The seasons with returning castaways are always SO much more entertaining - their scheming & strategy is at just such a higher level than n00bs. So I have some pretty high expectations going into this season, and so far I have not been disappointed.
The season really kicked off with a classic Survivor Draft at Murphy's. Sadly, Bri, Bag, and Andrea had to miss it, but their presence was still felt through texting & class Bagdrea drafting gaffs.
Final stables are listed below, but overall I think it's safe to say that three of these teams are really solid. With so many stellar castaways in the competition, it was difficult to pick a bad team... especially with Bag doing such a good job to nabbing all those dreggy players early!
The draft concluded with an epic amount of prop betting, so much so that they have warranted their own page in the Survivor spreadsheet (linked to the right of this post). I'll comment about these bets in here occasionally, but feel free to check it out for the most comprehensive list of side bets! And don't let the bets stop now just because the draft is over -- it's a long season full of opportunities to wager some after dinner beverages. :)
Rule changes for the pool this season were minimal, and not worth mentioning. The big change in the show itself is that idols are now hidden WITHIN challenges rather than around camp. Which is awesome in so many ways, but best summarized by Doug: "having the audience know where it is really builds the anticipation." It definitely makes the challenges more exciting, suspenseful, and meaningful! My only concern is that they'll overdo it & the producers will end up putting too many idols into play. Hopefully not though.
The Teams:
Team names are temporary for now. Remember that you need to send me your official name via comments within the next two blog postings or you will be docked points AND be forced to keep your temp name!
Michal & Ben - "The glass ceiling": 25 points
- Tasha (5 pts)
- Kelley (5 pts)
- Stephen (5 pts)
- Kimmi (5 pts)
- Kass (5 pts)
Bagdrea - "Bagdrea is not going to win": 10 points
- Jeremy (5 pts)
- Jeff (0 pts)
- Monica (5 pts)
- Kelly (0 pts)
- Abi-Maria (0 pts)
Doug & Bri - "After-dinner beverage": 10 points
- Spencer (0 pts)
- Joe (5 pts)
- Shirin (0 pts)
- Terry (0 pts)
- Ciera (5 pts)
MoonBee - "Sans smarmy lech": 5 points
- [Vytas (-5 pts)]
- Woo (0 pts)
- Keith (5 pts)
- Savage (5 pts)
- Peih Gee (0 pts)
Power Rankings:
1. "The glass ceiling": Despite Stephen's extremely unimpressive start to the season, this episode really could not have gone better for our team. We had 4 people on the winning tribe, and our other tribe member, Kelley found a hidden immunity idol in the first episode! Kelley is looking to be a beast this season, and I'm thinking she's an early favorite to go the distance this season. Kimmi, Tasha & Kass all laid low, but it's only one episode, you can't expect everyone to find an idol in the first episode. All of them seem to be in pretty stable positions right now though, which is great.
2. "After-dinner beverage": There is still a lot of concern about Joe being an early target for elimination, but apart from that this team is looking solid. Spencer is playing a great game so far, keeping all channels open socially, but also being a strong physical competitor. Shirin is super insightful, but potentially will still come off too strong for some people - that woman is a FAST talker! Terry & Ciera aren't really worth writing home about yet, but again, it's still very early.
3."Sans smarmy lech": Vytas was the #1 overall draft pick, the player with the most prop bets made about, and the first player voted out. It was both a stunning & absolutely delightful thing to watch him get voted out... so long as you weren't MoonBee. Still, despite losing Vytas, this team is really strong. I love Woo, Keith & Peih Gee. I am quite ambivalent about Savage, but he did exceed expectation in this episode, so I'll try to reserve my judgment. Will starting off with a slimmer team be too much of a deficit to overcome this season? With 5 players on each team, I don't think so.
4. "Bagdrea is not going to win": Jeremy is solid. Jeff is the biggest threat for either a quit or medevac situation this season & is definitely freaking himself out quite a bit - after just 1 episode! This guy is in desperate need of some Joe-ga. Drafting Monica in the third round is only eclipsed in terrible draft pick choices by when Bag drafted the infamous Drewche #1 overall a few seasons ago. Kelly had a pretty terrible 1st episode & definitely has a lot of learning to do if she thinks that building a shelter is going to help her stay in this game. And then there is Abi-Maria. I don't think much needs to be said about her, except that the bet Bag & Doug have about whether she will leave the show with negative or positive points is going to be an exciting one to follow!
Douche of the Week:
Gotta go with Vytas, the smarmy lech. Under no circumstances is asking a woman how her body is feeling not super creepy when you've only known the person for one day.
