[Kelly Wigles]

- Mon Sep 26, 2016 7:01:20 am #821 So I've decided to go ahead and make a blog, cause Mia and Lisa make it look super fun. Here are my thoughts on the first few days leading up to the first tribals:

STRANDED WITH ALLIES - EPISODE 1 "Sup, Bro"

Nauru Tribe:
The general thing that's happening throughout the game is that the allies are all working with each other(unless their relationship isn't all that solid to begin with). Of all the tribes, this one seems to be the most affected by previous relationships most of it centering around Flicka trying to pull one over on Liliana. Liliana's hijinks in Suriname has put so much fear and paranoia in Flicka that she wants her gone ASAP. Poor Liliana on the other hand completely trusts Flicka BECAUSE of what happened in Suriname.

As for the rest of the tribe, Dale and Drew are sticking together and have become bff's with Flicka and Sugar, which is something we all predicted because of their personalities. Drew is still back to his old schtick of wanting so bad to be a top dog while Dale is basically still being himself, someone a little too personable and easy to trust.


Pohnpei Tribe:

This tribe is all about the bro's in my opinion. Dan is mr. popular with this tribe since most of the guys are just fans of him and their personalities gel well. Dan-Mookie-Hayden-Ozzy-Nate are all easily connected. The 3 women are easily the ones in the most trouble. Lucky for them Katie is a no-show so she's pretty much the first boot. If I were Sierra or Jessica though, i'd be shaking my boots since it's between the two of them as to who goes next. Here's the breakdown:

Dan-Mookie-Hayden and Nate are all basically one unit with Ozzy connected by default (I'll explain later). Now it's in Hayden, Nate and Mookie's best interest to ditch Sierra because that would guarantee Dan's loyalty. Meanwhile the same can be said for Jessica leaving as she's not that close with Nate anyhow.

Ozzy on the other hand, is not nearly as well embedded in the bro-alliance as he's letting on and is putting so much focus on idol-hunting. He;s talked about getting rid of Dan but I don't know if he actually has any pull to make that happen.

I would say after Katie, Jessica is in the most trouble since Sierra at least has Dan pulling for her. Which is a shame since she seems to be really great, strategic player.

Saipan Tribe:

This one is the more strategically exciting tribe of the three. Penner and Cassandra have basically found themselves in the perfect power position between two other partners: Val/Nadiya and Heidi/Tammy with Richard as their third wheel.

Chris coming off like a weirdo in his initial PM's and generally being absent has made him the obvious first boot from this tribe. This happening gives Penner/Cassandra enough power as it lets their secret third wheel Richard sail to the next phase of the game.

The only way Penner/Cass get dethroned is if Val/Nadiya and Heidi/Tammy secretly begin working together which would already be hard because P/C already have solid deals and relationships with each of the partners.

All in all it looks like the upcoming tribals are just gonna be teasers to the real action that's gonna go down in the second episode when all the dead weight are gone and people really start going at each other.

Right now the best positioned people are:
Richard, Penner and Cassandra - They're playing the best game within their tribe right now, especially Richard getting temporary immunity and being secret bff's with Penner.

while the people in the worst position, not counting the obvious initial boots, are:
the women of Pohnpei - I see the boys being so solid together that the girls are not going to be able to break through. Maybe Sierra but it's too precarious a situation right now, plus she was late so she's even more behind socially.
Liliana - She's already admitted that no one is talking strategy with her and with Flicka being ranked as her most trusted, she has no clue that it;s about to rain hell on her. Even Rocky hates her.

People to keep an eye on:
Heidi - She's the most detatched in terms of having fan goggles for Penner and could potentially turn the tables on him.
Ozzy - He's got something to prove and he's at least thinking about the possibility of taking out king Dan.

Last edited by Kelly Wigles on Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:35:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Kelly Wigles]

- Tue Sep 27, 2016 6:07:19 am #1182 STRANDED WITH ALLIES - EPISODE 2

Nauru Tribe
I'm gonna start with what is still the least exciting tribe at the moment as Flicka is still hellbent on uniting everyone against Lilliana, who herself hasn't been all that active anyway. These early stages feel like a bit of a chore with this tribe as there appears to be an equal measure of active to inactive players and the actives (Drew/Dale, Flicka/Sugar) are all aligned to take out the quieter ones (Lill, Laura, Rachel). Rocky is technically not very active but when he is, he has successfully distanced himself from Lilliana and connected with Flicka, the tribe's most proactive player.

Pohnpei Tribe
Now the good stuff, Nate found the idol on Pohnpei and not only that, he has instigated some drama between Dan and Jessica with an intention to pin it all on Mookie. This is the type of gameplay that's worthy of an All-Star season in my opinion. Now whether or not this all pays off remains to be seen, but with people being suspicious of their own allies' friends, that could be a recipe for an exciting and unpredictable few rounds on Pohnpei. Don't get me wrong though, despite the intricate cracks in the bro-alliance, Jessica and Sierra are still in the most trouble here. Jessica is banking on her Faroe connections to see her through whereas Sierra is basically Dan's collateral, whose main safety net is that the Faroe bros like him. Cutting Sierra lose would be too beneficial for everyone (The Bro's get to have Dan with no strings attatched and Dan gets immunity). Jessica leaving frees up Nate and buys Dan and Sierra's loyalty.

Saipan Tribe

It's pretty clear that the Indonesia girls are being played really hard in this tribe. They were the top dogs of their season but in a tribe with players as cunning as Penner, Cassandra and Heidi, they are completely out of their depth. Nadiya chalks it up to a generational issue whereas Val is too concerned with what Nadiya is up to to be able to really play her own game. It's pretty sad in terms of Val since its showing how insecure she is of her own capabilities as a player (The fact that everyone kept on celebrating Nadiya as the HBIC of Indonesia has clearly affected her).

In other news, Rich I guess just doesn't give a fuck now that he's immune, which is actually the best thing to do in an all-stars situation. This attitude is going to let him soar beneath the radar in this game and let everyone totally underestimate him until it's too late. It's a strategy that Shane has pretty much perfected in previous seasons and if Rich can keep it up, he'd be golden.


Best Players ATM:
Richard, Penner and Cassandra - Still the same, they control their tribe without them realizing it and Rich is immune and flying under the radar.
Nate - Finding the hidden idol and causing chaos in his tribe is pretty brilliant and should keep him cozy for a little while. If he manages to get Jessica voted out, he's pretty much guaranteed merge.

Worst Players ATM:
Lilliana - Once you notice that no one wants to talk strategy with you, that should be a massive warning sign. Lill hasn't put enough effort and doesn't have enough instinct to realize that she's in a hopeless situation, look for her to go home.
Nadiya - Same situation as Liliana, no one wants to talk strategy with her because no one wants her there. The sad part is she's not doing anything about it.
Val - She's just not playing her own game. Last season, the reason she won was because she successfully did her own thing in terms of building relationships with people and finding the right people to attach herself with. There's none of that this time, she's too obsessed with proving that she's a better player than Nadiya that she's forgotten what makes her a decent player on her own.

[Kelly Wigles]

- Fri Sep 30, 2016 1:08:53 am #1663 Haven't really had time to blog about the last episode but here's a quick rundown of everyone just before the swap:

Nauru Tribe
Despite a pretty fun tribal council, Nauru is pretty boring. the Dale/Drew/Flicka/Sugar alliance has held up and they've all pretty much braced themselves for the coming swap. Dale/Drew have enough connections in the game that they can parlay it into loyalty from Flicka and Sugar.

Dale - Dale is in a pretty good spot at the moment and that's mostly due to his social skills, people generally just like him and trust him. His 4-way allies alliance has held on throughout the pre-swap stage and he is non threatening enough that I can see him making the merge comfortably.

Drew - Drew is still always the self-proclaimed strategic mastermind/genius that he was in Indonesia. He has a pretty comfortable power position at the moment but i do feel like if there was one person that Rachel would turn on as payback for what happened to Laura, it would be him. He wears his "mastermind" hat a little too openly.

Flicka - Flicka made the mistake of simply overplaying too much from the get-go with the Liliana stuff. It's fun to watch but she nearly dug herself a hole. The swap should provide a clean slate for her and she'll be able to hide behind much more visible, aggressive players.

Sugar - Sugar is still as laid back as ever. She's saying that she wants to make a concerted effort to play a more individual game this time around but it's not something that's really gonna be required until later in the game. Sugar doesn't really come alive as a character until you mix her in with other tribes' members so again, the swap should make things interesting for her, especially since she will be separated from the more aggressive Flicka.

Rocky - I don't really have a decent handle on him at the moment, he's kind of just laying back and enjoying his immunity. I can see why he would make it far in the game as his personality just isn't someone that you feel totally threatened by.

Rachel - Rachel is the person you keep an eye on from this tribe. She just had a rude awakening when her alliance betrayed her in the previous round so she should be someone who's willing to jump ship and be able to do some interesting things when the swap happens.

~~~~~~

Pohnpei Tribe
-I didn't realize it until Ozzy pointed it out but despite having lost two members, this tribe has never voted anyone off. Their casualties are all from a game removal and a quit. This means that none of the loyalties and alliances have really been solidified yet.

Dan - Dan is basically the center of this tribe. Everyone loves him and are aligned with him one way or another. A lot of it can be attributed to his personality but his biggest flaw right now is his insistence on being loyal to his ally.

Sierra - on the other end of the spectrum, Sierra is in the most vulnerable position in this tribe and that's mainly because all the boys want Dan for themselves. She's a smart, strategic girl but the situation in this tribe has left her pretty powerless to be honest. Hopefully she gets to do some cool things once she's free of Dan.

Mookie - Mookie's in a tough spot considering he just lost a big ally in Jessica and he hasn't really showcased a strong enough social game for anyone to want to work with him. It'll be hard to watch him translate his gameplay to a tribe with more strategic and social players than he is.

Ozzy - The biggest flaw with Ozzy is that he just can't hide how much of a gamer and thinker he is. People are already pegging him to be dangerous and that's never a good thing so early in the game. He could use some pointers from Sugar when it comes to being more laid back and personable with his interactions

Nate - As aggressively and sneakily as Nate's played, he kind of lacks the social graces to really go the distance. He has the idol sure, but the fact that he had to tell his tribe that he got in the idol room and lie about it not being there immediately lets people have some doubt about him. He's also admitted that he doesn't really talk to people which would be a dangerous thing to do this season considering how many socializers are on the cast.

Hayden - As opposed to a lot of the people who've received immunity, Hayden has not been lazy about his situation. The guy has been observing and analyzing the people in his tribe and has made some pretty astute assessments of everyone. He knows Nate is hiding the idol, he knows how the tribe revolves around Dan. Coming into the swap, he has the most power over this tribe and I'm really hoping he does something interesting with it.

~~~~~

Saipan Tribe
-This tribe basically has all the legitimate strategic masterminds in the game and once they get unleashed on the other tribes, they will be devastating. If there's one tribe I'm really looking forward to going into the swap, it's the people here.

Penner - Penner is or was Mr. Popular in this tribe with everyone pretty much bowing down to him. When the tribes swap, all eyes will be on him as he has the biggest reputation of all of them. He has a very solid alliance with Richard which is serving him really, really well as Richard feeds him all the information he comes across without anyone suspecting. I believe of everyone, he is the one to beat and is on the most comfortable, influential seat coming into the swap.

Cassandra - I think she's way more dangerous than her partner. Cassandra is smart and very cunning. The fact that she's already thinking of dumping her ally shows that she's a very independent, forward thinker. It will be nice to see her playing without Penner by her side.

Heidi - Another big character waiting to be unleashed, if she ends up on the same tribe as Cass, they will be the pair to beat. She has good instincts on her and is not afraid to make serious moves. I wouldn't be surprised if she's still here by the end.

Tammy - From her confessionals, you easily get the feeling that Tammy isn't someone you should underestimate. In a game full of young newbies there's something to be said about an old schooler who's a little more mature and is very self aware.

Val - Val is in a similar situation as Rachel where the alliance she thought she was part of betrayed her so she's probably going to be a lot more wary and looking to cause some damage. This is a good thing, so far her game has been too focused on proving her worth in the game over Nadiya and now that she's gone, we can finally see just how Val really plays.

Richard - Ironically, Richard is being the Rudy Boesch to Penner's Hatch, he's basically his lapdog and if these two are in the same tribe, they will be hard to beat as people could easily run to Rich for a number without realizing that he'll be tattling to Penner the whole time. Depending on how the gameplay shifts, his chances could go either way. If the name of the game is getting rid of threats, he's gonna be sitting pretty. But if it's all about socializing and forming new alliances, he's fucked.

[Kelly Wigles]

- Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:57:39 am #2276 This episode featured the twist that pretty much everyone was counting would happen at this time, the tribe swap.



The 18 remaining players got shuffled into Pohnpei and Saipan with all the remaining allies being separated. The immunity rules were altered where the person whose ally is voted will now only be immune for their next tribal council. The tribes were split as follows:

Pohnpei (Yellow):
Cassandra
Dan
Drew
Hayden
Heidi
Ozzy
Rocky
Sugar
Val

Saipan (Purple)
Dale
Flicka
Mookie
Penner
Nate
Rachel
Richard
Sierra
Tammy

Saipan
Let's talk about Saipan first. Pretty much everyone is elated to be playing with Jonathan Penner all eyes are on him and on working with him.

In other news, Flicka and Rachel are angry at each other for the Laura boot, Flicka's also mad at Mookie for things that happened in Suriname.

Sierra and Dale find themselves on their own and a little vulnerable without their trusted allies. it remains to be seen how they will cope since the two aren't really that close and most everyone is gravitating towards a Faroe Islands alliance with Penner in the middle.

The tribe won immunity and due to the long break, not a lot has really transpired in this tribe.

Pohnpei

The same can't be said however, for Pohnpei. First off, Dan and Drew were reunited and apparently these guys had a pre-game alliance (that includes Dale) that's now going to take over the game. Using the infrastructure that Drew and Dale built for themselves in original Nauru as well Dan's own connections from original Pohnpei plus a scorned Val, they pretty much end up running the tribe leaving Heidi and Cassandra on the outs.

Meanwhile, Ozzy successfully finds the hidden immunity idol but not before Hayden totally catches him thanks to his sudden drop in Idol searching frequency. Hayden relays it to Dan who then begins to think of blindsiding Ozzy soon.

In terms of everyone's gameplay, they all just want to be part of the majority and hide under the radar except for Drew and Dan who quickly aim to control the tribe.

As the round winds down it becomes very clear that Cassandra, thanks in part to bowing out for most of the weekend as well as being a known threat, is on the chopping block. This sends her and Heidi scrambling to turn the vote against either Dan or Drew, the clear leaders of the tribe. They also bring up the suggestion that there's an Indonesia alliance that's dominating which itself is not really far from the truth.

Cassandra's aggressive scrambling however irritates everyone and in the end convinces no one of siding with her despite the obvious Indonesia majority. After a heated tribal council, Cassandra finds herself going home Seven to Two.

[Kelly Wigles]

- Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:46:32 pm #2802 Pohnpei Tribe
So after the Fireworks of tribal council Pohnpei is basically regrouping and strengthening their resolve. Heidi, who fought hard for Cassandra the night before is clearly on the outs. It doesn't help that Sugar is also now completely against her and we all know that anytime Sugar decides to be against someone, she's forever against them, like it basically becomes her storyline for the season.

The big topic of tribal "the Indonesian elephant in the room" was pretty much glossed over by most of the tribe. This is thanks in large part to the social machinations of that alliance's main core: Drew and Dan. Drew has engendered enough good will and loyalty out of Sugar, Rocky and Ozzy that they're pretty much in his back pocket, same with Dan and Hayden. The two are actually pretty smug about all the work they've done. Congratulating themselves on going all the way in their private messages.

Val, not really wanting to be associated with them, finds herself with no choice but to stick it out with the pair while still keeping friendly with Heidi.

Ozzy on the other hand has been steadily keeping his eyes open and making connections to hopefully turn the tables in the next round. He found the tribe's idol and now he's promising Heidi that things will turn out well for her soon. he's also been bonding with Hayden who actually suspects him of having his idol already and thinks he's also playing him.

In the end, the tribe wins immunity and Heidi is spared from following in her partner Cassandra's footsteps.

Saipan Tribe

The Saipan tribe is keeping things pretty mellow, most of the tribe basically took the weekend off with the intention of taking out the obvious outsiders: Flicka, Laura, and Dale. The web of alliances consisting of Richard, Mookie, and Penner pretty much control the tribe with Nate, Tammy and Sierra having made inroads with various members of that alliance to essentially form a lose alliance of 6.

The obvious boot appears to be Flicka, who's pretty much gone on a campaign to take out Mookie on the grounds that he's a previous winner. (though really she's bitter about Mookie idoling her out in Suriname) a lot of Flicka's gameplay has been about bringing up the past and making people from her season accountable for how they've wronged her. It worked with Liliana but with Mookie being well positioned in his tribe, it's put her square in the crossfires.

Nate finds himself a second idol and is really racking up the sneakiness with his gameplay. He's still keeping things quiet out front and letting people come to him with plans.

The tribe's general quietness over the weekend doesn't really sit well with Dale, who has gotten paranoid especially after being separated from his main allies. Having been the perpetrator of many a vote off in his original season, he knows that when things are quiet, you're in trouble. This caused him to start messaging everyone trying to get the strategy talk started. he puts his sights on Mookie, following Flicka's lead, and tries to get a confirmation from the people he trusts. One of them being Richard.

Now Richard is essentially playing Dale's Indonesia game of making personal connections and pretending to be a vote for people when he's really secretly working with the ringleader of the dominant alliance, in this case: Jonathan Penner. Richard divulges everything Dale is doing to Penner and Mookie, which pisses them off, particularly Mookie. They decide to then switch the vote from Flicka to Dale.

In the end, this leads to Dale being blindsided by the tribe as people were thinking that he was stirring stuff up.

[Kelly Wigles]

- Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:48:44 pm #2803 -episode soon to come-

[Kelly Wigles]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 12:42:38 pm #7170 Putting this here in case I don't have time to write anything up later.

Chris - You had some potential after reading your totally random icebreaker chats with your tribemates but then you completely disappeared. We didn't find out until later that you ended up in the hospital, sorry to hear about that :(.

Katie - Your complete absence randomly game Hayden the boost to go all the way to the end, there's that. I wish you showed up though.

Liliana - You came into this season severely handicapped since you were on a tribe with Flicka who was so burned by the stuff you did in Suriname. Wish you could have stayed knowing just how fun a character you are to have around.

Jessica - I was so angry when you quit cause you seemed like one of the really good ones. I really want to see you come back someday if your schedule ever frees up cause you seemed like someone amazing.

Nadiya - Something was definitely off about you coming into this season, you were the center of everything in Indonesia and it just felt like your heart was not in it this season.

Laura - I think it was a case of too little too late with you. You started off in the fringes and never really made any solid enough connections to make it further.

Cassandra - Probably the biggest loss pre-merge, in the short time you had this season you were a brash, take no prisoners, iconic type of player that definitely deserved a bigger role this season than you ended up having. I will always vouch for you coming back in any returnee season.

Dale - I had such high hopes for you but you kind of got swept into Dan/Joaq's game that you were never able to build strong enough connections outside that alliance to really shine like you did last season. I think the fact that you tried to torpedo the game after you left will be mentioned enough so I'll just say that you seem like someone who really loved the game a little too much and got really burned when things didn't go your way.

Flicka - I'm pretty shocked at how hard you played so early in the game considering how cool and patient you were in Suriname. Unfortunately you made a target of yourself so early and so got taken out. I loved your audio confessionals, there were some things that were definitely touching to hear about, so thank you for sharing :)

Rachel - You were so much fun! I'm kind of sad that you were the one that got taken out by the double idol play cause that was around the time where you were just the funniest to watch. The PM's between you and Heidi deciding who goes on which tribe was just hilarious and then the irony of ironies when you go home first thing when your tribe goes to tribal.

Mookie - The first winner out, you were playing such a great game until Dalegate happened. You definitely deserved better than what ultimately befell you but it did feel like you got the wind knocked out of you by the Dale scandal so it was probably for the best that you went out when you did.

Richard - You were the biggest casualty of the Dale scandal, you were playing a terrific game up until that point and even for a minute there it seemed like you were going to be able to overcome it. It seemed like you really came alive as a player since Penner basically abandoned you after it. But you weren't prepared for just how badly Val got hurt that she was willing to tank her own game just to see you out.

Drew - It was definitely interesting seeing the way you composed yourself in public and in PM's compared to your PM's with Dan and your confessionals. It definitely felt like you were ramping up to be the undercover two-faced villain of the season but you never really got out from underneath Dan's thumb to be of any serious impact this season. It's almost completely appropriate that you ended up being collateral to the storyline of his ultimate downfall.

Dan - A lot of the hosts had their eyes on you as their favorite this season armed with a blustery demeanor and a pre-game posse of homies, you seemed like you were set to finally prove yourself a great player after no one in the game took you seriously in Indonesia. That lasted maybe a week. I mean it didn't start well when your main man Joaquin was not in the cast at all and then Dale went crazy and you lost control of Val and were pretty much targeted as the most obvious figurehead of the purported "Indonesian Elephant" that was reason enough for everyone to mark you and your constituents for death. I was verily entertained by your story this season though, I gotta say.

Rocky - I'm very surprised by how practically invisible you were this season given how big a character you were in Faroe. Your last tribal council was pretty great but I just wish that fire was on all season.

Val - You occupy a very soft spot in my heart Val as you always come across as a very layered, emotional person in your confessionals. It was clear that you were affected by a lot of talk surrounding your win this season and you really wanted to prove yourself as being more than an allegedly undeserving winner. You succeeded, your time this season was pretty memorable and I think of all the Indonesia people you were positioned the best, it's ironic that your emotions took the best of you and you weren't able to look past what Richard did and had to take him out at the expense of everyone trusting you.

Nate - Out of anyone you definitely came on here to play hard. Finding idols left and right and then doing really ballsy moves with them was so much fun to watch. Even the fact that you went home due to false idol play felt totally appropriate. Anggaling mo pare!

Sierra - You benefited the most from Dan leaving because you revealed yourself to be such a strong player. It was funny hearing some people mock your novel length PM's but damn did they show you to be smart, calculated and formidable. For the longest time you were my number one favorite to win it and I was so so so angry when you picked 1 for the rock pick. If anyone was full on robbed this season, it's you.

Sugar - Sugar-boobs you were as angelic as always this season, you were such a breathe of fresh air when everyone was all about being cut-throat and strategic. You didn't quite get the respect you deserve as a player like you did in Suriname but that moment when you stood up to Dan during the tie-breaker was iconic.

Ozzy - Damn dude, you were playing probably the best game this season, you knew exactly how to position yourself and who the right people to align with and when. The irony of this is that you fell into the same situation I did in our season that you didn't realize that everyone saw you as a huge threat. Watching you fight for your life at the last breath when you were voted off was a sight to behold.

Penner - For a while it seemed like you were going to Boston Rob in RI your way through the game since you just had so many fans wanting to work with you, but then Dalegate happened and you were forced to actually play and oh boy did you play. There's a reason you're one of the most popular winners and that's because you are just that good of a player, I mean aside from maybe Ozzy, had you ended up in the final 3 with anyone else in the final 5, we would be crowning you as the first official two-time winner and so well deserved it would have been.

Hayden - You are such a sweet nice guy, it always impressed me that you knew exactly who had the idol just by powers of deduction and common sense. You definitely played a respectable, low profile game where you made the exact right choices to advance yourself. It was definitely a surprise when you switched your vote and took out Sugar when you did.

Tammy - For most of the game you were kind of in Heidi's shadow but you've definitely proven that you played a cunning, strategic game that worked perfectly to compliment Heidi's more over the top gameplay. You two basically ruled this season with an iron fist and basically personified the whole concept of "Allies". It's definitely an experience watching you take a more firm handle on the game in the later stages and it was a blast to watch a fellow old schooler just dominate the game like you did.

Heidi - You are the unequivocal star of this season. Everything about you and your performance was just, to use a Poody term, Legendary. A lot of people in the game didn't know but you already built up an iconic resume for yourself in Stranded of old so to have you come back after so many years and dominate strategically and socially was just such a blast to watch. I mean literally everything revolved around you this season it was amazing. Thank you so much for agreeing to come back and hopefully this isn't the last we've seen of you (especially considering the 10th anniversary of Stranded is coming)