Yeesssss!!!!

I was rooting for Jinho from episode 1. Likable, underdog, very smart and that whole "always number 2" story. That Pass Go game moment gave me chills lol. And I don't think I've ever been sweating anything as much as his 2 deathmatch games versus Gura and Sungguyn where he was so close to losing both times.

The editing on this show is SICK as ****. And just as you think you've figured it out and that it's getting formulaic they switch it up on you. And they always match it with the super awesome soundtrack for maximum effect.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Hmm... Not too fond of Jinho and Sangmin returning to play despite those exact 2 being my top 2 favorite players from season 1. I would've preferred a complete new slate of players. But well, here I go rooting for Jinho again :P

And LOL... When they revealed the lion card I was like "That's rigged! How does that role ever lose?". Happy with that outcome though as I'm rooting for the other alliance. Not that I expect that alliance to stick together given how fluid they seemed to be in season 1.

Also, I'm totally gonna play this as a party game at some point (The Food Chain that is).

Hongchul FTMFW obv

Survivor has made me a little wary of returning players too; I was worried that people would just coalesce around Jinho/Sangmin, but insofar as that happened here it was because Hongchul formed an alliance right away. Speaking of which:

Since the show's format allows the loser to pick their opponent, being a visible leader is very dangerous: if the next game has a solo loser from Jinho's group, they can target Hongchul and he's playing for his life. It creates some interesting spots where you want one of your team to lose so you can guarantee that you're not the member represented in the deathmatch. In S1 there were lots of collusive deathmatches where his team could keep him safe, but you don't want to rely on that. We also saw several people bus their partner - notably Jinho with Poong - but that's less likely when alliances are well-defined. Hongchul running his alliance from the start carries a lot of risk.

One reason for doing it in the rehearsal stage is that, if you wait until the main game, the first working arrangements will be whichever animals happen to be compatible - the animals of prey, or the crocodile + crocodile bird and lion + rat combinations. Jinho's group was unlucky to draw two roles with opposing win conditions, but any sufficiently large random alliance will have those problems - the predators not having enough prey is a big one, as seen later. You don't want to be stuck working with an animal that you couldn't work with for future games while other compatible animals find they get along well and could carry it forward. You also need a large alliance in the first game to combine their peeks and find out who is in each role.

The game itself seems highly complicated, and I have no idea how you would start figuring out the best lines for each role. The one big piece of public information is that animals have to return to their native habitat every other round, so you have to use that to set up kills. Most predators will want to remain in their habitat in round 1 so they have freedom to exploit known locations in round 2, but if that becomes the dynamic then as prey you can next-level them by alternating the rounds you stay there...

Role-specific thoughts:
Lion: You have to kill a predator early to overcome the prey shortage. The lion absolutely has to figure out how the stuff in the above paragraph is going to line up; you don't want your movement to be locked in for round 4 and have people know where to avoid. The producers must have been thrilled when the hyper aggro guy drew the lion.

Eagle: You know that you will get two shots at each bird with no other predators to worry about, so if you survive round 1 with a kill you can usually camp in the sky for the rest. A good role, and probably the right choice for the crow (who can arrange to be sacrificed to the eagle at the ideal time).

Crocodile: Navigating around the lion is tricky, so maybe try and coordinate kills with the eagle while paying attention to where the lion has to be? If the crocodile bird can help you, great.

Prey animals: The 'immunity if you stay together' condition is made difficult by the mallard having to access the sky, so maybe you try to work with the eagle or hyena to have the mallard killed ASAP?

Hyena: You need to starve the lion (barring some sick 'X is the chameleon pretending to be the snake (but is actually the snake)' bluff), so working with the prey animals makes sense if you can bag a kill early.

Chameleon: You can either:
- pretend to be the snake and hope nobody calls your bluff. The easiest/safest line
- work with the eagle or crocodile and pretend to be them to mess with everybody's movements
- pretend to be the crocodile bird/rat to get yourself an alliance with the corresponding animal

I loved how fluid the alliances were in S1 but I wonder if that's the exception rather than the rule. I'm excited to see if Hongchul can hold it together though. Also liking Dahye and Yohwan so far.

Pretty stoked about it though; JinHo is a total boss. And he comes back in S2? Even better

Couldn't Minseo have just used her last 2 cards up after she left one with Yellow?Seemed like there should have been at least one person willing to help her

After she gave away her first and everybody spoke up saying "now what if she doesn't play?" or whatever, I don't think there should be anyone else taking the risk, since she has the option of just going to either player and getting them to play the final card. Just seems like an entirely unnecessary risk to take as a player who has already played all their cards, and the only person that really benefitted from getting that extra card was the guy who got it.

There's no incentive, especially this early in the game, for someone else who is already out of cards and can't catch the lead, and one extra garnet, or an ally with 10 rounds to play really shouldn't change that.

Ok, screw it, I'm fine with Jinho and Sangmin being returnees. I love watching them and seeing them work together (which they didn't do much first season) is a joy.

And AWESOME @ Dohee being a double agent. Again, I just didn't see that coming. They really edit this well so that later they can show certain scenes and you understand them in a completely new light (such as him sitting out on the chair in the main hall).

Also I'm glad that that game didn't go how I feared it would go with everyone teaming up against 2 people from the start like happened near the end.

My ideal f2 is obviously Jinho vs. Johwan.

I continue to love Jinho. After the last time they played Sun Moon Star and Jinho noticed that one of the stacks was low I was thinking about whether you could take from the stacks just to make it seem like it was used a lot. Shuffling them even better of course. Smart thinking.

And his loyalty to Eyunkul I also really liked. The others were being really lame in betraying him. "I don't think he was that decisive" OMG.

He seems poised for yet another good run.

Rollercoaster of emotions

That's the highest high for me yet when Doohe betrayed Sangmin and used the power item to replace himself as an elimination candidate. It's a move that you'll see on Survivor or Big Brother easy, but it didn't seem AT ALL like these Koreans had it in them. So strong.

I was loudly laughing in excitement and then... HOLY ****!!! It's fake! Even higher high, that's just amazing. Brilliant idea by the producers.

But I was very saddened by Doohe getting eliminated. It's his own fault though in the end, so whatever. This is shaping up to be a repeat of season 1 where Jinho is once again on the outs after having lost his closest ally. That's fine by me - only makes it all the more satisfying when he hopefully wins again :P

I think Yuhwon's casting was one of the best aspects about the season just because of his well-known Starcraft rivalry with S1 winner Jinho. I also think a big part of how good this season will end up being (when compared to what it could have been) will come down to whether we actually get to see those two show down at some point, although it looks like they're working together these days.

My heart is broken. Ugh. So sick. It all came down to luck.

Gura. Sungyu putting on a show but really took medicine. Hes working with gura. Guy with calulations is putting on a show that gura is human,so gura can spread it, and leave him he winner, he is working with gura. In before I am completely wrong.

edit:I typed this before the whole cure showing. Now I am more confident. Gura gave it to the sungyu who"didnt" take it.

edit 2: looking good.

edit 3: yep, doubt people beleive me now tho. But that was fun. Only time will tell if calc guy is in on it too.

Jinho is a ****ing boss!

I used to have a magic trick that I used at parties that relied on cards being asymmetrical, but I still don't know if I would have thought of that in that spot. So elite.

Seems terrible how hesitant most people are to spend their garnets on advantages. They're completely useless if you don't win and you can't win if you don't survive the round.

Also hilarious how they all think this young singer is a complete idiot even though he outplays them and out-thinks them in a ton of spots. Rooting for him or YellOw(Jinho) to win

Sangmin, Jinho, and Hongchul are all delivering in a big way

Sad to see Yooyoung go. She was hawt. And she was like the last female standing btw out of the final 9 or whatever wasn't she? Did the season start with way more males? Normally I would be a fan of this because male players are usually the more interesting ones, but I've liked the female players in this also which is a true sign of the show's strength.

I've rooted for Yohwan ever since Jinho got eliminated. Not really because he's the most deserving - Sangmin is clearly the most deserving one. But I just like him. He flails around in every game and is useless lol. Claiming to be the president in a game where another player knows the president as part of his/her role - jesus christ :P

I hope he takes it down in the final vs. Sangmin.

In the main match, Sangmin giving the model the bracelet and Jinho giving the guests information were god like moves.

What was Kyungran thinking in the deathmatch? She had Sangmin dead to rights twice and then found the match for him. In the end she got away with it, but it was a lot closer then it should have been.