Mafia: Emergence E.

***Mafia: Emergence E.*** is the thirty-first season of *The Mafia Series*. It is the first season of *The Mafia Series* to be branded as an all-newbie season.

While this game was short-lived, it was very entertaining for both players and hosts in this game of new dynamics. For most players, they weren't exactly sure how to approach the game, which led to a dominant group of allies, led by the ultimate exposer of the Mafia. Most players were participating in some way, though some more strategically and others more socially.

This game lasted from July 28, 2022 up to August 4, 2022. The game lasted only for a week, not only because of the lowered amount of players, but also because of the villagers' ability to catch the Mafia so quickly. On the last day, a new endgame logistic was introduced, both the night actions and votes were submitted in one twenty-four hour period to conclude the game faster after the public exposing of the Mafia.

# ***Roles & Twists***

**Twists**
* **Theming:** Following the previous game's reference to future games taking place in new settings, this game was set in *New Pacifica*, an urban location. The sixteen players, instead of being the full population of the village, were simply 16 suspects for a group of murders being done by a mysterious group known as the "Mafia". These 16 players were canonically placed in an isolated condominium complex where they would be brought to the police station every in-game day to vote out one player to be executed.
* **Mentors:** Every player had one of the series' legendary alumni in their confessional to offer the rookie with advice. Mentors were only in *one* confessional each, and players were not allowed to tell other players who their mentors were, as mentors were not allowed to talk about the game outside of their designated rookie's confessional.

# ***Game Summary***

The game began in a rather calm manner, primarily with players with pre-game connections socializing with one another. It was clear that most players were not quite sure how they were going to tackle the game, instead handling it one step at a time. Most role claims were kept very under-the-radar, and several mentors were appalled to see no role claim list in the town. One of the few to publicly claim a role, **Henry**, was quickly killed for being a healer. This made Ash nervous, as she knew that Henry was most likely the healer, so also publicly claiming healer would cast suspicion on her.

Most players ultimately claimed their true role, though Ash claimed knight and Isa claimed Gambler. Of course, Capy claimed to be just a noble, but many players quickly grew suspicious of his behavior and suspected that he could be corrupted. Bernkastel was also clearly playing the game hard, as he was having difficulty deciding in what way he wanted to go in the game. He ultimately followed Eva, believing her to be a healer. But when he learned that Henry was the healer (and eventually that Ash also claimed to be a healer), Bernkastel realized that he was following the Mafia.

Bernkastel soon got Eva to expose herself to him, and she also outed Capy as a corrupted. The first vote had swapped a couple of times already from Poteet to Sun and then to Phantom. It seemed that Phantom would be getting most of the votes, but then Bernkastel put together a group chat with himself, Ash, Isa, and Joan, where he spilled all the information of the Mafia that he learned so far, and they concocted a plan to blindside Capy.

The vote ended up in a close 8-7... but **Phantom** was voted out due to his incidental self-vote. After this vote, however, Capy knew that he was in a terrible position and that he would be in trouble at the next execution. Joan, as the hunter, made the decision to follow Eva, believing that the chances of the kill ending up on an unconfirmable were high enough to take the risk. **Lax** was killed, unfortunately for the alliance, as he had just confirmed himself by interrogating Isa. The interrogation did not go completely to waste, however, as it gave the alliance a crucial piece of information that either Ash or Ava were most likely lying. Ava was currently under-the-radar as the only joker claim, but Eva had yet to mention to anyone else that Ava was actually her accomplice.

Many players were beginning to become suspicious of Abby, seeing her as the more suspicious than Sun in the duo of detective claims. Already however, Capy had become substantially doomed for the second trial, and there was no way he could get his name out of other players' mouths. He attempted to pin the vote against Bernkastel for having no strong case to back himself up, but even Eva and Ava voted for **Capy** to be executed. Joan then randomized the kill again, as Ava was clearly very irritated about the position that Eva was in. Both she and Capy were attempting to tell Eva that Bernkastel was betraying her, but Eva didn't accept this news until it was too late. **Logan** was the next victim of a randomized kill.

Knowing that he had to be executed or else he would eventually become the Mafia, **Bernkastel** asked to be executed, and everyone followed suit in granting his wish. It seemed that there was a small spark of hope for the Mafia, but when Bernkastel revealed both Eva and Ava's identities in his final words, the two gave themselves up. Joan had a final decision on whether to randomize the kill or not. When Ash tried to convince him that she had heard that Eva would kill herself, Joan was persuaded. **Eva** died, and **Ava** was executed the round after, winning the game for the town! The survivors were **Abby**, **Alex**, **Ash**, **Isa**, **Joan**, **Poteet**, **Sun**, and **Water**!

# ***Awards***

Because this season had more than ten players and three rounds of executions, awards were handed out at the end of the game. They were given to the following recipients.

# ***Trivia***

* Though this season was branded as an all-newbie season, one-time players who were *not* invited to *Mafia: All-Stars III* were also eligible to sign up for this game.
* SMK won the viewing lounge prediction game for this season.