Mafia: Patient Zero

***Mafia: Patient Zero*** is the thirty-fifth season of *The Mafia Series*.

This season was highlighted by the fantastic lore that a particular host shared throughout the game, and this season also functioned as the first game in a two part series. While the majority of this game was led by the activity of a handful of players, the unique yet public endgame was determined by several unpredictable variables.

This game lasted from December 26, 2022 up to January 7, 2023. As stated in the previous paragraph, this game's strategy was dominated by a few of the most active players, though there were some other notable players with major contributions to the game as well. Overall, this season did not contain too many notable events or examples of fantastic gameplay.

# ***Roles & Twists***

**Twists**
* **Lore:** The lore of this game, designed by Iridi, was one of the grandest presentations of lore yet seen in the series, with an elaborate storyline accompanying results each day. At the end of the game, it was revealed that the storyline would be continued in a future game.
* **Return of the Zombie:** At the beginning of the game, it was announced that the zombie would be returning for the first time in 25 games. However, instead of being given to a revived player, the zombie sub-role was given to a random player in the game, who would get to infect another player every night and every day. When the zombie died, all the infected players were then forced to compete in a challenge. The loser of the challenge would die of infection and be eliminated from the game. Another zombie would be randomly selected after every zombie death until the final 9.
* **Quarantine:** Out of response for this deadly plague, two random players were selected every night to be quarantined. They were removed from the town chat and all other chats that contain more than two players (including the Mafia chat). They were protected from being killed during the night, but they would still be eligible to be voted for during the day (though they were still not be in contact with the town during the day). Quarantined players could still DM, but they also had one of the following four effects occur to them while in quarantine:
	+ **False Positive - 40%:** Nothing happens.
	+ **Loss of Vote at Upcoming Trial - 20%**
	+ **Pass the Infection - 20%:** The quarantined player would get to select another to be quarantined for the upcoming night.
	+ **Loss of Use of Abilities During Night - 10%**
	+ **Infection Twist - 10%:** The quarantined player would be automatically infected. However, if they were already infected, then they would instead have their infection *removed*. The zombie would be immediately notified of that player's updated infection status.

# ***Game Summary***

*Written by **Eevee**.*

The game began in quiet fashion, with everyone nervous to claim roles. Because of the lack of role claims, the mafia decided to kill **Smk** for being a seer claim, scared that he would figure out that there was a maid in the game since the corrupted maid, Zo, was claiming to be monarchs with the mafia, Kae. However, Smk was actually the baker. Stella’s fake claim of gambler and Zo and Kae’s claim of the monarch pair seemed like they would be successful, but in an unfortunate turn of events, Stella learned that the joker, Alfie, was following her voting history, meaning that Stella couldn’t fulfill her gambler confirmation strategy, as Alfie would learn that Stella was served.

The first vote seemed to be a consensus vote for the inactive Avtron who had not sent a single message in the server. During this vote, Emmi created the strategy of having someone vote for the students, herself and Meli, proving said people as townies in the process. The vote for **Avtron** worked as expected, with many people being confirmed as townies in the process. Surprisingly, Avtron was the second baker, meaning that town would have a 50% chance of someone starving during the following nights.

Scared for his own safety, the fifer, Cam, decided to work with the mafia moving forward. To protect Cam, the mafia killed **Eternal**, the second joker, to prevent Eternal from reading Cam’s voting history. The second vote was split between Niamea, the unconfirmable detective claim, and Cam, the equally unconfirmable commoner claim. In a tight vote, Cam was voted out. Cam received the vengeful spirit role, an incredibly power advantage that could change the game.

Despite an ally of theirs being voted out, this vote proved pivotal for the mafia’s win equity. Stella had previously convinced the apprentice, Hades, to follow her, and Stella later revealed her identity of the mafia to Hades. After Stella was instructed to vote for Emmi to prove herself as town, Hades voted for Emmi instead, seemingly proving Stella as a townie. On top of this, through the pestering of their bonded spirit Smk, the quarantined Mooly also voted for Emmi, making it even more likely that Stella was a townie.

**Mooly** was killed next for being the trusted sheriff, and **Alfie** starved. The third vote was meant to be an easy Harp vote, as Harp was an unconfirmed judge who had previously defended Cam. Though Emmi and Meli receiving votes to confirm their fellow townspeople, **Harp** was voted out as expected.

After this vote, Zo and Kae began receiving heat for refusing to confirm themselves as the monarchs. To add to this suspicion, Zo admitted that they were the maid, basically confirming both Kae and Zo as mafia members. **Acid** was the next kill because of his powerful noble role. Expecting the vote target, Kae, to be served by Zo, Emmi led a split vote between Kae and the potentially corrupted psychic, Piper. After Stella flipped her vote to Piper, the vote was supposed to tie between Kae and Piper. However, Meli missed the memo of the split vote plan, and **Piper** was blindsided in a chaotic 5-4-1 vote.

It became obvious that Stella and Hades were both evil because of the apparent vote flip. Stella decided to reveal her team publicly in the town as evil, hoping to win the game based on lucky starvation rolls. The healer, **Jade**, was killed next, allowing the nurse, PK, to take her role. **Kae**’s luck ran out, as she was voted out in a 5-5 vote over Niamea after Jade broke the tie in Niamea’s favor, with Niamea causing the tie by self-voting. However, Kae was the zombie! After a competition to determine which of the infected would die, **PK** lost the challenge and died of infection.

**Calvin** was killed next, and **Niamea** starved, making the game 3-3 between the mafia and townies. The Calvin kill proved to be detrimental to the mafia’s success, as the mafia no longer had anyone to vote for, with the remaining townies being a little girl and two students. After Meli’s vote was blocked due to quarantine, the mafia gained the majority. However, Enrique’s insane luck proved to be important because two votes for Enrique were blocked, sending **Hades** out in a 2-1 vote. Despite rooting for the mafia in his confessional, the vengeful spirit, Cam, continued to vote for Emmi, not realizing that every single of his votes were blocked because of Emmi’s student role.

**Meli** was the next to be killed. With the numbers now 2-2, the mafia needed the 50% starvation roll to be in their favor to win the game. To continue the trend of the mafia being unlucky, no one starved. **Stella** was voted out 2-2, and the tie was broken by Meli to execute Stella, meaning that town had won the game. Although **Zo** also survived, the only winning survivors were **Emmi** and **Enrique**!

# ***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***

* This is the first season to explicitly state that it would be followed by a sequel in the future (not necessarily the very next season).
* Daichen, Havoc, and Jack all won the viewing lounge prediction game this season.