Episode 1 - Fruit Stand

[Bandage Man]

Commiserations on being sent to the Death Match

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

How are you feeling about your upcoming Death Match?

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

[Sangmin]

well, I enjoyed the first 2 rounds. everyone wanted $5, but only Jinho and I went for it, then he rage quit to apples. which was funny.
round 2 I called the shots and got earned $2.67- the only cash I ended up with.
at that point, things were looking up- I set my sights on a mid range finish.
then Hongchul and Junghyun worked together to burn me twice. that kinda sucked, but they did what they had to do to not finish last. so even though they could have achieved the same result by being straight up honest, it didn't work out like that and I suffered the fall.

I think of it like this- there's 13 people, 3 cars in the African jungle and a pride of lions.
the car I'm in has 4 people in it and a driver who is very inexperienced, the other cars have 4 and 5 people each.
we can carry everyone, but only if we each throw out our luggages, so that we can drive faster than the lions can run. Jinho and I both agree to do it- the other 2 don't and so the squabbling slows us down. We still have everyone's luggage, but we're in a worse spot than we started as the other cars are beyond us.
So after 1 minute, the lions are getting closer- the other 2 cars are narrowly ahead of us at this point. Jinho jumps out and catches one of the other cars which are travelling faster, but it costs him his designer shoes, which he needed to remove to allow him to catch the other car.
Now our car just has 3 people. We have the lightest load now, but still are carrying 3 heavy luggages. These are noticeably slowing down our car.
Our 3 agree to discard all of our jeans and jackets- we don't really need them since it's hot in Africa. So we throw them out and with the lightening of our load, the car picks up speed. We've made ground on the other cars and are accelerating. Keep this up and we'll be fine.
However, Hongchul and Jungyung are nervous- they can still see the lions in our rear view mirror.
Rather than lighten our load in the typical fashion, they begin to concoct a plan...
I suggest throwing our entire luggage out and they agree- great! This will keep us all safe.
So we each have one final look at our treasured belongings- they bring back fond memories.
The car slows down as we each get ready to throw our luggage. I pick up mine and turn myself towards the window. Tossing the heavy bag into the dust.
The others get ready to do the same. They stand one either side, luggages in hand and begin to count down.
3...2.....1......GO! And with that they unhand their respective belongings and grab hold of me. 'Huh? What's happening?
Guys...?' And with that they push me out the window. I hit the dry grass with a hefty thud. Bemused. Shocked.
The car now picks up speed. With just 2 passengers aboard, it's much lighter. Even though the other 2 cars are way ahead, it rapidly puts some considerable distance on me.
As I realise what just happened, the pride of hungry lions sets upon me....

[Sangmin]

so I've been doing a fair amount of practice at the game and seriously, my brain wasn't geared into thinking in the way which is required. but ... I'm slowly, steadily improving.
I'm more confident now and plan to keep improving to give myself the best chance possible at getting back into the game.

channeling my inner Matt Elrod at this very moment

[Sangmin]

been practicing a bit and while I'm now capable of identifying the matches between half and two thirds of the time, I am quite slow.
I need to keep working at this

Also, as this match doesn't involve the input of the other players, can I request that they are unable to watch?

[Bandage Man]

Sorry, but in attempting to emulate the show they will be allowed to watch (but not allowed to post, PM, or interfere in any way).

In addition, they will have their own thread to discuss the match that neither you nor Junghyun will be able to see until afterwards.

[Sangmin]

haha, all good. no worries.
I suppose that being able to read their thoughts afterwards is a decent trade off, however. In keeping with the show, if I do manage to emerge as the victor, it will very much be an ugly victory.
I won't be looking too intimidating after tomorrow night.

Just one more question- I've been practicing and have noticed that it's fairly common for there to be no possible set matches with a given hand. Are the ones which the DM will contain prechecked so that this won't occur? Sometimes I get stuck trying to find a match and spend ages, only to realise that no valid sets actually were present.

[Bandage Man]

There will be at least one Hap in every round.

And just so things are clear, in the death match the cards don't disappear or get replaced. In each round there is 12 cards with a set number of sets, (some cards may be used multiple times etc). You have to find all possible sets within that one puzzle.

[Sangmin]

Just curious if you've done the game on smart-games.org/en/set/submit_set ?
If so, roughly what time do you get?

I'm looking to benchmark myself against an independent party to see how I fare

Sorry for my continued posting about this, it's just nervous energy based on my lack of expertise in the online challenge department. I don't want to come last

[Bandage Man]

Hahahaha don't apologise I LOVE the enthusiasm. I usually play with my real set of cards home so I don't have a time, but I'll do one now and let you know how I go

[Bandage Man]

750 seconds

[Sangmin]

Gosh, I just did my 2nd full round and though I improved considerably compared to my first go, was still so far behind you.
I got 1414 seconds
Hoping that my opponent hasn't practiced.

[Bandage Man]

I've been playing this game for like... 8 years. So don't beat yourself up. I guarantee you're already better just by playing it than 90% of people who haven't.