Sparky

**Sparky** was a contestant of SurviVARs: Wildemount.

## **Profile**

**Discord:** SparksOmega

**Gender:** he/him

**Timezone:** EST

Every season has a content king, and this season was lucky enough to have several, but nobody served quite like Sparky. From his amazing confessionals to his constant stream of memes, graphics, songs, and ALL CAPS RANTS, Sparky was a gold mine of entertainment. He started off on the Clay tribe, and attached himself to Flower and Orange in a sort of power trio (though he was definitely on the bottom of the alliance). He was the first on his tribe to make any progress on the Idol hunt, and shared the clue with Flower as a means to build trust. When they lost the first challenge, this first vote came down to activity, and Akicita was the boot. Sparky absolutely dominated video game trivia in the second round, helping secure a victory for his tribe.

When Sparky was selected to draw from the Deck of Many Things, he drew my personal favorite card, harkening back to the unused Thanos twist of Secret War. When he swapped, he shared this grim twist with a select few (Bella, Roman, and several others), and in response Roman cemented his trust by sharing the idol clues with him. This allowed Sparky to claim the Clay idol, and he tried to lie and say it was gone, but when Roman challenged him on what the “already claimed” message was, he folded. His tribe lost the Scavenger Hunt, and Thanks reared his ugly head and snapped away Sparky’s vote along with three others. Sparky was very nearly in danger here (a theme for the season), but the four voters wound up only targeting each other in order to take advantage of tiebreaker rules. Both sides tried to get the other to throw their votes, and Sparky was one of these decoy targets. Thankfully for him, the vote went the way that it did and Ano flipped on Deadpool on the revote. This was the first round where Sparky was left pretty out of the loop, and it wouldn’t be the last.

He was unaware when OG Brenatto tribe voted for Roman for the next Deck draw. He seemed to be in a tricky spot, but had a glimmer of hope when another swap sent Jake and Orange to his tribe. Orange and Sparky struck their relationship back up, and Sparky shared his immunity idol with Orange. Unfortunately for him, his Hidden Immunity Idol was starting to spread into public knowledge. He was on the bottom alongside Ano and Bella, but Orange could be his lifeboat. At the double tribal, Sparky was in very real danger. He and Aowyn were starting to become wary of Roman and the other threats on the tribe, but Sparky made the smart call to target Bella instead, and really led the charge against her. With the support of power players like Orange and Jake, Sparky was able to sway the vote and send Bella home.

Sparky had survived to the swap against uncertain odds, and still had an idol in his pocket that he was prepared to use to stir up some drama. Sadly, the moment people swapped, the floodgates opened and this cast revealed themselves to be the leakiest bastards in SurviVARS history. Sparky’s idol was now a public idol, and people began talking about flushing it. The Sindira and Shaun votes delayed the inevitable, as the consensus was fairly easy to find. Still, Sparky was dropping in trust rankings, and even the leakiest players weren’t sharing much with him. Roman’s rogue vote against Shaun in the Sindira tribal was partially blamed on Sparky, and everyone was wary of his idol. Aowyn was one of the only players that had his back. She played her Sentinel advantage for him, even though he didn’t need it, as a sign of their trust. For everyone else, though, it was time to flush his idol.

Everyone began planning how to throw votes on Sparky while sending their ultimate target home when he played his idol, which ironically meant that Sparky would wind up receiving no votes. As everyone argued on the secondary target, these all became the primary targets because lines were drawn in the sand and alliances were formed. This was when Sparky and Roman reunited as strong allies, and these underdogs began to run the show from the bottom. Sparky publicly announced that he was going to idol out Jake, and this started a chaotic shifting of targets that ultimately resulted in Orange and Roman being the main votes. Roman negated the votes against her, and Orange (previously one of Sparky’s closest allies) was sent home. Sparky went from the bottom to at least somewhere in the middle, and most of the danger was off of him. Lines had finally been drawn, and now Sparky had some big names (Aowyn, Roman, and Ano) on his side with enough advantages to make some magic happen.

At the next round, these advantages were put to good use when Ano grabbed Jake and dipped out in a crab tank, which wound up indirectly saving Sparky in the long run. He began pushing a Dongoosh majority vote, which seemed to be the plan until Roman’s advantage revealed that Aowyn, Flower and Riley were trying to blindside her. Sparky played his idol to save his new bestie, and Flower played his mimic idol for Riley. Since Roman had thrown a vote onto Riley, this meant that the vote became a 1-1 between Dongoosh and Sparky, with both having voted for the other. Riley, Roman, and Aowyn were the tiebreakers. It really looked like Sparky may have idoled himself out of the game, because Aowyn and Riley had both voted against Roman and Sparky’s alliance, but Aowyn decided to stay true to her friendship with Sparky (despite working against him this round) and so she voted for Dongoosh and sent our poor Oddish packing.

Sparky had survived against all odds, thanks to just a few key relationships that he had utilized at the perfect time. He and Roman were clearly the biggest targets now, as they had both narrowly avoided a few tough scrapes. Sparky’s name was on the block, so his clutch win in Treasure Trove came at the perfect time. He played with the idea of giving his immunity necklace to Roman, but decided against it, meaning she was now the likeliest target. Without any idols left to save herself, it came down to the swing votes (Ano and Aowyn) to save Sparky’s #1. She had a diehard ally in Sparky, and the pair was just too threatening for Ano and Aowyn to let slide. Roman was sent home, and Sparky was left alone once again. At this point, Flower was finally stepping up from his UTR game into a position of power, and wanted to find a way to keep Sparky and send Jake packing instead. Sparky had set his sights on Ano, who was playing a perfect UTR game in his eyes, and Riley was gunning for Aowyn. Sparky had told Flower that he was Ano’s target (after Flower had made a joke about Ano in the challenge) hoping that this would inspire Flower to flip the vote against them. It looked like Jake, Aowyn, and Ano were all on Flower, but when Riley won immunity she planned on having Flower play her idol for himself and send Aowyn packing. Once Flower had this idol, though, he ran to Sparky and two conspired to blindside Jake. (edited)

If not for Aowyn’s expert read (doubting that Riley would ever actually send Flower home), this would’ve worked. Instead, they split their votes between Flower and Sparky, resulting in a 2-2 split between Sparky and Jake when Flower played Riley’s idol for himself. Riley and Ano were locked onto Sparky, while Flower was locked onto Jake, meaning it all came down to Aowyn once again. She had saved Sparky in a tiebreaker once before, but this time had a promise to Jake as well. She couldn’t keep both, so she decided to cut Sparky loose. He was sent home in 6th place, after one of the strongest underdog games of the merge.

Sparky had an incredible narrative in this season, and he was able to hold on against insane odds. He was nominated for Underdog of the season, and walked away with the awards for Funniest Player (thanks to his iconic confessionals and incredible energy) and Best Duo with Roman (because of how strongly they had utilized each other to survive when both seemed dead in the water). It was ironically his flip against Jake at the F6 that sent him home, because he wasn’t in any danger otherwise, so we very nearly saw Sparky survive at least one round further. It would’ve been a challenge to get to FTC, but Sparky had a very strong game that he should be very proud of. He was scrappy, entertaining, and cutthroat when he needed to be, and he was always willing to be bold with his targets even when nobody else was clocking the threats he saw. Sparky brought the content at every level, with amazing confessionals, parchments, and graphics, earning him a nomination for Voice of the Season as well. He was this close to getting a POTG nomination too, in honor of his stellar gameplay from the bottom. He may not have won, but he was one of the biggest characters of the season by a long shot. Thanks for playing, Sparky!

### **Nominations**

**Underdog**

Sparky was a wild card from the start, but his journey was so fun to watch. He had solid connections on his pre-merge tribes, and wasn’t a target by any means by the time he hit merge. He had an idol in his pocket, and was willing to use it. He was a real contender in the pre-merge, but then something shifted at merge. He went from a top dog to an underdog, and people stopped trusting him as much. After Dongoosh was sent packing, he was left on the bottom with only Roman at his side. He was able to save Roman with his idol, only to lose her one round later. Sparky was left alone, despite all his maneuvering. The final six round almost allowed him to recover, and ironically it may have been Aowyn going home if Sparky and Flower hadn’t have tried to flip the game against Jake. Sparky’s game was defined by consistently having the worst luck, and having his allies drop like flies. Sparky was always willing to move, and this flexibility saved him when it could. He ended the game in sixth place, but he was a very rootable character and a huge underdog in a stacked season.

**Best Move (Orange's Blindside)**

This round was so chaotic, and I think it might have been the longest recap of the season. So many plans came and went, and I only want to go so far in detail here (mostly because I don’t have time to crack this egg open again), but it pretty much ended with everyone wanting to pile the votes into Sparky and see someone get idoled out. Everyone wanted a different final target, so the social dynamics at play were wild. Everyone was leaking everything, and everyone wanted to get their way here. After two easy votes at the start of the merge, this was where the dam broke. Ultimately, Sparky somehow ended up receiving 0 votes, and Roman perfectly read the situation in order to play her idol and send the most socially powerful player (Orange) home. The best move of the round looks like Roman’s idol play, but so much was happening behind the scenes that it’s hard to say that anyone really played this round poorly. Everyone was on top of their game, everyone was working overtime to get their plan in place, and it was the start of the best merge game this ORG has seen.

**Voice of the Season**

Dongoosh had theatricality, Jake had consistency, but Sparky had ✨flair✨. Sparky’s confessionals are, to put it simply, some of the most entertaining shit I have ever seen. THIS MAN IS ALWAYS FULL SENDING AT MAX ENERGY WITH NONSTOP CAPS LOCK AND SOME OF THE BEST BANNERS AND MEMES YOU’VE EVER SEEN. I knew the moment I saw Sparky’s application that he would be a contender for this award, and I’m so happy I was right. Not only was he so entertaining, but Sparky was a very important player to the narrative of the merge so his perspective was always incredibly valuable. Anyone who played with Sparky knows how unique of a voice he has, and his confessional showcases that voice in all of its iconic glory. He’s one of my favorite characters to host, and I love that we got to see so much of him over the course of this season.

### **Awarded**

**Funniest Player**

Sparky is one of the most unique characters I’ve had the pleasure to hosting, and if you don’t know why, spend thirty seconds skimming his confessional. He is absolutely bursting with energy. It emanates from him like a star. His username fits him perfectly, because he’s like a livewire that is constantly sparking and flailing all over the place. Sparky is chaotic, hilarious, unpredictable, and just so damn lovable. Let’s put it in all caps for him: THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU, SPARKY!!!

**Best Duo (With Sparky)**

These two players both had a similar story in that they were sitting pretty in the pre-merge (advantages, allies, trust rankings, all that jazz) but then entered the merge as huge targets with a lot going against them. It seemed like Roman, Sparky, and Ano were the three names on everyone’s mouth, yet they continued to survive. Roman and Sparky became inseparable through their position on the bottom. Between constantly leaking info, playing idols for each other, and doing whatever they could to flip numbers on their sides, these two players were the antagonists of the merge that kept our “heroes” on their toes. These two didn’t make it to the endgame, but they fought tooth and nail to make it as far as they did and they were the thorns in everyone else’s side until they were finally booted back to back.

**Best Move (The Dongoosh Clusterfuck)**

This move was chaos incarnate, and there was certainly a lot of BS involved here. Yet, looking at it closely, a lot of people played this round really well. Jake played his advantage at the perfect time, and wound up winning immunity because of it. Ano was very smart to use their SWOP and remove Jake from the game, leaving their alliance with a lot of control. Riley was able to save her idol thanks to her relationship with Flower, who was able to use his mimic idol thanks to his relationship with Orange. Flower and Riley expertly navigated Roman’s Throne card that allowed her see parchments, changing Riley’s vote (and Aowyn’s, since Flower had lost his vote to the mimic idol) at the last second to prevent Roman from knowing they were trying to blindside her and Sparky. Roman easily got Sparky to play his idol after seeing them change their votes, a testament to her social game with Sparky. Roman threw a rogue vote onto Riley in order to cover for an idol play (which was a good read even if she threw it into the wrong direction). Only two votes counted in this Tribal Council despite 8 players being in the game, and this was a testament to everyone having good reads, playing advantages at the perfect time, and all moving optimally to try to outplay each other. Dongoosh was the ultimate casualty, and it was heartbreaking to see, but this was still top notch gameplay across the board.