S31.E01: Second Chance

[rose711]

In his interview Vytas said he was shocked from how the producers emphasised on his yoga obsession and freaking out people to justify his being voted out. He said that these things happened indeed but they were not such a big deal as they presented them.

Abi is a weak player in challenges so for this point of the game I am surprised they kept her, them needing a strong tribe to win challenges. I just can't believe Vutas being voted off being a long term thoughtful decision. I think it was just emotional.

Abi had a torn ACL in her last season. She had to sit out.

Vytas was an extra long term thoughtful decision.

He was the most strategic, manipulative person on the other alliance within the tribe. It was too aggressive this early, in my opinion.

Probst has a quote about how this season they change traditional strategy. They play a different way. Vytas boot is the first step in that.

This is from Dalton Ross wrap up with Jeff:

You didn’t end up showing it in the episode because you can’t fit everything in, but there was some last minute scrambling that went on at Tribal Council when Jeff Varner asked Kelly Wentworth and Peih-Gee in front of everybody to confirm to him which way they were leaning before the voting started. Did you notice a difference in the energy or tone of TC by bringing them straight to Tribal from the challenge instead of letting them go back to camp and strategize?

There is a definite slow burn shift in how the game is played this season. You may not notice it out of the gate, but it slowly begins to shift and in a way that does impact the game in a very significant way. I’ll be curious how it plays with the fans. I am also curious if it carries on in future seasons or was simply a byproduct of having true “second chance” players who came in with a very different motivation. And glad you mentioned that we can’t show everything. It’s one of the only drags of the show, there simply is not enough time. There wouldn’t be enough time if CBS gave us two hours for every episode. But it’s a good problem to have — too much great material!

Edited September 30, 2015 by rose711

[Way Wes Jr]

I’ve been pretty active in the threads, so this’ll be short.  (-ish)

 

Bayon (Purple/Pink)

 

1. Andrew (3)  Four out of ten is not a controlling majority, but we didn’t see much in the way of alliance building from the rest. 
2. Jeremy (4)

 

3. Ciera (2) Vytas’ boot may actually help her, as no one can cite them as a pair going into the merge as a reason to vote her out.

 

4. Joe (7)  Moves up as part of the Alpha-pack.  The meatiest of meat shields.
5. Keith (5)  Still being drug along.
6. Tasha (6)  I forget, did she agree to be part of the Alpha’s, or did they just assume?

 

8. Kimmi (8)
9. Kass (9)
10. Stephen (10)  His position either got worse, because of what we were shown, or better if the edit was part of a ‘redemption arc.’

 

I was double checking before I confirmed the post, and realized I left out Monica. (Was number 1, now number 7.)  That is how invisible her Purple Kelly edit was in the premiere.

 

Ta Keo (Blue)

 

1. Kelley (2)  Because anyone with a Hidden Immunity Idol gets a bump to make the merge.  Plus, she was on the majority side of the vote.

2. Shirin (6) She was presented as one of the strategic leaders behind the Vytas elimination.
3. Spencer (8)  As was Spencer.  Three is not a majority out of nine, but all three of these players were shown making connections with other players.

 

4. Kelly (1)  I don’t think the “Shelter vs Beach” dichotomy is as strong as presented.  I think we could see some switching around, and I don’t think Wiggles is in danger.
5. Terry (4)  I can’t wait to see the post-tribal night-vision session.  Terry and Kelly aren’t getting dropped significantly, because I don’t think they’ll “lose their shit.”

 

6. Jeff (7)  I’m going to repeat what has been said before:  Jeff was eliminated in Australia on a 5-5 vote that went to a tie-breaker.  There was no way he was going to risk a rock draw.  [Though the visual of Varner switching on the revote, while someone else on the other side switches too, so that it stayed 5-5 would have been Fan-tas-tic.]  As I mentioned above with Terry, his position will be solidified by how the shake out happens.

 

7. Woo (5)  Clueless as ever.  Does anyone else think that Woo is just surprised that people are eliminated?  He just forgets the rules after each TC (because of the lingering effects of THC.)

 

8. Abi-Maria (8)
9. Peih-Gee (9)  One, I’m not convinced that the majority is a six-strong alliance.  Two, a six-three majority can sacrifice a member for “tribal unity,” and/or as an olive branch in anticipation of tribal swap shenanigans.

 

OUT Vytas (3) Being a smarmy manipulator doesn’t work with folk who have seen you pull the routine before.  I think the players are expecting swaps/splits, and if Vytas is gone, he can’t be on an opposing tribe in the (near) future.

[Rockfish]

I thought it was a strong start. Since I liked Kelley when she was on with her dad--remember when she had to deal with that idiotic guy on her team who started gunning for her?--I was glad to see her playing smart.

On the other tribe, here's what I thought should have happened: Stephen and Joe should have teamed up, basically using the same strategy that got Stephen and JR to the end. To me, JT and Joe are similar, in that people like them, but they don't have the necessary strategic skills on their own. That's where Stephen's analytical and perceptive brain comes in.

I remember loving to hate Andrew before, and I think that's going to remain the same, lol.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Rockfish

[laurakaye]

And you specifically want to exclude Sandra, why?

 

I loved Sandra.  In my imaginary Survivor scenario, my initial thought was that she'd be the first one voted off, since she'd won twice.  But now that I think about it, how awesome would it be for her to sneak into the finals again and win a third time?  If anyone could do it, it would probably be Sandra.

[Alapaki]

Abi is a weak player in challenges so for this point of the game I am surprised they kept her, them needing a strong tribe to win challenges. I just can't believe Vutas being voted off being a long term thoughtful decision. I think it was just emotional.

 

 

I think Abi obviously has GOAT written all over her.  And the thing with returnee-seasons is that some (if not most) of these players probably have pre-show deals/alliances in place.  Some of those folks were likely split up by the Tribe selection.  

 

So, as long as they are not themselves enough of a threat (to win $1M) that they put a target on themselves pre-merge before they re-unite with their secret partner, they might not really care about keeping their particular pre-merge Tribe strong.  In fact, if their secret partner on the other Tribe is a visible threat, it may be in their best interest to keep their own Tribe going to TC in order to protect their partner.

[Kel Varnsen]

I agree with you. I almost always think it's a mistake to vote off stronger competitors this early in the game, when you're still participating in team challenges. If you keep it up, your tribe is going to get decimated and few of you will even make it to merge. Sometimes it's worth it, but I'm not sure that's the case this time.

My interpretation of that is that it is another one of those old school/new school survivor things. New school survivor strategy says that your early days alliance is most important, and winning challenges in the team stage less so, because as long as you have a super strong aliance even if you are in the minority after the merge you still have a decent shot at winning.

[Zuleikha]

Also, what's the point of voting to preserve team challenge strength when odds are high that there will be a tribal swap? Better to preserve your alliance members and increase the chance of everyone in the alliance making it to merge/alliance members being with you in a swap.

[rose711]

Also, what's the point of voting to preserve team challenge strength when odds are high that there will be a tribal swap? Better to preserve your alliance members and increase the chance of everyone in the alliance making it to merge/alliance members being with you in a swap.

We just saw the point in episode 2. The only sure chance you or an ally won't leave is to win the challenge. I'm not sure Vytas would have made the difference, but staying out of tribal council is important. Your alliance may not hold through the swap anyway.