Episode 6 - Impenetrable-ness...

Wednesday concerts and gorgeous March weather weekends make it hard to be prompt with the Survivor blog. Luckily Monday nights and Tuesday's at work are there to catch up and drop some Survivor Pool bloggage.

The episode started as we all expected. Shirin was bewildered by what had just happened. Other tribe mates told her straight up that she was shady with Max and it did actually seem to click with her at least a little. She attempted to mend some relationships instead of just throwing in the towel. Meanwhile, on the other tribe, Rodney and Joaquin reverted back to their high school days and bonded over a discussion about chicks and booze. This alone seemed to form the basis of a "final two, bro" plan. "Work hard. Party harder." wannabe Batman said to Joaquin (who I'm sure would argue that he should be the Batman of these two jokers).

An extremely close reward challenge had the teams launching bean bags via a slingshot at wooden targets and easily segued into several "David vs Goliath" proclamations after the Red tribe posted a narrow victory.

The Blue tribe went back to camp where Joaquin tried to convince Sierra that she was going to have to side with one of her attackers from the Blue Collar tribe. He tried to woo her to him and Rodney's side. To Sierra's credit she seemed to carefully evaluate all the possible situations, which definitely came into play later in the episode.

The question I posed from last week was quickly answered when the Blue tribe decided to throw a memory immunity challenge. What looked on TV to be a very obvious tank on Mike's part must have looked much more convincing to all in attendance and he managed to give Kelly the win... after 3 painful tries. The whole idea behind throwing the challenge was to get rid of Joe, a strong player and big potential threat come merge. Mike re-evaluated after returning to camp and seeing Rodney and Joaquin so buddy-buddy. Mike rallied Joe and Dan, and then made his argument to swing vote Sierra. He must have been convincing and/or Sierra's disgust for Rodney won out and she sent Joaquin packing. I'm assuming they sent Joaquin home instead of Rodney, because Rodney had more potential to coming back to the Blue Collar alliance than Joaquin would have.

This leaves Rodney and Tyler out in the wind, at least until the merge next week when Tyler should benefit from re-joining some other tribemates. Rodney might have to suck it up and come crawling back to the rest of his alliance hoping they can shield him from the vast amount of votes that should be headed his way. Shirin should also be very thankful to the Blue tribe for throwing the challenge as I don't see anyway that she would have survived if Red had lost that challenge as they should have.

The Teams and Points:
(Parentheses indicate order players were picked) 

AndBag: "Maximillion" - 22 points

1. [Max (2) - 3 pts] - out 3rd
2. Carolyn (7) - 11 pts
3. [Lindsey (10) - -1 pts] - out 2nd
4. Mike (15) - 9 pts

Michal & Ben: "Jennicide" - 41 points

1. Shirin (4) - 10 pts
2. Jenn (5) - 15 pts
3. [Joaquin (11) - 8 pts] out 4th
4. Dan (14) - 8 pts

Moon & Melissa: "Livin' On A Prayer" - 40 points

1. Joe (1) - 10 pts
2. Kelly (8) - 10 pts
3. Will (12) - 10 pts
4. Sierra (13) - 10 pts

Doug & Bri: "Jacked for a Reason, Bro" - 24 points

1. Tyler (3) - 10 pts
2. Hali (6) - 10 pts
3. Rodney (9) - 9 pts
4. [Nina (16) - -5 pts] out 1st

Doug's Power Rankings:

1. Livin' On A Prayer - This team looks like it could still bring in a lot of points. It all will come down to how strong post merge alliances are. I think Joe will be in a much better place with some of his no collar teammates and new potential alliance members joining together. He could win a lot of individual points too, which might have him live up to his #1 pick status. 
2. Jacked for a Reason - Rodney needs to scramble, but the merge may just save him for a little. The alliance that has most of the No Collar members need his vote. Tyler and Hali should be safe for a few more weeks as I don't think they stand out - good or bad compared to the other players. To have a chance at the pool win, at least 2 members of this team need to land in a majority alliance, and then we need some individual reward/immunity points to catch up. C'mon Tyler, use that big head of yours.   
3. Jennicide - Losing Joaquin is the only reason this team dropped to 3rd. It was a tough decision between 2 and 3. While I don't think any of their players are in immediate danger, I don't see them winning a lot of points post merge either. Dan and Shirin seem to be on the "sit out" list quite a lot, which will hurt. Can Jenn pull in enough points to keep this team near the top? The point head start to-date will certainly help. 
4. Maximillion - They have two seemingly scrappy competitors with Mike's stock still on the rise. Only two players left to make up some significant ground, though. *So you're sayin' there's a chance?*  

Douche of the Week:

Not a ton of super douchey candidates this week. I'll throw Rodney my vote for being so cocky about how he has everything planned to make it to the final and claimed to have everyone in his control. 

 

Episode 4 and 5 - Double down on the hype!

We'll... Considering this blog entry will be read by most the day before the next episode, I haven't quite lived up to the hype passed along by Michal in the last blog entry. Apologies for the somewhat delayed start to my short lived, 1-season tenure. 

Onward. 

The two hour episode (or two 1-hour episodes back to back) started as most would expect. The No Collar tribe had a kumbaya moment after voting out their negative Nina and vowed to stay 4-strong moving forward. Will pretended that he was on board, but ultimately knew the tribe would only keep him around up until they had to cast another vote. The reward challenge dealt out a good amount of negative pool points due to sit-outs needed for the lopsided tribes. No Collar finally avoided a loss, while also earning themselves some camp chickens, after conquering an obstacle course. Kelly proved to be quite the badass in the Blue Collar loss after suffering a fairly significant head wound and choosing to continue. She definitely earned some credit with all the tribes. This badassery did not earn any points for Moon & Melissa though.

Back at their respective camps, Jenn used her vegetarian/vegan preferences to her advantage and took some alone time to find the immunity idol while abstaining from killing a meal. Quite the benefit for Jennicide. Rodney proved to be a sexist imbecile and set the Blue Collar Tribe up for a significant vote decision.  

A close immunity challenge left Blue at tribal where Lindsey couldn't convince the tribe to get rid of 'roided Rodney and Blue Collar showed their majority alliance of the boys and Kelly. Sierra wasn't amused. Dan and Rodney immediately attacked Sierra back at camp, instead of trying to win back her favor, showing a severe lack of Survivor skill. Mike called them out on this, showing there might be more to him than I had given him credit for. 

This development immediately bit Blue Collar in the ass when Jeff revealed a buff swap at the next reward challenge pairing them all down to just two tribes. 2 very lopsided tribes. New Blue tribe is Dan, Sierra, Mike, Rodney, Tyler, Joe, and Joaquin. New Red is Will, Jenn, Hali, Shirin, Max, Kelly, and Carolyn. This is the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. The new Red tribe put up an effort against the formidable Blue tribe, but it was over fairly easily and Blue reaped the rewards of the day along with all the rewards previously won by white collar (which were significant). 

Blue Tribe's athleticism and Dan's sniper rifle of a ball swing easily crushed the far fetched dreams of the doomed Red tribe in the following immunity challenge, sending Red on a date with Jeff. The wart footed Max and an overly annoying Shirin schemed their way to what they thought was a safe spot. They were so sure of it it was actually quite humorous watching them talk about being "students of the game" over and over. Carolyn made Kelly's swing vote an easy decision when she jumped ship from the former White Collar alliance. The look on Shirin's face said it all when she was left re-calculating how her and Max's flawless strategy had failed. 
Meanwhile Blue team looks to be setting up a Sierra tug of war -> if they ever lose. Which isn't likely. Are they dumb enough to throw a challenge? 

The Teams and Points:
(Parentheses indicate order players were picked) 
*Thanks to Ben for helping calculate the spreadsheet this week. 

AndBag: "Maximillion" - 17 points

1. [Max (2) - 3 pts] - out 3rd
2. Carolyn (7) - 6 pts
3. [Lindsey (10) - (-1) pts] - out 2nd
4. Mike (15) - 9 pts

Michal & Ben: "Jennicide" - 35 points

1. Shirin (4) - 5 pts
2. Jenn (5) - 10 pts
3. Joaquin (11) - 11 pts
4. Dan (14) - 9 pts

Moon & Melissa - 30 points

1. Joe (1) - 10 pts
2. Kelly (8) - 5 pts
3. Will (12) - 5 pts
4. Sierra (13) - 10 pts

Doug & Bri: "Jacked for a Reason, Bro" - 19 points

1. Tyler (3) - 10 pts
2. Hali (6) - 5 pts
3. Rodney (9) - 9 pts
4. [Nina (16) - -5 pts] out 1st

Doug's Power Rankings:

1. Jennicide - Shirin is likely next out, but Jenn with an idol and 2 on Blue should have this team earning some points over the next couple episodes. 
2. Moon & Melissa - All 4 players seem to be decent position for the nest couple votes. I see Will potentially going after Shirin, but with Joe and Sierra earning them challenge points, they should keep their 2nd place spot for a while. 
3. Jacked for a Reason - None of our players are likely going anywhere for a while, but we have some ground to make up. 
4. Maximillion - Tough double episode for this team. None of us saw it coming in quite this capacity, but Max found this team and delivered right on par with most of AndBag's other number one picks. They still have a crafty Carolyn (with an idol) and I think Mike's stock is rising. Definitely not out of it yet. 

Douche of the Week:

Shirin proved herself my DoW throughout the 2 hours by constantly pissing everyone around her off except Max. She gets my vote. 

Survivor 30: Draft, Episode 3 & Welcome Blogmaster Doug!

I have found myself suddenly quite busy in my life, and while I will always have time to watch Survivor & participate in the Survivor pool, I sadly do not have time to maintain the scoring & blog to go with it this season. I have managed the Survivor pool since 2008 -- at least from what I can tell. I've manned the helm through 2 different blogs (this one and www.punkypickett.blogspot.com) and 13 previous seasons of glorious Survivor pool action. But fear not! I'm considering this a sabbatical only, and I have an absolutely stellar interim blogmaster & pool manager stepping in this season. Welcome Doug! Doug has long been my go-to guy with rule & point-scoring questions, and is an avid fan of both Survivor & reality show pools.

So I'll kick this season off, and then Doug will be taking it from there. I believe that Doug is also interested in getting some guest bloggers to help this season, so please let him know if you'd like to pitch in this season too!

The Draft & Teams:
(Parentheses indicate order players were picked)

AndBag - 15 points

1. Max (2) - 3 pts
2. Carolyn (7) - 3 pts
3. Lindsey (10) - 4 pts
4. Mike (15) - 5 pts

Michal & Ben: "Jennicide" - 11 points

1. Shirin (4) - 3 pts
2. Jenn (5) - 0 pts
3. Joaquin (11) - 3 pts
4. Dan (14) - 5 pts

Moon & Melissa - 10 points

1. Joe (1) - 0 pts
2. Kelly (8) - 5 pts
3. Will (12) - 0 pts
4. Sierra (13) - 5 pts

Doug & Bri: "Jacked for a Reason, Bro" - 3 points

1. Tyler (3) - 3 pts
2. Hali (6) - 0 pts
3. Rodney (9) - 5 pts
4. [Nina (16) - -5 pts]

Michal's Power Rankings:

1. Jacked for a Reason -They lost their dreg right away which is good & the rest of this team just seems really solid! Tyler was my #1 pick, honestly, and he's looking really favorable as everyone under the sun seems to want to confide in him. He also seems like he'll be really good at keeping his alliances fluid. Hali & Rodney round this team out to make for a physically strong & mentally decent (I'm excluding Rodney from the mental part) team. Plus all three of these players are currently in majority alliances, so it's unlikely they'll lose any more players any time soon.
2. AndBag - Bag & Andrea shocked us all by putting together a really good team as well. I think that Tyler is stronger than Max, and have concerns about Carolyn getting blindsided early since Tyler knows about her idol. But overall, a really good team! Lots of potential from the top 3 picks, and their dreg Mike may not last much longer, but is likely to pull in some good challenge points until he's sent packing.
3. Moon & Melissa - Joe is a strong pick, but he's proving that he's not the greatest leader. And I think he made a mistake in this last episode voting out Nina before Will. They already know that Will is untrustworthy & not good in challenges and they kept him anyway. Nina was annoying, but unproven in challenges & Joe was doing good work building up trust with her. Apart from Joe, though, this team is mediocre at best. Kelly seems as interesting & involved in strategy as a piece of wood. Will is on the chopping block if the No Collar team loses again... which seems likely since as a group they are definitely physically inferior to the other tribes. Sierra do okay, but at best she'll be a coattail rider in this game and I don't see her bringing in a lot of points.
4. Jennicide - So Shirin did turn out to be a bad pick, but Joaquin is definitely looking better than most people thought. However, that is a small consolation for what is otherwise a pretty crappy team. Jenn is our best hope as an actual contender. Dan could be one of those guys who's so annoying that real strategists will bring him along because they know they can beat him at final tribal. But he needs to at least make it to the merge before that sort of value is noted. Ultimately our team is hoping for a few more No Collar losses since all the rest of our players are currently on the chopping block. Hopefully given a little more time they'll be able to pull themselves up out of the muck.

Douche of the Week:

I'm gonna go with Rodney for being a drama queen brat about firewood, although Mike was certainly a close 2nd.