Although I came in fourth, I will share a few of my tips anyway.
#1: Essence of Focused: On Sunday, I fished up a cow berry which flowered on Week 1: Thursday. Though my sim didn't start working until Tuesday, he still reached Level 8 Scientist by
Week 2: Thur, thanks to the Essence of Focused's contribution to his Very Focused mood. Never practiced yoga after gaining Essence of Focused.
He started work on Tuesday (for Connections and Entrepreneurial traits), then earned 4 promotions in 2 days each.
#2: Aromatherapy Massage & Renewal of Vows: Married the massage therapist. She came with the Klepto trait so I locked up the non-bedroom part of house.
Thankfully, she never stole the Tragic
Clone Clown Painting or the cloning machines, which I moved outside for Phase 2 of the challenge.
#3: Home Science Lab: Bought the invention constructor, analyzer, and chem lab. At Level 7 Scientist, made the Needs Fixer and never had to deal with needs again.
#4: Traits: Though I also later bought Incredibly Friendly, my sim came with Outgoing instead of Family Oriented. All the sims chosen for cloning also had the Outgoing trait.
If this challenge had been an experiment to test Family Oriented versus Outgoing, it would have proven that Family Oriented works faster.
#5: Clown no more: Once you move in a clown and change it to another outfit, it loses its Tragic Clown status. This move allows you to summon another Tragic Clown to the lot.
My sim had collected all 8 DNA samples over the weekend (Days 7-8).
Genius move to enable each clone to buy the Incredibly Friendly aspiration,
@Nutella!
This has been the most fun challenge this year, because the challenge consisted of different phases which required different skills and strategies, rather than requiring us to do the same activity throughout the entire challenge.
Thank you, Tournament Challenge Team, for a brilliant challenge and engaging tournament overall!