Episode 06 - The Merge!

[Jeff Probst]

Welcome to the merge. Are you excited to be apart of this stage of the game? How will your game shift now as we enter the individual portion? Are you willing to make moves necessary to impress a jury should you make the finals?

What players on the other tribe are you excited to get to know or are you just looking forward to taking them out? Is there an advantage in using the players of the other tribe before your other tribemates?

What do you think of the moles, are there any still in the game and if so who do you think they are?

[Kristina]

fuck ralph, i'm pissed.

guy went and spilled the beans to p bear, their leader, that he: a) was the mole b) earned an idol c) gave the idol to me.

way to give up all this information we worked hard to keep contained. way to paint giant targets on us. way to put the biggest target on me, especially when i actually don't have the idol and a way to protect myself.

this wedding is horseshit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFGv8m1kxIY

[Mia]

Wow much drama <3

So I've been out of the loop, so can you give me a little back story on you and Ralph? Why did Ralph say he gave you the idol?

Also, do you mind filling me in on EXACTLY who you trust/don't trust, and your take on alliances? Maybe a little blurb on every player and what you think of them at this point? It will help me catch up with what's gone on and it will make for some juicy reading post-game to see where your head was at during this crucial point in the game!

[Kristina]

goddamnit. if i was pissed before, now i'm livid.

i had to do almost this entire first individual immunity challenge while driving. that's no ones fault, shit happens. life happens. i had dinner with my wife and some work associates, it was unavoidable. but because of this i was not able to look at my phone. i was looking down lon enough just to type in a number and that was it. then i was just clicking submit when my car clock changed over.

i knew though that jeff CLEARLY stated beforehand that:

After an hour, we will throw an extra element into the challenge to make it more difficult. After two hours, we'll throw in another.

Everyone understand how this works?

now, to a normal human being this means that, in an hour, the rules will change. fine by me, my car ride is about 45-50 minutes. perfect timing. i actually made it back in about 34/37 minutes, i know because of this game and having to count out the minutes, so i was really happy to see i made it home safely so fast. but to then find out i lost...somehow... i wantto spontaneously combust. i'm sorry, this is absurd. you don't change the rules mid challenge. if it's clearly stated at the beginning that nothing changes for an hour, then goddamnit, nothing should change for a fucking hour!

now, normally, i'd like to think anyway, i wouldn't be this pissed. a lot of this stems from the fact that my '#1 ally' ralph went and told the leaders of nama that he was the mole and he won an idol and that, out of the goodness of his heart, he decided to just give me a hidden immunity idol!

so now, in short, people think i have an idol when i don't and when i actually had a chance to win an idol for protection i can't get one because jeff decided to change the rules because, what the hell, why not?

i even said this to my tribe at the start of the season when original rick and nama were upset at the ruling of the first challenge; they should've won, or the challenge should've kept going at least. jeff clearly stated beforehand the rules. you can't change the rules mid challenge.

so, i'm going to end my rant here with this:

poody, i love you, but for the love of god, you can't change the rules mid challenge in future seasons.

He announced the rule change a good 5 minutes before.

i don't care if it's announced a couple minutes beforehand.

All host calls are final. That is standard practice in the ORG world. Jeff is the host and has the discretion to change challenge rules.

you shouldn't change the rules mid game. this has never happened in one survivor challenge ever, so why would it suddenly be acceptable just because this is an ORG? hell, even in marquesas kathy and them realized the rotus didn't pull their boat to the chain and they should've really won because that was explained beforehand. if it's set in stone beforehand, from now on, stick to it.

just my 2 cents/piece of advice.

[Kristina]

bee tee dubbs, i'm better now. just needed to rant atop my soapbox for a bit. whats done is done now, i'm over it.

[Kristina]

ralph and i have been in close communication with each other from night one. we made a connection about both being gamers and he instantly wanted to form a gamer's alliance. i accepted because, well, i'm not an idiot, but i was always a bit wary. i didn't want to move long term through the game with a day/night one alliance. it seems to forced and not so genuine. there isn't as much trust. i said from the beginning there would be a time when ralph was no longer a use to me and i would have to let him go to be an extra jury vote for me, and i think that time is showing up on the horizon. unfortunately, he just accelerated the process himself.

i've tended to notice ralph panics. and when he panics, he word vomits all over the place in the interest of getting people to trust him. he so badly wanted papa bear to trust him as soon as we merged so he could potentially set up a massive blindside against him that he wasn't thinking. he just word vomited. he gave up the info that he was the mole and had earned an idol. and for whatever reason he continued to panic and said that he gave the idol to me for protection.

at this point, the main gameplan is still to weaken papa bear and sophie's reign so they don't have the numbers to overthrow. but as soon as one or two nama members bit the dust, it might be time for ralph to go. he's getting too paranoid as we are progressing here and i can't risk him painting any greater target on my back. plus, i want his jury vote. :)

[Kristina]

the trust-o-meter 3000

10 you're my soul-mate
stephanie

9

8
grant

7
ashley

6
ralph

5 you're...an acquaintance?
mikey
david

4
sophie
julie

3

2
cochran
whitney

1 just go jump off a fucking cliff already, don't want you anywhere near me
papa bear

[Kristina]

stephanie is in my end game with me. i actually think people will/already do like her more than me, so her social game will be a challenge for me to go up against, but i think i'm out playing her. i have more connections at this point across the board and i think i'm going to be better at challenges so i can win out down the stretch. when i say i didn't like the night one alliance with ralph, this is more what i wanted. to get to know someone a bit first to know i like them and could work well with them in the long run. this was the alliance i wanted. it just took till day four to make. i love the gurl, and i plan on going final three with her, but i plan on beating her.

grant is awesome. just a cool level headed dude who i think is very open with me so i can be open with him. more importantly i think he knows how this game works and he respects it. if i can get him final five and i can axe him then, i think he'll respect me enough to give me a vote in the end.

ashley is an interesting breed. she is the other part of my final three equation. she has already said she is open to getting rid of papa bear but at this point is still pretty blindly following him. this, to me, shows a slight lack of aptitude. which is grrrrreat! it should be easier to impose some of my will and control her vote, ideally. more importantly, she seems fun/cool and easy to talk to. i think that after she's seperated from p bear she'll be more willing to work as well and it'd be so great to bring her to the end because all i really have to say is, 'look, ashley took a 1/3 of this game off because she wasn't her. and when she was here i did most of her thinking for her. she doesn't deserve to win.'

ralph...has been discussed.

mikey/david. yup. they're there. good talk.

sophie/julie, i love both of these girls. they're both fun to talk to. but they are both hurt by outside forces. julie is hardly ever online because of work, so it's hard to play the game with her because she's never online. sophie is great, but her greatest ally is papa bear. the person i see as being my number one threat in this game. it's simply a marriage of inconvenience for her. she's guilty by association and therefore has to go. also, i'm pretty sure she was the mole for nama and has an idol. no bueno.

cochran/whitney have not said a single word to me in this entire game. for all i know they could be the coolest people in the world who are desperate to flip over and help me. but it seems like they're too scared to function. oh well, don't need 'em.

papa bear is my big priority in this game. ever since the merge he has been throwing shit against the walls and just hoping for them to stick. so far: grant, ralph, stephanie, ashley and i have all caught him contradicting himself or lying in some fashion or another. he's smart, manipulative and devious and i don't trust him in the slightest. the sooner i can get rid of him the better. the only reason he isn't an instant first target is that i'm pretty sure sophie has an idol and those two are peas in a pod together. it can't be risked at this point.

[Kristina]

words words words...

[Kristina]

alliance breakdowns:

ovambo core
grant-stephanie-julie-david-mike-ralph-me

ovambo-nama crossover
papa bear-sophie-ashley-ralph-me

sub alliances
julie-stephanie-ralph-me

grant-david-ralph-me

ashley-me

ralph-me

stephanie-me

ideally, cochran will go home tomorrow night, completely shattering the expectations of one p bear and friends. this should give me the opening i need to pull ashley over and tell her about how i have stephanie and set up an ashley-stephanie-me endgame final three. at this point we should have an 8-3 advantage to split votes and flush idols to eliminate sophie/p bear. either one, doesn't matter. from there we can blindside ralph to get him and his idol and crazyness out to have no more idols in play.

at that time i should still have grant and ovambo company enough to get rid of whitney. from there, whoever's left, sophie/p bear should be so desperate that they should play ball in eliminating julie, david and mike.

we then use grant to flip back and get out sophie/p bear to finish nama permanently and we are left with a final four of all original ovambo: grant-ashley-stephanie-me. axe grant here and i get the final three i'm looking for. one great jury speech away from victory!

[Kristina]

also, i'm not an idiot.

i'm TOTALLY prepared to have ALL of this blow up in my face tomorrow night. in fact i really kind of expect it. i'd really just laugh my ass out of this game.

[Kristina]

Also, answer our confessional questions because it directly impacts how much we like you and root for you.

did i do good? i feel like i did a thing.

[Mia]

First off, hosts CAN and DO change challenge rules during challenges. It happens. Poody announced the switch with enough time to realize it. I wasn't following the challenge do idk how you didn't notice it, but everything that happened last night was fair. Sorry.

Also thanks for these lovely, juicy, amazing updates.

Now, let's talk. On one had you have your whole game set up how you want it to go... so what's your ideal boot order?

And then you mention that you're prepared to have this all blow up in your face. What happens if it does? How do you react/regroup?

[Kristina]

I didn't see it cause I was driving as I was doing the challenge. I figured that since Jeff said I had an hour till the rules changed I had time to make it home to be able to read the rule change. Since I was driving and he said the rules wouldn't change I wasn't looking at the other forum posts. I was just barely paying attention enough to typ my number and post that because I wanted to focus on driving.

It's okay though, I get it. It happens, it's part of the game.

Ideal boot order is pretty much what I already said, but, to be clear:

Cochran
Papa bear
Ralph
Whitney
Julie
David
Mike
Sophie
Grant

Ashley-Stephanie-Me finals

[Kristina]

also, in regards to things blowing up, it simply comes down to ralph. him saying i have the idol when i don't him being so inconsistent. i can see him inadvertently turning enough people's eyes towards me that i could go.