User blog:Fedora Kid/Countdown to 10,000: All-Stars - Behind the Scenes

I feel that this is one story that simply cannot go unnoticed. Not even Nalyd Renrut, creator and host of User blog:Nalyd Renrut/Countdown to 10,000, knew about this. Thus, I have taken it upon myself to fully document the entire happening as it unfolds. This is an inside look on what is truly one of the most epic and most dramatic behind-the-scenes stories ever. Behind this curtain is a shocking revelation. This is a story that, if one didn’t know any better, would seem scripted perfectly, like any typical season of Total Drama. This is a story of friendship, loyalty, rivalries, alliances, betrayals, editing, humor, and, most importantly of all, drama. This is… Countdown to 10,000 All-Stars: Behind the Scenes.

Note: Before I begin, I must give a shout-out to all users who will be featured in this documentation. To avoid a clash of opinions or any arguments based on my narration, I will remain completely unbiased as I describe these happenings, as if I was never a contestant. Also, some evidence mentioned here may have depended on what I myself was told by my allies and/or teammates, so it may have been slightly misconstrued or misunderstood.

Myself

Courtney~Duncan~TDA

TDIFan13/Ryan

TotalDramaAddict/Addict

Aimers

Webkinz Mania/WM

Bbhinton15/BB

TDA ROCKS/ROCKS

Bigez620

Before I begin, here is a quick recap of the original teams.

Shooting Stars: Myself, CD~TDA, Ryan, Addict, WM, and BB

Excellent Editors: Bigez, Aimers, ROCKS, Ragingblaze592/Blaze, Mygeto, and CrashMan 85/Crash

And now, without further adieu, let the story begin.

Week One
Sometime during this Week, Ryan forms an alliance with Webkinz and BB, apparently with the main goal of eliminating CD as an act of revenge for her defeating him in the finals of Season One. I, at this time, was not considering an alliance just yet. However, I figured that, sooner or later, I would have to form an alliance with someone. We win. Blaze is eliminated

Week Two
I finally make my decision to approach someone for an alliance. With some slight reluctance, I had decided that CD was the most trustworthy teammate to form an alliance with. Plus, she is a considerably strong editor, too. Thus, I approached her in a PM in the Total Drama Wiki channel of the IRC. After a brief conversation, we agreed to form an alliance. CD mentions that she is aware of Ryan having formed an alliance against her. At this point, I am considering possibly pretending to join Ryan’s alliance, but am doubtful about doing so. Why? Because CD herself mentions that Ryan is “sneaky.” In one simple, fairly vague word, I am aware that Ryan is a true threat in this game. We are aware that Ryan’s alliance outnumbers us 2 to 3. CD strongly suggests that I pretend to join Ryan’s alliance, so that I may serve as an inside man. I am still doubtful, worried about Ryan’s nature. However, on a later day, before I can decide for myself, Ryan contacts me himself. He informs me of his entire plan, confirming our suspicions, and tells me right off the bat, quote: “Fedora, you are smart. And this is serious. CD and Addict are aligned, and they want you out.” I know for a fact that this is a lie, and I am only more convinced that CD is right about Ryan. Nevertheless, I listen to his plan. He and his two alliance members plan to throw the challenge in the next week so that our team will lose and CD will be eligible to be voted off. He asks that I be the one who gains solo invincibility on our team, to insure that CD can be voted off, and that I vote with them just to insure a 4 out of 6 majority, to avoid the even-remote possibility of a tie. I decided to “agree,” with my fingers crossed as I typed it. I later went back and told CD the entire plan, describing it as “laid out on a silver platter.” Thus, I have officially joined two separate alliances, and ultimately pledge my true loyalty and honesty to my first alliance. CD and I make plans for me to “somehow” lose to her in Week Three, maybe by just a slight amount, to make it appear that she came back and beat me at the last moment. Thus, she will be invincible. I had already confirmed it with Ryan that, if CD were to become invincible when we lost, then we had a backup plan: Turn on WM and vote him off instead, due to him being an obvious threat. Thus, this makes the most perfect plan possible for me: Ryan would still be unaware of me being secretly aligned with his arch-nemesis, I would still have two alliances on my side, and the number one threat in the game (Webkinz) would be eliminated. Thus, the official “throwing plan” is set. However, the ship starts sinking before it even leaves port. Towards the end of the week, while I am in the IRC, I receive a PM from Ryan. He informs me in a long speech that he found out from Lizcat68 that I had been telling CD his entire plan, and that I had effectively “betrayed” him, after she apparently was told about this new plan by CD herself. Lizcat had apparently loudly declared it in front of the whole main IRC, with Ryan there among many others. He warned me that I had made the wrong move, and that now, after CD was eliminated, I would be Ryan’s next target. I replied with my own equally-long speech, informing him that I was not afraid of his alliance. I stated that I was going to remain loyal to CD and my original alliance, and that I was never a member of Ryan’s alliance to begin with. I decided to, rather than threaten him, give him one final ultimatum: Join my alliance with CD, and forget all about the failed throwing attempt and past plans, and we would work together against all the others. He refused. I informed CD about Ryan’s discovery. We realize that now, Ryan would never trust either of us. And, at that time, his alliance outnumbered us 3 to 2. Thus, we knew that we had to turn to the only other member of the team who we had not yet aligned with, nor had he aligned with Ryan: TotalDramaAddict. We invited him to the IRC for some PMs, and we asked him to align with us. I provided the quote from Ryan’s first PM with me (about him and CD being aligned in an attempt to vote me out) as evidence that Ryan was not to be trusted. Addict admitted that it was a lie, and agreed to align with us. Crash is eliminated.

Week Three
In this week, the official alliances among the Shooting Stars team are now perfectly even: Ryan, WM, and BB against myself, CD, and Addict. There is a challenge set at the beginning of the week, with host Nalyd Renrut saying that whoever answered all six trivia questions about past seasons of Countdown correctly first would receive a special prize, as well as individual immunity for themselves and one other person of their choice, on either team. By the time I wake up and check on the latest update, Addict has already won the challenge, and chosen CD to share his immunity and prize. In the IRC, we speculate as to what the “special prize” may be. We assume that it is either A: Addict will get to choose one person from either team to be eliminated, either after the original vote-off, or as the only elimination this week. Or B: He and CD, sharing the prize, will become the new “Team captains” and choose the remaining contestants one-by-one in a schoolyard pick to be the new teams, apparently to make up for the obvious advantage that the original Shooting Stars had fast gained over the original Excellent Editors. I made it very clear that, should it be this option, they will have to make their picks so that Ryan is separated from WM and TDA ROCKS. Why the latter? Because I had noticed, among the comments for the Week Three blog, that ROCKS vehemently defended Ryan when he narrowly lost the reward to Addict, as Addict apparently misspelled his name when answering one of the questions, and even openly said that he believed that Ryan should have won instead. Thus, I have obvious reason to believe that ROCKS and Ryan are somehow aligned, and thus, should be separated. Apparently, Ryan and his alliance still intended to throw the challenge, expecting themselves to still have majority enough to vote out myself, with CD immune. However, it became apparent that Webkinz himself had not been informed of the plan. He continued to edit his usual amount, making 205. We ended up winning this Week by a little over 100 edits, mainly due to Webkinz. Sure enough, once the Shooting Stars are declared the winners in their third consecutive victory, Nalyd declares that the reward is Addict and CD acting as two new team captains, getting to choose the new two teams of four in the following format: Addict, going first, would choose two. Then CD would choose two. Then Addict would choose one more, and CD would do the same. As there would be nine competitors left in the game at that time (after the elimination ceremony), one person would be left as “the odd man out,” and would be designated as their own one-man team for the week. At the end of the week, that person would go the losing team as a “consolation prize,” and would have immunity for that elimination ceremony, but not be able to cast their own vote. During the elimination ceremony, the three of us have a quick alliance meeting to discuss the picks. Eventually, we decide on the following order: Addict would choose WM and Aimers. CD would then choose Ryan and BB. Addict would then take ROCKS, and CD would choose Bigez. Thus, I would be left as the odd man out for the week, to guarantee my own safety against Ryan and his alliance. Subsequently, whichever team I went to would still ultimately guarantee that team as having an even divide between our alliance and Ryan’s, as it would be me and Addict against whoever was left on that team (if they lost), and me and CD against whoever else was left on that team (if they lost). As stated earlier, this was the most perfect set-up to get Ryan away from his alliance’s strongest editor, as well as his one and only potential ally from the other team. We were fine with him being on the same team as BB, as BB had not been making many edits in the season thus far, and was proving to not be a threat. Eventually, after Aimers cast the final vote that eliminated Mygeto, the picks were made in this exact order, securing our full and total control over both teams of the season. New Shooting Stars: TotalDramaAddict, Webkinz Mania, Aimers, and TDA ROCKS. New Excellent Editors: Courtney~Duncan~TDA, TDIFan13, Bbhinton15, and Bigez620. No team: Myself.

Week Four
I take full advantage of my break, making only 13 edits, in honor of my favorite and lucky number: 13. While I initially believe that the new Shooting Stars will win, since they have Webkinz, I make it clear to CD and Addict that we have a perfect plan set up to go either way, depending on which team wins and loses. If the Excellent Editors lost, then we could vote out either Ryan or BB. If Ryan was immune, BB would go. But if Ryan himself was ever eligible to be voted off, he would be voted off. We were hoping that we could convince Bigez to join CD in a vote if that was the case. If the Shooting Stars lost, we could target either ROCKS or WM. We were hoping that WM would not be immune, as we had unanimously agreed on numerous past occasions that he was, by far, the biggest threat in the game. But, if he was immune, we could simply vote out ROCKS, which would be just as good, as we considered him an ally of Ryan’s. Even more perfectly, Addict came to us in the IRC and informed us of the status: He and Aimers had made an agreement to share a vote based on who was immune; if anyone other than WM was immune, he would go. If WM was immune, ROCKS would go. Similarly, Addict had made a deal with WM to vote off ROCKS (again, if WM was immune). In addition, ROCKS, for some unknown reason, made it clear that he refused to vote for WM, and would instead vote for Aimers. Even if Addict was immune, in which WM would vote for ROCKS and ROCKS would vote for Aimers, WM would still receive the majority, with Aimers and Addict against him, and would go home with 2-1-1. Over the course of this week, we finally decide on an Alliance Name: “The Excellent Stars,” as suggested by CD. We even create our own secret channel on the IRC: #ExcellentStars, abandoning our original meeting room; the channel for the original Shooting Stars (#ShootingStars). It seemed that the best-case scenario was about to happen: By the end of the week, the new Excellent Editors had made far more edits than the new Shooting Stars (mainly due to CD and Ryan), and on the Shooting Stars, Addict had more edits than WM, guaranteeing him immunity and WM’s elimination at the end of the week. However, upon the end of the week, it became painfully clear that an unprecedented error had ruined our perfect plan. BB, on the winning Excellent Editors, had actually made negative three (-3) edits. As a result of the new rule (Stating that anyone who made zero or less edits in a week was automatically out), BB was officially automatically eliminated, and the official voting ceremony was cancelled, sparing WM. As a result, I was moved to the Excellent Editors with CD, Ryan, and Bigez. As per above, BB is automatically eliminated, despite being on the winning team.

Week Five
Despite the failed attempt to eliminate WM, our morale remains high. We are absolutely confident that we will defeat Ryan and his now-crumbling alliance, determined to prove that the best way to win the game is with honesty and loyalty to your teammates. We practically control the game, on both teams. However, be become aware that we have a new opponent. Apparently, Ryan had made a request in the IRC, asking if there was anyone left in the game that he could consider a trustworthy ally. And, in response, Bigez had stepped up, saying something along the lines of “If you ever need an ally, I’ll be there.” Thus, Bigez officially aligns with Ryan, in addition to ROCKS. We make preparations for him to be our second choice to eliminate if the EE were to lose and if Ryan is immune. Throughout the week, Aimers is repeatedly brought up in our conversations, due to his prior agreement with Addict in Week Four. Finally, on February 8, 2011, we decide to officially invite him into our secret meeting room, to join our alliance as the official fourth member. He accepts, and the four of us, together, are the four Excellent Stars. In a humorous chat, we describe ourselves as “The school of the Excellent Stars,” who will teach Ryan a lesson. As a result, based on certain comments, we come up with titles for ourselves. Coach Addict – I’m totally the gym teacher, and spying requires athletics in real life. Professor Fedora – I’m the Ethics Teacher. Principal CD – I’m just the principal with the baseball bat. Cheerleader Aimers – I’m the sadistic cheerleading coach and glee club leader. Also during this conversation, I declare my intentions of making this blog and releasing it upon the season’s finale. As a result, both Addict and Aimers request that I document additional information about each of them, either prior to their joining the Excellent Stars, or otherwise information that I myself had no previous knowledge of. So here they are; the actual recorded conversations from the IRC. Addict [17:35]  A lot of strategizing was going on in the middle of the week [17:35]  Once Blaze was editing like a machine [17:35]  We knew he had to be out [17:36]  So [17:36]  I started steadily convincing the members of the EE [17:37]  This was more-so an attempt to keep Crash in the game longer [17:37]  Why Crash? [17:37]  Because Crash was like, one of my best friends in the game DL [17:37]  *D: [17:37]  We've wanted to be on the same team since Week 5 of S2 [17:38]  So, the merge was the best chance there [17:38]  First off, Crash agreed to vote off Blaze, because I was trying to keep him in [17:40]  Then, I think it was Aimers that I told next [17:40]  You don't have to say any specifics or anything XD [17:40]  You can just mention how I was slowly making the other team vote out their strongest member [17:41]  His ban was what gave me a great reason Aimers: [17:34] <Aimers> Basically [17:35] <Aimers> Bigez and I aligned before the season started [17:35] <Aimers> I didnt know he was aligned with Ryan [17:35] <Aimers> so we were working together [17:35] <Aimers> and sorta tried to make the decisions for our team [17:36] <Aimers> (even though Apparently addict was behind everything xD0 [17:36] <Aimers> So when we came to to mygetos elimination {Brief Interruption of unrelated dialogue} [18:00] <Aimers> Okay [18:00] <Aimers> So Rocks, me and Bigez agreed on eliminating Mygeto [18:01] <Aimers> but Bigerz betrayed me and voterd Rocks [18:01] <Aimers> yet i still felt obliged to not betray him and vote mygeto because i dont like gong against allaicnes [18:01] <Aimers> so me the swing vote, asked for helpp from addict [18:01] <Aimers> who helped me decide to vote out Mygeto [18:01] <Aimers> officially ending the alliance of me and bigez [18:02] <Aimers> essentially, Mygeto's elimination was the tuirning point of where i stood in alliances End However, just as we feel on top of the world, the final day before elimination (February 11, 2011) is the day where things start falling apart. In the IRC, we realize that the Excellent Editors are about to lose, with CD gaining immunity. At this point, it will be a tie between CD and me against Ryan and Bigez. Although we are ready to vote out Bigez, who had far less edits than myself, we still believe that we have the chance to turn Bigez against Ryan by talking to him in a PM. I take it upon myself to talk to him, and begin talking to him. However, in the main IRC, Ryan suddenly says this: [22:36] <TDIFan13> I give you permission for the you-know-what Bigez then tells me that Ryan is not voting. We soon go into a situation of confusion, not sure if this is the truth or a plan to make us let our guard down. However, it only gets worse from there. CD then comes in and says that, in a PM, Ryan told her that a member of our alliance had apparently been giving him screenshots of our secret IRC conversations. Almost immediately, all hell breaks loose in our channel. Accusations start flying, with CD absolutely confident that Ryan was telling the truth, and that someone in our alliance was a mole, while I suggested that Ryan was just lying and trying to mess with our minds. We even invited Aimers in to join in. He seemed more shocked than any of us, and almost immediately supported my idea that Ryan was just messing with us. Addict remained fairly neutral, not sure who to believe or what to think, describing it as “I feel…indifferent.” We go through a long, thorough, and stressed discussion, where the four of us toss our opinions around and seemingly can’t agree on any one solution. I had to leave in the middle of the discussion due to a previous engagement that same night. I simply left them with a final request to make the right choice. Upon the next morning, the day of elimination, I found that, in the late hours of the final night, Ryan suddenly rocketed ahead and ended up making more edits than CD by only 13. However, his sudden burst of editing ended up winning the week for the Excellent Editors. The Shooting Stars lost by exactly 130 edits. And, best of all, Addict had immunity over WM. At the elimination ceremony, although Aimers is extremely reluctant to do so, he shares Addict’s and ROCKS’s votes for WM, against WM’s one vote for ROCKS, thus officially eliminating the biggest threat in the game.

Week Six
In this week, after WM’s elimination, Nalyd makes a shocking declaration: There will be a double elimination this week, with one person from each team being eliminated. This only makes it painfully clear to all of us: Someone is going to return. We figure that the two who are eliminated this week won’t be eligible, and we can only pray that WM is ineligible, too. But, regardless, we prepare for, and fear, the worst. We make our basic plans: Beat at least Bigez (if not Ryan) on the Excellent Editors, and beat ROCKS on the Shooting Stars. During the week, due to certain events that I do not clearly remember, CD ended up receiving a ban: One week from the IRC, and four days from the Wiki. In the IRC on that Tuesday, February 15, I turned to Ryan once more. He admitted that Bigez wasn’t turning out to be a good ally, unable to edit much due to a busy schedule and being generally very mysterious and unsure as to whether or not he was actually loyal to Ryan. Thus, once again, I took full advantage of the opportunity, with the double elimination and upcoming merge in mind, and I once again offered him an ultimatum. This time, he accepted, and we joined forces. I admitted to him that I had been aligned with CD, but I completely left out any mention of Addict and Aimers, thus leaving several handy cards up my sleeve. Due to CD’s ban, we “agree” to vote off CD. However, through a site called “Chatango,” CD will still be able to vote, something that Ryan is apparently not aware of. With the target initially off my back, I plan to stick with the original strategy: Share CD’s vote for Bigez, while Ryan and Bigez vote for CD, thus eliminating Bigez due to less edits. And, likewise, the plan stays the same over on the SS. Eventually, I am able to meet up with CD in our secret channel (thus working around her ban from the main IRC), and I filled her in on the plan. She was fine with it, and we were prepared to blindside Ryan by eliminating his last ally. Also, we score another successful hit during the week; we become aware that ROCKS is doing way too much fluffing, and on two occasions, we report him to an admin. The first one was Jam7, but we didn’t have enough recorded fluff edits of his to convict him and give him a ban. The second time, he was reported to none other than Bigez, who banned him for a week, starting on the Friday just before the elimination. Apparently, however, ROCKS had continued to commit certain acts that ultimately led to his actually being banned from both the IRC and the Wiki “indefinitely,” which only works out even better for us. In the few hours leading up to the end of Friday, we work frantically to get Jam7 onto the IRC, as she had apparently agreed to unban CD for about an hour, in hopes that we could give CD more time to get further ahead of Bigez in edits, to insure that the tie would be broken in our favor. Thus, our plan is set in motion perfectly; the wheels are turning just fine. Come the next day, Ryan has immunity on the EE, and Addict has immunity on the SS. However, in true Nalyd-style, he reveals yet another infuriating twist that single-handedly throws off our plan: The person with immunity from each team will be casting the only vote, and they’ll each be voting off a member of the other team. Thus, as per planned, Addict votes off Bigez, while Ryan deals the Excellent Stars a crucial blow; he votes off Aimers. Plus, in the following week, both teams are officially merged, becoming “The All-Stars.” And, to top all of the craziness off, one person does, in fact, return: None other than Webkinz Mania.

Week Seven
So now, the final six/merged group is: Myself, CD, Addict, Ryan, WM, and ROCKS (still banned). In the IRC that morning, we frantically plan out our next move. Obviously, we have exactly half of the votes secured, especially since Nalyd himself confirmed that the next elimination will be a vote from all. We worry about WM being back, but ultimately agree that he is the one other person besides CD who could beat Ryan, and thus make him vulnerable. And, on an even rarer occasion, Ryan could beat WM if he got really crazy with the editing. Thus, it’s a win-win situation; Ryan wins, we vote out WM. WM wins, we vote out Ryan. However, the fact that ROCKS is banned means that he will most likely make zero edits, and thus be automatically eliminated, thus cancelling a normal vote-off and wasting all of our efforts. We decide to ultimately lay low this Week and see what happens, deciding that, whether or not ROCKS is eliminated, his ban still insures that our alliance will have a 3 out of 5 majority against Ryan and WM, assuming that they did vote together. On Sunday, February 20, I went to the IRC and was PMd by both CD and Ryan. Thus, I discussed our plans with each of them separately, giving daily feedback to CD on what Ryan said. Ryan agrees to go with two alternate plans for this week’s elimination. Plan A: If there is no vote and ROCKS goes automatically, then we vote of WM next week (after he throws it to let Ryan have immunity). But, if there is still a vote at the end of the week (presumably in addition to ROCKS automatically going), then we vote off CD. I continue to stress that we can’t let WM get past the final five, as he is too great a threat. As the end of the week approaches, Nalyd makes it clear that, regardless of what happens to ROCKS, there will still be a regular vote-off. Nalyd’s words prove to be true, and we are allowed to vote on the day of the elimination. Come elimination, the three remaining members of the Excellent Stars all vote for WM, while WM and Ryan vote for CD. At first, it seems that WM truly will be eliminated at long last. However, in true Nalyd-style, Nalyd pulls a total TDWT Chris: He declares the elimination a fake, and WM is still in, while ROCKS, with zero edits, is automatically eliminated.

Week Eight
In the shocking and awkward aftermath of WM’s fake elimination, Nalyd declares that he must make at least 300 edits (one per vote), as a penalty for being “eliminated” last week. If he makes at least 300, he’ll be safe. If he doesn’t, he is automatically eliminated. However, within the next two days, he easily makes over 300, guaranteeing himself immunity for the week as well. The day of the elimination, I immediately reported to the IRC and discussed the plan with CD and Addict; I informed them that, with my vote for WM revealed, my cover was blown and I could no longer be a man on the inside with Ryan’s alliance. Nevertheless, the fact remains that, whether either Ryan or WM wins immunity this week, the Excellent Stars will still have a 3 out of 5 majority for sure this time, with no wild cards like ROCKS to throw off our plans. Thus, we stick to the original plan: Ryan wins, we vote out WM; WM wins, we vote out Ryan. However, a personal tragedy occurs to me on the same day: My computer is hacked, and subsequently receives over 30 viruses. As a result, my editing and interaction on the Wiki and IRC is limited, if not non-existent. For the next four days, I can only sit and wait. I am forced to even use a different computer while mine sits and rots for minimal interaction and observation of progress. Thus, I am barely able to keep up with editing. Nevertheless, I remain confident that our plan will succeed. However, on Tuesday, I am back up and running. I immediately start making edits again to make up for my lost time. On Thursday, it all turns around in the best way possible. WM contacts me to come to the IRC. Everyone who is still in the game, except for Ryan, meets in a private channel called “#tdwiki-plan.” There, the gauntlet is thrown down: WM, already at 900 edits by that point, clearly has beaten his penalty and is guaranteed immunity. He agrees to vote with the Excellent Stars against Ryan that week, having already turned against him by now, and then he will let someone else win immunity next week, and we can vote him out. It could not be working out more perfectly for us. Thus, the stage is set for our ultimate and final goal to be reached at long last: All three members of the original Excellent Stars will be in the final three. WM reassures us that he no longer cares, saying that he wants all of the drama off his back. We agree to this, and establish the order for the next two eliminations: Ryan, then WM. At the final three, the Excellent Stars will be no more. We simply wait for the voting ceremony to come. On the night of Friday, March 04, 2011, the day before elimination, I go into the IRC and end up talking separately to both WM and Ryan. Ryan reveals that he lied and told WM that he would stop at 900 edits for the week, as WM established that he was going for 1,000. I keep WM updated with how many edits Ryan is currently at, reminding him that this could be our last chance. Despite WM’s valiant efforts, Ryan still manages to beat him by a little over 200 edits come Saturday, thus earning himself immunity. At the elimination ceremony, the voting is the most diverse of the season yet. Ryan, myself, and CD voted for WM, thus eliminating him. However, WM actually voted for me, while, even more surprisingly, Addict voted for CD. However, upon entering the IRC later that day, I find that CD allowed Addict to do this to better keep our cover. Thus, WM is officially eliminated.

Week Nine
In the IRC following WM’s elimination, it is a rather awkward feeling in the IRC. We know now how truly powerful of an editor Ryan can be, and all members of the Excellent Stars feel nervous as we enter the final four, knowing now, as confirmed by Nalyd in the IRC, that there will still be a regular elimination/vote-off. Plus, Addict won yet another challenge, guaranteeing himself immunity, and leaving immunity open for only one other person: The person who makes the most edits. However, we have one final plan up our sleeves. We are all truly aware of how Ryan is really getting his impossible amount of edits so quickly: He fluffs nonstop in the middle of the night, usually Friday night right before the elimination. With WM’s help, we gather a ton of fluff edits made by Ryan recently, and prepare to present them to Nalyd and several other prominent admins, such as Jam, in hopes that we can get Ryan banned. CD then reveals that she has the entire week off of school; something that she can easily take advantage of to, hopefully, rocket ahead of Ryan in edits. By Friday night, she is over 150 edits ahead of Ryan. Addict and I even continue to help her out by giving her more edits. We are confident that Ryan will finally go. But, despite all of our valiant efforts, the unthinkable happens come Saturday: Ryan still wins immunity, pulling another successful “all-nighter,” and leaving only myself and CD as candidates for elimination. Needless to say, I had no choice but to vote for her. Alongside me, both Addict and Ryan share that vote. Thus, with a vote of 3 to 1, CD – my ally since Week Two – finally goes home.

Week Ten
Even with CD gone, a majority of the final three still consists of Excellent Stars, with Ryan on his own. Nalyd makes a shocking revelation right at the beginning of the week: This Week, there is no challenge, and no immunity (regardless of how many edits each of us makes). At the end of the week, we will all vote someone off. I immediately head to the IRC. I confirm our plan to vote out Ryan with Addict. Not much can be done except for some editing and waiting patiently for Saturday. Eventually, Ryan PMs me and tells me that he is fully aware that he will be going home at the end of the week. While not necessarily knowing about the alliance between me and Addict, he figures that both of us will vote for him due to him being the bigger threat. After initially denying it, I simply tell him that my choice hasn’t been made yet. Yet, when the elimination finally comes, Addict votes for Ryan first, followed by Ryan voting for Addict, due to Addict allegedly “betraying almost all of his allies.” I broke the tie and voted for Ryan, sending him home for good, and thus making me and Addict the official final two.

Week Eleven
This is it. The final week. Myself and Addict are the final two. He is ahead of me by about 100 edits. I try my hardest in the week, knowing that he will already probably beat me anyway. But I don’t want to look like a quitter. Plus, I believe that miracles can happen. So, I give it my all in the following week. At first, I still believe that Addict truly will beat me. But, that Friday night prior to the final day, Addict invites me back to the old Excellent Stars meeting room for the last time. With nothing else to do, I just hang around in the IRC, talking to Addict in the secret channel alongside others in the main IRC. Even CD comes back in, making it seem like the good old days once more. Then, suddenly, Nalyd comes in. For no particular reason, he tells me and Addict that we had better not tie. Naturally, we take this as an obvious invitation to do just that. But it requires Addict, who is around 45 edits at that time, to stop editing completely, as well as me making approximately 83 edits just to catch up. CD, still in the secret channel, tries multiple times to convince Addict to go through with it, as do I. Both of us are eager to go through with it, but the same cannot be said for Addict. He is extremely nervous, saying that it makes him feel like he is quitting if he were to just sit by and watch me edit. Ultimately, when he grows too tired and must leave, he finally agrees to do it, trusting me to stop once I am exactly tied with him and not pass him up. As much as I want to win, I want to see what Nalyd will do in a tie-breaker even more. At that time, I believe that Nalyd will turn to a jury vote of the 10 eliminated contestants, which I believe would secure a victory for me. Throughout the whole night, I work hard and edit the best I can, with Addict making about 4 more edits for no particular reason. He finally stops and goes to bed for the night at 49 edits, thus placing him at exactly 1201 edits for the overall season. It seems impossible at first, but with the encouragement of others in the IRC (whom I make aware of my plan), particularly former teammate BB, I eventually manage to do the unthinkable: I make exactly 176 more edits, thus placing myself at 1201 edits as well. I finally retire for the night, eagerly awaiting the result in the morning and hoping that Addict will not betray me. However, upon waking up and getting on the Wiki the next morning…I find that Addict has betrayed me, making just 3 more edits and beating me with 1204 to 1201. Thus, he is declared the Countdown champion. Amidst my fury, I go to the IRC. However, Nalyd is among the few people who are there at that early hour. When I tell him of our plan, he tells us that we should be glad that Addict betrayed me, as his tie-breaker plan was this: If there was a tie, the person with the most edits in the overall season would’ve won; in this case, it would’ve been none other than Ryan. I don’t know whether or not I should believe this, but it’s the best thing I can do at this point. So, while I am still beyond infuriated at what happened, I guess it’s better that Addict won than Ryan.

Epilogue
And there you have it. As you can see, this season had more than its fair share of alliances, friendships, alliances, agreements, deals, betrayals, and, most importantly of all, drama. All practically right from the get-go in Week One. It seemed all too perfect, how the intentions of our alliance started out in the beginning, but with us never knowing just what would happen. Even through the hardest times and arguments, we still ultimately managed to make it out on top at the very last second, in a story that couldn’t have been scripted more perfectly. As you can see, this game brought out both the best and the worst in some of the competitors, as well as putting some of their minds to the test in the strategizing department. Overall, this was a story that simply could not go unnoticed. And I have taken the time and the effort to fully document it from Week One to Week Eleven. From Blaze’s shocking elimination to Addict’s sudden victory. All of this could’ve easily just gone right by, completely unknown, as it was all taking place behind the scenes. Behind the camera. Behind the Blogs. So that’s it. Oh, and, as always: If any of you were also in the season and have any additional info you’d like to add, to better educate our viewers in this insight of this season, then feel free to add it in your comments below. This is the Season Runner-up, Fedora Kid, signing off.