[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

[Jeff]

Hello. It's me. I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet.

So the game has been on for 4 hours now and I feel a little socially exhausted already. I need time to stretch my metaphorical legs before trying to message 10 people simultaneously - or, like, the 4 that were online. I tried to play through my phone since I wasn't able to get to a computer and it was... different. But I survived.

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

I used to host and be kinda active in the Stranded community for a few seasons after mine, so I was friendly with Cochran and Penner back then so I am glad they are both here and on my tribe. I was really concerned I was going to log on to a whole crop of people I know nothing about but who have reputations for being incredibly charming people that write in their confessionals about how they're sharpening their knives ready to cut me, and I'd be be made a fool because I fall for their smooth-talking while none the wiser. I guess I still am worried about that too. I don't THINK those two will do any of that to me but I'd be an idiot to think they wouldn't, so I am taking everything everyone is saying with a grain of salt.

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

I'm not threatened by anyone.

My strategy for right now is to just be friendly with everyone. I want everyone to KNOW I EXIST and I want to be someone everyone is talking to and thinking positively about. I want everyone to rank me as one of their top "favorites so far" list. That's my goal right now.

Something I am struggling with right now, and something I am trying to remember if I struggled with last time - I think I did - is knowing when to initiate strategic conversation. I mean d'oh, that's like the most important thing to do. But I obviously want to have friendly rapport with people before I'm like "RARARARA ALIGN WITH ME RARARARA" but I don't want to wait too long and miss the boat either.

I feel very rusty. Things just feel different. It's been a while since I've played, it's been a while since I used forums. I don't even use facebook so this facebook-style IM system is new to me in general, in addition to being new for me on here.

As I was writing this, Cochran told me that if Penny "continues rubbing people the wrong way," she could be an easy boot. Penny has been cool to me, I am not rubbed off by her in the slightest. In fact I like her. I like everyone so far. But that just kind of goes to show how easily someone can just be like "oh yeah people aren't liking Jeff" and then people are like "oh? well boy howdy I like Jeff but not enough to try to save him here" and then BOOM I'm gone.

[Caryn Groedel]

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

[Jeff]

Hello, it's your friendly neighborhood immunity winner checking in.

I'm going to be real: I didn't think I was going to win that challenge. I really just wanted to put up a respectable showing to show people that I wasn't hot garbage in challenges - we'll have to see in future challenges. I find it hard to believe someone with as little forum experience and game experience as I do could put up a time better than these grizzled vets who probably do this shit all the time. Are they sandbagging? I really wanted to be middle of the pack so I could blend in with the background of the page for a bit.

That being said, my fear of being the first boot has been put to rest. Coming in, I had big concerns I was going to be the odd-man out among the web of connections. Beyond that, I feel good to know I am being collected into Cochran's and Cassandra's alliances so far - though I am a bit concerned that we have all of these people in this supposed group and only those two have spoken game to me. Like, talk game to me you gamers, you know? My biggest fear now is that people are like "JEFF IS SO BORING LIKE OH MY GOD I WANT TO GOUGE MY EYEBALLS EVERYTIME THIS CLOWN MESSAGES ME" in their confessionals. OR TO OTHERS?

I literally asked Ziggy what his favorite topping of pizza is to try to get a convo going. I don't know what I would've done if there was no quarantine or Tiger King for me to go on and on and on about with people. I think I have had identical conversations with multiple people. I'm finding myself forcing conversations with people already.

My perception of this tribe is that Cochran and Cassandra are going to be running it soon. I think it's in my best interest to follow along with them while continuing to make good with the people on the outer so I'm set up well at the eventual tribe swap, which I'm assuming will come much sooner than anyone is expecting.

Cass hit me with me/her/cochran/penner/tammy/kim/ziggy which is 7/11 here. That's a large group which is good, I think. I like Aubry, so I'm definitely planning to keep her close to me.

AND IF I'M BEING COMPLETELY HONEST, I AM HAVING A HARD TIME DIFFERENTIATING THE NAMES PENNER VS. PENNY. I'M DYSLEXIC. PENNY JUST ASKED ME IF I WANTED TO TALK GAME TOMORROW AND I WAS LIKE HELL YEAH BECAUSE I THOUGHT SHE WAS IN THE ALLIANCE LIST CASSANDRA SENT ME BUT SHE'S NOT THAT'S PENNER

I mean, if it's not any of the 7, and it's not Aubry, that leaves Penny, Yve and Alex as the first boot options. If it's between those three, I think I prefer Alex to go just because I just don't think I've connected as well to him as the others. Although my chats with Yve have been very short as well. I don't really want Penny to go because I like her (what a star) but I fear the alliance is going to pick her off. I'm going to see if I can push the target off of her and onto one of the others but I don't feel I have very much sway right now. I feel like I'm sorta being told what to do and who to align with so I'll see if I have any agency.

I type this and then I get an IM and get distracted and 30 minutes go by and I realize I didn't finish writing this.

[Gary Hogeboom]

Great content! Thanks for the interesting analysis and keep em coming!

[Danni Boatwright]

I literally asked Ziggy what his favorite topping of pizza is to try to get a convo going.

gonna bring this up and not even tell me what fucked up stuff he puts on his pizza. you tease

[Jeff]

HE HASN'T TOLD ME! I promise you as soon as I see him respond, I will immediately come and update you on his pizza topping preferences.

[Jeff]

HE HASN'T TOLD ME! I promise you as soon as I see him respond, I will immediately come and update you on his pizza topping preferences.

Update: he likes cheese pizza and sometimes pepperoni. What a guy, that Ziggy.



ANYWAY.


I am so painfully out of the loop here that I am receiving all of my information from people in big clumps rather than learning or gleaning anything first-hand. This is painful because it feels a little like "Here is your dossier, little Jeff. Please have it memorized by tomorrow." and I have to be like "SIR YES SIR!" and my own experiences and perceptions don't seem to matter at current moment. I'm trying to toss the idea of keeping Penny in the game over Yve, for example, because I want to see how much they care about my opinion and where I fall in this. My best course of action is to follow along the numbers until the next stage of the game and hope I have strong connections with the people who have swapped with me.

Longer message later tonight with more thoughts, probably.

[Jeff]

I just spent 25 minutes writing a longish confessional detailing my thoughts on today's events and then I pressed submit and it prompted me to log in and I lost all of it.

So now I will do cliff notes, which ultimately may be preferable than my probably inaccurate ramblings.

Yesterday I thought I was in a 7-person alliance, I thought Aubry was safe, I thought the first boot was between Yve, Alex and Penny.

ALL OF THAT WAS WRONG! ALL OF IT!

I talked to Penner today who indirectly told me I was not in the large alliance by listing everyone in the alliance and not including me. I asked him about it and he confirmed I was not in it. I asked Cochran who also confirmed I was not in it.

I asked Cassandra about it since she included me in it and she told me that it was a mixup and she didn't realize I wasn't one of "the connected," and that she didn't realize that Cochran and I would want to our alliance on the download. Uh Cass what are you doing, bud? This is Survivor? Of course I want my alliances hidden from the other players. That got a major side-eye from me.

I mentioned earlier I was concerned by a lack of agency within my alliance so I dangled a defense of Penny to see if I had a voice in the alliance - and even directly said that about having a voice to Cochran and Penner and they both took a step back and were like "sorry! you are a valued customer! of course your voice matters" but that did very little to assuage me. I'm not used to this position. I'm very used to being in the know and getting what I want. I have to get used to not being in control and even with sometimes not even being in the know and having to wait until someone in the know fills me in. I don't like it. I felt like I had to backpedal myself and be like "sorry! sorry! I am not a malcontent! please continue to give me all of the information!"

I talked to Cass and Ziggy, both of whom told me they believe the first boot is between Penny and Aubry. Lolwut? I was sure it was between Yve, Alex, and Penny. Where did Aubry come from? I think I need to do a little work on Aubry's behalf. I hope I didn't burn any of my sway by pushing the Penny defense earlier.

Yve told me today that she has heard "I like Jeff!" from a few people today which is cool. Alex told me that Yve told him that she and I are cool, which is cool. Is it a funny little coincidence that the two people I was trying to shift the target onto are seemingly trying to align with me, or is this maybe someone pushing them to put in work with me?

Either way, if I can solidify something with Alex and Yve to hold beside my alliance with Cass, Cochran, and Penner, that would make me feel a lot better about my current position in my alliance with the CCP. I also talked to Aubry and solidified that we are good with each other, I think. If I can swing Aubry into the NOT CONNECTED alliance with Yve and Alex, I could have two 4-person alliances in a tribe of 10 which would set me up nicely if the plan is to swing against "the trio" in the next tribal council, and would set me up nicely being aligned with so many people going into a tribe swap.

I tried to summarize it but I ended up writing everything anyway. It is mostly just a mishmash of second-hand info and corrections of second-hand info BECAUSE PEOPLE REFUSE TO USE GROUP CHATS SO WE CAN BE ON THE SAME PAGE!

[Jeff]

So it has come to my attention that Russell on the other tribe is Chris from my season wearing a mask, which is frustrating that I was not able to pinpoint who he was by profile pic. It would have been very awkward for me to introduce myself to him and him know my entire game having played with me the whole time. Glad to see he was able to catch a win on his 6th try attempt in the stranded network.

RUSSELL = CHRIS
CHRIS = RUSSELL
RUSSELL = CHRIS
CHRIS = RUSSELL
RUSSELL = CHRIS
CHRIS = RUSSELL

Hopefully I remember now.