[Vitinho]

- Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:07:45 pm #101 Hey, I'm Vytas of Stranded: Portugal and Stranded: All-Stars in Marquesas

Welcome to Stranded in Indonesia!

You'll be seeing a lot of me here, as well as our 10 other co-hosts as we pick your brain to see what's really going on in your head throughout the game. Feel free to ask any of us questions in here if you need to, we've all been through it before and are more than willing to help.

Each round, we'll start by asking some introductory questions, and I just want to ask that you answer in complete statements. We will be actively blogging on each episode, and it's easier to do so if we have real quotes and complete thoughts as opposed to simple yes or no answers. We hope you keep up with your confessionals daily during the week as a way to vent and discuss the events of that day. The more you update your confessional, the better idea we have of whats going on in your head, and also the more fan favorite points you'll earn yourself come the end of the season . You don't have to only update when you are prompted to, whenever you have an idea shoot it at us because we want to know everything.

So..

How confident are you going into this game that you will win?

What are your opinions of your fellow tribemates?

What is your strategy and approach to the game?

How do you think your rep fits you? Do you think being this character will affect your gameplay at all?

What are your thoughts on the leader twist? Change your strategy at all going in to these first few days?

Best of luck out there.

[Joaquin]

- Fri Apr 15, 2016 2:41:44 am #317 Hello Jeff and Alumni!

First confessional...damn. It feels good to be back. (PS, I am a wee bit tipsy making this confessional. I'm assuming my partying habits in my application are what made me Joaq.)

In case any of y'all did not read my application, I am a senior at a top university (Northwestern) (aka Survivor U, with Alexis, Max, Kelly and J'Tia all associated) about to enter the workforce as a software dev at a top tech company, in addition to being an accomplished musician. I'm actually not at all as cocky as that sentence or my application sounded (gotta get cast, ya feel), but hopefully my previously well considered confessionals are to your liking. (Again, if you don't know, this is my 3rd ORG and Poody brought me out of retirement - I was not being able to show to the FIC away from winning my first season and then won the all-stars season on a Reddit series). Anyway, ask me any questions about myself or my strategy - I'll be happy to answer.

As for your questions:
1) If you're confident you're going to win before you even vote once, you're a fucking idiot. I feel relatively confident in my abilities, however.
2) 1st day analysis of tribemates: (For reference: The proposed first day majority, to my knowledge, is Joaquin, Dan, Joe, Sierra and Kelly).
-Dan: I made friends with Dan right off the bat, talking about soccer. Based on how I've spoken to him, he is definitely a fucking game player and an ORG vet (btw, I'm going under the guise of a newbie out here, but we'll see if anyone cares). Probably the rock tying together the hopeful majority alliance, I hope to stick with him for a while.
-Joe: A Brit of few words, a lot of people like Joe. I'm probably less close to him than Dan is, but a good guy and doesn't seem like as much of a player.
-Sierra: I think socially she is the most engaging of the people I've talked to. Not enough conversation to get a good read.
-Kelly: A high schooler, theater girl trying to go into TV. I want to stick with her for a while, because her immaturity definitely shows in her inability to show nuance in conversation. The way she tried to get me to ally with her was so cringingly transparent I have a feeling she'll be an awful liar. Nice girl.
-So: Another high schooler, but definitely smarter and more mature than Kelly. Made a really smart move with the idol (but maybe gave herself a target in being so smart?) I like So a lot, but appears to be looking on the outside in.
-Jenn: Another cool person, she wants to be really tight with me, but isn't in on the majority alliance. Hopefully I can keep her around, as someone who wants to be loyal to me is always useful. A little less socially graceful than others and doesn't seem like she has a killer instinct.
-Max: Barely talked to him, but seemed nice. Jenn likes him.
-Shirin: I love that you guys casted Shirin, you need a crazy character on every tribe (from experience). But also from experience, their unpredictability doesn't lend well to longevity.
3) Strategy - I can already tell this game has some serious players. Right now I'm just trying to form social bonds and lay under the radar but still important to my alliance. Don't come off as the threat or figurehead, but stay tight. I'll wreck havoc come merge time. Also, following the Dan Gheesling (of Big Brother fame) rule: Never be the first one to talk strategy (unless it's forming a day 1 alliance in a Survivor ORG).
4)I'm guessing I'm Joaquin because I drink a lot. Whatever. I don't think anyone cares about the names/characters assigned to them right now, I sure don't.
5) Leader twist was fun. Definitely didn't want to be the leader. I'm honestly just glad the twist didn't involve voting someone out on the first night. Doesn't change my strategy, other than we can't vote out So at the first tribal (if she holds onto her idol, she's fucked for the rest of the game, so I doubt she'll do that).

Game seems fun so far, can't wait to continue!

[Jeff Probst]

- Fri Apr 15, 2016 2:50:33 am #322 Loving it Joaq. Also, there is a group PM feature if you want to say... start an alliance chat with more than one person.

[Joaquin]

- Fri Apr 15, 2016 11:20:44 am #368 We have started to take advantage of that feature (which I'm sure you've seen now).

[Joaquin]

- Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:30:55 pm #374 Also, having trouble sending messages - everything is just staying in my outbox.

[Marissa Peterson]

- Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:53:13 pm #376 They stay in your outbox until someone reads it boo.

By the way... HII Jaoquin! GL!

[Joaquin]

- Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:02:53 pm #379 Oh lol...fuck. This Reddit-to-forum transition has been...a bit rough to say the least

[Joaquin]

- Sat Apr 16, 2016 2:21:17 am #428 GREETINGS LOVED ONES

last night was tipy but tonight we ampin' up the alcohol levels! it's the weekend baby!
(so yeah, i'm drunk obvi)

Day 2 obviously way more shhhh and on the dL than Day 1

our 5 person alliance really solidified. telling the whole group about Jenn's "alt plan" i hope really solidified me in Joe and Dan's eyes as being a "puppet" - or idk whatever they want me to be. Just gotta stay solid premerge, don't play too hard. Speaking of whichhhhh

Kelly - she was a igh schooler and I said she was immature yesterday. Playing WAYYYY too fucking hard this early. Talkin' bout recruiting alts into alliance and breaking promises on idols and shit and splititng votes idk. Like are you kidding...you play hard this early you're fucked. Whatever, at least it ain't me.
Dan - my man. once again showed strategical prowess in determining the right way to approach So regarding the idol, but Kelly had other bizarre ideas. Tryna suck up to him now to get in good but I have a feeling I'll have to cut his throat eventually.
Joe - so nice, so simple, so go with the flow, he won't win. But chILLLL dude
Jenn - I like her. But she is WAYY out of touch when it comes to alliances and the social dynamics of the tribe. Tried to form a "majority" alliance with me, Sierra and Kelly and Max (but max doesn't talk to any of us and is super iirellvavnet sooo). At the same time, keeping people outside my core close was what enabled me to win my last game, so gonna try real hard to keep her alive.

Sad we lost Shirin - a great character in the making. New Shirin has not messged anyone to my knowledge.

That's it for now - i case you didn't gethe dunk message, don't play too hard early, set yourself up for later. I'm too good at this shit. Toodles :) ;)

[Marissa Peterson]

- Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:49:44 am #595 Yo Jaoq,

Has much changed over the past 24 hours in terms of alliance and trust?

[Joaquin]

- Mon Apr 18, 2016 2:39:16 pm #598 Hey all,

Not a whole ton has changed. The tribe, in messages, seems pretty intent on unanimously voting out Shirin, who has yet to even open up her inbox. To not vote her out is a complete insane move, nobody here has come out as super threatening in needing to be blindsided now. Additionally, just based on the number of messages exchanged, it would be a huge long con.

I generally trust the 5 Amigos, particularly Sierra and Dan, who seem smart and who I've been talking to a lot. The only person in my alliance that I feel slightly less trustworthy towards is Kelly, who like I said in my drunk confessional, is overplaying the shit out of this game this early. Being really combative in alliance strategy talks and announcing how much she is practicing the puzzles shows the amount of effort she's putting in early. SHE ALSO ANNOUNCED TO THE WHOLE ALLIANCE THAT SHE IS SO TIGHT WITH SO (KIM) THAT SHE CAN TELL HER HOW TO PLAY THE IDOL. That's so dumb, like, you just burned people's trust by saying that. I have an alliance with Jenn but you don't hear me blabbering about it to everyone. I think she'll be someone to watch down the line as dangerous, but an easy danger to spot out luckily.

Ultimately, as a reflection of my game, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of just building social bonds with people and being well liked (everyone thought me being drunk was funny) and not being threatening early, which I think is the key in Survivor - wreck havoc later on, build the bonds now to enable you to wreck havoc (ie have people trust you enough to vote with you in your plans)