If things continue at this rate, Micronesia may top Pearl Islands for my favorite season! Micronesia has been absolutely amazing and it's not even the
merge yet! Loved almost everything about this episode. Didn't like the conflict with Eliza being sick, and the brownie points James earned with me for
sticking up for Yau Man quickly dissipated when he openly mocked her. It's just so dumb to get cocky and do stuff like that when everyone should know this
show is full of twists, swaps, merges, mutinies, etc. I fully expect Eliza and maybe Jon, to start jumping ship at a swap. Ozzy was brilliant this episode,
and displayed more strategy here than ever. I've always felt he was underestimated in the strategic department, and once labeled as the Brawn in CI, never
seemed to be able to shirk that stereotype. Really impressed with his performance in the challenge, and then blown away by how well he did at Exile Island.
Not only did he find the idol, but he found it without Kathy knowing! Then, on top of that, he even attempted to make a fake idol. I don't think
it'll work, but A for effort! Most importantly, loved that he credited Yau Man! It's kind of like he's playing for Yau Man, so Ozzy has totally
become 1 of my favorites. At the least, it shows he's willing to adapt and evolve. He's really reminded me of Yul this season, especially now that
he's got the idol. He's the closest thing to a winner in this group, everyone knows he's a threat, he's widely respected, his edit has been
positive, and this season more than Cook Islands he really seems like a leader, connected, and central to this tribe. Whereas after original Aitutaki, he had
been the underdog, outsider, and workhorse basically. So now I just wonder whether he'll go down as James 2.0 blindsided without using his idol, go out as
Yau Man 2.0 the nice guy who everyone wanted to get rid of before the finals, or Yul 2.0 for being the well known threat but pulling it out in the end anyways
Somewhat surprised at how much Cirie was upset by Ami's vote for her. I didn't realize that the Eliza-Ami-Jon-Yau alliance was kept secret effectively, but I guess it was. Cirie just seemed to realize now that Ami had been tightly allied with Yau. Love the arguing between Cirie and Jonathan. I find it most entertaining and hilarious that big dogs are going at it. I think Jonathan is doing a great job stirring things up. Strong males should generally play aggressively at the start when they still have leverage (unless you're on a tribe of Fans apparently), and he needs to paint targets on other people and call competitors out (especially the UTR folk) while he still can get away with it. His and Eliza's strengths is that they are openly deceitful. Surprisingly, this can be a strength, because it gives one considerable freedom to make aggressive plays that perhaps some under the radar can't even do. It's similar to the Dr. Will strategy of being so on the radar that you come off of it. Many players like Todd or Cesternino have made this work for them. I am glad there are so many of those types in this game (like Joel), because it's really interesting to see a lot of proactive people play, even if I don't necessarily think it's better strategy. I am very interested to see how Cirie will adapt to her UTR outed position now. She has already gone farther than her ASS counterpart Tina, and we'll see if she can pull off complex strategies now that's she not playing with tribe crazy
Sucks that Eliza is sick. I hate it when Survivors have their games hurt by those kind of luck based physical factors like Mike and Bruce. She's handling it pretty well and love her expressive confessionals as usual! She's getting a strong edit this season, so I'm very interested to see how she'll be doing. I take it she goes far and possibly even wins. It does seem like she ends up as the disliked underdog in all her seasons though, so I'm wondering if that's coincidence, based mostly off of her past game, and/or something to do with her social game. Alexis did a good job subtly but openly throwing Ozzy and Kathy under the bus after the RC. Her edit has been 1 of the better ones for the Fans, so I think she'll be doing well. She's really impressed me with her physical abilities. I think she was the 1 who mentioned she likes watching sports pre-game, and maybe has athletic brothers or something. So at least she walks the talk and has the athleticism of a guy while looking cute which is like a man's dream. Glad Parvati got solid airtime again. I was really worried she'd drop off but according to edgic (which I don't subscribe to but do look at and consider) she's 1 of the people doing alright in terms of editing. Jonathan has been sheer gold this season once again. This is like 100th time he's snuck up on people and intruded in mid-strategic conversation! He did it back in CI with like Becky/Sundra or breaking up the Raro conspiring against him to the Aitu 4. I was LMAO in episode 2 when he broke up that weird open boot discussion. Now he totally busted Eliza out selling him down the river! It's just funny to see all the parallels between the original seasons, ASS, and Micronesia. Jonathan and Eliza are AGAIN on the outside, competing with people to work their way back into the majorities! Ami is really impressing me this season. Her social game is clearly quite strong, as this is the 2nd season where she has done well to insulate herself within her tribe. She clearly understands the game, and I think she's doing a good job flying under the radar, being in the know, infiltrating, etc. Now that her first alliance is shattered, I fully expect her to attempt to create a female alliance or have new life with a swap tribe
Last but far from least, Airai is absolutely delivering this season. ANOTHER amazing boot! Totally reminds me of an online Survivor game the way these people are playing. The Fans are playing hard and I love that! It makes for way more entertaining games, rather than the typical rational numbers game with the token outsiders who get unceremoniously booted out. Don't get me wrong, I like those kind of games and seasons too, but the PI type seasons are definitely the rarity. I was somewhat flabbergasted that Mikey was booted so early! I never pictured him as the Dave Cruser of Micronesia. From how Probst described him in the pre-game interview, and all his fans here (which I thought meant that some of the spoiled people thought he was going to win), I just never pictured him as an early boot. Plus, it's so rare for the young males to get picked off this early. Totally a Tracy fan! She really shined this last episode, and now I wonder what that means in terms of her edit, since she'd gotten a positive edit the episode she helped out with the shelter. I know Joel is unpopular here, but I love that he spared the underdogs (Kathy love!) and that he's playing aggressively (didn't say it was good, but it's certainly proactive). I was still stunned by Mikey's boot though. That like never happens. People tend to always stick with the "strength" and it seemed like a typical editing misdirect. You can tell these people are fans in how they're willing to think of strategies unconventionally, like how Erik mentioned that strong challengers doesn't mean strong physical individuals necessarily or Joel taking that awfully risky move to boot Mary the round before. It might be over thinking, but it seems like people are at least thinking for themselves, at least having unique logic to their strategies, and willing to take risks. A lot of the fans of the show have played balls to the walls like this: Cesternino, Rafe, Candice, Todd, etc. Since I love the show for it's gaming aspects, this season is totally appealing to me. I think it's the strongest pre-merge I've seen, and both tribes have been incredibly entertaining to me. When Jason gave his little spiel at the end there, Probst's look was classic! The last funny Jeff look I enjoyed that much was at the Billy boot back in CI. I am guessing fan Jason learned to speak up after the Jenny/Michelle boots. Very interested to see what he will do at a swap. He is obviously on the outside of the numbers on Airai now, having lost his main ally Mikey. Surprised Alexis didn't vote with Joel, since they had a F2 deal, so I guess Erik is his #1 for sure now. I haven't read all the post-game interviews, so I'm not up to date on all the alignments on either tribe. Both tribes seem to have fluid structures though, which makes things way more unpredictable and leaves a ton of possibilities! Looking forward to next week
Somewhat surprised at how much Cirie was upset by Ami's vote for her. I didn't realize that the Eliza-Ami-Jon-Yau alliance was kept secret effectively, but I guess it was. Cirie just seemed to realize now that Ami had been tightly allied with Yau. Love the arguing between Cirie and Jonathan. I find it most entertaining and hilarious that big dogs are going at it. I think Jonathan is doing a great job stirring things up. Strong males should generally play aggressively at the start when they still have leverage (unless you're on a tribe of Fans apparently), and he needs to paint targets on other people and call competitors out (especially the UTR folk) while he still can get away with it. His and Eliza's strengths is that they are openly deceitful. Surprisingly, this can be a strength, because it gives one considerable freedom to make aggressive plays that perhaps some under the radar can't even do. It's similar to the Dr. Will strategy of being so on the radar that you come off of it. Many players like Todd or Cesternino have made this work for them. I am glad there are so many of those types in this game (like Joel), because it's really interesting to see a lot of proactive people play, even if I don't necessarily think it's better strategy. I am very interested to see how Cirie will adapt to her UTR outed position now. She has already gone farther than her ASS counterpart Tina, and we'll see if she can pull off complex strategies now that's she not playing with tribe crazy
Sucks that Eliza is sick. I hate it when Survivors have their games hurt by those kind of luck based physical factors like Mike and Bruce. She's handling it pretty well and love her expressive confessionals as usual! She's getting a strong edit this season, so I'm very interested to see how she'll be doing. I take it she goes far and possibly even wins. It does seem like she ends up as the disliked underdog in all her seasons though, so I'm wondering if that's coincidence, based mostly off of her past game, and/or something to do with her social game. Alexis did a good job subtly but openly throwing Ozzy and Kathy under the bus after the RC. Her edit has been 1 of the better ones for the Fans, so I think she'll be doing well. She's really impressed me with her physical abilities. I think she was the 1 who mentioned she likes watching sports pre-game, and maybe has athletic brothers or something. So at least she walks the talk and has the athleticism of a guy while looking cute which is like a man's dream. Glad Parvati got solid airtime again. I was really worried she'd drop off but according to edgic (which I don't subscribe to but do look at and consider) she's 1 of the people doing alright in terms of editing. Jonathan has been sheer gold this season once again. This is like 100th time he's snuck up on people and intruded in mid-strategic conversation! He did it back in CI with like Becky/Sundra or breaking up the Raro conspiring against him to the Aitu 4. I was LMAO in episode 2 when he broke up that weird open boot discussion. Now he totally busted Eliza out selling him down the river! It's just funny to see all the parallels between the original seasons, ASS, and Micronesia. Jonathan and Eliza are AGAIN on the outside, competing with people to work their way back into the majorities! Ami is really impressing me this season. Her social game is clearly quite strong, as this is the 2nd season where she has done well to insulate herself within her tribe. She clearly understands the game, and I think she's doing a good job flying under the radar, being in the know, infiltrating, etc. Now that her first alliance is shattered, I fully expect her to attempt to create a female alliance or have new life with a swap tribe
Last but far from least, Airai is absolutely delivering this season. ANOTHER amazing boot! Totally reminds me of an online Survivor game the way these people are playing. The Fans are playing hard and I love that! It makes for way more entertaining games, rather than the typical rational numbers game with the token outsiders who get unceremoniously booted out. Don't get me wrong, I like those kind of games and seasons too, but the PI type seasons are definitely the rarity. I was somewhat flabbergasted that Mikey was booted so early! I never pictured him as the Dave Cruser of Micronesia. From how Probst described him in the pre-game interview, and all his fans here (which I thought meant that some of the spoiled people thought he was going to win), I just never pictured him as an early boot. Plus, it's so rare for the young males to get picked off this early. Totally a Tracy fan! She really shined this last episode, and now I wonder what that means in terms of her edit, since she'd gotten a positive edit the episode she helped out with the shelter. I know Joel is unpopular here, but I love that he spared the underdogs (Kathy love!) and that he's playing aggressively (didn't say it was good, but it's certainly proactive). I was still stunned by Mikey's boot though. That like never happens. People tend to always stick with the "strength" and it seemed like a typical editing misdirect. You can tell these people are fans in how they're willing to think of strategies unconventionally, like how Erik mentioned that strong challengers doesn't mean strong physical individuals necessarily or Joel taking that awfully risky move to boot Mary the round before. It might be over thinking, but it seems like people are at least thinking for themselves, at least having unique logic to their strategies, and willing to take risks. A lot of the fans of the show have played balls to the walls like this: Cesternino, Rafe, Candice, Todd, etc. Since I love the show for it's gaming aspects, this season is totally appealing to me. I think it's the strongest pre-merge I've seen, and both tribes have been incredibly entertaining to me. When Jason gave his little spiel at the end there, Probst's look was classic! The last funny Jeff look I enjoyed that much was at the Billy boot back in CI. I am guessing fan Jason learned to speak up after the Jenny/Michelle boots. Very interested to see what he will do at a swap. He is obviously on the outside of the numbers on Airai now, having lost his main ally Mikey. Surprised Alexis didn't vote with Joel, since they had a F2 deal, so I guess Erik is his #1 for sure now. I haven't read all the post-game interviews, so I'm not up to date on all the alignments on either tribe. Both tribes seem to have fluid structures though, which makes things way more unpredictable and leaves a ton of possibilities! Looking forward to next week
If that is your definition of a spoiler, you are dumber than I thought.
The preview did not give away Ozzy as the idol finder unless you did vidcap analysis or looked in spoilers to see said vidcap analysis.
. I think that most of the individuals play emotional and/or
floater games as well. In Jonathan and Candice's case, they played high risk/high reward (which is "irrational" by economic standards).
Technically, "rational" gameplay is low risk/high reward. The problem is obviously, in games like this, sometimes you're not given that option,
so you have to choose between low risk/low reward or high risk/high reward. Also, all gameplay is "emotional" on some level, since some sort of bias
affects the parameters of one's logic. I don't necessarily think irrational (high risk/high reward) gameplay is "bad" or "worse".
When the high risk works, it can pay off in huge dividends. It depends on the context and luck
