Season 4 of the Mafia Championships - nomination thread [Update: Season 5]

[GeneralHankerchief]

Hey gang,

Due to our overall awesomeness, the .Org has once again been invited to take part in the annual Mafia Championships over at Mafia Universe (a site that our own Askthepizzaguy had no small hand in forming). We're looking to send over a representative who will fly our flag, so this thread will serve as a nomination thread as well as a general FAQ.

Here's what the admin and overall organizer, Thingyman, has to say:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

INVITATION TO THE MAFIA CHAMPIONSHIP (SEASON 4)

Hello everyone! :)

I would very much like to invite your community to take part in Season 4 of the Mafia Championship.

The Mafia Championship is an annual online tournament series that pits representatives from various forum Mafia (aka Werewolf) communities against one another as they compete to determine the Internet’s greatest forum Mafia player. Each participating community democratically elects one person to represent them and become their “Champion”.

Season 1 ran in 2013-2014, while Season 2 and Season 3 ran in 2015 and 2016, respectively. As of Season 3, a total of 160 communities have been represented in the Mafia Championship, making it the largest cross-forum event on the Internet.

I hope that all this sounds very exciting to you guys :)

1. Do you accept the invite?

If your community wishes to participate, please confirm your participation to me before April 13 to ensure yourselves a spot. If you need more time than this to think about whether you wish to participate, let me know and I can extend the deadline.

If you agree to participate, the deadline for selecting your representative is April 22.

The games will take place on Mafia Universe. If it’s okay, I can link directly to the general discussion thread regarding this topic on Mafia Universe.

Important notes

• You may decide yourselves how you want to elect your representative, but we highly recommend some sort of democratic process (public nominations followed by a poll usually works out well).
• In addition to electing a representative, you should also name an alternate who will be asked to step in if the first choice needs to back out.
• Your representative should be prepared for having to read upwards of 500 posts per 24 hours during the early stages of the game. Additionally, there’s a requirement that each player must make at least 10 posts per Game Day. Only active players should apply/participate.
• Relevant only to communities that participated last season: Season 3 Finalists are not eligible to play again this season.

1. Season 4 Format

The tournament structure

• 105 communities will participate, each sending one representative.
• 7 Qualifying Games will be played consisting of 15 players each. I.e. every representative plays in one Qualifying Game. 1 player will advance directly to the Finale Game from each Qualifying Game. The players themselves vote post-game to determine who is deserving of advancement. I.e. 7 of the 15 finalists will be found this way.
• A Jury consisting of finalists from Season 3 will along with me discuss and vote to determine a group of 30 wildcard players who will play in 2 Semi Final Wildcard Games. From each of these two games, four players will directly advance to the Finale Game.
• The Finale Game is played. Once it has completed, the players vote to determine who shall hold the title of Season 4 Champion.

The setup

MOUNTAINOUS

12 Vanilla Townies

3 Mafia Goons

We’re going back to basics for Season 4. Each season we’re changing it up, and for this season it’s finally time to play without any power roles or abilities at all. Pure mafia. You have only yourself and your reading/bluffing abilities to count on.

Relevant mechanics info

• Day start.
• Deadline Lynch w/ Option for Majority starting Day 2. I.e. when day timer runs out, person with most votes will be lynched. However, day can also be ended early (starting Day 2) if there is ever a majority of votes on one person.
• If there is a tied lynch, one of the tied players will be randomly lynched.
• No outside communication. I.e. you may not contact the other players outside of the thread (unless you are Mafia and wish to speak with your teammates).
• Phase Lengths and Deadlines will be up to the players themselves (I’ll organize them into games with deadlines that suit their preferences).

1. Season 4 Timeline

The first Qualifying Game is currently set to start April 24th. Additional games will take place in the 1-3 months following. I will create a Doodle and find out the best times to start the various games so that preferably everyone gets to play during a time that suits them well.


Kind regards,
Thingyman

If you want to get in contact with me ASAP, you can find me on Skype (thingyman) or Discord (Thingyman#6075).

ORG SPECIFIC FAQ:

What the heck does "Mountainous" mean?
It means "vanilla". Just town and mafia, no other roles. These setups will very much be in the style of a classic GH game (not Pirate Ship/French Revolution Mafia, the really old stuff).

What should I expect if I do this?
Every championships game is different, but be prepared for a lot of posts. My qualifying game last year had 17 people and 3,600 posts over 5 and a half day phases (around two weeks). If you progress to the wild card and/or finale, that number will probably only go up. The overall atmosphere will probably be more rough-and-tumble than what we're used to here, though this will vary based on player composition.

What's the .Org's history with this event?
I'm glad you asked! We've sent representatives for all three iterations of the tournament so far, and several of our players have represented other forums they play on too, meaning our progress toward world domination is one step closer. Askthepizzaguy and Zack made it to the finale in Season 2, and Visor and I followed in their footsteps last year. I'll be honest: I want to keep this streak going.

Me too! .Org pride! So what happens next?
That's the spirit!
As finalists from the previous year, Visor and I are ineligible, though everyone else is fair game. Ideally our nomination should go to the person who meets the following criteria:
a) Someone who wants to go.
b) Someone who is comfortable with the requirements.
c) Someone who the community backs as a worthy representative of the .Org.

"Worthy representative" is intentionally undefined here. The point of this series is to foster cross-community relationships and expand our horizons when it comes to Mafia.

Is there any criteria towards nominating someone besides the above points?
No. We have a lot of very good Mafia players here, some who are familiar with Mafia Universe and some who aren't. This should not be a mark for or against anybody - just last year both Visor (who has played games across like a million forums) and I (literally only ever played on the .Org for ten years) made the finals. I'm also not restricting the nomination period to someone who has or has not done well in recent games. Basically, use your best judgement.

How will the representative/alternate ultimately be decided?
We'll see if there's consensus and go from there.

Okay, great! Who are you nominating, GH?
I have a couple of ideas, but I don't want to turn the OP into a referendum on certain people's skills/qualities. I'll chime in at some point during the process but will allow you guys to go first.

[Zack]

Is anyone going to nominate anyone other than Renata? No? K we're sending Renata.

[Zack]

Now we can talk about who's representing CFC. I nominate Winston.

I'm guessing DP will rep realms beyond.

On a sidenote, all joking aside I've already represented CFC/Org in past seasons, and I've been nominated to represent MU, so I'd rather not represent one of our sites except as a last resort.

[El Barto]

I formally nominate Double A as our representative.

[Dp101]

I'll probably represent RB, yes, as there weren't that many others jumping at the chance last year. I'm perfectly fine with Renata representing the org, but I would also be ok with Choxorn given recent events, as well as Montmorency as another example of good, solid play.

[Montmorency]

good, solid play.

[Winston Hughes]

Now we can talk about who's representing CFC. I nominate Winston.

Probably better to choose someone who isn't nailed on for a D1 lynching.