Round 06

[Ethan]

As expected, Kelly left. Now, Kelly will probably give her gem to Tracy. That will leave Ace, Shii Ann, and Stephenie in the danger zone of 1-2 gems to leave this round. Ace is in no danger, and I doubt that anyone will give Shii or Steph gems. So, either Shii Ann or Stephenie is gone this round.

I'll possibly win if I have to in order to keep someone we don't want to win from winning this, but I'd rather Brett, Marcus, or Silas won so that I wouldn't have to choose between them to see who I gave 2 gems to. I'd rather not see Russell win, but it would be better than Rocky, Tracy or the three hardly active players. I think that our focus is going to shift to weakening Rocky this round because he's great in the challenges. We'll just have to see how the competitions go and play it from there.

Hopefully I don't win a 5th straight, lol. I've already put a huge X on my back by winning all these. But maybe people won't target me now for fear that I'll just win a competition and get revenge on them? This game has so many fascinating scenarios to consider.

[Ethan]

Argh! The challenge last night was so strange. Marcus wasn't around for the start and didn't know that it was occurring. Brett, Russell, Silas, and I were all online and worked on it. But we didn't really work together besides talking about the problematic answers. Unfortunately, that lack of communication may be the issue. I solved the puzzle at 10:29pm, but I made a careless mistake on one of the answers and didn't realize and correct it until 11:54pm. What could be a huge problem is that I have talked to Brett, Russell, and Silas...and all 3 of them made stupid mistakes as well. Since Marcus didn't post the list until after I sent it to him, then I have the best chance of winning out of our group. I don't think that Ace or Stephenie were online for the start of the challenge, but I do think that Rocky, Shii Ann, and Tracy all had a HUGE window of opportunity to beat us since I didn't correct my mistake until 11:54pm. This may be the chance for them to start a comeback.

So either things go slightly downhill from here with a loss for our group or I win a 5th straight competition. That would be ridiculous, especially since one of my initial strategies entering this game was to do well on the challenges but not too well. I haven't really stuck to that plan. Half of these challenge wins are luck-based, but the others are simply because I'm good at the challenges and have a strong competitive nature. I still look back on Robber Competition #1 where Marcus got into all of the vaults and and think that the win should have been mine, lol. And it would have been if not for a slight hiccup by the Proboard server time that seems to occur on some hours. But at least I won't make that mistake again.

Anyway, I've made it through the initial part of the game. I'll either be jury or a finalist, and it's time to step up my game. The likelihood of me making the finals, in my opinion, is decent but not great because these challenge wins will likely lead people (even my allies, when we have to choose amongst each other) to vote me out if/when I'm vulnerable. So I may just want to keep winning challenges to not let them get the opportunity. Maybe this round but probably not for a round or two, the math/calculations involved in strategy is going to get incredibly difficult to predict anything. But it's important to keep checking the math. I've also attempted to get on good terms with most people, but I need to improve my social game so that people see me as more than a boring challenge dominator. Although the people who aren't paying much attention may vote for me on jury because of that. Or will they distribute most of their gems to Silas because he's running the show? Whatever the case, I feel like I have a decent shot at winning if I make finals, but I'd like to do a little more over these next few rounds to increase my chances of possibly winning if I get the opportunity to make finals. I'll just stay sharp and look for opportunities, even if they're seemingly small things.

I don't expect to make finals, but it would certainly be nice. I've already had a significant presence in this game and clinched a spot on the jury, so I'll be pleased regardless of what happens. But I would like a little more.

[Ethan]

Ugh. Rocky won, barely. Our fault. Disorganization sucks.

Now I'm probably going to lose 2 my of my precious gems here. Boo!

[Ethan]

Rocky won Cop by a few minutes over me. Our disorganization handed it to him, so that assures that he'll be around a little while and makes things more difficult. Marcus won Robber, so assuming that he doesn't steal from me, which I don't think he will, then it's probably as good as me winning or anyone else. I LOVED the Robber Competition. It really suited my style for challenge type. I had a system, which seemed like it would work well and be incredibly difficult for anyone to beat me without perfect timing. Sadly, I clicked the wrong tab I had opened, and since you can't see previous posts after you preview to get the time, posted out of order and was disqualified. Oh well. I'll win it next time.

Silas thinks Ace should go down to 1 gem, which would give a little bit of cushion for those with 3 or 4 next round if we vote out Shii and she gives her gem to Steph. It makes sense to me, although with 5 gems and assuming that I keep those 5 gems, I'd probably prefer to see Tracy go down to 2 personally. But for the sake of my allies with 3, then, yeah, stealing from Ace makes a lot of sense. Marcus seems to be leaning towards stealing from Tracy, though, which is making Silas angry. Uh oh.

Silas 5:08 pm
(5:08:34 PM): i want to win cop next round
(5:08:40 PM): and threaten not to protect him
(5:08:47 PM): just to make him shit himself for awhile
(5:08:55 PM): i was all oh next round
(5:09:01 PM): and he was we dont know whats gonna happen
(5:09:04 PM): blah blah blah
(5:09:09 PM): talking down to me and shit
(5:09:18 PM): im not going to take it if it continues

I like Silas. I really, really like Silas. And I understand his mindset, but it's just going to keep isolating people from him to the point where he's going to be in danger. :-\ I'll try to do damage control between Marcus and Silas to keep this going for a little while since they're my closest two allies. Hopefully I don't mess up and lose 2 of my gems in the process.

[Ethan]

So, Shii Ann's going this round. I'm completely confident even though I haven't talked to everyone about it yet. The Marcus-Silas feud is ridiculous, but it's brought some interesting things to my attention. Silas might be right about an Ace-Marcus-Russell alliance, but that's not my main focus right now. Basically, this next round, I need Silas to win the Cop Challenge and Marcus to win the Robber Competition. Silas will protect me, and then Marcus won't get protection, but he'll steal from Rocky in the Robber Competition if he wins.

This is how it needs to happen. I want both Marcus and Silas to make it far, and I can't really afford to win any competition to have to choose between them unless I'm forced to. Both Marcus and Silas feel that Brett and Russell are on their side. One of them is going to be in for a harsh surprise. Fortunately, for now, everyone loves Ethan. I'm even talking to Rocky about potentially working with him.

How should I handle Ace, Stephenie, and Tracy? I don't even know. But I do need to work a little on Brett and Russell and see where their heads are.