Challenge 6: SHOOTOUTS

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All out war.

Everyone for themselves.

Trust broken.

Allegiances shattered. 

S.K.O.O.L. is no more.

The Mafia, no longer held together by the old bosses.

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The S.K.O.O.L. headquarters was found abandoned by police chief Samuel Lawson in the early hours of the morning after he'd heard nothing from them for days and decided to check in on them. The filing cabinets had been emptied out, everything important had been taken. All that remained was the cold skeleton of what was once the greatest crime fighting group in the history of Salem.

 It looked as if some chaotic wind had blown through the offices, gutting it and leaving behind no remorse. Lawson couldn't believe what happened, he looked around the rooms almost expecting to turn a corner and see Pück cleaning up the mess. He spent hours looking for someone. Anybody. Door after door. Room after room. Nobody. Lawson slumped against the wall in the 'Intelligence Room', he was sliding his back slowly down the wall when he saw "LAWSON KILLED BISHOP" scribbled on every empty space on the whiteboards.

Anger boiled inside of him, then rage. Lawson lashed out, throwing anything he could around the room, pushing over filing cabinets and chairs. He looked around the room and realized the room was hardly messier than it was before, and then Edward Bishop's words echoed in his head.

"How do you kill a dead fish? Cook it."

Lawson went to his car and got the bottle of vodka he was saving for a rainy day, took his lighter from his back pocket and doused the lobby in the spirit. After one last look around the room he flicked the lighter and threw it into one of the puddles, turned to the door and left the headquarters to be engulfed by a fire of rage.

The day after made history, the headline had caused that day's newspaper to be the biggest selling newspaper issue in Salem's long life. 

"CRIME FIGHTERS AND CRIME LEADERS

DISAPPEAR"

Word got out that the mafia had abandoned their hangout after a few too many connections had received no answer from messages delivered there. The hangout was left in a better state than the headquarters. Surprisingly, the mafia had a little more decorum about them and the way they did things. 

They had all gone their separate ways, those in SKOOL and the mafia, each with their own agenda and goals, now they were all enemies. Memories of teammates and inside jokes paled in the shadow of the individuals' desires.

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Hi it's Cam! Since Peng's away this week I'm solo hosting!

                                                           

                                                            

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SHOOUTOUTS

HOW IT WORKS

AMENDED:

Each player will receive a 10x10 grid on which they will decide on where to place their units and tell me, these units will take up tiles on the board. Coin toss will decide who takes the first turn. Each player will take it in turns to launch an attack on 4 tiles on the enemy's board by telling me the coordinates (A1,B2,C3,D4 for example) that they wish to attack. If this attack hits an enemy unit I will say HIT but if the attack does not hit an enemy unit I will say MISS. You will have some time (about a minute) to decide on a move, if you fail to tell me a move in that time you will not attack that turn. 

This is the board:

Matches will be in a 5 player all-play-all tournament style. Each player will be assigned a letter.

              Round   Bye  Match 1    Match 2           

1          A     C:E            D:B

2          C     D:A            B:E

3          D     B:C            E:A

4          B     E:D            A:C

5          E     A:B            C:D

Bye means the player who is not required in that round.

HOW TO WIN

The person who wins the most matches will be the winner of this challenge and will receive the idol! (Very special things that nobody seems to use ever but had potentially game changing rewards over the past few weeks)

BOTTOM 2

The two players who win the least matches will be the bottom 2.

TIME

The challenge will be taking place on July 17th between 1-6 PST, if you have ANY issue with this time you MUST tell me before Thursday or they may be consequences xo




THANKS FOR READING MY FIRST SOS POST WOW COOL WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


-Cam aka Sarah Michelle Geller

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Elimination 5

A single wind blew that morning. One swift movement of air, yet given the circumstances, it meant the world. A singular push that would make all the difference. 

For years, the Cops of our story felt a certain allegiance to their cause. Lewb was raised in a military family where he was destined to continue on the next generation of civil duty. His father had fought in the Second World War while his father before him was a Great War veteran. The volatility of the Cold War made Lewb anxious to join the armed forces, so he settled with working at the local police department. He never anticipated what had occurred over the past few months. 

Koksa was only employed due to connections she obtained during her transfer from Russia. In a time where no one could even trust their family meme era, it was a miracle Koksa was even working at the police department. Her saving grace was the fact that she was working as a secretary. The prospect of leaving the SKOOL was not overwhelming in consequences for the foreigner, yet she still felt as though she was betraying an establishment that, no matter how cautious, still accepted her and employed her for years.

Pück was distraught by the concept of leaving SKOOL. An outdoorsman who took on the role as police officer to allow himself time to supplement his daily woodcutting job, Pück looked forward to making connections with people who were looked down upon as much as he was. His larger than life appearance scared off most people, which he felt matched the way the average citizen despised the appearance of the police. Through the recent actions of the police in chief, Pück began to find himself looking down on those he associated with. 

However varied the intentions, these three officers all agreed to resign from their positions in the police force.

The Squad for Knocking Out Off-Record Lawlessness, once mighty and united, was now decimated to nothing.

This fit like a glove into Il Liberatore's plans.

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This week, the elimination system was changed for this challenge specifically to finally hold a twist we have been attempting to hold for the entirety of the season. We originally planned on holding these Losers and Winners challenges when there were more people, but schedules shot down the chances of that becoming a reality until now.

If you paid close attention to the original announcement post, I actually hinted at this occurring in the photo on the right.

Bailey did not come on at all to attempt to win the idol, so by default, Zach won his second idol of the season.

As for the other four? You will find out shortly.

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Il Liberatore was a satisfied man. All of the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, and he did not have to lift a muscle. His influence and status pushed those who took action to take action to make action. Today it was announced that the biggest obstacle to organized crime, the dreaded SKOOL, ceased to be.

Now his most effective associate had come before him with an offer.

"I want to become a Liberatore," Bumble proclaimed. "Let's free those prisoners."

"What a noble mission," Il Liberatore replied with a smile. "Except, I feel you are misguided in what you seek."

Bumble shot the Mafia boss a confused glance. "Misguided? Are there not any prisoners?"

Il Liberatore chuckled, then stood up and walked towards his bookshelf. "Amore mio... there is only one prisoner. But thankfully, you can set them free without the need for violence."

"One prisoner? Were the others set free?"

Il Liberatore winced, then walked over to the window. "They have been dealt with separately, leaving us with one prisoner. If we can agree to set this prisoner free, we could really get a bang for our buck, in a sense."

"Who is this prisoner?"

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Penny, Bumble, Lewis, and Andre were the four lowest scoring contestants on Challenge 5, meaning they had to complete Seances in order to fight for their survival. The worst performer on this Losers Challenge faces immediate elimination.

Below is the map of the paths the four contestants took to get to their destinations.

Andre: 15 turns; 2 minutes, 19 seconds

Penny: 16 turns; 1 minute, 28 seconds

Lewis: 21 turns; 1 minute, 34 seconds

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Bumble: 25 turns; 15 minutes, 39 seconds

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Il Liberatore stared blankly at the cadaver of his former associate. Loyalty was a trait that was both useful yet harmful to the crime boss. 

Those who put all they had to please him showed they were willing to take the same amount of effort to take him out. He preferred a system where those who worked for him worked until they overstayed their welcome, and from there, they went with the fishes.

Thanks to the efforts of this traitor to the police force, Il Liberatore now had no blood on his hands except the terrorist who blew up a soccer stadium and murdered a kidnapped citizen. This would further help his efforts to grow the Liberatori now that the Mafia and Cops were dissolving. 

Who could stop him now?

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Thank you, Bumble, for being a part of Skool of Salem. You always made sure to be at challenges on time and truly cared for the well-being of the season. However, this was not your week, leading to your sudden elimination. After winning CPSkool Forever, it is not as though you have never experienced the taste of victory, but it seems as though Skool of Salem will not help you feel that again. I hope you enjoyed your time in the gameshow and that you continue to keep up with what goes on from here on out.

The Challenge 6 post will be up at the normal time. Cam will be hosting.

-Matt

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Challenge 5 Results

Here are the results of Challenge 5.

 Round Time: 11 seconds

Round Time: 14 seconds

Average: 12.5 seconds

Total: 25 seconds

Round Time: 17 seconds

Round Time: 16 seconds

Average: 16.5 seconds

Total: 33 seconds

Round Time: 11 seconds

Round Time: 8 seconds

Average: 9.5 seconds

Total: 19 seconds

Round Time: 9 seconds

Round Time: 10 seconds

Average: 9.5 seconds

Total: 19 seconds

Round Time: 8 seconds

Round Time: 12 seconds

Average: 10 seconds

Total: 20 seconds

Round Time: x

Round Time: x

Average: x

Total: x

In regards to Andre, he is currently handling personal matters. We have given him time to complete the challenge, but due to the limits of other schedules and the extensive waiting period experienced by other contestants, I wanted to have this post up before Sunday. As a result, we went with the solution given below.

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In the original challenge post, I hinted at a twist for the Bottom 2 and Idol system. The twist was not actually the Merge, but rather a system we tried to implement previously which was not possible at the time. We call it: "Winners and Losers Challenges".

Winners Challenge: Instead of a Bottom 2, there is actually a Top 2 to this challenge. The two top performing contestants get the opportunity to fight over who gets the idol in a Maze challenge designed by Cam. In this challenge, the Top 2 consists of a tie between Zach and Bailey.

Explanation by Cam: "The challenge will be done on Skype. After being given a picture of the maze, both players will find their way through the same maze. They move by saying commands such as forwards, back, left, or right. The person who gets through the maze the quickest wins the idol but both players will not be in the running for elimination."

Losers Challenge: The remaining four contestants will have to complete a mini-Seance on their own time to ensure they are not eliminated. There will NOT be a Bottom 2; rather, the worst performing player will be eliminated outright. The Bottom 4 consist of Bumble, Penny, Lewis, and Andre.

The Seance challenge will be administered by host/s and will be the same rules and 15x15 grid as the last time the challenge occurred. 

We will be hosting both challenges tomorrow. Hopefully, Winners will be done before 3 PST and Losers can be completed throughout the day.

-Matt

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Twist: The Merge

With six contestants left in Skool of Salem, the lines between team and individual draw thin. Over time, people become less focused on having their team win, but rather ensuring their personal victories week by week. We've reached a point where the two teams of this gameshow have imploded on themselves, causing a total free-for-all.

In other words, the Merge has begun.

As a result of this merge, we thankfully are able to manage some scheduling conflicts that have popped up recently. Because everyone is on their own, the challenge will be modified to where Cam and I will be drawing images for the contestants to decipher. This allows every contestant to define when they wish to complete the challenge. We would hope everyone will try to complete their challenge today, if not tomorrow.

Here are the new major changes to the challenge summarized:

1) Contestants will now have to guess the meaning behind images drawn by Cam and I.

2) Contestants will have to answer two questions instead of three as originally planned.

3) One question will have two images drawn by Cam, and the other question will have two images drawn by me.

4) You will now have ONE MINUTE to guess how to fill in the blanks.

5) You will have until Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 3 PST to complete the challenge.

-Matt

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