Scummies Nominations 2023!

[Dannflor]

Moment of Brilliance
2023/09/01	Dannflor	Dunnstral	Open 881 | Friends and Enemies	This play vastly swung the EV of this game in town's favor. At the end of Day 2, town was correctly wagoning a scum player who then claimed mason - threatening to out one of the three masons that had so far remained undetected in order to secure a scum elimination. With little hesitation, Dunnstral correctly deduces that the player claiming mason (superbowl9) *cannot* be a mason and cc's the mason claim. What makes this play so brilliant is that Dunnstral himself was a vanilla townie. The day ends shortly after and Dunnstral is killed during the night. The 3 masons remain hidden and the game ends in a town victory 2 days later. This was not only a sharp part of deduction on Dunnstral's part, but an instrumental shift in momentum that helped town win the game. Dunnstral was a viable miselim target before this play, having defended scum before the mason claim. This play not only kept the masons secret, but forced the scum team to night kill a slot that could have been a much needed miselimination. Just a very slick, if simple, town play

[Dannflor]

Rising Star
2023/11/21	Dannflor	DragonEater70	DragonEater70 has an unmatched enthusiasm for the game of mafia and the site in general. He's been actively involved in discussions about changes to normal games, has modded several games, and shown competence in his gameplay since joining the site in February. Notable works to me include DragonEater70's scum win in Fruit Mafia and his modded/designed games in Large Normal 245 and Mini Normal 2309.

Rising Star
2023/11/21	Dannflor	AnimatedWiz	AnimatedWiz is a great example of someone who shows up and immediately shows competence as both town and mafia. He was no small part of winning his first game as town, and managed to be a very strong part of a scum team that suffered a number of replacements in Mini Normal 2313, and despite ultimately losing, managed to be widely town read until they were mechanically caught out in a close finish. AnimatedWiz has shown to be a respectful and thoughtful player and I think think he shows great promise if he keeps playing games.

[Dannflor]

Don Corleone
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Ausuka	Ausuka is an extremely competent scum player who, while not rolling a ton of scum games this year, has dominated in both of them. Mini Normal 2294 was a very clean game where Ausuka end gamed as scum against two very good town players in Morning Tweet and Klick. Open 885 was a game where Ausuka (repped in on her alt meowmeow) effectively dismantled all suspicion on her scum partner, lead multiple miseliminations without ever really being suspected, and at the end of the game had pretty much everyone eliminating the correct scum team as an option due to towny play and effective distancing. This nomination is missing a greater sample size but due to the lack of nominations and the quality of gameplay on display here I think this is a nomination worthy of consideration.

Don Corleone
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Black	I think historically that people have been averse to giving body of work awards to people during their first year on site, but I think Black has more than proven she can tangle with the best as scum in an incredibly short time - in no short thanks to an abundance of scum rolls! Seriously, Black rolled scum and subsequently won all of Newbie 2111, Newbie 2113, Newbie 2116, and Open 885. In addition, I don't think the fact that most of these wins were in newbie games means a whole lot, since as most of us know, recent newbie games have been 80% experienced players anyway. I think the consistency and volume of scum play at work here is worthy of Don Corleone consideration.

Paragon
2023/11/22	Dannflor	jjh927	jjh927 is consistently obvious town, has accurate reads, and excels at getting town to actually put down their differences and work together. In Datisi's University, jjh was not only killed by the mafia on N1 due to being obvious town, but had 3 out of 4 scum locked into his 4 person PoE. In Mini Normal 2314, jjh927 was *again* killed N1 due to being obvious town. He also hard pushed 2/3 scum in both marcistar and Xegarus D1, only backing off due to self-resolving claims and the fact that he correctly read Xegarus as a traitor. Secrets of the Anuket Topaz was a town loss, but jjh927 had a member of the scum team within his sights for pretty much the entirety of the game.

Moment of Brilliance
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Andresvmb	Datisi's University	Andresvmb rolled Loyal Vigilante. He was in the PoE for most of the game until he took a hero shot on N2, and that hero shot happened to be a correct scum read on the game's deepest wolf. This was close to perfect play from a townie in Andres' position, first goading his guilty (me) into an ascetic claim, before revealing the true nature of his investigative power. This guilty effectively lead the game to a swift close, with the other members of the scum team getting caught out on the mechanical and associative implications of the guilty.

Goodfellas
2023/11/22	Dannflor	camelCasedSnivy, Firebringer, gob	Secrets of the Anuket Topaz	Secrets of the Anuket Topaz is a game that requires the scum team to be mindful of their own associations, because they're all going to get flipped eventually. This game was won by a team that worked well together and managed to distance so effectively that by the end of the game, everyone had essentially eliminated the correct possible team. While various members of the scum team came under fire at different points, the team operated well together to make sure none of them carried too much pressure at one time. I think this game is a very good example of mafia members *intentionally playing scummier* in a way that works towards their win condition by drawing attention away from team mates and undermining town cohesion. This was just a very good case study in team work.

Goodfellas
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Dunnstral and GuiltyLion	Micro 1091 - Prism v. 1L Year	A very slick mafia performance between two players that came under fire frequently, but managed to play around each other such that the town could not arrive at a correct solve that included two mafiosos. This was an impressive win in a fairly stacked lobby. Dunnstral and GuiltyLion had to play well mechanically, effectively distance, and in limlo convince the town that they were actually both more likely to be paired with other players. This scum team seemed to function like a well-oiled machine, and as a result, they had a perfect game!

Hannibal Lecter
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Enchant	Datisi's University	Enchant played a 3rd party role who *needed to be night killed by scum* in order to win the game. Armed with nothing but a 2-shot mailman ability, Enchant was able to successfully convince another townie to claim an innocent on him, thereby drawing the scum kill and fulfilling his win condition. I think this was impressive play and impressive usage of the 3p ability to win especially when considering the large number of other attractive night kill targets to the scum team.

Community Contributer
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Ausuka	From her duties as the new normal list mod overhauling the normal game system, to her consistent contributions to the modding scene and the open setup design scene, Ausuka is a prolific contributer to the mafia side of the website. But I'd also like to call to attention her recent discussion threads "which element are you?" and "Ausuka ranks Pokemon starters", both popular discussion threads that have sparked community interest and discussion over the past couple months. I think Ausuka is a great example of someone who engages in all aspects of the community, tries to lead by example, and creates content for the community at large to engage with.

Game of the Year
2023/11/22	Dannflor	Prism	Micro 1091 - Prism v. 1L Year	I think this game was quintessential mafia in every sense of the word. It featured polished modding and flavor, a simple setup with an incredible amount of depth for how basic the power roles really were, and both solid town play and scum play. I think this game is worth a read by anyone and I think it is bound to be overlooked for GOTY because it is a micro. But I think simpler games can and should be worthy of this award, and I can think of no better candidate this year than this one. It also includes the wonderful highlight moment of Pooky's god-tier mech speculation.

[Dannflor]

Moment of Brilliance
2024/01/04	Dannflor	Ydrasse and RCEnigma	Toriel's Patience	This was a bit of a grueling game, as mountainous games can often be. With town choosing the "spare" route, but being unsuccessful in eliminating scum earlier in the game. The game came down to two consecutive days where all the town needed to find each other. Ydrasse and RCEnigma had previously been scum reading each other, but managed to successfully find each other as town over a series of three pages. This successful connection between two townies, managing to see through the noise the scum team was attempting to generate, was all that was needed to win the game. In fact, this 3 page back and forth between Ydrasse and RCEnigma was exactly what won the game for town in the end. In Ydrasse's words, this was a "rare town blitz."

Modfather
2024/01/04	Dannflor	Skygazer	Skygazer is a prolific moderator whilst also lending a lot of her time to being a backup or co-mod to other users on the site. Skygazer posts frequent VCs, keeps games running smoothly, has great flavor, and generally does all the things one would expect from a great moderator and a great game. However, on top of the standard stuff, I want to highlight just the wide variety of kinds of games Skygazer runs for the community. Everything from Open games, Mini Themes, Micro Themes, Normal Games, and Newbie Games. Skygazer has run a truly staggering number of games this year, many of them with personally designed setups. I always feel comfortable joining a game moderated by Skygazer because I know it's going to a smooth experience with a personal touch of style.

[Dannflor]

Don Corleone
2024/01/08	Dannflor	Thestatusquo	I consider Thestatusquo to be a player who always puts his all into a game, regardless of his alignment. He has an unmatched WIM and passion for the game that has really paid off this year when he's rolled scum. One of his first wins of the year actually comes from Team Mafia, Amnesiac Mafia, which is an event generally considered to be hugely town sided. I can probably count on one hand the number of times mafia has won a Team Mafia game in the past few years. Obviously Thestatusquo had a great team around him in this game, but he was noted as playing particularly well by several players in this game. Thestatusquo was also an integral part of the mafia team that won Hollow Knight Mafia. No, he didn't end game, he got tracked to the person who died and was killed prematurely. But to that point, Thestatusquo was playing very well and was a part of a team that setup Gimli well to win. Thestatusquo endgamed in Garlic Bread Heist, a game with several power town players. Thestatusquo endgamed in Mini Normal 2316 even as town stopped the scum night kill *two nights in a row.* Overall, I think Thestatusquo has shown the quality and consistency of play this year required for consideration for the Don Corleone award. He's a player where I genuinely fear him rolling scum against me.