Crunch Time
Devon (Louisiana): Do you have any suggestions as to what I could do to improve my voting amount? ... If anything at all...
mtvcdm: Probably keep doing what you did in Memphis.
Devon: OK, hopefully that will help then ...The thing is, the more I think about it, the more I find it impossible to win without pulling a Cindy (AKA getting a mob started) ... Would it be OK if I got tons of people to vote Colin this next round, or is that not allowed?
mtvcdm: There's no rule against it.
Devon: really? For some reason I thought there was...
mtvcdm: It's been done before.
Devon: Yea, I know, just I thought it wasn't allowed ... or sumthing
mtvcdm: Global 24/7, cronies were brought in left and right in a voting war that put huge additions on Colin and Greyson's totals.
Devon: Saw that recently...was digging through the forums for strategy on how I could pull a win ... With only 2 safety stones
mtvcdm: I think I specifically approve of that strategy in the rules. Lemme go see.
Devon: I think I need to go reannalyze the rules too, speaking of which... ... that was on my to do list
mtvcdm: Huh. Thought I did. .. All it states is: "fter conclusion of the main challenge, phone lines will open and non-competing people may vote for who they want exiled. Each audience vote will be equivalent to one thousand (1,000) exile votes." ... It says nothing of a limit or getting cronies to vote.
Devon: ok, eggcellent... ... I know just the thing to do then...Colin and Jon won't even know what hit them if all goes as planned
mtvcdm: ...I've created a monster.
Devon: lol ... The only problem is...what if Colin and Jon end up with 10 safety stones each... ... I'll most likely be doomed ... Unless I pull a bluff or something...
mtvcdm: House Limit is 3 for the finals, so they'd get to keep 3 stones.
Devon: That's true...but if Jon wins this 4, and in the next main challenge Colin wins 4 too... ... then Jon will have 10, Colin 8 ... I'd be dead meat ... But then again, it could be a totally different main challenge, ... And what if Colin gets innoculation somehow...then I'd be gone for good... ... I need to stop thinking up scenarios, and get to work...lol
mtvcdm: Might be nice.
Devon: I think I know exactly what to do...
Well, I'd have to wait to find out what that was. Back to the challenge. The only evil I had in mind here was to drive the contestant nuts by making them read their spam mail, but Colin, well, let's just say I've raised him well.
ph_mole (Colin, RI): Hello Aaron, had a question about the challenge...Were allowed sending him e-mails, right?
mtvcdm: You evil little bastard, I never even considered that. Go ahead.
Colin: Hahahahaha I thought it over a looong time... ... And realized just how nice it would work ... Challenge ends tomorrow right? Or the emails do anyways
mtvcdm: The e-mails end tomorrow, and he has one additional day to get me the e-mail.
Colin: Alright...I'll be making 10 additional email addys and sending some spam...heh
If there were any alliances in this game that I never knew about, they were pretty much busted all to hell now. Jon was using others to do his bidding, Devon was scheming, Colin was sabotaging, and I was sitting here trying to stay one step ahead. Crunch time will tend to do that. Incidentally, the plot worked, as Jon was confronted with more than one e-mail containing all 3 keywords, and chucked the correct one in the trash with all the other "blatant spam".
With Jon sufficiently humbled, we moved forward to Flat Top, West Virginia. It was a 2-part challenge. Part 1 was for each contestant to gather one buddy not already in the group for me. Part 2- which they didn't know at this point- was that those buddies would be playing Fallen Comrades on their behalf. Because I had actual humanoid emotion, I didn't intend to fire insane questions like "How many passes were there before the grenade exploded in the Dugway Proving Grounds?" at them. I'd lob relatively easy ones like "Who was first out?" and "What state did this person represent?" I did insert a few harder questions, just in case. (Yes, I let the contestants give their buddies crash courses.) Jon selected Darren, someone I had played under. Devon selected just about the umpteen millionth Andrew I've seen. Colin selected his online reality-ignorant girlfriend Crystal.
Andrew never made it, leaving Darren and Crystal. Crystal had recieved a lackluster lesson from Colin, knowing nothing about locations of challenges, which turned out to be a large chunk of the quiz. Because of this, Darren won for Jon, 2 up with 1 to go. This put Jon in the position to use 5 stones to get at the House Limit, Colin would need to use 3, and Devon 1.
Wanna know something? That was, in this round, being conservative. There had to be paranoia that Devon would use all 4 of his stones. (Which he did.) This had to have been what cause Colin to use all 6 of his. Jon stayed at the 5 that would put him at the House Limit.
Did I mention the votes? 1 for Jon, 12 for Colin, 0 for Devon? Devon was last in the pre-count, but this HAD to hurt Colin. And the culprit?
Devon (Louisiana): This may be my stupidest move ever or my smartest, but I do NOT want Colin to win. Period. I'm using all 4 of mine. It's all or nothing!... Chances are, I'm going...that is, of course, if the brigade I assemble happens to fail... I have come a long way, and I have come to a revalation at this moment: Colin is a bastard. I pray that Jon wins, and I'm an athiest.
So with everyone using large numbers of stones, and 12,000 worth of audience votes coming Colin's way, could Devon survive?
Not even close. He still lost by over 6,000 votes. This meant, in Atlanta, Georgia, that Devon would be made into a soda named after him. Coke Spasms will hit shelves this fall.
This left Jon Pinyan of Waldwick, New Jersey vs. Colin Fogle of Brunswick, Ohio.
2 contestants, 1 round.