This week's Survivor featured what may be the most thorough merge of tribes in survivor history, as it sought to balance genders and races in the new tribes. New buffs all around and people begin to strategize. In Raro, an alliance of four emerged, featuring Yul who owns a hidden immunity idol. Also finding a bond on Raro were the roller girl and Cao Boi, both being laid back. Tribes get settled then head off to challenge-land
This was an awesome immunity challenge. Tribes were chained to a rope together and each given a 15 pound weight to carry over a shoulder, like those fancy backpacks you see at Dick's. Then the two tribes line up on opposite sides of an oval track which is covered in knee-deep water. The first tribe chase down the other and tackle one member wins immunity. Now there was one more detail, any tribe member could leave the challenge, but must transfer the weight to another member of their tribe first.
When Jeff gave the sign, this is what went down. Raro, after a lap or so (as far as the editing tells me) decided to drop all five females from the chain and put their weights on the men. 15 pounds is a little under two gallons of milk to be carrying. Now, I'm not buff, but I can carry two gallons of milk for quite a while, and the longer you make yourself last the better off your stronger members (i.e. men) will be when it comes down to the wire. However Raro went with the "ditch all your girls cause they serve no purpose" strategy. Aitu held out longer, and one female held on quite a bit, helping hold the weight. It paid off and Aitu gained on Raro considerably. At this point one member of Raro had 45 pounds on him, knee deep in water, and expected to move at a pace faster than stranded-in-desert-wandering pace. That's a recipe for disaster. Or Tribal council as it turned out.
And in the end the group of four, one down during tribal council because a member was at exile island (effect of the challenge), managed to convince two other castaways to their side and Cece was voted out of the tribe.
And now for speculation. I realized in this episode that twenty people is a lot. Seriously. Survivor typically sticks with sixteen every year. This creates two options: four more episodes, or double elimination episodes. It would seem fairest to put a double-elimination round after the merge, to prevent a larger imbalance in tribes than necessary. Still, with each season of survivor trying to up the unpredictability, and with The Amazing Race pulling off a double elimination, it seems Survivor is the only show to nix it so far.
We shall see Mr. Burnett, we shall see.
Friday, September 29
Wednesday, September 27
Old School Amazing Race
Awww yeah, this is the Amazing Race I fell in love with. TAR returned to its roots this week with teams visiting very foreign cultures and dealing with obscure forms of livestock and crappy vehicles.
Teams fled out of China to the middle of Mongolia. On the way a bus and train seating situation bumped all the teams together to start Mongolia even. That's the thing about the Amazing race, unless you have an eight-hour plus lead, you can always get caught up to by other teams. In Mongolia the teams experienced local culture and got lost, as per usual.
The smushing of all the teams waiting for the buses gave us a look at the teams actually being quite friendly, something that usually isn't apparent of existent in previous seasons. Someone typically becomes a target and factions form. That's not to say that won't happen, but at least at that point teams were genial.
Moving on to the nitty-gritty, let's look at the detour. Teams could either pack up the fabrics and such that comprised the walls and ceiling of a nomad shelter and pack them in a specific manner onto a camel, or, take an oxen-like animal and cart out to a river and retrieve water to fill a tank. If in that situation I think I would've gone with the filling of water, though it's a close call this time. Far too often the producers make one task so simply physical that teams gravitate to it. This time the teams split a little, with some teams switching tasks more than once. My reasoning with the filling challenge is that you know exactly what needs to be done, herd this ox-thing to the river, get water, return, fill, and repeat. With taking down the nomad shelter, you can easily get stuck on not understanding the methods used and the only examples were pre-packed. No demonstrations.
Another game-note was the specifications of transportation. Almost every time teams receive route info they are given specific instructions on what types of transportation to take (on foot, by taxi, by bike, etc). This week the teams had to leave the detour area on the horses they rode there on, and with all the safety equipment provided. This meant funny looking helmets that more than one team had misplaced during the detour. Those are the most frustrating set-backs, when you assume you don't need to remember or keep certain things only to need them later.
The roadblock this week was shooting a fire arrow to a target. I just watched Survivor:Africa this weekend, and their fire arrow challenges were fresh in my head. Interesting to note: two roadblocks have been immediately before the pit stop, within a couple dozen feet of the finish mat. The first roadblock was actually in the middle of the leg, the fish eyes, but afterwards was the surprise elimination. This puts more pressure on roadblocks that typical for AR. Just something of note.
And finally, this episode we got a reminder on car policy on the AR: it breaks, you're screwed. Well ok, technically it's that the producers produce another car, but no time credit is given. My summary stands as accurate.
Teams fled out of China to the middle of Mongolia. On the way a bus and train seating situation bumped all the teams together to start Mongolia even. That's the thing about the Amazing race, unless you have an eight-hour plus lead, you can always get caught up to by other teams. In Mongolia the teams experienced local culture and got lost, as per usual.
The smushing of all the teams waiting for the buses gave us a look at the teams actually being quite friendly, something that usually isn't apparent of existent in previous seasons. Someone typically becomes a target and factions form. That's not to say that won't happen, but at least at that point teams were genial.
Moving on to the nitty-gritty, let's look at the detour. Teams could either pack up the fabrics and such that comprised the walls and ceiling of a nomad shelter and pack them in a specific manner onto a camel, or, take an oxen-like animal and cart out to a river and retrieve water to fill a tank. If in that situation I think I would've gone with the filling of water, though it's a close call this time. Far too often the producers make one task so simply physical that teams gravitate to it. This time the teams split a little, with some teams switching tasks more than once. My reasoning with the filling challenge is that you know exactly what needs to be done, herd this ox-thing to the river, get water, return, fill, and repeat. With taking down the nomad shelter, you can easily get stuck on not understanding the methods used and the only examples were pre-packed. No demonstrations.
Another game-note was the specifications of transportation. Almost every time teams receive route info they are given specific instructions on what types of transportation to take (on foot, by taxi, by bike, etc). This week the teams had to leave the detour area on the horses they rode there on, and with all the safety equipment provided. This meant funny looking helmets that more than one team had misplaced during the detour. Those are the most frustrating set-backs, when you assume you don't need to remember or keep certain things only to need them later.
The roadblock this week was shooting a fire arrow to a target. I just watched Survivor:Africa this weekend, and their fire arrow challenges were fresh in my head. Interesting to note: two roadblocks have been immediately before the pit stop, within a couple dozen feet of the finish mat. The first roadblock was actually in the middle of the leg, the fish eyes, but afterwards was the surprise elimination. This puts more pressure on roadblocks that typical for AR. Just something of note.
And finally, this episode we got a reminder on car policy on the AR: it breaks, you're screwed. Well ok, technically it's that the producers produce another car, but no time credit is given. My summary stands as accurate.
Monday, September 25
A plot, a discovery, and an execution.
After finally viewing the second episode of survivor, here are my thoughts.
The show opens with a small section showing the mood in each tribe. Hiki, the black tribe, tries to bounce back from Tribal Council last week by getting the fire going. This brings them together and eliminates the male/female divide that was apparent last week. The Puka tribe once again grows sick of Cao Boi's ethnic jokes, while tolerant of his headache remedy. Ironically, While the Asian tribe seems to not care about being the same ethnicity (except for the Korean alliance in the making), the Hispanic tribe finds Billy's lack of bonding irritating. To be far, Billy is also shirking duties, or at least not taking on any responsibility. Because of this Ozzy asks his tribe mates to throw the next challenge to give Billy the boot.
Now, throwing a challenge is a big risk. First, the tribes are only comprised of five people right now, so with each person lost a greater amount of work falls on each remaining person. (One could argue that with Billy, he's already not doing his share of the work.) Second, with five people, you have a one-in-five shot at getting booted, so Ozzy needs complete confidence that the rest of his tribe mates will follow through. This is why he comes down hard on Cristina who finds the idea of throwing a challenge shady.
Onto this week's challenge.
That's right, singular. Once again the producers clumped reward and immunity, giving me less to analyze. This week we are treated to another sectioned race. The start of the race is a story about which tribes must memorize details. Then, tied together, they must go under and over a set of logs, navigate a bamboo jungle-gym kinda of set-up that has 7 answer planks tied up. They are to retrieve the answers and cross a rope bridge over water. Then tribes arrive at a question board to match 5 of the answers with 5 questions. First tribe to answer the five questions gets immunity and tarps, the second and third immunity, and the last get a date with Jeff Probst.
As an added element, teams could elect to read over the story before starting on the logs during the challenge. When Jeff starts the event, that's exactly what Aitu does, aiming to boot Billy. When it comes down to the end, Jeff proclaims Puka the winner, even though it seems that Raro had finished just as fast. In fact after the dust settles and tapes are reviewed, Jeff claims it was a tie. That's what you get when you only have one ref.
While we're talking about Jeff, he makes a really good announcer. He either is informed on the team's progress via earpiece/production team, is very good at keeping track of who's got how many planks, or they put his progress checks in afterward. But still, most of the time hosts in such shows are typically distant, a rare entity only around to provide judgement upon elimination ceremonies and invoke boardroom-like interrogations. Jeff however has become quite settled in his role and a part of the survivor experience, giving color commentary, encouragement, discipline, reffing, and temptation. He's an all around hosting/emcee machine. And to think he was going to quit.
Moving on, the challenge was good. Survivor, having used many options, has decided multi-part challenges are the easiest way to not be repetitive. I had recently viewed Survivor:Africa, and those challenges were as simple as "roll this boulder to the finish along this course" or "shot the arrows at the targets". Now we get puzzle boats and shackles in the first two weeks alone. This challenge was not very mental though, as the story to be memorized was more of a short 7-sentence affair. But hey, this isn't supposed to be Jeopardy or Dog Eat Dog (the biggest, weirdest combinations of wits, smarts, and guts ever. And not just because the commercials said so.) This is survivor.
So yeah, Billy tries to work Cristina to get Ozzy out instead of him, but the fact that Billy was slacking off seemed to be the determining factor as the vote was unanimous, sans Billy.
So I'll be back whenever I get a look at the newest AR episode.
PS I just realized that CBS provides the episode online now, but inner tube is currently hating my FireFox on OS X
PPS Where the hell did the Billy and Candice thing come from? I mean I get it now that they showed Candice saying she feels bad, but man. Weird.
PPPS Yul found the hidden immunity idol, and the clues were actually pretty cool, with the island forming the letter and all. Just as good, if not better, than a Y shaped tree.
The show opens with a small section showing the mood in each tribe. Hiki, the black tribe, tries to bounce back from Tribal Council last week by getting the fire going. This brings them together and eliminates the male/female divide that was apparent last week. The Puka tribe once again grows sick of Cao Boi's ethnic jokes, while tolerant of his headache remedy. Ironically, While the Asian tribe seems to not care about being the same ethnicity (except for the Korean alliance in the making), the Hispanic tribe finds Billy's lack of bonding irritating. To be far, Billy is also shirking duties, or at least not taking on any responsibility. Because of this Ozzy asks his tribe mates to throw the next challenge to give Billy the boot.
Now, throwing a challenge is a big risk. First, the tribes are only comprised of five people right now, so with each person lost a greater amount of work falls on each remaining person. (One could argue that with Billy, he's already not doing his share of the work.) Second, with five people, you have a one-in-five shot at getting booted, so Ozzy needs complete confidence that the rest of his tribe mates will follow through. This is why he comes down hard on Cristina who finds the idea of throwing a challenge shady.
Onto this week's challenge.
That's right, singular. Once again the producers clumped reward and immunity, giving me less to analyze. This week we are treated to another sectioned race. The start of the race is a story about which tribes must memorize details. Then, tied together, they must go under and over a set of logs, navigate a bamboo jungle-gym kinda of set-up that has 7 answer planks tied up. They are to retrieve the answers and cross a rope bridge over water. Then tribes arrive at a question board to match 5 of the answers with 5 questions. First tribe to answer the five questions gets immunity and tarps, the second and third immunity, and the last get a date with Jeff Probst.
As an added element, teams could elect to read over the story before starting on the logs during the challenge. When Jeff starts the event, that's exactly what Aitu does, aiming to boot Billy. When it comes down to the end, Jeff proclaims Puka the winner, even though it seems that Raro had finished just as fast. In fact after the dust settles and tapes are reviewed, Jeff claims it was a tie. That's what you get when you only have one ref.
While we're talking about Jeff, he makes a really good announcer. He either is informed on the team's progress via earpiece/production team, is very good at keeping track of who's got how many planks, or they put his progress checks in afterward. But still, most of the time hosts in such shows are typically distant, a rare entity only around to provide judgement upon elimination ceremonies and invoke boardroom-like interrogations. Jeff however has become quite settled in his role and a part of the survivor experience, giving color commentary, encouragement, discipline, reffing, and temptation. He's an all around hosting/emcee machine. And to think he was going to quit.
Moving on, the challenge was good. Survivor, having used many options, has decided multi-part challenges are the easiest way to not be repetitive. I had recently viewed Survivor:Africa, and those challenges were as simple as "roll this boulder to the finish along this course" or "shot the arrows at the targets". Now we get puzzle boats and shackles in the first two weeks alone. This challenge was not very mental though, as the story to be memorized was more of a short 7-sentence affair. But hey, this isn't supposed to be Jeopardy or Dog Eat Dog (the biggest, weirdest combinations of wits, smarts, and guts ever. And not just because the commercials said so.) This is survivor.
So yeah, Billy tries to work Cristina to get Ozzy out instead of him, but the fact that Billy was slacking off seemed to be the determining factor as the vote was unanimous, sans Billy.
So I'll be back whenever I get a look at the newest AR episode.
PS I just realized that CBS provides the episode online now, but inner tube is currently hating my FireFox on OS X
PPS Where the hell did the Billy and Candice thing come from? I mean I get it now that they showed Candice saying she feels bad, but man. Weird.
PPPS Yul found the hidden immunity idol, and the clues were actually pretty cool, with the island forming the letter and all. Just as good, if not better, than a Y shaped tree.
Sunday, September 24
Basically, I Need Tivo
Ok, so due to events and groups I am involved in scheduling meeting times during the two shows I am regularly following, all updates regarding Survivor: Cook Islands and The Amazing Race will be seriously delayed. So hopefully you didn't use this site to keep up with who's on or who's off because I don't know. And that's not the point of this blog anyhow, this is game analysis. In theory. So there.
Sunday, September 17
Cold Phil, that was cold.
AWWWWWWWWWWWW Yeah it's Amazing Race night! Just to get this out of the way, I am a huge AR fan, it's right after The Mole on my list. It's very classy, inspirational, and has Phil. Anyways, lets move on to the analysis.
This race looked hot from the start. The teams were awesome, including a Muslim team of friends, a pair of recovered drug addicts, Miss USA-ers, a triathlete short one leg, and a LESBIAN! They -never- put lesbians on reality shows! Ok, one season of BB I think there was a lesbian. Anyways, she's young and racing with her dad, but let me get organized.
THE TEAMS
Bilal & Sa'eed
Friends from Cleveland who are both Muslim and have opposing personalities. Bilal is the extrovert, Sa'eed is the introvert. Besides the handicap of having to turn to Mecca five times to pray a day, this team seems at about average standing.
David & Mary
Married parents from Kentucky that met first working at McDonald's. David is a coal miner and Mary is a housewife who hasn't been outside the Kentucky/Tennessee area much which may cause them to slow down when either being confused by international travel, or busy marvelling wonders. They get positive points for David working in coal mines, a physical plus. Once again an average rating.
Duke & Lauren
A father and daughter team (the first of it's kind, preceeded only by a mother/son team a few seasons back) with a twist, Lauren's gay and Duke is having a hard time with it. In fact Duke had ignored Lauren for the good part of a year before they began making amends. Be on the look for breakdowns, but both team mates are physically adept. I give them a slight above average standing, merely due to Lauren's youth and the fact that I like this team already.
Dustin & Kandice
Miss USA Pagaent contestants, they became friends after rooming during the competition. Kandice is supposed to be the impulsive one, and Dustin the conservative one, but they both are highly competitive. With only that to go on, I give them a slightly lower than average rating, even though team Miss USA on treasure hunt outdid many all-guy teams.
Erwin & Godwin
Harvard and NYU grads, these brothers think they got this race down. Not only do they have an impressive educational resume, they are built very well. I give them a high standing for determination (Harvard) bond (brothers) and physical strength (just look at'em).
Kellie & Jamie
Co-Captains of their southern College's cheering squad, these two are apparently full of determination and competitiveness, also known as spunk. I give them just above average standing, they're fit and cheerleaders, to generalize, know how to socialize properly.
Lyn & Karlyn
Friends since 9th grade, these two single moms have no major unique qualities. Sorry. They get a little below average standing for not having much travel experience nor physical strength.
Peter & Sarah
This team is AR gold. Sarah is handicapped, but only technically since her missing leg has not stopped her and her beau Pete from attending Iron Man Triathlons. They're in the beginnings of their relationship, but their huge physical advantage gives them an above average standing.
Rob & Kimberley
The dating couple. Stock L.A. reality show filler. Average standing.
Tom & Terry
Boyfriends that have been dating for two years. That's pretty much all you can gather from the previews and website. Average standing for being slightly older, but will get along with other teams somewhat well.
Tyler & James
Unlike the nipple-pierced frat-boys of last season, this year's young attractive best male friends actually seem deserving of a win. After coping with drug addictions, the two became friends again after rehab and now model together. They're fit, fun, and have the guts to fight drugs. Above average standing.
Vipul & Arti
Married Indian-American couple who are well travelled. Another situation of a slightly over-active male and a loyal female, and I give them a slightly above average standing.
Wow, that took a while.
Onto the first episode!
During Phil's opening speech to the teams, he warns of twists and turns and surprises, which I got giddy like a schoolgirl over. Anyways, his hand drops and the teams manage once again not to kill Phil. This first leg sent the teams into the heart of China.
After two flights arrive in the people's republic, a roadblock of eating fish eyes is awaiting the teams. I think they were required to use the chopsticks, because most of them goofed around using them. I would've gone in with my fingers and ripped them out like a low-budget Quentin Tarantino movie.
Anyways, some mild indigestion later and teams are ordered to pick a departure time for next morning from a podium. There were four 7 am, four 7:15 am, three 7:30 am, and one labeled "LAST TEAM". That's pretty ominous. Bilal and Sa'eed were unlucky number twelve to arrive, and grabbed the tile. It said to find Phil and headed to the mat map we all love. (CBS should sell it online, think of the awesomeness of coming home to the finish mat everyday!)
Phil then warned of the surprises, and informed the Muslim team that although this is not a pit stop, they are eliminated from the race.
Ouch. Really Jerry Bruckheimer, there could've been nicer ways to shake up the race. (Like bringing back more fast forwards. Grumble mutter...) C'est la vie. The teams get misty eyed, half due to some nice guys getting the axe, half out of pure fear of elimination at all times now.
The race goes on and a detour with a sneak brick pattern or tricky ball/pattern dance is provided. (I want to learn that ball paddle dance art so bad now.) Teams then took a quick climb of the Great Wall of China and Vipul and Arti showed up 11th.
Phil once again cut the team from the race, leaving only 10 left to start the next leg. I suppose the quick thinning of the crowd may have been utilized to help increase familiarity with the contestants. Most reality shows average 12 starting contestants, and AR starts with 12 teams of two, 24 faces that may or may not entertain the audience. So by quickly weeding out teams they increase fan devotion and interest in certain teams.
My faves are probably already apparent, Duke/Lauren, Erwin/Godwin, and Tyler/James. Plus, with three favorites out of ten, I've got a good chance and having a winner I like! And a 27% chance of at least one team I like landing in the final three. (that math was slightly BSed)
Ok, that was one loooong post. See ya later!
This race looked hot from the start. The teams were awesome, including a Muslim team of friends, a pair of recovered drug addicts, Miss USA-ers, a triathlete short one leg, and a LESBIAN! They -never- put lesbians on reality shows! Ok, one season of BB I think there was a lesbian. Anyways, she's young and racing with her dad, but let me get organized.
THE TEAMS
Bilal & Sa'eed
Friends from Cleveland who are both Muslim and have opposing personalities. Bilal is the extrovert, Sa'eed is the introvert. Besides the handicap of having to turn to Mecca five times to pray a day, this team seems at about average standing.
David & Mary
Married parents from Kentucky that met first working at McDonald's. David is a coal miner and Mary is a housewife who hasn't been outside the Kentucky/Tennessee area much which may cause them to slow down when either being confused by international travel, or busy marvelling wonders. They get positive points for David working in coal mines, a physical plus. Once again an average rating.
Duke & Lauren
A father and daughter team (the first of it's kind, preceeded only by a mother/son team a few seasons back) with a twist, Lauren's gay and Duke is having a hard time with it. In fact Duke had ignored Lauren for the good part of a year before they began making amends. Be on the look for breakdowns, but both team mates are physically adept. I give them a slight above average standing, merely due to Lauren's youth and the fact that I like this team already.
Dustin & Kandice
Miss USA Pagaent contestants, they became friends after rooming during the competition. Kandice is supposed to be the impulsive one, and Dustin the conservative one, but they both are highly competitive. With only that to go on, I give them a slightly lower than average rating, even though team Miss USA on treasure hunt outdid many all-guy teams.
Erwin & Godwin
Harvard and NYU grads, these brothers think they got this race down. Not only do they have an impressive educational resume, they are built very well. I give them a high standing for determination (Harvard) bond (brothers) and physical strength (just look at'em).
Kellie & Jamie
Co-Captains of their southern College's cheering squad, these two are apparently full of determination and competitiveness, also known as spunk. I give them just above average standing, they're fit and cheerleaders, to generalize, know how to socialize properly.
Lyn & Karlyn
Friends since 9th grade, these two single moms have no major unique qualities. Sorry. They get a little below average standing for not having much travel experience nor physical strength.
Rob & Kimberley
Tom & Terry
Tyler & James
Vipul & Arti
Wow, that took a while.
Onto the first episode!
After two flights arrive in the people's republic, a roadblock of eating fish eyes is awaiting the teams. I think they were required to use the chopsticks, because most of them goofed around using them. I would've gone in with my fingers and ripped them out like a low-budget Quentin Tarantino movie.
Anyways, some mild indigestion later and teams are ordered to pick a departure time for next morning from a podium. There were four 7 am, four 7:15 am, three 7:30 am, and one labeled "LAST TEAM". That's pretty ominous. Bilal and Sa'eed were unlucky number twelve to arrive, and grabbed the tile. It said to find Phil and headed to the mat map we all love. (CBS should sell it online, think of the awesomeness of coming home to the finish mat everyday!)
Phil then warned of the surprises, and informed the Muslim team that although this is not a pit stop, they are eliminated from the race.
Ouch. Really Jerry Bruckheimer, there could've been nicer ways to shake up the race. (Like bringing back more fast forwards. Grumble mutter...) C'est la vie. The teams get misty eyed, half due to some nice guys getting the axe, half out of pure fear of elimination at all times now.
The race goes on and a detour with a sneak brick pattern or tricky ball/pattern dance is provided. (I want to learn that ball paddle dance art so bad now.) Teams then took a quick climb of the Great Wall of China and Vipul and Arti showed up 11th.
Phil once again cut the team from the race, leaving only 10 left to start the next leg. I suppose the quick thinning of the crowd may have been utilized to help increase familiarity with the contestants. Most reality shows average 12 starting contestants, and AR starts with 12 teams of two, 24 faces that may or may not entertain the audience. So by quickly weeding out teams they increase fan devotion and interest in certain teams.
My faves are probably already apparent, Duke/Lauren, Erwin/Godwin, and Tyler/James. Plus, with three favorites out of ten, I've got a good chance and having a winner I like! And a 27% chance of at least one team I like landing in the final three. (that math was slightly BSed)
Ok, that was one loooong post. See ya later!
Thursday, September 14
Cook Islands
Ok, not gonna lie, I was not in my dorm or otherwise in front of a TV at 8pm on Thursday night. Well, monitors in a studio, but not a survivor-viewing set. So once my audition for hosting on a local college "The Amazing Race" emulation "The Race" I ran for my dorm. Ok jogged. But I made it in time to only miss the stuff before the first commercial break. So I didn't get to hear Jeff go over everything, but I saw what I needed to see. On to the analysis!
Firstly, I already voiced my concern of the crappy logistics of four small tribes of five. It can only last three weeks tops, and I'm betting they'll mix it up after the next episode, if not during. So there was only one challenge this week (unless I missed one) that provided fire to three winning tribes, the fastest earning a fire kit, and the losing tribe heading to tribal council. (Where they'll also get fire, but lose a tribe mate. Awww.)
So, the challenge for immunity I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of it. I only hope they maintain that level for the entire season. The low down was a physical race to a construction of a boat puzzle with pegs and such. Then physical boat racing to a flame, and returning the boat to the beach. Then taking the slats holding the boat together they head to a puzzle of assembling squares scribed with the four cardinal directions. Once complete the team was finally allowed to use the slats to make a ladder to light up their flame, gaining immunity.
With four teams, the first three teams would earn flint and the first of them would earn a full fire kit and caboodle. The losing team would get Jeff for night. The Hiki tribe lost so as an added element they got to pick a castaway to uh....castaway on castaw-- er exile island. Same ole deal with the hidden immunity idol blah blah. Needless to say the first clue was wanting in details.
The Hiki tribe (black tribe for those remembering the race divide) had been branching into sects already, with two girls buddying up and the two guys wanting to team up against the women. Unfortunately there was a gender imbalance in the tribe, three girls to two guys. The interesting bit was that two of the women are becoming fast friends, leaving the third in a position to either ally with the women or the men. She held the gender line and Sekou was the first castaway voted off survivor. The tribe spoke, and I still don't know anyone's name on the island.
So yeah, seeya after the Amazing Race premiere!
Firstly, I already voiced my concern of the crappy logistics of four small tribes of five. It can only last three weeks tops, and I'm betting they'll mix it up after the next episode, if not during. So there was only one challenge this week (unless I missed one) that provided fire to three winning tribes, the fastest earning a fire kit, and the losing tribe heading to tribal council. (Where they'll also get fire, but lose a tribe mate. Awww.)
So, the challenge for immunity I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of it. I only hope they maintain that level for the entire season. The low down was a physical race to a construction of a boat puzzle with pegs and such. Then physical boat racing to a flame, and returning the boat to the beach. Then taking the slats holding the boat together they head to a puzzle of assembling squares scribed with the four cardinal directions. Once complete the team was finally allowed to use the slats to make a ladder to light up their flame, gaining immunity.
With four teams, the first three teams would earn flint and the first of them would earn a full fire kit and caboodle. The losing team would get Jeff for night. The Hiki tribe lost so as an added element they got to pick a castaway to uh....castaway on castaw-- er exile island. Same ole deal with the hidden immunity idol blah blah. Needless to say the first clue was wanting in details.
The Hiki tribe (black tribe for those remembering the race divide) had been branching into sects already, with two girls buddying up and the two guys wanting to team up against the women. Unfortunately there was a gender imbalance in the tribe, three girls to two guys. The interesting bit was that two of the women are becoming fast friends, leaving the third in a position to either ally with the women or the men. She held the gender line and Sekou was the first castaway voted off survivor. The tribe spoke, and I still don't know anyone's name on the island.
So yeah, seeya after the Amazing Race premiere!
Sunday, September 10
I can't spell long words well.
So to take up more of my free time and keep my game-making brain occupied I've decided to try to run some medium to high difficulty scavenger hunts on campus here at Ithaca. I'm going to at least pull one off, and would need about 4-7 staff at the least to help as well as 8 hunters. These would be clue-driven and require a laptop for looking up information. So if anyone from Ithaca College has started reading this stuff, join the face book group "Scavenger Hunters Extrodeniare." Yes I spelled it that way. Yes it's wrong. No I don't feel like changing it.
In other news, Survivor starts this Thursday and The Amazing Race starts the Sunday afterward. I think I may post week-by-weeks, but from a game play standpoint, with my personal asides thrown in. Hopefully the game-focus will separate my posts from the vast array of more comprehensive gossip and recap websites out there. So I'll see you sometime after the Survivor premiere.
In other news, Survivor starts this Thursday and The Amazing Race starts the Sunday afterward. I think I may post week-by-weeks, but from a game play standpoint, with my personal asides thrown in. Hopefully the game-focus will separate my posts from the vast array of more comprehensive gossip and recap websites out there. So I'll see you sometime after the Survivor premiere.
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