The Penultimate Test

Main Match 8: The Penultimate Test

IMAGE SUMMARY

OVERVIEW

There are 5 players alive, with 6 lives distributed among them. This episode will last for 5 rounds. In each round except the first, a player will lose a life. The episode ends as soon as there are only 2 players remaining; they will become the finalists.

Each pair of players is assigned a unique letter. Players are told each of the letter pairings that involve them, and which other player it is associated with, but no other information about the letters. A player is considered to "have" or "own" a letter if they are one of the players in the letter's pair. That means each player will have 4 distinct letters at the start of the episode, reduced by 1 for each player eliminated. Players will be placing one of each of their letters each round, attempting to form patterns to earn points in each round.

SUBMISSIONS

Each round, players will place each of their letters on distinct cells on a hexagonal grid. Each cell of the grid can only hold up to 3 letters. If more than 3 letters are submitted to a cell in the same round, those letters cancel out and none of them are placed. If 3 or fewer letters are submitted to a cell, but the cell's content plus those letters would exceed 3 letters, then all the previous letters on the cell are erased. Otherwise, the previous letters stay in the cell, and the new letters are also placed. Cells cannot have duplicate letters; they are merged together at the end of the round (before scoring). Multiples of the same letter submitted on the same round (on the same cell) are also merged together and treated as one submission of that letter.

BOARD

The board will shrink over time. The red cells are removed after Round 2, the orange cells are removed after Round 3, and the yellow cells are removed after Round 4. Letters on removed cells do not count for anything and will be ignored.

(See the graphic for more information.)

SCORING

Each round, players will be scored based on a set of patterns and points criteria. Here are the scoring criteria for each round.

Round 2:

• For each cell, for each letter you have on that cell, score points equal to the cell's number, divided by the number of letters on the cell, rounded down.

(See the graphic for more information.)

Round 3:

• For each cell highlighted, lose 1 point if you have exactly one of your letters there, and score 3 points if you have at least two of your letters there.

• For each "triangle" formed by three mutually adjacent cells, score 2 points if you have three distinct letters such that there is one of them in each of the 3 cells.

Round 4:

• Score 1 point for each letter you have that is adjacent to the edge of the board (indicated in pink).

• For each cell, score 1 point if you have a letter there but didn't in Round 3.

• For each cell, score 1 point if you didn't have a letter there but had in Round 3.

✏️ Cells do not count for scoring if they are removed from the board.

Round 5:

• For each 121 letter pattern in a straight line, the players who own the 1 letter gain 3 points, and the players who own the 2 letter lose 1 point.

• Score 2 points for each letter you have.

RESULTS

Points do not carry between rounds. As such, there are no points given out for Round 1. In each round, players will be ranked by the amount of points they earned that round (tiebroken by previous round results, then by previous MM results). Players are only told the amount of points they have when the ToL and EC are determined for a round.

Starting from Round 2, the player with the lowest rank will be the EC. However, they will not immediately select a DMO. All rounds will be played out first. Then, for each round, the EC will pick a DMO. That DM will resolve, and the process repeats. Note that if a player is eliminated, their letters will disappear, and all future rounds will be processed as if those letters weren't submitted.

Note that for the first part of the episode, all 5 rounds will be processed as if everyone is alive. When the results are updated after each elimination, the new board will also be posted.

The player with the highest rank will earn a 3/4 ToL in Round 2, a 2/4 ToL in Round 3, and so on. Additionally, they will earn a finals chip. The player with the second highest rank will earn a 0/4 ToL.

✏️ Note that there may be cases where the EC is the only non-immune player. In those cases, all ToLs are invalidated. This is the only time where ToLs may be invalidated.

CONTRACTS

There are two pacts on offer, and you may choose to accept any amount of them.

Contractual Pact:

You cannot fail a contract. If you fail one, you lose 1 finals chip (instead of gaining the reward).

Reward: 1 finals chip.

✏️ You are considered to have completed the above pact in the round you complete your final (non-pact) contract (or after the final round, if you have not completed any).

Doubling Pact:

All contract/pact rewards are doubled. However, all contract/pact rewards are only given if no other alive player completed them before or at the same time as you.

There are 5 additional contracts on offer. Each of these contracts awards 1 shard as the reward. You may accept up to 1 (non-pact) contract per round, and cannot accept a contract you've previously accepted. That contract will be active for you for that round, plus the next round. Afterwards, it will expire, and you will have failed it. If Round 5 is not played, any uncompleted contracts that would expire on that round are nullified, and are not considered to have failed. All contracts reward their reward as soon as you complete them.

Contract of Abundance: Have at least n²/2 cells (rounded up) with your letter in them, where n is the number of players alive.

Contract of Concentration: Have at least two cells that have 3 of your letters in it.

Contract of Might: Win the DM.

Contract of Order: Form two distinct (potentially overlapping) 3-in-a-rows, each using a single one of your letters.

Contract of Value: Score more than the median amount of points.

=====

Clarification: At the end of every round, the grid is revealed, processed as if everybody were alive (even though the later grids will certainly differ from the result with eliminations).

Clarification: The completion of contracts is processed at the same time as the ToLs and EC are determined. That is, players being eliminated may affect whether or not you complete a contract.

Clarification: For Round 4 scoring, the wording might be less ambiguous described as the following:

For each cell, score 1 point if you have any letter there but didn't in Round 3.

For each cell, score 1 point if you don't have any letter there but had in Round 3.

Clarification: For Round 5 scoring, a 121 letter pattern is three letters in consecutive cells in a line, where the first and third letter are the same, and different from the second letter. (The number of letters on each cell is not relevant for this definition. In the first example, two 121 patterns are formed; X/Y/X and X/Z/X.)