[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

[Caryn Groedel]

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

[Cristina]

So here I am again, dragging myself out of retirement for this game! I don't know if I remember what it gets like but it will be fun to find out if I still have got it! So I won Madagascar nearly a decade ago I think and it was my first ever ORG win, so Stranded will always have a soft spot in my heart and with the hiatus of my job (I am a Barista in a games cafe, so yeah, no chance of staying open) so when I saw the message from Poody, I was just like, why the hell not? It's non-live, which is so much better for my European ass. I mean, I will be staying up till stupid hours in the night to play this, so what better time than when I am jobless.

So I am super rusty on these games, so I think my approach for the first few rounds will be to find my feet again. I have the biggest gap between when I played last than everyone else on this tribe, so that is a bit daunting. I think I have to become that social butterfly to overcome missing a lot of talking time that the American players will have. 3AM is 9PM for most of you, so that means I am missing a big chunk of the evening because I need my sleep now I am older, so I will have to hustle extra hard in the daylight hours to make up for it. My approach right now is to take it one round at a time, I don't want to be the first one out. That is my main goal at the moment, don't be the first to go. So I have to make sure I put a decent time in on the puzzle and also I have to make sure I make the connections I need. If I do well at the puzzle, that means people will be like "Oh Cristina is strong, she can help us win immunity" and if I fail on that front, I will have a much harder time. As long as I avoid being the worst two, because that way you can always fall back on the whole "weakest challenge time" as a good excuse to throw votes on someone.

Having a double elimination straight off the bat, you hosts aren't playing around! I have to admit, reading that made my heart sink a little. It means we are going 100 from the bat, no warm up and no practice, this is real and it is off the blocks! I do think our tribe will have a very hard choice for the first vote, everyone seems to be pretty active and nice so far. So my initial thoughts of people are mixed because really I have only had 3 hours at most to converse with people so, here goes.

Loveita: So far, she is my favourite person in this tribe. She has great taste in Netflix shows and she comes across as a very sweet person, I can see why she did well in a BB style game. She just has a very good vibe coming from her and I hope it is something that I can work well with.

Melinda: She was the girl I felt like I have the most in common coming into this game but she already lied a bit to me, which is shady. She said she had retired years ago but on the banner, it says you were on S34 girl, so what is the truth there? I am worried she is trying to play me already but she has some fun stories at least. I am keeping an eye on her, she seems shady. She is starting to talk game with me, but I am not sure how much I can trust her. I am working on a sort of alliance with her

Catalie: She is the only face here that I actually recognised, so that is something to reminisce about. We didn't talk that much last night but with a lot of other players have pre-exisiting connections, she may be my in with those groups if I can't crack them. At least, I hope so!

Russell: We chatted about writing and Drag Race, so we have those in common at least. They have a good energy but I don't really know too much about them besides that. Like, my one issue is a lot of the people on this tribe were on S34 so I hope there isn't an alliance based around that.

Joaquim: Ok, this boy is a social shark, I know the type. He asks way more questions than he answers and I know that is an easy technique to get people talking. I think socially, he will be a very strong player and whether that is an assett to me potentially or a hinderance, I have yet to see. I think it would be better to get him onside than be against him early on though.

Mookie: He has a nice chilled out energy to him but he already is talking like he won't be an assett in challenges. Like I know I am not the strongest in challenges but you need to attempt them with a good mindset otherwise it wouldn't work. I hope that attitude doesn't hinder him too much in challenges.

Val: She came online after I had gone to bed, so didn't have any chance to talk to her yet!

Kim: Barely got to speak with her, so same situation with Val. I hope to chat a bit with both of them today.

Courtney: So shes one of the old school players like me it seems, but I don't feel a spark with her or a connection yet. So far, if I had to choose someone out of the people I have talked with to go, Courtney would be that choice so far. Just something there that doesn't sit right with me.

Stephanie: My fellow non-US player! So we have some regional links (Her mum is from near where I was from originally in the UK) so I hope that can work to make something supportive between us. I think she gets where I am coming from with the time difference being a issue so I kind of want to build that bridge between us and make something work.

Right, I am off to bake a cake so I will keep you updated with the news when I get it coming in! Stay tuned to Channel Cristina!

[Cristina]

So first challenge down and the tables are set for the first Tribal Councils! I am very happy to report I did not bomb the crap out of it, I was solidly average. Can't complain about that being my first challenge in forever. I think performing poorly straight out of the gate is such a dodgy position to be in. At this point, you don't want anybody to have a reason to target you and having a real bad challenge performance in the tribal stage, well let me just say that you just painted that big circle on your chest with that. I have to say, I was a little annoyed at Catalie DQing and then saying it was her time zone. Like honey, what? Time zone? The girl who won the challenge is in Australia, I am 5/6 hours ahead of the regular players and my ass still finished the challenge. Still, if this was a normal immunity for the tribe, we would have beaten the other tribe with all of those DQ's. It did worry me that their players who didn't DQ were consistently faster than us though, we need to work together to make sure we don't have our asses handed to us in those challenges.

So yesterday, wow the tribe was super quiet. I barely saw half the people and I only really got to have a conversation with a few of them. Loveita, well, her name says it all because I love to talk to her. We broached some game talk and she is the person I want to ally with most at the minute. Val came on and she was sweet enough. Melinda and I have talked a bit and I talked to Courtney more and I just don't think I click with her at all. Like I am not gunning for her but if we had to drop someone, I wouldn't mind losing her. Plus her challenge time was dismal so it should be easy to maybe push the target on her. If people push for the three worse performers in the challenge, which is an easy excuse for a first vote. Hopefully people will be a little more talkative today. It has this weird atmosphere, like we are in a western and everyone is standing off, hands above their pistols. Nobody wants to draw first because the first one to shoot always gets gunned down fast but somebody has to kickstart this or we going to be standing in that salon till we die of hunger!

[Cristina]

So big news, I have formed my first alliance of the game. Loveita, Steph and Val! We don't have an alliance name yet (I hope to have something to match the cheesyness of the Neapolitan Girls) but I think this is a good match! Loveita is adorable, Steph is a firecracker and she bossed that challenge and even with missing a night, Val is great craic to talk too. I am also making agreements with Melinda and trying to make a deal with Joaquin to at least have some extra connections in this tribe. I want to make sure I am not an easy target early on and I can build on these groups. A strong six would be amazing but I will take what I can get here.

For the first vote, there has really been three names thrown around to my knowledge. Mookie, Catalie and Kim. Kim is the back up to the back up right now. People have commentated that she hasn't spoken that much but hell, she has been way more chatty than Mookie and Catalie. Both Mookie and Catalie were active the first night and then have barely been around yet. People like Melinda, Courtney and Joaquin have been saying lets do Mookie and I think its because Catalie has all these connections to people and they want to cash in on that pre-exisiting shit. I am against this because while I know that pre-exisiting relationships would happen in this game, is that a reason to keep you when you don't even do the first challenge or let people know at the very least you can't do it? Like 30 seconds in the tribe chat, "Sorry, can't do the challenge?". I would much prefer Mookie to stay for 2 reasons. One is that he actually attempted the challenge and two, I don't want this game to be the place where its your early connections that shape the rounds. Hell to the no, it is what you do here and now, what you put up in this round that matters, not how good you are or who you are facebook buddies with from three seasons ago. So yeah, Catalie going would be way more my style but I won't push it hard. I won't jepordise my game for Mookie this early on, no sir I will not.

[Cristina]

So I am thinking the idol clue means the answer lies in Norse Mythology? I tried the throne Hlidskjalf but that wasn't the answer, so I think I will need more hints before I just start throwing every term I can think of.