Mafia Awards 2014

[sjg11]

Slightly late I know but I will announce the winners of the Mafia Awards 2014 in exactly 7 Days.

In other words, at 23:00 PM GMT on Saturday 27th June 2015 they will be announced.

Countdown Clock here:
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20150627T23&p0=2124&msg=Playdip+Mafia+Awards+2014&csz=1&swk=1

It's going to be legen.... wait for it....

[I Love Italy]

Marking

[sjg11]

Sorry guys, I will do this tomorrow. I had almost finished it but then my mouse flew upwards and closed my browser, deleting the whole thing. Sjg is now angry so will wait to finish this off tomorrow.

[Telleo]

*cough*

[sjg11]

A shrivelled guy in a dishevelled suit wanders onto the main stage and starts talking in a wheezy voice

Good morning everyone and welcome to the 2014 Mafia Awards. I hope you will find these awards, given after players' performances in the year 2014 amusing and fairly allocated. So let's get down to business.

The first award this year is that for BEST TOWN PLAYER. This award is pretty self-explanatory, the player who produced the most consistently strong town performances throughout the year. The nominees are thewysecat, asudevil, Crunkus, Harb, windupbird, Phatality and Telleo. Asudevil's instincts are always impeccable even though he has a tendency to draw attention and votes to himself. Crunkus was as strong at leading towns and developing players as ever. Harb's analysis was, as ever, sound throughout the year. Windupbird had a couple of impressive cameo appearances. Phatality likewise looked good when he played while Telleo is always a strong contributor to any town. But, there was only ever going to be one winner of this award, thewysecat was, by a comfortable margin, the outstanding town player of the year.

The second award is for BEST SCUM PLAYER. This award is pretty self-explanatory, the player who produced the most consistently strong Mafia performances throughout the year. The nominees are sjg11, Robert Gesualdo, Crunkus, Harb, Telleo, Pagane, Zoomzip. Robert Gesualdo proved to be an excellent team player throughout the year and allowed himself to be sacrificed to benefit the Mafia on multiple occasions. Crunkus produced excellent performances last year, most notably in Buffy. Harb is very difficult to root out as Mafia, as is Telleo. Pagane knew how to fly under the radar convincingly while Zoomzip was brilliant at protecting himself and his teammates. But, overall, the judges decided that sjg11 was the best choice of a player who knows how to survive.

The third award is for BEST OVERALL PLAYER. This award is given to the player who consistently produces strong performances as both factions. The nominees are Crunkus, sjg11, thewysecat, Telleo and Harb. Crunkus showed his ability as a top notch player once again, thewysecat produced some excellent town performances, Harb had strong performances on both sides of the fence and Telleo was consistently excellently as both alignments. But, overall, the judges felt that sjg11 showed the most from both sides of the fence on a consistent basis and awarded the prize to him.

Now time for one of my favourite awards, the BEST NEW PLAYER award. I love this award because new players are crucial to the continued success of the community and I enjoy any opportunity to reward and encourage newer players. The nominees are Izzmund, condude1, Stoud, JC1985, UpsideDownChuck and Alcester. Condude was an excellent addition to the community as a whole as well as producing some good performances during the year. Stoud looked encouraging before disappearing. JC1985 had some strong performances, most notably in 8-Bit. UpsideDownChuck is an excellent new player who may well have won this award had he joined a couple of months earlier. Alcester also produced good performances during the last couple of months of year. But, overall, the committee felt that Izzmund was the stand-out New Player of the year.

Now it's time to reward the people who work so tirelessly to design and organise the innovative games that take place on this site. It's time for BEST GM. The nominees are Crunkus, Rolan A Doobie, thewysecat and sjg11. Rolan is a top-class GM whose games are always well designed and well thought out and Rolan also ran Mentor games later in the year which had some success in attracting and keeping some new players on the site. Thewysecat produced one of the year's highlights in Guards! Guards! which was a really well run game. Sjg11 produced a couple of fun games throughout the year. But, overall, the judges felt that they could not look beyond Crunkus to win this award. Crunkus' games are always of the highest quality and it's difficult to see any GM overtaking him this year. Personally, I would like to see some more variety in GMing personnel this year and I would like to encourage more players on the site to give it a try, it's a lot of fun. This will be made easier with the (hopeful) continued expansion of the player-base allowing the site to run more games every year.

Continuing with the theme of rewarding GMs, it's time to award BEST GAME. The nominees are Fable 6, 8-Bit Mafia, Reaper, Joker, Darling, Guards! Guards!, Fable 5 and Cavalcade of Spies. Fable 6 was a fun game which was enjoyable to all who participated in it. 8-Bit Mafia was an example of a top-notch Crunkus game design while RJD experimented with the night kill mechanism in an interesting way. Guards! Guards! was a top-notch addition to this year's group of games while Fable 5 was a fun twist on regular Mafia game design. But, overall, the committee felt that Cavalcade of Spies was the game which they had enjoyed most over the course of the year.

Now it's time for BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE, which is awarded to the single best performance delivered during the course of the year. The nominees are in the Spoiler below:

asudevil in Fable 6
sjg11 in Buffy Mafia
Zoomzip in Fable 5
Crunkus in Arrested Development
Crunkus in Buffy Mafia
thewysecat in Reaper, Joker, Darling
sjg11 in 8-Bit
Telleo in Dethy

Overall the committee decided to award this one to Zoomzip for his performance in Fable 5. Zoomzip delivered an outstanding performance as Mafia, floating away from suspicion himself while also helping to manage and control the town in general.

Moving on to BEST TEAM PERFORMANCE. This is awarded for the best team performance delivered throughout the course of the year.

Mafia in Fable 5
Town in Arrested Development
Town in Reaper, Joker, Darling
Town in 8-Bit
Town in Cavalcade of Spies
Town in Fable 6
Mafia in Fable 6

Overall the judges decided to award this one to the Town in Arrested Development for an excellent performance where the Mafia where close to destroyed after the first day.

Now onto MOST ENTERTAINING PLAYER. This is awarded to the player who was, well the most entertaining player throughout the year. The nominees are Telleo, Crunkus, sjg11 and Pagane. Crunkus' performance in Buffy was hilarious. Apparently there are people who find sjg11 funny but overall this was awarded to Pagane and Telleo. Pagane was always entertaining to play with during the first half of the year (particularly when discussing alcohol) while Telleo's limericks in Fable 6, as my signature will testify, were entertaining.

Finally, time for the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. This is awarded to the player who was felt to have made the biggest contribution to the site outside of games throughout the year. The nominees were sjg11 and thewysecat. Thewysecat has been a veteran on this site for a number of years and it was sad to see him leave this year. But, overall, the panel decided to award this one to sjg11.

Thanks for reading everyone, and I'll see you next year. Anybody wanting to hurl a brick at members of the panel can feel free to do so now.

[Harb]

Adding a bit of my own thoughts:

There were a good number of close contests this year. In particular the Best Team and Best Individual performances had several or more standouts that were all worthy of consideration. They were tough categories to narrow down. I don't think anyone will forget the way that Asu really ran the table in Fable 6 for example, and the mafia in Fable 5 produced the Best Individual performance so clearly had a lot going for it. I argued for the Town in Arrested Development specifically because they overcame wrong ideas and shifted direction on their way to achieving an almost perfect game. I think that town showed a real willingness to actually think about things instead of running a POE based on D1 and D2 feelings, which is admirable and not necessarily the norm.

The New Player category was another beast to decide. Not only a lot of talent, but several people that have become consistently active parts of the community. Condude, UDC, it's really a crime that you happened to join in such a strong year for new players.

There were also categories where the winner was something of a foregone conclusion. As much as I admired the games put on by TWC, Rolan, and SJG, it's hard to overstate the importance of the frequency and quality of Crunkus' games to this forum. Axe and Mob (a 2013/2014 crossover), Reaper, Joker, Darling, Prisoner's Dilemma, and 8-Bit were all great games. In particular Prisoner's Dilemma was an effort at community cross-pollination that was a valuable contribution.

Similarly, sjg's Lifetime Achievement award was hugely deserved. I was frankly surprised it was one he hadn't won before. He's a talented player who puts a lot of time into playing almost every game that comes through the site. He stepped into Moderator duties this year, shoring up an "aging" Moderator group that had lost some active members.


Congrats to all the winners, and here's hoping for a similarly hard to judge year this year.