Tell us of your first impressions of the new tribe. Who do you hate, who do you like, who do you wish swapped with you, who do you wish didn't swap with you, etc. Give us the lowdown. Do you like this tribe better than the one you were just on, or not? How do you see your position on this new tribe?
So! It's been a pretty quiet weekend around here. I've honestly not spent a lot of time chatting to people, I'd make up a dozen excuses but honestly I'm just not feeling in a super social mood right now and the last thing I wanted to do after a pretty busy week was to come and try to force small talk with people that may or not be fun to chat with. I have met everybody at least and of the people that I haven't met yet I feel like Lindsey is definitely the easiest to chat with. I know that Ricard is supposed to be close to Genie but he really wasn't putting a lot down when I tried to chat with him so I will have to try again later! I'm very happy to have still avoided Jessica and hope to god that she gets snapped over on that other tribe.
A basic rundown would be that I feel good about Dom and Genie, and by their association feel okay about Jacob, Jay, and Ricard. I still can't just ignore these relationships because that's awful gameplay but I feel like they will be held off for the time being to preserve their relationships with people who do feel good about me. Jacob I honestly just don't want to talk to, he's not an interesting guy and he basically told me he only chats because it's expected of him and would rather only talk strategy which is like the antithesis of me so I'm not really interested in engaging with him! Jay I've been working on getting back on board with and I do think he wants me around for the time being but I know he's very self interested and proactive as well so I can never really let my guard down around him.
It seems like Brad and Bradley are the two names kind of going around? With Brad expected to be the target if he doesn't win tonight. I don't actually mind him, I think he's more fun than like a Will or a Bradley but Dom is still mad at some harmless joke he made when we first swapped and it seems like the Rhodes members aren't really jumping to defend him so I have no real reason to want to change things regardless, it's not like we're CLOSE or anything and it puts me in a pretty safe spot for the next few rounds.
This past week, there was a game merge followed by a swap after just two rounds, meeting people you've only just met. With the weekend coming around, do you think things will stabilize in time for Sunday?
I don't think things have gotten too crazy here honestly, I think after a wild week people wanted some time to wind down and Dom kind of just stomped his giant size 14 boots over the tribe to make us all agree to vote Brad and it feels like nobody is really dissenting? Though I haven't talked about it with the Rhodes people much yet, it's possible they're actually not interested at all. I THINK that things will be pretty chill tonight and that one of the Brads will be going, but these people haven't really proven to be quiet and lowkey players so far so I also wouldn't be surprised at all to be completed blindsided and have no idea what's happening.
To be blunt, what's your new short term and long term strategy?
So my short term strategy is just to survive and cause the least waves here possible, I know it's a little bit boring but there are still a host of people in the game that I've never played with and I need to have good connections here to bridge the gap when I meet up with them. Tyler being a decent connection on the other tribe is a start, but maintaining things with people like Genie, Lindsey, and Jay will help to reconnect with Taylor and make a new connection with people like Stephanie and the Rhodes players that I have yet to meet. To really set firm sides at this point is just tossing away potential options down the road or at least making them a lot harder to make proper use of, so for now I just want to be the least polarizing figure that I can be.
Once we get to another swap or merge however I do need to step things up and take a more active strategic stance, or at least kill the people that ARE the active strategic threats. I usually play the role of a goat hunter in games, I'm used to being a premier threat and trying to keep the average strength level of the game as high as possible to avoid standing out as much and because it's just.. a more fun game. And I'll probably do SOME of that here but I have to accept that I am phoning it in a little socially, it just hasn't been the best time for me to spend hours making close connections with all of these people and I can't expect people to respect my game based off our personal connection alone here. This is doubly true because some of these players are far more concerned about strategy and resume than connections (though I will say, my longtime survivor hypothesis is that social connection biases people's view of resume greater than actual moves could ever do).
How did your old tribe do during last challenge? Was there anything you would have done differently?
Well, they won when I wasn't around to help. So that was nice! Not really something I'm used to but I did have confidence they were a pretty competent group. I think we would have also won had I done it to be clear, but avoiding more early showing of challenge prowess is always nice I suppose!
Jeff revealed that on Sunday, you will start to receive new idol clues for your new tribes. Are you going to jump on that opportunity to search for the idol right away, or not? Would you work on it solo, or do you plan to work on it with anyone else? Are you worried of other idols in play currently?
Hmm, maybe I'll look for this one again! I didn't really look for the Crete swap idol because I was a little sick of it after the Zakros one that I spent a long time on and competing with even more people just didn't sound like my cup of tea in the moment. I will give this one some effort I think but I'm not going to go crazy over it either. I think searching for idols should always be a solo activity really, like people can team up but I think it bites you like 4 out of 5 times and they end up ratting you out. I'd rather not find it alone than find it with somebody's knowledge. I wouldn't say I'm super worried about more idols in play, like there are probably a few out there yet but I just don't really see myself as the one that would get idoled out here and I wouldn't really mind if somebody like Dom or Jay got send packing? I think I could recover well enough.
How do you feel about Sunday being the final double Tribal Council of the season? Is there anyone on your tribe that you'd be okay with voting out?
I'd be okay with voting any of them out really, but I'm glad it's a double! I want things to get moving and I kind of hope every tribal this week is a double so that we can merge by the end of the week. I think I'm mostly fine here though like I can't be delusional I haven't been at my BEST so if I did wind up dead I'd only have myself to blame for it. Anyways keep them coming, I prefer individual immunity challenges anyways.
Have you played Cars 2 on PSP?
Naw, I played Cars on the Gamecube and couldn't beat Sally down the cliffside because I was a child.
