It began with 12 fresh bodies ready to trek around the world. Before the game, each player was asked to select a country that, if reached on the game route, would give that person home-field advantage. No player was allowed to select the United States, as all were informed beforehand that it would be the site of the starting location. To give you a rundown, they were in no particular order:

Jacinto Madiera of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Jacinto selected Portugal.
Chrissy Navarro of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Chrissy would represent Ireland.
James Dodge, residing in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, picked New Zealand.
Andrew Platt of Newfane, New York, was to represent England.
Toby Guy, hailing from Washington, D.C., had taken Scotland.
Cindy Walsher, living in Seattle, Washington, opted for Egypt.
Greyson Manzari, also from Seattle, took Italy.
Colin Fogle, from Brunswick, Ohio, would represent Canada.
David Tepper, living in Alexandria, Virginia, selected Australia.
Royann Black of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, picked France.
Michael Norkewicz from Ozark, Arkansas took the Czech Republic.
And Stephen Mode, hailing from Portland, Oregon, selected Germany.

Gathering at the Art Institute of Chicago, they were given their first minigame: your standard Make The Logo contest. You've seen it a million times before. The winner would, in addition to having their logo become the official one, get 2 Safety Stones.
This was supposed to be the easy challenge everybody knew, but out of 12 players, only 5 managed to turn in a logo. Nork admitted with minutes to go that he wasn't going to have anything ready. In the end, Chrissy's animated logo took the cake. And the pie, quiche and a couple of the moist towlettes. Best logo work I've ever seen. David of Australia put up a good effort with a logo bearing the phrase "The Bloodiest Game On Earth", but it was no match.

Jacinto (Portugal): Only a few people competed in the challenge and I know I didn't but the only program I have is paints and I had no chance in hell of beating an animated logo.

David (Australia): Not even half the people bothered to submit logos for the mini-game. Deadwood? Yeah, we got enough deadwood washed up on the beach for a whole sculpture.

With that, the players hit the road for the first time, boarding a plane bound for New York.
When they landed, they were sent to Central Park to begin their main challenge. It was a taxi race to the Statue of Liberty. There were catches, however: The cab drivers came from remote countries just recently and spoke no English. They were given no map, so they'd have to direct the cabbies at each and every intersection. And New York is, after all, quite big.
Despite all this, it took David only 5 minutes to reach Ellis Island.

Aaron: David, I hate you. That is all.

After checking his cabbie for steroids, I awarded him (David) 6 Safety stones. Royann and Toby were next to start, but by then David was done. Toby's cab stalled (computer problems). Cindy got moving and finishes; Colin started off right after she finished., and finishes right before Toby does. Royann came in 5th and got nothing. So David, won, followed by Cindy, Colin and Toby.

Then war broke out in Washington.

Cindy (Egypt): I think it's to early to do any plotting.

Tell that to your opposition. Some unknown player got his or her cronies and conducted an audience voting campaign against Colin.

Colin (Canada): Lets see...Just because I win the game once someone who most likely doesn't know me goes on a death spree to get me out...A point I would like to bring up is I have a pool league with about 200 people in it...All of which would gladly vote for me...Now...Anyone like to confess to getting a large group of people to vote for me or will I just have to pick someone who will already be recieving lots of votes?

Colin, not knowing exactly who to target (he had an idea against Chrissy, but wasn't 100%) turned around, got his buddies and targeted Greyson- the person he felt would finish last and, thus, behind him. The unknown assailant responded with more Colin votes, and it quickly degenerated into an insane pissing match between Colin and Greyson. Or if you want to get technical, Colin and whoever was targeting Colin.

James (New Zealand): I hope to be here after the next exiling.

Somewhere in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, James was getting down on his knees amd thanking all involved, as he was in last place prior to the skirmish. But unknown to the players, this would be the setting of the first Delayed Flight. and as of 11 AM Saturday and the exiling at 8 PM, James was still in position to fight Greyson for survival. Colin needed 7 more audience votes cast against him to save James. His assassin needed to hurry to get Colin on the chopping block. Also, Colin had used a Safety Stone in the middle of it all, thuis setting up further defenses.

The votes never came; Colin came in 8th.

In the end, James and Greyson were in 11th and 12th- last and next to last- and it was a Delayed Flight round, so they'd have to battle for survival. They were to determine whether I had ranked various objects- including sod, the color blue, Torengos, Canada, and the miner in Stratego- Good or Bad. James got 5 correct. Greyson never turned anything in, and was thrown from a helicopter onto the Washington Monument. Our aim sucked and Greyson splatted on the ground like a sack of ripe tomatoes.

11 contestants, 10 rounds.