I don't think he was awful socially. I think he was terrible physically, and seemed to have some insecurities that were holding him back. He is clearly a thinking player imo, and has the potential to be very good.

I like the following favorites:

Malcom, Brenda, Andrea, Cochran, and maybe Dawn. I don't remember that much about her gameplay.

He may be a thinking player but his move to flip shows he never thought about winning.

Wasn't Cochran like super unlucky with the people in his tribe? I think he has much more trouble connecting with people like Ozzy, Jim, Keith than he has with people like Malcolm, Erik & Brandon.

That and the fact that we actually saw his social game improve during episodes, makes me willing to give him a clean slate. Do I have high hopes for Cochran? No. Do I think he's gonna be terrible? Doubt it.

EDIT: yeah, this

I honestly don't understand why people like Dawn. She's plain horrible. She didn't connect with her tribe at all and went looking for the immunity idol on day 2 instead of swimming with the group.

Yes she's most likely a nice lady in real life but come on, this is TV. You don't remember her gameplay because she didn't have any.

Don't look at me, all I was saying is I don't have an opinion on her either way for now.

I would have much preferred Holly instead of Dawn. I think it would have been interesting to see her play again and her inclusion would balance out the pregame relationships on the favorites tribe.

Awesome, one of the better cast intros I've seen (though I haven't seen many). Of the favorites, I'm most looking forward to watching Malcolm and Cochran, and to a lesser extent Corinne, Andrea, and Brenda. Hantz and Sheppard will be entertaining but I got bored of their shtick after a while. Dawn and Erik and Francesca are whatever.

Fans: I'll withhold judgment until after I see the individual videos, but overall the group looked pretty solid in the intro. Don't really see anyone who jumps out as me as someone I'll want to pull for, though.

Why is everyone so high on Andrea? I personally didn't like how she played the first time out and am more intrigued by the rest of the women.

Prediction: There will be some really really really terrible moves made by the favorites. Between Cochran, Malcolm and Brenda fpsing and Phillip, Erik, Brandon, and Francesca just being terrible I expected to be tilted by bad play a lot this season

I think Cochrane was super freaked out that he was actually on the show last time and never really got over it. The thing I'm most curious about this season is whether he can calm down about the while thing and maybe then he'll have some game.

More interviews:

Brandon



http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/...nk-im-a-beast/

He references poker and chess, man I would smash this punk in chess so hard

Hope



http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/...the-best-liar/

I think Cochrane will have a lot of people who will be willing to work with him, whether he will make the best of that is yet to be seen. Of the fans I don't expect a lot but see some potential in a couple of them.

Everyone should want to get in an alliance with the guy who will throw his whole tribe under the bus for a cushy 7th place finish.

Really enjoyed Cochran's pre-game interview with Dalton Ross. I can't believe we didn't anticipate the paranoia that would set in just upon seeing his tribemates:

Looks like I missed the cast announcement while I was in Vegas. Nice job on the thread VTChess

I went through the cast bios and found out that one of the fans grew up and works 5 min away from my hometown in NJ

I'm on the Eddie Fox bandwagon until further notice

Yeah of the fans, I see him having the most potential.

His analysis of Corrine pretty much single-handedly sums up why I'm still optimistic about his chances of being a good player. He gets it. Corrine is arguably the most perfect ally an under-40 male can have, and he understands that simply by having watched Gabon. He and Malcolm are going to be significantly more intelligent than everyone else out there combined, and they're arguably the two biggest fans of the show as well. That's a damn good sign for their chances.

Can you qualify this more specifically.

Well, okay, it's a bit of hyperbole, but I think both of them seem extremely intelligent in terms of how they think of the game. Cochran is obviously very intelligent in real life, and when reading interviews with him or listening to him on D&C, you can tell he has a deep understanding of the game. I get the same impression from Malcolm, who seems like a full-on gamer that enjoys the tactical decisions and understands inflection points in the game. I think they both have excellent instincts for the game even though they've both made big mistakes when playing.

Yeah I can agree with that. With the only other Favorite on this season, being close being Brenda to them.

Since the favorites have been discussed, I want to do a quick analysis of the fans, mostly judging from their bios and short interviews

Although the favorites are underwhelming as can be in regards to dominance and physicality, the fans look like the group more built to fail

It's cast like a Micronesia fans redux

Shamar

=

(wants to make things miserable for everyone, leadership background)

Reynold

=

(self proclaimed loud and boisterous)

Shamar and Reynold could just as easily butt heads for leadership early and fracture the tribe

You can stereotype the rest of the fans pretty well too

Matt = Chett/Zane (older, bearded and tattooed, likely weak)
Laura = Natalie Bolton/Alexis hybrid (aggressive/deceptive)
Eddie = Erik (young, physical, eager and naive)
Sherrie = Tracy/Kathy mix (milf + crazy potential)

if they swap tribes early, some of the star struck fans are likely to turn on their own if they're unable to form a solid, cohesive group early in the game

Who is Siska?

Michael is probably going to be some kind of Siska/Eliza hybrid given his self proclaimed irritability



I don't know about his glasses and hipster attire though

We won't know for sure until after the 1st episode at the earliest

=

Wat? He traded 6th place in an alliance for 7th place in a different alliance, without ever negotiating what he'd get in exchange for it, or even trying to form a sub-alliance with the new tribe, though he had a lot of time to do so while they were Pagonging all the people he screwed.

All he did was whine at TC how he was "entitled" to get something. Then they voted his ass off.

This, too. He was a borderline Asperger case who annoyed the hell out of his first tribe- okay, they weren't the best fit for his geekishness. But then he even creeped the geekier tribe with stories about prank calling girls in the 5th grade and asking them to trade sperm with him? Dude, save it.

Basically he failed in every aspect of the game, and I have no idea why anyone wants to see him back or thinks he has a chance to succeed this time.