A Few Words with the Champ

[Metropolis Man]

Hey, all. I thought it might be fun to get a chance to get to know the winner of this year's tournament. Vesper is no newbie to the forum. She actually became a forum member at the very end of 2012 and started participating in the 2013 challenges. Way back in the Sims 3 days! But, honestly, she was never on my radar because she either did not participate enough in a given year to make the ranking or when she was ranked, it was not high. But, wow, how things changed this year. She was nothing short of a wrecking ball. So, I sent Vesper a few short questions, and she was most gracious in her responses.

Congratulations! At the start of the season, it seemed like it would be a close battle with @mismck, but you just kept your dominance wire to wire. And you only missed two events. Well, assuming you are okay with letting everyone know a little about you, I'll give you the floor...

I live with my partner by the sea and work at a university careers service in London, though I am predominantly remote.

I've played Sims since the original was released. The first household I created was me, Bjork, and Sherlock Holmes. Sims still gets the most hours in total. I love the townie dynasties in particular, but I play other games, too. I recently got back into Fallout 4, love Stardew Valley (as so many simmers do), and am very fond of the digital version of the board game Wingspan. I am waiting patiently for Elder Scrolls 6 and have been a fan of the series since Morrowind, the first non-Sims game I got obsessed with.

My middle daughter is a huge Bjork fan. I had to throw that in there. How do you typically prepare for challenges after I post new rule sets?

This year, I got organized for the tournament challenges. I created a spreadsheet with lists of information about townies, careers, traits, skills, etc. Once the rules for a challenge were released, I identified the main goal and secondary goal and cross-referenced this with the info I'd gathered, then did more detailed research, mainly write-ups of previous challenges as these are more likely to have niche strategies. I'd make a strategy, detailing it in the spreadsheet, and test it with practice - heavily if it was an area of the game I was less familiar with. I love learning from other people's strategies and am interested in how we all play differently.

Do you have any recommendations for the team to make things better next year? Did you like the format this year with one very simple event (one Sim week) followed by a slightly longer event?

I don't have any recommendations for next year's tournament, as I thought this year's was ace. I liked the balance of short and simple with more complicated challenges, although I am much better at the simple ones.

Thank you so much. Best of luck to you next year.

[Granny Lawlor]

Bjork AND Sherlock Holmes!  Love it!

Congrats, Vesper. I really enjoyed reading all the strategy write-ups.