Where I'm at rn:
I started this morning looking at worlds based on partner equity, excluding MML and leetic because they're lock town as far as I'm concerned.
Out of the remaining players (DBP, Bolth, Haku, Jessie, and Dusk),
I kind of want to policy lynch jessie and call it a day, but keep thinking it feels too easy. When she's posted, her posts just make me WIFOM between on whether it's intentional spew (as in the case of her calling out Haku/Bolth as partners repeatedly) or genuine thoughts. Sprinkled amongst the wifom is stuff like this
post, where she addresses FFA as if she's talking to him, but its so clearly not a question to FFA as it is loaded for the rest of us. Asking "why lie...?" and then concluding with " I don’t see how you can be town and do this." is gross.
@jessie, if you read this, what I need from you is to share full thoughts on people. when you've shared reads, they've been concise to the point where I can't read you from them, so really go into depth on your thought process on every slot. I'm not asking for a confident conclusion on each, but at least talk about what you think of the person and, more importantly, why / what led you to think that way.
When I started, I thought bolth might be the common denominator scum in the likely active scum teams, but then I went back and read him in some more depth and I don't think he's compatible with any world involving Dusk. The spats/shade they've had really don't look like partner distancing to me. I doubt they're ever W/W.
Which means that if bolth is scum, the scum world is bolth/haku/DBP (or jessie). His partner equity is through the roof with Haku, both because Haku has consistently softdefended him and because of posts like
#1902, which reflects upon his contentment to townread haku's slot and let it skate. His readslist in
#2882 really drives this home with the almost stereotypical partner reads on Haku and DBP.
Haku is weird to me this game. In terms of pairings, he's kept himself neutral enough to be paired with nearly anyone (but especially bolth) because he dismisses his own pushes as "no one will follow me" and then backs off when engaged. At certain points, I've been almost contented enough to write him off as paranoid townHaku having a bad game and call it a day, but it feels weird.
What's missing from this Haku is the normal flashes of brilliance that accentuate his town play. There was a post earlier where he said that wolfHaku knows he has to pretend to be paranoid, and that kind of is where I'm at. The mechanical blunders and self-stated hopelessness when mechanics is normally his strong suit ties into that possible faux-paranoia in that Haku undersells himself in terms of how people regard him, so playing to that regard could be what we're seeing here. There's too many posts about his uncertainty and paranoia to quote them all, but one post that pinged me in regards to this was
#3106
Dusk had the wolfiest D0 out of anyone here. His play as a whole seems to be geared in getting TWTBAW (too wolfy to be a wolf) townreads, and his early game felt forced. While present, it was nearly impossible to pin his reads on anyone down until just last phase. In terms of partner equity, the only person he can't pair with is Bolth.
Since starting to speak up, though, and up through even his most recent debacle, I think his tone has been largely pure. He said somewhere that he came in determined to play an effortless game, and I think he's done that despite potentially staking the game on it. I know he's an exceptional player, so seeing him do a full 180 and become a pancake has given me culture shock of sorts, but he feels towny despite my misgivings. Speaking of misgivings, my issues with him that remain are largely to do with his apparent obsession with looking to dead players' reads. Aside from saying he's town because "every dead towny thought so" (which is the grossest thing he's done), his
readslist at #3112 made multiple references to sheeping FFA's reads. This is probably a site culture thing, so @Dusk I ask that you please go into more of your own thoughts on each slot and why you think that way. Like, a stream consciousness thing similar to what I asked jessie to do.
In terms of DBP himself, I think he's as null as can be. His *solving* has seemed muted throughout game and, while he's accentuating his language with a frustrated/angry "fucking", "fucking", "fucking", his emotions feel hollow. I don't think lynching him today is wise given his claim, but he's certainly not towny by any means, and his being scum would answer all the burning questions I have about the game and its weirdness. His response and reaction to FFA did have him looking townier, though it's so far within his townrange that it did little to dispel my doubts on the slot.
If it comes down to Dusk vs DBP, I think I go DBP like 90%. We've made the "right mechanical choice" twice now, and it hasn't gotten anywhere except into this pit of shit we're in, so it's not gonna stop me a third time.
Outside of DBP, I think one in bolth/Haku is our best bet of hitting scum, though jessie is also an attractive option.