Hahahahaha I'm completely unprepared for this game. They asked me to replace in yesterday.I'm not sure if he sent this exact one to everyone or what? I do suspect Scruff and I at a minimum got similar ones? I may dig into that some more but it's not a big deal. Honestly in a way it's a bit of a relief to just get to talking about the game and playstyles right away, and I think we clicked pretty well? I said I played kinda old school, treated the game as social (though I'll be frank, I'd like to play socially, dunno how good I am at it in this format), wanted to build early bonds, etc..
(https://i0.wp.com/media0.giphy.com/media/3oEdvczpwpfwy2aTJK/giphy.gif)
Well yeah, obviously.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/468829217711456289/726452355285123253/unknown.png)
Well that seems apropos for Survivor.
Hi! How are you. I'm Jake. If you had to describe your Survivor-self in three adjectives, what would they be?
You can't solve this all by yourself, with out a raggy who would be your second in command?At this point, probably Scruff? I at a minimum know that Jake likes me but how he would rank me versus Scruff or Leon I don't know. Honestly that probably applies in reverse to Scruff too. I should probably talk more strategy with Hannah and Paul, thus far I've liked our conversations but they haven't really tuoched on the game, and if we stay safe for a round or two, those could be really useful relationships going into a swap.
Welcome to the game, Lennie!I'm sure this won't be anyone's favorite choice because the season left such a bad taste in people's mouths (for completely justified and understandable reasons), but Tommy Sheehan on Island of the Idols played a really great game (even if he's kind of a boring guy). He was able to be loyal when it made sense and switch things up when he needed to, he was well-liked without being targeted for it, had a bigger target in front of him in the form of Lauren. It really was the perfect old school social game. No bag of tricks, no immunity runs, just really good social and strategic Survivor play. And he managed to win from the position of being dragged to the end, which people had previously used for goats.
I saw you're a big Survivor/BB fan. Which player's style do you think you'd like to position yourself in this game? Or if there really isn't one player, do you have a strategy you have in mind in order to become the ultimate Survivor?
Now that you've gotten a bit into the game, how do you feel about your other tribemates, both on a social and the challenge game? Do you see yourself making strong alliances at this stage? If so, what characteristics in an ally are you looking for?So socially my feelings are mostly the same as my previous confessional with one change being that Leon and I got to connect over music, which was good. I was like "uh Doja Cat kinda got canceled..." so maybe that wasn't great but I think the conversation was positive because I'm not sure anyone else listens to rap so it was a unique point of connection. Basically, I feel the best about Scruff, feel good about Jake, feel decent about Hannah and Paul and Leon, and Ace is tough to connect with but I'm still trying not to let that fall by the wayside even if he'd probably be the easiest (and my preferred) boot if we went to TC.
In your previous post, you mentioned that you felt that Jake was strongarming the tribe personality-wise. What made you perceive him as a big social threat? You said that this is a boon to you that you can act as a shield behind, but what do you think his impression of you is? Is this meat shield someone you would want as an ally long-term or are you willing to part ways sooner rather than later?So I definitely wouldn't use the word "strongarming", if that's how it came across then I should rephrase. I think everyone likes Jake, and I suspect that everyone talks to Jake more often and more deeply than they do to most people. His form letter opening PM may have been a little corny/hamfisted, but I think it did get conversations going into game mode almost immediately so that while the rest of us are feeling out "hey what do you do for fun", he's already talking about approaches to Survivor. So that's great for him, I think everyone feels good about their relationship with him, but I think he's also doing this in a way where like, I think it's obvious to us all that the others have similar positive feelings? In a long-term sense I'm not sure how he can shake that perception. I'm gonna be curious to see how he's perceived when we swap.
In addition, you mentioned that you had a flaw in which you may not know the best transition into game talk. In previous iterations, what were the mistakes you made? Have you seen you have made any corrections in this cycle? If not, do you think the tempo of the game may play into a factor and your mood?In my last game I think people saw me as cagey because I wasn't talking as immediately or openly about game (also just in some circumstances, I was genuinely clueless and people mistook that for caginess). Anyway, I broached game talk with Paul and Leon, got responses, like everyone basically says the same thing, Jake and Scruff are cool, Paul/Leon seem okay too, Hannah hasn't connected as much, and nobody really connects with Ace. If we were to go to TC, I think Ace would be the likely target.
That was a close call and unfortunate miss in the challenge. What's your game plan for this tribal?So things have been weirdly quiet since the challenge results came out. I don't know if that's because people have been busy, or because we just have a bunch of conflicting schedules, or what. Honestly it'd make me feel much more nervous if I hadn't largely confirmed even before the challenge results that most people don't feel great about Ace (not disliking, just finding it difficult to connect). I was having dinner with my mom this evening prior to challenge results and then had a trivia competition from 9 to 11 so I wasn't in a great position to reach out to people but also I barely heard from anyone.
But hey, you survived the tribal. Congratulations! Do you want to give us a wrap up on episode 1 and your ending thoughts on the tribal council? Did anything happen behind the scenes that made you feel safe or grew worried?Honestly, I don't even know what Ace was doing. I dunno if he was busy (he probably would have mentioned it) or not in the right headspace (more likely?). I think a bunch of people had similar experiences where it was just very difficult to get much of a conversation going. I actually semi-joked about Ace being a mod plant where like if you decoded his weirdly terse PMs, you'd get an idol or something.
I guess it makes sense because otherwise you'd need to use a different word but it's just this weird vestigial aspect of a game that started as a TV show and is completely divorced from the TV format.brb designing Survivor: Cargo Cult Island
Hahaha, I originally said it was like a cargo cult but was afraid that would sound too insulting :)I guess it makes sense because otherwise you'd need to use a different word but it's just this weird vestigial aspect of a game that started as a TV show and is completely divorced from the TV format.brb designing Survivor: Cargo Cult Island
Congratulations on immunity - you're now in the top x-teen! Your safe for another round and I figured I'd take your pulse. Did your ranking of your favorite tribemates change in the past couple of days?It hasn't really changed but Jake did include this in his message to me post-challenge-win:
I'm really glad the elimination went well. I was pretty confident everything was on the up and up, but that's when you get paranoid, right? Working together seemed to be a strong move - I get the impression you've got the tribe pretty much wired, and I'm happy to go with that flow.Like I don't precisely know what he's implying via "I get the impression you've got the tribe pretty much wired" but it's hard not to see it as "I see you as a threat in front of me", which is a red flag because he's supposed to be the threat in front of me! He has been semi-absent the past couple days though due to RL stuff so I can see why he might be feeling less connected at the moment.
Does this mean you feel like Jake is threatening you? Or are you subconsciously threatened by him? What will your next steps look like in this game?I mean, to reiterate, I don't think he's threatening me in the sense of, feeling like I'm in danger.
What's your thought process going into this challenge? Are you optimistic about your chances of doing well?Honestly this seems really hard. I guess first identify what you think people will guess for you, then identify the people you think you can accurately predict and prioritize getting them accurate and then hope for the best with the others? It's frustrating because this is so easy to game if people have any ability to communicate at all, but with not being able to talk about it it seems kind of crapshooty. There's a part of me that would love to just alphabetize all the names and labels and assign them that way, with the idea that if anyone else does the same we'll at least get two perfect sets, but I have no way of knowing if it's crazy to think other people would do that or if they're already thinking the same thing. I'm not optimistic, but it's a one in three shot.
You've had a little downtime thanks to immunity. Any strategies you're implementing at this stage? Anything in the long run you're thinking?Honestly like everyone seems to be busy or quiet, I think we were really relieved not to go to the second TC and kind of took a load off. Scruff and I had already sort of talked through what the next vote would have been, and I'm pretty sure Jake and Leon would be on board there, so there was no need to overstrategize.
I'm sorry that you lost. Your individual performance was decent. Have there been any movements or shakings since your last commentary?Saying my individual performance was decent is probably overly generous but thanks.
New friends? New enemies? How would you rank your new tribemates in terms of favorability?Not a lot has changed in terms of how I feel about people, the biggest would be that Judy and I finally clicked a bit, in no small part to Leon and Hercule's help. There's a part of me that's concerned that Judy sees herself as the fourth in that group, but she could see me as the fourth too.
I'm actually a big fan of Masterchef AustraliaSo after a VERY LONG time of not watching the show I got back into it with the current season and HOW GOOD IS IT???
It's so great! I love every season but it's so fun seeing people back (admittedly I haven't seen Callum's season but I think I've seen the rest remaining) and they're doing such a great job. Reynold's thing several weeks ago where he made the tempered chocolate log with the branches and the flowers at the ends, and then with the caramel sauce melting the forest floor, it was just breathtaking, Top Chef could never.QuoteI'm actually a big fan of Masterchef AustraliaSo after a VERY LONG time of not watching the show I got back into it with the current season and HOW GOOD IS IT???
Yeah, I agree. I understand that the SVU was hell, but the BAU felt a bit like Purgatory. A lot of hurry up and wait...form an alliance, make a plan, barely win the challenge and then have to retire the plan. I'm not comparing that to your experience, but it made for a very weird (and untested) dynamic. God help me I like everyone on that tribe. I'm prepared to default on some of those relationships, but it will be difficult for the ethical rules I've set for myself this game. Not impossible, though.to be clear, the first half of this message is totally fine. but "God help me I like everyone on that tribe" yeesh like fucking go from 9 to 5 and get the fuck back to me about making tough choices
so what are you leaning towards currently 🥺👉👈Jake is saying Leon would vote Pikachu next round, which makes things a little easier. I think we might end up voting Lucifer out here, which both Jake and Penelope would be on board with. We'll see
The specs can't see your confessional now! You can say whatever you want!Ooh good point. So hi I'm het, and in my first game about 6-9 months ago, I felt like I had a vaguely similar relationship to Zoraster in that game that I did in this with Poirot (similar in that we met in the first swap and developed a close bond, different in that Zor and I spent a goodly time apart until meeting again at the merge). It's not the same because I love Poirot deeply in a way that I didn't quite to that extent with Zor, and also because Zor actively cut me at 5 in part because he thought I could beat him. I was hoping to be the Zor this time, but there was no Judy Hopps in that game unfortunately. Actually in retrospect that could have been Haschel if I didn't cut him so early in the merge? Sorry again about that.
I was thinking about this some more and the thing is, I said my takeaway from my first game was that I need to play less, which is true that that was my takeaway, but it was really the wrong takeaway, and Poirot's closing speech really crystallized it. I said I wanted to be the Zor this time, but the fact is, both Poirot and Zor put way more effort into the game than I did. I'm sure I'll spend more time than is warranted or healthy thinking about this stuff in the coming weeks.The specs can't see your confessional now! You can say whatever you want!Ooh good point. So hi I'm het, and in my first game about 6-9 months ago, I felt like I had a vaguely similar relationship to Zoraster in that game that I did in this with Poirot (similar in that we met in the first swap and developed a close bond, different in that Zor and I spent a goodly time apart until meeting again at the merge). It's not the same because I love Poirot deeply in a way that I didn't quite to that extent with Zor, and also because Zor actively cut me at 5 in part because he thought I could beat him. I was hoping to be the Zor this time, but there was no Judy Hopps in that game unfortunately. Actually in retrospect that could have been Haschel if I didn't cut him so early in the merge? Sorry again about that.
I'm frustratingly competent at this game, which sounds like a humblebrag, but I mean it in the sense that like I have good odds to make it a decent way into the merge , but I don't know if I can ever close it out. And that's too fatalistic to say "can't ever", but playing this game takes a lot out of you so I dunno if I'll play again soon. My takeaway from my first game was that I need to play less, so that I'm the less appetizing target, and things still didn't really work out. Like I said above, probably because of Judy.