Week Two

Kichanga Tribe

Coming off the first Tribal Council, Kichanga was down. They had had to vote out Lindsay Eby, which was merely according to plan for some of the guys in the tribe. Hackett and Damien still weren’t talking, and it was beginning to take its toll on the tribe. Binny decided to try to help the two tribemates reconcile, but for now it just wasn’t to be. Beckie had not really expected her close friend Eby to get voted out so soon, so she had to scramble to make sure that her other friends would still try to keep her around. Lauren and Tyler continued to strategize, mainly with Kyle. Elliot, Scott and Binny also had many talks, some of which included various other people, mostly Kyle and Tyler. But they still had to focus on improving their teamwork, or else they would lose yet again.

Margani Tribe

Fresh off an Immunity Challenge first place, the spirits at Margani were very high. Some had felt that their tribe was weak, but with such a good level of teamwork, Margani felt very strong going into the second challenge. Feeling so good, nobody wanted to think of strategy, but planning happening was inevitable. The three guys from Camp Mini-Yo-We, Steve, James and Matt were pretty close, and spent a lot of time talking. It was not an alliance, but it was friendship, and some people were edgy around the three of them. Jill spent some time with Cam, Greg and Chelsea, not talking strategy but catching up, because Chelsea had not seen the three of them for some time. Dirks, Siobhan and Jones worked on making some food for the group, and they began to talk about who they should include in their little dealio. Margani had definite factions, but when it came to challenges, they were one united team.

Hartolo Tribe

Some people in the tribe had not thought that they could pull off a win in the first Immunity Challenge, but they did win. Cowin and Pitman felt like partying, and they jumped in the water, and had a swim. Tyla and Cait joined them in the river, and they began talking about all sorts of things. Cowin and Pitman specifically wanted to make sure that Tyla and Cait knew that they would be taken care of. Clements spent some time with Michelle, because she was the only other person on his tribe that he knew well. They talked for a time, but no plans were made. Graham, German and Millar spent some time around the fire talking about many different things, and strategy came up, but Millar didn’t want to talk about strategy if Pitman wasn’t involved, because he knew Pitman would get paranoid. Graham felt safer talking with German alone anyways. Laura spent most of the day with different people, getting the lay of the land. She connected the most with Tyla and Cait. After today, Clements felt more comfortable in the tribe, and really enjoyed joking around with Pitman and Cowin.

Breema Tribe

Micah had finally put aside his rivalry with Pat, but unfortunately it was just before Pat was voted out by the rest of the tribe. It had come as a surprise to Micah and Gerry that the rest of the tribe had come together so quickly in unification against Pat. Now they really had to work on convincing the rest of the tribe that they had qualities which the tribe desperately needed. Gerry had smarts and was the strongest person in the tribe, while Micah had high teamwork as well as strength. In a tribe desperately needing strength, both Micah and Gerry were good to keep around. The rest of the tribe, who voted together, was feeling pretty confident going into the next couple challenges. They knew that about half of the challenges would be intellectually based, and that Breema was full of problem-solving talents. Silas spent a lot of time talking to the girls in the tribe about strategy, and the other guys, Barry, Trotman and Jord also talked some strategy. It wasn’t that important though, as all of Breema knew they weren’t gonna lose again for a long time.

The Immunity Challenge

This weeks Immunity Challenge involves, speed, teamwork, but most of all problem-solving attributes. There are a bunch of puzzle pieces floating out in the water. All the tribe-mates must swim out to get the puzzle pieces, then bring them back and assemble the puzzle on the beach. The attribute weightings are as follows:

Speed: 20%
Strength: 0%
Problem-Solving: 50%
Strategizing: 0%
Teamwork: 30%

To briefly explain how the challenge works from my end, I have given each person in the game a number ranking between 3 and 7 in each of the attribute categories. 7 being the highest a person can be, and 3 the lowest. I then calculate the average attribute rank for each tribe, based on all the members of the tribe. I then multiply the average with the attribute weighting for each challenge. So for this challenge, I multiply the problem-solving average of each tribe by 50. I then add all the totals up to a grand total. The two tribes with the highest grand total win the challenge. Its as easy as that. That is why you want to have each attribute accounted for in your alliances.

As both Margani and Hartolo have one extra member, they will have to sit one contestant out for the challenge. In the spirit of good old competition, the Kichanga and Breema tribes will get to decide who has to sit out from Margani and Hartolo. They choose Nathan Dirks to sit out for Margani, and Peter German to sit out for Hartolo. As a rule, the competitor who is chosen to sit out, cannot be chosen again to sit out until every other person in the tribe has sat out at least once. Let the competition begin.

With all their speed, Kichanga again started with an early lead over the other three tribes. They were the first to begin bringing pieces back to the beach. The swimming section was lead mainly by Scott, Elliot and Tyler. For Breema, Silas and Barry really worked hard to keep up second place by each bringing back many puzzle pieces. Hartolo was in third, but there was only so much that Graham and Clements could do, with Pitman, Millar and Cowin who were not strong swimmers. With Dirks, sitting out, Margani noticeably lacked speed, and fell very far behind. So Kichanga was the first to bring back all their pieces, followed by Breema, Hartolo and Margani.

The puzzle building section was a different story altogether. Kichanga again could not work as a team and began to lose ground to the other tribes, specifically Breema who was blowing through their puzzle. In no time, Breema had completed their puzzle, and were first place. But with Margani and Hartolo both missing their best all around athletes, Kichanga was able to keep a slight lead despite their lack of team work, and soon Kichanga finished their puzzle as well.

Even though they already had lost the challenge, the two remaining tribes continued to put their puzzles together. The girls of Hartolo finished the puzzle first, and Jill finally finished the puzzle for Margani without much help from her tribe. So this week was the opposite of last week, mainly because of the “sitting out” rule, as Kichanga and Breema won immunity.

Keys to Victory (or defeat)

Kichanga: Scott, Tyler, Elliott, Damien and Beckie really worked hard swimming out to bring back the puzzle pieces, taking an early lead. When it came to putting together the puzzle, Kyle, Lauren and Binny worked really well together to get the job done. Their only problem was that other teammates kept trying to interfere with the puzzle building.

Breema: While not a fast tribe, Silas, Barry, Jord and Trotman worked really hard to get those pieces and remain in second place. When it came to putting together the puzzle, all three girls, Nathalie, Fournie and Mandy got the job done with time to spare.

(Margani): Without Dirks, their speed was just not up to par. While they still had really good teamwork in Jill, Jones, Cam and Siobhan, their lack of speed put them behind early. They started to catch up in puzzle building, with Jill and Steve taking the reigns, but it would not be enough.

(Hartolo): Graham and Clements being the fastest in the tribe had to do most of the swimming, and the two of them could not compare to the fastest from the other three tribes. Cait and Tyla in particular helped to pick up the slack left by the bigger guys in the tribe (Pitman, Cowin and Millar.) Without German, their problem-solving also lacked punch, and Michelle, Laura and Cowin could not work together like was needed. They finished third, but it was not good enough.

So the members of Margani and Hartolo must all give me a vote by Wednesday night at the latest. Remember, when you are making alliances, that it will be a good idea to keep at least one member with each attribute as their strongest around. Because all the challenges use a combination of all the attributes, you don’t want to be left with a really low average in any of the characteristics.

I need a vote from:

Margani Tribe:
Dirks
James Lee
Jill
Steve
Siobhan
Cam
Chels
Greg
Jones
Hinton

Hartolo Tribe:
Cowin
Pitman
Graham
Laura
Tyla
Cait
Michelle
Millar
German
Clements

Please vote swiftly.