Insights written with by Love:
Returnees:
Everyone's got their own opinions on these returnees, and oh boy is it gonna be fun! Most of these people are all cracked in their own ways, and things will get polarizing very quickly. I think
JOHN ROCKER is going to be fun to see here. He's been hilarious on the server recently and I expect him to bring the same energy here. People will probably try to get him on their side quickly, and I don't see him as an early target. I'm personally biased towards
HANNAH and
JED as well, both being people I have worked with in a game before (Isolated and Rematch). I also think
AURORA has a lot of potential to do well here, having many connections with people on this cast, but not any polarizing ones. Will she and
WARDOG work together, both being earlier Kuril boots?
As for the rest:
GARRETT provided me endless entertainment in both Rematch AND Excursion, so I can't wait to see what he brings here. (Hint - it's gonna be good).
ELIZABETH is a constant staple of entertainment as well, and regardless of if she leaves pre-jury AGAIN or makes it through finally, she'll have a fun storyline to follow. However, she is going to have
MISSY to contend with right off the bat. Will they try to make amends, or will they immediately start gathering armies to their sides? The final Tanz here is
JESSICA, who is fresh off of a lot of Discord ORG success. She's dedicated to redeeming herself from Tanzania, but I'm worried that obsession might hurt her. Whether you root for or against her here, she's going to be a topic of conversation for sure.
TAI is the person on this cast I know the least, and probably our least connected returnee. That could be great for him...or a quick downfall. I saved
STEPHANIE and
STEPHANNIE for last - they've never played together but they do know each other. And the relationship is...rocky. Both of these players have reputations for being competitive and dramatic.
STEPHANIE needs no introduction - most of you should be pretty familiar with her in some capacity.
STEPHANNIE is pretty active on ORG Yuniverse, and when I played a game with her, she was an OTT messy queen who managed to alienate almost every juror on their way out, and ended up losing in the finals.
Newbies:
Alright everyone. Get excited for these newbies, because we have an
incredible batch here to contend with these insane second-chancers. We went out of our way to find people who have a little more experience and maturity under their belt, and who should all be dynamic and rootable players. I wrote a lot more about these guys, since all you lurkers have way less experience with them.
ALEXIS first came to us the day before or day that Tanzania started, and we nearly put her in right there and then. But I think she would have destroyed all those Tanz players (no offense, lurkers
), and she fits in much better to contend with this group of returnees. She has some forum org experience under her belt and is super easy to get along with. I expect her to do well.
ALLIE is a little rusty, but also has some forum org experience. She plans to be a little more under the radar to start, but then kick it up in merge. This is a pretty "yeah duh" org strategy, but I think she's got a good chance of pulling it off successfully. I'd be surprised if she was an early target, but I've been surprised before.
BRANDON is someone I want to see stick around for a bit, but could be out pretty early. If you're wondering if he's playing a schtick...well, he's not. He's 100% going to be himself here, but I'm not sure the other players are going to believe that. He is definitely a unique character, and if he can survive the first couple of boots, I bet the vets will adore him. He's got discord org experience, but nothing else.
EDDIE's application doesn't give you all much to work with, but he's an ESL teacher in Australia and was incredibly engaged in his interview. If he can push past possible time zone and communication barriers, I have no doubt he'll emerge as an endearing player people will want to see go further. He is one of our very few cast members with absolutely no org experience, however, so take that into consideration as you will.
ERIK is a very interesting character. He doesn't necessarily have this type of org experience, but I think he'll adapt quickly from experience in Mafia style games. I'm not sure how much he's going to stand out amongst this group - he is certainly eclectic, but also self-assured, and won't take bull shit from anyone. Also, he plans to keep an excel spreadsheet of his lies? That's overkill even for me, but in the type of way I love.
HOPE is fun. She's another "real" newbie with basically no org experience, but apparently she's out to prove she's better at them than her boyfriend. Rooting for her to do just that! I think she's the type of person people will easily get along with, an immediate social butterfly. However, she's also incredibly strong willed and will not back down from a fight, so the second strategy gets messy or confrontational, expect to see her in the thick of it all.
LAURA is our third and final female player on the newbs, and just like the other two here, I expect her to be entertaining, easy to root for, and easy for people to get along with, especially early in the game. Whereas Hope might take an Elizabeth or Aurora style pitfall of falling too early from being an aggressive player, I think Laura will be a little more UTR to start and easily make social inroads that stay strong throughout the game. Fun fact, she plays BB orgs on Twitter, somehow.
MATT comes from an old, early era of orgs, and I will already state for the record that I am biased towards him because he has a Ph.D. in psychology. He claims to be great at impression
formation but not
management - to unpack that, what he means is that, he's going to be really good at making people like them, and then he's going to screw them all over and they will hate him for it as a result. I'd be shocked if he goes early, and I expect him to be a popular winner pick.
MICHAEL is another person I expect to be a popular winner pick. Or maybe I just find men in their 30s fascinating org players (looking at you, Matt and Tommy!). In addition to being the same age and gender as Matt before him, Michael is a very old-school orger who took a break for a long while. He seems to have a really good sense of who he is, and how he plays. I think he'll build great bonds, but they could hold him back from making cutthroat decisions needed to win.
REYNOLD is one of our youngest newbs, and falls right into the archetype of just out of college, cocky know it all (credit to Danni for that description). He will likely be a more polarizing character and will be assertive early to make sure he gets his ducks lined up in a row to try to control the entire game. I don't think he knows what he's getting into - his only experience is Tengaged - and these players will
not be easy to control.
SHAMAR is a self-labeled libcuck and proud of it. He plans to get in with the ladies of the tribe and hide behind them for a while. He's also got experience as an athletic coach, and we've seen coaching and teaching experience lead to a lot of good gameplay (huh, maybe I should have included that in my survey...). I think he's got a lot of potential here, and I hope he doesn't get overshadowed by some of the players we have, seeing as this will be his first org experience.
SHERRI sucks. Don't pick her as her winner pick. She's not worth your attention. Choose someone else. Okay okay, fine, I'm lying. But I am letting you all know now that I am setting an alarm for this draft and if ANY OF YOU try to take her from me, you will see the salty bitch side of Loveita come out. Don't try to be cute.
But anyways, Sherri is an experienced orger (and knows Stephannie which will be interesting to hide) and is just an incredibly fun personality. Very self aware and easy to trust. She knows what to do, and I think she can execute it.
