| 07/01/22 |
Prism |
petapan/catboi |
petapan should be the first-ever two-time Don Corleone. He has absolutely torn it up all year across a variety of accounts. His scumgames are all hallmarked by both extremely strong and extremely flexible play, and he showed immense creativity in finding or inventing a variety avenues to win.
I'll touch on 4 accounts of his: petapan, catboi, Retti, and bloodhail.
First, let's hit on two of the marquee scumgames of the year from this player.
Happy Face Mafia (Retti): This game was absolute hero shit. Virtually every town player had nailed 3 out of 4 of the mafia players. Retti's response was to dominate the game through dayplay, strategically cutting lose his partners only as they became doomed, and most importantly using his role as the scum gladiator to gladiate all three of his scum partners , and willingly no elim the single time he gladiated town. He planned out a gambit Day 1 (lying about a reward for correct gladiates), followed it up with a plausible claim that put him in the clear, and correctly navigated my own role which threatened to put him in autoloss. Town got a million free elims this game from numbers, a vig, and mechanical clears...and Retti still managed to win the game. Easily one of the top 3 individual scum performances all year.
FGO II (petapan/Servant Alter Ego): This was a tough loss but one of the most publicly celebrated scumgames of the year. petapan once again drags a mostly dysfunctional scumteam to the finish line, doing his best to assist them but cutting them lose when it becomes apparent they're doomed. Town wins the election to gain a clear, eliminates two members of the scumteam back to back Day 1, and eliminates the third scumteam member Day 2. peta is left alone, and dodges a variety of mechanics, elims, and other obstacles to drag it out all the way to Day 6. At this point he has been mechanically confirmed after 2 suboptimal nightkills, and he still nearly wins the game purely off the strength of dayplay . Easily the best losing performance of the year.
Alright, sure, he can powerbus. What else has he done all year? It's easy to think petapan just powerbusses his team all game looking at the above, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Let's look at some more collaborative and inventive samples.
Large Normal 232: Sibyl's Elegy (bloodhail): A marquee team win where the team widely credited bloodhail for dragging them to the finish line. The scum PT shows why; bloodhail is constantly coordinating his teammates, seeking out the traitor, and arranging miselims, coordinated pushes, hammers, and the rote mechanics, coaching his teammates all along the way. Bulge sums it up best: "looking a lot better for scum today for sure. bloodhail definitely carrying in terms of strategy and level-headedness, i wonder who they're an alt of." Held together by bloodhail, scum cruises to the win with most of the team intact despite multiple members under threat early.
Open 812: Guardians of the Fortress (catboi): With catboi's minigame unresolved in a scum 2-0 victory, it would be easy to dismiss this game. It featured a strong scumteam working in concert, and Briar and unwnd played extremely well to clinch it. But catboi was still a force of nature, poised to win his own minigame if necessary, and focused on creating an abudance of interactions for his teammates to both distance from him and thrive individually. I think post 2006 sums it up, both setting himself up well for sheer effort and presenting several reasons to call unwnd town in the wake of Briar's scumflip.
Mini 2206: Perpetual MELO IV (petapan): petapan replaces into the game, and correctly realizes that Venus Fly Trap is having one of the best scum performances of the year on their own. Rather than trying to carry on his own, he leaves it to the team and sets them up as best as he can. He leverages the knowledge that he's in a scumread slot to help sink Nacho Day 1, exits using the built-in mechanic that night, and left interactions to set the team up well for the rest of the game. Spoiler, it works and his play complements VFT's perfectly and confirms her as a universal townread. Scum wins.
Open 817: Nightless Exploder Pandemonium (petapan): Short, easy, sweet scumwin in a meme game? Why is this relevant? Because petapan immediately identified it gave scum the best shot of winning, and quickly leaned in to help push it that direction. The result is an easy scumwin.
micro 1017: mystery: box of silver (Retti): Again, not just a power bussing one trick but an extremely creative player and master of mechanics. Worked well with Datisi, both planned mechanics indepth and right from pregame. Scum realizes they're in a dangerous spot if the game goes to Elo...and work together to put together the setup and bet it all on a triple kill N2. It works. Scum wins.
Mini Normal 2252: W;ldlife amd strange critters (Retti): Another day, another game of Retti getting widely townread as scum. He realizes that scum can't blitz because of a vig gambit, warns his partners, watches them do it anyway ...and still wins after he immediately knows the game is still on, plays dumb, and gets Natalya voted out. Scum win from the brink of disaster.
Open 824: White Flag (bloodhail): Very basic game but an example of flexibility and team emphasis. He replaces in, sees he's getting bussed, and works with the team to set them up well after the flip. It works and scum wins.
Open 804: Popcorn Mafia (petapan): Bit of a circus of a game, but peta endgames essentially without even trying. Mostly sharp play but after he feels he's caught by Imperium, he switches just to running interference and keeping his partners out of the discerning eye. Not exactly as he planned but still works, scum wins.
The sheer variety of ways he played and won scumgames this year was just mindboggling. Ridiculous level of flexibility, adaptability, and extreme skill in virtually every category of scumplay. When you combine that broad skillset with with depth and level of strength he brings to any given one, nobody else onsite compares. He not only had the strongest scumgames onsite in 2021 but the most varied, and should run away with a second award. |
