Spencer's gonna try to manipulate the other tribe in his faction's votes?

I want this to result in a spectacular implosion of his game, but I have a feeling he's going to get away with it and annoy me by how much it shouldn't be working.

Because I'm bored, here's an early assessment:

I'll be curious to see how the Assassin twist plays into things - most everyone seems to be saying that they'll just play the game like normal, and ignore the twist, but in a couple rounds it's going to start having a lot of ramifications as it enables players to earn items.

The Coast:

Everyone on Aso seems to be gravitating towards Butch, meaning that, at least among his tribemates, he seems to be polarizing in the right direction. When they have to vote, how Butch plays this will be really telling on if he can improve his social game. He seems to like Gervase and not like Debbie, but Chicken and Debbie both seem to not like Gervase. Sash and Reynold appear likable, but we don't have much content from them yet, so it's hard to say where they stand. If Butch pushes for Debbie and tries to keep that tie with Gervase, Butch/Gervase could probably find themselves on the minority.

Sugar appears to be at the center of Ozato right now. Everyone is digging her, and she's got an early alliance with Tom and Sydney. Alexis not liking Tom and Sydney, but loving Dana/Sugar/Kat is interesting. Also, everyone appears to love Kat, and, to a lesser extent, Dana, including the Aso tribe. Sugar is a presence, but her OTT shtick might end up making her a sort of Butch for Ozato, a love-it-or-hate-it kinda vibe.

Early picks to go far:

The Mountains:

I really don't have that much to read off of for Ki right now. Most of their confessionals are light and focus as much, if not more so, on Sakai. Everyone seems to like James, but I'm getting a lot of "meh" reactions from these players towards their tribemates. It's interesting to note that Marisa seems to ~love~ people who don't reciprocate as strongly, but that could be less of an imbalance and more of just a different confessional writing style. Michele also seems very polarizing. After playing with her in Rustic, I get it.

Sakai's got this Eliza-Jefra-Julia alliance. Jefra seems pretty committed to it for the time being, but Julia is enamored with Caleb (which, given their players, does not surprise me at all). Brad has a mixed reception, but likes the other tribe a lot, where Caleb has ties. Matty is probably getting the inactive boot. Ultimately, I think that Caleb/Julia together will be a social force, so I don't expect the Eliza alliance to last long at all, and I could see them pulling Jefra with them as a number to do more damage later on after these tribe divisions go away.

Early picks here:

It's still super early so I expect these reads to change a lot by the time we have our first boots. Probably too little to go on to actually read much into, but hey, this is better than actually productive things.

Butch's attempts at figuring out aliases are hilariously wrong.

Kat's a real girl? Sure.

Benry (from Warriors) is playing? Nope. Aaron, yes, but not Benry. At least he's got the right power couple.

Host Sierra @ 27/3/2016 16:28

I'm so like... rattled by how different Spencer's personalities must be in private vs interacting with others? Impressive but SCARY

He's like some bizarre blend of Brian Heidik and Courtney Yates.

It's unsurprising that Sugar and Caleb ended up as Shoguns ... but Sash is Shogun on a tribe with Butch and Debbie?

Eliza's confessional is swinging me from a "love to watch her crash and burn" kinda guy to an "actively rooting for her" kinda guy.

Sydney is also quietly killing it in her confessionals. They're shorter, but I laugh every time.

Spencer - "i guess the fact that i'm hot comes across over AIM"

Jefra offering to do someone's Spanish homework to get further in the game is the cutest confessional I've ever seen.

Collective villainous edit for all five Ozato women?