I started writing this out in the middle of the challenge, but I'll finish it up now since I was too busy being traumatized by typing
“CTRL-V” over and over again to focus on this.
So, all stars has officially become underway! Sadly for everyone, Malcolm had a tragic heartattack right before the cameras switched on, and, having no one else to turn to, production quickly dialed up Aras's brother, Vytas, as a replacement, who had been invited to watch the filming of the first few days and hang with his kickass brother.
Then, in a
(pretty good, I liked it) twist, the two hosts were selected to draft us all stars into two teams! Team Jeremy, and Team Aras. Aras, deciding he was WAY better than his brother ever could be, and since his brother was the only premerger here, realized his brother would be a waste of a choice and evaded choosing him at all costs.
Long story short, Aras ended up with a fuck ton of OTT trainwrecks on his tribe, while Jeremy ended up with the group of people who are gamebotty and are more likely to win
(yawn). Aras has already won out in the entertainment factor, and even if Jeremy's band of meh-stars wins out in the end, Team Aras will be remembered as the best tribe in Warriors history, let's be real here.
When it came to the tribe divide, I...was actually decently pleased? The two people I thought might hate me, Kass and Vytas, were far far far away from me, which is great.
(when I heard it was between Vytas and Cirie, the Doctor Ramona Salins of Warriors, for the replacement of Malcolm, the amount of times I prayed for Cirie to show up are likely quantifiable in the hundreds. An actual Doctor Ramona signed up to PW pretty much immediately after I wrote this – it's a sign!) Ultimately, I ended up with a few people that I THINK I have at least...somewhat of a standing ground with? I'll do a quick analysis of everybody on my team – I'll save the other people for whenever I feel like it.
Just like Brian's strategy of voting in alphabetical order this season
(even though he won't vote for himself if all the A's go, which is CHEATING, even if he doesn't admit it), I'm going to go in alphabetical order when it comes to the people I'm on the best tribe ever with!
Abi: So first up we have Abi, which is interesting. See, at first, I wasn't sure if she'd be a fan of me or not – because I knew if she was, you know, that'd be great! And, so far, from what I've observed, she totally is! Brian and a ton of others perceive her as “fodder” which...really isn't the case. Abi is a GREAT player, and the fact people are dismissing her as fodder just because she has a schtick is hilarious because they did that in Japan as well, and, hey, SHE GOT 2ND, so, that stands for something. That's not even counting her other impressive stuff in games. Sure, she makes you think she's all schtick and no brain, but uh...that's totally wrong. Thankfully, I think she's cool with me, so that means I'm cool with her. I'll work with just about anyone who wants to: I have no preference whatsoever at this point. It seems like I'm a top ally of hers, since she told me Alex approached her to reform their Burrito buddy thing from Japan, and that her and Dolly have formed the BAArito buddies which made me lol uncontrollably. Who knows how much she actually trusts me, but it's probably a decent bit because if she thought I was a total wreck she wouldn't have told me any of that, right? So...yeah. Abi's cool. I want her around for a good while at least. She's not fodder to me at all.
Alex: Alex! So, I'm gonna go more in depth on this later on, namely the whole strategic element of things, but uh, on a personal factor, I like the guy. He asked a few questions which I consider ORG semi-sins
(“Are you excited for the game?” “What do you think of our tribe?” Like, no one is going to say “no” and “it sucks” to those, right? ...right?) but those questions do show that he was interested in carrying the conversation which is SO important. A lot of this tribe is like...not talkative at all, or instigates, so when someone is instigating and trying to talk, that's wonderful because that means the person
actually likes me and wants to have a conversation. I mean, I don't understand why someone
wouldn't want to have a conversation with the best all star in this game
(Jeremy even admits he's rigging the season for me, and can any of you blame him? Alina Wilson would be the best winner of all time.), but the people who do are great! Alex is one of those people. A lot of people called him boring in Japan which...I don't get? He's pretty darn good at carrying a conversation, compared to what I expected, and he's pretty likable too. Plus, we have a ton in common, which is great. I really like him.
Baylor:So, I'm a fan of Baylor's confessionals in games, but uh...our conversation went just about nowhere. Also, I've been told before this game(even if she denies it but that's probably just an AS play) that she doesn't like me, so uh...not expecting much from her. I sent her a message yesterday and got no reply while she talked in the group chat all the time, so...yeah. We have the same last name but we're probably not going to the same place in this game. See? That rhymed. I'm really cool like that.
Dolly:Omg what an angel. She's probably great socially with everyone, but her conversational abilities...thank GOD she is here. Plus, she instigates a ton with me, so I think she likes me? I mean, either that or she's putting WAY more effort than I could ever be bothered in pretending to like someone. Honestly she's just cool. I mean, she slaughtered a ton of sheep she raised from birth for the lulz, but she's cool. Maybe a little scary if you think about it...but cool. It's pretty clear she's not a fan of anyone from her season
(and she's trying to become a full fledged villainess this season <3), especially Marcus and Silas, I think she wants them both gone early cause she spent a lot of time trying to turn me against them. Either she's just shit talking everyone to everyone
(quite possible considering she wants to be a villain VERY badly) or she's trying to get me against the people she doesn't like. Hopefully the latter. The more people that want other people gone that aren't me, the better. I was worried about a lack of hatred towards people on this team but uh...that might not be a problem!
Edgardo:Edgardo! Now, people probably think I hate him but I don't lol. I'm probably one of the few people in this cast who doesn't. Now, you'd totally think this guy would be fodder, right? I don't think so. All of his haters are off on the other tribe! The guy really caught a lucky break, because even though Brian is desperately campaigning, tooth and nail, for this dude to leave first...I don't think it'll happen. The guy's been really active in chats and group chats, especially for this challenge here, so...chances are that he's not going anywhere, at least if we go to tribal this first round. As far as I know, we've cleared up there are no issues between the two of us and blah blah. He's talked a TON to me, so I think he does want me around? Because, like I said about Dolly, if he wants me gone, he's putting an awful lot of effort into talking with me. At least compared to some of the others on this tribe who...aren't doing that.
Fairplay:oh god. I don't know what to say here. Like, most of this is going to be later after the assessments. On a personal level, I like Fairplay. We've talked outside of the game a lot and stuff. But when it comes to a game level...I have some comments that need to be made because I'm thoroughly disturbed right now. We'll come back to this.
Kelly:I really like Kelly, you know, we come from the same season and stuff, and we were like BFFs there. We've talked a little here but...I'm pretty sure our conversations flowed a ton better before? She hasn't really made a ~ton~ of effort to talk to me but I can't tell if I'm just making a big deal out of nothing or not. She started one convo with me but I've started all the others, afaik. She hit me up pregame though, so...that's something? I think there's potential for something there, but for the most part we haven't talked all that much, at least compared to Alex, Abi, Ed, and Dolly. And Silas too now that I think about it. Our conversations keep dropping inexplicably. It's depressing.
Marcus:Who? Okay, this guy...I'm so confused. For the whole portion of this game until thirty minutes after the immunity challenge started, this dude was nowhere to be found. Everyone else showed up.
He didn't. Dolly and other people told me this was how he was in Season 4 as well. He'd be completely invisible, then show up when the tribe lost, save himself, and leave again until the next tribal council. He then shows up, very, very, very late and confused, to the group chat, to announce that he is, in fact, drunk. It is at this point that I'm really baffled, because, you know, this is All-Stars, not Chump-Stars. Like...what is he
doing? I'm worried for him. I mean, not gonna lie, I was hoping he would have just stayed totally inactive because uh..easy first boots are always cool. But he showed up. I mean, he didn't really
do much of anything once he showed up, but he
did show up. He didn't instigate with anyone as far as I know
(he talked with Dolly I know, but she instigated I believe – other people, like Alex, did not speak with him, and neither did I; combined with that Dolly told me he said he was too lazy to talk to anyone...yeah, he probably didn't make much progress.) so...yeah. He's kind of just a mess right now. However, when I did talk to him he told me how much he loved me and how awesome I am and a whole bunch of other nice things. Absolutely none of it was probably genuine... but I can pretend it was? It was pretty nice to be recognized for how cool I am. But he then proceeded to not show up whatsoever yesterday. He's useless.
Sierra:So...Sierra's fun. She's kind of a hilarious trainwreck to watch in these games, and I adore her, but playing with her can be kind of difficult because as I said before she's...persistent. If you try to suggest an idea that she doesn't like, she absolutely won't end up having it and will yell at you until you vote her way. I know she likes me out of the game
(if she doesn't she's a HELL of an actress) but I've yet to be able to speak to her during the game. She lives in some wonky time-zone in Poland so...yeah. She's the only person I haven't been able to communicate with after the game start. Before the game she was telling me that Kelly and Dolly have to die if we're on a tribe with them, so if she targets them that means she's not targeting me so, A+! Also Silas thinks she hates him too, so...lol. Works for me. Abi DESPISES her and wants her gone, by the way, so we might end up with an...interesting first vote clusterfuck, should we go to TC. Ideally, that clusterfuck doesn't include me being in trouble!
Silas:So, I think a lot of people are going to think Silas and I are together on this...but it dooeesn't really feel that way. I mean, I
like Silas, and would be totally cool working with him, but I feel like he wouldn't want to work with me. At least, he hasn't shown a ton of interest in that so far? I mean, he vaguely asked me about strategy a bit but that was the extent of it. For the most part it was just small talk. But, then again, he HAS made a decent effort to instigate, and a lot of other people on this tribe haven't, so I'll give him kudos for that. Not much to say here. He exists. I'm cool with him but not sure if he's cool with me. Who knows!
Teresa: Teresa is another person who I know a bit outside the game – we used to talk all the time, but sadly, a lot less so nowadays. I do think that she still likes me, though? Dolly told me that Teresa called me a sweetheart which <3. I don't have much to say on Teresa. I like her, but she's been kinda busy so far so I haven't been able to talk to her as much as I'd like. I think I have some rapport there I can work with, though, which is nice.
~
Now, going into the actual...
depth of things, we get into our tribes, and, semi-disappointingly, yeah, just about the only talk that happens is personal stuff – strategy doesn't really happen. Now, obviously, this is run of the mill when it comes to ORGs, but I remember someone telling me than in AS games shit just goes right from the start – and I'm hoping either they were wrong, or this is an exception, because otherwise...it's kind of scary. Until the challenge happened, strategy talk was absolutely zilch with Abi being the sole exception.
We get our challenge, and, I was pretty right on what it would be. It was a semi-live challenge, meaning, 99% of the time, it's gonna be endurance-esque! And it was. Basically, every 15 minutes, you could post in your tribes board and get a point for each person who posted.
...This went on for 24 hours.Now, it
was pretty painful, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for this sort of challenge. I had absolutely nothing better to do with my time
(as if that's a shock!) so I kind of just...posted like 80 times. Heck, if I hadn't posted, like, half the times I did, we would've lost, so...yeah, I feel pretty awesome. Just about everyone on the tribe kept complaining about the challenge, and I agreed with them, but I was fine with it. Sure, it got tiresome, but it didn't take too much actual hard work. All I had to do was CTRL+V and keep an alarm going. I like to think that I at least proved that I don't suck when it comes to challenges.
The only thing I'm worried about is if I seemed too much like a leader during it with me tracking the other tribe's post counts to see who was in the lead
(until Aras, OUR OWN LEADER, came along and sabotaged that by pausing the post counts – what the hell, man? Shouldn't you be rooting for us? :p ) and being one of the two people, alongside Ed, who was announcing when it was ~post time~ pretty often. Me and Ed talked about it, and we're probably going to avoid doing much of that from hereon out, as appearing as a leader is...bad. Appearing as
useful is fine, and what I wanted, but I don't want to keep that up from now on because the impression has been made – there's no need to become full on queen of the tribe and put a mega-target on my back.
During the challenge, because Aras skewed all senses of my reality, everyone was pretty worried we'd be losing, as LJ, Yul, Charlie, and PG are cyborgs and stayed up even more than I did. I took a nap! They...they just kept going. I worry for their sanity at this point, honestly. That challenge almost drove me crazy, so I can't imagine how they must feel, especially considering we won. They must just be absolutely crushed.
During the challenge I did start getting strategy out of people – thank GOD, but in retrospect I kind of regret it. I was talking to JFP about the tribe's quietness, and he offered me an alliance. Great! Alliances are good. I like alliances. And then we start talking about if we should bring more people in, and he thinks Alex and Edgardo. I'm fine with that. Alex is receptive to him while Edgardo kind of dodged my thing, so we kind of decided to just have Alex in as a third for now and work more on other people later.
I then realized why everyone hated him in Japan because his alliance-making skills are...let's just say they're not top-notch. He basically runs up to Alex, says “HEY SO YOU WANT AN ALLIANCE WITH ALINA?” And then makes a group chat. Out of no where.
Like...what the
fuck, man? I like you, but what the fuck?
The thing is, when making alliances and strategizing...you have to be careful.
Cautious. Like...gently stroking with a feather. This guy just grabbed a sledgehammer and slammed everybody in the frigging face! Like, you're supposed to make it think it's HIS idea. Not OURS, you...you...I can't even....you have to be slow. Meticulous. You make HIM talk to ME. Not YOU talk to ME and make you seem like you're this Godfather-esque figure. This is why you get booted premerge 90% of the time, dude! I understand now! Ugh!
I immediately did damage control with Alex and acted like he did the same exact thing to me and like it came out of nowhere, and tried to act wary just in case Alex was, because if that was a sinking ship, I don't want on it. Fairplay just prematurely ejaculated the alliance all over the place and it scared the jesus out of me – it was just really embarassing and awkward. Alex seemed...fine with it, though? He even suggested we name it, and like...you don't try and name alliances if you're not serious about it, I guess. I tried bringing up Abi and Dolly to him to bring in as well
(since I know he talked to Abi about aligning, and apparently said good things about Dolly to Fairplay, plus I like them both)) and he...ignored the Abi part. I can't tell if that means he's not serious about aligning with Abi, or if he wants to keep it a secret. Who knows. I'll probably talk to Abi about this alliance just because I want her in it and I'm starting to think it won't go places since Fairplay is barely active and doesn't start conversations at all.
Anyways, in much better news, Ed and I started talking, and I think he's fond of working with me. I'm fond of working with him, too, which is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever said considering what happened last time, but...eh. Me, Kelly, and him, seem likely to be forming a Bermuda 3 core alliance on this team – it was pointed out to me that a lot of people from season 4 played in season 3, and that's...actually scary, now that I think about it. If season 3 and 4 team up...that's an easy thing to get going, and...also frightening as hell.
So we're thinking of pulling in Teresa, obviously, since she's the
only person from season one on this team, along with Dolly, since she seems to hate all of her season 4 castmates. Maybe JFP since he was universally hated in season 3, and uh...I think Edgardo brought up Silas, but Dolly HATES him, so I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I'd be fine with it, but I've learnt that if you try to force someone to work with someone they hate...it doesn't work out well. At all. Ever. We also discussed Sierra, since she may be on the outs of Season 4 as well, and maybe Abi? Who knows. Winning the challenge is a godsend, because I think we need time to get stuff set up. A part of me feels like something is already in place and I'm doomed, but...hopefully not. I'm just going to pretend there isn't any massive alliance and play that way, because if there is, I'm fucked already.
As far as the other tribe goes, it looks like the other tribe is
so furious with Team Aras's victory, that they're going to be targetting Vytas tonight, as a way to emotionally hinder our leader. Considering our own leader sabotaged us in the first challenge, I think they should just leave him as is and not piss him off – he's already working in their favor!
I talked with PG and Charlie pre-game over there, and I think if it comes to a swap I could work more on a relationship with them, but, frankly, I'm far too lazy to converse with people cross-tribe unless they start conversations with me or are Austin or Crystal, who I already talk to out of game sometimes. Sorry.
Besides that, I haven't spoken to anyone over there really besides LJ who...is actually pretty cool. I was under the impression he won because in Season 1 Katie was INV and then OTTNNNNN and Candice was just...INV, but he's actually pretty likable and I think he likes me too. We already talked about possibly hooking up in a swap, so, yay! I'd be good with that. He's fun.
In general, I feel like I have a few cards, maybe a few bad ones, but hopefully I can just play them right and end up in a position that doesn't, you know,
suck. We'll see, I guess. I slept for like 14 hours after that frigging challenge, so uh...I have to go and talk to people soon. Blah. I wish a majority alliance was already in place for me so I could be lazier, but...nope. According to Austin, there's no real majority on his tribe either, so I'm hoping this is just a slowburn so far, instead of me a being on the outs and screwed, situation. But all things considered, I'm not the first boot! Woo
(he's not even in All Stars, what are you talking about, Alina???)! I had a total dream that I was, but...yeah. Didn't come true, so that's pretty sweet. Hopefully things just keep going higher and higher, who knows, maybe all my dreams will come true?
*fast forward a month and some weeks into the future*
AND THE WINNER OF SURVIVOR WARRIORS: ALL STARS......
ALINA!!!
(this is when the crowd shouts “YAY!!! GO ALINA!! WE LOVE YOU!!! WOO!!!!”)
How awesome would that be? Pretty freaking so.
?1111" to half the cast. Mainly because I don't think that I'm that close to people, and the people I am close to have other friends who I'd assume would be higher up on their inner totem pole than I am, so it'd be fruitless if I bothered anyways. I think avoiding giant pregame armies is hopefully the best move. If there are some, hopefully they just kill each other and I can just lay around doing nothing. That's my ideal strategy for the first part of this game to be perfectly honest; I'm feeling lazy.
