Survivor Nicaragua: THE Draft

It’s like when football players introduce themselves and say they went to “THE Ohio St. University.” Or when Mandalay Bay names their nice spin-off THE Hotel. Our draft is that important, that swanky, and that overrated. It’s THE Draft.

Picks this season were surprisingly low-key. Partially because 2 members were out of state/country and one of those people was Moon, the slowest decision-maker in Colorado. I think our efficiency also had a lot to do with the quality of players this season. There are clear-cut favorites, and some really obvious stinkers as well. Consequently, I think that there will be a lot of parity in the overall scores this year. (Last year’s scores ranged from 56 to 152… so a big disparity there.) The general feeling after the draft was that everyone thought each other’s teams looked decent, but no one was happy with their own picks.

But before announcing the picks, I want to announce the ever-so-important rules!

RULES

Not a whole lot of changes this time around – we opted not to do an auction-style draft b/c that would be too hard with us so far-flung. (Side note: I already have ideas for next season’s auction. Maybe we could do an email countdown. We’ll go through 2 players a day after the first episode, all start w/ 100 pts, and let the email bidding war begin!) Without any dregs to buy – because we all got stuck with them already – and no exile island, the only changes are really to the Medallion of Power, hereafter called The Mop. Or THE Mop.

1st place: 45 points (+15 for sweep)
2nd place: 30 points
3rd place: 20 points (+10 if makes jury)
Jury: 10 points

Wins a team reward challenge: 2 points
Wins a team immunity challenge: 3 points
Wins an individual reward challenge: 4 points
Invited to share a reward challenge: 1 points
Wins individual immunity challenge: 6 points
Finds the hidden immunity idol: 10 points
Plays hidden immunity idol at tribal council (success v. fail): 10/-5 points
Plays a fake immunity idol: -10 points
Sits out a challenge: -2 points
buy bad item at auction/don't buy an item at auction: -2 points
buy good item at auction: 2 points
Winning a challenge when using The Mop: +1*
Losing a challenge when using The Mop: -5*

*If you have a player on a tribe that sits out during a challenge where The Mop is in play, your player will not be affected by Mop bonuses/penalties. So, for example, if Chase sits out the next challenge and Young Tribe plays The Mop and wins, Chase will lose 2 points for sitting out, and not get the +1 for Mop play. If Young Tribe lost in this scenario, Chase would be -2 for sitting out, but not suffer an additional -5 for his tribe losing. Which they probably lost because they sat out Chase anyways, so it’s good that they are punished more than him.


PICKS/CURRENT STANDINGS

Team names are pending – possibly names will be chosen individually, possibly by consensus, or I might just go with Dachui’s suggestion and call Bri/Doug Team Bug (or is it Boug?). Any name suggestions should be commented on here!

Dachui: 10 pts
1. Chase (5 pts) - #2 overall pick
[2. Jimmy J. (0 pts)] - #11 overall pick
3. Fabio (5 pts) - #15 overall pick


Courtney: 10 pts
1. Jane (0 pts) - #3 overall pick
2. Benry (5 pts) - #10 overall pick
3. Kelly B. (5 pts) - #16 overall pick

Me: 10 pts
1. Brenda (5 pts) - #5 overall pick
2. Alina (5 pts) - #8 overall pick
3. Holly (0 pts) - #19 overall pick

Moon: 5 pts
1. Jill (0 pts) - #1 overall pick
2. Dan (0 pts) - #12 overall pick
3. NaOnka (5 pts) - #17 overall pick

Bri/Doug: 5 pts
1. Marty (0 pts) - #4 overall pick
2. Kelly S. (aka Purple Kelly, aka Kelly-two-legs) (5 pts) - #9 overall pick
3. Yve (0 pts) - #13 overall pick

Bag: 5 pts
1. Sash (5 pts) - #6 overall pick
2. Tyrone (0 pts) - #7 overall pick
3. Jimmy T. (0 pts) - #14 overall pick


ANALYSIS (in order of strength of teams):

I think it’s too soon to make any real decisions at this point, but I’m going to anyways. I think in this season the winner is going to end up being the person with the best dregs, dregs who will actually win them points instead of being a sinkhole where all their points disappear. That being said, here’s my “who has the least horrible dregs” list:

Bri/Doug – I think Marty’s is the favorite to win right now, since he’s smart & has an immunity idol. His obsession with eliminating Jimmy J. makes me question his sanity a little, but for now I’m still on board. Kelly S. and Yve are both solid dregs. I think they’re low-key enough to potentially both make the jury, bringing in crucial points along the way.


Courtney – Jane is a definite dark horse to win the game. This lady is tough. It worries me that she doesn’t seem to have any interest in alliances, but she’s way off-radar for now. Having two youngling dregs will help a lot to bring Courtney points in the short-term, in my mind giving her enough of a boost for Jane to lay low for now, and then ultimately bringing in big points with a Top 3 finish.


Me – My top pick of Brenda was a solid choice. My dregs are questionable, seeing as how both of them are candidates for an early departure. However, after last night’s episode, there’s reason to hope. Maybe Alina will find the hidden immunity idol before the younglings lose again. Maybe the old folks will forget that Holly is jumping off the deep end.


Moon – Moon had first pick and took Jill, an awesome choice. Problem is, his dregs are terrible. Dan’s looking like an early exit, and NaOnka is insane. NaOnka is in a good alliance, but I see them turning against her pretty quickly. Which means that Moon needs her to produce a lot of points soon, or he’ll be relying only on Jill for them.


Bag – Bag’s first pick was Sash, who I haven’t been super impressed with. Tyrone and Jimmy T. are the least dreggish of our dregs, but they also hate each other and seem determined to ultimately take each other out.


Dachui – Dachui has one person who could go far, Chase, but he also is going to have a huge target on his back, since he’s the strongest person left. Fabio could bring in points, but I don’t see that guy finishing Top 3. They took a big hit by losing a player immediately, which is pretty hard to recover from.


THE Pet Peeve of the Week: That they even bothered to give the tribes names. No one calls them La Flor or… the other name. Jeff calls them Old Tribe and Young Tribe. If they were going to name the tribes anything, they should have called them Retirement Home and High School. Just roll with the theme CBS!

Survivor Nicaragua

Okay, after hearing from our teams, here's what we know for sure about the upcoming Survivor Pool:

- All past participants will play again: Dachui, Doug/Bri (who need some kind of merged name I think - Brug? Doubri? Duganna?), Courtney (no longer The Rookie), Bag, Moon, and Me.

- We're going to wait until 2 episodes in and have draft night when there are 18 players left.

- General group consensus is that the Medallion of Power is both confusing, ambiguously described, and named lamely

- We're going to do the first two rounds of draft picks as always (draw numbers out of a hat, pick in that order for the first round and then reverse order for the 2nd round).


- For the 3rd round we're still considering the auction as an option. However, with some contestants being out of state, and for various other reasons, if this is done it will be in a weird silent-auction format. Details coming soon...

- I've decided to get rid of the monitoring of comments. I didn't like that very much. So now people can comment as often and as much as they'd like. However, if anyone posts anything spoilerish, I will delete it as soon as I find it. And spoiler their blog right back. Whatever it is they're posting about, I'll find a way to ruin it.

- That's all I've got for now. Contestants can expect an email in the next week or so, blog fans may have to wait a little longer for another update :).