Tom Langan

Tom is a veteran player appearing in multiple season of The Butler Games.

## Season One (Spring 2017)

Tom is best remembered for his social game, and as a result is able to fly under the radar, avoiding nomination until round five.

He was the subject of controversy within the game during the Suck It HoH challenge. Tom was caught stealing points from another players cup and was therefore disqualified from the challenge. This then caused Barnie to angrily throw Tom's cup, which accidentally knocked over Ste's cup before the total had been counted. As Ste was then ineligible to win the competition, Barnie was also disqualified from the game. This is the most amount of players to be removed from a competition.

In the sixth round, Tom was nominated by the Jury, acting as the Most Valuable Player, and was unable to get himself off the block. He received just one vote from Mandy, and was eliminated from the game alongside Meg in a double elimination. In the final vote, he voted for Dan to be crowned the winner.

## Season Two (Second Chance Summer)

Tom was the first player voted out after his tribe lost the first tribal challenge. He attempted to convince the new players to eliminate Lindsey, stating she was a bigger threat than him; however the new players decided to vote him out instead.

In the final vote, he voted for Lindsey to be crowned the winner.

## The Butler Games: Ride or Die (Season Three)

Due to the odd number of players starting the game, Tom was the only player to not have been assigned a Ride or Die. Instead he would automatically be partnered with whichever player lost their partner first. He was originally set to be partnered with Dan Grima, a fellow veteran from the previous seasons who had to drop out of the game due to prior commitments.

Tom was chosen to compete on the red tribe, led by team captain, Katie. In the Battleflip challenge, Ryan had to stand and watch the other tribe take the win as Katie failed to finish her drink. With Tom heading to the elimination ceremony in the first round, he feared that history would repeat itself and he would be eliminated first but luckily, only received one vote at the elimination ceremony.

In the second round, Tom managed to lay low, avoiding the nominations from the 'Give-Wrapped' nomination challenge. In the vote, Tom took a shot at fellow veteran Barnie, but was unaware of the Power 6 Alliance which had formed amongst the other veterans. Becca was eliminated from the elimination ceremony, making her the first player eliminated from the game (with the previous round being a non-elimination). This then meant that Tom was partnered up with new player Natalie - who had been automatically nominated for elimination due to the Ride or Die punishment.

In the third round, Tom lost the Head of House competition to his previous target, but managed to avoid being nominated for elimination. However at the first Double Cross ceremony, Tom was double crossed by Ryan and nominated Tom for elimination alongside his Ride or Die, Natalie, and newcomers, Josh and Katie. In The Icebreaker veto competition, Tom cleverly began boiling the kettle prior to the countdown, and was able to quickly boil the ice away from his key. Although not first to exit the challenge area, he was able to unlock his padlock the quickest and return both the key and the padlock to the challenge area, winning him the Power of Veto. Tom removed himself from the nominations, and Rachel was chosen to go up in his place.

In the vote, Tom voted to eliminate Rachel from the game, still unaware of the Power Alliance which had formed. Katie was eliminated with 7 out of 10 votes, but in a shock Ride or Die Twist, it was Josh who was eliminated on her behalf.

In Round Four, Tom lost the 'Twerk It Gurl' Head of House competition to Ryan, and his Ride or Die was nominated for elimination. At the doublecross ceremony, Tom pulled the coveted doublecross, and chose to take a shot at the Power Alliance - nominating Lisa for elimination. Tom participated alongside Lisa in 'The Last Knight' veto competition, but once again lost out to Ryan - who surprised the players by keeping the nominations the same. Tom was later approached by Ryan and Richard, with a proposition to vote Lisa out of the game. Tom, wanting to keep his Ride or Die safe from another elimination, happily agreed to go along with the plan, blindsiding Lisa at the elimination ceremony

In the fifth round, Tom was not targeted during the 'Know It All: Play or Pass' Head of House / Battleback competition, and remained with 3 lives the longest out of all the players and jurors. The final came down to a tiebreaker between Tom and Katie, with Tom taking the win and finally taking the power away from the Power 6 Alliance. Tom nominated Barnie and Lindsey for elimination, with Josh and Katie nominated at the doublecross ceremony, where it was announced this would be a double elimination. Tom was unable to keep the nominations the same in the 'Can'n'Ball' veto competition, being the first player to drop their lime. Lindsey took herself off the block and Tom chose to replace her with Rachel.

At the elimination ceremony, Tom voted to eliminate Katie from the game, but the votes were tied between Lindsey and Rachel for the second to be eliminated. In the re-vote, Tom voted to eliminate Rachel from the game, but this again was a tie. Tom was quick to get on board with the suggestion of a Lip-Sync Battle where Lindsey was eliminated from the game.

At the start of round six, Natalie announced that she was willingly withdrawing from the game. A battleback competition took place between Lisa, Katie and Lindsey to decide which one of the jurors would take her place in the game. With Lindsey winning and returning to the game, she became Tom's new Ride or Die.

Tom laid low when Rich was crowned Head of House and nominated Josh and Lindsey for elimination. But at the double cross ceremony, he had to make a move when he pulled his second doublecross of the season. He took another shot at the crumbling alliance, nominating Barnie for elimination. In the Power of Veto competition, it was announced that the Guardians Twist would take place, and Tom chose special guest Olivia to run on his behalf. The two were unable to spell a word longer than 6 letters and lost the veto to Lindsey, who was able to pull herself from the block. In the vote, Tom voted along with the majority to eliminate Barnie from the game.

With all other ride or die couples being eliminated from the game, Tom and Lindsey were awarded the Ride or Die Advantage, where they could instantly eliminate one player from the game. Tom's first choice was to eliminate Josh from the game, justifying that with no blood on his hands, Josh was likely to get the votes if he made it to the final. However Lindsey knew that Richard had an idol, and wanted to flush it out of the competition so they could eliminate Rich in the next round. As a result, they did not make their intentions known to the other players, forcing Rich to use his idol for protection. They then eliminated Josh from the game.

   In the seventh round, players competed for Head of House in the 'Fallen Friends' competition in which Tom earned his second Head of House this season and securing his place in the semi-final. He nominated Lindsey and Richard for elimination, no longer partnered with Lindsey due to the end of the Ride or Die twist. It is believed that had Tom not have won this competition, he would have been nominated, being the only player left who did not begin the game in the Power 6 Alliance. Tom failed to win the Power of Veto and lost 'The Mastermind Map' to Ryan, who luckily chose to keep the nominations the same, securing his own and Rachel's space in the semi-final. Richard was eliminated with 4 out of 5 votes.

In the first semi-final challenge, Dice, Dice, Baby, Tom chose juror Katie to assist him in the trail. Unfortunately, Katie misunderstood the rules of the game, and stopped stacking her dice after the 4 which she began the game with. Lindsey and Ryan both stacked 6 and therefore went to a balance tiebreaker, with Lindsey keeping her dice balanced for longer.

In the second semi-final challenge, Battledice, Tom went head to head against Rachel and Ryan. Unable to choose the same juror twice, he chose Josh to assist him in this challenge. Tom began the challenge strong, but his hatred of Dr Pepper allowed both Ryan and Rachel to get a good lead. He was still stacking cups when Rachel assembled the pattern onto her juror - eliminating both Tom and Ryan.

In the final vote, Tom voted for Rachel to be crowned the winner of The Butler Games: Ride or Die.

## The Butler Games: Allstars (Season Five)

At the start of season five, Tom was chosen to compete on behalf of Lindsey's tribe alongside Lindsey, Rachel, Olly and Iain.

The players competed in the first tribal challenge, Battleflip Relay, wherein they had to run in relay to flip their cups. Tom's team took the lead to begin with, but the other team gained significant time when tasked with pulling the stickers back. Tom and Dan were the last players to run, and therefore required to pull the stickers and shout the numbers back over to their team, however both players struggled to get the stickers off to reveal the numbers. Tom attempted to use his teeth to pull the stickers off, whilst Dan cleverly used the spilt liquid on the table to wet the labels and reveal the number on the other side without pulling the stickers off. Tom's team lost the challenge.

When the first legacy was unleashed, Tom was forced to compete in the Give-Wrapped nomination challenge and managed to avoid all nomination cards. However, Tom did received the 'Tied Together' card and had to be tied to Barnie for the entire first round. Barnie went on to win the Veto ticket, but knowing he would be unable to perform well whilst tied to Tom, he gave this to Ryan.

In the first vote of the season, Tom unsuccessfully voted to eliminate Lisa from the game.

In the second round, Tom competed with his team in the Scrabble Scramble tribal challenge, helping bring the team to their first win. The team did not consider Tom when choosing who would become the Head of House and Tom agreed with the team allowing Olly to take the power.

As part of the Legacy Twist, Tom unsuccessfully competed in a second Head of House challenge, Plinko Pinball. In The Last Knight veto challenge, Dan won the golden power of veto and used it on himself. Olly was faced with a difficult decision, with only teammates Lindsey and Tom and ally, Lisa, as replacement nominees. Not wanting to expose his alliance with Lindsey and Lisa, he nominated Lisa over Tom simply as she was on the other tribe. Tom was spared from the block this round.

Prior to the vote, the players appeared to be split into two; with Dan, Ryan, Barnie and Olivia wanting to vote for Lisa, and Lisa, Lindsey, Olly and Rachel wanting to vote for Olivia. Tom was considered a wildcard during this vote as players scrambled to try and convince Barnie to blindside Olivia. Tom, however, was making alliances with Olivia and in the second vote of the season, successfully voted Lisa out of the game.

In the third round, Tom lost the Know It All head of house challenge on the fourth question along with most of the other players. Tom was able to keep his head down this round and was not considered a threat. In the third vote of the season he voted with the other players to eliminate Rachel from the game.

In the fourth round, Tom was eliminated second from the Baller Move Head of House challenge, and was nominated for elimination by the Head of House, Barnie. However, a legacy resulted in a third nominee being chosen by the winner of the Face The Ace challenge, which resulted in Dan nominating Lindsey for elimination. In the Power of Veto challenge, To The Nines, players ended the game with a four-way-tie between Tom, Ryan, Barnie and Olly. In a tiebreaker question, Tom lost the Veto to Head of House Barnie.

With nominations remaining the same, Barnie was gunning for Tom to be eliminated from the game due to his alliance with Runner Up alliance member - Olivia. Barnie had convinced Ryan, Dan and Lindsey to vote Tom out of the game. However, Lindsey was unable to trust the three boys, who had worked against her the whole season, and voted to eliminate herself from the game to allow her a chance at the Battleback. In the vote, Tom voted to eliminate Lindsey from the game.

In round five, Tom competed in the Dice, Dice, Baby Head of House challenge, losing out to the battleback-er Lindsey. He was spared nomination and unsuccessfully competed in the Mathletics power of veto competition. Due to a legacy twist, the replacement nominee would be chosen by a random draw, Tom was lucky and Ryan was chosen as the replacement and ultimately eliminated from the game following an immunity idol play by Barnie.

At the start of the sixth round, the remaining players were informed that this would be a double elimination round. Players then competed in the Fallen Friends head of house challenge, Tom lost this challenge but felt confident when it was won by ally, Olivia. Olivia turned on her alliance members and put Dan, Barnie and Lindsey on the block - sparing Tom and Olly, of whom she had gotten close with over the course of the game.

Tom competed in the Hide and Go Veto competition and was eliminated from the challenge when Rachel found his envelope. He was spared from the chopping block when Olly put himself forward to be the replacement nominee (knowing he had an immunity idol). In the sixth vote, Tom voted successfully to eliminate Barnie from the game. Dan, despite having no votes cast against him, was also eliminated due to an immunity idol play by Olly.

The semi-final began with a 'purge' challenge. This meant that the player who lost would be instantly eliminated from the game. The remaining 4 players competed in Skittle Rascals, in which they had to put their game into the hands of alumni players who were not involved in this season. The Blood Tribe, from The Butler Games: Blood Vs Water took part in a challenge weeks before the Allstars season took place. The players had to decide which one of the Blood tribe completed the challenge in the fastest time. Tom had to pick his player last and chose season four's winner Chris Butler. Despite not having the fastest time, Chris also did not have the slowest time, and Tom remained in the game to compete in the final challenge.

Tom, Olivia and Olly moved on to the final challenge - The Battleflip - wherein they would compete as individuals with the winner advancing to the final and choosing which player they would like to sit next to in the final, and which player they wanted to eliminate from the game.

Prior to the game, the three finalists decided that they would not compete against each other and instead do each cup together. When the game started, Olivia continued flipping her cups and was in the clear lead until Tom began to shout at her for not waiting as agreed. This put Olivia off her game and Olly managed to take the win.

In the final vote of the season, Olly voted to eliminate Olivia from the game, thinking he had a better shot at winning against Tom than Olivia.

Before the final vote, each player was given the opportunity to give a speech to convince the players to vote for them to win. In Tom's speech, he stated that he had not won any challenges and therefore was not responsible for eliminating any of the jurors, he then told them to vote for whoever they wanted.

Tom received votes from Iain, Ryan and Olivia. With only 3 out of 8 of the votes, Tom was the final player to be eliminated from The Butler Games: Allstars, finishing the game in second place.

## Awards

in season one, Tom was awarded the 'Bullet Dodger' award for the surviving the longest with the most amount of players targeting him.

In season two, Tom was awarded the 'Honey Badger' award for aggressive gameplay. Although he only lasted one round this season, it is believed that he was eliminated for quickly turning on tribe member and fellow veteran, Lindsey Wootten, and attempting to convince the others to eliminate her from the competition in the first elimination ceremony. Lindsey would later go on to win the game.

In season three, Tom was awarded the 'Pheonix' award for rising from the ashes of his previous season. Tom, eliminated first from season two, redeemed himself this season. He was the only player not in the Power 6 Alliance to ever gain Head of House, and made some big game moves, including betraying Josh and Katie, assisting in the Lisa blindside, and flushing the second idol from the game using the Ride or Die Advantage.

In season five, Tom was awarded the 'Floaters Better Grab a Life Vest' award for his fairly easy ride to the final. Tom did not win any challenges during the season and did not often campaign for his game even when he was on the block.

## Head of House History

Lindsey
Josh (XX)
Katie (XX)
Rachel (repl.)
Josh (XX)
Katie (XX)
 7
Richard
Richard

## Trivia

* The first player to have been disqualified from a competition, having been disqualified from 'Suck It' in season one.
* Tom is the only player to have had more than two other players targeting them. During Season one, he was targeted by Kate, Barnie and Mandy.
* Tom won his first individual challenge in the third season he competed in.
* Tom was the only veteran not invited to be a part of the season three Power 6 Alliance, an alliance which contained the 4 other veterans who competed this season.