Day 2 Confessional - Winning Ugly
Jun 20, 2015 16:15:50 GMT
Host Austin, Ashley Underwood, and 1 more like this
Post by pureaceg on Jun 20, 2015 16:15:50 GMT
As I make this confession, we are about 14 and a half hours into the first challenge. As expected, our glorious Captain Vince Sly placed me at the bottom of his challenge list. Low expectations for the new guy, perhaps?
As I said yesterday, it could easily be taken as an insult, and it could certainly make me paranoid being at the bottom of a tribe list. But appearing weak is my current game plan, risky though it may be. I don't want to be at the top of the tribe, but I would like to avoid the bottom. As long as I continue playing the part of a weakling in over his head wanting to prove himself, perhaps I will appear to be useful to keep around than the people who appear to be truly useless.
There's a philosophy I respect called "Winning Ugly." It's a term coined by tennis commentator and coach Brad Gilbert - I think Coach Wade would like him. The idea is the death of perfectionism. You don't need to be better than the whole world to achieve victory. You only need to beat the people in front of you. Why win with a 21 in blackjack when you can beat the dealer with a 17, yes? This challenge, and this game in general, falls into that same philosophy.
Take this challenge, for instance. I'm paired against Read's weakest tribe member, Cirie. The poor woman doesn't even appear to know that there's a challenge happening at all. It won't be difficult to perform better than her and earn points for my tribe. I hardly need to overtax myself and allow the rest of the players in this game to gauge my full power. Why make myself a target when defeating my opponent will be as simple as lighting a single fire?
How about the rest of my tribe? I'm in the brig of our little ship, and yet I'm outperforming tribemates higher on the list. Let's go through the match-ups. I can judge how everyone is doing by looking at their post counts. The person I think to be currently leading will be in capitals.
9. VINCE vs. Kim
8. Coach vs. DANI
7. Morgan vs. GABE
6. SASH vs. Ciera
5. WHITNEY vs. Nick
4. N/A
3. SHIRIN vs. Dan
2. HALI vs. Stacey
1. ACE vs. Cirie
We're winning 165-85, at least at this moment. But in post count...
1. Coach - 118
2. Shirin - 81
3. Sash - 48
4. ACE - 47
5. Vince - 27 (and many of these come from the tribe pick)
6. Morgan - 21
7. Whitney - 19
8. Hali - 8
Despite me lighting fires for the least amount of points against a completely inactive player, I'm certainly not on the bottom of our tribe in output. If, by some act of God, we lost the challenge this evening, I should not be the one targeted at Tribal Council. Not if we want to succeed in the future. It should be one of the ladies below me.
Current impressions of my tribemates, now that I've spoken to more of them:
VINCE SLY - Our captain needs to make a stronger showing at this challenge unless he wants a mutiny on his hands. If Kim storms back and we lose those 55 points, we may very well lose the whole thing. If we go to Tribal Council this cycle, I'm inclined to vote for person most responsible for our loss, come what may.
COACH - I do like Coach. He's an upbeat member to have around camp, and made quite the impassioned motivational speech at the outset of the challenge. He's also performing admirably in this first challenge, easily outstripping the rest of us. I don't see him going away for a while. He's putting up a fight against Danni, that's for certain.
MORGAN - Less active today than she was yesterday, and not performing nearly at the level I expected for this challenge. But she's facing Gabe, so I'll have to forgive her. The man is an onslaught.
SASH - I still don't know what to make of Sash, really. I still wonder if we got off on the wrong foot. If I wasn't so focused on staying off people's radars, I would make a go at performing better at this challenge to defeat him.
WHITNEY - She's rather distant, and I've barely said two words to her. I don't know if she's bluffing when she's saying she has technical problems with the challenge or if she's just a fool. It isn't rocket science, dear.
SHIRIN - I still see myself allying with Shirin if she would allow it. I don't know if she has other deals about, but I want to make a deal with her when the time is right. Perhaps if Tribal Council looms I will see where she stands.
HALI - Useless. She keeps odd hours and is currently lazy in this challenge. She would be a safe choice to vote out over these first Tribal Councils.
RODNEY - A joker, to be sure. He's been kind to me so far, so I am inclined to also be kind to him. It will be interesting to see how he would do in this challenge if it wasn't for Bobby's untimely situation (speaking of which, sorry to hear about Bobby's father - my best to his family).
I do hope the challenge progresses nicely over the next few hours. Ideally I won't need to do much work to keep up my appearances. I don't exactly feel safe if we go to Tribal Council, but I think I have a decent shot of convincing others to not vote my way should we end up going. If we lose, placing the blame on the one who earned the tribe points is a foolish decision.
As I said yesterday, it could easily be taken as an insult, and it could certainly make me paranoid being at the bottom of a tribe list. But appearing weak is my current game plan, risky though it may be. I don't want to be at the top of the tribe, but I would like to avoid the bottom. As long as I continue playing the part of a weakling in over his head wanting to prove himself, perhaps I will appear to be useful to keep around than the people who appear to be truly useless.
There's a philosophy I respect called "Winning Ugly." It's a term coined by tennis commentator and coach Brad Gilbert - I think Coach Wade would like him. The idea is the death of perfectionism. You don't need to be better than the whole world to achieve victory. You only need to beat the people in front of you. Why win with a 21 in blackjack when you can beat the dealer with a 17, yes? This challenge, and this game in general, falls into that same philosophy.
Take this challenge, for instance. I'm paired against Read's weakest tribe member, Cirie. The poor woman doesn't even appear to know that there's a challenge happening at all. It won't be difficult to perform better than her and earn points for my tribe. I hardly need to overtax myself and allow the rest of the players in this game to gauge my full power. Why make myself a target when defeating my opponent will be as simple as lighting a single fire?
How about the rest of my tribe? I'm in the brig of our little ship, and yet I'm outperforming tribemates higher on the list. Let's go through the match-ups. I can judge how everyone is doing by looking at their post counts. The person I think to be currently leading will be in capitals.
9. VINCE vs. Kim
8. Coach vs. DANI
7. Morgan vs. GABE
6. SASH vs. Ciera
5. WHITNEY vs. Nick
4. N/A
3. SHIRIN vs. Dan
2. HALI vs. Stacey
1. ACE vs. Cirie
We're winning 165-85, at least at this moment. But in post count...
1. Coach - 118
2. Shirin - 81
3. Sash - 48
4. ACE - 47
5. Vince - 27 (and many of these come from the tribe pick)
6. Morgan - 21
7. Whitney - 19
8. Hali - 8
Despite me lighting fires for the least amount of points against a completely inactive player, I'm certainly not on the bottom of our tribe in output. If, by some act of God, we lost the challenge this evening, I should not be the one targeted at Tribal Council. Not if we want to succeed in the future. It should be one of the ladies below me.
Current impressions of my tribemates, now that I've spoken to more of them:
VINCE SLY - Our captain needs to make a stronger showing at this challenge unless he wants a mutiny on his hands. If Kim storms back and we lose those 55 points, we may very well lose the whole thing. If we go to Tribal Council this cycle, I'm inclined to vote for person most responsible for our loss, come what may.
COACH - I do like Coach. He's an upbeat member to have around camp, and made quite the impassioned motivational speech at the outset of the challenge. He's also performing admirably in this first challenge, easily outstripping the rest of us. I don't see him going away for a while. He's putting up a fight against Danni, that's for certain.
MORGAN - Less active today than she was yesterday, and not performing nearly at the level I expected for this challenge. But she's facing Gabe, so I'll have to forgive her. The man is an onslaught.
SASH - I still don't know what to make of Sash, really. I still wonder if we got off on the wrong foot. If I wasn't so focused on staying off people's radars, I would make a go at performing better at this challenge to defeat him.
WHITNEY - She's rather distant, and I've barely said two words to her. I don't know if she's bluffing when she's saying she has technical problems with the challenge or if she's just a fool. It isn't rocket science, dear.
SHIRIN - I still see myself allying with Shirin if she would allow it. I don't know if she has other deals about, but I want to make a deal with her when the time is right. Perhaps if Tribal Council looms I will see where she stands.
HALI - Useless. She keeps odd hours and is currently lazy in this challenge. She would be a safe choice to vote out over these first Tribal Councils.
RODNEY - A joker, to be sure. He's been kind to me so far, so I am inclined to also be kind to him. It will be interesting to see how he would do in this challenge if it wasn't for Bobby's untimely situation (speaking of which, sorry to hear about Bobby's father - my best to his family).
I do hope the challenge progresses nicely over the next few hours. Ideally I won't need to do much work to keep up my appearances. I don't exactly feel safe if we go to Tribal Council, but I think I have a decent shot of convincing others to not vote my way should we end up going. If we lose, placing the blame on the one who earned the tribe points is a foolish decision.