Hoola's The Traitors

*Please note that this page appears very complex and difficult to read on mobile. I would suggest that it is viewed on PC!*
*Hoola welcomes you to the special event of...*
**In a very special season following the fourth All-Stars season of the Mafia series, Hoola decided to host a season formatted around the popular series, *The Traitors*! 20 players were brought together in this similar, but altered, format from Mafia. Players fought more as individuals for survival, but ultimately the Faithful were still united in the common goal to take out the sabotaging Traitors. The following page contains the format of the game as well how the exciting season played out!**

# ***General Info***

**~ Dates:** The game lasted from **August 13** through **September 6, 2023**.
**~ Players:** The game consisted of **20 players**.
**~ Victor:** The game was won by **The Traitors**, and the sole survivor was **Ella**.
**~ Traitors:** The game began with **2 Traitors**, and there were **3 Traitors** throughout the course of the game.
**~ Challenges:** The game contained **8 challenges**, including the final challenge.
# ***Format***

*The following description was posted in the server for all players to see before the beginning of the game.*

Starting the Game & Roles

24 hours before the official start of the game, we will have a **cast reveal**. All players will have 24 hours to begin to talk and feel one another out. At the end of the 24 hours, we will have our official premiere. At the premiere, the game will kick off with initial announcements. All players will receive one of **two roles** in their confessional. Unlike Mafia, there are not a plethora of roles that you can have. You can either by a **FAITHFUL** or a **TRAITOR**! Let's explain these roles before we continue:

* If you are a **faithful**, then your goal is to banish all the traitors. If you survive to the end of the game and have voted out every traitor, then you will win! The faithful have very limited info concerning the game, but they know that they should be winning challenges at all costs.
* If you are a **traitor**, then your goal is to **survive to the end**. Every night, you will meet with your fellow traitors and murder another player in the game. Traitors will immediately know who one another are after the premiere. The traitors' weakness is getting banished. If the faithful unite against them, then the Traitors will get banished during the day. If no Traitors are left standing at the finale, then they will lose. It is **highly beneficial** for the traitors that the players **lose** challenges.

After roles are handed out, we will proceed with our first challenge! After the first challenge, we will have our first night followed by our first banishment. Once the first banishment is completed, we will move to our normal cycle format.

The Cycle

There are three different rounds present in a traitors cycle: **the night**, **the challenge**, and **the banishment**. All of these will last 24 hours. Following the first banishment, we will proceed in the following order:

* During **the night**, the traitors will meet and get to decide who they are murdering. They will ping Hoola in the Traitors' Tower channel to lock in their kill. Players should take this time to strategize and discuss privately because private talking is **not allowed** during banishments. At the end of the night, players will enter the upcoming challenge 1-by-1... except for the player that was murdered.

* During **the challenge**, players will be tasked to work together to achieve some goal. While I cannot share what these challenges will be, I can say that the Traitors will be attempting **not** to let this goal get completed. More info on challenges is present in the following section.

* During **the banishment**, players will be **LOCKED** from speaking in alliances. I trust the players will follow the rules on **not communicating through DM's** either! The banishment is the time for voting when every player will cast one vote to eliminate. However, all players will only be able to publicly communicate and discuss through a roundtable chat. At the end of the 24 hour deadline, all votes are publicly revealed. These votes are **NOT** anonymous, and your vote will be revealed. You will also asked to provide a short reasoning concerning why you voted for this person (and this will also be shown to the group).

Challenges

While the challenges will range in difficult, all faithful will have the same goal of always completing the challenge. However, Traitors will be attempting to sabotage the challenge at all costs! Please note that this is **different** from the main Traitors series (and more similar to the Mole), however, this should help the faithful accomplish greater social deduction!

If the Traitors successfully sabotage the challenge (or if the faithful simply flop), then the Traitors will get some advantage in the game. All advantages will be pre-determined. They can range from a **double kill** to a **recruitment**. Sometimes, however, challenge completions will reward the faithful with some sort of an advantage (such as a double banishment), and the Traitors will be trying to prevent the faithful from gaining this advantage. Traitors will always be told of what they or the Faithful have to **win** from the challenge, but the Faithful will be kept in the dark.

Voting

We will **not** be using the "!confirm" and "!vote" commands for this season. Instead, you will simply be pinging the host with who you would like to vote. As stated above, your vote will be publicly revealed at the vote tallying. In addition, you are **required** to also send in a short blurb about why you are voting the player that you are.

All players who are online at the time of their banishment will have an opportunity to leave public final words. They must also honestly reveal whether they are a faithful or a Traitor! Players who are not online upon banishment will be revealed by Hoola and will have the opportunity to leave final words later.

Banishing Traitors & Recruitment

At pre-selected points of the game, Traitors will have the opportunity to **recruit** other players to the Traitors. The Traitors must pass up the chance to kill and instead send a letter of recruitment to one other player in the game. This faithful can choose to accept or decline this invitation.

If a Traitor is banished, then the remaining Traitors will automatically be given the option to recruit another player on the following night, even if this was not planned in the initial schedule. Faithfuls who receive a recruitment invite still do not have to accept the invitation. This rule is in place until there are 7 players left in the game.

**If all Traitors are gone, the game will not end. Only a maximum of four Faithfuls can win the game upon reaching the finale.**

The Finale

This bring us to our last point - the finale! No matter how many faithfuls or Traitors remain, the finale will occur at the final 4. The final 4 will turn into a live finale where the players must decide whether they think a Traitors is left in the game. If just **one** player says that there is a Traitor left in the game, then the players must vote to eliminate a player. This process will then repeat at the final 3, and then the game will end at the final 2.

If at either the final 4 or the final 3, **all** of the remaining players think that all the Traitors are gone, then the game will end. If there is a Traitor still amongst the group, then the Traitor will win. If all Traitors are gone, then the Faithful will win! If there are multiple Traitors left in the game... well let's just say that the game won't be over quite yet.

*Because the game did not end with multiple Traitors surviving, the meaning of the last part of this description was not revealed.*

# ***Twists***

**~ Groups**
For challenges **2 and 4**, the players were divided into secluded groups. When players were divided into groups, they had no access to speak with players in other group(s), either publicly or privately. Please note that certain other challenges involved players getting divided into groups, but communication about the game (provided that it was not about the challenge) was still allowed between players cross-groups.
**~ Exile**
As an advantage for successfully sabotaging the second challenge, each Traitor got to select up to three players to exile for the upcoming roundtable. Because the Traitors did not have private communication, it was possible for them to choose the same players. They were allowed to choose themselves, but one Traitor was not allowed to exile another Traitor. Exiled players had no communication for the rest of the roundtable, nor were they able to vote, nor were they able to be banished.
**~ Shield**
After the third challenge, the highest scoring player would receive the shield for the upcoming night. It was not announced who obtained the shield, and it only told to the player who received it privately. The shield would protect the player from being murdered, essentially acting as a heal. The shield, however, only ever lasts for one night.
**~ Trust Rankings**
During the fourth night, all players - both Faithful and Traitors - were asked to perform mandatory trust rankings of the 13 other players left in the game. They were not told what these trust rankings were exactly for aside from the fact that their trust rankings would affect the game.
**~ Mafia Roles**
After the fourth challenge, the players were informed about the full twist of the trust rankings. After eliminating the two deceased players from the previous night from the trust rankings, the two players with the highest average trust rankings and the two players with the lowest average trust rankings were announced and all four received advantages in the game. The details of the trust rankings and other placements of the trust rankings were not announced. The players were then told that these four participants would receive **temporary Mafia roles**, but players were only told in their confessional about the role that they were receiving.
**~ The Sheriff**
The overall most trusted player became the sheriff. During the following night, the sheriff could interrogate one other player in the game, and the interrogated player would receive two facts in their confessional. If they interrogated a Faithful, then the Faithful would receive a true fact and a false fact. If they interrogate a Traitor, then the Traitor would receive two true facts.
**~ The Lawyer**
The second most trusted player became the lawyer. During the upcoming roundtable, the player would get to block the vote of one other player. It would be publicly announced that their vote was blocked, and the lawyer could not block their own vote.
**~ The Blacksmith**
The second least trusted player became the blacksmith. The blacksmith could forge a shield during the following night for another player. The shield would only last for one night, and the player who received the shield - the blacksmith could not give it to themself - was informed after the nighttime results.
**~ The Psychic**
The overall least trusted player became the psychic. Until the conclusion of the following night, the psychic had access to read and speak in the chat of the eliminated players. They could not speak privately with the dead players.
**~ Armoury**
For challenges **5 and 7**, the winning group was able to visit the armoury. In the armoury, one random player was granted the shield for the following night. In addition, during the first visit to the armoury (and only this visit), a player was also granted the **dagger**, which allowed the holder's vote to count twice at the next roundtable. The same player who found the shield was also eligible to obtain the dagger.
**~ On Trial**
Because of their failure to successfully sabotage the fourth challenge, the Traitors had their next murder replaced with a twist. The Traitors' murder on night 6 was disrupted by having to put three players on trial. No one was murdered on night 6, and instead they had to decide on these three players, which could include a Traitor. The three players on trial were to be studied carefully by the Traitors, and the Traitors were forced to kill one of those three players on the next night.

# ***Challenges***

A total of **eight** challenges were present in the season. One occurred for every in-game day, except for the day of the finale (day 9). Summaries of the challenges can be read about below.

**~ Challenge #1 - Tetris**
For their first challenge, the players were tasked to obtain a combined score of 1,000,000 points in Tetris. The twist, however, was that every player could only submit once, and only the players who submitted first, third, fifth, etc. would have their scores tallied. All the players who submitted in the even-numbered order would not have their scores counted.
**Result:** Faithful were successful.
**Reward:** The Faithful were presented with the following clue concerning the Traitors: *"Combined, our starting Traitors have played less than 34 Mafia games."*
**~ Challenge #2 - Map Mayhem**
For their second challenge, the communication amongst the players was tested. For the first time, they were divided into a groups. Within each group, they had to select one player to lead the others on a quest through the locations of the grounds of the castle in a particular order. Both the individual and the team were presented with maps with different information, and they had to communicate to discover the correct order of places to visit. At least three of the four teams had to successfully complete this challenge.
**Result:** Traitors were successful.
**Reward:** Each Traitor was given the opportunity to exile three players from the upcoming roundtable.
**~ Challenge #3 - Puzzle Panic**
For their third challenge, each player had to complete a series of puzzles. Every task in this challenge had to be completed within five minutes, and each player competed in these tasks privately. For every player that completed five challenges, they scored a point. The Faithful needed at least 8 players to score a point. There was a twist, however, where players could continue past the fifth task up to an eighth task to win a chance at the shield. The player who made it the farthest in the challenge would win the shield.
**Result:** Traitors were successful.
**Reward:** The Traitors were given the opportunity to either recruit or kill two players during the next night.
**~ Challenge #4 - Majority Rules**
For their fourth challenge, players were again divided into two groups. Each group had to answer a series of questions, answering with the names of players in the other group. They then had to create a list of whom they thought the other group had answered for each question. If the groups managed to correctly predict a combined total of 17 out of 20 answers, then they would be successful.
**Result:** Faithful were successful.
**Reward:** The Traitors were punished by having to put three players on trial instead of their next murder.
**~ Challenge #5 - Crossword Mania**
For their fifth challenge, the remaining nine players were paired up (with one group of three in the mix). Each group received a designated challenge channel to complete a series of crosswords. However, these unique crosswords did not have clues. Instead, players were given themes including "Mafia Overlords", "50 Most Populated Countries", and "#1 Billboard Hits Since the Start of 2020", and they had to fill in the crossword by deducing which terms in those categories fit into the puzzle. Certain squares were also highlighted in each crossword, and these highlighted letters had to be unscrambled into a word to move onto the next round. The Faithful could have a combined time of no longer than 4.5 hours in order to win.
**Result:** Traitors were successful.
**Reward:** The Traitors received full information regarding the Mafia Roles twists, including the complete results of the trust rankings.
**~ Challenge #6 - The Dead's Vengeance**
For the sixth challenge, all the murdered players were removed from the eliminated chat and were added to a separate challenge channel. They had to complete a series of tasks and puzzles in order to help the Faithful win the challenge. The Faithful had to successfully predict how long it took the murdered players to complete each task, and a predetermined margin of error was allowed. The Faithful had to be within the margin of error for at least three tasks in order to succeed. However, the Traitors were given access to see the murdered players' challenge chat to help them sabotage.
**Result:** Traitors were successful.
**Reward:** The Traitors were able to block all votes against any one player of their choosing at the upcoming roundtable, including votes against themselves.
**~ Challenge #7 - The Traitors Mashup**
For their penultimate challenge, the players were divided into groups for the final time. In their challenge channels, players were given three collages of a collection of contestants from various international series of *The Traitors*. Each collage contained eight contestants, and every time a group identified a contestant incorrectly, they received a five minute penalty. Both groups had to complete the challenge within a combined 90 minutes.
**Result:** Traitors were successful.
**Reward:** The Faithful lost the chance to confirm one player as a Faithful.
**~ Final Challenge**
For the last challenge of the season, the final five got the chance to divide themselves into a pair and a trio. In a relay-style challenge, the duo had to complete a task, then the trio had to complete a long task, then the duo had to complete another task. They had to complete all three tasks in less than 75 minutes. The duo had to perform a counting challenge and solve riddles while the trio had to perform an altered version of the mapping mayhem challenge.
**Result:** Traitors were successful.
**Reward:** The Traitors received an extra vote at the final roundtable.
After the challenge, it was announced that the Traitors had an **extra task** to say three pre-determined words in the server. They had to say the words in the presence of at least one Faithful. They completed this extra task and avoided a punishment. If they did not successfully fulfill this task, then the Traitors would have been able to be banished with only *two votes* at the final roundtable rather than the majority.

# ***Advantage History***

Various advantages were offered throughout the game, both as rewards for challenges in addition to the Mafia roles twist. This brief section contains a summary of all the advantages (and usage of these advantages) throughout the game.

The **shield** and **dagger** were obtained by the following players:

**~** After the third challenge on day four, **Chloe** won the shield by performing the best in the challenge. The shield was valid for night four.
**~** On night five, **Ella** was given the shield by the blacksmith, Dani.
**~** When visiting the armoury after the fifth challenge, **Chloe** obtained the shield, valid for night six.
**~** When visiting the armoury after the fifth challenge, **Ash** obtained the dagger, valid for the roundtable on day seven.
**~** When visiting the armoury after the seventh challenge, **Chloe** obtained the final shield of the game, valid for night eight.

The Traitors won the following advantages as a result of sabotaging challenges:

**~** Following their successful sabotage of the second challenge, the Traitors exiled **Ava**, **Dani**, **Enrique**, **Hades**, and **Slay** for the roundtable on day three.
**~** Following their successful sabotage of the third challenge, the Traitors took the advantage to perform a double kill on night four.
**~** Following their successful sabotage of the sixth challenge, the Traitors won the opportunity to block all votes against any player in the game, including themselves.
**~** Following their successful sabotage of the final challenge, the Traitors won an extra vote to use at the final roundtable.

The Mafia Roles were won by the following players:

**~** **Ella** was the most trusted player and became the sheriff. She interrogated **Havoc** on the following night.
**~** **Chloe** was the second most trusted player and became the lawyer. She opted not to block a vote at the next roundtable.
**~** **Dani** was the second least trusted player and became the blacksmith. She gave her shield to **Ella** for the following night.
**~** **Ash** was the least trusted player and became the psychic.

# ***Trivia***

* **Bernkastel** won the special variant on the viewing lounge prediction game for this season.