[Nico Pan]

G'DAY MATES! your new crush Nico is here with some opening night confessional questions.

1- Stranded will have been running for 14 years as of this coming Saturday! Along the way we've seen some truly unhinged characters, master strategists, and plenty of worthy contenders. Heading into this season, everyone was informed of the alias allstars twist, and had time to prepare accordingly. Is there anyone in particular that you would expect to be here? Do you think people can alias well enough to hide that identity for the entire game?

2-Tell us about your tribe! Who are you clicking with so far? Do you think you'll be able to work within this specific group of personalities?

3- What has changed since the last time you played Stranded? Update us! Help the viewers get to know you!

4- How are you aliasing this season? Any specific information you're withholding from the other players to avoid being detected? Remember that there is one new player with knowledge of which stranded and isolated characters have returned for the season. How do you think this twist will factor into the game?

As always, feel free to use this confessional to update us with anything you feel is important! It's just you, the hosts, and some famous Australians allowed in here, so you can be as honest as you'd like. we can see all of your DMs anyways so it's not like you have anything to hide

[Nova]

My new crush? Ah, you've got me pegged, Nico. How could I resist looks like these?

I'm a sucker for that flat, grey look. That's why I'm not allowed in funeral homes. Anyway, let's answer some questions.

1- Stranded will have been running for 14 years as of this coming Saturday! Along the way we've seen some truly unhinged characters, master strategists, and plenty of worthy contenders. Heading into this season, everyone was informed of the alias allstars twist, and had time to prepare accordingly. Is there anyone in particular that you would expect to be here? Do you think people can alias well enough to hide that identity for the entire game?

I'd like to believe I was an unhinged character, a master strategist, and a worthy contender back in my day. In terms of people I'd expect to be here, well, I could probably name a whopping three players that I know have played this series, maybe? One of them is Nofo, who's hosting, and the other two are Evel Dave (or, as I always called him, Lesser Dave) and Monica/MistressTara (at least, I think that's her username?), so maybe they're here? I couldn't pick them out of a lineup, though. I think anybody can alias if they really put their mind to it, so it'll really depend on how much everybody else cares. Me? I don't care even slightly. I'm relying on the fact that I'm a nonentity in the Stranded community and someone that hasn't been active in these circles for several years to keep my identity hidden. And once this game is done, I'll vanish into the ether from whence I came.

2-Tell us about your tribe! Who are you clicking with so far? Do you think you'll be able to work within this specific group of personalities?

Sarah is the primary social person on my tribe, she started off the discussion and she reached out to me personally to chat, so I get the sense that she's a social butterfly. She's not so great at the concept of replying when I talk to her, but hopefully that improves over the weekend. I definitely see her as someone I want to either work with or cut out immediately.

Sharn is relatively easy to talk to, and our messages have been good. I think she could be a very dependable number two for me, and I'm certainly going to consider her for that position moving forwards.

Casey is someone who got a late start, but she seems to be putting in the effort socially, and I don't mind rewarding her for that. She's made more of an attempt than Locke or Jericho, so she's good in my books.

Jericho has ignored me, which is annoying. He either doesn't know how the chat works or just isn't great socially. Hard to say one way or another.

I forgot that Locke was even on my tribe, and I had to look it up. He seems pretty useless.

3- What has changed since the last time you played Stranded? Update us! Help the viewers get to know you!

When I first played Stranded I was in university. Nowadays I've received two Bachelor's degrees, in English and Education. I dropped out of my second season of Stranded to finalize my application to Harvard. I didn't get in, but I managed to get into another university and completed the work for a Master's Degree. I've been happily married to the girl of my dreams for just over eight years, and am a proud Cat Dad to four eccentric kitties.

I think these days I'm a lot more mellow than I have been in the past. I got tired of the toxic nature of the ORG communities I was in and left, and in the meantime I've worked on taking things less seriously, recognizing that ORGs are games and not personal, and just enjoying the experience as it comes. I've seen people out there who still bitch and moan about things that happened ten or fifteen years ago, and I honestly can't think of a bigger waste of my life than being upset about something that happened in online Survivor a decade ago. I'd rather just enjoy myself, and accept whatever fate the game hands me.

4- How are you aliasing this season? Any specific information you're withholding from the other players to avoid being detected? Remember that there is one new player with knowledge of which stranded and isolated characters have returned for the season. How do you think this twist will factor into the game?

I'm pretty sure I could give my real name and occupation to most of these people and still be completely unidentifiable. There are certain things I'm not going to mention, like the fact that I'm married, the fact that I have a few college degrees and unique life experiences that people might remember from back in the day, but overall I'm not remotely worried about being detected.

One thing that I think is interesting is that certain people don't seem to know how the board's chat function works. I'm making the quantum assumption that this is a fairly new and/or unique feature, so I'm going to pay attention to anyone who's not appearing to be well-versed in using it, and assume that they're more likely an old-school returnee like myself. Thus far Casey and Sarah seemed to know it, Sharn seemed surprised, Jericho didn't respond to my messages, and Locke is invisible. Seems like something that's minorly worth keeping in mind.

While I think the identity twist is interesting, I'm not sure that the new player is even capable of weaponizing that information properly. Even if you know that Player A and Player B played the same season and hate each other, if Player A and Player B don't know who each other are, you're not necessarily going to be able to provoke them into a fight. Who knows, maybe they're fiendishly clever and can use that information to great extent, but unless they're someone who knows me from back in the day I'm not sure that it's going to affect my experience that much.

[Lara Álvarez]

My new crush? Ah, you've got me pegged, Nico. How could I resist looks like these?

I'm a sucker for that flat, grey look. That's why I'm not allowed in funeral homes. Anyway, let's answer some questions.

Do not worry, mi amor. You will be able to see all our sexy faces soon enough

[Nova]

My new crush? Ah, you've got me pegged, Nico. How could I resist looks like these?

I'm a sucker for that flat, grey look. That's why I'm not allowed in funeral homes. Anyway, let's answer some questions.

Do not worry, mi amor. You will be able to see all our sexy faces soon enough

I look forward to it, baby.

[Nova]

Ayooooo, I won the swap power! That's definitely a great boost to the ol' self esteem. At least now if I wind up getting taken out early, I can tell myself, hey, I still accomplished something. Let's hope this victory is the first of many!

Right now I'm going to leverage this a bit, tell some of the people I trust, and use that as a way to be like, "Hey, I confided in you, I'm someone who you can work with," and then bring it to the whole tribe after that so I look trustworthy and benevolent to the whole team. I think that it might propel me into the spotlight a bit more than I might have wanted to at the start, but I figure, hell, it's All Stars. I want to show that after all these years, I was worth the wait, and production didn't make a mistake in bringing me back.

[Anders Ofvergard]

Hej där! Nice to meet you! I’m Anders, and I’ll be one of your hosts this season!
We hope you are getting used to your mates this weekend. Just wanted to drop in and see how you are doing with building relationships during your free time! What do you think you are really good at when meeting new people and what’s something that you think you’ll struggle with when connecting with your tribe mates?

[Nova]

I'll answer your questions shortly, Anders. Lot to react to today, but I just wanted to take a sec and say DAYUM, that reveal video was hot. Idk who your video editor is, but they should be doing this shit professionally. I'm absolutely dreading seeing myself on one of them at some point, but at least before everybody's either like, "who dat?" or "I hate that guy" they'll be like, "That's a hot video."

[Nova]

Hej där! Nice to meet you! I’m Anders, and I’ll be one of your hosts this season!
We hope you are getting used to your mates this weekend. Just wanted to drop in and see how you are doing with building relationships during your free time! What do you think you are really good at when meeting new people and what’s something that you think you’ll struggle with when connecting with your tribe mates?

*timey-wimey music plays and we collectively pretend that it's still two rounds ago*

I think that I'm doing a fairly good job of building relationships within my tribe. I like just about everybody well enough, with the exception of Locky who hasn't really shown up at all yet. I've been trying to make sure that I respond substantively to people who talk to me, so that they never feel like they're running into brick walls or having boring conversations with me. I think my main strength is that I'm good at being transparently silly. I can say things about political corruption and really play up the hammier aspects of my shtick, while at the same time presenting myself in a way where we're laughing together at things and having a good time, but it's not hard to dial it back and get serious when it's time to discuss strategy. Being able to merge back and forth between those spheres is important. I want my allies to be entertained, but also to feel like they're able to have solid strategy talks with me as well.

I think my primary area of social struggle is that I burn out socially really easily these days. There are times where I just don't feel like talking much, and I have a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm to come and be as "on" as I want to be. But I know that it's important to form and solidify bonds this early on, and make connections that will hopefully carry me through tight spots later on.