Judging in the August 2025 1v1 (Mafia Masters)
I have only played in one 1v1 (June 2025 for anyone curious) and I got gently disqualified (more like unofficially eliminated and given compensation points) as I was going on CC break very soon and the game was still ongoing. That time I was player. I missed the July one, but when @alexjohnson77 posted August sign ups, I decided to try judging.
For some screenshots, I've deleted a person's reply with the inspect tool if it wasn't necessary for context to make things a bit shorter.
Main Forum: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/august-2025-1v1-tournament
Club: https://www.chess.com/club/mafia-masters
Table of Contents
| Participants | How The Game Works | Roles | Pre-Game | Round 1 | Round 2 | Semifinals | Finals | Post-Game |
Like with the J3N games, player's nicknames are presented in quotes after their username. I've repeated already established nicknames to make it look nice.
Host is @alexjohnson77 "Alex"
Players
- @alexjohnson77 "Alex"
- @DinosaurusrexIsBack "Dino"
- @Luthien_DaughterOfThingol "Adalais"
- @DevinSuckAtChess "Devin"
- @ClockTowerCannon "Clock"
- @SriyoTheGreat "Sriyo"
- @The_Doge_Lord "Doge"
- @Steven_Peris "Steven"
- @sailsword "Sword"
- @Iconic-Zoe "Zoe"
- @SoldiersofChaos09 "Nat"
- @J3NN4star "Jen"
- @RabbitRover "Rabbit"
- @theeldest1 "Eldest"
- @Tarbosaurus_Battar "Tarbo"
- @tumharachacha "Tum"
Judges
- @alexjohnson77 "Alex"
- @TheAuthorOfChickens (me!) "Author"
- @FreeFriendlyDove "Dove"
- @SriyoTheGreat "Sriyo"
- @Steven_Peris "Steven"
- @QueenWyveon24 (changed to @MoonLit_Stella) "Queen"
- @Iconic-Zoe "Zoe"
- @J3NN4star "Jen"
- @RabbitRover "Rabbit"
- @theeldest1 "Eldest"
The host (in this case, Alex) puts all the people who have signed up as players into a bracket. He then posts all the matches that the bracket has generated in separate forums. One of the players that has signed up as a judge is assigned to judge one of the matches.
For this example, let's say one of the matches is Bob vs. Joe, with Martin as the judge. Alex assigns a role to both Bob and Joe like you would in regular mafia, but they cannot have the same role (with the exception of Jester, Bob and Joe are allowed to be Jester at the same time). Martin does not get a role and is not told what the roles of Bob and Joe are.
Based off their role's win condition (see the "Roles" section), Bob and Joe now have to convince Martin to side with them so he'll lynch whoever that person needs to have lynched to win. Sometimes you don't know what needs to happen to the other player for you to win, which is why you might need to use a bunch of tactics I can't explain because I'm not an expert 1v1 player.
After hearing both sides (in a normal, active game), Martin votes to lynch whoever he believes he should lynch based off of what both players have said throughout the match. Alex then reveals the true roles of Bob and Joe, and whoever's win condition is met and prioritized (see the "Roles" section) moves on to the next round, with the other being eliminated.
Was that a good explanation? If the answer is yes, great! If the answer is no, deal with it. I'm not a professional explainer either.
WC stands for "Win Condition"
Town
WC: To not get voted out by the judge.
Sheriff
WC: To not get voted out by the judge.
Ability: Knows their opponents' role.
Mafia
WC: To not get voted out by the judge.
Jester
WC: To get voted out by the judge.
Win Condition Priorities
Mafia = Town/Sheriff
Town/Sheriff > Jester
Jester > Mafia
Check out Alex's forum as well: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/1v1-role-list
The MM background makes it a bit hard to read the text at times but bear with me.
As you might have expected, I start joking around.
That's...basically Survivor so yeah, pretty useless XD
The second I saw this I knew Rabbit vs Eldest would be interesting.
I wanna see Alex vs Jen and Clock vs whoever wins Rabbit vs Eldest.
For anyone interested even though this doesn't apply to you because you're reading after the game's end:
After this it's just silence while waiting for the game to start. The forum was posted 6 days ago at the time of writing this sentence and Alex said it'll start in about 2 weeks so we've only got about a week left before the start!
Yeah I have no guesses. Eldest seems possible...
Alrighty let's get this party started! (IDK why I'm so excited for this lol)
Standings
Rabbit vs Eldest (Judge: Alex)
So it looks like I don't get to judge this round. Neither does Eldest. I'm disappointed but reading an entire section about me being disappointed isn't going to be very entertaining, so instead go to Round 2 for a judged game.
I was going to post every game here but halfway through decided it wasn't worth my time. Just go look at the forums.
For those of you with long blogs, dw about getting flagged for spammed. Dove confirmed that no blog length will get you flagged without someone actually reporting you.
Results
Alex vs Tarbo (Judge: Zoe)
Alex - Villager
Tarbo - Mafia
Tarbo loses on time, Alex auto-wins
Jen vs Tum (Judge: Sriyo)
Jen - Jester
Tum - Jester
Jen voted, Tum eliminated
Rabbit vs Eldest (Judge: Alex)
Rabbit - Jester
Eldest - Jester
Eldest voted, Rabbit eliminated
Clock vs Nat (Judge: Steven)
Clock - Sheriff
Nat - Mafia
Nat voted, Nat eliminated
Zoe vs Sriyo (Judge: Dove)
Zoe - Mafia
Sriyo - Jester
Zoe voted, Sriyo eliminated
Dino vs Steven (Judge: Queen)
Dino - Sheriff
Steven - Mafia
Dino disqualified for leaving the club, Steven auto-wins
Sword vs Adalais (Judge: Jen)
Sword - Villager
Adalais - Mafia
Sword withdraws, Adalais auto-wins
Devin vs Doge (Judge: Rabbit)
Devin - Mafia
Doge - Jester
Devin voted, Doge eliminated
Updated Player List
@alexjohnson77
@DinosaurusrexIsBack LEFT CLUB R1
@Luthien_DaughterOfThingol
@DevinSuckAtChess
@ClockTowerCannon
@SriyoTheGreat ELIMINATED R1
@The_Doge_Lord ELIMINATED R1
@Steven_Peris
@sailsword WITHDREW R1
@Iconic-Zoe
@SoldiersofChaos09 ELIMINATED R1
@J3NN4star
@RabbitRover ELIMINATED R1
@theeldest1
@Tarbosaurus_Battar LOST ON TIME R1
@tumharachacha ELIMINATED R1
Updated Judge List
@alexjohnson77
@TheAuthorOfChickens (me!)
@FreeFriendlyDove
@SriyoTheGreat WITHDREW R1
@Steven_Peris
@QueenWyveon24
@Iconic-Zoe
@J3NN4star
@RabbitRover
@theeldest1
Standings
Eldest vs Clock (Judge: Author)
Adalais vs Devin (Judge: Rabbit)
My Game (Eldest vs Clock)
Now that I finally get to judge-
Hm...right off the bat I'm already thinking Eldest sounds less suspicious...BUT WAIT
Remember Eldest's master plan in WEREWIZIANS to get the evils lynched? He is a mastermind when it comes to mafia games. DON'T BE FOOLED BY HIM.
At this point they sound kind of like fighting children. "I'm right!" "No! I'm right!" "Liar!" "You're the liar!" "No I'm not!" "Yes you are!" "I'm telling on you!" "MOM LIAM'S BEING A LIARRRRRRRRRRR!" (no offense to anyone named Liam)
Yep. Eldest being Eldest with all his smartness. I can't tell if he's trying to make me believe the truth or if he's trying to act suspicious enough to get voted...
Alrighty, now I have no idea who I'm going with more. Both are suspicious. Now I'm starting to regret signing up to judge-
Eldest's claim: Sheriff, Clock is Mafia
Clock's claim: Sheriff, Eldest is Jester
Okay, so obviously one of them is lying because they can't both be right. I doubt a villager would claim Sheriff because that just helps them look suspicious, so whoever isn't lying is probably guaranteed to be Sheriff.
To me, at least, the claim of Eldest being Jester makes more sense than the claim of Clock being Mafia. IDK why. It just does.
Part of the problem is I don't know what questions to ask to help me figure this out...
Maybe Eldest is Mafia and trying to throw the suspicion off himself...I literally have no clue.
We might be getting somewhere...
Clock goes offline immediately after posting that.
But, concerning what Clock said, why would she say that? If she's actually Sheriff, she would know Eldest is Jester and not Mafia.
Wait so is Clock a boy? I though Clock was female? Clock I need you to clarify in the comments ;-;
My immediate thought after reading Clock's statement is "Ah yes, more changes to your story".
I reload the page for new comments to find Clock deleted his (her? IDK) comment. Interesting.
Let's go! First time judging and I vote off the right person 😀
Results
Alex vs Jen (Judge: Eldest)
Alex - Sheriff
Jen - Mafia
Alex voted, Alex and Eldest eliminated
Eldest vs Clock (Judge: Author)
Eldest - Sheriff
Clock - Mafia
Clock voted, Clock eliminated
Zoe vs Steven (Judge: Queen [replaced by Jen])
Zoe - Jester
Steven - Mafia
Zoe voted, Steven and Jen eliminated
Adalais vs Devin (Judge: Rabbit)
Adalais - Villager
Devin - Mafia
Devin voted, Devin eliminated
Updated Player List
@alexjohnson77 ELIMINATED R2
@DinosaurusrexIsBack LEFT CLUB R1
@Luthien_DaughterOfThingol
@DevinSuckAtChess ELIMINATED R2
@ClockTowerCannon ELIMINATED R2
@SriyoTheGreat ELIMINATED R1
@The_Doge_Lord ELIMINATED R1
@Steven_Peris ELIMINATED R2
@sailsword WITHDREW R1
@Iconic-Zoe
@SoldiersofChaos09 ELIMINATED R1
@J3NN4star
@RabbitRover ELIMINATED R1
@theeldest1
@Tarbosaurus_Battar LOST ON TIME R1
@tumharachacha ELIMINATED R1
Updated Judge List
@alexjohnson77
@TheAuthorOfChickens (me!)
@FreeFriendlyDove
@SriyoTheGreat WITHDREW R1
@Steven_Peris
@QueenWyveon24 WITHDREW R2
@Iconic-Zoe
@J3NN4star ELIMINATED R2
@RabbitRover
@theeldest1 ELIMINATED R2
Standings
Alrighty let's go!
My Game (Eldest vs Jen)
Oh no Eldest again-
This was posted while I was sleeping so they end up creating two pages worth of comments. Here is the important stuff from those two pages:
RIP Alex he's gonna miss all the fun
That "this should be an easy win for Author" just...doesn't sit well with me.
The second I read this, I knew this would be an interesting game. The both of them claim that I need to lynch the other, and both also claim that the other's comments do not affect them. Although technically Eldest's stance is that anything Jen does or says doesn't matter, not that it won't affect him.
For anyone curious, this is the link Eldest sent: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/1v1-july-2025-round-1-jen-vs-rabbit-judge-sriyo?page=5
And yes, I do agree with Eldest. Jen sounds like a manipulative Jester...
At the present moment, I'm not sure who I want to lynch. I had a theory this could be JvJ (not even that just something vs Jester with Eldest being Jester) with Eldest trying to get me to vote the person who looks like Jester so I would sus on him and lynch him, but there are two things that likely disprove this.
Why would Jen be acting like Jester if she isn't? Eldest doesn't sound like the type of person to use this strategy.
Jen sounds really suspicious rn, but Eldest was last online 7 hours ago at the time of writing this sentece so we can't get his take on this.
And the problem is that there's no way to figure out why she's talking like this. Is she Jester? Is she mafia and trying to trick me into voting Eldest so she wins?
But I did notice that she's switched from wanting me to vote Eldest to wanting me to vote her. Interesting.
ELDEST WE NEED YOU TO COME ONLINE
ELDEST PLEASE I BEG OF YOU COME ONLINE AND MAKE ME LESS CONFUSED
Don't think I didn't notice that Jen went from claiming Villager to claiming Mafia. That's similar to what happened with me in COVEN RETURNS. I made a claim and planned on sticking with it, but then something came up that forced me to change my claim. Hm...
Either Eldest is really good at being Jes- *quickly checks his Jester game from this tournament*
Yeah I got no info ;-;
I come back online to Eldest and Jen being so kind by giving me content:
I did kind of just skim over the comments and make a random vote because I legitimately had no idea what to do...Yeah that might end up not being the smartest decision (and I did get criticized for doing this, I just felt like this needed to be addressed here as well). Well, folks, take this as an example of what not to do while judging.
Guess we'll wait for the results.
Alex finally comes online.
I assume from the results that Jen is Villager and Eldest Mafia, but I ask just to confirm.
I think I forgot about that suspicion-
Guess I suspected right.
Results
Eldest vs Jen (Judge: Author)
Eldest - Jester
Jen - Villager
Eldest voted, Eldest eliminated
Zoe vs Adalais
Zoe - Jester
Adalais - Sheriff
Zoe voted, Zoe eliminated
Updated Player List
@alexjohnson77 ELIMINATED R2
@DinosaurusrexIsBack LEFT CLUB R1
@Luthien_DaughterOfThingol
@DevinSuckAtChess ELIMINATED R2
@ClockTowerCannon ELIMINATED R2
@SriyoTheGreat ELIMINATED R1
@The_Doge_Lord ELIMINATED R1
@Steven_Peris ELIMINATED R2
@sailsword WITHDREW R1
@Iconic-Zoe ELIMINATED SEMIFINALS
@SoldiersofChaos09 ELIMINATED R1
@J3NN4star
@RabbitRover ELIMINATED R1
@theeldest1 ELIMINATED SEMIFINALS
@Tarbosaurus_Battar LOST ON TIME R1
@tumharachacha ELIMINATED R1
Updated Judge List
@alexjohnson77
@TheAuthorOfChickens (me!)
@FreeFriendlyDove
@SriyoTheGreat WITHDREW R1
@Steven_Peris
@QueenWyveon24 WITHDREW R2
@Iconic-Zoe
@J3NN4star ELIMINATED R2
@RabbitRover
@theeldest1 ELIMINATED R2
Standings
Jen vs Adalais (Judges: Alex, Rabbit, Author, Zoe, and Steven)
So how the final game works is all the judges who haven't been eliminated judge the final game together. If only one judge survives, well then RIP them.
The Game
So the first part is Dove and Alex talking about spoilers for different things or whatever. Dove posted a spoiler to something and Alex was telling her to delete it but she was refusing. She finally deleted it. After this, the other judges start showing up. This promptly happens:
Dove just resends the roles and we're all good lol
Um...Eldest isn't a judge but I'll let it slide he's helping the judges get info- *gets cancelled by the Mafia Fair Play Team*
I do find it to be slightly suspicious that she's refusing to claim, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it's strategy rather than needing to hide her role.
Still waiting for Adalais...
Indirect Sheriff claim.
Alright, so she's implied being Sheriff and yet is not 100% sure of her opponent's role. But why on earth would the host lie? There's nothing in the Sheriff's role about having a chance to get inaccurate results.
In my defense, I'm trying to learn how to be a judge and screwing things up, while teaching me what not to do, would not make the game fun for anyone (especially since it's the last game). So I'm kind of just sitting back and watching. Part of it is that I have no idea what questions to ask.
After reading this I'm thinking we vote Jen. She just...doesn't sound like Jester?
So nothing interesting really happens after this for a bit except Alex and Sriyo arguing about the Jester role, which I will not be showing here.
So Zoe, Alex, Rabbit, and I vote for Jen; and Steven votes for Adalais.
She then posts in the forum two hours later. The contents of the comment? A picture of Eeyore. It originally didn't have any text with it, but when I reloaded it later she had edited it.
Awesome.
Results
Jen vs Adalais (Judges: Alex, Rabbit, Author, Zoe, and Steven)
Jen - Mafia
Adalais - Villager
Jen voted by Zoe, Alex, Rabbit, and Author (Adalais voted by Steven); Jen eliminated
Final Player List
@alexjohnson77 ELIMINATED R2
@DinosaurusrexIsBack LEFT CLUB R1
@Luthien_DaughterOfThingol CHAMPION
@DevinSuckAtChess ELIMINATED R2
@ClockTowerCannon ELIMINATED R2
@SriyoTheGreat ELIMINATED R1
@The_Doge_Lord ELIMINATED R1
@Steven_Peris ELIMINATED R2
@sailsword WITHDREW R1
@Iconic-Zoe ELIMINATED SEMIFINALS
@SoldiersofChaos09 ELIMINATED R1
@J3NN4star RUNNER UP
@RabbitRover ELIMINATED R1
@theeldest1 ELIMINATED SEMIFINALS
@Tarbosaurus_Battar LOST ON TIME R1
@tumharachacha ELIMINATED R1
Final Judge List
@alexjohnson77 WINNER
@TheAuthorOfChickens (me!) WINNER
@FreeFriendlyDove ELIMINATED FINALS
@SriyoTheGreat WITHDREW R1
@Steven_Peris ELIMINATED FINALS
@QueenWyveon24 WITHDREW R2
@Iconic-Zoe ELIMINATED FINALS
@J3NN4star ELIMINATED R2
@RabbitRover WINNER
@theeldest1 ELIMINATED R2
Well then, it looks like I've won with Alex and Rabbit. Zoe was eliminated for not having a good record, Steven for voting Adalais, and Dove for hosting the Finals.
I know this isn't like normal mafia so it might not be entertaining, but I've written this so if no one likes it, oh well 🤷♀️
If you did like it, great! I might blog the next 1v1 I join.
