- Mon Jul 31, 2017 7:22:28 pm
#561
The Marooning: New Twists
This season is the 10th anniversary of Stranded, and being celebrated with legendary players across all eras. We wouldn't want it any other way than to throw some great new twists at them. The game started with two tribes of 12 - one old school and one new school. The first night, two people would be voted off from each tribe! However, our players are savvy and quickly realized the twist was that these four voted out players would join a third tribe, Tianguan, and bring along a player each from their old tribes with them.
Last night, we revealed the big twist for the season: The Revenge Vote. All three tribes will go to every tribal council and vote someone out. However, only the tribe that loses the challenge will have their player evicted from the game - the other two players voted out will swap tribes and be immune during the next tribal council. Every vote will have consequences, and these players "voted out" will have plenty of time to seek revenge. So far, based on the game is playing out, is that this will create MUCH more dynamic tribe swaps. This is because majorities are going to be forced to stay tighter during the player-swapping phase of the game.
The last major twist of Revenge will be revealed later, and that is that all hidden immunity idols are Revenge Hidden Immunity Idols - if you're blindsided with it, you'll have to ability to pass it back to a player in the game! The idols are VERY tough to find this season so this power is not being taken lightly.
Ultimately, Garrett and Liliana were voted out of Bai Qi tribe (Garrett asked to be voted out, and Liliana had the fewest connections and was thought of as annoying). They brought along with them Vytas and Andrea. Garrett has proven so far that last season was no fluke and he has all of the tools to be a legendary batshit player - asking to be voted onto a third tribe and bringing your mortal enemy with you is just pure gold. For the Shentu tribe, Mia and NaOnka were voted out after an alliance of six held strong. They brought power players Brenda and Tammy over.
Shentu
The Shentu tribe (old schoolers) has been the least eventful tribe through the opening round, though that is sure to change. They are likely going to be our first immunity challenge losers as Wiglesworth has already taken an hour for the puzzle, and I don't think anyone on the other tribes has topped half an hour yet. Unfortunately, looks like our first boot is going to be Teresa. She's been unable to commit a ton of time, so it makes sense, but she's a legendary player. Right now there is a majority alliance of six, that further has two sub-alliances: Rudy, Courtney and Wigglesworth have teamed up with Yul, Rory and Katie. That leaves Teresa, and Catalie at the bottom. I can't wait to see how Catalie reacts to the vote. She's got connections on other tribes, so if she is voted onto another tribe we could see some serious gameplay start to come through. No one player is really shining right now as "controlling the tribe".
Bai Qi
Bai Qi (new schoolers) definitely have the most complex dynamics of the three tribes so far. There's tons and tons of alliances and suballiances that overlap. Cochran has definitely been the power player on the tribe so far with suballiances with Sophie and Sarah as well as my favorite alliance in the game so far, Ozzy and Penner. Sarah has been nervous about a Faroe majority alliance and wanted Cassandra or Candice out, but with Cochran pulling the strings it looks like Ashley will be voted onto another tribe due to time-zone difficulties. Ashley can cause chaos and find idols so having her on Tianguan will be great. After this vote, it will be interesting to see how lines are drawn in the sand - my guess is that a majority alliance of Cochran, Sarah, Sophie, Ozzy and Penner will emerge, with everyone thinking they're the 3 within the 5 with Cochran. Ozzy has also been playing really well so far and gets runner-up nods to Cochran, as he's in good with nearly everyone.
Tianguan
The rejects tribe Tianguan has had LOADS of drama so far between the Vytas and Garrett fiasco (Vytas giving Garrett fake idol clues, going on tirades against each other, etc) and everything else. So far Brenda seems to be the power player on this tribe, bringing Andrea under her wing and joining with Mia and Vytas to form the likely majority alliance. It is looking like they are going to boot Garrett onto Bai Qi tonight which will be AMAZING - Garrett with new life and a round of immunity is exactly what this game needs. Liliana adds fire to the tribe as well. NaOnka has been disappointingly pretty absent. Andrea is playing pretty well, especially for essentially a newbie - we'll see how long she'll be okay with not being the alpha dog in her alliance.
Idols
Since I hid the idols this season, thought I'd give an update on them so far. First clues went out last night and no one is close so far. The only one I think could maybe be solved on the first clue is Tianguan, and that would take some serious idol chops to find. More on this later.
Round 1: Days 1-5
The Marooning: New Twists
This season is the 10th anniversary of Stranded, and being celebrated with legendary players across all eras. We wouldn't want it any other way than to throw some great new twists at them. The game started with two tribes of 12 - one old school and one new school. The first night, two people would be voted off from each tribe! However, our players are savvy and quickly realized the twist was that these four voted out players would join a third tribe, Tianguan, and bring along a player each from their old tribes with them.
Last night, we revealed the big twist for the season: The Revenge Vote. All three tribes will go to every tribal council and vote someone out. However, only the tribe that loses the challenge will have their player evicted from the game - the other two players voted out will swap tribes and be immune during the next tribal council. Every vote will have consequences, and these players "voted out" will have plenty of time to seek revenge. So far, based on the game is playing out, is that this will create MUCH more dynamic tribe swaps. This is because majorities are going to be forced to stay tighter during the player-swapping phase of the game.
The last major twist of Revenge will be revealed later, and that is that all hidden immunity idols are Revenge Hidden Immunity Idols - if you're blindsided with it, you'll have to ability to pass it back to a player in the game! The idols are VERY tough to find this season so this power is not being taken lightly.
Ultimately, Garrett and Liliana were voted out of Bai Qi tribe (Garrett asked to be voted out, and Liliana had the fewest connections and was thought of as annoying). They brought along with them Vytas and Andrea. Garrett has proven so far that last season was no fluke and he has all of the tools to be a legendary batshit player - asking to be voted onto a third tribe and bringing your mortal enemy with you is just pure gold. For the Shentu tribe, Mia and NaOnka were voted out after an alliance of six held strong. They brought power players Brenda and Tammy over.
Shentu
The Shentu tribe (old schoolers) has been the least eventful tribe through the opening round, though that is sure to change. They are likely going to be our first immunity challenge losers as Wiglesworth has already taken an hour for the puzzle, and I don't think anyone on the other tribes has topped half an hour yet. Unfortunately, looks like our first boot is going to be Teresa. She's been unable to commit a ton of time, so it makes sense, but she's a legendary player. Right now there is a majority alliance of six, that further has two sub-alliances: Rudy, Courtney and Wigglesworth have teamed up with Yul, Rory and Katie. That leaves Teresa, and Catalie at the bottom. I can't wait to see how Catalie reacts to the vote. She's got connections on other tribes, so if she is voted onto another tribe we could see some serious gameplay start to come through. No one player is really shining right now as "controlling the tribe".
Bai Qi
Bai Qi (new schoolers) definitely have the most complex dynamics of the three tribes so far. There's tons and tons of alliances and suballiances that overlap. Cochran has definitely been the power player on the tribe so far with suballiances with Sophie and Sarah as well as my favorite alliance in the game so far, Ozzy and Penner. Sarah has been nervous about a Faroe majority alliance and wanted Cassandra or Candice out, but with Cochran pulling the strings it looks like Ashley will be voted onto another tribe due to time-zone difficulties. Ashley can cause chaos and find idols so having her on Tianguan will be great. After this vote, it will be interesting to see how lines are drawn in the sand - my guess is that a majority alliance of Cochran, Sarah, Sophie, Ozzy and Penner will emerge, with everyone thinking they're the 3 within the 5 with Cochran. Ozzy has also been playing really well so far and gets runner-up nods to Cochran, as he's in good with nearly everyone.
Tianguan
The rejects tribe Tianguan has had LOADS of drama so far between the Vytas and Garrett fiasco (Vytas giving Garrett fake idol clues, going on tirades against each other, etc) and everything else. So far Brenda seems to be the power player on this tribe, bringing Andrea under her wing and joining with Mia and Vytas to form the likely majority alliance. It is looking like they are going to boot Garrett onto Bai Qi tonight which will be AMAZING - Garrett with new life and a round of immunity is exactly what this game needs. Liliana adds fire to the tribe as well. NaOnka has been disappointingly pretty absent. Andrea is playing pretty well, especially for essentially a newbie - we'll see how long she'll be okay with not being the alpha dog in her alliance.
Idols
Since I hid the idols this season, thought I'd give an update on them so far. First clues went out last night and no one is close so far. The only one I think could maybe be solved on the first clue is Tianguan, and that would take some serious idol chops to find. More on this later.
