The Apprentice UK - Week 9 - Game Over, Sofiane Dillon

The Apprentice UK - Week 9 - Game Over, Sofiane Dillon The Apprentice UK Week 9 Game Over, Sofiane Dillon Image Source: BBCThe stakes are steadily rising in The Apprentice UK and for  Sofiane Khelfa and  Dillon St Paul on this week’s show, that meant ejection from the 12-week process on the receiving end of Lord Sugar’s forefinger.The boardroom final three was  made up of Titans team manager Sofiane  and teammates Dillon and  Grainne McCoy, who lost the competition against Trishna Thakrar’s Nebula to design a virtual reality game and pitch it to the public and industry experts at Comic-Con.Image Source: BBCDillon and Sofiane had been the subject of previous warnings from Lord Sugar. Sofiane had been cautioned about his tendency to ignore teammates and embark on solo runs (something that had led to the firing of promising candidate Samuel Boateng in Week 7).And Dillon has been on the Sugar radar for several weeks now, having specifically been warned that “being a nice guy is not good enough to win this process”. Dillon has also suffered the ignominy of at least a couple of wince -inducing boardroom burns from Karren Brady.Video Source: BBC on YouTubeSo… with the starting field of 18 candidates now down to six, here’s how it went so badly wrong for Sofiane and Dillon in Week 9.Image Source: BBC (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Task  Virtual Reality GameThe Apprentice UK Week 9  task was  delivered virtually by Lord Sugar, after Karren and Claude made a surprise visit to the candidates at home, bringing some VR headsets with them for a virtual audience with the chief.video source:  BBC on YouTubeThe teams were required to stretch  their imaginations and design skills to firstly create a new virtual reality game, and then to pitch it to gaming enthusiasts and industry experts at the world-famous Comic Con exhibition.For both teams, the experience was not a happy one, as both Sofiane and Trishna were presiding over divided houses. Slack  strategy on both teamsâ€"with seemingly no opportunity for brainstorming and feedback on their sp lit  branding/game development sub-team assignmentsâ€"led to branding that was at best confusing, and at worst, non-engaging.Nebula was  in the former camp, with Courtney and Jessica’s ‘Gordon’s Lost His Badger’ brand and concept seemingly lost on Frances and a particularly furious Trishna. But over on Nebula, the divide was more pronounced, leading to a characterâ€"The Coral Kidâ€"with appeal only to young children (not the target market), a game ‘Magic Shells’ that was uninspired and non-creative, and a brand that did not engage.And having received the stern final word from Lord Sugar at the outsetâ€"“a word of advice: make sure your brand captures the imagination”â€"meant that the writing was on the wall for Sofiane and his team.The verdict from the industry experts? 5 out of 7 said they would invest in ‘Gordon’s Lost His Badger’, and none in ‘Magic Shells’. The public vote saw a whopping 222 out of 300 people plump for Nebula and ‘Gordon’s Lost his Badger’.Video Source: BBC on YouTubeOne final shout-out to Dillon St Paul this week, for the best quote from a losing candidate in the entire series. “The plan is to get back to Dublin, get a spray tan, and conquer the magazine world,” he said during his cab ride away from The Shard and this series of The Apprentice UK.Standout CharactersWith the candidates now reduced to six, here is a roundup of the remaining contenders.Image Source: BBCFrances Bishop: had a rather quiet week on the Virtual Reality task, but was a member of the winning team this time around. However, being on the losing team in seven out of nine tasks to date, she needs to stay out of the final three boardroom showdowns for the rest of the process.Jessica Cunningham: continues to impress by virtue of her sheer presence and personality. But she also has great sales skillsâ€"on The Apprentice UK after-show Youre Fired this week, Dillon St Paul declared his “one thousand per cent” confidence that Jessica wo uld be the winner of the process, describing her as “a ninja with numbers”â€"and never fails to engage with the public on all tasks.Grainne McCoy:Week 9 was not Grainne’s finest hour, and she survived by only the slenderest margin. “Grainne…” Lord Sugar said, the pregnant pause no doubt causing the candidate a minor heart attack as she adjusted  to the shock of the double-firing of Dillon and Sofiane, “…go back to the house… okay?” She needs a win next week to remain in strong contention.Alana Spencer: Missed the final three this week, after Sofiane opted to retain Dillon and Grainne for the final boardroom inquisition. She is bright and upbeat, and has numerous winning qualities, which have been remarked upon by Karren Brady. However, she has had sufficient warnings to make a winning performance next week essential.Trishna Thakrar: a curious week for Trishna. Her performance as project manager was impressive on the face of it, but her team was utterly polarised on the question of branding and product development. This was emphasised in to-camera asides from other members of her team who observed that she was taking credit for aspects of the task that she had been profoundly unhappy about. But a win is a win, and that is what she is in this process to do.Courtney Wood: something of a dark horse throughout  The Apprentice UK, Courtney has been on a losing team only once. Perhaps his energy is flagging at this stage of the process. He took a backward step as regards pitching the VR game this week, and his presentation skills were distinctly underwhelming in last week’s task. He can’t be counted out, but one wonders how he would perform in a boardroom final-three.Here is a 60-second preview from Week 10 that shows how, with the chips down and candidates now juggling with the gravity of the in-sight finishing line, the entertainment aspect of the show is steadily taking a back-seat to business acumen.Image Source: BBC on youtube (adsbygoog le = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Wisdom of Lord SugarOnce again, as this season of The Apprentice UK enters its final stretch, Lord Sugar is drawing on his own formidable business acumen, and  less on witâ€"and scriptwritersâ€"to illuminate the fundamentals of what he expects his new business partner to embody.• “I don’t understand Virtual Reality gaming. But what I do understand is that this is massive business.” bluntly framing the terms of the boardroom meeting to evaluate both teams’ performances • “Unlike your games, you dont have five lives. For at least one of you today, its gonna be game over.” dismissing the losing team to allow them discuss their failure on the task • “If it was up to you, Super Mario would be known as Fat Plumber.” assessing the creativity of the Coral Kid character in  Titans’ VR game • “It’s bad enough you going against a project managers instructions. Here, youve gone against your own instructions.” an in cisive assessment of how Sofiane abandoned his own structure for the presentation at the Comic-Con pitch • “Come on… I havent got all night… You took long enough! I thought I was watching Simon Cowell on The X Factor!!” a withering putdown for Sofiane on his indecision on which candidates to bring back for the final boardroom inquisitionLooking Ahead to  Week 10  of The Apprentice UKNext week on The Apprentice UK, the remaining candidates are summoned to the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich where Lord Sugar tasks them with creating and producing their own brand of gin.After skirmishes over the project manager positions, there is a spate of intense activity in taste-testing (too intense, in the case of one of the teams!) and branding and design, before the teams pitch  their products to key retailersâ€"the point at which it all goes wrong for one team. At least one of the candidate is headed for the last chance saloon in the boardroom with Lord Sugar.Video Source: BBC on YouTubeAs ever, AGENT  wishes it was next Thursday already!The Apprentice UK is broadcast Thursdays 9-10pm on BBC One, followed by The Apprentice: You’re Fired, hosted by Rhod Gilbert, on BBC Two, 10-10.30pm.