lovable cuRmudgeon (S43: Episode 2)

Welcome S43 fantasy leaguers to our first official week of scoring! I'm digging this season's editing team (so far!!) - these challenges are simpler and it's allowing for more camp life/relationship building time. The Geo/Ryan friendship (love to see it!!) Gabler attempting to use the Hawaiian sling (they're actually surviving on the island!!) Owen keeping his cool around camp (keep carrying that water, bro!) Dwight mouthing "when your fire is gone so are you" under his breath (we love a super fan!) And Cassidy so far with that purple edit😘🤌!

Overall a super fun episode - with some world class strategizing + positioning by Jesse, Nneka and Cody!

And not since Elisabeth Fillarski (Hasselbeck) have we seen an "immunity headdress" make it to tribal! Thanks, Cody for 👏BRINGING👏IT👏BACK👏 What a fun way to wrap this episode up! "Sorry for you," Justine you're our boot #2!

Let’s Check Out the League: Now that all of our Sole Survivors/Merge Bonuses have been selected, it's clear to see the league faves and the unpopular picks...

Just like our main draft, Jesse remained incredibly popular. He is on all 16 of his "main tribes" and was selected as Sole Survivor 8 times. The only other castaway to be selected that many times was Lindsay (followed by Ellie, James and Karla with 6 each).

Cassidy, Dwight and Gabler were no one's Sole Survivor - could we run into another Maryann "drama" last season where no one had the correct Sole Survivor pick?! Noelle was our tribe's most common Merge Bonus selection.

Even though his tribe lost both immunity and reward, this was Cody's week! He earned his tribes big points for his last minute BEWARE ADVANTAGE completion and a little nudity in the challenge! Owen named the episode (earning 14 points total) followed by Ellie who gave us some waterworks this week talking about her anxiety taking/scoring tests in school growing up and how proud she was to be the one who completed the challenge puzzle (12 points total).

While it's still very early in the season, and things can (and will) certainly change, our top 3 in the league are Amanda S. (her first time ever in #1) with 56 points, Erin (51 points) and Laura (48 points). DMC is our first league member to lose her Sole Survivor. And we have a three-way tie for last place with Allison K, Mel and Robbie (each with 15 points).

Before we sign off for the week, our official Fantasy League Podcast, BLINDSIDED™ is back! Listen to Survivor Pete & Producer Jim hash it out here!

The tribe has spoken, Tribemasters Liv + Brian