2019 recap

Nuxl

new message from your psychologist
is a Community Contributor
approved by dle

i'll see if i can get started on this over break or something but i thought an attempt on this could be cool. wanted to create a hub thread so people could post their thoughts of games they really liked in 2019 and so i can get things organized for later.

things in 2019:

Smogon Invitational 2019
Vote for Town Mafia(abandoned)
Vote for Town Mafia(the second run)
Twin Trap Mafia
Mayor Mafia
Small Street

D6 Mafia
Why is there a gun in my Popcorn 2
Rand+++
New World Mafia

2OCNOC
Matrix 14 (no multiball)

White Flag

Alias Mafia
Book Mafia
Big City Mafia
Pay to Slay
SmogEIMM
Mario Mafia

Seven Deadly Sins
Circus Survivor 6
Circus Survivor 7
Seven Deadly Sins: Reincarnated
Circus Survivor 8 (Anon)
Circus Survivor 9 (Anon)

Smogon Puzzle Hunt 2
walruses? haha

bolded is what i think should probably be included, underlined maybe, italicized i'm more conflicted than underlined. i think a range of 10-15 games is good, (preferably 12+) and hopefully i'm not forgetting something important.

if anybody with more OC/ORG experience could tell me what they think about such a list that'd be great too! or if anybody disagrees/agrees etc
 
Last edited:
you can't tell me circus survivor 7 wasn't the highlight of ORGs this year /s

in all seriousness, if you need some help writing up ORG stuff I'd be happy to give some input. Talking about either surv 8 or 9 is good for touching on the introduction of the Anon mechanic (8 might be easier since AJ wrote an extensive postgame for it but 9 had slightly more interesting gameplay imo)), 6 is good for talking about a "traditional" smog survivor game that wasn't entirely a trainwreck
 

Nuxl

new message from your psychologist
is a Community Contributor
you can't tell me circus survivor 7 wasn't the highlight of ORGs this year /s

in all seriousness, if you need some help writing up ORG stuff I'd be happy to give some input. Talking about either Circus 8 or 9 is good for talking about the introduction of the Anon mechanic (8 might be easier since AJ wrote an extensive postgame for it but 9 had slightly more interesting gameplay imo)), 6 is good for talking about a "traditional" smog survivor game that wasn't entirely a trainwreck
i think 7ds should definitely be included, and one of the anon survivors as well just because of the mechanic.

not super sure how people felt about the orgs this year in general but i felt six was probably something traditional/fine to write about, though i'd be lying if i said i had indepth knowledge of how everything went

but yeah any help would be super appreciated especially since i never really followed the scene in general.
 
oh yeah i assumed 7ds was a given, that + an anon surv would be good i think. 6 is about as traditional you can get from the list of ORGs that were hosted this year so if you need a more 'neutral' (?) pick then that'd be the one imo. i dont remember exactly everything that went down but im sure heal or AJ could probably recount it well enough

how long/in-depth are these writeups intended to be?
 

Nuxl

new message from your psychologist
is a Community Contributor
oh yeah i assumed 7ds was a given, that + an anon surv would be good i think. 6 is about as traditional you can get from the list of ORGs that were hosted this year so if you need a more 'neutral' (?) pick then that'd be the one imo. i dont remember exactly everything that went down but im sure heal or AJ could probably recount it well enough

how long/in-depth are these writeups intended to be?
probably a paragraph or a few depending on the game. orgs probably would need a tad more just because there's more to rundown but it's more like a tl;dr with some analysis partly included in it
 
ah ok, yeah Anon 8's gameplay was a little bit more straightforward than 9's imo (both still have some funny / iconic moments) so it might be easier to write a shorter analysis that still gets a good grasp of the game since 9 had a fairly intricate merge phase imo (AJ might have a completely diff opinion since he hosted both though)

HeaLnDeaL might be able to give better insight since he spectated both games though my guess is that he'd suggest a writeup of season 6
 
Who are we writing this for?

is the audience us, future circus players, people on smogon not on circus already...?
 
cool.

for an audience outside of circus, our message should be crisper and the article should have more focus than 9 sections about 9 different games, none of which have relation to each other. Imagine being a reader of flying press and then you see this article and it just bombards you with information about all these different games, none of which you have any reason to really give a shit about

my suggestion is:

In 2019, circus maximus hosted 18 mafia games and 6 online reality games.

One of those mafia games was the 2019 Smogon Invitational. blah blah summary.

Circus maximus also hosts mafia games where communication outside of the thread is allowed. blah blah this is what OC is

One of the OC games was SmogEIMM. This is what happened in smogeimm

Organized reality games has seen a resurgence in popularity on Smogon. These include games that copy the format of reality TV shows like survivor, big brother.

One of the ORGs hosted this year was 7ds. this is what happened in 7ds

We also hosted puzzle hunt. this is what happened in puzzle hunt

We hope to see you join us on circus maximus for 2020!

by the way, here are a few other games that were hosted this year and recaps for those.
 
2019 was a busy year for Circus Maximus, Smogon’s subforum for text-based forum games. We played 18 mafia games, 6 online reality games, XXX role playing games, and hosted the much awaited sequel to the Smogon Puzzle Hunt.

I. Mafia
For those who enjoy debating and social deduction, Circus Maximus remains one of the best places on the web to play mafia. Mafia games in our intimate community are active, with a total of XXX posts made in games this year. Our playerbase is a mix of returnees and newcomers, and of the 63 people who have played this year, XXX joined this year. Additionally, most people who play on Smogon choose to stick around, with XXX people playing more than one game this year.

The Smogon Invitational was hosted in February this year. XXX

Circus Maximus has also been home to a uniquely Smogon breed of Mafia games, which we term Outside Communication. OC games are mafia games where communication outside the thread is explicitly allowed. These setup of these games differ from standard mafia games in that roles are more powerful and complex, with emphasis on action tactics rather than social deduction.

Big City Mafia was an OC game where two village-like factions competed for political dominance in The Big City. XXX

II. Online Reality Games
Online reality games have been popular this year as well, with XXX players involved in four Survivor games and two Seven Deadly Sins games. ORGs are games that test a player’s ability to create alliances and manipulate others. This year was notable for introducing anonymity to survivor games, so that people would play under aliases and not reveal their own identity until after the game has concluded.

Seven Deadly Sins is a unique ORG created as a mashup between Survivor and The Genius. Every round, players participate in a Main Match which is typically a social game rewarding cooperation and strategy. The loser of the Main Match becomes an elimination candidate, and selects another player to join him. The two people then are voted on by the rest of the players, and one is removed from the game. A player is eliminated each round until there are three players left, at which time a final challenge that involves eliminated players decides a winner.

Alliances were quickly formed among the 13 players. The Mafia Alliance consisted of 6 people who had met each other prior on Showdown, the Swingers were three people who were new to Smogon, and the Europeans were three people who bonded over their shared time zone. Zorbees decided against joining an alliance, and instead spent the game shifting between different allies.

For much of the early game, people in the Mafia Alliance was targeted for their perceived closeness. The Swingers and the Euros proved to be tactically dominant in the Main Matches and were able to outplay the Mafia Alliance despite a disadvantage in size. Of the first six eliminations, five were from the Mafia Alliance with Duskfall being the only Mafia survivor. Drey provided strong leadership in coordinating the fight against the Mafia alliance, while Zorbees was at risk of elimination three times but survived due to his ability to pitch to the best interests of others.

Naturally, the two intact factions began fighting each other when the Mafia Alliance was all but neutralized. The Europeans were eliminated in this fight, and as a result the final five consisted of the three Swingers, Zorbees, and Duskfall. Infighting among the Swingers alliance caused the group to implode, as one member of the Swingers (Conrad) seized an opportunity to stab someone he regarded as a threat (Josh). While Conrad was successful, the move alienated him from the rest of the game, and without any allies, he was sent home at F4.

In the final challenge, eliminated players came out in support of Duskfall, who played an honest game and survived to the end by taking advantage of changing landscapes and shifting alliances. He won $100 which he donated to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.

III. Puzzle Hunt
A highlight of our year was the return of the Smogon Puzzle Hunt, which attracted 93 teams from Smogon and offsite. XXX


2019 was an exciting year to be involved in Circus Maximus. Newcomers and returnees played new and old games. For those reading who haven’t stopped by our subforum yet, we hope that you’ll join in one of our games in the new year, and that in 2020, we’ll be talking about a game that you hosted or won. See you around!

Here are a selection of other games that were hosted this year:
Anon Survivor
SmogEIMM
Eli’s matrix
Walrus lol?
 
Last edited:

Nuxl

new message from your psychologist
is a Community Contributor
liked these posts for later, ur format probably does better in regards to trying to bring new people in/advertising circus to other ppl reading. i like it better for that regard

a holistically good thing but probably isn't a future proof format LOL
 

Nuxl

new message from your psychologist
is a Community Contributor
no strong opinion on that i just don't know how/why to include it because it's not really a game participated by most people on the forum
 

Texas Cloverleaf

This user has a custom title
is a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Stroke my ego pls

But also it could be cool for an outsider to see a connection between smogon and a larger community maybe
 

Texas Cloverleaf

This user has a custom title
is a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Lots of smogon has strong ties to the tournament is setting so it's a natural thing to see that getting good at something can lead to recognition
 

HeaLnDeaL

Let's Keep Fighting
is an Artistis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnus
I can help with survivor season 6 if needed, might be fine to collab with ajhockeystar on that. (I could also give minor opinions for the anon write up as a spectator).

I will say that I STRONGLY prefer season 9 being included over season 8, as I think season 9 was just way more fun to watch and it wasn't a forgone conclusion that everyone knew who Hannah was and that she was going to win. Season 9 might be less linear and thus more complicated to watch, but at the same time people don't watch survivor wanting a linear story so I don't think a clear and obvious write up really appeals to the interesting things that people like about survivor. Plus a jalmont vs vigvig nail biter narrative seems really dope in general.

I think including both 6 for a Traditional season and 9 for an anon season is ideal, plus it sort of bookends everything else with the first season of the year and the last. While 7 was All Stars and people might care about that, 6 was practically All Stars anyway and was just way better.
 
I doubt the article as an ad would be very useful who even reads random flying press articles anyways. It’s just a cool way to historicize past games that were especially noteworthy. Should be mainly for the current smogon crew. (I mean u can do whatever obv just my 2c)

I also think it would be a waste of time to recap a game that no one from this site participated in unless you really like reading noc games...might as well include eimm games or mafia scum or mafia 534 or w.e it’s called...It’s not that there’s anything wrong with those communities but I feel it’s important to keep the recap grounded in the smogon community because otherwise the recap will lose its meaningfulness. Maybe if mafia was a more competitive game I’d feel differently but yea.
 
When you cover Popcorn 2, don't forget to mention Hitmonleet was the MVP. Subbing in with next to no knowledge about the gamestate and hitting a streak to win the game...

Walruses should totally get a mention, if only to say what they are and how they became popular this year.

Also, don't forget to shame me for leaving balance up to role synergy in Rand+++.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 1)

Top