[Gary Hogeboom]

Hey Chris Noble,
Welcome to the Jellal tribe! I’m excited to see you all out here in Morocco. My name is Gary, and I'm one of the hosts for this season. From time to time we will be sliding into your confessionals. Our job as hosts is to help answer all of your questions, and drill you in confessionals to get the strategic gears in your brain turning.

Let’s start by running through the other members of your tribe. Who gave off the best first impression? Who gave off the worst? Are there any players here that you think will be an easy boot when you attend your first tribal? Do you think that three tribes is more difficult to manage than the typical 2? Do you think the smaller starting tribes will be beneficial for your game? Any other thoughts you’d like to share about the other tribes?
That’s all I’ve got for now. Enjoy getting to know your tribe, and let’s get this show on the road! Go win this thing!

[Chris]

Sebastian was one of the first members to approach me and initiate conversation. I then started messaging everyone to try and get a sense of who I was playing with. However, it was Kellyn who came to me first and said he wanted to start an alliance of 4 with myself, Brendan, and Chelsea, giving us the numbers in our tribe of 7. Although we're hopeful that it will be a while before we have to go to our first tribal, we discussed our plans for when we do. We're thinking that Don will be our first to go. I put forth my thought that early game, I feel keeping a strong tribe to win challenges is the way to go, no one really disagreed with that. Our plan is that if we lose and go to tribal, Brendan and myself will talk to Sebastian, and Kellyn and Chelsea will talk to Andrea to get the vote to be unanimous, and not make it apparent whether we are or aren't working together. I'd like the option to play things by ear until after the challenge, changing the one to go based off of performance.

Granted with all of this planning right out of the gate, i've found myself in a good position. Being new to the game, it's nice to know that if things go bad, I don't necessarily have to worry right away, as long as I do well in the challenges, and I don't get fucked over.

After the group signed off, I stayed signed in late and got a message from Sebastian. We chatted for a bit asking questions about work, school what have you, and then got down to discussing possibilities in the game. It was strange having watched the show for so long, seeing the importance of having an early alliance, managing to get one, and then having to converse with someone in a manner that kept it in the back of my mind while not giving anything away. It seems like Sebastian is a sweet kid, we might be able to work together in the future, but for now, i'm going to stick with the alliance and see how far we can go.

Until we've had more time to interact and see how each other performs in the challenges, it's difficult to see where things are going to go. As Aubry said, "I hate kumbaya Survivor, no one knows what the hell is going on."

Once we realized that there would be three tribes, we immediately began thinking there would be a swap at some point. If we're wanting to stick as an alliance that goes past the merge, we're planning on discussing the matter further after tomorrows challenge. The difficulty with managing three tribes is forming an alliance, splitting the group up, and then seeing if you're able to make it back together for the merge, as well as performing well enough to draw in others so as to have the numbers.

I think the smaller starting tribes will be better as far as getting to know people quicker, but also bettering the chances of gaining control of the tribe early on. Until we meet and play against the tribes tomorrow, we'll see what happens.

Also, I hope everything is going well for Princess and Probst. It was unfortunate to hear they had to go to the ER, here's to hoping it was minor and everyone is well.

[Chris]

I volunteer for Tuareg.

[Chris]

I volunteer for Tuareg.