[Danni Boatwright]

Welcome back, Legend

Take a look around and soak in this moment. 22 winners have returned to show why they are the ultimate Stranded champion. Over the next few weeks, you will have to fight tooth and nail to emerge victorious in this stacked cast, and to leave $200 richer.

Who do you know out of this group? Do you think these relationships will impact the way you play the game?

Whose legend (if any) are you most threatened by?

Good luck, and have fun. We're all rooting for you

[Kim]

Oh my God. Instant messaging. This is kind of amazing? How long has this been a thing?

[Jeff Probst]

Oh my God. Instant messaging. This is kind of amazing? How long has this been a thing?

Since Season 29, a few years now. We are so old. BUT, it's nice seeing everyone back who is also old <3 makes me feel slightly younger.

[Kim]

I'm wondering how much private messaging will even be utilized? How often has it been used since instant messaging became an option (if you're allowed to tell me)
I'll probably write something longer later tonight. But it's great to be back!

[Kim]

Just from initial conversations, I think my favorite is Penny, but isn't she like... batshit crazy? I kind of vaguely remember that being a thing when she co-hosted my season.

Tammy I also like (even though I actually haven't chatted with her lol) just because after a brief ID skim, Mikester is basically like the only name I recognize from my group lol. I think if Tammy is serious about the game and is here to play, then I'm pretty sure we'll be looking out for each other here.

No Ibe :( Although maybe that might be a good thing?

On a side note, I was kind of living for instant messaging initially but now I'm a little unsure about it. I feel like it really equalizes the playing field, just because instant messaging *is* more natural and is more akin to real-life, face to face conversation as opposed to PMs, but meh. Anyone can instant message, PMing is more of an art that takes time and skill to master. With instant messaging, I feel like people might be a bit more interchangeable, whereas with PMs I'm definitely able to get a better sense of what the person is actually like, you know what I mean? I feel like I'm better at writing essays too as opposed to off-the-cuff spontaneous conversations, and writing essays is more effective/persuasive too in a lot of instances, so we'll see what happens here.

[Caryn Groedel]

You’re my winner pick in the draft. Good luck, and don’t let me down. Or there will be consequences.

[Kim]

So me, Tammy, and Cochran have more or less made things ~official~, I believe we'll all be looking out for each other as the ORGY alliance or w/e. It just makes sense. I kind of know both of them already, so I know what I'm getting into. According to both of them, there was kind of an anti-ORGY bias in the last all-star season of this, essays were discouraged, they didn't do so well, etc. So it just makes sense for us to stick together here.
In terms of my other tribemates, I like Penny and Penner the most. So me, Tammy, Cochran, Penny, and Penner, that would be my ideal 5 here, and I'm hoping we don't really need to form some sort of mega alliance right off the bat or anything, but those are just the people I'm vibing with the most right now. I like Yve too but I haven't messaged her as much as some of the others.

W/r/t Cassandra, Aubry, Alex, Jeff, and Ziggy, meh. Ziggy is pretty bland, Aubry and Jeff too. Cass is just... weird. There's something about here that I just don't like. I mentioned I was from Ohio and she was all like "wow don't you guys have like 100,000 COVID cases???? sucks to be you!!!" and I'm like... "...no? and besides, we're doing our best "

Alex is okay, I haven't really connected with him that much but since this is his first game in like 10 years, I want to give him a good experience at least. It just wouldn't feel right if he left so soon.

[Kim]

How is this not the idol password :/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hr%C3%A6svelgr

[Kim]

Everyone is being like, super fucking coy about the boot tonight lol. Apparently, there are "rumblings" of a 6-person alliance of me, Tammy, Cochran, Cassandra, Ziggy, and Penner, and I'm just honestly... not feeling that. My whole beef is that I don't really have any options here? I know Tammy and Cochran outside the game, but Cassandra and Ziggy are also being roped into the alliance just because Tammy and Cochran have connections with both of them from past seasons- and I just don't have that here unfortunately.
So I was kind of hoping that the less connected people wouldn't be left by the wayside here, but I think that's what might be happening? Apparently the boot tonight could be Penny vs. Aubry, and it will most likely be Penny, which I'm not happy with, because I like her and I trust her. Aubry also performed well in the challenge, so I think she could be useful when we start doing tribal challenges.

On the other hand, it's kind of ludicrous to me that Alex like, doesn't know how to use image tags lol. I understand that he hasn't played in a while, but didn't you provide all of us with tutorials on this kind of shit *before* the season started? I'm just imagining a situation where we have a team challenge and we have to rely on Alex to perform and he completely flops. I also don't really find him the best conversationalist either.

*Ideally* my preferred first boot is Cassandra though, but since Cochran has a boner for her, I don't think that will ever happen lol.

[Jeff Probst]

Hey Kim, it's been a long time since we've seen you play. You're someone I'm looking forward to seeing the most since we haven't seen you as much as the others. You're an accomplished gamer and a good strategist. What's your gameplay style going into this? You mentioned being frustrated with how things are going and feeling a bit out of control with the vote tonight. Do you think other players are feeling the same way?

[Kim]

My issue is that regardless of how good I feel about Cochran and Tammy, it doesn't change the fact that they have already have built-in allies in Cassandra, Ziggy, and Penner from before. It just hit me that there are 4 people on this tribe who played in s30. Penner and Cassandra have played with each other 3 (!!!) times. That's wild, and I can't compete with that. Why would someone gamble with me, when I really don't have any built-in allies or connections, when you have the guarantee of like, aligning with Tammy and getting 3 additional allies by proxy? It's just stupid.

I mean, in a perfect but crazy world, me, Jeff, Penny, Aubry, Alex, and Yve would come together since we're all a little less-connected that the others. But I just don't see it happening, and even though it sounds like a reasonable plan, I don't necessarily think it's worth pushing at this point.

I feel like where I'm sitting right now, I think I'm good til the swap at least, and from there I can reassess? But I don't think the current alliance ~as it stands now~ really offers me a viable path to the end-game. Like, if it were to get down to 6, I could see Penner/Cass/Ziggy pushing me just because it's the most convenient and hassle-fee thing to do. Why wouldn't Cochran and Tammy acquiesce?

And yes, it's the first round and maybe I'm just overthinking this~

[Kim]

Right now, Penny just seems like a lost cause, so for right now, my gameplan is to just subtly plant the seeds in Jeff and Alex's head that we need to be a little more careful in how we proceed.
I do think I have Yve in my backpocket too, which is nice. She explicitly mentioned us teaming up, like immediately, and I do believe she'll be loyal to me and listen to my input. I think maybe if next round, Aubry steps up her game, we might be able to push for Cassandra/Ziggy to leave, and I think Cochran and Tammy may just go along with it. It would be a really bad look if everyone started pushing them and then they resisted- because we all know *why* they would.

So I'm just gonna see where that whole thing goes~

[Kim]

Penny is leaving us