Ears: They're Not For Listening Anymore
Jon Pinyan of Waldwick, NJ. Jon had selected Pennsylvania as his home-field advantage state.
Fernando Mariani Colón of San Marcos, TX. Fernando selected South Carolina.
Danny Escoto of Miami, FL. Danny had selected New York.
Valerie Adams of Allen, TX. Valerie had selected Texas.
Devon Spasms of San Jose, CA. Devon had selected Louisiana.
David Tepper of Alexandria, VA. David had selected New Jersey.
Colin Fogle of Brunswick, OH. Colin had selected Rhode Island.
John St. Croix of Camden, SC. John had selected Maine.
Andrew Norris of Elyria, OH. Andrew had selected Indiana.
Aaron Lee of Dallas, TX. Aaron had selected Arizona.
Lucky Foster of Boulder, CO. Lucky had selected Nevada.
And Alex Weaver of Newport News, Virginia. Alex had selected Florida.
So, 3 veterans- one of Vassa Island (Jon), one of Global (David), and one of both (Colin), and 9 pieces of fresh meat. The starting line- from which one person wouldn't get too far- was Ft. Sumter, South Carolina. This meant Fernando was going to cash in on home-field advantage right away. The clue he was given: The challenge would determine all tiebreakers, unless otherwise indicated. Tie in a challenge? We come back here. Tie in an exile vote? Ft. Sumter'll come back to haunt someone. Both people use 10 Safety Stones in the finals? Guess. What. Fernando was given the option of backing out and taking the 6th tiebreaker. Also, John (who lives in Camden) lives about an hour from Ft. Sumter, and has visited, but he'll be getting no advantage. Fernando, after some explanation, decided to take the 6th tiebreaker and let the other 11 fight it out.
The challenge, 'First Strike', revolved around a poem and 12 stations. The players had to decipher clues in the poem and grab a station accordingly. The stations would then be attacked in a certain order. The later attacked, the better.
Simone sent in her picks first. ...What? You didn't see a Simone Foggo in the roster? Yea, neither did I. David was the first PLAYER to pick, selecting station 4. Which already belonged to Fernando. Boy, players listen well, don't they? His next pick was station 5. I talked to Danny:
mtvcdm: See the challenge is up at the group page, Danny?
Danny (New York): Yeah
mtvcdm: Having any luck?
Danny: Simone took my number ... Oh well.
mtvcdm: Danny, ... check the roster. ... Do you see Simone's name?
Danny: Then what the hell is Simone doing? ... lol
mtvcdm: I don't know.
And then there's Valerie, during a conversation about who we were on good terms with:
mtvcdm: I'm on good terms with Colin, David, Justin and Eric from MiSTX.
Valerie (Texas): I don't think I know any of them
mtvcdm: Two of them are your opponents, Valerie.
Valerie: uh oh *slides down in her chair*
All of this happened in the FIRST EVENING OF COMPETITION, mind you. Apparently Saddam had hit America with a Stupid Bomb on March 15 and I didn't know about it. Eventually people wised up and started getting in correct selections. (Well, maybe not correct, but usable.) John, the 7th to get in a pick, wound up getting the safe zone- #3. His reasoning?
John (Maine): just gut
Hey, whatever works. While we were doing this, Colin gave his opinion of a fellow contestant:
Colin (Rhode Island): I don't like this Alex fellow already...
mtvcdm: What happened?
Colin: His post is very greysonish, with more energy that is
mtvcdm: Oh lord.
Colin: You see the post?
mtvcdm: Lemme look.
Colin: Actually, now that I consider it, hes one of a kind
mtvcdm: "Good luck and done die." ... He does realize that for that to happen, HE'D have to die.
Colin: Oh and he will, I shall assure it ... If you yourself don't that is ... I mean, the people.
mtvcdm: Huh?
Colin: not sure to say your eliminating us or the people lol
mtvcdm: You're saying SOMEONE'S offing him. ... You just don't know who yet.
Colin: I'm trying to say I have found a early eliminant
What he was responding to, you ask?
Alex (Florida): HI! ITS ME! NASHEEKA! LMFAO! OMG! IM ON CRACK TODAY! A lot of yall know me, and some of you don't. It's a bad thing either way. My name is Alex, and I have't spoken to all of you since I'm not on Yahoo! Messenger all the time, BUT I'm often on AIM, so my sn there is: xanderslayer. You by chance might catch my sn, xanderslayer1, on
Yahoo! messenger though
GOOD LUCK AND DONT DIE!
Devon (Louisiana): Alex's post was kinda...umm...weird. But thats just the first impression. However, thats all we've got!
Hope he realized that for that to happen, HE'D have to die, as I already stated, but whatever. He got his due from Colin- he came in last. Lucky was the only one to not get in and thus got the unselected station. She got 7th priority.
Enough of the tiebreaker stuff; let's win some Safety Stones. To do that, we went to Raleigh, NC, to play Queen For A Day. The players tell me what they want- stones and a spot in Round 2- and why- via a sob story. Of course, being evil, and having done this one before, I took away the 'role-playing' out players could easily use. Now they're giving sob stories, knowing they're in an online game with nothing at stake. And to make matters worse, I threw open the barn doors for audience voting. Let's go over some highlights from the sob stories:
Devon (Louisiana): You see, I've gotten myself stuck into a play. It is an adaptation of Wind in the Willows. And, quite frankly, the play is so uncoordinated. Half the cast is not serious at all, and messing up
the show!... And as for this game, things haven't been going well either. Since I'm a West Coaster, and it seems a lot of the contestants are on the East Coast, I NEVER get a chance to talk to anyone. I feel isolated right now, and that is NOT the position you want to be in AT ALL! (He goes on to complain about entering high school, the game Who is the MAN?, and the world in general.)
Jon (Pennsylvania): Why? I'll tell you why... I've been around the block in these games.
I've been playing them since the era of Survivor 2 in the US. I've
played hard, I've played fair, I've made alliances, won challenges,
and worked my ass off in almost every single game I've played
(exceptions being poorly run games). And after a literally countless
number of games played, what do I have to show for it? NOTHING. I've
made it to the late stages many times, only to be ditched. Twice
I've made the final vote, and each time lost handily.
It happened here too. In season one, I was doing fairly well. Then,
at the end of day five, "Andrew in his confessional selected Jon,
saying he had the most stones". But he lied, I didn't have the most stones! So I was forced to put all 9 of my stones on the line, and lost to Control. Without stones, I was unable to stay in the game much longer, and was summarily killed a few days later.
David (New Jersey): I'm out of tequila!
Colin (Rhode Island): I should get the safety stones because I have had to sit here and listen to all 4 of these peoples sob stories and am now feeling very depressed...
Valerie (Texas): I'm also an online Survivor host. I have been ridiculed about my choice of location (one person who shall remain anonymous) said it was like I was doing Ypislanti, Michigan.
(At this point, I walked away briskly, whistling. I didn't see any need to bring up that it's spelled Ypsilanti.)
So you could tell people were taking wildly different approaches to garner sympathy from me. The way I saw it, though, Jon resonated most with me. I watched him get screwed over right in front of me (yes, I screwed him too by beating him, but I was just doing my job), and I've come close to victory a few times myself. On the opposite end, I sifted through more speeches than Colin did, so that didn't fly too well.
Time for the first pre-count. David looked to be my leader after 2 strong performances. I had a dilemma between Alex and Lucky for last, but Alex's showing up in Raleigh sealed the deal.
Valerie (Texas): that Lucky person isn't looking so lucky...
But there was still penalties and voting and stones to factor in. In confessionals, for fun, I wanted to see if, knowing we started in South Carolina and were moving north, anyone could figure out where the game would end. As it's after the game, you know it's Orlando, Florida. Let's see if anyone got Orlando.
Devon (Louisiana): I'm going to guess Ellis Island or Staten Island. (BZZZ!)
Valerie (Texas): Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia (BZZZ!)
Alex (Florida): New York City! (BZZZ!)
Colin (Rhode Island): I bet we end this all somewhere in Texas, the execution state ;-) (BZZZ!)
Jon (Pennsylvania): Hmm... I'm going to go for Miami Beach, FL. (Very, very close. That's where Sudden Death was.)
David (New Jersey): I think we're going to end in Gatlin, Nebraska, and the second-place winner will get strung up on a corncob cross by the Children of the Corn. (Huh?! Also, BZZZ!)
Aaron (Arizona): Washington D.C. maybe (BZZZ!)
Fernando (South Carolina): Florida (Ding ding ding!)
Well, Jon was close, and Fernando got the right state, but that's about it. Most people named places we were on a collision course to hit in the next couple rounds.
In important news, the new players tried to vote, thinking it was legal. Nope. I had to go in and straighten them out that, hey, I never expressed it in the rules, I apologize, but you don't get to vote. The voters, FYI, were Andrew, Danny (under two accounts- one was the account he supplied to me in applications and the second was a 'dannymiami43' (you know, you gotta hide this stuff better, buddy), but I decided that since the votes wouldn't count, I wouldn't do anything about it), Alex, and Devon. (I later found out Alex had pulled a prank on Danny.)
Colin (Rhode Island): My biggest worry is that I will end up just getting lost out in the middle of no-where again, I'd really like to die this time, Control, could you arrange it? That is, of course, if I don't get some more cash (I'm already broke from the first game)
Not yet. I have you moving on. And at this point, I found out Lucky wasn't too interested in other players, either:
John (Maine): I tried to add (Lucky) to my buddy list on Yahoo Messager, and she said "Thanks but no thanks" when I asked for her to be added, what a bitch!!
Yea.... I don't think Lucky had much of a shot. The bandwagon, she had jumped. A stray lightning bolt from Around the Horn wound up frying her before I had a chance to hang her. This caused in a lengthy hospital stay for Max Kellerman.
11 contestants, 10 rounds.