8.02.2015

And the Winner is...

For a week now, the members of chat have anxiously awaited the final reveal for the winner of Skool of Salem. The jury has voted, challenges have been faced, comments have been submitted, and bonuses have been distributed. Overall, this has been a very close finale.

However, the focus here is on the ends, not the means. A single winner has been found for Skool of Salem, meaning a mysterious reward of their choice awaits them. Who could it be?

I would figure the best way to go about revealing the winner is to analyze each and every factor to see how well the contestants did.

Seeing as this is a very challenge-focused gameshow, I will begin with the results of each challenge. Shootouts was not an option for this finale due to scheduling issues, but we were able to complete every other challenge.


Seance: 
Penny reached the ghost in 11 moves and took 38 seconds.
Andre reached the ghost in 24 moves and took 2 minutes, 10 seconds.
Lewis reached the ghost in 19 moves and took 1 minute, 15 seconds.
Penny has earned 3 points for winning Seance.


Codebreak:
Penny's average time was 49 seconds.
Lew's average time was 28 seconds.
Andre's average time was 27 seconds.
Andre has earned 3 points for winning Codebreak.

Observation:
Every contestant earned 6 points in this challenge (not the finale points), which meant we had to rely on speed in answering questions. On average, Andre answered questions the fastest.
Andre has earned 3 points for winning Observation.


From the very start, everyone could know the point amounts from this category. Each victory this season was worth one point. Therefore, Penny and Lewis both earned one point.

The past two idol rewards have been bonuses in the finale, which earned Lewis one extra bonus point. Had Zach still been on the gameshow, he would have had an incredible amount of points in this category.


All former contestants, except for Damon (Marco voted in his place), were contacted asking for their opinion on who they felt deserved the final victory in Skool of Salem.

In order to keep the chances of figuring out the winner low, the results of this category will be revealed below.


I think it's best to conclude with the personal statements of each contestant. The best written comment, as chosen by Cam and I, is worth 2 points.

Andre's comment: Hiiieeeeeeeee. It's Andre. Personally I think that I should win SOS because I've fought hard under the toughest circumstances out of anyone in the game. No, I haven't won a challenge (though I did miss one due to being in the ER). However, I have made sacrifices in that I altered my work availability to suit the schedule the game called for. Also, I've been through everything from playing a partner challenge on my own to fulfilling my responsibility to complete a challenge while I was held up in the hospital. I think my work speaks for itself here. Many thanks and I hope you feel the same as I do.


Lew's comment: I think I should be the winner of SOS because I think I've put in the most effort and preparation for the challenges. Both Penny and Andre have definitely tried hard in every challenge and have both been so close to victory in past gameshows, and even though I’m not a fan favorite to win, I think that I’ve put in more time and energy in terms of preparation for challenges to deserve winning this gameshow. Some challenges in this competition had a nature that I couldn’t practice for, such as the three Séance challenges, Shootouts (which was originally really different from Battleship so I was unable to practice for it), Lingo, and the Observation challenge. But for the challenges that could be prepared for through practice, such as Haxball, Territory War, JigsawPlanet, and Pictionary, I practiced for hours upon hours straight almost every day up until the challenge so that I could do well and most importantly stay in this competition for as long as I can. The winner of SOS should be the person who has put in the most effort into this competition, the person who has tried their absolute hardest to do their best, and the person who performed well in the challenges, and, out of the Final 3, I believe that I fit these descriptions the best.



Penny's comment: Penny's comment is so incredibly long that I can't even post it on the site, even in the smallest text. Therefore, I put it on another website: http://pastebin.com/yfkK6TR7

Cam and I have spent hours analyzing these three comments to decide who we felt deserved the points for this category. We have decided to keep the results of this category secret for the time being so we can reveal the winner...below.

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Well, that's all the categories! I guess now all that's left is finding out who the winner is.


It's been a total of nine weeks since the first team reveal of Skool of Salem. I personally was not sure if a gameshow of this scale could even still exist in the current time we're in. People have been so busy and the connection between chat members has been slowly lost due to new life ventures. 

The last gameshow before this left a sour taste in everyone's mouth toward the idea of any other gameshows. The fear of a gameshow tearing apart chat terrified its members. 

Skool of Salem was a way to prevent this and bring chat together once again.

We've had two contestants (technically even three) contestants eliminated due to the new things being thrown on their plate in life. However, we've still managed to hold a season where people would show up every week and compete. Extreme modifications had to be made to compensate for this, but it happened.

Tonight, we find out who truly deserved the title of victor.

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Now that you have scrolled down here and ignored the entire post, I guess it's a good time to say that the winner will be announced live, rather than on the site.

We will reveal at a time where all three contestants and two hosts are able to be on at the same time.

After the live reveal, I will begin on a final story post to tie up loose ends.

-Matt