Welcome, Yoshi!

[Yoshi]

Updated List of Players:

Yoshi: Merge
C. Falcon: 5 🥚 Merge
Falco: Merge
Marth: 6 🥚 Jury
Dark Pit: Merge
Wario: 2 🥚 Merge
Squirtle: 8 🥚 Merge
K. Dedede: Merge
Robin: 9 🥚 Merge
K. K Rool: Merge
Piranha Plant: Jury
Pyra & Myth: Jury
Kazuya: Merge

[Yoshi]

Only 4 eggs left in the game means Yoshi has a lot of voting power. Assuming 2 eggs per side, Yoshi can choose their side, and 3 eggs 1 side means Yoshi is with a lot of friends. Yoshi is liking their position right now.

In Merge, should Yoshi agree to follow through with their eggs, Yoshi will have 5 eggs, meaning it will either be 3-2 [or higher] or 3-1-1 or 2-2-1, meaning Yoshi most likely won't have much choice. However Yoshi thinks most egg holders won't realise that might be able to influence Yoshi's vote and Yoshi will only tell those who Yoshi agrees with.

Also Yoshi broke the 3 badge curse

[Yoshi]

Well, that round was chaos. So everyone is agreeing to vote the trio of Kazuya/Dedede/Dark Pit, but right near the end, Wario came up with this brilliant plan (which they didn't share) to make a supermajority against them. Falco went along, but Robin sold the plan to the other team. Now while this information allowed Yoshi and Squirtle to not be voted (which may or may not be true) by Robin telling Wario that they would vote with the supermajority, they essentially threw away their entire game. So honestly, that round was great for Yoshi's game, terrible for Robin's. Now Yoshi can only hope Robin will vote for Yoshi should Yoshi make it to final 3.

So yeah, Yoshi is trying as hard as possible to delay the Robin vote till after the trio is dealt with because
1. The trio is a bigger threat and
2. Robin is semi on Yoshi's team?

Honestly this might just be a good thing. Yoshi will try to delay Robin being voted, but Yoshi will not jeopardise their position incredibly, Yoshi is enjoying the rounds of not being voted too much.

[Yoshi]

In unrelated note, Yoshi will post proof that they are obviously the most important player

[Yoshi]

Well, another challenge gone and another badge earned. Yoshi is really wading in blood right now and that isn't going to look pretty if Yoshi makes it to FTC (even if they have to win another 5 duels to get there).

When Yoshi planned out this game (in the limited detail Yoshi did), Yoshi knew they were going to take a hit or two in the merge, but Yoshi really only expected it to be 1 or 2 at maximum. Yoshi was sure that everyone would look at Yoshi the same way we look at Falco, which is a character with no allies and only a few friends, and not worth eliminating. Honestly the fact that 3 egg holders are sticking so close together is probably why Yoshi is being tried to be eliminated but Yoshi still doesn't think that things would drastically change if Yoshi left. Yoshi thinks they are just being irrational. Anyway, if Yoshi does make FTC, then their argument about just needing to survive to merge and winning the F4 duel is pretty much wasted since Yoshi has been in 2 times since the merge.

Yoshi can't even really make an underdog story play and all Yoshi's real allies (Squirtle and Captain Falcon) aren't getting to Jury because the other players keep voting for Yoshi despite the fact that Yoshi is probably a better dueler than both significantly... These 5 badges aren't for nothing you know!

Hopefully the vote tomorrow is going to be Wario/Robin, if Wario wins then we can group on Kazuya, if Robin wins then hopefully Robin will decide to team with Captain Falcon and Squirtle now that Wario will no longer be there to campaign against Robin. Falco is still out there and probably still campaigning against Yoshi, but Yoshi might actually think now that Falco is just doing that to use Yoshi as an executioner against Green. Yoshi's weed status is growing with every badge.

Anyway, Yoshi will sleep now, Yoshi has work tomorrow and Yoshi will have to be semi-awake for that. Yoshi hopes they have kept their hosts entertained and Yoshi isn't going to be writing a program to complete the sets since Yoshi technically found all 20 within the 15 minutes. (even if 1 didn't count because it was from a previous set by the time Yoshi found it).

[Yoshi]

Falco managed to pop Yoshi's bubble about their strategy for this game and has spewed this long winded spaghetti out. Yoshi is going to post it in here as well since it might as well be accessible:

<Response to Falco starts now>
As for discussing about this, stuff it, Yoshi for some reason can't end up in Jury, they keep winning duels when they really should've been KO'd by now. Its not like Yoshi is doing exceptional on any of them (except Yoshi's stage, Yoshi was proud of that. Yoshi found all 20 in the 15 minutes, but the 20th was on Set 1, Yoshi didn't realise how much time they would have). And yes, Falco has already beated Yoshi in an official duel once. Lucky Link was there to take the hit for Yoshi.

Yoshi understands that the stuff Yoshi is about to say may make they seem more of a threat to bring to FTC or less of a threat, depends on how it is read. Honestly Yoshi doesn't care at this point, even if Yoshi makes it to FTC Yoshi has been voted in this many times that it isn't really like Yoshi played the game properly anyway. Yoshi is just an easy vote who managed to survive a bunch of challenges where they shouldn't've. The main gist of the following is indicating that Yoshi did have a plan, and which points it deviated, and why Yoshi is in the kind of disaster they are in now.

When Yoshi says they 'modeled' it, Yoshi didn't actually use data and do any kind of computational modelling. Yoshi just looked at possible group splits that would exist with different amounts of eggs and thought about how likely it would be that Yoshi would be a logical target for a given group winning. Honestly the biggest thing that Yoshi didn't predict this game is how nice everyone was with everyone early game. Yoshi expected there to be group splits rather than just full group voting, which made Yoshi an easy target rather than the unimportant figure that Yoshi was hoping for. Yoshi knew they would have enemies pre-merge and Yoshi was just hoping to limit the amount of times they entered the ring, but Yoshi knew that a few games in the ring early on (especially the first free badge) would be helpful come merge but Yoshi wasn't expecting the groups to not be as split as Yoshi hoped. Honestly the splits in Yellow were good, but Yoshi wasn't seen as the middle ground, Yoshi was seen as the piece tying the enemy together, which is not what Yoshi intended and probably not true (Yoshi is seeing a lot of parallels in Merge with Dedede's thinking.

Come merge Yoshi expected a major side v side for at least the first half of merge. That did happen, Yoshi was very happy when it did and was definitely over celebrating. Yoshi expected it would be a better version of Yellow, side v side with 2 major differences:

- With the number of eggs dropping, Yoshi's ability to decide ties would make them a more influential player who could be flipped to the other side
- With 2 (coming to 3) badges, Yoshi was getting to the point where they were a risky vote as they could knock out one of your side a lot easier than an untested one.

And this was the second and most debilitating thing that Yoshi didn't predict. Everyone STILL wanted to vote Yoshi. Everything Yoshi had thought through so far said that Yoshi would be most secure in early merge, little threat, hard to defeat, it is just a bad vote. But STILL they voted Yoshi. MULTIPLE TIMES. Yoshi was so confused and was starting to just think that they were being irrational. But Yoshi did find out the reason later. It was for a reason that was both irrational, yet strangely rational, born of a fact that the groups were so far apart.

Nobody on Pink really knew what was happening in Yellow. Nobody really knew the dynamics. It wasn't until Dedede finally said they were voting Yoshi to try and break up the Wario/Squirtle/Captain Falcon trio that Yoshi realised. Everyone saw Wario, Squirtle and the Captain vote together through merge, and because Wario said something about them controlling Yoshi's vote, Dedede just assumed they were a solid trio through Yoshi. Honestly that is both half correct and half wrong.

Squirtle and Captain Falcon are a solid duo. Wario was on the opposite side the entirety of Yellow. They were voting together for convenience rather than friendship (Squirtle and Wario were at each other's throats in Yellow) and Squirtle and Captain Falcon were already enough to control Yoshi's vote through merge. So why did Dedede think that? Probably because of what Wario said. Yoshi has learnt through being with Wario through all of Yellow that Wario says so much crap and so much actual strategy that it is hard to tell the difference between them. The statement that the three of them were controlling Yoshi's vote as a hard 4 was very much not the case at the time. At the time Kazuya was still with us (it wasn't until that round where we voted Dark Pit that Kazuya left).

As the others hardened to the news of the 'trio', all it did was push the 3 of them closer together with KKR being knocked out (KKR was probably closer to the two of them than Wario was). So now we reach the state where what Dedede though was happening is actually happening, but only because of the actions Dedede did thinking it was happening. Very much a self fulfilling prophecy. Yoshi wonders whether that was Wario's plan all along.

And of course there was the other reason, which was Falco's hard push for Yoshi. Yoshi understands the reasoning that Falco can't vote with Yoshi without working with others, that is a simple fact of the game Yoshi is playing, Yoshi doesn't have any hard feelings about that and has actually swayed the vote away from Falco because of it. Yoshi understands how Falco plays and that is better than the Greens that Yoshi doesn't understand. Then again, Yoshi can't help but suspect that Falco has an ulterior motive surrounding their continual push on Yoshi...

Yoshi's weed status is growing. Yoshi knows when the Plant was being suggested as an executioner. Yoshi can't help but wonder if Yoshi is Falco's executioner. Falco is probably the most confident in the game right now that they can beat Yoshi, and Yoshi is definitely least comfortable facing Falco in a duel. But having Yoshi risk their life to take out the green trio that really wasn't working with Falco much to begin with? Yoshi can see that being a win win in Falco's eyes. Then again it could just be co-incidence, but Yoshi would like to think it was intentional.


And what do you know, that became a rambling essay. Yoshi has been expecting to go to Jury for a while now, so Yoshi has been storing it all up, and Falco managed to pop Yoshi's bubble congratulations. You know most of Yoshi's machinations at this point, Yoshi is just going to cruise along for a round or two and see if they can make any big shifts, but honestly until some people import depart this section of the game Yoshi can't do much. Yoshi will just have to bide their time and wait. Yoshi hopes Falco enjoyed reading all of that. Yoshi is going to pop this in their confessional as well, shame to waste all of that hard written verbal spaghetti.
<response to Falco ends>

[Yoshi]

Masahiro Sakurai

Yoshi just wants to check the following message is fine in terms of IDs, Yoshi has tried to guard everything, but thinks it would just be safer if it is run by admin first:

<Message to Falco begins>
This is probably a bad time to respond to this, but Yoshi will just put in a few more words in answer to some of your questions. Yoshi is very much happy to keep this discussion open, they aren't going to be sharing any of this obviously and assume Falco won't as well. The only time Yoshi would really share it is if they are in Jury and Falco is one of the FTC and this would be stuff Yoshi would raise in argument for Falco being the winner .

Yoshi honestly isn't really going to be upset about being voted. As much as Yoshi might complain about irrationality, the challenges and duels of this game is one of Yoshi's favourite things about this and Falco is 100% right when Falco thinks Yoshi only really did this to place it down and see what people will make of it. Sure Yoshi would take a win, and Yoshi certainly isn't going to throw a game this far along to see what people would do with it, but Yoshi is very much making this an experiment. We were talking about modelling, well this is just 1 run of a very accurate model. Yoshi would always like to see how game theory reacts and develops to rules.

Yoshi loves making game rules and applying game theory to them and that is one of the biggest parts of survivor. Arena all the more so. Yoshi loves this arena format (it is the first time playing such a mode) and really likes how much of a difference it makes, especially how the meta changes as soon as merge hits with 2 votes going in every round. Also because Yoshi can survive longer just by being decent at challenges

Obviously Yoshi won't be able to say much relating to this in game, but Yoshi definitely would like to have a bunch of this discussion after the game where ID hiding isn't an issue any longer. Yoshi making people excited to see a new strategy was what Yoshi wanted when they decided to use this and while they admit, it could have been more refined, Yoshi does think that it is better having it here than not. Makes it just a touch more special of a game.

Trust me. You don't want to play with normal Yoshi. Normal Yoshi does not go well with playing the game straight. At least Yoshi isn't successful and Yoshi also isn't really that great of a player. Perhaps that is why Yoshi decided to do such an outlandish thing this game.

Time is ticking on and Yoshi is going to miss the meeting if they spend another 15 minutes on this, but Yoshi will say that they have thought about breaking their rules a lot this game. Yoshi knows that Yoshi could even have a chance at winning by breaking them. Would it be higher? Yoshi isn't sure. But Yoshi made their choice when they decided not to write a program to solve the Fruit Salad challenge, and that is Yoshi is going to do the honorable thing and play it like it is. It isn't a proper experiment unless Yoshi doesn't change the rules halfway through and Yoshi is going to continue with that for now. Of course Yoshi can't predict exactly how they will think for the rest of this game but Yoshi would be lying if they said they thought they would end up breaking their rules.

Yoshi of course will forgive Falco anything Falco does in trying to game this system, this system is here to game, be Yoshi's guest at gaming them. Yoshi is very much hoping to continue these discussions and imagines we should hopefully still have a few more rounds in which to continue this.
<Message to Falco ends>

[Masahiro Sakurai]

Yoshi, I can't read all of that until after the meeting, will let you know when I get a chance

[Yoshi]

Yoshi can see Masahiro's face expression seeing that long message at this point in time. Yoshi thinking it was a bad time to respond to that message was probably correct .

[Sandbag]

In the mean time, something I do to sort of cross check myself for ID stuff is read the message as if Im lying about everything. If it still feels too revealing thats a good sign it is.

[Yoshi]

Yoshi finds that hard. They try very very hard to always be telling the technical truth in DMs so putting Yoshi's self into different thought process is difficult enough already. Yoshi will read through trying though, Yoshi loves trying mental gymnastics but Yoshi isn't sure it will be effective.

[Masahiro Sakurai]

Yoshi, I would definitely revise the parts about normal Yoshi. That entire paragraph you should probably redact because it says too much. Beyond that it's okay.

The content of the message is really sweet to read as a host, too. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, and the hosts have made a point of celebrating your new personal best this round too.

[Yoshi]

Cool, Yoshi can replace this:

Trust me. You don't want to play with normal Yoshi. Normal Yoshi does not go well with playing the game straight. At least Yoshi isn't successful and Yoshi also isn't really that great of a player. Perhaps that is why Yoshi decided to do such an outlandish thing this game.

With

<Redacted>

and that is fine? Yoshi probably shouldn't put the Redacted in there but it is funny.

Yoshi is certainly glad to please the hosts, you all do a wonderful job and deserve to get entertainment. And Yoshi is excited to make their new personal best as well!

So far Yoshi is:
-One of first out of the game
-One of the first out of merge

So surely this game Yoshi will be one of the first out on FTC... right???

Thanks for all the work you have all put into this game as well. Yoshi has certainly loved every single part of it even wading through blood as everyone seems keen to keep voting Yoshi

When Yoshi was told they would like Arena format after their first ever game of Survivor, Yoshi certainly didn't expect to like it as much as this.

[Yoshi]

OMFG Yoshi can't believe they actually convinced Kazuya to vote for Dedede. Yoshi literally just walked into their DMs, said that Kazuya was probably going into the ring, but 2 votes were on Dedede. Yoshi can't believe that worked! Well, if the captain's vote wasn't already secured, Yoshi sure hopes it is now. Just saved their ass by pulling who knows what out of Yoshi's.

Lmao. That is certainly something to talk about in FTC.

Also just to clarify, Yoshi wants to be absolutely sure about the next round:
Suppose we have A,B,C,D,E,F:
A,B vote for E
C,D vote for F
E,F vote for D

In the revote, E, F and D all can't vote right?
So if:
A,B vote for E
and C votes for F
Then E and F end up in the ring?

Would that be right from a rules perspective?

[Tabuu]

That would be correct