Episode 1 - Fruit Stand

[Bandage Man]

But what about Grapples?

[Kyungran]

Save a grand conspiracy amongst all of the other players to send Dongmin and me to the Death Match, I'm feeling good.

[Kyungran]

Feb 28, 2016 21:14:42 GMT 10 Bandage Man said:

But what about Grapples?

Clearly, grapples sell for $25. It costs a lot to genetically modify fruit to that extent!

[Kyungran]

I'm very happy with how the first Main Match went. Went a bit nuts and lied unnecessarily in the first round there - for some reason I couldn't trust Kyunghoon (wonder why )

I'll be very surprised if Sangmin picks me.

[Bandage Man]

How did you feel about your performance in Fruit Stand? Did it play out like you expected?

How do you feel about Sangmin and Junghyun being the Death Match candidates?

And the most important question.... Did you have fun?

[Kyungran]

Fruit Stand was an excellent choice to kick things off! It was incredibly fun and I was so immersed it felt close to the real thing. I've gotta say, it's much harder to know what the right move is when you're playing compared to simply watching it unfold. That's pretty obvious I suppose. I feel good having survived the first round and getting a feel for what it's like to play in these Main Matches.

My goal going into Fruit Stand was to be a team player, without being a fool who was too trusting and got screwed into last place. I didn't initiate contact with anyone until much later in the game - instead I waited to be approached. Very quickly I was approached by Dongmin and Sunggyu, individually, so I had one connection one the grape side and one on the apple side, separate to the groups messages. Dongmin and I bonded over our mutual love for real life Kyungran and hit it off immediately. I wasn't expecting to find a partner so early in the game, but I'm glad I did as Dongmin is amazing so far. We worked really well together and he trusted and followed my decisions as much as I trusted and followed his. We made every move together and it's no coincidence we scored the same in every round. I wonder if that was noticed by anyone amidst the chaos and scrambling of last night? I feel strongly that Dongmin and I could become a powerful force in this game if we can navigate our way safely through a few more rounds. As for Sunggyu, I think he's a very savvy player who probably had one-on-one conversations with everyone in his fruit groups, if not everyone full-stop. He even asked me to start the group thread for the apples instead of doing it himself, which is the sort of subtle move I'm inclined to make. You never want to be seen as the one taking charge, and he knows that too. Sunggyu is one I'll need to keep an eye on.

In the first round, I convinced myself that it would be too naive to bid $5 on both of my fruits. No way that was going to work. I felt much more secure bidding $5 with the apples than with the grapes, mostly because of Kyunghoon (more on that later), so I pointed out to the apples that all of our non-apple fruits were different. I wanted somebody, not myself, to suggest that we sabotage our other fruits to put all of us apples in a good position relative to the other fruits. Hyunmin took the bait and put forward that idea, which met a lukewarm reception. Still, I thought it was enough to justify to the apples why I was about to betray the grapes. However, then I ran into the problem with Dongmin. We had just hit it off and agreed to play the game together, so I needed to convince him that offering $1 for grapes made sense. This is when I cross-referenced the fruit groups and noticed a triangle of sorts:

• I had Apples and Grapes
• Kyunghoon had Grapes and Lemons
• Hyunmin had Lemons and Apples

So I lied to Dongmin, saying that Hyunmin had told me (as part of the Apples group) that Kyunghoon had told him (as part of the Lemons group) that he was going to undercut the Grapes. Dongmin agreed to bid $1, and we all saw how that worked out.

Now, in hindsight, this whole scheme seems kind of pointless, given that Kyunghoon and Eunji bid $5 for grapes. At the very least Dongmin and I should have bid $4 to make the betrayal worth more. But part of me really did feel that Kyunghoon was going to pull a stunt. I don't know how much of that was me being influenced by the real Kyunghoon's reputation, but I did notice that his very first post to the grape group was sketchy as hell saying we should cooperate "for the first couple of rounds"... Is there any way to read that besides "I am going to screw you over, but I want you to think it won't happen in this first round"? Well, in answer to my own question, I now think that Kyunghoon hasn't seen a lot of The Genius and maybe doesn't give a lot of thought to his words.

One good thing to come from this move was that I got to see how much Dongmin trusted what I said. Also, I got my HOLY SHIT I'M PLAYING THE GENIUS I MUST BE CLEVER AND DO SOMETHING TRICKY attitude out of my system and calmed down for the remaining rounds. For rounds two through four I only thought of how to stay safely ahead of the bottom dwellers and how to repair some of the damage I had caused to my social standing with Eunji and Kyunghoon. They were obviously going to bid $1 in round two so I played a bit dumb and "misunderstood" the rules to explain why it wouldn't make sense for me to bid $5 like they wanted me to. Round three with the grapes was the only time I didn't score points, and I was prepared for that possibility. Dongmin wanted to try trusting them so I followed his lead and bid $5 to show my loyalty and deference to him. It also helped in repairing things with Eunji and Kyunghoon which led to us grapes end on a high note of group trust.

The apple group were all solid, including Jinho once he joined, which helped to keep things simple. I of course considered offering $4 for apples, but there's no point in shooting for first place when you're safely in the middle and unlikely to be picked for the Death Match. The extra garnets would be great, but thinking long term I've proven to Ahyoung, Hyunmin, Sunggyu, and Jinho that I can be a team player.

All in all I feel I performed well. Finishing fifth equal in the group of 13 is pretty much the exact sort of spot I want to find myself in. Not at the top, but safely away from the bottom.

I didn't interact with either of the Death Match candidates during the Main Match, save for a friendly greeting message to each of them after the final round bids were in. There was enough to try to keep on top of during the game without unnecessary extra conversations being had, but I wanted to at least say hi as a) one of them will be in the next Main Match and b) the eliminated player might eventually be deciding whether to give me a snow globe or not in the finals! I don't have a preference for one of them to win over the other, but part of me would like to see Junghyun be the first boot again just for the Bandage Man tears

Thanks for an amazing start and I hope we can keep up this level of excitement and intensity going forward!

[Kyungran]

Enjoy the inconsistent font sizes there... not sure why that happened! Curse you and your no editing rule (atrb_partsz)

[Kyungran]

Aaaaand apparently I fail at smileys too. I think it's best that I stop writing now.

[Kyungran]

I might try to play along with the Death Match if I'm online when it's happening. Good practice and all.