Now The Games Can Really Begin

The game begins.

**Now The Games Can Really Begin** is the season premiere of MintORGs Season 1: Hogwarts.

## Story

### Pre-Tribal

**Gryffindor:**
It was a slow start for Charlie, although he did introduce the 'team mascot', which is some sort of.. rock. Wei came up with some name ideas: "Bones of Bravery", "Concreted Courage". Kyle suggested "Tank". "Thomas the Tank", suggested Hayleigh.

Speaking of Hayleigh, she is excited to be in Gryffindor, and has many shared interests with other players in The Great Hall.

Jamal is the youngest contestant, but is determined to prove himself and win.

Kyle didn't expect to be a Gryffindor, but is ready to make his house proud.

Nikki is finding the Great Hall hectic, but fun! They're currently working on building social connections with their tribemates. Nikki was approached by Wei for an alliance, but didn't seem too interested.

Rips is focusing on winning (to avoid having to go to tribal), and is also planning to get connections in early to stay in the game longer. Contrary to Nikki, Rips finds the Great Hall 'a chill place with a chill group of people'.

Wei has hit the ground running, sussing everyone out and seeing how he vibes with them. Wei is excited to be in Gryffindor, and would like to try and work with Nikki and Charlie, and potentially also Rips and Hayleigh. Wei then pretended to go to sleep, but instead spied on the hall chat, thinking the Slytherin tribe are quite over the top. He then tried hunting for an idol, reaching out to Nikki for help, but to no avail.

**Hufflepuff:**
Alli is absolutely FUMING to be put in Hufflepuff. "I've never been this offended in my entire life". Perhaps her closeness with Slytherin will lead to some cross-House alliances?

Duolingo on the other hand, was expecting Hufflepuff. He seems to have been more involved in the Great Hall discussions over DMing his tribemates.

Eris has been thriving in the Great Hall, getting involved with several chats and making friends.

Hunter believes everyone is kind - which is what you'd hope from Hufflepuff! - and he's hoping to make strong connections with them.

Laura has also been getting involved in the Great Hall, most notably joining in with Nick's game of 2 Truths 1 Lie.

Pas is also happy to be a Hufflepuff. Surprisingly, he's chosen not to talk to anyone from his House 1-on-1 yet, but is hoping to get to know everyone better tomorrow.

Vanilla has chatted lots in the Great Hall as well, as well as taking lots of time to introduce himself in his confessional.

Overall, it seems like Hufflepuff are focusing on bonding with people from other Houses. Will this help them in the long run, or do they need to improve their own bond?

**Ravenclaw:**
Hairie feels a little overwhelmed by the chaos of the Great Hall, and is instead choosing to focus on his house. He noticed Wei in the cast reveal, and is very shocked to see another Singaporean, having never been able to play with one in an ORG before. He's loving the Harry Potter chats.

Imke missed the cast reveal due to being asleep. This is her first time playing an org. She thinks being in Ravenclaw is a good choice, and opened up a little more about herself in her confessional. She has talked a little in her common room, and in the Great Hall, but Nick currently has her bottom of his trust ranking due to her not talking much in DM's.

Jace is on his way to Boston, so we'll have to wait for the video confessionals, but he's taken the time to chat in the Great Hall, sparking a lot of discussion when he shared his Harry Potter fanfiction.

Nick seems to be one of the smartest players on the cast, taking note of the fact that Wes won the invite contest, and using that to connect with them. He is being very social so far, managing to properly connect with every player in his house except Hairie and Imke.

Nicole is very happy to be in Ravenclaw. She's managed to connect well with Nick so far, as they have a lot in common. Overall, she hasn't socialised very much yet.

Tomato has provided one of the first funny moments! He was chatting with Wes, who said they were making mac and cheese. He told them mac and cheese is one of his favourites, but then he came to his confessional to tell us all he finds mac and cheese disgusting!

Wes hasn't talked much yet, but has managed to bond with Nick over classical music.

**Slytherin:**
Andy is here to PLAY. He believes the players chatting in the Great Hall are 'way too revealing'. He's sitting back and observing. Andy is really happy to be in Slytherin, and feels amazing about it. He relates least with Hufflepuff as a house. Andy likes the 'one world' twist of the Great Hall, but finds the conversations 'iffy'. His plan for the game is to act oblivious and stupid, not pushing himself too hard, or power-playing. He wants to remain level-headed and manipulate people later. Andy has connected well with Vinny, who he thinks will be a good ally to have due to the fact that they have been connecting well with people from other houses. He also thinks Riley is coming across as a very smart player.

Freeze was expecting to be in Gryffindor, and is already friends with Rips, who is there. He also knows Jace and Hairie in Ravenclaw, and he believes they hate him. He is struggling to keep track of the chaos in the Great Hall.

Kieran hasn't had much to say so far, but noticed that Vinny says "not answering DMs" in their About Me. He is hoping to respect boundaries, but also notes that this is a game that is social in nature.

Meredith has been very chatty in the Great Hall, but according to Andy, she isn't great at talking in DMs. She claims to 'already know everyone' in her house right off the bat.

Riley already knows Andy and Meredith from the past. He's been doing his best to chat with people, but needs to be careful - Andy has clocked that Riley is playing a very intelligent game and might be a threat later on...

Sage is the quietest of all players so far. They have sent four messages in the Great Hall, and that's it.

Vinny is finding the Great Hall loud and hard to keep up with, but they find it refreshing to see such active students.

### Tribal

**Gryffindor:**
Charlie feels doomed. He feels like he hasn't had time to chat with others, and has considered asking them to vote him. Wei thinks getting rid of Charlie is the worst case scenario for him.

Hayleigh believes Charlie's approach to this tribal is saving her a lot of stress. She doesn't feel she's at risk, but little does she know, Hayleigh and Jamal were the two main names floating around in right now, with Nikki and Rips pushing to keep Jamal.

Speaking of Jamal, his goal right now is to act as a free agent. His name is on the chopping block, and he doesn't seem to be aware of this yet. Kyle says Jamal isn't the best conversationalist on the tribe.

Kyle is in a very solid spot, in the middle of the tribe. He's ended up in an alliance formed by Wei consisting of those two as well as Nikki and Rips. Kyle would like Jamal to go.

Nikki isn't feeling well, but has let their tribemates know. They're in a safe position in a majority alliance.

Rips feels 'pretty much in the clear', and gets on least with Hayleigh. Kyle at one point expressed in his confessional wanting to vote out Rips, but after the creation of the majority alliance it now doesn't make sense for him to do that.

Wei is playing a great game so far, and has let Kyle know that Nikki and Rips are a pair.

**Hufflepuff:**
Alli was not happy about the tribal twist, feeling like four people won't get the chance to play. Within Hufflepuff, Alli feels best about Laura.

Duolingo felt the same as Alli about the twist, and wishes everyone had the chance to play an immunity challenge. He says Vanilla and Alli's names were floating around at tribal, with Hunter and Vanilla apparently wanting to vote Alli.

Eris found the twist scary, and felt at risk, but then didn't once things calmed down. She is glad to be safe.

Hunter had Alli at the bottom of his trust ranking, and initially wanted to vote her out. However, after Vanilla's questioning, he changed his mind.

Laura found it to be a hard vote, but was given an easy option when Vanilla was aggressive in asking everyone to give him a reason he shouldn't vote them.

Pas noted that Vanilla was keen to vote Alli out. He created an alliance chat with Duolingo and Laura, where they narrowed the vote down to between Eris and Vanilla.

Vanilla was the main character of this tribal, deciding to ask everyone "Give me a reason not to vote you out". While this was INCREDIBLY entertaining, and gave us fantastic insight into each player's strengths, this ended up being Vanilla's downfall.

**Ravenclaw:**
Hairie did not love the twist, feeling like it brought the chaos, and also that he was nervous for his life in the game. He felt it was too early to say who was vibing with who. He had Nicole at the top of his trust rankings, and Imke at the bottom - who seemed to be the person who was pushing Hairie hardest when vote discussions were taking place. Hairie tried throwing Tomato 's name out, but to no avail.

Imke really took the reins during this tribal council, being one of the main people to plan and execute the vote. She worked with Jace, Nick and Tomato in their new alliance chat to plan this vote, then she reached out to Nicole and Wes to make sure they were on board. Imke had a negative reaction to Freeze in the Great Hall, when he replied quite bluntly/sarcastically to her when she asked a genuine question. Right before the tribe swap, Imke surprised us all with a new twist to her story - she was starting to plan a blindside against her current allies NICK AND/OR JACE in the future.

Jace was able to play much more under the radar. He has Nick at the top of his trust ranking, and Hairie at the bottom, due to them not talking much. He felt very safe at tribal, and didn't feel at all as though he was at risk.

Nick was stunned by the opening twist, and was curious who would be expelled from the other three houses. As a part of a majority alliance, he felt safe, but also noted that he thinks Imke and Tomato might be a duo, as they're both rookies, and both discussed the alliance before him and Jace were invited to join. He's responded to this by getting Jace as his number one.

Nicole was a nervous wreck, not knowing how other people in the game were feeling about her. She had Tomato at the top of her trust ranking, and Jace bottom. Voted out player Hairie was fourth for her.

Tomato felt like the vote would either be Hairie or.. himself! He realised Hairie was starting to step up his game, potentially realising he's on the chopping block, and Tomato said he'd feel guilty having to vote him. As a first time player, like Imke, Tomato is starting to realise how difficult it is to play an ORG, having to vote people off and lie to them being much harder than he realised. He knows it will get harder the deeper into the ORG he gets, which scares him a little.

Wes LOVES the twist, and feels like 24 will be much more manageable than 28 players. They think it makes sure every tribe has a social dynamic established right away and avoid all those awkward first vote talks 8-10 days from now. They were worried Hairie would be voted out, since they know each other, and that connection could help, and they found it unfair that someone would be voted out for living in another country. In the end, Wes voted Jace, as the person they think should go next, and also because they would've felt too bad voting for Hairie.

**Slytherin:**
Andy is probably the 'main character' of Slytherin in Episode 1, and is playing an extremely strategic game. He also took advantage of all the players giving information about each other in the Great Hall.

Freeze had a fairly uneventful episode, voting for Sage in the majority, and ending up being added to an alliance, consisting of him, Andy and Riley, who created it.

Kieran finds Slytherin to be a boring tribe after getting to know people in the Great Hall. He kept a low profile during the vote and voted Sage in the majority.

Meredith doesn't like the twist, and has Riley at the top of her trust ranking. She voted Sage alongside everyone else.

Riley is also one of the big threats in the game. He is ride or dies with Andy, and also felt like Meredith was ignoring his DMs. Like Andy, he also found out lots of information from the Great Hall.

Sage was extremely inactive. They found the twist scary, because they were busy on Day 1. They didn't even make a trust ranking. They were voted out completely unanimously, even self voting.

Vinny also kept a low profile this vote, gently trying to encourage people to vote Sage. Slytherin had the most calm vote out of all the houses.

## Challenge Information

As a special twist, no challenge took place, and all four Houses attended Tribal Council.

This led to a lot of surprise, with some players loving the twist, and others disappointed that some people won't get to play a challenge at all.

## Tribal Council

### Gryffindor

 Charlie (5 votes)
 Hayleigh (1 vote)
 Jamal (1 vote)
 VOTED OUT:Charlie

### Slytherin

 Sage (7 votes)
 VOTED OUT:Sage

### Hufflepuff

 Laura (1 vote)
 Vanilla (6 votes)
 VOTED OUT:Vanilla

### Ravenclaw

 Hairie (5 votes)
 Jace(1 vote)
 Tomato (1 vote)
 VOTED OUT:Hairie

## Trivia

* *Now The Games Can Really Begin* is the first episode of MintORGs as a franchise, and of **Season 1: Hogwarts**
* *Now The Games Can Really Begin* is the first episode not to feature a challenge.
* *Now The Games Can Really Begin* is first episode to feature 4 eliminations.
* *Now The Games Can Really Begin* is the episode that features the most eliminations, with 4.
* *Now The Games Can Really Begin* is first episode to feature 4 tribal councils.
* *Now The Games Can Really Begin* is the episode that features the most tribal councils, with 4.
* The episode title was named by **Imke** after **Hairie**'s elimination.

## Gallery

Gryffindor players Wei and Hayleigh having a rather awkward conversation ahead of Tribal!Andy, newly sorted into Slytherin, makes a joke about being trapped with six snakes.Unbeknownst to the other players, Riley was onto something...Following a conversation about musicals in the Great Hall, Vinny joked that they were in High School Musical.Tomato's Mac and Cheese lie begins...