Welcome, Link!

[Masahiro Sakurai]

I'm sorry to see you here Link! I've got some Sandbag reveals to do now before I can do you justice properly, but know that it was a very unfortunate duel/player combo that made it quite tough to survive no matter what. You held your own in this, and can be proud of how you played. I'll miss answering your many, many questions, too.

[Link]

Thanks Boss. I look foward to the justice and which time I will gush all over how good of a game this has been.

And hey don't thank me now, but with my poor showing in that challenge I've saved yourself the hassle of having to remind like another 6 people that they are not supposed to PM me over the weekend. I was just that damn popular.

[Masahiro Sakurai]

I realise what I forgot to say before now! Green had a weird but compelling dynamic unlike any tribe I'd seen, and you played an important part in making it so. I kept wondering when the volunteering idea would fall apart, but in the end, it never quite did. It's just a bit unlucky that you went in last, when there was another volunteer who was prepared to shell out on Attack rather than Shield. I hope you had a ton of fun, and I hope to see you showering us with opinions and questions I probably can't answer as the game goes on!

[Link]

We (my boy Dark Pit) had 30 on attack to we didn't go cheap. I practiced Spirit Tracks on the Vietnam puzzle earlier that day and was so close to telling DP to make Spirit Tracks the one he would ban if he didn't get the choice. It just isn't a strength of mine. I am keen to see how I go compared with the duelists on the ones that I had ranked highly and will likely do most of them. Not Big Blue though. No FUCKING maths. I honesly feel I can do Pokemon Standum in a minute or 2 tops.

Once we knew the swap was coming I was tempted to gather up the Green Elite and just boot Dedede. However, up until then I played honestly (like when I told Dedede I was tageting him) and I felt that people trusted me and were wanting to work with me as a result. If I back out of the challenge then and boot Dedede, no one trusts me for the rest of the game and it wouldn't have been fair to Wario, Kaz and Dark Pit as they'd get tarred with the same brush.

Plus I felt I was so well connected that all I had to do was win that one challenge and I wouldn't have gone back for while. I also felt that you weren't going to win the game without a few KO's under your card so to speak. I think that was a really nice move on your part from a design POV. It was always front and centre who the beasts were but also its clear who hasn't done shit in the arena. And I don't think you can win the Arena without winning in the Arena.

All in all this was a great game. Much more complex than survivor and really fun especially once you'd answered my million questions and I had my head around everything. An amazing first hosting effort Boss and a really well put together game. Thanks for having me.

[Masahiro Sakurai]

It's funny that you mention that; believe it or not, I've seen someone win Arena without going in once! It was in a really awesome game hosted by Master Hand that was what I like to pretend was my first since I flopped so badly in Hawaii

[Link]

Feb 18, 2022 15:03:48 GMT 10 Masahiro Sakurai said:

It's funny that you mention that; believe it or not, I've seen someone win Arena without going in once! It was in a really awesome game hosted by Master Hand that was what I like to pretend was my first since I flopped so badly in Hawaii

Well that sucks. I should have booted dedede.

I reckon if Marth lost I had Wii fit coming to green. Wii fit is that right?

[Wii Fit Trainer]

Nope! I had ranked: Red, Blue, Green

I was scared of Green and I was going to try to rally Red+Blue against Green in the Swap... although I was definitely open to working with you after our DMs.

In reality I felt like I had a tight 4-person core with Red that I was trying to hide. Hard to say if they felt the same about me in return. I had a feeling Blue was probably playing up their "split" but I was willing to kind of work with them in the short term. I knew if I went to Blue I'd get sent right back in, but I was over-confident about surviving three-person duels. Oops.

Fun fact, I got eliminated with an unused Smash Ball, ugh. I think the fact that I found the Smash Ball made me overconfident, like I was surprised nobody found ours before me.

[Link]

Well good call cause I was luring you in to boot you.

We had this full volunteering structure established and it was my turn but if got you to come over I wouldn’t have had to.

Sorry! 😉

[Wii Fit Trainer]

Yeah not surprised, as far as I could tell Blue and Red were all wary of Green. I was supposed to join Green in the initial draft but when it filled up fast I knew it was bad news.

In these games I'm always deeply skeptical of players DMing me immediately on Day 1, i.e. people who are clearly DMing everyone. Green had a lot of those players.

[Link]

I did really enjoy chatting with you though. That’s was 100% genuine.

[Wii Fit Trainer]

Yeah totally! Gotta stay flexible, anyway. Man I really thought I would come out of The Duel, I spent way too much time planning *before* actually playing the game.

[Tabuu]

Feb 18, 2022 16:08:47 GMT 10 Wii Fit Trainer said:

Nope! I had ranked: Red, Blue, Green

I was scared of Green and I was going to try to rally Red+Blue against Green in the Swap... although I was definitely open to working with you after our DMs.

In reality I felt like I had a tight 4-person core with Red that I was trying to hide. Hard to say if they felt the same about me in return. I had a feeling Blue was probably playing up their "split" but I was willing to kind of work with them in the short term. I knew if I went to Blue I'd get sent right back in, but I was over-confident about surviving three-person duels. Oops.

Fun fact, I got eliminated with an unused Smash Ball, ugh. I think the fact that I found the Smash Ball made me overconfident, like I was surprised nobody found ours before me.

Red felt the same about you, well the alliance of four did anyway. Blue's rocks and split events were not planned in the slightest (besides Falco volunteering), they were just legit crazy. I think of the the three tribes they were by far the least unified, which made it hilarious that everyone kept avoiding them as some close core

[Richter]

Feb 18, 2022 17:44:27 GMT 10 Tabuu said:

Feb 18, 2022 16:08:47 GMT 10 Wii Fit Trainer said:

Nope! I had ranked: Red, Blue, Green

I was scared of Green and I was going to try to rally Red+Blue against Green in the Swap... although I was definitely open to working with you after our DMs.

In reality I felt like I had a tight 4-person core with Red that I was trying to hide. Hard to say if they felt the same about me in return. I had a feeling Blue was probably playing up their "split" but I was willing to kind of work with them in the short term. I knew if I went to Blue I'd get sent right back in, but I was over-confident about surviving three-person duels. Oops.

Fun fact, I got eliminated with an unused Smash Ball, ugh. I think the fact that I found the Smash Ball made me overconfident, like I was surprised nobody found ours before me.

Red felt the same about you, well the alliance of four did anyway. Blue's rocks and split events were not planned in the slightest (besides Falco volunteering), they were just legit crazy. I think of the the three tribes they were by far the least unified, which made it hilarious that everyone kept avoiding them as some close core

To be fair, I was very much in a tight core with everyone on that team which then caused me to not want to make anyone angry only to then cause a tie and piss everyone off...and then get myself rocked out of the game.  Your faves could never

[Master Hand]

Always a risky move to volunteer to duel, but a strong one as well, sorry to see it didn't work out for you in the end Link. You always had something going on and were clearly thinking through every aspect of the format you possibly could, we enjoyed following your progress Glad to see you involved in what is starting to become one of the more active Loser's Lodges I've seen in some time.

Feb 18, 2022 15:03:48 GMT 10 Masahiro Sakurai said:

It's funny that you mention that; believe it or not, I've seen someone win Arena without going in once! It was in a really awesome game hosted by Master Hand that was what I like to pretend was my first since I flopped so badly in Hawaii

That was actually the 2nd time that happened. I've hosted Arena six times and twice the winner never dueled. I also had a game where at the Final 8 everyone left had exactly one duel win, and one of the original tribes had all ten members voted out in succession before the merge, so it is all highly variable

[Link]

Feb 18, 2022 23:15:41 GMT 10 Master Hand said:

Always a risky move to volunteer to duel, but a strong one as well, sorry to see it didn't work out for you in the end Link. You always had something going on and were clearly thinking through every aspect of the format you possibly could, we enjoyed following your progress Glad to see you involved in what is starting to become one of the more active Loser's Lodges I've seen in some time.

Feb 18, 2022 15:03:48 GMT 10 Masahiro Sakurai said:

It's funny that you mention that; believe it or not, I've seen someone win Arena without going in once! It was in a really awesome game hosted by Master Hand that was what I like to pretend was my first since I flopped so badly in Hawaii

That was actually the 2nd time that happened. I've hosted Arena six times and twice the winner never dueled. I also had a game where at the Final 8 everyone left had exactly one duel win, and one of the original tribes had all ten members voted out in succession before the merge, so it is all highly variable

Thanks Master Hand.  I was pretty sure that if I stuck to my word and volunteered this round like I was supposed to and made it through, I was set up for a long time.  First, I felt all the greens (Dedede) the least were tight with me.  Second it would have enabled me to join any of the group of three greens on either tribe, force rocks (while being immune) and ride out the rest of the swap to merge.  I just had to get through this challenge and failed unfortunately.

But I'm proud of the game I played.  A bit different to my usual style as I try to improve my game in ORGS.  But I definately learned something from the short time I played.