Competition: [RoS: Escalation Phase II] Graphics and Miscellaneous - Press the Button II

The button is back, and even though there's no real need to press it anymore, you can't resist to press it anyways!

During the running time of this competition, a bot message will appear in the DB General Chat Telegram Group. This bot message will feature a slowly increasing (and sometimes decreasing) counter, as well as a symbol and a grid of buttons. Whenever someone presses the button showing the specified symbol, the current value of the counter is added to that person’s score total, and the counter is reset to a starting value of -5. Pressing any other button subtracts 5 from your score, and also resets the counter to the starting value of -5. Your goal is simple: Through careful pressing of buttons as well as scheming with and/or manipulation of your fellow DB members, you should ensure your score at the end of the competition is higher than anyone else’s.

The competition rules and fine print have some changes from Button 1, make sure to read them again!

TO PARTICIPATE

• Pledge to one of the RoS sub-factions
• Ensure your Telegram handle is on your dossier’s Contact Methods section
• Press the button when the counter has a positive value
• Confirm that somebody else didn’t beat you and ensure that the positive value was added to your point total

TO WIN

• Continue pressing the button at the right moments and end up with the highest point total

THE FINE PRINT

• Only a positive value button press counts for participation. Hitting the button while its value is zero or below doesn’t count as participating, you need to press the button at least once while its value is positive. For participation, it does not matter if your final score is negative, as long as you have at least one positive "click".
• Users whose point total is negative are no longer able to press the button while its value is also negative until their point total becomes 0 or higher again.
• Button presses are received and processed by the bot in sequential order, so when two people press the buttons near-simultaneously, a millisecond could make the difference. Note that in this case the counter would reset to -5 in-between processing the two button presses, meaning the second person would receive negative 5 points. This is intended behaviour.
• To prevent streaks of one person accumulating long stretches of +1, pressing the button more than two times in a row without somebody else pressing the button in between will subtract 5 points for each button press after the second, rather than awarding the button's value
• Code is in place to ignore accidental 'double clicks' due to Telegram lag, but the possibility of one still slipping through still exists and will not be retroactively corrected.
• Placement is determined by score at the end of the competition, in descending order. Ties are broken by least amount of button presses
• Shady tactics are expected and encouraged, but please be a good sport when someone is just trying to get their participation in.
• We will manually match Telegram usernames and dossiers on a best-effort basis, but having your Telegram username on your dossier’s Contact Methods section is the only way to ensure your participation will automatically be applied to your dossier.