Friday, April 17, 2015

Episode 9: The Controversy of Maximillion


The pool's landscape is rapidly changing from week to week. Two weeks ago we were first in Doug's power rankings and now we're clearly in last place. Last week's first place A to Z team has slipped to third after an unfortunate negative-scoring week, DouBri is in the mix despite a recent loss and a negative player and the Greenbergs top the list despite one of the shakiest non-Sanders, non-Richey drafts in pool history.

Power Rankings:

1. Jennicide - 55 points
1. Shirin - 13
Say what you want about Shirin (and virtually all the other castaways do, and they're not nice things), but she plays hard. For the first time, it appears that Shirin may actually have a shot at winning it all - 60% because of her scrappy performance and 40% because she could get to a Final Tribal with other disliked players. Last week she was listed in the "Hopeless" category, so that's a huge step.
2. Jenn - 25
Jenn is either going to go down as a disappointing character or as a heroic one. If she can summon everything she's got and get through at least one more episode she'll be remembered for her tenacity and resiliency. If she quietly bows out without a fight she'll be the girl who wanted to leave, who all Survivor fans revile because it's such a rare privilege to be a castaway. It's hard to imagine her actually winning at this point, even though the first two jury members would give her their votes. Shirin is now Team Jennicide's #1 horse.
3. Joaquin - 8
4. Dan - 9
On a week with unclear options, I'll go with Dan as my Douche of the Week. Which reminds me - I have not edited the spreadsheet because mine is view only. I have just been updating on here.

2. Jacked For A Reason, Bro - 43 points
1. Tyler - 19
The question remains for the Big Man and Mama C - can they eventually flip a couple Blues against each other? Or will they link up now with Jenn, Will and Shirin and take out the Blues from here on out?
2. Hali - 20
3. Rodney - 9
Rodney's fantastic impressions were especially entertaining because they came from such an unlikely source. At the end of the day though, Rodney is still a douche that no one will vote for.
4. Nina - -5 

3. Maximillion - 19 points
1. Max - 3
2. Carolyn - 11
Carolyn didn't accrue any points this episode, leaving Maximillion with just 22 points because
3. Lindsey - -1
4. Mike - 6
Oh no. We have the makings of a controversy here. Our rules state "Plays a fake immunity idol" is worth -10 points. Mike played it in a no-lose situation, humorously, and voted for idol-creator Joe anyway. Maximillion were already facing a huge points deficit and an unforgiving -10 would cripple their team. It seems unfair, but we follow the rules in this pool. The other thing is that A to Z won't be commenting on this matter for quite a while, as they are way behind on the show (and thus the blog). I've given Mike the -10. To further taunt A to Z, I've put their team name in the blog title for the second straight week.

4. Livin' On A Prayer - 74 points
1. Joe - 42
Jeff Probst stated the obvious when he said "Joe, for the first time since the merge, vulnerable tonight at Tribal Council." Give the Blues credit for sticking to their alliance and ousting him without incident, and give Joe the Survivor Fantasy Monster credit for hitting a five-pointer at the buzzer by creating a fake idol. The Blues may not be a brilliant crew of players, but none of them made the mistake of making moves just to make moves. We'll see if they carry it out for two more episodes and take Jenn and Will out. If that happens, that will be four straight weeks of Blues + Whites > Nos.
2. Kelly - 9
3. Will - 11
4. Sierra - 12
It doesn't seem Will has a real friend in the game. He's just playing out the string. And watching this week's episode, I actually forgot what Sierra's name was for a moment. She's invisible, except for the time she was hanging around Mike while he was talking about a "a group within our group" with Shirin. We finally have some clarity in this pool: Livin' On A Prayer is just that.

6 comments:

TheGraveWolf said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TheGraveWolf said...

I went in and scored the past two weeks in the spreadsheet. There were a couple small discrepancies that I edited on this post.

Moon, you scored your own team accurately but didn't add their points up correctly somehow coming up with 56 instead of 74.

Bag's team actually accrued an extra negative point because Carolyn was the first one to drop in the immunity challenge. Ouch.

I don't think there should be any controversy on the fake immunity idol. If Mike knew it wasn't real why would he ask Jeff to verify it's authenticity. He may have suspected it was a fake but I don't believe he was certain. Even if he did know 100% it was fake, as you said, we are sticklers for the rules in this pool and everyone has, at on point or another, been on the wrong end of a scoring malfunction. That said, I think this rule worked just as it was designed. Joe made an idol that was passable enough to warrant Mike's uncertainty and it was played at Tribal Council.

I think the teams are pretty close in terms of value.

Minusamillion would be the clear favorites if they had more points. Mike is a huge threat and I will be surprised if he isn't targeted in the next couple of episodes. Then again, the blue alliance has gone along with whatever he has said so maybe they will wait until it is too late. Carolyn is always under the radar and has an alliance within an alliance plus the immunity idol. This team is the only one with two players that can win the game and they hold both the immunity idols.

Jacked for a Reason has the next strongest potential game winner in Tyler and they have a lot more points than minusamillion. Rodney is surprisingly good at impressions. Every time he participates in a challenge he moves like a dog trying to run through water. Rodney is contending for the smelliest bag of trash to take with you to the finale but is easily outstenched by Dan. See below.

Livin on a Prayer - Week after week your prayers were answered as Joe won again and again. But there is only one Ozzy. Will has underdog potential and I think he could win the game because there are still some real stinkers left to take to final tribal. Sierra is probably on the bottom of the blue totem but she always goes with the blue herd and I don't know if that will change.

Jennicide tried very hard to live up to it's name this episode. Quit being such a baby, Jenn! Sheesh. If Jenn does end up getting farther in the game I think her defeatist attitude will hurt her chances at a win. People probably called Shirin "try harder" in school. She's working all the angles but even if she makes it to the finale I don't know if she can find the right combo of other dregs to allow her to win. Maybe if she took Dan and Rodney?? Dan is a condescending pile of dog diarrhea and an incredibly annoying individual. He's also my DoW. Someone needs to scoop him up, plop him in a plastic doggy bag (or a reusable one Maximillion!), and carry his stink to the finale.

GnightMoon said...

I forgot to change from last week's total (56).

I didn't realize "first to drop" was a rule. Good rule.

I don't think Will can win and that's solely based on screen time.

Bag said...

We are caught up! The last few episodes have been quite entertaining. My favorite moment was watching Dan and Will go down the slide in the Chocolate Reward Challenge. I will miss Joe going forward, he was fun to watch.

I agree with the -10 for Mike, so not sure what controversy there is.

DoSeason is Dan for Briggs and me. Will be commenting more now that we are caught up.

GnightMoon said...

Welcome back Sanderses - with a positive attitude!

Michal Greenberg said...

"the Greenbergs top the list despite one of the shakiest non-Sanders, non-Richey drafts in pool history." HAHAHHAHAA!!!

Also true, though you forgot an epically bad draft by Alia one season way back when. (Remember when Alia and MY SISTER played in this pool!??!)

Dan is my DoW this week. He'd be a perma-DoW for me if not for Rodney. They will be duking it out for me all season.

Shirin definitely got more interesting & became a bigger threat this last episode, hopefully she keeps her mo going.

Finally, I'm having a hard time deciding on Jenn. It seemed like she was faking being a quitter/whiner because she thought it was a good defense. Not sure if that's true or just an excuse to be whinier. If it's a purposeful strategy, it's the first time we've ever seen someone try it. Should be interesting to see how effective it turns out to be.