Post by John on Dec 6, 2020 17:31:09 GMT
ROUND 7
We have merged! Let the cracktivity resume. Honestly I can’t keep up with this cast, I try but they stay up so late! Even Louise matches their hours and she’s 5 hours ahead of most of them, bless her heart. Anyways I have a lot to say about the merge and each of the players so let’s get right into it.
Before the actual merge happened we saw Casey voted out 4-2, and honestly that is such an important vote to shape the story of the round that I have to talk about it. This isn’t hindsight, I said this in the moment and still believe it. The Casey vote was honestly a bad move for almost everyone involved. Everytime that vote should have been Lee. The only two people that vote somewhat benefited was Lee (obviously) and Marissa, but even then not that much. I understand the rationale of taking out a bigger threat like Casey before a merge and avoiding him regrouping with the Yellows, but by doing so Abby/Juju severed any connection with yellow by starting this storyline, pissed off Louise and all to keep Lee who is literally the biggest wildcard in the game. He literally added nothing to their games because he has one of the worst social games this season. And then both Abby/Juju were complaining how nobody was talking to them and how it seems like a Green vs Yellow narrative and they think they’re getting targeted. Well first, you two literally just pulled off a blindside to save someone from OG green, so no surprise people paint that narrative when it’s the one you started, and also by doing so you severed a connection to other players and positioned players like Carson/Marissa/Zaid to be in the swing position.
So now onto this round, I’ll go player by player so I apologize if some storylines repeat.
ABBY
After blindsiding Casey to keep Lee in the game, I think Abby is finally seeing the repercussions of her short terms gamestyle. Abby plays in the now without necessarily thinking of the long term repercussions. She pulled off the move to keep Lee and essentially stole the spotlight of the game. She is without a doubt the shot caller of her side and being portrayed that way. Abby’s biggest issue right now is the people she has chosen to trust. Funny enough, Casey is one of the players that probably had her back, while the allys she chose (Juju/Marissa) have been throwing her under the bus. For instance, Abby immediately regrouped with Brenden, but because of her allys this information disseminated so fast. It went through Marissa to Zaid and then to the entire game pretty much. Her “stealth” game is totally exposed and she’s not aware of it. The one benefit right now to her game is that she’s such a huge threat that it’s making her less likely to be targeted because it’s the obvious move. Abby needs to totally reassess her game, and hopefully if she survives this vote it’s a wakeup call and she switches things up. Though I could also see her just give up if things don’t go her way, I’m hoping for the hustle though.
BRENDEN
After a very blah pre-merge phase for Brenden (yeah I know he was almost idoled out, but he was saved by other people, he didn’t even throw his own vote that round), we could be seeing Brenden becoming the first member of the jury. The minute the merge hit Brenden had a 2 hour call with Abby. How do I know this, because it’s all people have talked about with Brenden because news of that call spread like wildfire. From that moment, Brenden made his position in the game clear, he was back with the green. It was a major choice of his to just abandon everyone from his swap tribe, but a very Brenden decision. I really like Brenden has a person, but as a player…strategy is not his forte. Even just looking back at the Dusty idol play, he knew she might have an idol, he knew he was getting her vote, he votes for her anyways. Like why? Now fastforward to this round, we merge 5-5, Louise is pissed and wants to make it an easy 6-4 majority, but Brenden decides to flip to the green? Like if he had been rock solid with that group I would get this move, but again he plays the “Harrow 2.0 isn’t talking to me”, but like why would they when you’ve already made it clear you’re back with Abby. Also they’re hearing you’re talking to all of these people on the other side, but similar that Harrow 2.0 aren’t talking to you, you aren’t talking to them. I get Brenden’s concerns with that group and he could have been in a serious position to be a major player in this game if he was just more patient. This is not the round for him to flip, and thinking he can get Zaid to go for Roy this soon is silly. Who knows maybe it all ends up working, but it shouldn’t.
CARSON
Patrick’s winner pick that I never understood. I love Carson, Carson if you’re reading this back after the season I hope you know that me constantly clocking Patrick picking you to win isn’t me not liking you. I just don’t think you can win or have done anything that shows you can, but there’s still a lot of game left to prove me wrong! Carson has really fallen into the background of the game. He’s very much cemented in people’s minds as with the yellows and honestly that makes sense for him. He’s developed a strange relationship with Juju that seems very superficial, but I think a lot of players are missing opportunities to potentially work with a player like Carson. For instance, he had a very strong bond in his mind with Brenden on the previous tribe, but Brenden has all but iced him out now since they’ve merged. I think Carson is not leading the narrative right now, but he’s still important to it.
DANIELLE
One of my favourite players to watch this season. I think Danielle is playing a phenomenal UTR game and is the most approachable of the “Yellow” players. Danielle just gets the game from a strategic standpoint, and what benefits her is being the majority and being a part of the decision making. She’s a very important “glue” member of this alliance. She also has great reads on the players around her. Like for instance, with the green’s trying to pull in Zaid to vote out Roy, her immediate read was the nerve of the green and how cocky they were thinking they could pull over Zaid to be the minority of a group and vote out someone he has connections with over them targeting a player like Louise who he’s never played with. Danielle is smart and knows what’s best for her game even if it’s not the flashiest move. She’s very Sophie Clark-esque in the sense that she’s playing the game for herself, not for the audience.
JUJU
I feel like I always need to clarify before I go in on someone for their gameplay that I really like them as a person and that’s very much the case with Juju, he’s amazing, but his gameplay… I don’t know, as a vet player and an ORG host I just expected so much more from Juju this season. He’s just all talk. He talks this big game about how he’s not someone to be messed with and how he’s tired of playing for other people and I’m just ok when are we going to see THAT player. All we’ve seen so far is Juju, the puppet of Abby. He’s shown some slight independence in the sense that he’s sold out Abby’s game to establish his own connections, but he’s game moves don’t reflect himself as his own player. He voted Miranda even though he wanted Lee. He went against Casey/Louise because Abby wanted him to. And then this round he finds himself fighting from the bottom in a position of his own making. He’s made quick judgements on players like Roy that he doesn’t want to work with them, but he doesn’t realize he isn’t in a position to close any doors. He chose this harder route in the game but plays like he expected it to still be easy and a cake walk. I want to see the attitude Juju brings to text confessionals in his game and no more of this woe is me I’m playing from the minority attitude bullshit.
LEE
I’m still shocked to be writing merge thoughts on Lee, but here we are! On a scale of 1 to 10 for a character this season, Lee is a solid 8, he’s bringing it, he’s causing drama, he adds a lot to the dynamics of the game. Using that scale for gameplay, Lee is a solid 2 and that might be generous. Lee lies so much, like so much, and they’re not even good lies. Sometimes I wonder if he genuinely believes his own bullshit sometimes and whether or not he’s aware he’s not telling a lie. Like with his rivalry with Louise, he keeps painting that Louise said bad things to him or worse things in PMs, and it’s just not true. He was 100% the antagonist there and the worst of anything happened in the main chats. I just don’t understand the rationale for Lee still being in the game, like maybe as a shield, but otherwise he adds nothing else to anyone’s games and so little people trust him. He’s also a bit of rinse and repeat with how he approaches new people so all the Harrow 2.0 players meeting him for the first time heard about his tricks and are seeing them play out. Lee just needs to cut the bullshit and be honest. Hopefully if he loses some of his “numbers” he’ll start to realize what he’s doing isn’t working, but honestly I don’t think in the game he’ll ever come to that conclusion if he hasn’t yet at this point.
LOUISE
I love when a player gets screwed over by a group and they don’t go crawling back to them. I have seen so many times people get screwed over in a vote and then still go back to the players that dicked them over and I’m always like why, why would you do that, why not just chart your own path. Luckily for us we have Louise and she is not that girl that will just be ok being blindsided. She entered this merge with a major chip on her shoulder, having just been blindsided and seeing these players choose to save Lee, the person that was going for her in the tribe chat. She was pissed, upset, sad and all those emotions were justified. But luckily for Louise, we merged and she immediately jumped ship and went to work establishing bonds with whoever she needed to. She invested time with Zaid, she invested time with Carson and she mended things with Marissa. She even tried to patch things up with Juju to a degree. But Louise read right that when they left Marissa out of the Miranda vote people had almost an instant reaction for damage control, for Louise it took HOURS before they even attempted. It’s just bad gameplay on their part, but I’m so excited to watch a fiery Louise in this merge.
MARISSA
Sometimes I wish I could unmute on calls with Marissa sometimes and just be like GIRL SNAP OUT OF IT. She is literally such an Eeyore at times, but Marissa is actually in a really good spot in this game. She merging in the swing position and has a lot of people wanting to play with her. She is so concerned that her gameplay is going to be perceived as her playing other people’s games and she constantly downplays her own achievements in the game when she has one of the strongest arcs of the season. She is the player the Purple/Yellow group need and she has a lot of control. The fact that the vote may potentially be on Brenden is likely a lot to do with Marissa and move that gives me hope for her game this season. She knows this won’t be a battle of tribal lines forever, and she also knows the numbers aren’t with the Greens this round. Also although she’s associated with the Greens I feel like the only one she cares about in the game is Juju, the rest just assume they have her on lock. Marissa just needs to get some confidence in herself because she is on a winner’s trajectory unless she lets that self doubt sink into her entire game.
ROY
We have entered the phase of the game where everyone starts to target Roy because of his threat level. We always knew this time would come, Roy for sure knew it would happen at some point, now to fight that target for as long as he can. Roy is a smart player, he knows the best way to do that is to surround himself not only with loyal allies, but also big threats. If there’s someone else in the game who is a big target, they benefit from Roy being around because he will get shine thrown his name every time a vote is discussed. The difference between good players and great players are people who realize that. Roy is a great player, this round he sees Abby as the biggest threat but is in line with a Brenden play seeing that it keeps the threat in the game and buys him potentially one more round in the game. Each round Roy gets further he gets more dangerous, but as any player knows, in a game like this anything can happen. That round can result in a power being played and changing everything, an Immunity win that prevents the target from going home, literally so much can change! I hope people don’t fall for the obvious target ploy of going for Roy this round, but if anyone is set up to counter that time of gameplay, it’s Roy. He was the star player of the pre-merge in my opinion and I hope his journey continues.
ZAID
The man of the hour. Zaid keeps being like “oh poor me being in the swing position is so hard” but we all know damn well Zaid loves it and the attention. Zaid has always been all over the place with gameplay, but ultimately he’s always been chasing the power in the game and wanting to be the driver. He is now in that position and is trying to find balance in this merge. He’s smack dab in the middle (with Marissa) of the Green and Purple/Yellow groups. Right now as I write this he is leaning towards Purple/Yellow and honestly it’s the right choice for him. I think the Green players were really dumb for banking entirely on flipping Zaid, especially Brenden. You need to entice someone to come over, that means making it look better for them then it is for you. Essentially Brenden is being like “I know you have to turn on everyone you’re close to, but Roy is a huge threat and working with the Green is better for me so I think you should do this.” Why would someone who is already in the power position in their group and could have numbers without you throw that all away to help someone else’s game. I mean maybe there are people who would, but I don’t think Zaid is that player. The one thing Zaid has to be careful for in the game is this round he’s the swing, but once his plan goes through he will soon switch from being perceived swing to threat. He needs to sustain high level of gameplay throughout the game and make sure he’s keeping in other threats (see: Lee, Abby, Roy, Louise, Juju) to hide behind. Zaid is THE player to watch this round and someone to watch for the rest of the game honestly.
