Fans v. Faves II: Draft & Episode 1

The Survivor Pool is back with what appears to be one of our most entertaining seasons yet! Survivor brought back some zany returned castaways and some horny new contestants. The Survivor Pool has amped up a little too: we're adding a few side bets to the game and we now play not just for glory & a free dinner, but also a trophy!

Season 25: the Shredder Trophy

Side Bets:

Current side bets are as follows. Hopefully more will be added throughout the season!

- Pickett v. Bag: Do Survivor contestants get to use toothpaste? Answer: NO. Winner: Pickett!

- Bag v. Moon: Who is more likely to be med-evacked, Shamar (Moon) or Cochran (Bag)? No results yet.

- Odds on Malcolm hooking up with a fellow castaway - no takers yet - odds to be posted soon


The Rules:

There are no changes to the rules this season. For a full list of points, see the Survivor Spreadsheet to the right.


The Teams:

Bag & Leah: 14 points
1. Reynold (#4 pick) - 3 pts
2. Julia (#5 pick) - 3 pts
3. Matt (#12 pick) - 3 pts
4. Shamar (#13 pick) - 3 pts
5. B. Hantz (ultra dreg) - 2 pts

JeffCo Cartel: 13 points
1. Erik (#3 pick) - 2 pts
2. Eddie (#6 pick) - 3 pts
3. Hope (#11 pick) - 3 pts
4. Cochran (#14 pick) - 2 pts
5. Allie (#19 pick)

Moon: 12 points
1. Malcolm (#1 pick) - 2 pts
2. Andrea (#8 pick) - 2 pts
3. Michael (#9 pick) - 3 pts
4. Sherri (#16 pick) - 3 pts
5. Francesca (#17 pick) - 2 pts

Pickett "Jessum's Harem": 11 points
1. Brenda (#2 pick) - 2 pts
2. Dawn (#7 pick) - 2 pts
3. Laura (#10 pick) - 3 pts
4. Corinne (#15 pick) - 2 pts
5. Phillip (#18 pick) - 2 pts


Power Rankings:

It's too early to assign power rankings because there are so many unknowns out there. I think that all the teams are overall reall strong & I'm going to do an analysis rather than a ranking this week. Judgements to come starting next week!

Bag & Leah - Shamar & Reynold seem to be getting themselves into some trouble early, and any team with Brandon Hantz on it is living with a ticking time bomb. However, I think that Julia & Matt are very level headed players that could go far. There's a lot of muscle on this team too, so they could earn a lot of easy points in physical challenges if they stay in the game.

JeffCo Cartel - Though I laughed when they picked Erik first (and then laughed every time he was on screen during the show too), Erik does appear to be smarter than the last time he was on Survivor and could do well. Doug & Bri could be in trouble if the "attractive hook-up alliance" goes south, but if it doesn't then they could rack up some massive points quickly.

Moon - Moon's starting behind because he lost a player in the first episode, and Andrea might be in trouble in the future too. That being said, his other picks seem really solid. Michael is much craftier than I expected him to be, and I hope his alliance with Matt takes them far!

Jessum's Harem - With a fave-heavy team I need their tribe to win their fair share of challenges to have a chance in this pool. Hopefully experience pays off big this season. I couldn't resist picking Phillip again; he's my favorite player to hate, and he isn't disappointing us with his antics so far! Overall I'm pleased with my team. I think they are a solid group who should go far, but the real question is - will they win any points along the way?


Douche of the Week:

The douches are back and so is your chance to vote!

I'm voting for Reynold this week. His "we're in a secret alliance so I'm going to be mean to you around camp" spiel combined with hooking up with the chick he said he was going to be mean to really rubbed me the wrong way.

Philippines: and the winner is....

Moon!

No big surprise there, and sorry it took me so long to post the results. I actually have concerns about the long-term viability of this blog considering how delinquent I've been this season. But after hearing about NEXT season -- starting in mid-February, only 5 weeks away! -- I am going to blame the move & move forward with gusto into the next season.

No analysis for this season for now. Here are the results:

The Results:

Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon: 153 points
1. RC (21.5 pts)
2. Skupin (57.5 pts)
3. Jeff (21.5 pts)
4. Abi-Maria (52.5 pts)
 
Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug/Bri: 134.5 points
1. Penner (41.5 pts)
2. Denise (64 pts)
3. Artis (23.5 pts)
4. Katie (5.5 pts)

The Clap - Bag/Leah: 114.5 points
1. Pete (27.5 pts)
2. Carter (39.5 pts)
3. Angie (0 pts)
4. Lisa (47.5 pts)


I'm on Dregs! - Michal: 51 points
1. Malcolm (52 pts)
2. Dana (-4.5 pts)
3. Dawson (3.5 pts)
4. Russell (0 pts)

Because my time is limited (my lunch break is already 1/2way gone from doing research) I'm going to dive right in to how freaking excited I am for next season! It's a Fans v. Favorites season that has 10 returnees who have all only participated in the show once before. There will also be 10 newbies pitted against each other in the greatest reality show ever. What's so exciting about this is who is rumored to return. For the full rumored list, you can check out this video:

If you don't want to bother watching the whole thing, though, here it is: PHILIP!!! That's right, Jessum Herring's grandson is back on the show. It's a dream come true! Others you may remember: Cochran, Brandon "I'm completely nuts" Hantz, and Malcolm from last season. Erik, the moron who gave away his idol on the last season of Fans v. Faves will be returning too. Summary: there are a lot of dumb returnees coming back & that should make this seriously entertaining!!

So, let me know your wild ideas for the rules & scoring for next season. Because season 26 is going to be bat-shit crazy I'm hoping for some unique twists to our own Survivor pool this season. Maybe a mandatory trade of players mid-way through the season? Each week we buy a new player instead of starting with a full set? Points awarded for players who leave early rather than last the longest?

CAN'T WAIT!!!

Philippines: Ep 13

The finale is on Sunday! Amazingly, we ALL have 1 player left in the game. I don't think that's ever happened before! Even though some of us don't have a chance to win, it's nice to have someone to cheer for.

There are only 4 players left which confirms my suspicions of there only being 2 contestants who will enter Final Tribal. This will be very interesting because I don't think any of them suspect that yet. I may be wrong, but I feel like they usually do 2 immunity challenges in the finale along with the final tribal.

The Standings:

Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon: 112 points
[1. RC (21.5 pts)]
2. Skupin (26.5 pts)
[3. Jeff (21.5 pts)]
[4. Abi-Maria (42.5 pts)]

 
Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug/Bri: 84.5 points
[1. Penner (41.5 pts)]
2. Denise (14 pts)
[3. Artis (23.5 pts)]
[4. Katie (5.5 pts)]

The Clap - Bag/Leah: 84.5 points
[1. Pete (27.5 pts)]
[2. Carter (39.5 pts)]
[3. Angie (0 pts)]
4. Lisa (16.5 pts)

I'm on Dregs! - Michal: 37 points
1. Malcolm (38 pts)
[2. Dana (-4.5 pts)]
[3. Dawson (3.5 pts)]
[4. Russell (0 pts)]

Power Rankings:

1. Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Ding dong, the Brazilian's gone! Previews for next week loook like they go into a euphoric hug-fest over Abi's departure. Maybe they're all drunk on sugar again! Moon doesn't have a lock on this contest quite yet, but he's darn close. If it does come down to a Final Two instead of Three, and Denise/Malcolm wins that final immunity, who do you think they would take, Lisa or Skupin? I think Skupin, which means it's a virtual lock on him making Final Tribal. That being said, it's Skupin, so there's always the potential for a med-evac.

2. Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Denise & Malcolm may both be favored to win over Skupin & Lisa, but it will come down to the immunity challenge to determine which one of them gets there. I think Denise has what it takes to beat Malcolm, but he's a strong competitor, so it should be a great battle! She's seriously tough, though - that bite on her neck looked like it came from something the size of a small child. I can't believe she was able to wait out that allergic reaction; I doubt anyone else could have (except maybe Malcolm).

3. The Clap - Lisa's learning curve in this game is about two weeks behind all the other competitors. Scenarios that Malcolm & Penner had worked out by Day 12 are just now entering Lisa's head. Maybe there's an advantage to that, though. After all, she's still around!

4. I'm on Dregs! - I am super impressed by Malcolm's comeback in that immunity challenge. He flew through the puzzle at a record speed. I think it was the first time I've really seen him with his hair down too -- he a cool Mufasa impression going on! Hope he wears it down at the reunion show, I'd like to see it when it's clean.

Douche of the Week:

I'd like to give my DoW vote to the demon thing that bit Denise (how dare you bite my favorite player!) but since it's not in the pool, I guess I'll vote for Abi instead. I can't believe that she thought her fake immunity idol ploy was actually working. I wonder how much of her idiocy is part of her everyday self, and how much of it comes from being extremely hungry & tired.

Philippine: Ep 12

Unfortunately, the moment I gave Carter credit was the moment he got voted out. I think that getting rid of Carter was the smart move, but the entire jury is going to hold it against them after all the things they've said about Abi-Maria, and the original Yellow Tribe in general. But, as Ben said, the jury can be mad at all of them, but they'll still have to vote for one of them if they leave the jury no choice. This means voting Abi-Maria out next episode, though, and I'm not sure that will happen.

For once I wish they'd done the stupid move & kept Carter around. Sure he's a much bigger threat at challenges, but wouldn't it be great if the alliance actually followed through on their "final 6" bond? It would have been so entertaining to watch that! It's also horrible to have Skupin say things like "voting Carter out is like voting out my own son" right before writing his name down. If he'd really meant that he never would have voted for him. DoW candidate for sure.

Previews for the next episode are concerning. Lisa has no long-term vision for the game & she's as flaky & wishy washy as she claims not to be. Also, her complete meltdown when her brother came out was terrifying to watch. That sort of 5-minute-long dry-heaving, stopped-breathing, dangerous-to-your-health sobfest is not appropriate in that context. It really freaked me out. That was beyond normal, there's something weird happening there.

My ideal next episode is that Lisa does switch over to the Dark Side (or Brazilian Side) & drags Skupin with her. Anticipating the shift, though, Malcolm gives his idol to Denise to play & they knock out Lisa instead. Vindication!


The Standings:

Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon: 98 points
[1. RC (21.5 pts)]
2. Skupin (22.5 pts) 
[3. Jeff  (21.5 pts)]
4. Abi-Maria (32.5 pts)

Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug/Bri: 84.5 points
[1. Penner (41.5 pts)]
2. Denise (14 pts)
[3. Artis (23.5 pts)]
[4. Katie (5.5 pts)]

The Clap - Bag/Leah: 83.5 points
[1. Pete (27.5 pts)]
[2. Carter (39.5 pts)]
[3. Angie (0 pts)]
4. Lisa (15.5 pts)

I'm on Dregs! - Michal: 30 points
1. Malcolm (31 pts)
[2. Dana (-4.5 pts)]
[3. Dawson (3.5 pts)]
[4. Russell (0 pts)]

Power Rankings: 

1. Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon is now the only team with 2 players remaining - and is anyone else as shocked as me that one if them is Skupin? I thought that guy would have been med-evacked by episode 6! It's all but guaranteed that at least one of them will make the finals, maybe even two with the way things are going.

2. Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Denise is still in it, but no one can be sitting very comfortably right now... except Malcolm I guess who's guaranteed himself a Final 4 spot. I'm still hoping for a Denise victory! She needs to start making some moves to leverage a strong position in the finals, but it might already be too late. Has she flown too far under the strategic-gameplay radar to win enough jury votes?

3. The Clap - Lisa's emotional journey storyline is running incredibly thin. She's betrayed pretty much everyone and is now going against everything that she's said to the jury are her priorities. I think she's likely to make Final Tribal, but I don't think she can win. There are going to be too many bitter jury members & too many of them who won't give her any credit for the strategy she played. I hope Penner shares her child star story, too -- be one of the bitter ones, Penner!

4. I'm on Dregs! - OMG Malcolm actually won something! Better late than never I guess, and it couldn't have come at a better time. He was about to fall into the "I feel like I'm in control & am getting complacent so now I'm getting voted out" trap, but saved himself with his first immunity win. Congrats Malcolm, you've managed to salvage some dignity here at the end, but you still are getting outscored by Abi-Maria in this pool. And you've only tied her for immunity wins.   


Douche of the Week:

My vote this week goes to Lisa. Her claims of loyalty being her #1 priority are annoying considering how often she switches sides, plus her out-of-control sobbing when seeing her brother was quite distrurbing.

Philippines: Eps 9 - 11

Many apologies for my insanely delayed blog post! With the holidays, the house, and probably a few other excuses I could dig up this fell right off of my to-do list. I hope to do better from now on!

The Standings:

Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon: 97 points
[1. RC (21.5 pts)]
2. Skupin (21.5 pts) 
[3. Jeff  (21.5 pts)]
4. Abi-Maria (22.5 pts)

Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug/Bri: 84.5 points
[1. Penner (41.5 pts)]
2. Denise (14 pts)
[3. Artis (23.5 pts)]
[4. Katie (5.5 pts)]

The Clap - Bag/Leah: 72.5 points
[1. Pete (27.5 pts)]
2. Carter (29.5 pts)
[3. Angie (0 pts)]
4. Lisa (15.5 pts)

I'm on Dregs! - Michal: 20 points
1. Malcolm (21 pts)
[2. Dana (-4.5 pts)]
[3. Dawson (3.5 pts)]
[4. Russell (0 pts)]

Power Rankings: 


  1. Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - I thought this was a close call until I realized I didn't give Abi her 10 points for successfully playing her hidden immunity idol. Now I think it's pretty much decided. Moon has a decent lead & 2 players left who are guaranteed to bring in at minimum 10 more points each. Unless something crazy happens - like a final tribal vote sweep - I don't think anyone can catch him.

2. The Clap - Bag & Leah are ranked 2nd currently because they have 2 players & one of them is the remarkably competitive Carter. He very well could win enough immunities to get himself into the finals & bring Bag & Leah a big bag of points on the way there. And who knows? If he does & somehow Lisa makes the finals with Skupin there's a real chance that she could win the whole thing.


3. Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - I adore Denise & I really hope she wins. I'm not sure that people are giving her enough credit for the strategy that going on, although I think that her speech at tribal council about how dislikeable Abi is will help. Go Denise!

4. I'm on Dregs! - It sounds like Malcolm is favored to win this season, but that doesn't mean much to me right now. Actually, what it DOES mean to me is that we should not do the draft the same way next season. Going first without a re-draw for the second round of draft picks really means that the #1 picker only gets to have 1 good pick & guarantees them the worst player. Lesson learned.


Douche of the Week:


The worst part of this! Many DoWs to catch up on. Here's how I have it so far:

Ep 8: Tie between Pete & Abi-Maria (2 votes each) - voting closed

Ep 9: Abi-Maria (2 votes)

Ep 10: Abi-Maria (2 votes)

Ep 11: Abi-Maria & Lisa (1 vote each)

Because of how much of a slacker I am, I am giving everyone the chance to re-vote for Episodes 9-11. Even if you already voted, you have the chance to vote again & have your vote count twice!! In comments, be sure to specify which episode your vote should count for. & to help out a little, here are the episode recaps:

Ep 9: Everyone's still reeling from the crazytown tribal where everyone pulled out their hidden idols & Jeff ended up getting voted out. In the reward challenge the "good guys" team wins & visits a village & feasts. The group left behind is Michael, Artis, Lisa, Pete & Abi, who spends her time leaning on Lisa telling her she doesn't trust her, etc. At tribal, Lisa says that the people outside her alliance were more gracious than her alliance. Skupin switches his vote & Artis gets voted out.

Ep 10: Lisa "breaks up" with Abi-Maria; the reward challenge is where they run around flipping drums & everyone is absolutely terrible at the strategy. Malcolm, Pete, Abi-Maria and Carter end up winning & they have a spa day that Abi raves on and on and on and on about. Abi starts refusing to help around camp & then Denise goes to task on Abi at tribal. Jeff shames the entire country of Brazil by saying this must be a cultural communication issue. Abi successfully uses her idol & Pete goes home.

Ep 11: Abi is emotional but still really obnoxious. They have an auction where the alliance of 6 underestimates Abi & she gets the big advantage at the immunity challenge. In the end it's Carter with 10% of his own body weight added & Penner who've both run the whole course & Abi who is only running the last leg. This made this challenge as even as possible, I think, and it was very entertaining to watch. Ultimately Abi wins immunity & the tribe votes out Penner. Penner had the chance to save himself but rejected a 4-person alliance when it was offered to him, so now it's Denise, Malcolm, Skupin & Lisa who are setting themselves up to be the Final Four, and Abi & Carter on the edges.

My personal votes (not included in the above tallies) are:

Ep 9: Abi
Ep 10: Abi
Ep 11: Penner

Looking forward to getting your votes (again) too!!

Philippines: Episode 7

Wow! What a crazy episode! I enjoyed watching the evolution of this vote so much. It was pretty amazing how flexible everyone acted in changing their votes. And I loved how at tribal most of them had given up on secrecy and were completely willing to share hidden immunity idols, key strategic options & decisions... pretty much nothing was left undiscussed at this tribal. 

This was definitely one of the most entertaining strategic episodes, however, I still believe that the Earl/Yau Man season's episode where they blindsided Edgardo still sits at #1. Also in the running is when Evil Russell & Parvati owned all the "heroes" in the Heroes v. Villains season. And Parvati again, when she and Amanda pulled off a major blindside in the Fans v. Faves season. Being in the company of these legendary players really says something about this season. 

I really respect Lisa's strategy in this game, if not her execution. Her realization that she needs to ally herself with the people she least gets along with in the game is next-level play. Actually following through with it though wasn't nearly as impressive. Jeff was also impressive, up until he was king of the island. So often the problem is that once made king players relax. But that's when they need to be most on guard. This was a classic example.


The Standings:

Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon: 71 points
[1. RC (21.5 pts)]
2. Skupin (13.5 pts) 
[3. Jeff  (21.5 pts)]
4. Abi-Maria (14.5 pts)

Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug/Bri: 56.5 points
1. Penner (21.5 pts)
2. Denise (10 pts)
3. Artis (13.5 pts)
[4. Katie (5.5 pts)]

The Clap - Bag/Leah: 44.5 points
1. Pete (15.5 pts)
2. Carter (15.5 pts)
[3. Angie (0 pts)]
4. Lisa (13.5 pts)

I'm on Dregs! - Michal: 14 points
1. Malcolm (15 pts)
[2. Dana (-4.5 pts)]
[3. Dawson (3.5 pts)]
[4. Russell (0 pts)]

Power Rankings: 

1. Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Penner lives to see another day! And I he'll probably barely be on the radar next episode, if he continues to play the savvy game he's known for. Penner's greatest strength is probably his adaptability. He was in command of the game but when that fell through he didn't despair - he came up with a new strategy. He didn't dwell on a lost opportunity (at least not for too long), he moved on to finding a new way to survive.

2. The Clap - Probably the team that benefitted the most from this episode. Taking Jeff out is a huge boost to Pete's life expectancy in this game. And while Lisa made some mistakes, she's also proven that she's capable of making moves, and that has to make Bag & Leah proud. Keep up the wily-ness Lisa!

3. Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - This episode was the death knell for Moon. He needed Jeff to come out on top this episode to have a chance to dictate how the rest of the season plays out. Now, while in the lead, he's depending on a sorry lot of dregs that are unlikely to earn him many more points. And with Abi-Maria's unnecessary reveal of her idol, he now has 2 players with pretty large targets on their backs.

4. I'm on Dregs! - I'm sooo happy my pony is still in this game. Keep hope alive Malcolm! I hope he's learned something from Penner - his strategy has to change now that he's revealed his idol. I hope he's successful at adapting.

Douche of the Week:

Pete's gotta get it! It's unbelievable that he barely gave Lisa's revelation about Malcolm's idol a second thought. If he was really the mastermind that he thinks he is, he would carefully evaluate every piece of info that he's given. 

Philippines: Episode 7

I'm so excited at how the alliances played out this week! It was pretty unique I think that two alliances could unite so unanimously over voting out the veterans. While technically they didn't succeed at this due to Penner's craftiness, they are well on their way to getting rid of the returnees. It would've been easy for both alliances to try & win over RC & Skupin but this was so much better and done so much less often!

I think that the overall average intelligence level of the competitors is higher this season than it's been in recent seasons. I also think that the producers have done a good job of mixing things up enough so that players are forced to play outside the "formula."


The Standings:

FYI: Your scores may look a little strange. This is because I forgot to subtract out the "sitting out a challenge" penalty last week. This has been fixed now though!

Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - Moon: 59 points
[1. RC (21.5 pts)]2. Skupin (13.5 pts)
3. Jeff  (9.5 pts)
4. Abi-Maria (14.5 pts)

Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug/Bri: 46.5 points
1. Penner (19.5 pts)
2. Denise (8 pts)
3. Artis (13.5 pts)
[4. Katie (5.5 pts)]

The Clap - Bag/Leah: 42.5 points
1. Pete (15.5 pts)
2. Carter (15.5 pts)
[3. Angie (0 pts)]
4. Lisa (11.5 pts)

I'm on Dregs! - Michal: 12 points
1. Malcolm (13 pts)
[2. Dana (-4.5 pts)]
[3. Dawson (3.5 pts)]
[4. Russell (0 pts)]

Power Rankings:

1. Love Line: Old Balls & Tiaras - Doug & Bri are going to stay at the top of my power rankings until Penner gets voted out. He had a spectacular idol play in this last episode & now he has 3 more days to either find a new idol or make new alliances. This man is clever & I'm not going to count him out until he's actually out. Denise & Artis are doing very well for themselves too, and I could see both of them getting far.

2. The Clap - I don't expect Carter to win many more individual immunity challenges. Honestly I didn't expect him to win any! That was a nice point boost for a competitive team. I think Lisa could be a real threat too, especially with her multi-alliance options.  Pete is probably the figurehead that will be turned on once the riffraff have been eliminated, but he could still bring in some big points before then. Overall I think this team benefitted the most from the outcome of this episode.

3. Giant Bloody Brazilian Cola - It was inevitable that Moon would lose someone soon, but Jeff is probably his MVP right now & he doesn't seem to be in any danger quite yet, and losing RC isn't a big deal. It's always risky though when you tell people "I just want to outlast so-and-so" though. There some kind of bad karma that immediately puts you on people's radars once "so-and-so" is gone. Plus in this new alliance Jeff could easily be singled out by the Yellows as a threat & get the boot. Moon should be hoping Jeff still has some moves in him!

4. I'm on Dregs! - Malcolm seems to be in a secure position right now & I'm happy he didn't win this immunity because I don't want people to view him as a huge threat yet. Still, I need him to start bringing in some major points pretty soon if I'm going to have any chance. Really glad that it was Lisa who found his idol & not anyone else! She's the only one where that situation could have played out like it did. I hope this "forced" alliance goes far; Denise, Malcolm & Lisa are all my favorite players right now!

Douche of the Week:

I'm voting for RC this week because she annoyed me SO much at final tribal. Her weird fake fight with Abi-Maria while maintaining this creepy smile & staring at Jeff the whole time was extremely uncomfortable to watch.