Scummies Nominations Thread 2020

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You guys are amazing! I am humbled. Not much in Prod/Switch Activation PMs but here they are:

Spoiler: Prod PM

Come back to us.

Spoiler: Switch Activation PM

A dramatic dinner.

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I've been out for a while so I can't do it myself, but if someone agrees with me, please write a Rising Star nom for clidd

Definitely. I'm gonna write a bunch of noms up soon.

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Mad Scientist
23/12/2020	Hectic	Kanna	Trust Fall - a setup created for the Open Setup May Challenge. Such a seemingly inconspicuous submission puts a beautiful yet simple spin on the game of mafia; it doesn't bombard you with complicated mechanics or role abilities/interactions, no, it just has you hunt for one player that you can really trust. Trust Fall changes the game of mafia such that you don't win by finding scum, rather you need to find one town that you can trust enough to Trust Fall out of the game with. It subtlety yet significantly changes the dynamics of mafia; gone is the fear of being mislaunched and occurrence of any toxic 1v1s with players gunning to kill each other. It encourages wholesome and fun townhunting play, and allows players to try and leave the game whenever they'd like to. It's unusual in any game to have a UTR mafioso flip first , but this is one that gives you that opportunity. Allowing players to examine a UTR scum player's interactions as they go out early is a very rare and fascinating opportunity. It also means that if you're suspected as mafia, you're not going out day 1 like in a regular game; instead you have the entire game to change everyone's minds! The setup has been run successfully 3 times now by 3 separate moderators: First / Second / Third I've had the pleasure in playing in every one of them, and it's been incredibly fun each time, and as both alignments. Kanna's also been sneakily going around designing numerous other setups that are seeing play. A variation of her Smuggler Port setup saw play in FakeGod's game. Meanwhile, her Bloodline Mafia setup was picked up and run in Errantparabola's game. She also modded her very own Student Council mafia, brimming with fun flavour and a great mechanic. Whenever Kanna creates a setup, moderators all around seem to be drawn to the unique and genius mechanics at play... a true mad scientist.

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Rising Star
23/12/2020	Hectic	Noraa	In just 4 months, Noraa has left a monumental mark on the site. Her WIM is monstrous and matched by no other; a "tsunami of persistence" is very fitting when it comes to describing Noraa's general attitude about mafia. She simply never throws in the towel as either alignment, and keeps fighting to the very last breath. The passion and desire that exudes out of her every post is unparalleled on the site, and I think that's really what makes up a key part of what a Rising Star should be. She's also insanely good at playing scum! My first encounter with Noraa was when she was newbscum in a newbie game. The game was being PoE and meched down and Noraa was looking like the best launch - but I constantly had doubts about how much FIGHT this newbie had in them... it was really unusual and nothing like I'd seen before. They just would not give up, and it made me extremely paranoid; surely a new scum player wouldn't have this kind of drive or passion, right? Nope, that's just Noraa. The next firsthand experience I'd like to use is Death Curse. A game where Noraa was universally townread with her 4 scum partners imploding early, and she proceeding to hard carry them solo for 8 mislaunches in a row. They finally caught her right at the end, but she should consider this a massive personal win. She also wins... a lot: In MafiaSunny, she carried her scumteam to a solo last-Noraa-standing win. In Korean Pop Music, she fearlessly drove the mislaunches and acheived a flawless scum victory. In Never Trust Trees, she achieved another flawless scum victory, being widely townread throughout. At this rate, Noraa will only continue to improve and grow as a player, and her enthusiasm and passion for mafia doesn't seem to be going anywhere. She's a fun and delightfully fluffy player to have around - also bringing wholesomeness and joy to the social side of mafia. A real Rising Star in many aspects.

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Rising Star
02/01/2020	Hectic	clidd	The first time I played with clidd, I was quite intrigued by what I saw. Doggos Among Us was the game, and his entrance was formal and extremely analytical - very unusual for a new player. A cute style for sure, but nothing CRAZY. He continued like this for a while and everything was normal, until... he dropped THIS bombshell of a post. He just casually posts a megawall and calls out all 3 scum on page 7 . That was the moment I realised clidd was no ordinary player. We went on to flawlessly win that aforementioned game, largely due to clidd's reads and him consistently pushing them for the remainder of the game. The first I saw him as scum was in a game that I was modding; Ultimate Conspiracy. They were short games and we played a couple of rounds - clidd rolled scum for both rounds, and oh did he perform in both. It turns out clidd isn't the type of player to sit back and coast as scum, he POWERWOLFs and attempts to control the town, and that's what he did in back to back games to win both times. The Sherlock v. Moriarty GIF-off he had with Datisi is adorable btw. clidd has incredible passion for the game, and is capable of breaking any game wide open with hard analysis and theory. Also, fun fact: You couldn't tell, but English is his second/third language, and he writes up all of his posts in Spanish first and then translates them to English; the dedication and effort he exhibits to SOLVE is simply off the charts. Examples of the insane walls he posts can be seen here: One / Two / Three / Four His first post on the site Fantastic solving prowess, impressive scumplay, and being a haemorrhagic pleasure to play with makes clidd a great Rising Star!

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Kodak Moment
03/01/2021	Hectic	Noraa	Death Curse	Okay, so, you're in a mafia game. There's been 8 mislaunches in a row and you're in the final 5 living players of 20. This is it, it's gone down to the last launch of the game, the decision that decides everything. Oh, and did I mention it's a 400 page game? You're the deepwolf. You've been universally townread for hundreds of pages and hard carried your scumteam but are finally being sussed out right at the end. You have a factional private scum dayvig that's been unused for the entire game, it instantly kills a player and grants the game a 48 hour extension. It's public info that scum owns this, but it's not been optimal to use it. Using it would not change anything; it would only narrow the PoE down for the final launch. There's only a few hours left on the clock and everyone's looking at you... you don't have a lot of time to change people's minds. THAT was the situation Noraa was in during the final stages of Death Curse, and what must've been going through her mind when she made this post. She was in a chem class... she needed a deadline extension... she realised what had to be done. What proceeded was truly incredible. Pooky sums up the events pretty well.

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I didn't change the font colour though

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Community Contributor
03/01/2021	Hectic	Alisae	Alisae's been constatly encouraging people to submit nominations for a while now, and I've even heard of scouting missions where individuals have been sent on quests to nominate deserving candidates (people in question may choose to vouch if desired). But yeah, for organising, maintaining, and updating this thread - which is a great and fun part of the site; I think Alisae would be very deserving of Community Contributor.

[Hectic]

GoodFellas
12/23/2020	Isis	Farkran and Chara	Undertale S Open	This was the third iteration of the Undertale themed series of opens. Like every other iteration, I deem it a bit too townsided, a flaw I can forgive myself for as it arises from the difficulties inherent in delivering on the conceit of the setup. The balance of the setup did not particularly matter this time around. Farkran and Chara played in a bizarrely effective manner, with Chara accommodatingly agreeing that the game's consensus townread should receive the game's healing mechanic, and Farkran petulantly opposing that UTR, and opposing Chara, and arguing for pages and pages. Farkran was not eliminated for several phases, for refuge in audacity, but when he flipped and his redflip was shown to the town, the game was over, the idea that Chara and Farkran were aligned with eachother seemed just about unthinkable. The game was heavily flavored, and by some miracle of luck they both had characters that were siblings in the game. I remember having to write sibling scenes into the flavor over and over again because of how the slots kept bussing so much. I know 3+ member scumteams tend to dominate this category, but it was one of the most memorable games I've ever been involved in and seems incredibly deserving of the award to me. It looked natural, but didn't come that naturally to them which makes it all the more impressive. I only didn't nominate it earlier because I could have sworn the game was in 2019. 2020 has been a long year, as we all know.

I'm just gonna add to this because I 100% agree.

Goodfellas
04/01/21	Hectic	Farkran and Chara	Undertale S Open	When I think of formidable scum performances, nothing matches that better than how Farkran and Chara played in Undertale S Open. Farkran played in an incredibly scumsided manner, pushing an agenda that greatly benefited scum - yet he survived for DAYS with some hard townreading him, simply due to the sheer audacity and DETERMINATION he exhibited during it. Chara meanwhile, played an astonishingly clean game, being universally townread for it's analysis and very logical stances throughout. They hard bussed for days while being townread for it and the theatre was exquisite. It's the most memorable scum performance I've seen during my time on this site, and feels very deserving of this award.

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Master Strategist
04/01/21	Hectic	Ydrasse	PookyTheMagicalBear v Flavor Leaf	Ydrasse played excellently as the vigilante in this game, being pivotal to town's success. She played the early game in an easy-going, memey style, avoiding all suspicion with how comfortable she looked in-thread, while also not looking like a PR or anyone important to kill in solveyness. Her shots were pinpoint, narrowing down the PoE, and shooting scum on nights 2 AND 3. During night 2, she shoots at scum, but they are aliened and so do not die. She crumbs this in the thread upon day 3's start. During the massclaim on day 3, she claims VT, continuing to remain undercover. On day 4, it's finally optimal for her to claim. However, she decides to claim she's gated. The scum supersaint plans to and will eventually self-hammer the same day, since scum want to keep the days on evens, and so a vig shot from Ydrasse anywhere in the PoE on night 4 would be very detrimental. Ydrasse knows her death warrant has been signed, and she isn't done yet - she wants to get one final shot off. Here's where the STRATEGIC GENIUS comes into play: Remember that night 2 shot on scum that didn't go through? She intentionally withholds this information, allowing scum to assume that she simply doesn't have shots on even nights, otherwise why wouldn't she bring up something so important? This successfully fools Flavor Leaf and his goons into assuming she's an odd-night vig, causing them to opt to alien (roleblock) someone else the following night. And so, with her dying shot, Ydrasse shoots in the PoE, placing the days back on odds and butchering scum's remaining chances in the process. They concede the very next day. Ydrasse utilised and played her role perfectly; remaining universally-townread and undercover for days until she claimed, and then manipulated scum into allowing her to place one final deadly strike to their hopes. A strategic masterclass!

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Rising Star
06/01/2021	Hectic	shiki	She goes by many names, but one thing is consistent across shiki's games... she has a habit of winning them. During 2020, shiki has gone 9-4 as town, and 3-2 as mafia. My first encounter was shiki was in mysterybox hate death spiral. The first sign of her brilliance was when she came into the game with extensive meta prepared on the entire playerlist, which was already going several leaps beyond. But the really unique thing about shiki is that she has these incredibly fun and creative theories that spew her town; no breadcrumb goes unnoticed past her eyes. I realised this when she made this incredible post. She's had standout performances in every game I've modded that she's joined: In Lunacy, she took the leap of faith, being the spark that made the werewolves realise that they were actually the town. In Menagerie, all she needed were animal sounds to confidently nail scum, during a phase where players were post restricted to only post sounds resembling their animal. Oh, and she has a great scumgame too. In Normal Blitz II, she played a clean and towny game while she and her scumpartner shamelessly buddied each other. A flawless victory. In Gacha Mafia, she cleverly finds a loophole to deny town an Innocent Child, and goes on to win a convincing solo scumwin, with the other two in the final 3 crossvoting. Another really interesting aspect of her play is that she openly hunts PRs as both alignments, but does so in a way where only she picks up on their PRness, since others don't see what she sees. In Chain of Command, as Euphony, she boldly hunts for PRs as scum and SNIPES them, day and night (she also won this game flawlessly). She's such a unique and interesting player that I could probably keep going on for a while, but I should probably not wallpost too hard. Hopefully this gives a good sense of shiki's Ascending Comet status!

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Paperback Writer
06/01/2021	Hectic	Isis	Undertale S Open	I'm in love with the flavour Isis writes, to the point where I just /pre-in to all of her games because of it. The way she she inserts the players into the story she tells, while not revealing anything alignment-wise about them is beautiful, and she makes it look effortless. The flavour in Undertale S Open in particular resonates with me; I remember looking forward to every flavour post she made just to see what would happen in the narrative she was telling. She even drew out cute pictures of our characters for our role PMs! The ending was especially amazing. I was the deciding vote in 3p lylo and I finally vote with minutes left on the clock. I wait and refresh a little later and am genuinely spooked by what I see - for a while I thought the thread might've been glitching out with the HEAL: votes edited in lol I have a nasty habit of sometimes skimming over flavour posts in other games, but the dialogue Isis writes between her characters is so alive , and full of charm and wit, that I always read them in full. She even wrote a hilarious alternative ending for the case that town won. The immersiveness in her storytelling is very dangerous, it's like a black hole.

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Paragon
08/01/2021	Hectic	MURDERCAT	Don't let the cute flareon in his avatar deceive you, this cat is absolutely terrifying. Since his return earlier this year, he's been going around the site solving game after game, and MURDERing scum after scum... he's won 9/12 town games in 2020. He has the ability to effortlessly obvtown at will, being only mislaunched once this year, and that being in a game where he nailed scum on day 1 anyway. His playstyle is incredibly transparent and active, and he's constantly posting his thoughts in-thread and pushing the game forward, while articulating them in a way which spews him as town and helps others solve and find the scummers. In Death Curse, he was the LAST CAT STANDING of 20 players, which is a testament to his ability to obvtown and avoid all mislaunches. He consistently pushed scum throughout the game, and drove town to a victory. He has creative powers of persuasion, where he convinces someone of the last remaining scum using a fun minigame. In Pooky V. Flava, his reads were once again on-point. Entering day 2 with a concise and eloquent case describing exactly why Polar Bear Express - a universal townread at the time, was scum. In Student Council, he solved the game in a hood overnight, scumcasing both of the delinquents. Great Idea Mafia was a game he replaced into, shortly obvtowning his slot and helping MURDERCAT both remaining anti-towns, sealing the win. MURDERCAT may not be the biggest sole driving force for town every game, but he's always one of the two or three strongest townies that are pivotal to the win. He obvtowns, PoEs scum down, and wins. Rinse and repeat. If his alignment is ever in question, he can easily towncase himself. If the game needs solving, he'll comply, using VCA and analysis. He's often ISO-diving, never allowing an important slip or vote from a previous day phase to be forgotten. He'll use all the information he has at his disposal to find scum without fail. If I was scum up against MUDERCAT in a game and I was making a threat-level tier list in the scum PT, MURDERCAT would be a MURDERous high level threat. He's never getting mislaunched and he'll inevitably find us, or just lock enough towns to MURDERCAT us via PoE; he's not someone you can just leave around for long. A Paragon that strikes fear into scum's hearts... a MURDERCAT .

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Rising Star
08/01/21	Hectic	Ydrasse	You ever been in a game of mafia, playing scum and just doing your own thing, when someone flies in, hard VIBECHECKS you, and catches you? That was Ydrasse. I first encountered her in a frosty newbie game. She had this almost wallposty style, where'd she just do a stream of consciousness spew into the thread. Her tone and thoughts were incredibly obvtown, and she was a universal-townread for the game's duration. Her posts were fun, analytical, and made her thought processes very clear. We won on day 2. Next up, I got to witness her first game outside of the newbie queue - allow me tell you the tale of the cruise upon the Anuket Topaz: During day 1 on the deck, she was once again a UTR, voting and helping push scum to walk the plank. This game had a white flag mechanic, meaning town just had to launch 2 of the 3 scum members to win. On day 2, Ydrasse enters with a confident scumcase on scum, having already solved the voyage. Unfortunately, town underestimate her powers and fail to sheep her, mislaunching on days 2 and 3 against Ydrasse's wishes. Day 4 rolls around and it's the deciding launch of the game. There's only a few slots that are no longer conftown, and Ydrasse is coming under some heat. Scum chose to throw Titus overboard on night 3 - who had Ydrasse as her top scumread the previous day. Scum's plan here is to frame Ydrasse and have her be the final mislaunch. But she doesn't let this deter her. Using her obvtowny vibes, she fights, and fights, and FIGHTS. Finally , she's smacked town into shape and obvtowned despite scum's best efforts to set her up. She hammers the scum she originally scumcased back on day 2, sealing a brilliant win where she had to fight not only the scum, but the town too. You might be wondering why anyone was even considering scumreading a newbie straight out of the newbie queue with towny posts like that. Well... Shortly before this, she played her first scumgame. She powerwolfed, being universally townread for the entire duration, winning a solo victory while not even receiving a single serious vote past RVS. Those vibes can be scary too... PookyVFlava, BoardGames, and Boonie also had excellent performances from Ydrasse. They've been expanded on elsewhere though, so I'll skip over the details. Mini Normal 2175 is an example of how much of a strong threat Ydrasse already is. As a VT, she places scum as her top scumread on day 1, and is brutally murdered night 1 as a result. Epilogue is also a testament to this, where scum decided to use their only kill to snipe Ydrasse's pair during the intermission phase. Ydrasse isn't all about obvtownspew and transparent walls though; her vibecheck is also one of the deadliest tools in her arsenal. E.g: Menalque didn't pass the vibecheck... he was scum. Bell failed the vibecheck... he was scum, etc. At this rate, I only expect Ydrasse's VIBES to rise in strength, so, if you ever feel vibes waft through your vicinity, be very wary of whether they're hers, and just pray she's on the same team as you.