Mafia: All-Stars III

***Mafia: All-Stars III*** is the thirtieth season of *The Mafia Series*. Following in the footsteps of *All-Stars* *I* and *II*, this season featured a collection of the best players in Mafia history, who were especially invited to participate in this historic game.

Overall perceived as a very active and entertaining game, this third All-Stars game stayed exciting up until minutes before the end. Though there was some skepticism among the players on how a *three societies* twist would work out, each society had its own unique dynamic that brought some masterful gameplay to the table from all parties. Eventually, however, the Mafia made it to the top after manipulating other players to save themselves from a disastrous position.

This game lasted from June 23, 2022 up to July 12, 2022. As said above, this was a very active game. Nearly every player contributed to the game in one way or another, and only one player ultimately received three strikes. With three announcements - one for each society - during the first half of the game, the deadline was kept up reasonably well by the hosts and by the players alike.

# ***Roles & Twists***

**Twists**

* **Three Societies:** At the beginning of the game, the all-stars were divided into three groups of eleven. Each society had a special town and announcements chat. All three sides had their *own* mafia, and so three players would die every round. Likewise, all societies would vote someone out every day. Each society was themed around a different location - the *Deserts of Bonereach*, the *Ferocious Forest*, and the *Golden Palace*. The first 29 games of the series were then assigned one of these three locations (a photo of these divisions is seen to the right), and the all-stars were informed that any twists from games in their society's location could potentially appear in their society.
After three kills from the mafia and three executions in each society, the remaining thirteen players came together into one society, called *The Realm of the Future*, which represented the future of *The Mafia Series*. All members of the mafia and 3rd party would also come together at the merge, and if the players with the mafia role in each society made the merge, they would have to decide which one of them would become the *head* mafia. The head mafia would lock in the kills, while the other mafia would take over if the head mafia died. *Before* the merge, if all possible players to hold the mafia role in one society die, the mafia on the other side will decide the kills on *both* sides.
As stated above, each society had their own twists. The twists of each society were *only* shared with the members of that society.
	+ **The Raid:** In the *Deserts of Bonereach*, all the players in this society had the choice to participate in the raid. Two raids occurred, one on day 2 and one on day 3. Players could opt to participate in the raid, giving them an opportunity to obtain a **permanent shield**, essentially blocking them from one death of any kind. However, while one participating player would obtain a shield, another would become the **mercenary**. If the holder of the mercenary did not vote for the all-star who eventually went home at any given trial, the mercenary would also die at the end of the execution. Two shields and two mercenary roles were handed out - one for each raid.
	+ **Spirit Roles:** In the *Ferocious Forest*, four members of this society were predetermined to get spirit roles at the start of the game. Each of these four members would obtain a spirit role once they died, even if they didn't die until after the merge. Each spirit role holder possessed a different spirit.
	+ **The Monarch's Decisions:** In the *Golden Palace*, the monarch had a special task. Every in-game day, the monarch in the Palace had to select a player to visit the master bedroom during the night, granting that chosen player immunity but also preventing them from performing any actions during the night. *Then*, every in-game night, the monarch had to select someone to go to the treasury, where the chosen player had the opportunity to obtain a special reward. Players were not told who was making these decisions. Additionally, the monarch could choose themselves to go at any point, but the same player could not visit the same room twice.
	The monarch needed to appoint a successor at all times in case the monarch died. This successor would then take over making both of these decisions.
* **Exiling:** After the first vote, instead of returning to the night cycle, it was announced that the All-Stars would be voting someone to be exiled. In a throwback to *Mafia: Legends*, each player cast one vote (and only one vote) to exile one member of their society, granting the exiled player immunity for the night. But, the exiled player would lose contact with all the other members of their society and not be able to perform any actions (however, the three exiled player could speak with one another).
What the players did *not* know was that, instead of returning to their original societies, the exiled players would switch societies when they came back from exile! This was revealed after action results were announced. A second exile vote that functioned in the exact same way as the first was held after the second execution vote of each society.
* **The Dead's Decision:** At the merge, all the deceased players were given a poll. They were told to vote for one of the three above locations. Whichever location received the most votes would add a predesignated twist relating to that location to the merged players. The deceased players chose the Desert's twists.
	+ **The Desert Twists:** The Desert was chosen, and so the Phoenix twist was added to the game. For the second and third cycles of the merge, all players were given an opportunity to become an **ashen** and immediately return to the game. By becoming an ashen, that player lost their vote for the rest of the game, *and* they could only communicate through the town chat and not through group chats or direct messages. Alternatively, players who died in these cycles could choose to Rise with the Phoenix. All players who chose this option participated in a challenge at the end of the third merged cycle, and the winner would return to the game with their vote, their full communications, as well as an extra vote that could be used at the fourth merged trial.
	However, the Mafia also got their own twist. In the third cycle, they were given a **blitz kill**, allowing them to kill two players in one night.
	+ **The Forest Twists:** Had the Forest been chosen, the ghost and the goblin secondary roles would have been added to the game, one of each given to two randomized players. These roles would have lasted until the final five.
	In addition, players would have been allowed to delve for the first three trials, randomizing their votes. The first player to delve three times would receive the werewolf secondary role. If multiple players tied for delving three times, it would have been randomized who received the werewolf.
	+ **The Palace Twists:** Had the Palace been chosen, the living players would have been randomly divided into three floors, from *Mafia: Skyrise*. One random floor would have been given a "boost" each round (for the full list of boosts, see the *Mafia: Skyrise* page).

# ***Game Summary***

For the first time, the players were divided into **3** groups. Many of the players were inexperienced with these smaller groups of players, so all three societies started out quietly, with few public claims. In the Desert, nearly no one was claiming. Emmi and Smk were the two primary leaders of trying to draw out the claims in the Desert, but it took several days to discover everyone's role claims there. In the Forest, Stella was taking on the role of town leader. She was particularly pushy about everyone sharing their roles as quickly as possible. Finally, in the Palace, players were more actively sharing their claims, and bigger personalities like Aster, Eevee, and Piper were working together as they all seemed to be reasonably safe.

On the first night, **Eternal** was killed by Emmi for being an easily-confirmable role, and she didn't want to cause too many waves in the game early on. **Lego** was killed in the Forest by Cherry. Cherry was quite unsure of what to do, as they were playing the game along as the Mafia, so they decided to choose someone who could potentially be a threat down the road. **SamB** was killed by PK and Hades in the Palace as a nurse, which was highly beneficial to the healer and the town. Already, suspicions were arising in all three societies.

The first vote in the Desert was rather quiet. Calvin, as a stronger town player, was attempting to confirm himself as the spy to the best of his ability by communicating about the game with his spy partner, Meli. Andrew and Emmi were two apparent counter-claims, and the players in the Desert did not believe that there would be two hunters in the same society. For her superior arguing skills, Emmi was spared, and **Andrew** was booted nearly unanimously. To further solidify Emmi's fake claim, Nat the corrupted detective claimed that Andrew was indeed part of the Mafia. In the Desert, the players had also been presented with the Raid. Smk was granted the shield, but Life's risk as the sole 3rd Party member of the Desert didn't pay off, as he become the mercenary.

Several players in the Forest still had yet to claim, including Cherry the Mafia. Many players were also suspicious of Noah for claiming to be a judge privately then backtracking when outed as this claim publicly. But eyes were ironically falling on Stella, the leader of the town. Other players were becoming wary of her strong grip on the game, but Cam was coming up with a plan to blindside Alfie (who still had yet to claim). He seemed to gather enough votes to send out Alfie... but in a dramatic reveal, the vote tied between Alfie and Stella with four votes each! Lego decided to execute **Stella**, and Lego and Stella would later go on to become a dynamic duo from the graveyard. After Stella's elimination, Cam and Kae both stepped up a bit to take her place as a town leader.

The Palace had the most role claims of the three societies, but Neb was one of the few keeping his role hidden as he didn't want to out his powerful monarch role (alongside his special powers). Justin conveyed that they were attempting to play very socially, but they also wanted to "overplay" in a strategic sense as well. Similar to in the Desert, eyes were on the two counter-claims, Hades and Viscount who were both claiming to be a detective. However, **Hades** was not able to get much traction to defend himself and the godfather was executed. Thankfully for him, however, he corrupted Piper right before he was executed, bringing her to the Mafia team to assist PK in the future. Upon joining the Mafia team, Piper immediately defended PK's hesitancy to claim that he was hiding a strong confirmable role.

Once it was announced that a godfather's corruption occurred, several players were shaken, but little to no action was taken against an extra possible corrupted in any society. The players in the game were presented with a twist. Each society had to exile someone for the night cycle on the following day. **Calvin** was exiled from the Desert, **Cam** was exiled from the Forest, and **Eevee** was exiled from the Palace. All three of them volunteered, but they were met with an unpleasant surprise in Exile that they would all be swapping societies! Calvin was particularly disappointed as he was swapped to the same society of his fellow spy, rendering his ability nearly useless.

To eliminate all the healing claims, the Mafia in the Palace decided to eliminate **Twinny** next. Aster was playing a chaotic game, claiming that he was the joker following SamB. Unfortunately for him, SamB happened to just be the first player killed. He was then worried that he would be unsafe as the maniac. Several players wanted to see Aster executed, but instead **Viscount** was the second player voted out of the Palace for being unable to defend himself like Hades (especially because Viscount claimed the Hades was the godfather).

In the Forest, Stella had become the vengeful spirit. When **Zach** was the next one killed for his powerful blacksmith role, Stella and Lego began to discuss strategy in the graveyard to figure out any spirit roles that might arrive. In addition, Zach was the cursed spirit, allowing him to block Alfie's upcoming vote and actions. The next vote appeared that it would be between Alfie (the maniac claiming to be a commoner), Cherry (the Mafia who had yet to claim), and Kae (the noble). While the main chat was rather silent, Stella opted not to vote as the vengeful spirit to avoid confusing the vote count. **Cherry** became the second player executed for only ever claiming to be a commoner at the last minute. Thus the Mafia in the Forest was deceased, and PK was forced to decide the final kill in that society. Cherry became the bonded spirit and joined with Calvin's confessional - but they refused to claim any role to him.

In the Desert, Emmi and Smk had become annoyed at Brainz for revealing that he was the baker by his server nickname. They wanted to protect him but were concerned that he was making it difficult for them to do so. **Havoc** was killed by Emmi, despite Nat's opposition to this plan. Nat was concerned for good reason - as he was immediately suspected when Havoc was killed. Nat became a strong candidate for execution, but most eyes were on Life. Life tried to push the vote onto Nat, saying that he was the mercenary and would die soon anyways. Soon after, Life abandoned his commoner claim, recklessly claiming to be several other roles including the knight and the fifer. **Life** was promptly executed for his behavior.

The second raid in the Desert brought Eevee vengeance on the twist as his risk was rewarded with a shield. But Avtron was unfortunately cursed with the mercenary role. The second exile vote followed a pattern of the first, and all three societies seemed to have the same idea. Cam, Calvin, and Eevee were all exiled again from their respective societies! And they were each sent to the final society that they were not yet a part of. Eevee being exiled from the Desert was Emmi's best hope of protecting Nat from the final exile vote, as Eevee was the primary town member suspicious of him.

The final cycle in the Desert was very quiet. Emmi killed **Brainz**, then she admitted to Smk that anyone could have killed him easily for having an open claim. Nat was still highly suspicious to most players in the Desert, but Emmi had an out now that Eevee had been killed. She went to several other players and tried to cast the vote onto Jack, saying that he was not confirmable. She was ultimately successful, and **Jack** was executed in a blindside. Additionally, **Avtron** was not informed of this vote and he was executed after becoming the mercenary.

The final cycle in the Forest primarily revolved around the 3rd Party desperately grasping at straws to survive, as most of the town were not playing the game too hard in that society. **Meli** was killed by PK, cutting off communication between her and Calvin across societies. But the vote became a bit more complicated for the group. To the town, the vote was clearly on Malik, as he had claimed to be the jester. But Alfie and Malik strategized together to find any way that he could be saved, and Malik used his alien powers to become a bartender, taking away a vote from Kae and doubling Alfie's vote. This promptly caused the vote to tie, and Meli was forced to decide. Up to this point, both Meli and Noah were synonymously becoming suspicious of Jelk, as they were failing to realize how he had proved himself in any way. So when Alfie and Malik placed three votes on **Jelk**, Meli was persuaded to send him out even though Neb had just been killed in the Palace.

As mentioned previously, **Neb** was the final player killed in the Palace in the Mafia's attempt to cut off all cross-society communication. **Aster** became the victim of the vote as the other players finally decided enough was enough, and he was executed due to him being a now-unconfirmable joker. Aster revealed himself to be the maniac, and he dragged down just-as-chaotic **Justin**. They caused even more confusion as they claimed that they were the corrupted lawyer in their final words and that no more Mafia remained in the Palace (which was an obvious lie to Piper and PK).

Finally, the players reached the merge of the game - merging into the group of the Realm of the Future to represent the games to come in *The Mafia Series*! Only thirteen players made it to this elusive point of the game, and four of them were members of the Mafia. It appeared that the Mafia had the game in the bag, but they knew that their work was cut out for them as most villagers were already confirmed or easily confirmable. However, they managed to pin the 3rd Party members as the targets first.

In the Dead's Decision, the deceased pre-merge players elected for the Desert twist, hoping it to be some sort of revival. However, they were out of luck. Instead, the Ashen and Phoenix twist was introduced for the second and third merge cycles, and the Mafia was secretly given a blitz kill in the third merge cycle. **Kae** was the first player killed, but she was healed from a stroke of luck by Cam. This preserved a very important two votes for the town, and the town decided to execute **Alfie** next, as they were the obvious choice due to most other players believing Malik's bartender claim. Alfie decided to drag **Eevee**, but he was protected from his shield during the second Raid!

Alfie's reveal as the maniac immediately threw suspicion onto Malik, especially when no one's vote was blocked or doubled from a bartender. During the second night of the merge, Cam successfully chose the right player to heal again - Calvin. But Emmi and Piper managed to convince him before the results announcement that Kae would be a beneficial heal again, allowing Calvin to die. But Calvin promptly returned as an ashen. In a complicated vote, **Noah** was executed next as an unconfirmable herbalist. Several players were trying to confirm Eevee for sure by placing several votes on him, and the Mafia tried to *actually* execute him by collectively voting for him - but they were not successful. In addition to Noah being executed, the Mafia had an important realization that it was very difficult to execute a confirmed little girl.

Noah chose to enter the lair, and it was now time for the Mafia to use their blitz kill. PK killed **Felidues** and **Eevee** at Emmi and Piper's suggestion, and luckily for the villagers, Felidues opted to go to the lair to potentially beat Noah. Eevee, though, decided to become an ashen. On the other hand, with a massive amount of bad luck, **Calvin** became the first-ever victim of a starvation from a baker dying, and he was immediately whisked off to the graveyard. Without any further logical defense of himself, **Malik** was executed, and he decided to go to the lair to face Noah and Felidues.

During the seventh night, while the challenge in the Lair was occurring, **Kae** was finally killed when Piper convinced Cam to heal her. Then, **Felidues** returned to the game as he won the challenge - which was the best case scenario for the town. All eyes were now on PK, as he was one of the last unconfirmed players. Town needed every necessary vote to go their way at this trial, and Felidues made a bold move to reveal that he had been awarded an extra vote to Emmi and Piper for winning the challenge. But he said that he would not be using it at this trial... when in reality he did, and his extra vote was the deciding vote that caused **PK** to be executed. In the next cycle, **Cam** was killed while he was again healing Piper. It appeared that the town would be executing Nat, as Eevee and Felidues knew that he was the final logical candidate, and this plan had been conveyed to Stella the vengeful spirit through the main chat.

But, in one final ditch effort, Piper stirred up so much paranoia in a private chat with Smk during the last couple hours of the vote that it caused him to switch his vote, allowing the Mafia to vote off **Felidues** in a plurality, and securing a win when **Eevee** and **Smk** were easily killed off by the Mafia. And in the end, **Emmi**, **Nat**, and **Piper** survived and won the game for the Mafia team!

# ***Exile Voting History***

Deserts of Bonereach

Ferocious Forest

Golden Palace

# ***Execution Voting History***

Deserts of Bonereach

Ferocious Forest

Golden Palace

Realm of the Future

# ***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***

* The following players were invited to all-stars but did not accept:
	+ Anubis (Declined)
	+ Arlie (Declined)
	+ Dani (Considered)
	+ David (Declined)
	+ Ella (Considered)
	+ Finn (Declined)
	+ Jameson (Declined)
	+ Nemo (Declined)
	+ Ray (Declined)
	+ Ry (Declined)
	+ Sam (Declined)
	+ Spheal (Declined)
	+ Swaggy (Declined)
	+ Tacoz (Declined)
* Bernkastel won the viewing lounge prediction game for this season.