chance is to win immunity, again.
The Immunity Challenge
For this one, I let the players suggest a quick, online game that all players could use and the host could also spectate on to keep a fair track on the score. Unsurprisingly, it was Raz who suggested the game- Treasure Arena, a crisp if typical medieval-set beat-em-up for treasure points. Whoever had the most coins in a round wins. Surprisingly, everyone agreed to it.
They’d play all five levels, then I’d calculate all of the coin scores. Whoever had the most points would win. It’d be done in two heats based on time zones- Raz and Venexis for Heat 1, Yurimaster and Blackyoshi in heat 2.
Heat one was intense- Venexis and Raz were both gamers, after all. Raz got off to a dominating start in the first three rounds, taking home some clutch wins. However, Venexis would pull off some insanely high totals, scoring 100 of his points between them. However, he would still fall 22 points short, losing with 168 to Raz’s 190. Raz would move on.
Heat two was similarly intense, with both players putting up similar totals. The rounds all varied sporadically, with various turnouts and results. However, Blackyoshi would defeat Yurimaster 195 to his 171.
That means the final heat was Blackyoshi versus Raz. And some people had things to say about it, causing some dirty laundry to finally hit the fan. Back to the communal chat:
<megar>: by kick his ass
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<megar>:
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<Yurimaster>: woo by
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<Raz>: Fuck off Mega
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<BY>: Cya in a bit then
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<Raz>: You know, I don't mind you guys rooting for other people, that's fine
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<Raz>: but downright putting me down like that is really fucking annoying
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<megar>: yeah it was pretty annoying when you were putting the entire shadowsquid tribe down back then but whatever!
Still sore over the events of Faggot-Gate, I step in solely to remind him of the fact that he’s full of shit. Keep in mind, I’m not necessarily pro-Raz, and this is just him acting emotionally in a way that could be to his detriment, but the straw man has a point, and MegaR doesn’t.
The fight continues:
<megar>: that was the result of oerhaos being dicks tho
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<Raz>: Holy shit
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<MessengerOfDreams>: so it's okay to call them faggots if they're being dicks.
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<megar>: either way i only posted like "calm down" on the second page so that means nothing to me
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<Yurimaster>: well, actually I need to say that we were really dickish back then.
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<Raz>: Stop trying to excuse bomberman for getting super duper angry over us barely doing anything
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<Raz>: It's so annoying Mega
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<megar>: good.
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Never thought someone could get an N-Tone edit despite being eliminated from the game several rounds ago. Regardless, there are two dynamics besides MegaR’s that should really be seen here. The first is that Raz, as justified as he was, is continuing to not look very good and fulfilling the (misguided) expectations set for him by the Squids that he would need to overcome if he gets to the end. The second is that Yurimaster is disagreeing with MegaR’s behavior, admitting that they were pretty dickish back then. This shows self-awareness and sensibility that could reward him by friend and foe alike.
This is a trend that continues on the base topic for the game on the actual Runouw.com.
“GO YURI
YOU CAN DOOOOOOO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET
TAKE DOWN RAZ PLZ :3”: ~NanTheDark
“Now seriously, this is a thing that's been bothering me. These comments has been putting Raz down a lot. Sure he isn't my favorite contestant, but it's rather childish doing that. He said in the chat that this is rather annoying, and seriously, I have to agree with him there.” ~Yurimaster
Oh, wait. The challenge. Yeah, I forgot about that, and for good reason- the last round was such a blowout against Blackyoshi by Raz that I didn’t even bother taking score. Raz won dominantly and is now immune again, much to the behest of his competition.
The… Vote?:
<BY>: sigh.
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<BY>: Tsu?
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<Raz>: Hi
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<BY>: I'd like to ask you for one thing
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<BY>: Vote me out. Together with yuri and Ven
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<BY>: That'd be my last favour
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<BY>: Would you?
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<Raz>: I'll think about it, honestly
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That was really all it took. Blackyoshi decided to make good on his deal with Yurimaster, and requested for the others in the game to vote him out over Yuri. As much as he hinted at or implied it, I never thought I’d actually see someone sacrifice their game for the sake of someone else’s in this ORG. Now, there are a few matters:
a) Will the others grant him his wish? And if not, what happens?
b) Was this the best way to go about protecting Yurimaster?
c) What happens now? What do others think?
Venexis talks privately with BY before the votes are cast, asking him if he was certain.
“So, I'll keep it short. Is this really what you want? I knew Yuri was Raz's target, and so I was going to vote you. Hopefully that would result in you two voting me off, but I definitely wasn't going to eliminate Yuri. I'd like to keep him in as long as possible, that was why I voted you last round (trying to keep his total votecount as low as possible).
If you're sure, I'll do it. But if you guys change your mind and want to vote me off instead, no hard feelings. :p I'll be voting you again this round, but that's about all I can really do.”
Blackyoshi never responded, but somehow that said it all.
Tribal Council
I barely was able to put up the TC questions before people started sending me the votes, but luckily they did answer the questions.
Blackyoshi gave his reasons for quitting: his plan all along was to protect his friends.
“1) After all that you've done in this game, why quit? Why ask the others to vote you out?
It's been my entire plan for the whole game. At first it's been yuri only, but I wanted to see Ven getting as far as possible too. I didn't expect me to get to this point now and hell, it'd been awesome to survive this round before I'm playing my last card. Ven, Yuri. I'm sorry, that I couldn't leave you a clean field. There's one last battle to fight and I'm sure you can get this done. I do hope I'm getting voted out clean and short. Don't disappoint me now, guys. : )”
Venexis finally shows confidence in playing for himself, even if he’s okay with any outcome.
“I've always been okay with the possibility of being booted, but I think now I'd add a condition to that. I've invested too much in this game for one reason or another to let myself be kicked off without it accomplishing anything.”
Yurimaster finds himself in a complicated emotional bind.
“I really don't want to do this, he's my friend. But he requested it, and I can't just ignore his request. After all, he's my friend. This a damn of a dillema.”
Raz has steeled himself, ready to do what he needs to.
“No, I didn't really want to do it, but if he really requests it then I'll do it. I could never not go through with a promise. I appreciate his persistance to keep someone else in the game.”
Interestingly, despite everyone getting a free pass from it, the only one happy with BY’s decision is BY himself. Raz doesn’t want to do it, he wants to vote out Yurimaster. Yuri isn’t happy because he’s going to be voting out his closest friend. Venexis isn’t happy because he’s learning to let others sacrifice for him when he wanted BY to go further. Only Blackyoshi seems to be happy, having been able to propel Yurimaster (and Venexis) one step further to winning.
Time may tell if he got his wish, but for now, Blackyoshi is out of the game, and to the dissatisfaction of a surprising source.
“BY's post made me genuinely pissed off, by the way. He made a game-changing move by turning traitor and conspiring against me particularly, something I still don't know the reasoning of, the least he could do is actually use that fucking move and continue in the game, that piece of shit.” ~Brandobrawl
Mini Post-Mortem:
I won’t dwell on Blackyoshi too long because of the already extreme length of the recap, but I will say he is a really nice kid who brought a moral side to this ORG I could have only dreamed of. He was also a very good sport and treated everybody well despite his actions being technically immoral as far as Survivor goes. The lengths he went through to protect a friend was really sweet, and ultimately makes him memorable. I’ve never hated quitters like much of the Survivor fanbase does, and I think Blackyoshi added so much to the story to make it as amazing and unpredictable as it was that he should be respected for his entertaining gameplay.
Due to the size of the recaps and interviews, you can find his post-game interview here. BEWARE, there are spoilers.
Final 3
The dynamics stay the same: Raz will be voted out the moment he loses immunity, and it’s a matter of who he’d vote out from there if he won it. It’s a matter of whether or not Blackyoshi’s sacrifice was in vain.
Venexis has a pessimistic view on it:
“I have a nasty feeling Blackyoshi is going to end as a pointless sacrifice, though. If Raz wins immunity next round, I don't know who he'd want out more. On one hand, Yuri is the last remaining Squid. Voting him out would be essentially a clean sweep, utter tribal annihilation- combined with the fact that the jury is composed entirely of people I've voted for (I'm sure they've arrived at that conclusion), Raz might eliminate him in the hopes of having the jury condemn me. On the other hand, though, the jury is an Oerhaos majority. Perhaps I'd be voted off, leaving that majority to pick the only surviving member of their own?
“Either way, I don't have a good feeling about this next challenge. The only way to ensure Yuri becomes a finalist is to ensure Raz doesn't win immunity, and depending on the challenge, I don't know if we're up to that task.”
A lot is riding on this challenge, and all of it is riding on Raz.
The Torchwalk
In it, Yurimaster was very blunt, and Raz was surprisingly good willed towards everyone, even the Squids, except for Harmless whom he was still angry at. Venexis wrote some really intricate pieces describing each person and the relationship that, however brief, he had with them.
It’s an interesting read.
Final Immunity Challenge
I took influence from a few online FICs I’ve seen, and the ever-classic “endurance” challenge we’ve seen on Survivor and decided to pull something similar. The three contestants would enter a chat room and answer to roll calls over a time period. To spice it up, there would be trivia questions thrown in there, some of the roll calls would be answers to a question, and the time would decrease over time.
I was very impressed with the three of them. It took a long time for them to fuck it up; for beginner Survivor players that’s impressive. However, there was one trick question that took the losers out at the same time: who self-voted themselves out of the game?
One person answered with “Bomberman101.” This is false; he quit, he didn’t get sent home by a self-vote.
That person was Yurimaster.
One person answered with “Blackyoshi.” This was also false; he asked to be voted out but didn’t self-vote out of the game.
That person was Venexis.
That left Raz. If Raz got it wrong, then all of the wrong answers would void out and we would just continue the challenge.
His answer was “Harmless.”
That is the correct answer; Harmless ended up eliminating himself after he failed to vote and self-voted thereof, causing him to get voted out 4-2.
Raz has done something most found impossible: he managed to go on an immunity streak that led him to the end of the game, almost entirely because Venexis gave him the first necklace in the Final 6. That very move could seal his game, or Yurimaster could be voted out in his stead, making Blackyoshi’s sacrifice largely ineffective.
The power is all in the hands of the one person no one else wanted it to be in.
Tribal Council, Final 3.
Despite their attempts, both Venexis and Yurimaster won’t be going to the Final Tribal Council together. And whoever is on the jury will likely vote for the other one who becomes a finalist. It’s just a matter of who will be taken, and if they can defeat the Oerhaos juggernaut.
Raz lays out what he will be thinking about when it comes to taking someone to the finals:
“Well, I don't know really. I want to go against someone who wants to win just as much as me.”
Yurimaster and Venexis give their responses on why the other person should be voted out instead of them... Kinda.
“Ven is the one I respect the most in this game. He is not only the smartest one for me, but also the one who seems to take the best decisions… I think everyone here respects him in a different way, for being smart or for being a good friend, no matter which tribe this person is or how much this person knows him.” ~Yurimaster
“Truth is, I don't have a single bad thing to say about Yuri, lawl. Along with MK, he's been my pick for finalist since shortly after the merge.” ~Venexis
Venexis does add one incentive, however, as to why Raz should take him.
“I'll just say that Raz should pick me to remain as a finalist for no other reason than to make me justify my choices throughout the game in front of the entire jury, the jury composed almost entirely of members I helped place there.”
And now, it is time for Raz to vote. For those who knew Raz, it wasn’t that surprising of a vote.
<Raz>: I'm sorry ven but knowing that Nan, Harmless, BY, Magnen, and likely more are already confirmed voting Yuri I don't really want him in the game
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<Raz>: I thought you liked spontaneous stuff where you don't know stuff is happening, if it's me vs you then it could go both ways
<Venexis>: Lawl. I mostly just don't want to for sure say what I'm thinking because continuing on the quantum physics thing, observing it changes the result.
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Raz makes what was definitely the best choice of the game and sends the last Shadowsquid to the jury, leaving it an all-Oerhaos Final 2.
Yurimaster was already well aware of this and actually sends me some Final Words.
“It was god all the time I expent in this game. I saw many people going out, and I'm personally happy with achieving the top 3. I was sure that Raz was voting me out. After all, Ven is one of his best friends, and I don't even know him. I'm even a bit happy that this is ending. I mean, less stress, more freetime. I can finally work in my projects, focus in my RPG. Well. Gotta just wish good luck to both of them. At least I'm a judge, and I'll do my best to make fair decisions. And will learn to believe less in my luck, but believe in my skills. But anyway. I'm happy.”
Mini-Post-Mortem:
It has been especially fascinating to watch Yurimaster grow through the season. His first vote was a self-vote, he wasn’t completely aware of the alliance, and he participated in the attacks against Raz when he visited Oerhaos. He ended the game with a significant sway over the other members, with many even in the game wanting to see him win, and his ability to keep things going his way not so much through strategy but through social gameplay was really intelligent. If I ever do another one of these, Yurimaster is the player I’d most want to see return. For someone who’s only 13 years old and sort of on the sidelines for the Runouw.com community, he blew myself and a lot of other people away with his performance.
You can read his post-game interview here. Again, beware spoilers.
Final 2
Raz and Venexis are the Final 2. This was probably the closest match we’d get in a jury vote out of the Final 4. They’re two very different players who appeal and disappeal to two different groups. Raz is probably the closest thing to a Gretchen we’ve had all season: as rough as he is and as willing as he is to vote people out, he’s never once betrayed an alliance, the very thought of it baffles him, and he thinks it’s bad gameplay. Venexis will turn on people if need be, but also knows to be understanding of others’ viewpoints and where they’re coming from. It’s just a matter of whether this jury is willing to reward a traitor who had a stronger social game or a slightly alienating physical player who never betrayed an alliance.
Both are admirable competitors and I was excited to see how they’d both do in Final Tribal Council.
To leave you with something while I set up the second half of the finale, here’s the two of them chatting about their views on the Survivor game, with some interjection from other chat members.
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