~~ ROUND ONE ~~

[notstephen]

"Quest for fire is bullshit.
Everyone got idol"
Mateusz is off to the races!

[Head PW 2.0]

Eh, I disagree John Wilson. I watched the Samm confessional. I think he went a little overboard, yes, but that's Samm. He's not really wrong in the opinion. He said in regards to that one vote where they're not voting someone out (but they were all of an impression that it could benefit them), the newbie who didn't have connections, wasn't going to be the one making the call. And in regards to the Endure voting block, you kinda go with the hand you're dealt. If people are going to assume that you're working with them, you're going to be forced to work with them

[Justin Jones]

I really love the way Tyler is... he just reminds me so much of me. You can see that talking infront of the camera doesn't come naturally for him. I dunno, having to go through that struggle myself, I just have a great respect for him. He's doing a great job.

[jess]

i liked what samm said in his confessional, he is going to play all out b/c he knows he most likely wont win or will be idoled out. i think it would be great to see him go far but he knows he has to get his ducks in a row if he has any chance. he is knowing what is going on in the game and right now people want to work with him. i think the alliance with matesuez and allan is good for him

[elise]

rip burger alliance... if they don't get reunited I will cry

[vic]

feel bad for tyler lying about the idol to dalton and molly. he's new so i guess he doesn't realize what the twist is. i wonder how they're gonna take it since i'm sure they're gonna know he lied to them.

[Host Brandon]

Tyler has made a lot of mistakes so far but I really appreciate the effort to try. Not all newbies push themselves this much so I'm really enjoying his game so far, I hope he can calm down and make a comeback in the next few days so he can get a grasp on the game. I want him to do well. If not, he is already a contender for next season. <3

Rip Hugo and Ethan

Hugo really hasn't done much at all and Molly found Ethan's criminal record online. Oops

~~~~~

The possibility of a Keith, Ashley, William alliance is disgusting. Ew Ew Ew
Do not go against Casey, Christian, and Jesse....like

~~~~~

I love Mikki to death so I REALLY don't want her to be on the outs...too bad she is. Ricky is aligned with Lexi as well as Simon and Saxon. That leaves Devon and Mikki on the outs. Devon hasn't really contributed much and hasn't been around as much as Mikki. I can see Ricky trying to keep Mikki longer just to keep the tension between her and Saxon. Which I wouldn't mind because Devon is ..... boring.

~~~~~

The Mateusz, Samm, Allan alliance is so much YES!!! Love them! I hope Taylor joins their tribe just so Mateusz and her can reunite. I do not want Samm and Taylor on the same tribe though,...ugh
I think that tribe's plan to to oust Vanessa round one...that would be a catastrophe.

[Head PW 2.0]

Oh god, I can't wait to hear Molly rants about the criminal record.

I like Tyler for coming into the game that has such a big name cast and fighting as a newbie. I appreciate that effort. I want him to keep going. Maybe his saving grace will be that Hugo hasn't done much.

[alex]

I literally just lost everything I had typed and it was huge so now I'm in a pretty annoyed mood. But here is like a re-do, much more shittier than before...

BARGAAL

Dalton yells a lot, I kinda like him, but he is extremely OTT which I think comes across as forced. However he is waaaaay better than Ethan who I could not watch his entire last confessional where he just rants about how awful everyone is. I feel like he thinks that he is being funny and sassy, but it comes across as petty and catty which I do not enjoy, he is far too negative, and I don't find him entertaining at all. I think there are people who are good at playing villains and it comes naturally (Ricky, for example) but Ethan tries too hard. 

Hugo being MIA is not surprising considering I thought from the get-go he was gonna be that mactor type. I am hoping that him being so invisible can save Tyler after all the allegations that he is playing too hard too fast. I enjoy newbies giving it their all, though I do understand as a player how annoying that can be as well.  

I wasn't a huge (or at all) fan of Molly during Endure but I try to give everyone a clean slate each game, so right now I am not too anti-Molly yet. Quite frankly our of all the tribes Bargaal is my least favorite so far, the players are not exactly the most entertaining. I do have a soft spot for Tyler, and then I rather like Frank so far too.

HADAR

I find Hadar a very interesting tribe. Probably my favorite in general.

I am REALLY hoping that Ricky/Lexi stick with Devon over Saxon/Simon since he is my favorite so far. I know people say he is annoying, but I find him endearing and I love his enthusiasm for the game as well. Am I for once rooting FOR Ricky? It could be, we have had some beef in the past, but I think he is a good player though he relies too heavily on his past connections, I just wanna see him play a game without a million pre-games. Lexi/Devon are two of my favorites in the cast by far, Mikki is MIA and SaSi are annoying and have very little content on their confessionals and from the looks of it they are the same in the social aspect.

SaSi are too much, please go home. Simon first though.

MENDI

I love how much Christian likes to point out he is not completely obsessed and bitter with William for lying about being a new player, and everytime he tries to further convince me that he is not bitter and obsessed the more that I believe he is. He seems like someone who is like beyond paranoid, and overthinks a lot, which could be very entertaining but I have a feeling he is gonna self-destruct. The whole William/Christian feud is beyond hilarious though, ain't it?

Everyone thinking Ashley plays dumb is also hilarious because I think she is ACTUALLY dumb, not pretending to be.

I do hate that Mendi's confessionals are like over ten minutes long in general. Not gonna happen bro, so stop it!

Keith hasn't said much, but I am looking forward to what he has to say. Jesse/Casey are alright, nothing special. I would honestly die of annoyance on this tribe.

SALAHLY

I really like the Allan/Matheuzs/Samm alliance, is Giovanni part of it as well, from what it seems? I like Constance a lot, I really want her to do well because I enjoy her positive attitude and how hard she is trying. I love that she refuses to see the lines of an iS and Endure as a thing, and wants it to be a whole new game. Samm is in the driver's seat which I love, he is good at this kind of game-play far more than when he tries to be UTR. He has a big target for hosting either way, so he might as well just go absolute ham on this game and give it his all. 

Vanessa for first boot, please <3

[#gamejohn]

Let's be real here, with all this talk about newbies making mistakes not sharing that they have the idol, I don't think they're making mistakes, I think this twist is broken. This is round 1, when have you ever played a game that you genuinely trust someone 100% in the first round, especially to tell them that you have an idol. The majority of people who are sharing they have idols are those that have pre-existing relationships, or a pre-existing foundation with someone. I mean hell, even Dalton who has a ton of ORG experience thought he had his own idol and his first thought was to TELL NOBODY. It's not abnormal to be playing it safe and wanting to keep your idol a secret, not everyone is fortunate enough to have people already that they feel comfortable sharing with. 

Just listened to Devin's latest confessional, really liked it. I think he's smart fighting to stay, sucks for Saxon being the target, but it is a good shot at an interesting Tribal because Saxon should play his idol. He doesn't want to be first boot, well he has a weapon to prevent it. Devin proved that he's pretty good socially to quickly integrate himself with Ricky, very impressed. Saxon's confessional is tough to watch, he is getting set up for a blindside and it's going to hurt. I already feel bad for him, I feel like I need to be prepping a message for him once it happens. I don't think he's doing anything in particular to really deserve it this time around compared to when he played Conquest, so it's tough when you just hear him setting himself up for a fall with his own words. 

I don't even know what was going on with Jesse, I closed that one.

Lexi's confessional was interesting because she was showing her discourse with her tribe. She takes it just a bit too far though at times, but it was interesting how in that call with Saxon/Simon she was the one doing the work. She said she did most of the talking and asking and eventually it was Ricky that was like let's be honest. The twist is like a trap for the people who don't have someone that they're very close with. It's like a 3-way prank call, I don't think Saxon or Simon knew each other had them, at least that's what I get from Saxon's confessional, but Ricky and Lexi had the upper hand.

The frustrating thing about Ricky's confessional about first confronting Simon is how he is now comparing to his talk with Devin. Ricky tries to get Simon to give up the scoop on the idol, whereas Ricky just outright tells Devin he has an idol too. It just sounds like Ricky was setting Simon up for failure on this one. As I said earlier, a lot of people may forget this because pre-game was long and a lot of people already know each other, but this is ROUND 1, this is the first time these people are on these tribes. I don't understand why everyone thinks there should be this huge amount of trust. That being said I'm totally biased in this situation since I like both Simon and Saxon and want to see them succeed because I know how hard they fight. I don't personally think they made a mistake in this situation because they had no idea Ricky and Lexi had already exposed their idols to each other. Ricky had the advantage and he used it really well to likely sink Saxon and Simon's game.

At least Simon is on the right track that Ricky/Lexi were "testing" him. Simon's state of paranoia is actually good because he's the opposite of Saxon. Saxon still doesn't realize that he is on the outs, Simon gets it. Simon knows what Ricky is doing and to a lesser extent what Lexi is doing, though Ricky is definitely the lead in that duo. If Saxon goes and Simon is blindsided and still has his idol, it will be interesting to see how he plays from here on out. It will be a good wake up call and although he doesn't have the social ability of Ricky, he'll probably try to shake things up and it will be interesting.

Tyler is still my favourite. I wish he put his trust in different allies because I feel like they'll drop him like it's hot at the first opportunity. I hope I'm wrong about this, but I feel like he'll give more to them and just end up being used. I think loyalty will end up being his fault in this game.

I'm sure Vanessa's confessionals are great, but I can't reason devoting so much time to watching them when she is just screwed in this game, haha. She got the worst tribe by a mile, maybe Constance will go before her, but regardless she's in a terrible spot.

I have no idea what is happening on Casey and Keith's tribe. Literally just read Alex's responses and watched William's confessional. I like the idea of a Keith/William/Ashley alliance and them wanting to breakup Casey/Jesse. I also love how much he hates Christian, it's really funny. I really like William so far and that alliance. It is interesting how this tribe hasn't really been as open about the idols as everyone else, even though they are suspicious of it.

Also Molly digging out Ethan's criminal record... Why is that necessary? 

Overall it's been an interesting start. I'm more excited about the Ethiopian Civilization because I think those two tribes have a lot of potential to be very unpredictable. I haven't been following the challenge at all so I have no idea who is winning, but I guess the targets this round are Vanessa, Hugo, Christian and Saxon. Losing any except Hugo would be disappointing, but I'm really hoping Saxon doesn't go just on a personal level. We'll see though, hopefully they just end up winning the challenge so at least if he leaves his tribe first he isn't the first boot of the game.

[alex]

You make a really good point about the idols and the pre-existing relationships #gamejohn

[Tyler Poirier]

I'm kind of playing catch up with confessionals and stuff still but here's my thoughts so far:

HADAR TRIBE
It seems like there's a split 4-2 right now with Saxon and Simon on the outs. I'm not too upset about this given that I think Ricky and Lexi and Devon and Mikki all seem to have more to contribute to the course of the game. With this pairing, I feel like they'll crash and burn much more quickly. If they do realize their position in time, they could turn things around and impress me, but I feel like they'd run back to Ricky who doesn't trust Simon. I think Ricky is smart to work with Lexi, because I think Lexi will be his gateway to building some bonds in the game. I know that he and Molly have been at odds in the past, but I think Molly would work with Lexi if she got the chance to do so, and by an extension Ricky would be included in that. This is my favourite tribe right now though (funny given that none of these people are my draft picks or Molly), and if the six of them make it far without losing people I think I'd be fine with that. Ricky, Lexi and Devon are probably in the best position on that tribe right now.

BARGAAL TRIBE
I think Tyler not revealing his idol when confronted may have been a mistake to his game, but I don't think he's in much danger. Hugo being not very active or around could give him a buffer round if anything so that he can regroup and move forward, but even then I think Molly and Dalton will realize that Tyler is a number for them, and if they go to tribal and take out one of the other three they'll secure a majority within their tribe.  Of the newbies he's got the most potential I've seen and I think he'll capitalize on it, especially once the players who know each other begin to target each other. That being said, I see Molly, Dalton and Tyler being in the strongest positions on this tribe.

MENDI TRIBE
My favs on this tribe right now are Casey, Jesse and Christian, so if this tribe loses they're the ones I'm really hoping to see stick it through. I was very impressed with Christian and his snooping around to try and gauge the dynamics of the game early on, and for the most part he seems pretty spot on (although yikes @ him not knowing about Lexi and Endure, I hope stuff like that won't bite him in the butt if he goes deep in the game). I think there's the greatest sense of chaos amongst the people in this tribe though, I wouldn't be surprised to see any of them get voted out because it seems like everyone is kind of everywhere. If I had to put money on it, I'd say the Christian vs William animosity would mean one of them is likely to go, but I could also see the target being put on Jesse or Casey because I think they're being grouped together and everyone is worried about pairs forming. The only one I think I'd be shocked to see go right now is Keith. He's probably one of the most connected people but he seems to be a lot more lowkey right now, so I think he's got good odds of going far. I think Keith is in the strongest position right now.

SALAHLY TRIBE
R.I.P. Constance and Vanessa, but I think the group of 4 guys is a good group in this tribe and I'm interested to see how this plays out. I think Samm is in a better position than I had anticipated him being in originally, but it doesn't surprise me and I think people might see his knowledge of the other endure players as very beneficial. I can see Ryan Giovanni definitely trying to use this to their long term advantage and get him into some groups during swap or merge situations that might not be as open to him otherwise. Right now this is my second favourite tribe, so I'm hoping they don't go on a losing streak. The men are probably in the best position in this tribe #meninists

TAYLOR ST. LOUIS AND RYAN GHERMAN
I think these two were smart in their decisions to be the first two "vote-offs" of the game. Normally I think this situation would be disadvantageous but Taylor I think is already fairly well-connected and not likely going to be at risk early on. For her I think doing this was grear because she was guaranteed to not be the first boot. I don't know as much about Ryan Gherman's connections, but overall I think he shouldn't be in a bad position once he's back in the game. Plus, both of them are gonna have their idols going into the next round, which is good because there's a possibility that we'll see a lot of idols go in the first round of tribals.

[alex]

I do not understanding ANYTHING that Casey says. She mumbles too much.

[vic]

I would expect Constance to be an easy vote for the yellow tribe. I haven't seen one confessional that talks positively about her, but with the idols it's definitely not going to be that straight forward. Not sure what to expect on the green tribe, I'm not as caught up on all of the confessionals.

But I agree with Alex that I cannot understand anything Casey says so I don't know if watching her confessional will help but I'll keep trying to understand!

[tom]

Everyone having an HII has ramped up people's paranoia so much. People are being forced to play the game really individually given how early things are. There's certainly no Kumbayah phase of this game and people seem to be foaming at the mouth to backstab people round 1. It will be interesting watching things play out.

I think it's pretty nuts that anyone would be considering using their entire tribe's supply of HII's at the first TC. If they do that, how do they possibly expect to navigate a merge, let alone the rest of the game? I think it would be a huge mistake. Very interested to see how this round goes down.