Missions 4 & 5 are complete, Quiz #2 is underway, so let's get to it!
Mission #4: Sandbags
So here's the run down: 2 groups (1 consisting of 4 players, 1 consisting of 5 players) had to post to race towards one another (carrying their sandbags!). Since we choose to go for the maximum of $30k, we had to wait 60 minutes in between posts. If we met in the exact middle, we would get a bonus $10k.
Team #1 ending up slacking and didn't post enough to meet us in the middle, but we still met up and won the $30k, success!
So who was Moley today?
Ethan000 did quite a few things that were suspect. First, he opted to join my group as soon as I selected a group. Although we didn't know what the challenge was, the Mole probably did... Strategy wise, Ethan and I had been the top posters in the 500 challenge, so if we had been in opposite groups chances would have increased that we would have been able to meet in the middle. If Ethan was The Mole he could have strategically selected to be on my team in hopes that Team #1 would have the fuel to make enough posts...
Secondly, Ethan000 was the only other person besides myself to actively voice his opinion of going for $30k. We had the option of going for $5k less to make it easier ($25k, $20k, $15k, etc). I think The Mole would have at least voiced an opinion one way or another (if he was in our group). However, in retrospect, going for $30k was probably the best option for the team. If we had gone for $25k we'd probably have had 50 minutes in between posts, but even with that advantage, I don't think the other team would have been able to meet us in the middle. And had we gone for $20k even if we did meet in the middle the most we could earn would have been $30k, which is what we did win, so that wouldn't have helped anything.
Lastly, Ethan000 made a diagram, that in my personal opinion, was confusing to follow. The diagram is fine once it is explained, but that is assuming all the players are going to take the time to read the explanation and not assume it means what first comes to mind when looking at the diagram... act of sabotage? Or just artistic differences?
...
And where did Team #1 go wrong?
barkmrck3tg claimed that he would take the lead for Team #1 for most of the night, leaving his teammates to feel at ease. But then he lost us valuable time by not posting which indirectly resulted in us not being able to meet in the middle and earn the $10k. Sabotage? I suspect so...
...
Mission #5: Splashes
So the other 10 players complete in a posting mission in which they had to follow directions in a specific order... The task was... (TLDR)... don't worry, you don't need to.
pikachu142 ended the mission in 2 minutes when he unclipped his rope and sent his 9 fellow teammates splashing into the water. Costing the team $27k... The most money anyone has single-handedly lost to date. Definitely suspicious.
Mission #2 was fairly simple, we just all had to submit our “profile” for The Mole. If even one person didn’t submit, we would win any money. Rawr121 was the only person to not submit his profile information…
So do I suspect Rawr121?
Nope! Rawr121 has effectively removed himself from my suspect list. Why is that? I just don’t think the Mole would risk sticking out like a sore thumb and being the only person to not submit a list. The profiles are crucial information that the game needs so that quizzes can be made with them.
Mission #3 was interesting.
We had to post 500 posts (and we had to have at least 2 people post in between each post). We also had to have at least 75% of the team post or we’d only earn half the money.
I’ll start with the obvious suspicious behavior:
Ethan000 claimed the 500th post and was given the opportunity to take an exemption but at the cost of losing the team $10k and adding it to the Mole’s pot. Definitely mole-like behavior!
Tunertin didn’t follow the rules about making sure two people post in between posts. He posted 28 & 30 and then vanished. Luckily, I caught the mistake and saved the team from an instant loss ;). Nice try Mr. Turner Mole Sir!
Barkmrck3tg was quite suspicious as well. Early on in the game he misinformed us that we had already got 15 people to post, when we in fact only had 13 people to post at that time… this later lead us to believe we had enough people and could have cost us $5k if we hadn’t double-checked…
EM002 did a swell effort at getting us to the 500 and also double-checking that we got all 75% accounted for. He didn’t do anything suspicious, but he’s definitely worth keeping an eye on… perhaps he was just being pro-team so he could build up a helpful persona, only to sabotage when we least expect it.
And the 1st quiz is posted, I wish luck to all my competitors! Hopefully I come out of this one alive ;).
In order to let the viewer's in on what's going on behind the scenes, and to help the other contestants figure out what's going down from my perspective, I've decided I'll write a public Mole diary after every challenge ^_^.
So without further ado…
Mission Recap: The first Mission involved the 20 of us being split up into 5 groups of 4. We had to follow a series of clues to reach the finish line spot. If all of our group members got there within the time limit, we'd earn $5,000 per each team that finished. However, for each person that failed to follow the rules and post their name in each clue blog, we'd lose $1,000.
So, what all went down?
I was the first on and I messaged the group letting them know what I found for the First Clue, but that I was having trouble actually locating the second clue.
aiwfwyattroh, by far the most suspicious, responded and let us know he'd already gone through all the clues and located the finish line and posted it in the group for us all to see. Jacob_C later followed his lead and posted in the finish line without posting in the clue blogs.
HOWEVER, neither of them follow directions initially and did not post their names in each blog…
Ryan_Jambe, the last member of our team, pointed this out to the group. aiwfwyattroh corrected his "mistake", Jacob_C responded (indicated he got the message in time) yet did not correct his mistake.
All eyes on your Mr. Jacob_C… although aiwfwyattroh just posting the finish line from the beginning was awfully suspect.
I ended up being the last of my group to post in the finish line… and the ironic part is I forgot to post my name in one of the clue blogs -_-. This is ironic because I specifically called out aiwfw and Jacob for not doing so initially. I'm not very happy with myself because I wanted to make a good impression amongst my team mates since I literally do not know any of them… But they'll be plenty more missions for me to show my team I'm a competent and worthy competitor! :D
Now, let's get to some first impression suspects:
Ryan_Jambe - although he was my only team member to actually follow instructions from the get go, doing some research I learned he is the winner of NB's first Whodunnit Game. This means if he was The Mole he could slide through to the end and nobody would second guess how he is making it so far when he has proven his deductive and logic reasoning skills in a past game. Perfect Mole cover.
Ethan000 - He is currently in the lead in NBR points in the NB Reality Hall of Fame… perhaps he'd want to be the Mole with a double motive: the more he sabotages the pot, the less points the rest of us will make! He would have a huge incentive to sabotage >=D.
Well, that's all for now… let me know your thoughts ^_^.
