u/Gazcobain

I picked this up a couple of years ago but didn't get too far into it because I struggled to get to grips with the mechanics and the amount of information that I had to keep track of.

On holiday from work so decided to start it again on Monday. I ended up creating a massive spreadsheet with lots of different tabs to keep track of each memory and who was in each memory.

I also took pictures of the crew sketches on my iPad, imported them into Procreate and used different layers / colours to keep track of who I had positively identified, who I strongly suspected their identities, and who I had no idea of.

I fired through the whole thing in about 14 hours over Monday and Tuesday.

It is phenomenal. What a game. Genuinely one of my favourite gaming experiences of the past few years. I felt like an absolute genius. Like if Sherlock Holmes could time travel. I loved the story and I am fully getting into the lore on different YouTube videos.

My number one spoiler free tip for anyone new to playing the game - use the crew sketches and give everyone a number. That way you just match everyone up with the number you've allocated - e.g. Number 2 was clubbed to death by Number 6. Then only once you are positive you have a confirmation, match them up with the number the game gives them.

An update to my post a few days ago. Again, these are assuming we lose to Brazil and finish on 3 points. These are the ways that teams can finish on 3rd with 1 or 2 points.

Group A
Czech Republic fail to beat Mexico and South Africa fail to beat South Korea - third place team would finish on 2 points at most.

Group B
Bosnia-Herzegovina to draw with Qatar - third place team would be Bosnia-Herzegovina with 2 points.

Group E
Ecuador fail to beat Germany and Curacao fail to beat Ivory Coast - third place team would finish on 2 points at most.

Group G
Belgium to beat New Zealand and Egypt to beat Iran - third place team would be Iran with 2 points.

Group H
Spain to beat Uruguay - regardless of other results* third place team would be on 2 points at most.

*If Cape Verde beat Saudi Arabia then Spain have 7, Cape Verde have 5, Uruguay have 2, Saudi Arabia have 1
*If Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia draw then Spain have 7, Cape Verde have 3, Uruguay have 2, Saudi Arabia have 2
*If Cape Verde lose to Saudi Arabia then Spain have 7, Saudi Arabia have 4, Uruguay have 2, Cape Verde have 2

Now that Round 1 is finished we have an idea of what results we want to go our way if we want to qualify as one of the eight best third-placed teams (I don't care what anyone says, this is by far and away our most likely chance of qualifying).

The groups which (on paper) give us the best chance of this happening at present are:

Group A: if Czechia and South Africa to draw (Thursday 5pm), and then lose their last game, they would both finish on one point.

Group D: if Turkey and Paraguay draw (Saturday 4am), and then lose their last game, again they would both finish on one point.

Group E: Ecuador and Curacao to draw (Sunday 1am), and then lose their last game, again they would both finish on one point.

Group J: Jordan and Algeria to draw (Tuesday 4am), and then lose their last game, again they would both finish on one point.