Survivor South Pacific: Draft & Episode 1

It’s time for another season of Survivor, and therefore another Survivor pool! I mean really, what’s Survivor without the pool? It’d be like jelly without peanut butter, Oreos without milk, Jersey Shore without Sammie & Ron screaming at each other. It just wouldn’t be the same.

We had a successful draft last night, and I took a bunch of notes… which I then left at the restaurant. So I won’t go into as much detail in this post as I’d hoped, but we’ll still get the essentials in there.

Overall, I was impressed with the first episode. This seems like a canny bunch that won’t get completely owned the way Boston Rob owned everyone last season. I think it should be entertaining, even without Phillip coming back! To me, Coach seems like he’s in a more secure position right now than Ozzy. Ozzy actually pissed me off in the first episode with his attempts to be “easy going.” These people are looking to you to organize them not be the tribe’s social committee! Coach understands better what his role needs to be to keep in him the game. He’s playing the “wise veteran, but not leader” role that works well with his personality.

The Rules

The rule changes were fairly minimal this season. We increase the Redemption Island win from 1 to 3 points. Our only other change is that we’re no longer awarding standard amounts to 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place finishers. Beginning this season, the players who make the Final Tribal Council will earn a baseline of 25 points, and then they’ll get 5 points for each vote they earn.

Placement Points
Making Final Tribal Council: 25 + 5 points per vote received

Jury: 10

Challenge Points
Win team reward challenge: 2
Win team immunity challenge: 3
Win individual reward challenge: 4
Win individual immunity challenge: 6
Invited to share reward challenge: 1
Sit out a challenge: -2

Hidden Immunity Idol Points
Find the hidden immunity idol: 10
Play hidden immunity idol (success v. fail): 10/-5
If you play hidden immunity idol unsuccessfully during the last tribal council you can play it: 0
If you don't play your immunity idol on the last day you can play it (whether necessary or not): -5
Plays a fake immunity idol: -10
Creator of fake immunity idol, if played: 5

Redemption Island Points
Win battle on Redemption Island: 3
Get back on the tribe from Redemption Island: 3
Miscellaneous Points
Buy bad item at auction/don't buy an item at auction: -2
Buy good item at auction: 2
Fan Favorite: 5
Quitters: -10


The Picks

Again, I lost my notes, so if I put the wrong players on your team, please let me know! Definitely a lot of differing opinions on who’s going to be valuable this year, but I think we all agree that Bag won the “worst value” award by taking Christine in the 2^nd round. I’m giving myself the “best value” award for getting Coach as the 2^nd pick in the 3^rd round.

Team Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife: Bag - 9 pts
1. Mikayla (3 pts)
2. Christine (3 pts)
3. Edna (3 pts)

Team I-Can’t-Remember-What-Your-Team-Name-Is-Supposed-To-Be: Dachui - 8 pts
1. Keith (2 pts)
2. Brandon (3 pts)
3. Stacey (3 pts)

Team Baseball, Belts & Bibles: Doug/Bri - 8 pts
1. Albert (3 pts)
2. Rick (3 pts)
3. Dawn (2 pts)

Team Top 3: Moon - 7 pts
1. Ozzy (2 pts)
2. Sophie (3 pts)
3. Jim (2 pts)

Team Dungeons & Dragons: Me - 7 pts
1. John (2 pts)
2. Elyse (2 pts)
3. Coach (3 pts)

Team Country Bears: Courtney - 6 pts
1. Mark (2 pts)
2. Whitney (2 pts)
3. Semhar (2 pts)

Power Rankings

1. Baseball, Belts & Bibles – Doug & Bri jump into an early lead on the power rankings board simply because they have 2 out of the 5 players who made an alliance in Upolu on the first day. This has put them in a secure position… at least for now. Also, bonus points for Dawn not getting booted in the first episode even though she had an emotional breakdown.

2. Top 3 – Moon got is top 3 choices, mostly because he had the first pick & took Ozzy, and no one else wanted to touch Jim or Sophie because their videos on CBS made them both look like giant douches. Giant douches they may be, but so far they’re hiding it pretty well. Sophie’s in a good alliance, and Jim did some good work getting Semhar out instead of John like Ozzy wanted. In the war of the Savaii Alpha Male, the score is Jim: 1, Ozzy: 0.

3. Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife – Bag may have picked horrible Christine way too early, but he does have Mikayla – my early favorite to win it all. Edna is a bit of a dark horse too. I think she could go far, but for some reason I see her getting voted out in one of those “we can’t take out the guy we actually want to vote out, so we’re going to pick on this rando player instead in his/her alliance” moments. Edna: my early pick for collateral damage.

4. Dungeons & Dragons – I think I could do well this season, but I need to dodge a few bullets in the first 4-5 episodes. My team is set up to do really well in a merge, but until then they could be easy targets. Keep dodging those bullets, Johnny boy!

5. Country Bears – I like Courtney’s team, and Mark is one of my favorite players on the show so far. Semhar wasn’t a choice; she was dumped on Courtney as the final dreg, so it’s not her fault that she’s on her team. Still, being down to just 2 players this early can be crippling, which dropped her in the rankings. And no, Semhar doesn’t have a chance of getting back in the game. RI is going to destroy her.

6. I-Can’t-Remember-What-Your-Team-Name-Is-Supposed-To-Be – Dachui gets last place because 1) they have Brandon who is so paranoid about his tattoos that he’s already made it super apparent to everyone that he’s hiding a big secret, and 2) Stacey can’t see a hidden immunity idol clue that was literally inches away from her hand. Also, negative points assessed for Brandon’s creepy stalker behavior & dislike of Mikayla after spending 1 day with her. This team has problems. Hopefully they’ll resolve them quickly!