The primary thought I had after the first ep was, "these tribes are really small." With only six people it's much harder to form a meaningful 4 person alliance. And 3-way alliances are inherently dangerous because each person will be paranoid that the other two have formed a pact. I think Rupert's 4-way alliance won't hold up if they go to another TC.

I'm curious to see what the other tribes are up to and maybe we'll get that chance in Ep2.

-BbB

I thought I read somewhere a while back something about three tribes merging into 2, before the final merge.
Anyone heard something to that effect?

>
>3. When to merge?
>Imagine a tribe performs particularly bad
>in the first three IC's
>(it has happened before!).
>How much fun would it
>really be to see two
>tribes sit three people out
>each? Six people (out
>of 15 total) sitting on
>the sidelines during an immunity
>challenge doesn't sound all that
>entertaining.
>

I think if one tribe drops down quickly we may see more challenges where the smaller tribe has to reuse members rather than others always sitting out. Like they rotate more and drink more bad blender shakes, or shoot more arrows, etc.

I'm leaning towards the 3 tribes being a bad idea.

I think the weaker tribes will quickly get picked off once the teams merge. This just starts the pagonging earlier in the game.

It can't last forever. Game structure dictates that if one tribe loses four members there has to be a merge of the three tribes into one or two tribes. I expect there will probably be only two tribes by episode 4 or 5.

"If all machines were to be annihilated at one moment, so that not a knife nor lever nor rag of clothing nor anything whatsoever were left to man but his bare body alone that he was born with, and if all knowledge of mechanical laws were taken from him so that he could make no more machines, and all machine-made food destroyed so that the race of man should be left as it were naked upon a desert island, we should become extinct in six weeks." (Samuel Butler, "Erewhon")

i disagree about the LOSING tribe having to be picked off, if it were me, ban the 2 weaker/lesser members together to pick on the BIGGEST tribe...

IMHO the number game would work...unless ppl hated each other from diff teams...therefore, losing at least one member before the merge is good...unless u get all 6 to last until the final 10 merge (IF IT IS 10)

Or it could be a complete reshuffle with members of all three tribes having to take their chances. If I was EPMB that's what I'd do with this bunch.

<< Game structure dictates that if one tribe loses four members
<< there has to be a merge of the three tribes into one or two
<< tribes. I expect there will probably be only two tribes by
<< episode 4 or 5.

Exactly, once a tribe is down to 2-3 players they will be forced to merge the tribes. Spoilers indicate the team with 2-3 players will be absorbed into the larger tribes.

So the 2-3 players appear to get swallowed up into a numerically superior tribe. This will almost certainly seal the fate of the 2-3 players that were absorbed. They will be pagonged. Unless they have TC immunity, but how fare is that? Get TC immunity because they were on an incompetent team?

So the 3 team concept will probably lead to pagonging at the reshuffle semi merge, rather than at the actual merge to 1 tribe.

I wanted to see three tribes too,but this is not working.
TPTB need to break up the alliances in the future,and we need to see more of the people playing the game to get interested.

How can you say "this is not working" after one episode. Give it a few eeks before you pass judgement.

Too judgemental

Yeah, I'm willing to wait until after the second episode to make a judgment call. I'm suprised how at this point, I don't love the three tribe concept. When I heard about it, I thought it was really cool but after seeing the first episode...

To me it just seemed like the teams were TOO small. As someone pointed out above, it's hard to form a meaningful alliance with only six people around. And if your team does crappy at the early challenges, you can pretty much kiss your ASS goodbye come the first merge when the stronger tribes swallow you whole.

I just kinda feel like we're waiting for the three to merge into two so the REAL game can begin... but I'm willing to see hold judgment until after the second episode.

I'm just hoping that come merge time (into two tribes) they try to balance the former tribes within the new tribes. Example:

Mogo Mogo has 5
Chapera has 5
Saboga has 4

So they do it this way:
Tribe 1: 2 mogo, 3 chap, 2 sabog
Tribe 2: 3 mogo, 2 chap, 2 sabog

In those new tribes there wouldn't be a clear dominance and in fact the tribes with fewer members would be inclined to partner with the other minority tribe. Or maybe tribe loyalty will play an even smaller role this time around.

Just talking out loud here.

-BbB

I think the fact that the players all know each other may completely change things. Instead of staying with your original tribe you may ally with your buddies from before the show.