Yali Tribe

Hey Sierra, how's it going?

Questions for you:

1. In a unanimous vote to boot Max, it couldn't have been the right move for everyone, right? or was this a rare case where it actually was the right move for everyone involved?

2. Without Max, who is next on the chopping block?

3. Give me a status update on your game. How are you feeling about your place in this game moving forward?

Hi Jeff! Nah, couldn't be the right move all around. No way. Very well could have been the wrong move for me, but I felt like my hands were tied.

I would like it to be Jaclyn but of course it's scary when NO ONE has mentioned a boot target yet or anything resembling one to me. Makes me wonder if I'm next behind Max.

I'll be back with the full report later!

Do you think that when there is eventually a merge, you will try to stick with one alliance? Do you expect other people to be making multiple alliances and shifting constantly?

Jeff Probst wrote:Do you think that when there is eventually a merge, you will try to stick with one alliance? Do you expect other people to be making multiple alliances and shifting constantly?

I sense this post-merge could be very shifty. The POTENTIAL for a highly entertaining second half of Stranded: Indonesia is very fucking high, very high. It's not guaranteed and could develop into some form of pagonging, but I think there are too many players with their eyes on the prize, too much activity and good gameplay for that to be the case. We're not going to see people just accepting their fate, although Max kinda did that tonight sort of falling on his sword in a way.

As a side note, I really didn't dislike Max, but obviously he couldn't put in the effort with PMs that was necessary in a pretty active bunch. I feel like he overstayed his welcome in the game to an extent, having been saved from surefire elimination by tribe immunity wins anywhere between 1-3 times. I think I said it in an earlier episode but hopefully this doesn't discourage him if he decides to play again. He definitely got some people on his side (the Kelly crew) in his limited time he spent on the board, and maybe if he signed up for another game and got a second chance he'd know a little more about what he was getting into and do better? I don't know, I didn't get to know him well enough to make a real judgment on that. He's probably not much worse than I was my first time playing, it's just that he was really, really inactive.

At this time, I'm really not sure if I'll be a part of the post-merge. Hell, just today I showed how I really am just taking this day by day because self-preservation is so much more important to me in a season that seems to be developing into a clusterfuck with a lot of moving parts. I like to minimize moving parts as best I can, but it's not easy. There are a lot of factions and a lot of directions this can go.

Dan is still my #1 guy. I still want to work with Joaq who has really stepped up in these last couple of rounds and taken a steaming shit over my earlier opinions of him as a player. I'm kicking the tires on possibly working with Dale and Nadiya because I'd like to keep myself safe if I can. I love the fact that the idol question at tribal led to a chain reaction that caused Jac to use her public idol. I actually had to do some damage control on one of my answers at tribal, and I really can see how people can get caught up with these questions. It's just like the real show in a sense and we actually have another element to worry about that isn't really there as much in other games.

Re: Jac's idol, in my heart of hearts I don't think they had that planned. I really do think it was just raw paranoia from showing up late, maybe hearing her name said, and lack of comparing notes that all just contributed to one big melting pot that led to her decision. Unfortunately the fact that the idol is gone only makes me that much more confident in targeting her, and hopefully I'll be able to pull something off if there's no swap. I ran the idea past Dale after he pretty much gave me a neon blinking sign to throw her under the bus by really making a note of her inactivity. Maybe Dale has wanted to work with me but I haven't been giving him what he's gotten from Dan and Joaq? Any way I look at it, that won't do, because that leaves me in a precarious spot with this tribe altogether. I need to be IN Dale/Nad/Val's thoughts in a more positive way, not just as that girl they can discard to solidify trust with the other ex-Asmats. Joaquin could probably discard me right now and it would be good for his game. I don't think Dan would but if he does I'm just screwed all around.

I need to make it to the merge and I think I can really start playing with a lot more of a clear sense of direction from that point after all the "ifs" and question marks with swaps etc is in the rear-view mirror. I feel right now like I'm walking on eggshells, trying not to screw up because I don't want a reputation as someone who goes big or goes home. Joaquin, Dale, Dan, they all seem like risk-takers, which I'm trying to avoid. All I want is to never be on the bottom of the tribe, but right now even that feels like it's taking a lot of work. The winner of this game will really deserve it, that much I'm almost sure of.

I'm back. And feeling a little better about things.

I don't mind the fact that there was no swap. The way I see it, the more you swap, the more likely people are to want to use things you said against you out of sheer paranoia-induced self-preservation. On the other hand the fact that there was a double-boot has made me all but convinced I'll have to be paranoid about whether it's a final 2 or a final 3 for the rest of this game. If the jury starts at 12, of course it's final 3. Jury starting at 11... that can go either way.

There's always the one person each game who goats themselves out. It's always been a personal favorite of mine. Goating yourself out, throwing challenges, being a general douche, making small mistakes on purpose just to damage your perceived resume and appear less threatening, intentionally lying to a player who you know you don't need to lie to all the way up to the point where you boot them just to create genuine animosity that you can then use as your "one thing you would change" at FTC, the list goes on. Almost no one respects these things if they catch on, but if you can get away with it? You can use any tool in the box. All examples of valid tactics if you can pull it off. This season, that player is my main man Dan.

Dan... is not fake. At least not in the way that a typical player is. He's been saying what's on his mind since day 1, and obviously that reached another level tonight at the challenge. He sought out an opportunity to curse off So for LITERALLY no reason. I mean, I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's WAY smarter than and WAY too level-headed a player to have straight-up flown off the handle based on So asking a question based on punctuation. So it was pretty blatantly strategic.

I felt really bad for Kelly when she said she had an autistic brother and he still didn't apologize... I know that Dan is too good of a player to have really wanted to hurt her feelings and of course he couldn't have known that, but at that point he probably decided it was better to leave it where it was instead of trying to "sorry" his way out of it. I didn't think he took it TOO far by ORG asshole standards, but it sucks that it happened that way. He probably didn't have to say "retard" and could have gotten his same point across, but I think he knew what he was doing. He wanted to shock. It sure seemed like it was calculated. I don't know if he's trying to prove his value to Dale and Nadiya, but it rubbed some people the wrong way I'm almost sure. Jaclyn said something about how douchey it was, although that was probably just to steer the target on someone.

I mean Dan knows that Dale and Nadiya seem to value Joaq lower than he does Dan or myself. So what's the best way to make himself more indispensable to them than I am? By proving consistently across tribal lines that he has no connection whatsoever to that So/Kelly alliance. It will make it near impossible for him or us to work with those guys if we need to come the merge, which is maybe the point of what he did. He wants to be the one working with Dale closest. He wants to be the one most valued by Dale out of the original Asmats, while at the same time seeming to build a hoard of haters in his path to appear beatable in the end. That way when it comes time for things to change, I'm more likely to go home than he is, and all the while he's making people want to keep him around by cursing people off and calling them retarded or boring.

I kind of hope I can use this AGAINST Dan if I ever needed to. I do think Kelly's group will come into the merge red-eyed trying to get him out, and may even try to pull me in on it, which won't work. Whether it started out as intentional or not, I think it would be kind of easy to paint this as an intentional act of self-sabotage by Dan if need be. I will have a close eye on any future public feuding involving him and the girls to see if I can use that as ammo against him. And now he's talking to me about how great of a shield he is... I mean come on.

We formed kind of a 4-person alliance with me, Dale, Dan and Nadiya. Dale had been poking around for awhile trying to make things happen, so I finally acquiesced and agreed to work with him for real. He's an aggressive player who I know is going to be hard to trust. I really do hope he loses one of his reinforcements, preferably Drew, to keep us in the forefront of his thoughts for at least a few rounds at the start of the merge.

I like Nadiya way better than Dale, and she's a much better social player. It's not even close really. The best social player on our tribe aside from maybe Dan or Val if she was here more. Not as wordy, not as outward, but seems more genuine in the way she goes about things.

Naturally it seems like Jaclyn has become the target heading into tomorrow night. I feel bad for her because I think she's gotten screwed some nights by her schedule. Her exit is likely to come as a bit of a shock to Asmat I would think. It could still be me with Joaq (yet AGAIN) immune, and it likely will be if Yali decides... you know what? We can trust Jac. I don't know if we can trust them. I am probably their backup if anything happens. I'm not comfortable with that but what can I do at this point but to keep playing hard.

If we don't merge after tomorrow, it's gonna really suck. We will have lost Max AND Jaclyn without even losing a challenge and we'll be forced to debate amongst ourselves who the next target is. I'm probably gonna need to fend off Joaq suggestions left and right... and the truth is I'm not even sure if it's worth it to do so. I really don't want to throw him to the wolves, but I'm also not entirely sure where he fits in my game going forward. I'd probably rather have Jac leave, merge at 11, and continue to hold onto Joaq for a few rounds as a potential buffer for myself and I guess Dan?

I really don't know. I love and hate that Joaq has been immune twice in a row. Hate it because each time it probably moved my head one person closer to the chopping block, love it because it shows he has both guts (when he took immunity for himself) and challenge ability (not really because this comp was blind luck). Sometimes all it takes is racking up a couple of "wins" and eventually they just blend into each other and mold into an unshakeable challenge beast rep. If he starts to pair that with a few early merge wins? That could spell trouble for him. I wonder if he'll ever try to flip back to Asmat without us.

Kelly wins immunity again too. Great to see that but it seems like overkill at this point with so many crosshairs pointed at her. It sucks that the ex-Asmat I have the closest thing to a friendship with is likely gonna be the first one people want to target. Maybe we can pull something off where we go for the person who is least likely to have the idol if it's still not found by that point.

Hi Sierra,

With their being a double vote would any Asmat boot make you change your potential target for the vote?

I really don't feel like I'm in a place of the game where I really want to be the one to dictate targets, so nah not really. I pretty much only mentioned Jaclyn because I almost knew they would go for it. I'm pretty set on Jaclyn being the vote tonight (barring me finding out otherwise in PMs) just because it's what I said I would do, and I'm trying to prove myself as a loyal number right now. I was a little worried about others in the tribe possible basing their decision off of Asmat's Tribal, but Jeff said he'll make it hidden which is much appreciated just because it seems like the most fair thing to do since both tribes need to go to Tribal.

This is a nerve-racking vote because I really feel like the possibilities are limitless if they stick with it and me and Dan both stay.

Val is always viewing who is online haha. Kind of nervous for tonight again, I'm not really getting much in the way of re-assurance from any of these guys for tonight, and I feel pretty vulnerable with Joaquin immune. I feel like it will either be Jaclyn (which I've been led to believe), or it'll be me.